On this day: March 4
The U.S. Constitution goes into effect, FDR reassures the nation, John Lennon gets into a popularity contest with Jesus, and Martha Stewart gets out of prison, all on this day.
1461: During the Wars of the Roses in England, King Henry VI is deposed and imprisoned by his cousin, Edward of York (pictured), who then becomes King Edward IV.
1461: During the Wars of the Roses in England, King Henry VI is deposed and imprisoned by his cousin, Edward of York (pictured), who then becomes King Edward IV.
1493: Explorer Christopher Columbus arrives back in Lisbon, Portugal, aboard his ship Niña from his voyage to what is now The Bahamas and other islands in the Caribbean.
1678: Antonio Vivaldi, Baroque composer, Catholic priest and virtuoso violinist, is born in Venice, Italy. Vivaldi is known mainly for composing instrumental concertos, especially for the violin, as well as sacred choral works and more than 40 operas. His best known work is a series of violin concertos known as "The Four Seasons."
1681: Charles II grants a land charter to William Penn for the area that will later become Pennsylvania.
1789: In New York City, the first Congress of the United States meets, putting the United States Constitution into effect.
1791: Vermont is admitted to the U.S. as the 14th state.
1794: The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the first since the adoption of the Bill of Rights, is passed by the U.S. Congress. When ratified on Feb. 7, 1795, the amendment granted states sovereign immunity, meaning that states are generally immune from being sued in federal court without their consent.
1797: In the first ever peaceful transfer of power between elected leaders in modern times, John Adams is sworn in as president of the United States, succeeding President George Washington.
1837: The city of Chicago is incorporated.
1861: The first national flag of the Confederate States of America, known as the "Stars and Bars," is adopted. The flag, which was inspired by Austria's national flag and designed by Prussian artist Nicola Marschall, was raised over the dome of the first Confederate Capitol in Montgomery, Ala., that same day.
1865: The third and final national flag of the Confederate States of America is adopted by the Confederate Congress.
1877: Tchaikovsky's ballet "Swan Lake" receives its premiere performance at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia.
1888: Notre Dame football player and coach Knute Rockne, regarded as one of the greatest coaches in college football history, is born in Voss, Norway. During his 13 years as head coach from 1918 to 1930, Rockne led Notre Dame to 105 victories, 12 losses, five ties, and three national championships, including five undefeated seasons without a tie. Rockne posted the highest all-time winning percentage (.881) for an American FBS/Division I college football coach and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951.
1891: Baseball Hall of Famer Charles Arthur "Dazzy" Vance, the only pitcher to lead the National League in strikeouts seven consecutive seasons, is born in Orient, Iowa. Vance played 16 seasons in the major leagues, most notably for the Brooklyn Robins during the 1920s, and pitched a no-hitter in 1925.
1902: The American Automobile Association is founded in Chicago when, in response to a lack of roads and highways suitable for automobiles, nine motor clubs from around the country with a total of 1,500 members band together.
1908: Lake View School in Collinwood, Ohio, catches fire when a wooden joist in the floor is overheated by a steam pipe. The blaze kills 172 students, two teachers and a rescuer, making it one of the deadliest disasters of its type in the United States. The city of Collinwood has since been absorbed into the city of Cleveland.
1913: Actor John Garfield, best known for movies such as "Four Daughters," "They Made Me a Criminal," "The Postman Always Rings Twice" and "Gentleman's Agreement," is born Jacob Julius Garfinkle in New York City. Garfield earned Academy Award nominations for his performances in "Four Daughters" and "Body and Soul" and was known for playing brooding, rebellious, working-class characters and his method acting. Called to testify before the U.S. Congressional House Committee on Un-American Activities, he denied Communist affiliation and refused to "name names," effectively ending his film career. He died of a heart attack at the age of 39 in 1952.
1917: Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first female member of the United States House of Representatives. A Republican and a lifelong pacifist, she was one of the 50 members of Congress who voted against the entry of the United States into World War I in 1917 and, after being elected again in 1940, the only member of Congress who voted against declaring war after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
1918: The USS Cyclops departs from Barbados and is never seen again, presumably lost with all hands in the Bermuda Triangle. The loss of the ship and 306 crew and passengers without a trace remains the single largest loss of life in U.S. Naval history not directly involving combat.
1922: The classic silent Expressionist horror film "Nosferatu," directed by F. W. Murnau, and starring Max Schreck as the vampire Count Orlok, premieres in Berlin, Germany.
1925: With President Calvin Coolidge taking the oath of office in Washington, D.C., the presidential inauguration is broadcast on radio for the first time.
1933: Vowing to lead the nation out of the Great Depression, newly elected U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt gives his inauguration speech, uttering the famous line "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself."
1933: Frances Perkins becomes the United States Secretary of Labor under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, making her the first female member of the United States Cabinet. She can be seen here behind Roosevelt as he signs the National Labor Relations Act in July 1935.
1944: Following the success of a series of attacks on German aircraft plants and airfields known as "Big Week," the United States Strategic Air Forces begins a daylight bombing campaign of Berlin.
1944: R&B singer-songwriter and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Bobby Womack is born in Cleveland, Ohio. Womack started his career as the lead singer of his family musical group The Valentinos and as Sam Cooke's backing guitarist, and went on to write songs such as "It's All Over Now," which became The Rolling Stones' first UK No. 1 hit. As a singer he is most notable for the hits "Lookin' For a Love," "That's The Way I Feel About Cha," "Woman's Gotta Have It," "Harry Hippie," "Across 110th Street" and his 1980s hit "If You Think You're Lonely Now."
1948: Author James Ellroy, whose novels include "The Black Dahlia," "The Big Nowhere," "L.A. Confidential," "White Jazz" and "American Tabloid," is born in Los Angeles, Calif.
1952: Actors Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis are married at the Little Brown Church in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley. Actor William Holden (far right) served as best man and the only other guest at the ceremony was Holden's wife, actress Brenda Marshall (far left), who was the matron of honor.
1954: Actress Catherine O'Hara, best known for her roles in "Beetlejuice," "Home Alone," "Waiting for Guffman," "Best in Show" and "For Your Consideration," is born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
1957: The Standard & Poor's 500 stock market index is introduced, replacing the S&P 90.
1958: Actress Patricia Heaton, best known for portraying Debra Barone on the TV sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond," for which she won two Emmy Awards, is born in Bay Village, Ohio.
1960: Actor Mykelti Williamson, best known for his role as Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue in the 1994 film "Forrest Gump," is born in St. Louis, Mo. Williamson is also known for TV roles on the short-lived series "Boomtown" and on the eighth and final season of "24."
1964: Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa is convicted of two counts of jury tampering, which he committed during a 1962 case that charged him with extorting a million-dollar union payoff from a haulage company. He would receive an eight-year prison sentence and a $10,000 fine. Later in the year, he was convicted of fraud in a separate case, receiving another five years. After his appeals process had run out, he entered prison in 1967, but would end up serving just for years of his 13-year sentence, with President Richard Nixon pardoning him in 1971 on the condition that he resign the Teamsters' presidency and be banned from participating in union activities until 1980. Hoffa disappeared in 1975 as he was trying to regain power.
1966: In an interview with Maureen Cleave of The London Evening Standard, John Lennon says, "We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first, rock 'n' roll or Christianity." The remark would go mostly unnoticed in Britain, but caused an uproar when it was reprinted by U.S. teenage fan magazine Datebook five months later, on the eve of the group's August tour of the United States.
1969: Chaz Bono, the only child of entertainers Sonny and Cher, is born Chastity Sun Bono in Los Angeles, Calif. Between 2008 and 2010, Bono underwent female-to-male gender transition and now lives as a transgender man. Bono, who is a transgender advocate, writer, and musician, is seen here with his mother at her hand and footprint ceremony in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on Nov. 18, 2010.
1974: People magazine is published for the first time. The premiere edition featured actress Mia Farrow, then starring in the movie "The Great Gatsby," on the cover and sold for 35 cents. The issue also featured stories on Gloria Vanderbilt, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and the wives of U.S. Vietnam veterans who were missing in action.
1978: The No. 3 song "Sometimes When We Touch" by Dan Hill is the only song in the top five of the Billboard Hot 100 chart not written by a member of The Bee Gees. Andy Gibb's "(Love Is) Thicker Than Water" is No. 1, with "Stayin' Alive" at No. 2, "Night Fever" at No. 5 and Samantha Sang's "Emotion," written by Robin and Barry Gibb, at No. 4.
1980: Nationalist leader Robert Mugabe wins a sweeping election victory to become Zimbabwe's first black prime minister. Mugabe, seen here in 2009, would serve in that role until 1987, when he became the country's first president.
1982: Soccer player Landon Donovan, the all-time leader in scoring and assists for the United States national team, is born in Ontario, Calif. He is a four-time winner of the U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year award, as well as the only three-time winner of the Honda Player of the Year award, having won it seven times. His goals in the 2010 World Cup made Donovan the highest scoring American player in World Cup history and the third American player to score in more than one World Cup.
1985: The Food and Drug Administration approves a blood test for HIV, used since then for screening all blood donations in the United States.
1994: Four extremists are convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in which six people were killed and more than a thousand were injured. Mahmud Abouhalima, Mohammad Salameh, Nidal A. Ayyad and Ahmad Ajaj were sentenced to life imprisonment in May 1994. Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of bombing, would be arrested in Islamabad, Pakistan, in February 1995. He would eventually be convicted and sentenced to 240 years in prison for the attack.
1994: Canadian comedian and actor John Candy, known best for comic roles in movies such as "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" and "Uncle Buck," dies in his sleep after suffering a heart attack while on location filming "Wagons East!" He was 43 years old.
1996: Country music comedian Minnie Pearl, who appeared at the Grand Ole Opry for more than 50 years and on the television show "Hee Haw" from 1969 to 1991, dies of complications from a stroke at the age of 83 in Nashville, Tenn. Pearl, who was born Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon, became famous for gentle satire of southern and hillbilly culture, wearing a hat with a price tag hanging from it and bellowing her catch phrase "How-w-w-DEE-E-E-E!"
1998: In the case Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, the Supreme Court of the United States rules that federal laws banning on-the-job sexual harassment also apply when both parties are the same sex. The case arose out of a suit for sex discrimination by a male oil-rig worker, who claimed that he was repeatedly subjected to sexual harassment by his male co-workers with the acquiescence of his employer. Because it set a precedent regarding harassment "because of sex," the case has been lauded as a landmark "gay rights" case, even though all those involved were heterosexual.
1999: Retired Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun dies at age 90 of complications from hip replacement surgery. Blackmun, who served on the court from 1970 until 1994, is best known as the author of Roe v. Wade.
2005: Martha Stewart leaves federal prison after serving five months for her role in a stock scandal. She was then placed in a two-year term of supervised release, with the first five months of that in home confinement with electronic monitoring.
