February 28
Cambridge University scientists James D. Watson and Frances H.C. Crick announce that they have determined the double-helix structure of DNA, the molecule containing human genes. – 1953.
February 29
Hattie McDaniel wins Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Mammy, in Gone with the Wind at the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awards.
McDaniel was the first African American to be honored with an Oscar. – 1940.
March 1
In Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Sarah Goode, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba, an Indian slave from Barbados, are charged with the illegal practice of witchcraft. Later that day, Tituba, possibly under coercion, confessed to the crime, encouraging the authorities to seek out more Salem witches. – 1692.
U.S. president Ulysses S. Grant signs the bill to create the Nation’s first national park at Yellowstone, which will straddle the future states of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. – 1872.
In a crime that captured the attention of the entire Nation, Charles Lindbergh III, the 20-month-old son of aviation hero Charles Lindbergh, is kidnapped from the family’s new mansion in Hopewell, N.J.. – 1932.
After five years of labor by 21,000 workers, 112 of whom were killed on the job, the Hoover Dam (Boulder Dam) is completed and turned over to the government. – 1936.
March 2
The Jones Act, the last gasp of the Prohibition, is passed by Congress. Since 1920 when the Eighteenth Amendment went into effect, the United States had banned the production, importation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. But the laws were ineffective at actually stopping the consumption of alcohol. The Jones Act strengthened the federal penalties for bootlegging. Of course, within five years the country ended up rejecting Prohibition and repealing the Eighteenth Amendment. – 1929.
March 3
Anne Sullivan begins teaching six-year-old Helen Keller, who lost her sight and hearing after a severe illness at the age of 19 months. – 1887.
U.S. president Herbert Hoover signs a congressional act making “The Star-Spangled Banner” the official national anthem of the United States. – 1931.
March 4
UAW workers win sit-down strike in Flint, Mich., to force General Motors to recognize the union. In the 40-day action, the strikers were protected by 5,000 armed workers circling the Fisher Body plant. – 1937.
March 5
A mob of American colonists gather at the Customs House in Boston and begins taunting the British soldiers guarding the building. The protesters, who called themselves Patriots, were protesting the occupation of their city by British troops. The colonists threw snowballs and other objects at the British and a British soldier was hit had his gun discharged into the crowd. The other soldiers began firing a moment later, and when the smoke cleared, five colonists were dead and three more were injured. The deaths of the five men are regarded by some historians as the first fatalities in the American Revolutionary War. – 1770.
March 6
The Imperial Patent Office in Berlin, Germany registers Aspirin, the brand name for acetylsalicylic acid, on behalf of the German pharmaceutical company, Friedrich Bayer & Co. – 1899.
Sources: History.com, Toil and Trouble, by Thomas R. Brooks; American Labor Struggles, by Samuel Yellen; IWW calendar, Solidarity Forever; Historical Encyclopedia of American Labor, edited by Robert E. Weir and James P. Hanlan; Southwest Labor History Archives/George Meany Center; Geov Parrish’s Radical History; workday Minnesota; Andy Richards and Adam Wright, AFL-CIO Washington DC Metro Council.