This Day In History

On March 2, 1972, Pioneer 10 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It became the first spacecraft to travel beyond the outer planets and eventually the first human-made object to head out of the Solar System.

On March 1, 1867, Congress admitted Nebraska to the Union. The decision came after months of political conflict and even a presidential veto, placing the prairie state at the center of national debate during Reconstruction.

On February 28, 1797, Mary Lyon was born in Buckland, Massachusetts. From a modest New England farm, she would go on to found one of the first institutions in the United States devoted to the higher education of women.

Acclaimed author John Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California. From that small farming town would come a writer whose novels captured the struggles of migrant workers, ranch hands, and families uprooted by the Great Depression.

On March 1, 1867, Congress admitted Nebraska to the Union. The decision came after months of political conflict and even a presidential veto, placing the prairie state at the center of national debate during Reconstruction.

On February 28, 1797, Mary Lyon was born in Buckland, Massachusetts. From a modest New England farm, she would go on to found one of the first institutions in the United States devoted to the higher education of women.

On February 25, 1928, Bryce Canyon officially became Bryce Canyon National Park, securing permanent federal protection for one of America’s most unusual landscapes. What began as a remote stretch of pink cliffs and strange rock spires in southern Utah had become important enough to earn the highest level of preservation in the National Park System.

On February 24, 1960, the US Navy submarine USS Triton slipped beneath the surface to begin the first fully submerged circumnavigation of the globe. The daring departure marked the start of a 60-day underwater journey that would prove just how far nuclear submarine technology had advanced during the tense years of the Cold War.

On March 3, 1845, Florida joined the Union as the 27th state. The state’s name comes from Ponce de Leon, who arrived centuries earlier and named the area La Florida, likely in honor of the Easter Season, Pascua Florida.

On March 3, 1863, an Act of Congress granted postal agents the ability to accept newspaper bundles, which would lead to the first US Newspaper and Periodical stamps two years later.

On March 3, 1845, a congressional act established star routes.  Businesses would carry mail under contract with the post office on these postal routes.

On March 3, 1863, Congress passed an act establishing three classes of mail to simplify a complicated system that included over 300 different rates.