March 4th is

Toy Soldier Day

Iditarod First Day

∞

Pound Cake Day

∞

National Grammar Day

Marching Band Day
___________________________________________________________

MORE! Antonio Vivaldi, Jeanette Rankin and Charlie Chaplin, click

___________________________________________________________

WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Australia – Sydney:
Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade

Malaysia – Kuala Terengganu: Anniversary
of Installation of Sultan of  Terengganu

New Zealand – Wellington:
Homegrown Music Festival

United Kingdom – London:
Dreamstate Electronic Music Fest

United States – Vermont:
Town Meeting Day
___________________________________________________________

On This Day in HISTORY

AD 51 – Nero, future Roman emperor, is given the title princeps iuventutis (first of the equestrian order)

1351 – Ramathibodi becomes the first king of Ayutthaya (now part of Thailand)

1394 – Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal is born

1492 –Francesco de Layolle born, Italian Renaissance composer

1493 – Christopher Columbus arrives back in Lisbon, Portugal, aboard his ship Niña

1519 – Hernán Cortés arrives in Mexico

1628 – The Massachusetts Bay Colony is granted a Royal charter

1675 – John Flamsteed is appointed the first Astronomer Royal of England

1678 – Antonio Vivaldi is born, major Italian Baroque composer

1681 – England’s King Charles II grants William Penn’s charter to (future) Pennsylvania

1766 – British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act, which faced bitter and violent opposition in the American colonies

1778 – Continental Congress votes to ratify Treaty of Amity and Commerce and Treaty of Alliance, the first treaties entered into by the U.S. government

1789 – U.S. Congress: first meeting in New York declares the Constitution is in effect

1791 – Vermont is admitted as the 14th U.S. state, the first addition to the original 13 American states

1794 – The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is passed by the Congress, which limits the jurisdiction of the federal courts to automatically hear cases brought against a state by the citizens of another state; later interpretations expand this to include citizens of the state being sued

1815 – Myrtilla Miner born, American educator and abolitionist, she would establish the Normal School for Colored Girls in Washington DC before the Civil War, in spite of threats and vandalism, even arson; her school will merge with other schools to become the University of the District of Columbia

1826 – The first U.S. railroad is chartered, the Granite Railway in Quincy MA

1837 – The state of Illinois grants a city charter to Chicago

1861 – The Confederacy adopts the “Stars and Bars” flag

1875 – Enrique Larreta born, Argentine modernist novelist, La gloria de don Ramiro; also Argentine Ambassador to France (1910-1919)

1877 – Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake premieres at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow

1880 – Halftone engraving is used for the first time as the “Daily Graphic” begins publishing in New York City

1881 – Eliza Ballou Garfield becomes the first mother of a U.S. President to live in the executive mansion

1891 –  Lois W. born, American activist, co-founder of Al-Anon

1902 – The American Automobile Association is founded in Chicago

1908 – The New York board of education bans whipping students in school

1913 – Marguerite Taos Amrouche born, Algerian author and singer, early Algerian woman to publish a novel in French, collected and interpreted Kabylie Berber songs

1914 – Doctor Le Fillatre, dean of the French Academy of Medicine, successfully separates Siamese twins Susanna and Madeline, born conjoined facing each other

1917 – Jeanette Rankin of Montana takes her seat as the first woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives

1925 – Calvin Coolidge takes the oath of office in Washington, DC., the first presidential inauguration broadcast on radio

1932 – Miriam Makeba is born, South African singer, civil rights activist

1933 – U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt gives his inaugural address: “We have nothing to fear, but fear itself”

1933 – Labor Secretary Frances Perkins becomes first woman to serve in U.S. cabinet

1942 – The Stage Door Canteen opens on West 44th Street in New York City; Dick Jurgens’ orchestra records “One Dozen Roses”

1947 – France and Britain sign an alliance treaty

1950 – Walt Disney’s animated Cinderella is released across the U.S.

1952 – U.S. President Harry Truman dedicates the Courier, the first seagoing radio broadcasting station

1954 – In Boston, the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now part of Brigham and Women’s Hospital)  reports Dr. Joseph E. Murray performs the first successful kidney transplant

1974 – People magazine’s first issue goes on the newsstands

1975 – Queen Elizabeth knights Charlie Chaplin

1976 – Hall & Oates record “Rich Girl”

1983 – Bertha Wilson is appointed as first woman to sit on Canada’s Supreme Court

1986 – Today debuts as England’s newest, national daily newspaper

1987 – Ronald Reagan addresses the nation on the Iran-Contra scandal, acknowledging his overtures to Iran “deteriorated” into an arms-for-hostages deal

1989 – Time, Inc. and Warner Communications Inc. announce they plan to merge

1994 – Bosnia’s Croats and Moslems sign an agreement to form a federation in a loose economic union with Croatia

1997 – U.S. President Clinton bars federal spending on human cloning

1998 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules that federal law banning on-the-job sexual harassment applies even when both parties are the same sex

2002 – Canada bans human embryo cloning but permits government-funded scientists to use embryos left over from fertility treatment or abortions

2012 – Vladimir Putin wins re-election in Russia’s presidential election

2014 – Italy releases 2 million Euros to save the ancient city of Pompeii after flooding causes some walls to collapse

__________________________________________________________

Visuals

• March 4 Days collage
• International flags
• Map of Ayutthaya
• Myrtilla Miner
• Portrait of Enrique Larreta, Museo Arte Espanol
• Jeanette Rankin, war quote
• Frances Perkins, being a woman quote
• Justice Bertha Wilson, liberty quote
• Flood-damaged Temple of Venus at Pompeii

___________________________________________________________