Today in History for March 3, 2013

Today is Sunday, March 3, the 62nd day of 2013. There are 303 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight:

On March 3, 1931, “The Star-Spangled Banner” became the national anthem of the United States as President Herbert Hoover signed a congressional resolution.

On this date:

In 1845, Florida became the 27th state.

In 1849, the U.S. Department of the Interior was established.

In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed a measure creating the National Academy of Sciences.

In 1894, British Prime Minister William Gladstone submitted his resignation to Queen Victoria, ending his fourth and final premiership.

In 1913, more than 5,000 suffragists marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., a day before the presidential inauguration of Woodrow Wilson.

In 1923, Time magazine, founded by Briton Hadden and Henry R. Luce, made its debut.

In 1943, in London’s East End, 173 people died in a crush of bodies at the Bethnal Green tube station, which was being used as a wartime air raid shelter.

In 1945, the Allies fully secured the Philippine capital of Manila from Japanese forces during World War II.

In 1969, Apollo 9 blasted off from Cape Kennedy on a mission to test the lunar module.

In 1974, a Turkish Airlines DC-10 crashed shortly after takeoff from Orly Airport in Paris, killing all 346 people on board.

In 1991, motorist Rodney King was severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers in a scene captured on amateur video. Twenty-five people were killed when a United Airlines Boeing 737-200 crashed while approaching the Colorado Springs airport.

In 1993, health pioneer Albert Sabin, developer of the oral polio vaccine, died in Washington, D.C., at age 86.

Ten years ago: Israeli troops arrested Hamas co-founder Mohammed Taha in a deadly raid. (Israel released him 14 months later.) President George W. Bush offered a rough blueprint for adding drug benefits to Medicare. Malcolm Kilduff, the White House spokesman who announced to a shocked world the death of President John F. Kennedy, died in Beattyville, Ky., at age 75.

Five years ago: Democrat Barack Obama said his campaign had never given Canada back-channel assurances that his harsh words about the North American Free Trade Agreement were for political show, despite a Canadian memo indicating otherwise. A gunman opened fire inside a Wendy’s restaurant in West Palm Beach, Fla., killing a paramedic who’d gone back to fetch a missing meal toy for his child; the gunman wounded five others before turning the gun on himself. Operatic tenor Giuseppe Di Stefano died in Santa Maria Hoe, Italy, at age 86.

One year ago: Mitt Romney rolled to a double-digit victory in Washington state’s Republican presidential caucuses, his fourth campaign triumph in a row. Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh apologized on his website to Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke, whom he had branded a “slut” and “prostitute” after she testified to congressional Democrats that she wanted her college health plan to cover her birth control. Eleven passengers and five workers were killed when two trains crashed head-on in southern Poland.

Today’s birthdays: Socialite Lee Radziwill is 80. Movie producer-director George Miller is 68. Actress Hattie Winston is 68. Singer Jennifer Warnes is 66. Actor-director Tim Kazurinsky is 63. Singer-musician Robyn Hitchcock is 60. Actor Robert Gossett is 59. Rock musician John Lilley is 59. Actress Miranda Richardson is 55. Radio personality Ira Glass is 54. Actress Mary Page Keller is 52. Olympic track and field gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee is 51. College Football Hall of Famer Herschel Walker is 51. Contemporary Christian musician Duncan Phillips (Newsboys) is 49. Rapper-actor Tone Loc is 47. Rock musician John Bigham is 44. Actress Julie Bowen is 43. Country singer Brett Warren (The Warren Brothers) is 42. Actor David Faustino is 39. Gospel singer Jason Crabb is 36. Singer Ronan Keating (Boyzone) is 36. Rapper Lil’ Flip is 32. Actress Jessica Biel is 31. Rock musician Blower (aka Joe Garvey) (Hinder) is 29.

Thought for today: “Happiness always looks small while you hold it in your hands, but let it go, and you learn at once how big and precious it is.” — Maxim Gorky, Russian writer (1868-1936).