Events on March 2 62
Year 537
Siege of Rome: The Ostrogoth army under king Vitiges begins the siege of the capital. Belisarius conducts a delaying action outside the Flaminian Gate; he and a detachment of his bucellarii are almost cut off.
Year 1476
Burgundian Wars: The Old Swiss Confederacy hands Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, a major defeat in the Battle of Grandson in Canton of Neuchâtel.
Year 1484
The College of Arms is formally incorporated by Royal Charter signed by King Richard III of England.
Year 1657
Great Fire of Meireki: A fire in Edo (now Tokyo), Japan, caused more than 100,000 deaths; it lasted three days
Year 1776
American Revolutionary War: Patriot militia units arrest the Royal Governor of Georgia James Wright and attempt to prevent capture of supply ships in the Battle of the Rice Boats.
Year 1791
Long-distance communication speeds up with the unveiling of a semaphore machine in Paris.
Year 1807
The U.S. Congress passes the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves, disallowing the importation of new slaves into the country.
Year 1808
The inaugural meeting of the Wernerian Natural History Society, a former Scottish learned society, is held in Edinburgh.
Year 1811
Argentine War of Independence: A royalist fleet defeats a small flotilla of revolutionary ships in the Battle of San Nicolás on the River Plate.
Year 1815
Signing of the Kandyan Convention treaty by British invaders and the leaders of the Kingdom of Kandy.
Year 1825
Roberto Cofresí, one of the last successful Caribbean pirates, is defeated in combat and captured by authorities.
Year 1836
Texas Revolution: Declaration of independence of the Republic of Texas from Mexico.
Year 1859
The two-day Great Slave Auction, the largest such auction in United States history, begins.
Year 1877
U.S. presidential election, 1876: Just two days before inauguration, the U.S. Congress declares Rutherford B. Hayes the winner of the election even though Samuel J. Tilden had won the popular vote on November 7, 1876.
Year 1882
Queen Victoria narrowly escapes an assassination attempt by Roderick McLean in Windsor.
Year 1901
United States Steel Corporation is founded as a result of a merger between Carnegie Steel Company and Federal Steel Company which became the first corporation in the world with a market capital over $1 billion.
Year 1901
The U.S. Congress passes the Platt Amendment limiting the autonomy of Cuba, as a condition of the withdrawal of American troops.
Year 1903
In New York City the Martha Washington Hotel opens, becoming the first hotel exclusively for women.
Year 1917
The enactment of the Jones-Shafroth Act grants Puerto Ricans United States citizenship.
Year 1937
The Steel Workers Organizing Committee signs a collective bargaining agreement with U.S. Steel, leading to unionization of the United States steel industry.
Year 1941
World War II: First German military units enter Bulgaria after it joins the Axis Pact.
Year 1943
World War II: Battle of the Bismarck Sea: United States and Australian forces sink Japanese convoy ships.
Year 1949
Captain James Gallagher lands his B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II in Fort Worth, Texas after completing the first non-stop around-the-world airplane flight in 94 hours and one minute.
Year 1955
Norodom Sihanouk, king of Cambodia, abdicates the throne in favor of his father, Norodom Suramarit.
Year 1961
John F. Kennedy announces the creation of the Peace Corps in a nationally televised broadcast.
Year 1962
Wilt Chamberlain sets the single-game scoring record in the National Basketball Association by scoring 100 points.
Year 1965
The US and Republic of Vietnam Air Force begin Operation Rolling Thunder, a sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam.
Year 1968
Baggeridge Colliery closes marking the end of over 300 years of coal mining in the Black Country.[1]
Year 1969
In Toulouse, France, the first test flight of the Anglo-French Concorde is conducted.
Year 1970
Rhodesia declares itself a republic, breaking its last links with the British crown.
Year 1972
The Pioneer 10 space probe is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida with a mission to explore the outer planets.
Year 1977
Libya becomes the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya as the General People's Congress adopted the "Declaration on the Establishment of the Authority of the People".
Year 1978
Czech Vladimír Remek becomes the first non-Russian or non-American to go into space, when he is launched aboard Soyuz 28.
Year 1983
Compact discs and players are released for the first time in the United States and other markets. They had previously been available only in Japan.
Year 1989
Twelve European Community nations agree to ban the production of all chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by the end of the century.
Year 1992
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, San Marino, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan join the United Nations.
Year 1998
Data sent from the Galileo spacecraft indicates that Jupiter's moon Europa has a liquid ocean under a thick crust of ice.
Year 2002
U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda begins, (ending on March 19 after killing 500 Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters, with 11 Western troop fatalities).
Year 2004
War in Iraq: Al-Qaeda carries out the Ashoura Massacre in Iraq, killing 170 and wounding over 500.
Year 2012
A tornado outbreak occurred over a large section of the Southern United States and into the Ohio Valley region, resulting in 40 tornado-related fatalities
Year 2017
The elements Moscovium, Tennessine, and Oganesson were officially added to the periodic table at a conference in Moscow, Russia