This Day in History: March 1

On this day, March 1 …

1790: President George Washington signs a measure authorizing the first U.S. Census.

Also on this day: 

• 1781: The Continental Congress declares the Articles of Confederation to be in force, following ratification by Maryland.
• 1790: President George Washington signs a measure authorizing the first U.S. Census.
• 1893: Inventor Nikola Tesla first publicly demonstrates radio during a meeting of the National Electric Light Association in St. Louis by transmitting electromagnetic energy without wires.
• 1932: Charles A. Lindbergh Jr., the 20-month-old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh, is kidnapped from the family home near Hopewell, N.J. 
• 1954: Four Puerto Rican nationalists open fire from the spectators’ gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives, wounding five members of Congress. Four members of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party — Lolita Lebron, Rafael Miranda, Irving Flores Rodriguez and Andres Figueroa Cordero — wage the attack to bring attention to Puerto Rico’s desire to be free from U.S. (Puerto Rico had become a U.S. territory with commonwealth status in 1952.)
• 1954: The United States detonates a dry-fuel hydrogen bomb, codenamed “Castle Bravo,” at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
• 1961: President John F. Kennedy signs an executive order establishing the Peace Corps.
• 1962: The first Kmart store opens in Garden City, Mich.
• 1966: Soviet space probe Venera 3 makes impact with the surface of Venus, becoming the first spacecraft to reach another planet; however, Venera is unable to transmit any data because its communications system fails.
• 1974: Seven people, including former Nixon White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman, former Attorney General John Mitchell and former Assistant Attorney General Robert Mardian, are indicted on charges of conspiring to obstruct justice in connection with the Watergate break-in. 
• 1981: Irish Republican Army member Bobby Sands begins a hunger strike at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland.
• 1990: The controversial Seabrook, N.H., nuclear power plant wins federal permission to go on line after two decades of protests and legal battles.
• 2014:  Russian troops take over Crimea as the parliament in Moscow gives President Vladimir Putin a green light to use the military to protect Russian interests in Ukraine.
• 2018: President Trump announces the U.S. will impose steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, escalating trade tensions with China and other partners. 
• 2018: Kroger announces it is raising the minimum age to buy guns at its Fred Meyer stores to 21, becoming the third major retailer to place restrictions on gun sales that exceed those in federal law. 
• 2018: After Delta reacts to the school massacre in Parkland, Fla., by announcing that it would no longer offer discount fares to NRA members, pro-gun Georgia lawmakers kill a proposed tax break on jet fuel. (Delta would have saved millions of dollars on the tax break.)