March 2, Black teen refuses to give up her bus seat
Today is Monday, March 2, the 61st day of the year 2026. There are 304 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On March 2, 1955, nine months before Rosa Parks’ most famous act of defiance, Claudette Colvin, a black high school student from Montgomery, Alabama, was arrested after refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white passenger.
Also on this date:
In 1807, the law banning the importation of slaves was signed by President Thomas Jefferson. (The domestic slave trade was not affected.)
In 1861, the State of Texas, after seceding from the Union, was admitted to the Confederacy.
In 1877, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was declared the winner of the 1876 presidential election over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, although Tilden won the popular vote. Tilden remains the only presidential candidate to receive more than 50% of the votes cast (50.9%) and not win the presidency.
In 1943, the three-day Battle of the Bismarck Sea began in the southwest Pacific during World War II; American and Australian warplanes inflicted heavy damage on a Japanese Imperial convoy.
In 1962, Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors against the New York Knicks, a single-game NBA record that still stands. Philadelphia won by a score of 169-147.
In 1985, the U.S. government approved an AIDS screening test that detected antibodies to the virus, thereby excluding possibly contaminated blood from the blood supply.
In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 8 to 1, that a grieving father’s pain over mocking protests near his son Marine’s funeral must yield to First Amendment protections for free speech in a ruling in favor of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas.
In 2020, a tornado outbreak began in Tennessee, killing 24 people and causing widespread destruction as at least six tornadoes ravaged the state in two days.
Today’s birthdays:
- Author John Irving is 84 years old.
- Actor-comedian Laraine Newman (Saturday Night Live) is 74 years old.
- Golf Hall of Famer Ian Woosnam is 68 years old.
- Musician Jon Bon Jovi is 64 years old.
- Actor Daniel Craig is 58 years old.
- Rapper-actor Method Man is 55 years old.
- Musician Chris Martin (Coldplay) is 49 years old.
- Actor Rebel Wilson is 46 years old.
- Actor Bryce Dallas Howard is 45 years old.
- Hockey Hall of Famer Henrik Lundqvist is 44 years old.
- Actor Robert Iler is 41 years old.
- Actress Nathalie Emmanuel is 37 years old.
- Country musician Luke Combs is 36 years old.
- Singer and actress Becky G is 29 years old.
