#TodayInHistory – March 3

March 3 – Some Important Events on this day

1575 👉🏼 Indian Mughal Emperor Akbar defeats Bengali army at the Battle of Tukaroi
1857 👉🏼 Second Opium War: France and the United Kingdom declare war on China!

1861 👉🏼 Alexander II of Russia signs the Emancipation Manifesto, freeing serfs and granting them the full rights of free citizens. Two years before Abraham Lincoln issued his very popular Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves in the United States, the Russian Tsar moved to abolish its system of peasants and serfdom. The need to reform Russia’s backward economy was well understood by intellectuals in the Empire, especially given that serfdom had declined in Western Europe hundreds of years before. Previous Tsars had attempted to emancipate the serfs in the earlier part of the century but never succeeded, partly because the conservative elements of Russian society were deeply opposed to freeing them. So Alexander II announced in 1856 his intention to abolish serfdom, and he did so in a proclamation issued on 3 March 1861. Despite this, the condition of the serfs did not automatically improve, and many were still bonded through debts and rent to either the government or their previous landlords, while many had their freedom but no land. Nevertheless the emancipation of the serfs was an important part of Russian history.

1875 👉🏼 Georges Bizet’s last and greatest opera “Carmen” premieres in Paris.
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1873 👉🏼 US Congress enacts the Comstock Law, making it illegal to send any “obscene, lewd, or lascivious” books through the mail 📬
1917 👉🏼 1st major strike of the Russian “February Revolution” starts at the giant Putilov factory in Petrograd 🇷🇺
1921 👉🏼 Toronto’s Dr Banting & Dr Best announce discovery of insulin 🇨🇦
1939 👉🏼 Mahatma Gandhi begins a fast in Mumbai (Bombay) to protest against autocratic rule in India
1943 👉🏼 Battle of the Bismarck Sea: Australian and American air forces devastate Japanese navy convoy 💣
1955 👉🏼 Elvis Presley makes his 1st TV appearance on a broadcast of radio show “Louisiana Hayride”
2013 👉🏼 A 2 year old US little girl becomes the first child born with HIV to be cured