#TodayInHistory – March 7 – RANDOM Times •

March 7 – Some Important Events on this day

161 👉🏼 Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius dies and is succeeded by co-Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, an unprecedented political arrangement in the Roman Empire
321 👉🏼 Roman Emperor Constantine I decrees that the dies Solis Invicti (sun-day) is the day of rest in the Empire
1530 👉🏼 English King Henry VIII’s divorce request is denied by the Pope
1778 👉🏼 Captain James Cook 1st sights Oregon coast at Yaquina Bay
1814 👉🏼 Napoleon I of France wins the Battle of Craonne against combined Russian and Prussian force in northern France

1850 👉🏼 Daniel Webster endorses Compromise of 1850. Leading American senator from Massachusetts during the period leading up to the Civil War, he rose to regional prominence through his defense of New England shipping interests. His increasingly nationalistic views and effectiveness as a speaker made him one of the most famous orators and influential Whig leaders of the Second Party System.

The American Civil War devastated much of the country between 1861 and 1865, but the conflict could have actually happened much sooner. In fact, In 1850, a major dispute between slave states and free states arose regarding the status of lands acquired after the Mexican-American War (1846-48). Many Southern states wanted to expand slavery into these new territories, which was opposed by the Northerners. These disputes, and others relating to the territorial expansion of the state of Texas. In early 1850, senator Henry Clay drafted a compromise that included the admission of California as a free state, the cession by Texas of some of its northern and western territorial claims in return for debt relief, the establishment of New Mexico and Utah territories, a ban on the importation of slaves into the District of Columbia for sale, and a more stringent fugitive slave law.
The compromise initially failed to gain wide support, but after President Zachary Taylor died, his successor Millard Fillmore and Democratic senator Stephen Douglas took the lead in passing Clay’s compromise through the Congress as a series of five bills. The tensions were diffused, and the risk of conflict in the immediate term ended, but the debate over slavery did not end. Many years of controversy and debate eventually led to the secession of the Southern states and the Civil War in 1861.

1876 👉🏼 Alexander Graham Bell receives a patent for the telephone in the US ☎️
1905 👉🏼 Arthur Conan Doyle publishes “The Return of Sherlock Holmes” collection in London after public pressure to revive his famous detective
1908 👉🏼 Cincinnati Mayor Mark Breith stands before city council and announces that, “women are not physically fit to operate automobiles” 🚗
1912 👉🏼 Polar Explorer Roald Amundsen announces discovery of the South Pole 🌍
1917 👉🏼 1st jazz record released on a 78 by Original Dixieland Jass Band for the Victor Talking Machine Company (“Dixie Jazz Band One Step,” one side “Livery Stable Blues” other) 🎶
1929 👉🏼 First nonstop flight made from America to Asia across the Bering Strait (Nome to North Cape) by Aviation Pioneer Noel Wien and Calvin Cripe for Wien Air Alaska
1936 👉🏼 Adolf Hitler breaks the Treaty of Versailles by sending troops into the Rhineland

1946 👉🏼 Bikini Atoll islanders are evacuated by the US government to make way for a nuclear testing site.
When the United States was looking for places to test their newly discovered nuclear potential in the 1940s and 1950s, one place seemed perfect: the remote Bikini Atoll, free of naval and air traffic and in the middle of nowhere. So, the US government asked the 167 residents to relocate to another island. After deliberations, their king agreed.
However, the relocation was disastrous. The first island the inhabitants moved to, Rongerik Atoll, had nowhere near enough food, and the residents were found famished and starving already two years later, in 1948. They were then moved to Ujelang Atoll, then to Kwajalein Atoll and then to Kili Island. Here they had barely enough food and rough seas meant it was almost impossible to fish, and they had to rely on authorities to airdrop them food.
In 1968 Lyndon B. Johnson promised the islanders they could return to Bikini Atoll after studies showed radiation levels from the testing had reduced sufficiently. Though dangers remained, including some food sources being far too high in radiation, residents returned in 1972. In 1978 however, the residents were again relocated to Kili Island over health concerns.
The islanders received $75 million in damages in 1986 under a new agreement with the US government.
The nuclear explosion from Castle Bravo over Bikini Atoll of March 1, 1954 was a disaster.