Today in History.....March 1

On this day in …

* 1781, the Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation

* 1790, Congress authorized the first U.S. Census.

* 1864, Rebecca Lee became the first black woman to receive an American medical degree, from the New England Female Medical College in Boston

* 1872, Congress authorized creation of Yellowstone National Park

* 1932, 20-month-old Charles A. Lindbergh Jr., the son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh, was kidnapped from the family home near Hopewell, N.J. (Remains identified as those of the child were found the following May.)

* 1945, President Roosevelt, back from the Yalta Conference, proclaimed the meeting a success as he addressed a joint session of Congress

* 1954, Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire from the gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives, wounding five congressmen.

* 1961, President Kennedy established the Peace Corps

* 1981, Irish Republican Army member Bobby Sands began a hunger strike at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland; he died 65 days later

* 1996, President Clinton slapped economic sanctions on Colombia, concluding that Colombian authorities had not fully cooperated with the U.S. war on drugs

* 2001, Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, defying international protests, began destroying all statues in the country. Seven foreign oil workers (a Chilean, an Argentine, a New Zealander and four
Americans) who were kidnapped the previous October in Ecuador's jungle were freed after a ransom was reportedly paid

* 2005, Dennis Rader, accused of leading a double life as the BTK serial killer, was charged in Wichita, Kan., with 10 counts of first-degree murder. (Rader later pleaded guilty and received multiple life sentences.) ALSO: A closely divided Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty for juvenile criminals.