It’s Sunday, March 3, the 62nd day of 2013. There are 303 days left in the year.
Happenings
Mitt Romney — The 2012 GOP presidential nominee appears on “Fox News Sunday" in his first televised interview since his election defeat.
Kerry in Egypt — Secretary of State John Kerry continues his Mideast junket, meeting with Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi today.
Iditarod — After Saturday’s day of fun, the real competition begins today in the 41st annual sled dog race in Anchorage, Alaska.
History
Highlight: In 1931, “The Star-Spangled Banner" became the national anthem of the United States as President Herbert Hoover signed a congressional resolution.
In 1845, Florida became the 27th state.
In 1849, the U.S. Department of the Interior was established.
In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed a measure creating the National Academy of Sciences.
In 1913, more than 5,000 suffragists marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., a day before the presidential inauguration of Woodrow Wilson.
In 1923, Time magazine, founded by Briton Hadden and Henry Luce, made its debut.
In 1943, in London’s East End, 173 people died in a crush of bodies at the Bethnal Green tube station, which was being used as a wartime air raid shelter.
In 1945, the Allies fully secured the Philippine capital of Manila from Japanese forces during World War II.
In 1969, Apollo 9 blasted off from Cape Kennedy on a mission to test the lunar module.
In 1974, a Turkish Airlines DC-10 crashed shortly after takeoff from Orly Airport in Paris, killing all 346 people on board.
In 1991, motorist Rodney King was severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers in a scene captured on amateur video. Twenty-five people were killed when a United Airlines Boeing 737-200 crashed while approaching the Colorado Springs airport.
Ten years ago: Israeli troops arrested Hamas co-founder Mohammed Taha in a deadly raid. (Israel released him 14 months later.) President George W. Bush offered a rough blueprint for adding drug benefits to Medicare.
Five years ago: Democrat Barack Obama said his campaign had never given Canada back-channel assurances that his harsh words about the North American Free Trade Agreement were for political show, despite a Canadian memo indicating otherwise. Operatic tenor Giuseppe Di Stefano died in Santa Maria Hoe, Italy, at 86.
One year ago: Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh apologized on his website to Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke, whom he had branded a “slut" and “prostitute" after she testified to congressional Democrats that she wanted her college health plan to cover her birth control.
Birthdays
Socialite Lee Radziwill is 80. Movie producer-director George Miller is 68. Actress Hattie Winston is 68. Singer Jennifer Warnes is 66. Actor-director Tim Kazurinsky is 63. Singer-musician Robyn Hitchcock is 60. Actor Robert Gossett is 59. Rock musician John Lilley is 59. Actress Miranda Richardson is 55. Radio personality Ira Glass is 54. Actress Mary Page Keller is 52. Olympic track and field gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee is 51. College Football Hall of Famer Herschel Walker is 51. Rock musician John Bigham is 44. Actress Julie Bowen is 43. Actor David Faustino is 39. Actress Jessica Biel is 31.
— From wire reports