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       This Day in History: March 3 Take a look at all of the important historical events that took place on March 3rd.

       On this day, March 3 …

       1931: “The Star-Spangled Banner” becomes the national anthem of the United States as President Herbert Hoover signs a congressional resolution.

       Also on this day:

       1791: Congress passes a measure taxing distilled spirits; it is the first internal revenue act in U.S. history. 1845: Florida becomes the 27th state. 1863: President Abraham Lincoln signs a measure creating the National Academy of Sciences. 1934: Bank robber John Dillinger escapes from the Lake County Jail in Crown Point, Ind., along with another prisoner, Herbert Youngblood. 1959: The United States launches the Pioneer 4 spacecraft, which flies by the moon. 1959: Comedian Lou Costello dies in East Los Angeles. 1960: Lucille Ball files for divorce from her husband, Desi Arnaz, a day after they finished filming the last episode of “The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show.” 1974: A Turkish Airlines DC-10 crashes shortly after takeoff from Orly Airport in Paris, killing all 346 people on board. 1985: Coal miners in Britain vote to end a year-long strike that proves to be the longest and most violent walkout in British history. 1991: Motorist Rodney King is severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers in a scene captured on amateur video. 2002: Voters in Switzerland approve joining the United Nations, abandoning almost 200 years of formal neutrality. 2009: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, during a visit to Israel, promises to work with the incoming government, but says movement toward establishment of a Palestinian state is “inescapable.” 2014: President Barack Obama presses Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a White House meeting to make the “tough decisions” needed to move forward on talks with the Palestinians. 2014: Oscar Pistorius pleads not guilty to murdering his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, on Valentine’s Day 2013, marking the start of the Olympian’s murder trial in South Africa. 2018: Actor David Ogden Stiers, best known for playing a surgeon on the “M.A.S.H.” television series, dies at his Oregon home at the age of 75. 2019: A space capsule with a life-size test dummy named Ripley reaches the International Space Station in a test flight commissioned by SpaceX. 2019: Multiple tornadoes tear through Georgia and Alabama, killing at least 23 people.