The Week in History for Feb. 26-March 4

Feb. 26

1919: President Woodrow Wilson signed a measure establishing Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.

1929: President Calvin Coolidge signed a measure establishing Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

1962: After becoming the first American to orbit the Earth, astronaut John Glenn told a joint meeting of Congress, ''Exploration and the pursuit of knowledge have always paid dividends in the long run.''

1970: National Public Radio was incorporated.

1993: A bomb built by Islamic extremists exploded in the parking garage of New York's World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring more than 1,000 others.

2002: Former Enron chief executive Jeffrey Skilling, at times combative, insisted during a Senate hearing that he knew nothing about manipulation of company books and denied misleading Congress as alleged by some lawmakers and Enron officials.

Feb. 27

1960: The U.S. Olympic hockey team defeated the Soviets, 3-2, at the Winter Games in Squaw Valley, Calif. The U.S. team went on to win the gold medal.

1965: The week's specials at Red Owl included a pound of sliced bacon for 29 cents; a head of lettuce for 10 cents and 10 pounds of sugar for 89 cents.

1973: Members of the American Indian Movement occupied the hamlet of Wounded Knee in South Dakota, the site of the 1890 massacre of Sioux men, women and children. (The occupation lasted until May.)

1976: Gov. Richard Kneip vetoed a bill to allow personalized license plates for South Dakota drivers. He said he “sees no need for this type of plate.”

1979: Jane M. Byrne confounded Chicago's Democratic political machine as she upset Mayor Michael A. Bilandic to win their party's mayoral primary. (Byrne went on to win the election.)

1991: President George H.W. Bush declared that ''Kuwait is liberated, Iraq's army is defeated,'' and announced that the allies would suspend combat operations at midnight, Eastern time.

Feb. 28

1911: President William Howard Taft nominated William H. Lewis to be the first black Assistant Attorney General of the United States.

1960: A day after defeating the Soviets at the Winter Games in Squaw Valley, Calif., the United States won its first Olympic hockey gold medal by defeating Czechoslovakia's team, 9-4.

1975: More than 40 people were killed in London's Underground when a subway train smashed into the end of a tunnel.

1982: The South Dakota Legislature debated a bill seeking $5.9 million for a new athletic complex at Northern State.

1984: Traffic lights were installed at Sixth Avenue and Dakota Street to help ease congestion.

1993: A gun battle erupted at a compound near Waco, Texas, when Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents tried to serve warrants on the Branch Davidians; four agents and six Davidians were killed as a 51-day standoff began.

Feb. 29

1504: Christopher Columbus, stranded in Jamaica during his fourth voyage to the West, used a correctly predicted lunar eclipse to frighten hostile natives into providing food for his crew.

1904: President Theodore Roosevelt appointed a seven-member commission to facilitate completion of the Panama Canal.

1940: ''Gone with the Wind'' won eight Academy Awards, including best picture of 1939; Hattie McDaniel won for best supporting actress, the first black performer so honored.

1956: President Dwight D. Eisenhower announced he would seek a second term of office.

1968: President Lyndon B. Johnson's National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (also known as the Kerner Commission) warned that racism was causing America to move ''toward two societies, one black, one white — separate and unequal.''

2008: Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama accused rival Hillary Rodham Clinton of trying to ''play on people's fears to scare up votes'' with a TV ad showing sleeping children and asking who would be more qualified to answer a national security emergency call at 3 a.m.

March 1

1565: The city of Rio de Janeiro was founded by Portuguese knight Estacio de Sa.

1932: Charles A. Lindbergh Jr., the 20-month-old 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.

1961: President John F. Kennedy signed an executive order establishing the Peace Corps.

1962: The first Kmart store opened in Garden City, Mich.

1967: Salaries for Aberdeen city officials were $400 a month for the mayor and $300 a month for the Aberdeen city commissioners.

2002: Under pressure from prosecutors, the Archdiocese of Boston agreed to turn over the names of people allegedly molested by priests.

March 2

1793: The first president of the Republic of Texas, Sam Houston, was born near Lexington, Va.

1943: The World War II Battle of the Bismarck Sea began; U.S. and Australian warplanes were able to inflict heavy damage on a Japanese convoy.

1962: Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors in a game against the New York Knicks, an NBA record that still stands. (Philadelphia won, 169-147.)

1967: The South Dakota Legislature considered a bill to establish a retirement program for South Dakota's 5,700 state government workers. The bill suggested each employee would contribute 3.5 percent of each paycheck and the state would match the contribution.

1968: The South Dakota Highway Department reported spending more than $250,000 the last two years to pick up trash along the state's highways.

2011: The Supreme Court ruled, 8-1, that a grieving father's pain over mocking protests at his Marine son's funeral had to yield to First Amendment protections for free speech in a decision favoring the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan.

March 3

1931: ''The Star-Spangled Banner'' became the national anthem of the United States as President Herbert Hoover signed a congressional resolution.

1967: Mansfield voters approved a resolution to consolidate the Mansfield Community School with the Northville Northwestern Independent School District.

1976: South Dakota State University senior wrestler Al Novstrup of Sisseton competed in the 150-pound class at the NCAA Division II championships in Fargo, N.D.

1991: Motorist Rodney King was severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers in a scene captured on amateur video.

1993: Health pioneer Albert Sabin, developer of the oral polio vaccine, died in Washington, D.C., at age 86.

March 4

1789: The Constitution of the United States went into effect as the first Federal Congress met in New York. The lawmakers then adjourned for lack of a quorum.

1858: Sen. James Henry Hammond of South Carolina declared ''cotton is king'' in a speech to the U.S. Senate.

1952: Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis were married in California's San Fernando Valley.

1960: Assessed values of property in Aberdeen were the lowest of the six-largest South Dakota cities. The average valuation of an Aberdeen residence was $2,227; an unimproved lot was assessed at $485.

1976: South Dakota's U.S. Representative, Larry Pressler, announced he would seek a second term.

2007: Former Sen. Thomas Eagleton, who resigned as George McGovern's running mate in 1972 after it was revealed he'd been hospitalized for depression, died in St. Louis, Mo., at age 77.

This article originally appeared on Aberdeen News: The Week in History for Feb. 26-March 4