On This Day

Today in History, March 1st

On March 1, 1872, President Grant signed the law creating Yellowstone, the first national park. Plus the Peace Corps and the Battle of Adwa.

By Today in History Updated November 10, 2026 3 min read Sources checked

Published March 1, 2026 · Last updated November 10, 2026

March 1 is best known as the day in 1872 when President Ulysses S. Grant signed the law creating Yellowstone, the first U.S. national park. The date also saw the Articles of Confederation take effect in 1781 and the founding of the Peace Corps in 1961.

The big story: Yellowstone Becomes a National Park (1872)

For decades, stories about Yellowstone’s boiling springs and spouting geysers sounded like tall tales. When fur trapper John Colter described the area after 1807, listeners scoffed and nicknamed it “Colter’s Hell.” Proof came with a string of expeditions, ending with geologist Ferdinand Hayden’s government survey in 1871. Hayden brought along photographer William Henry Jackson and painter Thomas Moran, and their pictures put the wonders in front of Congress. Lawmakers moved quickly. On March 1, 1872, Grant signed a bill setting aside about 2 million acres in what would become Wyoming, Montana and Idaho as a public park for the people’s enjoyment, closed to settlement and sale. It helped that many members of Congress thought the land was worthless for anything else. Yellowstone is widely considered the first national park anywhere in the world, and Nathaniel Langford, one of the bill’s promoters, became its first superintendent, without pay.

More events on March 1

Year	What happened
1781	Maryland became the last state to ratify the Articles of Confederation, and the Articles took effect as the first framework of the U.S. government.
1896	Ethiopian forces under Emperor Menilek II routed an Italian army at the Battle of Adwa, ending Italy’s bid to conquer Ethiopia.
1910	An avalanche swept two snowbound trains into a canyon at Wellington, Washington, killing 96 people.
1917	U.S. newspapers published the Zimmermann Telegram, Germany’s secret offer to help Mexico win back Texas, New Mexico and Arizona if the U.S. entered World War I.
1932	The 20-month-old son of aviator Charles Lindbergh was kidnapped from the family home in Hopewell, New Jersey. The case led Congress to make kidnapping a federal crime.
1961	President John F. Kennedy created the Peace Corps by executive order, with Sargent Shriver as its first director.
1966	The Soviet probe Venera 3 crashed into Venus, the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet.
1971	A bomb exploded in the U.S. Capitol, causing about $300,000 in damage. The radical Weather Underground claimed responsibility.
2005	In Roper v. Simmons, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that executing people for crimes they committed before age 18 is unconstitutional.

Born on March 1

1892: Akutagawa Ryūnosuke, Japanese writer whose stories inspired the film Rashomon.
1954: Ron Howard, child star of The Andy Griffith Show who became an Oscar-winning director.
1983: Lupita Nyong’o, Oscar-winning actress of 12 Years a Slave.