On This Day

Today in History, March 2nd

On March 2, 1836, Texas declared independence from Mexico as the Alamo was besieged. Plus Wilt Chamberlain's 100 points and Dr. Seuss's birth.

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

Published March 2, 2026 · Last updated November 10, 2026

March 2 is best known as the day in 1836 when Texas delegates declared independence from Mexico while the Alamo was under siege. The date also saw Wilt Chamberlain score 100 points in an NBA game in 1962 and the birth of Dr. Seuss in 1904.

The big story: Texas Declares Independence (1836)

By the winter of 1836, the fight between Texas settlers and the Mexican government had turned into open war. Delegates from the Texas settlements gathered at the small town of Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 1 to decide what came next. They did not take long. A five-man committee drew up a declaration, mostly the work of its chairman, George C. Childress, and on March 2 the convention adopted it, proclaiming the Republic of Texas. Fifty-nine delegates eventually signed. The mood was tense: riders kept bringing news from San Antonio, where Santa Anna’s army had the Alamo surrounded. Couriers carried copies to towns around Texas, and a thousand handbills were ordered printed. The document was a sharp break from an earlier statement in November 1835, which had only asked Mexico to restore its 1824 constitution. This time there was no going back, and independence would have to be won on the battlefield.

More events on March 2

Year	What happened
1498	Vasco da Gama’s fleet reached the Island of Mozambique on its first voyage around Africa to India.
1807	Congress passed a law banning the import of enslaved people into the U.S., to take effect at the start of 1808.
1867	Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act over President Andrew Johnson’s veto, setting up the clash that led to his impeachment the next year.
1877	Rutherford B. Hayes was declared the winner of the disputed 1876 presidential election, just days before Inauguration Day.
1917	President Woodrow Wilson signed the Jones-Shafroth Act, making Puerto Ricans U.S. citizens.
1955	Fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, after refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, nine months before Rosa Parks did the same.
1956	Morocco declared its independence from France, ending more than four decades as a French protectorate.
1962	Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors in a 169–147 win over the New York Knicks, an NBA single-game record.
1969	Soviet and Chinese troops clashed over an island in the Ussuri River, part of a border conflict that pushed the two communist powers toward war.
1972	NASA launched Pioneer 10, the first probe sent to the outer planets. It crossed the asteroid belt and sent back the first close-up images of Jupiter.
1995	Physicists at Fermilab announced the discovery of the top quark, the heaviest known elementary particle.
2009	Guinea-Bissau’s president, João Bernardo Vieira, was killed by soldiers in the capital, Bissau.

Born on March 2

1793: Sam Houston, commander of the Texas army and twice president of the Republic of Texas.
1824: Bedřich Smetana, Czech composer of The Moldau.
1904: Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss.
1931: Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union.