By: HISTORY.com Editors

1972

Pioneer 10 launched to Jupiter

Published: February 09, 2010Last Updated: May 27, 2025

Pioneer 10, the world’s first outer-planetary probe, is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a mission to Jupiter, the solar system’s largest planet. In December 1973, after successfully negotiating the asteroid belt and a distance of 620 million miles, Pioneer 10 reached Jupiter and sent back to Earth the first close-up images of the spectacular gas giant. In June 1983, the NASA spacecraft left the solar system and the next day radioed back the first scientific data on interstellar space. NASA officially ended the Pioneer 10 project on March 31, 1997, with the spacecraft having traveled a distance of some six billion miles.

Headed in the direction of the Taurus constellation, Pioneer 10 will pass within three light years of another star—Ross 246—in the year 34,600 A.D. Bolted to the probe’s exterior wall is a gold-anodized plaque, 6 by 9 inches in area, that displays a drawing of a human man and woman, a star map marked with the location of the sun, and another map showing the flight path of Pioneer 10. The plaque, intended for intelligent life forms elsewhere in the galaxy, was designed by astronomer Carl Sagan.

Who Named the Planets?

Most are named after Roman gods and goddesses.

By: Elizabeth Nix

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on March 2nd

1776

Washington begins bombardment of British-held Boston

On March 2, 1776, General George Washington orders American artillery forces to begin bombarding Boston from their positions at Lechmere Point, northwest of the city center—in advance of bringing in the big guns. It marked the beginning of the end of the Siege of Boston and Britain’s wartime occupation of Boston. After two straight days […]

1:34m read

1807

Congress abolishes the African slave trade

On March 2, 1807, the U.S. Congress passes an act to “prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States…from any foreign kingdom, place, or country.” It would go into effect at the start of the following year. The first shipload of African captives to the British […]

1836

Texas declares independence

During the Texas Revolution, a convention of American Texans meets at Washington-on-the-Brazos and declares the independence of Texas from Mexico. The delegates chose David Burnet as provisional president and confirmed Sam Houston as the commander in chief of all Texan forces. The Texans also adopted a constitution that protected the free practice of slavery, which […]

4:16m read

1861

Texas secedes

On March 2, 1861, Texas becomes the seventh state to secede from the Union. The first official move for secession actually came a month earlier, on February 1, when a state convention voted 166 to 8 in favor of the measure. The issue then had to be ratified by a statewide referendum, which was held […]

1:52m read

1904

Dr. Seuss born

Theodor Geisel, better known to the world as Dr. Seuss, the author and illustrator of such children’s books as “The Cat in the Hat” and “Green Eggs and Ham,” is born in Springfield, Massachusetts on March 2, 1904.

2:00m read

1917

Puerto Ricans become U.S. citizens, are recruited for war effort

Barely a month before the United States enters World War I, President Woodrow Wilson signs the Jones-Shafroth Act, granting U.S. citizenship to the inhabitants of Puerto Rico. Located about 1,000 miles southeast of Florida—and less than half that distance from the coast of South America—Puerto Rico was ceded to the U.S. by Spain in December […]

1:52m read

1929

President Coolidge signs the Jones Act, targeting bootleggers

The Jones Act, the last gasp of the Prohibition, is signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge. Since 1920 when the Eighteenth Amendment went into effect, the United States had banned the production, importation and sale of alcoholic beverages. But the laws had been ineffective at actually stopping the consumption of alcohol. The Jones Act […]

1:28m read

1943

The Battle of the Bismarck Sea begins

On March 2, 1943, the Battle of the Bismarck Sea begins when U.S. and Australian land-based planes launch an offensive against a convoy of Japanese ships in the western Pacific. One day earlier, U.S. reconnaissance planes spotted 16 Japanese ships en route to Lae and Salamaua in New Guinea. The Japanese were attempting to maintain […]

1:16m read

1944

More than 500 train passengers mysteriously suffocate

On March 2, 1944, a train stops in a tunnel near Salerno, Italy, and more than 500 people on board suffocate and die. The details of the incident, which occurred in the midst of World War II, were not revealed at the time and remain somewhat murky. Train Number 8017 left Salerno heading for the […]

1:36m read

1955

Fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin refuses to give up her seat on a segregated bus

Claudette Colvin was arrested for refusing to give up her seat.

3:28m read

1962

Wilt Chamberlain scores 100 points

On March 2, 1962, Philadelphia Warriors center Wilt Chamberlain scores 100 points against the New York Knicks during a home game in Hershey, Pennsylvania. It was the first time that a professional basketball player had scored 100 points in a single contest; the previous record, 78, had been set by Chamberlain earlier in the season. […]

2:18m read

1966

Ford celebrates 1 millionth Mustang

On March 2, 1966, in Dearborn, Michigan, the Ford Motor Company celebrates the production of its 1 millionth Mustang, a white convertible. The sporty, affordable vehicle was officially launched two years earlier, on April 17, 1964, at the World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, New York. That same day, the new car debuted in Ford showrooms […]

1:40m read

1967

Bobby Kennedy proposes plan to end the war

Senator Robert Kennedy (D-New York) proposes a three-point plan to help end the war. The plan included suspension of the U.S. bombing of North Vietnam and the gradual withdrawal of U.S. and North Vietnamese troops from South Vietnam with replacement by an international force. Secretary of State Dean Rusk rejected Kennedy’s proposal because he believed […]

1:28m read

1969

Soviet Union and Chinese armed forces clash

In a dramatic confirmation of the growing rift between the two most powerful communist nations in the world, troops from the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China fire on each other at a border outpost on the Ussuri River in the eastern region of the USSR, north of Vladivostok. In the years following […]

1978

Reports surface of grave robbers stealing Charlie Chaplin’s body

On March 2, 1978, news outlets report one of history’s most famous cases of body-snatching: Sometime in the middle of the previous night, two men had stolen the corpse of the revered film actor Sir Charles Chaplin from a cemetery in the Swiss village of Corsier-sur-Vevey, located in the hills above Lake Geneva, near Lausanne, […]

2:10m read

Space Exploration

11 videos

Space Exploration

6 Ways the Space Race Transformed Everyday American Life

The launch of Sputnik in October 1957 sparked a space race that reshaped education, science, technology and everyday life.

Space Exploration

Earthrise: Behind the Famed Apollo 8 Photo

Earthrise is a photo taken by NASA astronaut Bill Anders on December 24, 1968, that gave people an awe-inspiring view of their home planet.

Space Exploration

The Rise and Fall of Planet Pluto

Look back at the controversial decision to give Pluto the pink slip and shrink the solar system from nine planets to eight.

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