In 1841, the first filibuster in the U.S. Senate began. It ended March 11.

In 1856, The American Party, also known as the Know-Nothing Party, nominated its first presidential candidate, former U.S. President Millard Fillmore. But, he carried only Maryland and the party soon vanished.

In 1861, Jefferson Davis was sworn in as provisional president of the Confederate States of America.

In 1865, after a long Civil War siege, Union naval forces captured Charleston, S.C.

In 1884, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain was published.

In 1930, Pluto, once identified as the ninth planet of the solar system, was discovered by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh.

In 1954, the Church of Scientology was established in Los Angeles.

In 1967, J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, died in Princeton, N.J., at the age of 62.

In 1979, Snow fell in the Sahara Desert in southern Algeria for the first known time.

In 1993, a ferry carrying more than 800 people capsized off Haiti's western coast, killing at least 150 people with several hundred others missing and presumed drowned.

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