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John Tonkin (1902–1995) was the premier of Western Australia from 3 March 1971 to 8 April 1974. Born and receiving most of his education in the Goldfields town of Boulder, Tonkin became a member of the Labor Party and a minister in the Willcock, Wise and Hawke governments. He was a member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly from 1933 to 1977, making him the longest-serving member of the Parliament of Western Australia as of 2021. Tonkin became premier after the 1971 state election, but with a majority of only one seat. The Tonkin government's achievements included reforms in industrial relations and employment, and the passing of the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972. Labor was defeated in the 1974 state election, and Tonkin was succeeded as premier by Charles Court. Tonkin was made a companion of the Order of Australia in 1977, and has been honoured with the naming of the Tonkin Highway and John Tonkin College. (Full article...)

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... that a 1998 referendum to repeal South Carolina's unenforceable interracial marriage ban was opposed by more than 38 percent of voters?
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... that Confederate Navy officer Alexander F. Warley commanded the ironclad ram CSS Manassas to attack two ships on which he had previously served as a U.S. Navy sailor?
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... that Comic Beam has published manga making fun of its low sales?

In the news

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Israel and the United States launch strikes on Iran, killing its supreme leader, Ali Khamenei (pictured), along with other senior officials.
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On this day

March 3: Purim (Judaism, 2026); Lantern Festival in China (2026); Hinamatsuri in Japan

Metallica in 2024

1776 – American Revolutionary War: Samuel Nicholas and the Continental Marines successfully landed on New Providence in the Bahamas and began a raid of Nassau, capturing the port the next day.
1875 – The first indoor game of ice hockey was played at the Victoria Skating Rink in Montreal by James Creighton and students of McGill University.
1933 – The first Nazi concentration camp was opened in Nohra to reduce overcrowding in prisons from the arrest of German Communists.
1945 – A Polish Home Army unit massacred at least 150 Ukrainian civilians in Pawłokoma, Poland.
1986 – The American heavy metal band Metallica (pictured) released their third studio album, Master of Puppets, considered one of the greatest in the genre's history.

Matthias de l'Obel (d. 1616)
Michele Singer Reiner (b. 1955)
Rebecca Lancefield (d. 1981)
Maija Isola (d. 2001)

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Today's featured picture

Apollo 9 (March 3–13, 1969) was the third crewed mission in the United States' Apollo program. Launched by a Saturn V and flown in low Earth orbit, the mission flight-qualified the Lunar Module, showing that its crew could fly it independently, then rendezvous and dock, as would be required for Apollo 11, the first crewed lunar landing. Commander James McDivitt, Command Module Pilot David Scott, and Lunar Module Pilot Rusty Schweickart tested systems and procedures critical to landing on the Moon. A spacewalk tested the extravehicular life support backpack. McDivitt and Schweickart, entering the Lunar Module through the docking tunnel, became the first humans to pass between spacecraft without going outside them, two months after Soviet cosmonauts spacewalked to transfer between Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5. Apollo 9, a complete success, was followed by Apollo 10, the dress rehearsal for Apollo 11. This photograph shows Schweickart operating a Hasselblad camera on the porch of the Lunar Module during an extravehicular activity on the fourth day of the Apollo 9 mission. The image was taken by Scott while standing in the hatch of the Command Module Gumdrop.

Photograph credit: David Scott / NASA

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