2 MARCH

1945 - The Philippine island fortress of Corregidor  is retaken by United States forces from Japan during World War II; the Japanese forces had seized the island on May 6, 1942 following their campaign to invade the Philippines and pound the main American military bases in the Southeast Asian archipelago, then a US colony.

1970 - Rhodesia's Prime Minister Ian Smith proclaims his African country a republic, cutting its last link with the British Crown; four years earlier, he declared Rhodesian independence and by 1977, will yield to British sanctions to negotiate a smooth transition to the rule of the black majority.

1972 - NASA's Pioneer 10 is launched, making it the first human-made object to exit the solar system after traversing the asteroid belt and flying by Jupiter; the spacecraft will allow astronomers to discover Jupiter's large magnetic tail, newly identify two moons and an additional ring around Saturn and radiation belts in its magnetosphere.

1992 - Following the dissolution of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan officially become members of the United Nations; the USSR had dissolved on December 25, 1991 and the seven states, along with other members of the former communist bloc, soon proclaimed their independence.