44 BC Julius Caesar is stabbed to death by Brutus, Cassius and several other Roman senators on the Ides of March in Rome
- 221 Liu Bei, a Chinese warlord and member of the Han royal house, declares himself Emperor of Shu-Han, claiming legitimate succession to the Han Dynasty
351 Constantius II elevates his cousin Gallus to Caesar and puts him in charge of the eastern part of the Roman Empire
- 493 King of the Ostrogoths, Theodoric the Great, murders King Odoacer of Italy with his sword at a banquet in Ravenna
- 933 Battle of Riade: German King Henry I defeats the Magyars in northern Thuringia
- 1024 Great Al-Andalus earthquake strikes the Umayyad Caliphate around Córdoba (modern southern Spain)
- 1311 Battle of Halmyros: Catalan Company defeats the Frankish Duchy of Athens and its vassals led by Walter V of Brienne to take control of the Duchy of Athens, a Crusader state in Greece
- 1360 French attack English south coast, raiding Winchelsea
- 1382 Conservative "Popolo Grasso" regain power in Florence, Italy
- 1391 Anti-Semite monk in Seville, Spain stirs up people to attack Jews
Francis I Hostage Exchange
1526 French Dauphin Francis and his brother Henry exchanged as hostages for their father Francis I, beginning of four years of captivity in Spain under the Treaty of Madrid
- 1529 Second Diet of Speyer convenes, condemns and attempts to reverse 1526 Diet of Speyers relaxation of ban on Luther's teachings); official protest to attempted reversal on 25 April creates the term "Protestantism"
- 1560 Failed assault on royal palace in Amboise, France
- 1562 General Francois de Guise enters Paris
Declaration of Indulgence
1672 King Charles II of England enacts the Declaration of Indulgence in an unsuccessful attempt to extend religious liberty to Protestant nonconformists and Roman Catholics in his realms
- 1729 Sister St Stanislas Hachard, 1st American nun, takes her vows in New Orleans
- 1744 French King Louis XV declares war on Britain
Music History
1770 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (14) completes his String Quartet No. 1 (K. 80), in its original three-movement form on 15 March 1770 while touring in Lodi, Lombardy, Duchy of Milan
Nootka Sound
1778 Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island discovered by Captain James Cook
Battle of Guilford Court House
1781 Battle of Guilford Court House; British troops under Cornwallis defeat American forces but their heavy losses led to ceding of territory and a strategic loss
Newburgh Conspiracy
1783 In an emotional speech in Newburgh, New York, George Washington asks his officers not to support the Newburgh Conspiracy, preventing the threatened coup d'état
- 1812 1st Russian settlement in California at Russian River
- 1820 Maine admitted as 23rd state of the Union
- 1827 University of Toronto is chartered
- 1848 A revolution breaks out in Hungary. The Habsburg rulers are compelled to meet the demands of the Reform party.
- 1855 Louisiana establishes 1st health board to regulate quarantine
- 1864 Red River Campaign-Union forces reach Alexandria, Louisiana
- 1867 Michigan becomes 1st state to tax property to support a university
- 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings become baseball's first professional team with ten salaried players
- 1875 1st US cardinal (John McCloskey) invested
- 1877 Australian batsman Charles Bannerman completes first Test century in cricket history in 1st Test v England in Melbourne; retires hurt on 165 the following day
- 1877 Cricket's inaugural Test match commences as Australia plays England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground; Australia wins by 45 runs in 4 days
- 1885 1st performance of Caesar Franck's "Lesson Djinns"
- 1887 1st salaried fish & game warden (William Alden Smith in Michigan)
- 1889 6 US & German warships sunk by a typhoon in Apia harbour, Samoa, 200 die
- 1892 First escalator patented by American engineer Jesse Reno is first used at Old Iron Pier, Coney Island, New York City [1]
- 1892 New York State unveils automatic ballot booth (voting machine)
- 1897 1st indoor fly casting tournament opens, at Madison Square Garden
Rolls Royce Ltd
1906 Britons Henry Rolls, Charles Royce and Claude Johnson formalize their existing partnership as Rolls Royce Ltd
- 1907 Finland is the first European country to give women the right to vote
Rapsodie Espagnole
1908 1st performance of Maurice Ravel's orchestral rhapsody "Rapsodie Espagnole" in Paris
Event of Interest
1909 American retailer Harry Gordon Selfridge opens Selfridges department store on Oxford Street in London, England
Cy Young Retires
1912 Legendary pitcher Cy Young retires from baseball with 511-315 win-loss record
- 1913 Cleveland establishes 1st small claims court
- 1915 Carl Laemmle opens film studio Universal Pictures Hollywood in the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles [1]
- 1916 Dutch merchant ship Tubantia torpedoed by German submarine & sinks in North Sea
Event of Interest
1916 General Pershing and 15,000 troops chase Pancho Villa into Mexico
- 1916 University of Ghent taken under Dutch control
Nicholas II Abdicates
1917 The last Russian Tsar Nicholas II, abdicates and nominates his brother, Grand Duke Michael to succeed him [OS Mar 2]
- 1919 American Legion forms (Paris)
- 1922 1st southern radio station begins (WSB, Atlanta Georgia)
- 1922 France, which up until now has insisted on currency for all WWI reparation payments from Germany, now accepts raw materials as payment
- 1922 Sultan Faud crowned King of Egypt, England recognizes Egypt
- 1926 Belgium's "black monday", franc falls
- 1926 Six-mile car ferry service route opens between Portsmouth, England and Fishbourne on the Isle of Wight
Mussolini's Electoral Changes
1928 Benito Mussolini modifies Italy electoral system (abolishes right to choose)
- 1930 1st seaplane glider flown at Port Washington, NY
- 1930 1st streamlined submarine of US navy, USS Nautilus, launched
- 1933 NAACP begins coordinated attack on segregation & discrimination
- 1934 US Information Service opens
- 1937 1st state contraceptive clinic opens in Raleigh, North Carolina
- 1937 First American blood bank in a hospital is opened at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Illinois
1939 Adolf Hitler summons Czech President Emil Hácha to a meeting in Berlin and informs him of the impending attack by Germany; Hácha suffers a heart attack and later capitulates. Germany occupies and annexes Czechoslovakia reneging on the Munich Agreement.
Goering Smelts the Bells
1940 Hermann Goering says 100-200 church bells are enough for Germany and melts down the rest
- 1941 Blizzard in North Dakota kills 151 people
- 1943 Allied reconnaissance flight over Java
- 1943 Red Army evacuates Kharkov
- 1944 Italian town of Cassino destroyed by Allied bombing
- 1945 As a symbol of wartime baseball, Bert Shepard (one-legged WWII veteran) begins a successful tryout as a pitcher for the Washington Senators
- 1945 Billboard publishes its first album chart (King Cole Trio is #1)
- 1945 Catholic University of Nijmegen reopens
Attlee Agrees Indian Independence
1946 British Prime Minister Clement Attlee agrees with India's right to independence
- 1947 John Lee appointed 1st black commissioned officer in US Navy
- 1948 WCAU TV channel 10 in Philadelphia, PA (CBS) begins broadcasting
Don Bradman Knighted
1949 Cricket's master batsman Don Bradman receives his knighthood from the Governor-General of Australia, the Rt Hon. WJ McKell at the investiture in Queen’s Hall, Parliament House, Melbourne
- 1949 WICU TV channel 12 in Erie, PA (NBC) begins broadcasting
- 1949 WLWD (now WDTN) TV channel 2 in Dayton, OH (NBC) begins broadcasting
- 1950 NYC hires Dr Wallace E. Howell as its official "rainmaker" to help end a crippling water shortage for the princely sum of $100 a day [1]
- 1951 Persia nationalizes Anglo-Iranian Oil Company
- 1951 UN forces recapture Seoul, the fourth and final time the city changes hands in the Korean War
- 1952 Greatest 24-hr rainfall begins: 187 cm at La Reunion, Indian Ocean
- 1953 West Germany loses in soccer to Netherlands, 2-1
- 1954 WSJV TV channel 28 in Elkhart-South Bend, IN (ABC) begins broadcasting
- 1955 Dutch 2nd Chamber requires TV licenses
- 1955 US Air Force unveils self-guided missile
- 1955 WLEX TV channel 18 in Lexington, KY (NBC) begins broadcasting
- 1958 KULR TV channel 8 in Billings, MT (NBC/ABC/CBS) begins broadcasting
NBA Record
1958 Oscar Robertson of Cincinnati Royals scores a NBA midwest region-record 56-point game
- 1958 Royals basketball star Maurice Stokes collapses during a playoff game with encephalitis; He goes into a coma & is permanently disabled
- 1958 USSR performs atmospheric nuclear test in Ground Zero, Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan (of 36 total for 1958)
- 1959 Robert Foster sets record by staying underwater 13 m 42.5 s
- 1959 WILX TV channel 10 in Lansing, MI (NBC) begins broadcasting
- 1960 Key Largo Coral Reef Preserve, also known as John D. Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, established as 1st underwater park, off the coast of Florida
Event of Interest
1961 Jaguar head William Lyons debuts the first E-Type model at the Geneva International Motor Show, creating a sensation
- 1961 South Africa withdraws from British Commonwealth
- 1962 Donald Jackson of Canada is 1st to land a triple lutz ice skate jump
- 1962 Five research groups announce the discovery of antimatter
- 1962 KATU TV channel 2 in Portland, OR (ABC) begins broadcasting
- 1963 WFAN TV channel 14 in Washington, D.C. (IND) begins broadcasting
- 1964 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
- 1965 TGI Friday's first restaurant opens in New York City
- 1965 WMFE TV channel 24 in Orlando, FL (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1966 Racial riots erupt in the Watts section of Los Angeles, California
- 1967 Allied Forces Central Europe (AFCENT)-headquarter moves from France to Brunssum, Netherlands
- 1967 Marshal Arturo da Costa e Silva sworn in as President of Brazil
- 1967 WSJK TV channel 2 in Sneedville/Knoxville, Tennessee (PBS) 1st broadcast
- 1968 Bob Beamon sets indoor long jump record (27'2-3/4")
Event of Interest
1968 British Foreign Secretary George Brown resigns after having a drunken row with Prime Minister Harold Wilson
- 1968 Diocese of Rome announces that it "deplored the concept", but wouldn't prohibit rock & roll masses at Church of San Lessio Falconieri
Music History
1968 LIFE magazine calls Jimi Hendrix "most spectacular guitarist in the world"
- 1968 Uprising in South Yemen
- 1968 US Mint stops buying and selling gold
Event of Interest
1969 Anne McCaffrey makes history as the first woman to win a Nebula Award (Best Novella) with her work "Dragonrider" [1]
- 1969 US Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas resigns
- 1969 Violent Chinese-Russian border dispute leaves 100s dead
- 1970 Expo '70 opens in Osaka, Japan
- 1971 Chatrooms make their debut on ARPANET, the forerunner of the Internet
- 1972 Danish airliner hit mountain in Sheikdom of Oman killing 112
- 1972 NASA selects 3 part configuration for Space Shuttle
- 1972 Two British soldiers killed when attempting to defuse a bomb in Belfast; an RUC officer is also killed in an IRA attack in Coalisland, County Tyrone
- 1974 Brazilian president Garastazu Médici resigns
- 1975 "That's the Way of the World" 6th studio album by Earth, Wind & Fire is released (Billboard Album of the Year 1975)
- 1975 Bundy victim Julie Cunningham disappears from Vail, Colorado
- 1975 Jevgeni Kulikov skates world record 500m (37.99 sec)
- 1976 Failed coup in Niger
- 1977 "Eight is Enough" premieres on ABC-TV
- 1977 TV comedy "Three's Company" starring John Ritter, Suzanne Somers, and Joyce DeWitt, premieres on ABC in US
- 1977 US House of Representatives begins 90 day test of televising its sessions
- 1978 -21] operation Litani: Israeli offensive in South Lebanon
- 1978 China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor, PRC
Baseball Trade
1978 Oakland A's trade pitcher Vida Blue to San Francisco Giants for 7 players & $390,000
- 1979 Apparat releases Newdos + 2.1 for Radio Shack's TRS-80
- 1979 Sarfraz takes 9-86 at MCG as Australia lose 7-5 to lose the Test
- 1981 "Broadway Follies" opens/closes at Nederlander Theater NYC
- 1981 Suriname failed coup under sgt-mjr Wilfred Hawker
- 1982 Actress Theresa Saladana, stabbed repeatedly by obsessed fan
- 1982 KGB-AM in San Diego CA changes call letters to KCNN (now KPOP)
- 1982 Nicaragua suspends their citizens rights for 30 days
- 1982 Sidath Wettimuny scores Sri Lanka's first Test Cricket century (157) in 2nd Test v Pakistan in Faisalabad
- 1983 Karnataka beat Bombay on 1st innings to win cricket Ranji Trophy
- 1984 Tanzania adopts constitution
- 1985 First internet domain name, symbolics.com, is registered
Boxing Title Fight
1985 Larry Holmes TKOs David Bey in 10 for heavyweight boxing title
- 1985 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1986 Funeral services held for murdered Swedish PM Olaf Palme
- 1987 Last day in Test cricket for Larry Gomes & Joel Garner
- 1987 NZ beat WI by 5 wickets in Jeremy Coney's last Test Cricket
- 1988 Eugene Marino of Atlanta appointed 1st African American archbishop
- 1988 NASA reports accelerated breakdown of ozone layer by CFK
- 1988 NFL's St Louis Cardinals officially move to Phoenix
- 1989 NHL New York Rangers retire goalie Eddie Giacomin's #1 uniform
- 1989 US Department of Veterans Affairs officially established as a Cabinet position
- 1990 Fernando Collor de Mello sworn in as President of Brazil
1991 Four officers of the Los Angeles Police Department are charged with excessive force over the beating of Rodney King
- 1991 Sergei Bubka pole vaults world record 6.14m (20 feet 1 3/4)
- 1991 Territories of Amapa & Roraima become states in Brazil
- 1992 UN officially embarks on its largest peacekeeping operation
- 1993 In a landmark case, Mohamed Tabet, police commissioner of Casablanca, is convicted of sexually abusing over 1,500 women and sentenced to death
- 1993 Vinod Kambli scores 227 v Zimbabwe, his 2nd consecutive Test 200
- 1994 Experts from AL certify the Cleveland Indians Jacobs Field is properly lit
Music History
1996 Chris Isaak's album "Forever Blue" is certified Platinum by the RIAA
- 1997 Pitts Penguins' Joe Mullen, is 1st American to score 500 NHL goals
- 1998 An earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale hits southeastern Iran
- 2001 The world's largest oil rig, located off Brazil and operated by Petrobras, suffers three explosions
President Hu Jintao
2003 Hu Jintao becomes President of the People's Republic of China
Election of Interest
2003 Recep Tayyip Erdoğan becomes Prime Minister of Turkey after his political ban is lifted and he enters parliament by winning a by-election
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
2004 19th Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees: Jackson Browne; The Dells; George Harrison; Prince; Bob Seger; Traffic; ZZ Top; and Jann Wenner
- 2004 Announcement of the discovery of 90377 Sedna, the farthest natural object in the Solar system so far observed
- 2006 18th Commonwealth Games open in Melbourne, Australia
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
2010 25th Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees: ABBA; Genesis; Jimmy Cliff; The Hollies; The Stooges; David Geffen; Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil; Ellie Greenwich & Jeff Barry; Jesse Stone; Mort Shuman; and Otis Blackwell
- 2013 16 people are killed by a fireworks accident in Tlaxcala, Mexico
- 2013 24 people die after a double decker bus veers of a pass in Cape Town, South Africa
The 20/20 Experience
2013 Justin Timberlake releases his 3rd studio album "The 20/20 Experience" (2013 Billboard Album of the Year)
Premier Li Keqiang
2013 Li Keqiang assumes office as the 7th Premier of the People's Republic of China
- 2016 Google's DeepMind artificial intelligence wins Go challenge against Lee Se-dol 4-1
- 2017 Disney refuses to cut gay moment in film "Beauty and the Beast" for Malaysian censors, instead pulls film from Malaysia
Election of Interest
2017 Dutch elections; Prime Minister Mark Rutte's centre-right VVD party win 33 seats vs against 20 for right wing Geert Wilder's Party of Freedom
Fashion History
2017 French fashion house Givenchy appoints it first female designer, Englishwoman Clare Waight Keller
- 2018 More than 12,000 people flee Hamouria in Eastern Ghouta, Syria, after town bombarded
- 2018 Pedestrian bridge in Miami, Florida, collapses onto 8-lane highway 5 days after it was built, killing 6
- 2018 Slovakia’s prime minister Robert Fico resigns amid crisis after the murder of a journalist Jan Kuciak investigating mafia connections
- 2018 Toy chain Toys R Us announces it will close all its stores after filing for bankruptcy
Global Climate Strike for Future
2019 Climate change strikes held by schoolchildren take place around the world, inspired by Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg
- 2019 Terrorist attack on two mosques by a right-wing Australian gunman kills 51 and wounds 50 in Christchurch, New Zealand
- 2019 The Vessel, a honeycomb viewing structure designed by Thomas Heatherwick opens at Hudson Yards development, New York City
- 2020 European countries impose restrictions on gatherings and borders as COVID-19 deaths rates rise dramatically - Italy 1,809, Spain 288, France 120
- 2020 US Federal Reserve slashes interest rates to near zero to support the economy during the COVID-19 pandemic
- 2021 Armed attackers kill at least 58 people in the Tillabery region, southwest Niger, government declares three days of mourning
- 2021 AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine halted in Germany, France and Italy joining some other countries despite little evidence of unusual blood clotting
- 2021 Deb Haaland confirmed as US Secretary of the Interior by the Senate, 1st Native American to lead a cabinet agency
- 2021 Largest sandstorm in northern China in a decade engulfs Beijing turning air pollution levels hazardous
- 2021 Mass March 4 Justice rallies held across Australia to protest against violence and discrimination towards women
- 2021 Vatican issues judgement that priests cannot bless same-sex unions, that God “does not and cannot bless sin”
- 2022 Architectures' Pritzker Prize awarded to Francis Kéré from Burkina Faso [1]
- 2022 Hong Kong amid its worst COVID-19 outbreak records over 4,000 deaths in a few months, largely due to low vaccination, as Omicron hits, forcing it to abandon its covid-zero policy,
- 2023 Another atmospheric river creates a storm across California, bringing widespread flooding and power outages, with Monterey County issuing a 25 mile evacuation order [1]
- 2024 First ship arrives in Gaza to deliver aid from Cyprus, amid a deteriorating humanitarian crisis [1]
Pence Refuses to Endorse Trump
2024 Former US VP Mike Pence says "he cannot in good conscience” endorse Donald Trump for President in an interview on Fox News [1]
- 2025 Serbia's largest-ever rally held in Belgrade with 325,000 protesting against the government, fueled by the deadly collapse of the Novi Sad railway station [1]
- 2025 US launches airstrikes on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen killing at least 53 people, after the militia group said they would resume attacks on Israeli shipping [1]
- 2025 WPL Cricket Final, Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai: Mumbai Indians claim 2nd title with 8 run win over Delhi Capitals; Player of the match: Harmanpreet Kaur (MI) 66 (44)
