Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/March
Selected anniversaries / On this day archive
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| An archive of historical anniversaries that appeared on the Main Page 2024 day arrangement | ||||||
March 1: Disability Day of Mourning; Saint David's Day; Independence Day in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992); Yap Day in Yap State, Federated States of Micronesia
Dmitri Mendeleev
- 1562 – An attempt by Francis, Duke of Guise, to disperse a church service by Huguenots in Wassy, France, turned into a massacre, resulting in 50 dead, and starting the French Wars of Religion.
- 1869 – The Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev (pictured) finished his design of the first periodic table.
- 1921 – The Australian cricket team, led by Warwick Armstrong, became the first team to complete a whitewash in the Ashes, an achievement that would not be repeated for 86 years.
- 1936 – Hoover Dam, straddling the Arizona–Nevada border on the Colorado River, was completed.
- 1992 – A Bosnian-Serb wedding procession was attacked in Sarajevo, resulting in what is widely considered the first casualty of the Bosnian War.
- Roger North (d. 1734)
- Deke Slayton (b. 1924)
- Nick Griffin (b. 1959)
- Mustafa Barzani (d. 1979)
More anniversaries:
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Wilt Chamberlain
- 1484 – The College of Arms, one of the few remaining official heraldic authorities in Europe, was incorporated by royal charter in the City of London.
- 1776 – American Revolutionary War: Patriot militiamen from Georgia and South Carolina attempted to resist the British action to seize and remove supply ships anchored at Savannah, Georgia.
- 1949 – The B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II landed in Fort Worth, Texas, to complete the first non-stop circumnavigation of the world by airplane.
- 1962 – Playing for the Philadelphia Warriors, American basketball player Wilt Chamberlain (pictured) scored 100 points in a game against the New York Knicks, which remains an NBA record.
- 2022 – Russian forces captured the city of Kherson, the only regional capital to be taken during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
- Pope Adrian VI (b. 1459)
- Alexander Bullock (b. 1816)
- Bedřich Smetana (b. 1824)
- Ida Maclean (d. 1944)
March 3: Liberation Day in Bulgaria (1878); Hinamatsuri in Japan
Program for the woman suffrage parade
- 1284 – The Statute of Rhuddlan was enacted, introducing English common law to the Principality of Wales.
- 1891 – Shoshone National Forest in Wyoming was established as the first national forest in the United States.
- 1913 – Thousands of women marched in Washington, D.C. (program cover pictured) "in a spirit of protest" against the exclusion of women from American society.
- 1924 – The Ottoman Caliphate, the world's last widely recognized caliphate, was abolished.
- 1991 – Motorist Rodney King was beaten by Los Angeles Police Department officers during an arrest, causing public outrage that increased tensions between the African-American community and the police department over police brutality and social inequality.
- Antony Bek (d. 1311)
- Bonnie J. Dunbar (b. 1949)
- Xavier Bettel (b. 1973)
- May Cutler (d. 2011)
March 4: Feast day of Saint Casimir (Catholicism)
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Władysław II Jagiełło
- 1386 – Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania, was crowned King of Poland as Władysław II Jagiełło (pictured), beginning the Jagiellonian dynasty.
- 1773 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart departed Italy after the last of his three journeys there.
- 1899 – Cyclone Mahina struck Bathurst Bay, Queensland, killing over 300 people in one of the deadliest natural disasters in Australian history.
- 1918 – A case of influenza was recorded at Camp Funston, Kansas, conventionally marking the beginning of the Spanish flu pandemic.
- 2017 – Construction began on a 69-metre (226 ft) statue of the Buddha at Wat Paknam Bhasicharoen in Bangkok.
- Hindal Mirza (b. 1519)
- Rosalind Pitt-Rivers (b. 1907)
- Harold Barrowclough (d. 1972)
- Gary Gygax (d. 2008)
March 5: Learn from Lei Feng Day in China; St Piran's Day in Cornwall, England
Prototype Spitfire K5054
- 1811 – Peninsular War: At the Battle of Barrosa, Anglo-Iberian forces trying to lift the Siege of Cádiz defeated a French attack but could not break the siege itself.
- 1825 – Roberto Cofresí, one of the last Caribbean pirates, was apprehended after his flagship sloop Anne was captured by authorities.
- 1936 – The prototype (pictured) of the Supermarine Spitfire flew for the first time.
- 1960 – Cuban photographer Alberto Korda took his iconic photograph Guerrillero Heroico of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara.
- 1981 – The ZX81, a pioneering British home computer, was launched by Sinclair Research, and went on to sell more than 1.5 million units around the world.
- Edward Cornwallis (b. 1713)
- J. R. Kealoha (d. 1877)
- Anna Akhmatova (d. 1966)
- Ailsa McKay (d. 2014)
William Speirs Bruce
- 845 – The Abbasid Caliphate executed 42 Byzantine officials who had been captured in the sack of Amorium of 838 for refusing to convert to Islam.
- 1447 – Tommaso Parentucelli was elected as Pope Nicholas V in Rome.
- 1904 – Scottish National Antarctic Expedition: Led by William Speirs Bruce (pictured), the Antarctic region of Coats Land was discovered by the Scotia.
- 1988 – The Troubles: In Operation Flavius, the Special Air Service killed three volunteers of the Provisional Irish Republican Army conspiring to bomb a parade of British military bands in Gibraltar.
- 2000 – The Marine Parade Community Building, the mural cladding of which is the largest installation art in Singapore, was opened.
- Clark Shaughnessy (b. 1892)
- Joseph Berchtold (b. 1897)
- Shaukat Aziz (b. 1949)
- Cyprien Ntaryamira (b. 1955)
March 7: Feast day of Saints Perpetua and Felicity (Catholicism, Anglicanism, Lutheranism)
Police attacking civil rights activists outside Selma, Alabama
- 1573 – A peace treaty brought the Ottoman–Venetian War to an end, ceding Cyprus from the Republic of Venice to the Ottoman Empire.
- 1871 – José Paranhos, Viscount of Rio Branco, began a four-year premiership as Prime Minister of the Empire of Brazil, the longest in the state's history.
- 1941 – The German submarine U-47, one of the most successful U-boats of World War II, disappeared with 45 men on board.
- 1965 – Unarmed civil rights activists marching from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, were attacked by police (pictured) on "Bloody Sunday".
- 2021 – A series of four explosions at a military barracks in Bata, Equatorial Guinea caused at least 107 deaths.
- Ludwig Mond (b. 1839)
- Masako Katsura (b. 1913)
- Mochtar Lubis (b. 1922)
- Divine (d. 1988)
March 8: International Women's Day; Aurat March in Pakistan
Io with two volcanic plumes
- 1576 – A Spanish colonial officer wrote a letter to King Philip II containing the first mention of the Maya ruins of Copán in present-day Honduras.
- 1910 – French aviator Raymonde de Laroche became the first woman to receive a pilot's licence.
- 1963 – The Ba'ath Party came to power in a coup d'état by a clique of quasi-leftist Syrian Army officers calling themselves the National Council for the Revolutionary Command.
- 1966 – Nelson's Pillar, a large granite pillar topped by a statue of Lord Nelson in Dublin, Ireland, was severely damaged by a bomb.
- 1979 – Images taken by Voyager 1 proved the existence of volcanoes on Io (pictured), a moon of Jupiter.
- Adela of Normandy (d. 1137)
- Louie Nunn (b. 1924)
- Alfons Rebane (d. 1976)
- Haseeb Ahsan (d. 2013)
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Princess Kaʻiulani
- 1776 – Scottish political economist Adam Smith's book The Wealth of Nations, the first modern work in economics, was published.
- 1891 – Kaʻiulani (pictured) was appointed heir apparent to the throne of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
- 1925 – The Royal Air Force began a bombardment and strafing campaign against the mountain strongholds of Mahsud tribesmen in South Waziristan, in what is now Pakistan.
- 1956 – In Tbilisi, Georgia, Soviet troops suppressed mass demonstrations against Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's de-Stalinization policy.
- 1957 – The Mw 8.6 Andreanof Islands earthquake struck Hawaii and the Aleutian Islands, causing over $5 million in damage from ground movement and a destructive tsunami.
- Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi (d. 886)
- Catherine of Bologna (d. 1463)
- Friederike Caroline Neuber (b. 1697)
- Lill-Babs (b. 1938)
March 10: Mothering Sunday (Western Christianity, 2024)
Eliot Spitzer
- 1695 – Nine Years' War: At the Battle of Sant Esteve d'en Bas, Catalan miquelets attacked a column of French regular infantry and caused them to surrender.
- 1959 – An anti-Chinese uprising began as thousands of Tibetans surrounded the Potala Palace in Lhasa to prevent the Dalai Lama from leaving or being removed by the Chinese army.
- 1968 – Vietnam War/Laotian Civil War: North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao forces overwhelmed the American, Laotian, Thai, and Hmong defenders of Lima Site 85.
- 1977 – Astronomers using NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory discovered a faint ring system around Uranus.
- 2008 – The New York Times revealed that Eliot Spitzer (pictured), Governor of New York, had patronized a prostitution ring.
- Tvrtko I of Bosnia (d. 1391)
- Lillian Wald (b. 1867)
- Marie-Eugénie de Jésus (d. 1898)
- Rupert Bruce-Mitford (d. 1994)
March 11: Commonwealth Day in the Commonwealth of Nations (2024); National Heroes and Benefactors Day in Belize (2024); Longtaitou Festival in China (2024)
Dale Dyke Dam in Sheffield, after its rupture
- 1864 – The Great Sheffield Flood killed at least 240 people and damaged more than 600 homes, after a crack in the Dale Dike Reservoir (pictured) caused it to fail.
- 1993 – The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Janet Reno as the country's first female attorney general.
- 2007 – Georgian authorities accused Russia of orchestrating a helicopter attack in the Kodori Valley of the breakaway territory of Abkhazia.
- 2009 – A teenage gunman engaged in a shooting spree at a secondary school in Winnenden, Germany, killing 16, including himself.
- Mary of Woodstock (b. 1278)
- Stanisław Koniecpolski (d. 1646)
- Ralph Abernathy (b. 1926)
- Gladys Pearl Baker (d. 1984)
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Andrew Watson
- 1537 – Croatian–Ottoman wars: After the execution of feudal lord Petar Kružić, Croatian forces at Klis surrendered to the Ottoman forces in exchange for their safe passage to northern locations.
- 1881 – Andrew Watson (pictured) captained the Scotland national football team against England, becoming the world's first black international footballer.
- 1947 – Cold War: U.S. president Harry S. Truman proclaimed the Truman Doctrine to help stem the spread of communism.
- 1952 – British diplomat Lord Ismay was appointed the first secretary general of NATO.
- 1971 – The Turkish Armed Forces executed a "coup by memorandum", forcing the resignation of Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel.
- 2006 – U.S. Army soldiers gang-raped a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and murdered her along with her family members.
- William Henry Perkin (b. 1838)
- Gemma Galgani (b. 1878)
- Zhao Wei (b. 1976)
- Arina Tanemura (b. 1978)
Deportation of Jews from the Kraków Ghetto
- 1781 – William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus from the garden of his house in Bath, England, initially considering it to be a comet.
- 1845 – German composer Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto was premiered in Leipzig with Ferdinand David as the soloist.
- 1943 – The Holocaust: Nazi troops began the final liquidation of the Kraków Ghetto in German-occupied Poland, sending about 2,000 Jews to the Płaszów labor camp (deportation pictured), with the remaining 5,000 either killed or sent to Auschwitz.
- 1988 – The 53.85 km (33.46 mi) Seikan Tunnel opened between the cities of Hakodate and Aomori, Japan.
- 2013 – Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected as Pope Francis, making him the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas, and the first from the Southern Hemisphere.
- Daniel Lambert (b. 1770)
- Mustafa Reşid Pasha (b. 1800)
- Helen Renton (b. 1931)
March 14: New Year's Day (Sikhism); White Day in parts of East Asia; Pi Day
Catherine Cornaro
- 1309 – On Eid al-Fitr, the citizens of Granada stormed palaces in the city, deposing Sultan Muhammad III and placing his half-brother Nasr on the throne.
- 1489 – Catherine Cornaro (pictured), Queen of Cyprus, was forced to abdicate and sell the administration of the island to the Republic of Venice.
- 1885 – The Mikado, Gilbert and Sullivan's most frequently performed Savoy opera, debuted at the Savoy Theatre in London.
- 1969 – Edward M. Burke, the longest-serving alderman in the history of the Chicago City Council, was sworn into office.
- 1984 – Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Féin, was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt by Ulster Freedom Fighters in central Belfast, Northern Ireland.
- Matilda of Ringelheim (d. 968)
- Diane Arbus (b. 1923)
- Piri (b. 1999)
- Tony Benn (d. 2014)
Michael III
- 856 – Byzantine emperor Michael III (pictured) overthrew the regency of his mother Theodora to assume power for himself.
- 1147 – Reconquista: Portuguese troops under King Afonso I captured the city of Santarém from the Almoravids.
- 1875 – John McCloskey, the archbishop of New York, was created the first cardinal from the United States.
- 1974 - Transvestism and Transsexuality in Modern Society, the UK's first trans rights conference, opened with an evening reception in Leeds.
- 1990 – Iraqi authorities hanged Iranian freelance reporter Farzad Bazoft on charges of spying for Israel.
- Ernulf (d. 1124)
- Daniele Comboni (b. 1831)
- Arthur Compton (d. 1962)
March 16: Remembrance Day of the Latvian Legionnaires
FA Cup trophy
- 597 BC – Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II captured Jerusalem and installed Zedekiah as King of Judah.
- 1190 – Around 150 Jews died inside York Castle, the majority committing mass suicide to avoid being killed by a mob.
- 1322 – Despenser War: A royalist army defeated troops loyal to Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, in the Battle of Boroughbridge, which allowed King Edward II of England to hold on to power for another five years.
- 1872 – In the inaugural final of the FA Cup (trophy pictured) Wanderers defeated Royal Engineers 1–0 at The Oval in Kennington, London.
- 2001 – A series of bomb blasts in the city of Shijiazhuang, China, killed 108 people.
- Jean de Brébeuf (d. 1649)
- Anna Atkins (b. 1799)
- Manjural Islam Rana (d. 2007)
March 17: Saint Patrick's Day (Christianity); Anniversary of the Unification of Italy (1861)
A 15th-century depiction of Edward the Black Prince
- 1337 – Edward the Black Prince (pictured) was created Duke of Cornwall, the first English dukedom.
- 1677 – Franco-Dutch War: France captured the town of Valenciennes in the Spanish Netherlands.
- 1917 – World War I: Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster led a force to rescue 92 prisoners of war from Bir Hakeim, killing the Senussi guards and their families.
- 1942 – The Holocaust: The first mass killings of Jews began at Belzec extermination camp in occupied Poland, the first of the Operation Reinhard camps to begin operation.
- 1963 – An eruption of Mount Agung on Bali, Indonesia, killed at least 1,100 people.
- Gertrude of Nivelles (d. 659)
- Walter Rudolf Hess (b. 1881)
- Chuck Muncie (b. 1953)
March 18: Feast day of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem (Christianity)
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
- 1892 – Canadian governor general Lord Stanley of Preston pledged to donate an award to Canada's top-ranked amateur ice hockey club, now known as the Stanley Cup, the oldest professional sports trophy in North America.
- 1921 – Russian Civil War: Bolshevik forces suppressed a rebellion of sailors and civilians in Kronstadt.
- 1965 – Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov ventured outside the Soviet spacecraft Voskhod 2, becoming the first person to walk in space.
- 1985 – The first episode of the soap opera Neighbours was broadcast on the Seven Network, later becoming the longest-running drama in Australian television history.
- 1990 – Unidentified thieves stole thirteen works of art collectively valued at $500 million from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (pictured) in Boston, Massachusetts.
- Matthew III Csák (d. 1321)
- Charlotte Elliott (b. 1789)
- F. W. de Klerk (b. 1936)
March 19: Saint Joseph's Day (Western Christianity); Nowruz (2024)
Artist's impression of GRB 080319B
- 1563 – The Edict of Amboise was signed, ending the first war in the French Wars of Religion and inaugurating a period of official peace that lasted until 1567.
- 1808 – King Charles IV of Spain was forced to abdicate in favour of his son Ferdinand VII as a result of the Tumult of Aranjuez.
- 1962 – Influential American musician Bob Dylan released his eponymous debut album, mainly comprising traditional folk, blues and gospel songs.
- 1979 – The American cable television network C-SPAN, covering government proceedings and public-affairs programming, was launched.
- 2008 – The gamma-ray burst GRB 080319B (artist's impression pictured), the farthest object that could be seen by the naked eye, was observed.
- Francis B. Spinola (b. 1821)
- Anna Held (b. 1872)
- Kym Bonython (d. 2011)
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Douglas MacArthur
- 1852 – Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, which had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the United States, was published.
- 1923 – The Arts Club of Chicago hosted the opening of Pablo Picasso's first solo United States showing, entitled Original Drawings by Pablo Picasso.
- 1939 – Germany issued an ultimatum to Lithuania, demanding the return of the Klaipėda Region under threat of invasion.
- 1942 – World War II: After being forced to flee the Philippines for Australia, US Army general Douglas MacArthur (pictured) announced: "I came through and I shall return."
- 1993 – The Troubles: Two children were killed by the second of two bomb attacks by the Provisional Irish Republican Army in Warrington, England.
- Wareru (b. 1253)
- Elisabeth Geleerd (b. 1909)
- Zillur Rahman (d. 2013)
March 21: Fast of Esther (Judaism, 2024); Oltenia Day in Romania
The Scottish Cup trophy
- 1556 – Former Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer, one of the founders of Anglicanism, was burnt at the stake for heresy in Oxford, England.
- 1814 – War of the Sixth Coalition: During their march on Paris, Coalition forces defeated Napoleon's French army on the final day of the Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube.
- 1874 – Queen's Park defeated Clydesdale 2–0 in the final of the inaugural Scottish Cup (trophy pictured) at Hampden Park in Crosshill.
- 1918 – First World War: The German Army opened the Spring Offensive with Operation Michael, attempting to break through the Allied lines and to seize ports on the English Channel.
- 1960 – Police in Sharpeville, South Africa, opened fire on a group of unarmed black demonstrators who were protesting pass laws, killing 69 people and wounding 180 others.
- Absalon (d. 1201)
- Evelina Haverfield (d. 1920)
- Marina Salye (d. 2012)
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The Emerald Buddha in winter attire
- 1312 – Pope Clement V issued a bull dissolving the Order of the Knights Templar.
- 1784 – The Emerald Buddha (pictured), considered to be the sacred palladium of Thailand, was installed in its current location at Wat Phra Kaew on the grounds of the Grand Palace in Bangkok.
- 1942 – Second World War: British and Italian naval forces fought the Second Battle of Sirte in the Gulf of Sidra north of Libya.
- 1992 – USAir Flight 405 crashed in Flushing Bay shortly after takeoff from New York City's LaGuardia Airport, killing 27 people, and leading to studies into the effects of ice on aircraft.
- 2014 – A massive landslide in Oso, Washington, killed 43 people after engulfing a rural neighborhood, the largest death toll for a standalone landslide in U.S. history.
- Reese Witherspoon (b. 1976)
- Juan Uribe (b. 1979)
- Kenzō Tange (d. 2005)
March 23: Earth Hour (20:30 local time, 2024)
Kowloon Walled City
- 1400 – After 175 years of rule, the Trần dynasty of Vietnam was deposed by Hồ Quý Ly, a court official.
- 1839 – An earthquake struck central Burma, causing significant damage and killing an estimated 300 to 400 people.
- 1862 – American Civil War: General Stonewall Jackson of the Confederate States Army lost the First Battle of Kernstown, but was still able to prevent the Union Army from reinforcing the Peninsula campaign.
- 1919 – Benito Mussolini and his supporters founded the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento, the predecessor of the National Fascist Party.
- 1993 – The demolition of Kowloon Walled City (pictured), a densely crowded slum in Hong Kong, began.
- Jahanara Begum (b. 1614)
- Calouste Gulbenkian (b. 1869)
- Mo Farah (b. 1983)
March 24: World Tuberculosis Day
James VI and I
- 1603 – James VI of Scotland (pictured) succeeded to the thrones of England and Ireland as James I, uniting the realms under a single monarch.
- 1860 – Japanese chief minister Ii Naosuke was assassinated by rōnin samurai upset with his role in opening Japan to foreign powers.
- 1946 – The British Cabinet Mission arrived in New Delhi to discuss the transfer of power from the colonial government to Indian leadership.
- 1980 – One day after making a plea to Salvadoran soldiers to stop carrying out the government's repression, Archbishop Óscar Romero was assassinated while celebrating Mass in San Salvador.
- 2008 – Led by Jigme Thinley, the Bhutan Peace and Prosperity Party won 45 of 47 seats in the country's first National Assembly election.
- Elizabeth Ridgeway (d. 1684)
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (d. 1882)
- Jessica Chastain (b. 1977)
Yongle Emperor
March 25: Bangladesh Genocide Remembrance Day;
- 717 – Byzantine emperor Theodosius III abdicated in favour of Leo the Isaurian after he captured Theodosius's son.
- 1410 – The Yongle Emperor (pictured) of Ming China launched the first of his military campaigns against the Mongols, resulting in the fall of the Mongol khan Bunyashiri.
- 1807 – The Slave Trade Act became law, abolishing the Atlantic slave trade in the British Empire.
- 1903 – The Scottish National Antarctic Expedition anchored in the South Orkney Islands with the intention of establishing the first weather station in Antarctic territory.
- 1934 – Enrico Fermi published his discovery of neutron-induced radioactivity, for which he was later awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.
- Sophie Blanchard (b. 1778)
- Selim Sırrı Tarcan (b. 1874)
- Lorna Arnold (d. 2014)
William Caxton
- 1484 – William Caxton (pictured) printed the first English translation of Aesop's Fables.
- 1873 – A Dutch military expedition was launched to bombard Banda Aceh, the capital of the Aceh Sultanate in present-day Indonesia, beginning the Aceh War.
- 1896 – An explosion at the Brunner Mine in New Zealand killed 65 coal miners in the country's deadliest mining accident.
- 1917 – First World War: Attempting to advance into Palestine, the British were defeated by Ottoman troops at the First Battle of Gaza.
- 1953 – Jonas Salk announced the successful test of his polio vaccine on a small group of adults and children.
- Jacob van Eyck (d. 1657)
- James Hutton (d. 1797)
- Guido Stampacchia (b. 1922)
- D. M. Thomas (d. 2023)
March 27: Day of the Union of Bessarabia with Romania (1918)
Himeji Castle
- 1638 – The first of four destructive earthquakes struck southern Italy, destroying an estimated 10,000 homes.
- 1836 – At least 425 Texian prisoners of war were executed in the Goliad massacre, under orders from Mexican president Antonio López de Santa Anna.
- 1941 – World War II: A group of Serbian-nationalist officers of the Royal Yugoslav Air Force carried out a coup d'état after Yugoslavia joined the Axis powers.
- 2009 – A failure of the dam holding Situ Gintung, an artificial lake in Tangerang, Indonesia, caused floods that killed at least 100 people.
- 2015 – Himeji Castle (pictured), the largest and most visited Japanese castle, re-opened after five years of restoration work.
- Sigismund Báthory (d. 1613)
- Kick Kelly (d. 1926)
- Mariah Carey (b. 1969)
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Coin of Didius Julianus
- 193 – The Praetorian Guard assassinated Roman emperor Pertinax and sold the imperial office in an auction to Didius Julianus (coin pictured).
- 1802 – German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers discovered Pallas, the second asteroid ever identified, although it was considered to be a planet at the time.
- 1933 – After an on-board fire that may have been the first incident of airliner sabotage, the Imperial Airways biplane City of Liverpool broke apart in mid-air, killing fifteen people.
- 1997 – In the Tragedy of Otranto, the Italian Navy vessel Sibilla collided with the Albanian civilian vessel Kateri i Radës, causing the latter to sink and leading to dozens of deaths.
- 2015 – A siege of a hotel in Mogadishu by al-Shabaab militants, which began the previous day and killed at least 20 people, ended with the Somali Armed Forces recapturing the premises.
- Stephen Harding (d. 1134)
- Eileen Crofton (b. 1919)
- Sybil Irving (d. 1973)
- Jon Skolmen (d. 2019)
March 29: Boganda Day in the Central African Republic (1959); Martyrs' Day in Madagascar (1947)
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Part of the Terracotta Army
- 1430 – After an eight-year siege, the Ottoman Empire captured the city of Thessalonica from the Republic of Venice.
- 1461 – During the Wars of the Roses, Yorkist troops defeated Lancastrian forces at the Battle of Towton in Yorkshire, England, one of the largest land battles ever fought in England.
- 1968 – The funeral of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, started in Moscow, with tens of thousands of people in attendance.
- 1974 – A group of farmers in Shaanxi province, China, discovered a vast collection of terracotta statues (pictured) depicting the armies of the first Emperor of China Qin Shi Huang.
- 2017 – British prime minister Theresa May invoked Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, formally beginning the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union.
- John Tyler (b. 1790)
- Cornelio Saavedra (d. 1829)
- Helene Deutsch (d. 1982)
March 30: Land Day in Palestinian communities (1976)
Moments after the attempted assassination of Reagan
- 1861 – British chemist William Crookes published his discovery of thallium using flame spectroscopy.
- 1867 – U.S. secretary of state William H. Seward negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia for US$7.2 million.
- 1921 – The Australian Air Corps was disbanded, to be replaced the following day by the Australian Air Force.
- 1950 – Usmar Ismail began shooting Darah dan Doa, widely recognised as the first Indonesian film.
- 1981 – John Hinckley Jr. shot and wounded U.S. president Ronald Reagan and three others outside the Washington Hilton (immediate aftermath pictured).
- Kazimierz Łyszczyński (d. 1689)
- Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (d. 1842)
- Celine Dion (b. 1968)
March 31: Cesar Chavez Day in various U.S. states (1927); International Transgender Day of Visibility
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Bernard of Clairvaux
- 1146 – French abbot Bernard of Clairvaux preached a sermon to a crowd at a council in Vézelay, with King Louis VII in attendance, urging the necessity of a Second Crusade.
- 1521 – Ferdinand Magellan and members of his crew participated in the first Catholic Mass in the Philippines.
- 1800 – After fighting through the night, the French Navy ship of the line Guillaume Tell surrendered to a British squadron in the Malta Channel.
- 1930 – To avoid government censorship, Hollywood movie studios instituted their own set of industry censorship guidelines, popularly known as the Hays Code.
- 1942 – Second World War: Because of a mutiny by Indian soldiers against their British officers, Japanese troops captured Christmas Island without any resistance.
Selected anniversaries / On this day archive
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