- 238 Gordian I and his son Gordian II are proclaimed Roman emperor
- 752 Stephen II elected Catholic Pope (or 23rd)
- 871 Battle at Marton: Ethelred van Wessex beats Danish invasion army
- 1349 Townspeople of Fulda, Germany massacre Jews, blaming them for the Black Death
- 1421 Battle of Baugé - French defeat English
- 1556 Cardinal Reginald Pole becomes archbishop of Canterbury
- 1621 Hugo de Grote escapes in bookcase from Loevenstein castle, Neth
- 1622 First American Indian (Powhatan) massacre of Europeans in Jamestown Virginia, 347 killed
- 1630 1st colonial legislation prohibiting gambling enacted (Boston)
- 1638 Religious dissident Anne Hutchinson expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony
- 1680 Parliament of Breisach accepts French sovereignty over Elzas
- 1692 Emperor Leopold I names Duke Earnest August of Braunschweig, king
Event of Interest
1765 Stamp Act passed; 1st direct British tax on American colonists, organized by Prime Minister George Grenville
George Grenville
- 1775 Edmund Burke presents his 13 articles to the Westminster Parliament
Historic Discovery
1778 Captain James Cook sights Cape Flattery, now in Washington state
James Cook
- 1784 The Emerald Buddha is moved with great ceremony to its current place in Wat Phra Kaew, Thailand
Event of Interest
1790 Thomas Jefferson becomes the 1st US Secretary of State under President Washington
Thomas Jefferson
Event of Interest
1832 British Parliament, led by Charles Grey, passes the Reform Act, introducing wide-ranging changes to electoral system of England and Wales, increasing electorate from about 500,000 voters to 813,000
Charles Grey
John Russell
- 1841 A method for alkali starch extraction is patented in the US by Orlando Jones, which is later applied to corn (cornstarch)
- 1861 1st US nursing school chartered
- 1862 San Marino & Italy conclude treaty of friendship & cooperation
- 1865 Raid at Wilson's: Chickaswas AL to Macon GA
- 1871 William Holden of North Carolina becomes 1st governor removed by impeachment
- 1872 Illinois becomes 1st state to require sexual equality in employment
- 1873 Slavery is abolished in Puerto Rico, celebrated as Emancipation Day
- 1874 Young Men's Hebrew Association organizes in NYC
- 1888 English Football League established
- 1894 Stanley Cup: Montreal Hockey Club defeats Ottawa Generals, 3-1 to win 1st ever Stanley Cup competition
- 1895 Auguste & Louis Lumiere show their 1st movie to an invited audience
- 1896 Charilaos Vasilakos of Greece wins 1st modern marathon in 3:18 at the Panhellenic Games
- 1903 NY Highlanders (Yankees) tickets 1st go on sale
- 1903 Niagera Falls runs out of water because of a drought
Event of Interest
1903 US Anthracite Coal Commission, set up by President Theodore Roosevelt, submits its recommendations for shorter hours, a 10-per cent wage increase, and an 'open shop'
Theodore Roosevelt
- 1904 "Bailundo Revolt" ends after almost 2-years in Portuguese victory over Ovimbundu kingdom & allies
- 1907 The new Boer government in the Transvaal passes an Asiatic Registration Bill, that restricts immigration from India
- 1907 69th Grand National: Tom Coulthwaite aboard Alf Newey wins
- 1912 Agnes Martin, Macklin Canada, Canadian-American abstract painter
- 1914 The St. Petersburg–Tampa Airboat Line becomes the world's first scheduled airline
- 1917 The USA is the first nation to recognize the new government of Russia
- 1922 The Rand Rebellion in Southern Africa, which started as a strike by white mineworkers and became an armed rebellion against the state, is brought to a brutal end by the police
- 1927 Federico Garcia Lorca's "El Maleficio" premieres in Madrid
- 1928 Noel Coward's musical "This Year of Grace" premieres in London
- 1929 KIT-AM in Yakima WA begins radio transmissions
- 1929 USCG vessel sank Canadian schooner suspected of carrying liquor
- 1929 88th Grand National: Robert W. H. Everett aboard Gregalach wins
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Film Premier
1936 "The Great Ziegfeld" directed by Robert Z. Leonard and starring William Powell and Luise Rainer premieres in Los Angeles (Best Picture 1937
Luise Rainer
Event of Interest
1941 James Stewart is inducted into the Army, becoming the first major American movie star to wear a military uniform in World War II
James Stewart
- 1943 Dutch work week extended to 54 hour
- 1943 Obligatory work for woman ends in Belgium
- 1943 SS police chief Rauter threatens to kill half Jewish children
- 1944 600+ 8th Air Force bombers attack Berlin
- 1944 American movie star Jimmy Stewart flies his 12th combat mission, leading the 2nd Bomb Wing in an attack on Berlin
- 1945 Arab League forms with adoption of a charter in Cairo Egypt
- 1945 US 3rd Army crosses Rhine at Nierstein
- 1946 1st US rocket to leave the Earth's atmosphere (50 miles up)
- 1946 Britain signs treaty granting independence to Jordan
- 1947 President Harry Truman signs executive order calling for loyalty
- 1952 Dutch DC-6 crashes near Frankfurt, killing 44
- 1953 Antonín Zápotocký chosen as President of Czechoslovakia
- 1954 Northland Center, the world's largest shopping mall of the time, opens in Oakpark, Michigan
- 1954 Closed since 1939, the London bullion market reopens
- 1956 Musical "Mr Wonderful" with Sammy Davis Jr opens at Broadway Theater NYC for 383 performances
- 1957 Earthquake shakes San Francisco
- 1957 Republic of India adopts Saka calendar along with Gregorian
Music Single
1957 "All Shook Up" single released by Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
- 1958 20th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Kentucky beats Seattle 84-72
- 1958 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
Historic Invention
Arthur Leonard Schawlow
Event of Interest
1964 Barbra Streisand appears on the cover of NY Times Magazine section
Barbra Streisand
Election of Interest
1965 Nicolae Ceausescu is elected General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party
Nicolae Ceausescu
Boxing Title Fight
1967 Muhammad Ali KOs Zora Folley in 7 for heavyweight boxing title
Muhammad Ali
- 1968 Jarmila Novotna resigns presidency of Czechoslovakia
- 1968 Lynda Johnson ordered off San Francisco cable car for eating an ice cream cone
- 1968 Student riot in Nanterre near Paris
- 1969 "Billy" opens & closes at Billy Rose Theater NYC after 1 performance
- 1969 "Come Summer" closes at Lunt Fontanne Theater NYC after 7 performances
- 1969 31st NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: UCLA beats Purdue 92-72 UCLA wins its 5th national championship in 6 years
- 1970 "Blood Red Roses" opens & closes at John Golden Theater NYC
- 1971 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- 1971 Brian Faulkner becomes the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland
Music Awards
1971 6th Academy of Country Music Awards: Merle Haggard and Lynn Anderson win
Merle Haggard
Event of Interest
1972 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar named NBA MVP
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
- 1972 Nick Mileti purchases Cleveland Indians for $9 million
- 1972 Yankees trade Danny Cater to the Red Sox for Sparky Lyle
- 1972 In Eisenstadt v. Baird the US Supreme Court rules unmarried people have same right to contraception as married people.
- 1975 "Dinge-competed" wins Eurovision Song festival
- 1975 "Dr Jazz" closes at Winter Garden Theater NYC after 5 performances
- 1975 "Letter for Queen Victoria" opens at ANTA Theater NYC for 18 performances
- 1975 AIAW Women's Basketball Tournament, Delta State beats Immaculata 90-81 in Harrisonburg
- 1975 Walt Disney World Shopping Village opens
- 1975 A fire at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant in Decatur, Alabama causes dangerous lowering of cooling water levels
- 1975 20th Eurovision Song Contest: Teach-In for Netherlands wins singing "Ding-a-dong" in Stockholm
Event of Interest
1977 Indira Gandhi resigns as PM of India
Indira Gandhi
Event of Interest
1978 Robert Frost Plaza, at California, Drumm & Market, San Francisco, dedicated
Robert Frost
- 1978 The Ruttle's "All You Need is Cash" is show on NBC-TV
- 1978 Karl Wallenda of The Flying Wallendas dies after falling off a tight-rope between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico
- 1979 Israeli parliament approves peace treaty with Egypt
- 1979 NHL votes to accept 4 WHA teams (Oilers, Jets, Nordiques & Whalers)
- 1979 Provisional Irish Republican Army assassinates Richard Sykes, the British ambassador to the Netherlands, in Den Haag
- 1979 The Provisional Irish Republican Army explode 24 bombs in various locations across Northern Ireland
- 1981 US 1st class postage raised to 18 cents from 15 cents
- 1981 Soyuz 39 carries 2 cosmonauts (1 Mongolian) to Salyut 6
- 1981 Toshihiko Seko runs world record 25k (1:13:55.8)/30k (1:29:18.8)
- 1982 3rd Space Shuttle Mission-Columbia 3 launched
- 1982 Iran offensive against Iraq
- 1983 Chaim Herzog elected Israeli president
NHL Record
1984 Islander Bryan Trottier ties NHL record scores 5 seconds into game
Bryan Trottier
- 1984 Teachers at the McMartin preschool in Manhattan Beach, California are charged with Satanic ritual abuse of the children in the school. The charges are later dropped as completely unfounded.
- 1985 NASA launches Intelsat VA F-10
- 1986 Ehrig skates ladies world record 5 km (7:20.99)
- 1986 HBO launches boxing's heavyweight-title-unification-tournament
- 1986 Heart's "These Dreams" single goes #1
- 1986 Ice Pairs Championship at Geneva won by Gordeeva & Grinkov (URS)
- 1986 Kania skates ladies' world record 1500m (1:59.30)
- 1986 Ladies' Figure Skating Championship in Geneva won by Debi Thomas (USA)
- 1986 Trevor Berbick beats Pinklon Thomas in 15 for heavyweight boxing title
- 1986 "On My Own" single released by Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald (Billboard Song of the Year 1986)
Event of Interest
1988 US Congress overrides President Reagan's veto of sweeping civil rights bill
Ronald Reagan
- 1988 WA beat Queensland by 5 wkts to win the Sheffield Shield Final
Event of Interest
1989 Pete Rozelle announces retirement as NFL commissioner after 29 years
Pete Rozelle
- 1989 US Supreme Court upholds 1 person 1 vote rule of NYC Board of Estimate
- 1989 Clint Malarchuk of the Buffalo Sabres suffers a near-fatal injury when another player accidentally slits his throat.
- 1990 "Grapes of Wrath" opens at Cort Theater NYC for 188 performances
- 1990 Anchorage jury finds Capt Hazelwood not guilty of Valdez oil spill
- 1990 The ML umpires announce that they will boycott exhibition games
- 1991 Law enforcement officers raid fraternities at University of Virginaa, seizing drugs
- 1991 NY Daily News begins using motto "Forward with NY"
- 1991 Pamela Smart (HS teacher) found guilty in NH of manipulating her student-lover to kill her husband
- 1992 "Private Lives" closes at Broadhurst Theater NYC after 37 performances
- 1992 Danielle Ammaccapane wins Standard Register Ping Golf Championship
- 1992 England beat South Africa in rain-ruined cricket World Cup semi final
- 1992 Joseph A Molloy elected NY Yankee general partner
- 1992 US Air NY to Cleveland crashes on take off at LaGuardia, 27 die
- 1993 Intel introduces Pentium-processor (80586) 64 bits-60 MHz-100+ MIPS
- 1994 Dutch Ambassador to US christens a new tulip (the Hillary Clinton)
- 1994 Mark Foster swims world record 50m butterfly (23.68 sec)
- 1994 South African government and ANC take power in Ciskei homeland
- 1994 Soyuz TM-21 lands
- 1994 "Not a Moment Too Soon" 2nd studio album by Tim McGraw is released (Billboard Album of the Year 1994)
- 1995 Deputy Governor of Bank of England, Rupert Pennant-Rea, resigns following revelations of his affair with a freelance journalist
- 1996 Cheryl Depew of Florida crowned 13th Miss Hawaiian Tropic International
- 1996 STS 76 (Atlantis 16), launches into orbit
- 1997 "Sunset Boulevard" closes at Minskoff NYC after 977 performances
- 1997 Comet Hale-Bopp Closest Approach to Earth (1.315 AU)
- 1997 Ladies' Figure Skating Championship in Lausanne won by Tara Lipinski (USA)
- 1998 18th Golden Raspberry Awards: The Postman wins
- 1999 "Amazed" single released by Lonestar (Billboard Song of the Year 1999)
- 2003 23rd Golden Raspberry Awards: "Swept Away" wins
- 2004 Ahmed Yassin, co-founder and leader of the Palestinian Sunni Islamist militant group Hamas, and bodyguards killed in the Gaza Strip by Israeli Air Force AH-64 Apache fired Hellfire missiles
- 2006 ETA, armed Basque separatist group, declares permanent ceasefire
- 2006 BC Ferries' M/V Queen of the North runs aground on Gil Island British Columbia and sinks; 101 on board, 2 presumed deaths
- 2006 Three Christian Peacemaker Teams Hostages are freed by British forces in Baghdad after 118 days captivity and the death of their colleague, American Tom Fox
- 2008 French Swimmer Alain Bernard sets world record of 47.50 for 100m freestyle long course after winning the European LC Championships 2008
- 2009 Mount Redoubt, a volcano in Alaska began erupting after a prolonged period of unrest
- 2009 Cricket Women's World Cup: England defeats New Zealand by 4 wickets
Event of Interest
2011 Lawrence Taylor pleads guilty for misdemeanors of sexual misconduct and is sentenced to six years probation
Lawrence Taylor
- 2012 Massive fire devours thousands of hectares of ancient forests and threatens wildlife on Mount Kenya
- 2012 Australia's most wanted man, Malcolm Naden, is captured after seven years on the run in Gloucester, New South Wales
- 2012 Largest protest in Quebec's history occurs in Montreal with over 200,000 people marching against government tuition hikes and for free access to post-secondary education
- 2012 Ireland returns to recession as GDP falls by 0.2% in the fourth quarter of 2011 following a fall of 1.1% in the third quarter
- 2013 37 people are killed and 200 are injured in a refugee camp fire in Ban Mae, Thailand
- 2013 American rock band My Chemical Romance announce their break-up
- 2014 251 people are killed after a boat capsizes in Lake Albert, Uganda
- 2014 43 people are killed by a mudslide in Oso, Washington
- 2014 Guinea confirms Ebola outbreak has already killed 59 people
- 2014 The US and EU impose sanctions on Russia
- 2016 Suicide bombings at Brussel's Zaventem airport and Maelbeek metro station, leave around 28 victims dead and 260 injured, ISIS claim responsibility
- 2017 Arctic records its lowest ever winter ice cover according to US National Snow and Ice Data Center, 5.5 million square miles
- 2017 Tomb of Jesus reopens after restoration in Jerusalem
- 2017 Terrorist attack on London's Westminster Bridge and Houses of Parliament kills 4 including a police officer and injures 40
Event of Interest
2018 US President Donald Trump imposes $60 billion worth of tariffs on Chinese imports
Donald Trump
- 2018 The "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" between Hawaii and California has 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic and increasing rapidly according to new research
March in History
Dr Livingstone, I Presume?
Explorer David Livingstone, born on this day, spawned one of the most famous encounters when he was found in Africa by journalist Henry Stanley.
March 19, 1813
A First Lady Goes Shoplifting
While former Panama military dictator Manuel Noriega was awaiting his fate on racketeering charges, his wife Felicidad was having her own run-in with the law.
March 20, 1992
Welcome Shoppers, But No Whistling Please
Burlington Arcade, one of London's finest shopping streets, was opened on this day, partly as a deterrent to litter louts.
March 20, 1819
John Manningham Notes the Passing of Queen Elizabeth I
John Manningham was an English lawyer and diarist who wrote this especially moving entry on the passing of Queen Elizabeth I.
March 24, 1603