March 2016 in History

Events in History

Event of Interest

Mar 1 Forbes Richest List released, Bill Gates No. 1 with $75 billion, number of world's billionaires shrinks to 1,810

Mar 1 Gene for grey hair (IRF4) discovery announced by Scientists from University College London in "Nature Communications"
Mar 1 South Korean opposition MPs set a world record for longest filibuster - 9 days (192 hours) trying to block anti-terror bill
Mar 1 Two Guatemalan military officers are convicted of sexual slavery during country's civil war - first ever prosecution of sexual slavery during an armed conflict

Election of Interest

Mar 1 US primary elections: Super Tuesday - both Republican Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton win seven state races each

Mar 2 Longest non-stop scheduled commercial flight by distance, Emirates A380 flies 14,200km (8,824 miles) Dubai to Auckland in 17 hours, 15 minutes
Mar 2 Oldest known land fossil (Tortotubus - 440 million years old) from Gotland, Sweden, revealed by British scientists

Event of Interest

Mar 2 US astronauts Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko return to earth after nearly a year (340 days), setting an ISS record

Mar 3 Eleventh Republican presidential candidates debate hosted by Fox, held in Detroit, Michigan
Mar 4 Ben Carson announces he is dropping out of the Republican presidential nomination race
Mar 5 US air strike kills 150 Al-Shabaab militants north of Mogadishu, Somalia

Election of Interest

Mar 5 US primary elections: Super Saturday - Republican Donald Trump and Ted Cruz win 2 states, Democratics Bernie Sanders wins 2, Hillary Clinton one

Mar 9 Eighth Democratic presidential candidates debate hosted by Univision and the Washington Post and held in Miami, Florida
Mar 9 EU Migrant Crisis: Macedonia, Croatia and Slovenia close their borders to migrants trying to reach Northern Europe
Mar 13 Suicide Bombing in Ankara, Turkey kills 37 people
Mar 14 Marco Rubio announces he is dropping out of the Republican presidential nomination race
Mar 14 NASA releases data showing February 2016 warmest month ever recorded globally - 1.35C above the long-term average

Event of Interest

Mar 14 President Vladimir Putin orders Russian troops out of Syria

Mar 15 Google's DeepMind artificial intelligence wins Go challenge against Lee Se-dol 4-1
Mar 16 US college student Otto Warmbier is sentenced to 15 years hard labour for trying to steal a political poster, in Pyongyang, North Korea

Event of Interest

Mar 16 US President Barack Obama nominates Merrick Garland as Supreme Court Justice

Mar 17 Archaeologists announce the discovery of an 2,500 year old iron age warrior king burial ground, with 75 graves in Pocklington, Northern England

Operation Car Wash

Mar 17 Brazilian federal judge blocks swearing-in of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as Chief of Staff to President Dilma Rousseff, as part of "Car Wash" controversy

President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

Obama Visits Cuba

Mar 20 Barack Obama becomes the first US President to visit Cuba since 1928, arriving for a 3 day tour

Barack and Michelle Obama walk through the rainy streets of Havana, Cuba

Mar 22 Suicide bombings at Brussel's Zaventem airport and Maelbeek metro station, leave around 28 victims dead and 260 injured, ISIS claim responsibility

Event of Interest

Mar 23 GPR investigation of Shakespeare's tomb at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford concludes the Bard's skull probably has been stolen

Event of Interest

Mar 24 Bosnian Serb politician Radovan Karadžić is found guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes during the 1995 Srebrenica massacre and sentenced to 40 years imprisonment

Mar 25 Suicide attack during a football match in Iskandariya, Iraq kills at least 32 people, ISIS claim responsibility
Mar 26 US primary elections: Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders wins Washington, Hawaii and Alaska
Mar 27 Suicide bomb kills more than 70 people at a park in Lahore, Pakistan, Taliban connected Jamaat-ul-Ahrar claim responsibility

Deaths in History

Mar 1 Jim Kimsey, American co-founder of AOL, dies at 76
Mar 4 Pat Conroy, American writer (The Great Santini, Prince of Tides), dies at 70
Mar 5 Ray Tomlinson, American computer programmer (invented email and the @ sign), dies at 74

Nancy Reagan (1921-2016)

Mar 6 US First Lady (1981-89), dies at 94

Mar 7 Michael White, British theater/film producer (The Rocky Horror Picture Show), dies at 80

John Gutfreund (1929-2016)

Mar 9 American investment banker, CEO of Salomon Brothers (King of Wall Street), dies at 86

Mar 10 Anita Brookner, English novelist (Hotel du Lac) and art historian, dies at 87
Mar 12 Lloyd Shapley, American Mathematician (2012 Nobel Prize, Game Theory), dies at 92
Mar 13 Hilary Putnam, American philosopher, dies at 89
Mar 13 Martin Olav Sabo, American politician (Rep-D-MN, 1979-2007), dies at 78
Mar 17 Paul Daniels, British magician (The Paul Daniels Magic Show), dies at 77
Mar 20 Anker Jørgensen, Danish politician, Prime Minister of Denmark (1972-3, 75-82), dies at 93

Andrew Grove (1936-2016)

Mar 21 Hungarian-American pioneer in the semiconductor industry, one of the founders and CEO of Intel, and philanthropist,, dies at 79

Mar 21 Robert McNeill Alexander, British zoologist (estimated speed of dinosaurs), dies at 81
Mar 22 Rob Ford, Canadian politician (Toronto mayor caught with cocaine), dies at 46
Mar 23 Peter Moores, British businessman and director (Littlewoods), dies at 83
Mar 24 Earl Hamner Jr., American creator and narrator of TV show "The Waltons", dies at 92
Mar 26 Jim Harrison, American poet and novelist (Legends of the Fall), dies at 78
Mar 27 Mother Angelica, Catholic American Franciscan nun, dies at 92
Mar 28 Peggy Fortnum, British Illustrator (first to draw Paddington Bear), dies at 96
Mar 31 Hans-Dietrich Genscher, German Minister of Foreign Affairs (FDP), worked to re-unify Germany, dies at 89