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March 21st
1556 ~ In Oxford, Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer is burned at the stake.
1685 ~ Birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer. 1839 ~ Birthday of Modest Mussorgsky, Russian composer. 1945 ~ World War II: British troops liberated Mandalay, Burma. 1960 ~ Massacre in Sharpeville, South Africa: Police opened fire on a group of unarmed black South African demonstrators, killing 69 and wounding 180. 1963 ~ Alcatraz, a federal penitentiary on an island in San Francisco Bay, was closed. 1980 ~ President Jimmy Carter announced a United States boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan. 1980 ~ On the season finale of the soap opera Dallas, the infamous character J.R. Ewing is shot by an unseen assailant, leading to the catchphrase "Who Shot JR?" 1999 ~ Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones became the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon. 2002 ~ In Pakistan, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh along with three other suspects were charged with murder for their part in the kidnapping and killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. |
March 22nd
1599 ~ Birthday of Anthony van Dyck, Painter.
1638 ~ Anne Hutchinson was expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony for religious dissent. 1687 ~ Death of Jean Baptiste Lully, French Composer. 1765 ~ The British Parliament passed the Stamp Act, the first direct tax levied from England on the American colonies. 1832 ~ Death of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Writer & Poet. 1923 ~ Birthday of Marcel Marceau, Mime. 1958 ~ Faisal became King of Saudi Arabia 1963 ~ The British Secretary of State for War, John Profumo, denied improper involvelent with the model Christine Keeler. 1993 ~ The Intel Corporation shipped the first Pentium chips. 2004 ~ Death (by Israeli Hellfire missile) of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, co-founder and spiritual leader of Hamas. |
March 23rd
1749 ~ Birthday of Pierre Simon de Laplace, Mathematician & Astronomer.
1775 ~ American Revolutionary War: Patrick Henry delivered his famous speech - "give me liberty or give me death" in Williamsburg, Virginia. 1882 ~ Birthday of Emmy Noether, Mathematician. Now there's a lady who had a tough row to hoe! 1857 ~ Elisha Otis's first elevator was installed at 488 Broadway, New York City. 1912 ~ Birthday of Wernher von Braun, Engineer. 1923 ~ Birthday of Roger Bannister, athlete, first "Miracle Mile" 1983 ~ S.D.I: President Ronald Reagan made his initial proposal to develop technology to intercept enemy missiles. 1989 ~ Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann announced cold fusion at the University of Utah. 1989 ~ A 1,000-foot diameter Near-Earth asteroid missed the Earth by 400,000 miles. 2001 ~ The Russian Mir space station was de-orbited, breaking up in the atmosphere before falling into the southern Pacific Ocean near Fiji. |
March 24th
1765 ~ American Revolutionary War: The U.K. Parliament passes the Quartering Act that requires the 13 American colonies to house British troops.
1874 ~ Birthday of Harry Houdini, Magician. 1882 ~ Robert Koch announced the discovery of the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis. 1882 ~ Death of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Poet. 1893 ~ Birthday of Walter Baade, Astronomer. 1905 ~ Death of Jules Verne, Author. 1980 ~ Archbishop Óscar Romero was killed by gunmen while celebrating Mass in San Salvador. 1989 ~ Exxon Valdez oil spill: In Alaska's Prince William Sound the Exxon Valdez spilled 240,000 barrels of oil after running aground. 1999 ~ Kosovo War: NATO launched air strikes against Yugoslavia. This marked the first time NATO attacked a sovereign nation. 1999 ~ Death of Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, German Women's leader during Germany's Third Reich. |
March 25th
1634 ~ The first settlers arrived in Maryland (led by Lord Baltimore).
1655 ~ Saturn's largest moon, Titan, was discovered by Christian Huygens. 1807 ~ The Slave Trade Act became law, abolishing slavery in the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. 1867 ~ Birthday of Arturo Toscanini, Conductor. 1881 ~ Birthday of Béla Bartók, Composer. 1918 ~ Death of Claude Debussy, Composer. 1935 ~ Birthday of Gloria Steinem, Feminist & Journalist. 1942 ~ Birthday of Aretha Franklin, Singer. 1957 ~ The European Economic Community was established (West Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg). 1975 ~ King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was shot and killed by a mentally ill nephew. |
March 26th
1707 ~ The Act of Union became law, making England and Scotland one country.
1827 ~ Death of Ludwig van Beethoven, Composer. 1874 ~ Birthday of Robert Frost, Poet. 1892 ~ Death of Walt Whitman, Poet. 1904 ~ Birthday of Joseph Campbell, Author & Mythologist. 1911 ~ Birthday of Tennessee Williams, Dramatist. 1917 ~ World War I: First Battle of Gaza - British troops were halted after 17,000 Turks block their advance. 1953 ~ Jonas Salk announced his polio vaccine. 1979 ~ Anwar al-Sadat, Menachem Begin and Jimmy Carter signed the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty in Washington, DC 1999 ~ The Melissa worm infects e-mail systems around the world. |
March 27th
1836 ~ Texas Revolution: Goliad massacre - Antonio López de Santa Anna ordered the Mexican army to kill about 400 Texans at Goliad, Texas.
1845 ~ Birthday of Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, physicist, winner of the first Nobel Prize in physics. 1863 ~ Birthday of Sir Henry Royce, automobile pioneer. 1871 ~ First international rugby football match, England v. Scotland, played in Edinburgh at Raeburn Place. 1886 ~ Birthday of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Architect. 1958 ~ Nikita Khrushchev became Premier of the Soviet Union. 1968 ~ Death of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. 1972 ~ Death of M. C. Escher, Dutch artist. 1977 ~ Tenerife disaster: Two jumbo jets collided on a foggy runway on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, killing 583. 2002 ~ Passover Massacre: A suicide bomber killed 28 people in Netanya, Israel. |
March 28th
845 ~ Paris was sacked by Vikings, who collect a huge ransom in exchange for leaving.
1854 ~ Crimean War: United Kingdom and France declared war on Russia. 1881 ~ Death of Modest Mussorgsky, Russian composer. 1903 ~ Birthday of Rudolf Serkin, Austrian pianist. 1939 ~ Spanish Civil War: Generalissimo Franco conquered Madrid, ending the war. 1942 ~ Birthday of Neil Kinnock, British politician. 1943 ~ Death of Sergei Rachmaninoff, composer and pianist. 1947 ~ The last episode of the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century airs on radio. 1979 ~ A pump in the reactor cooling system fails at Three Mile Island, resulting in the evaporation of some contaminated water causing a nuclear meltdown. 1987 ~ Death of Maria von Trapp, Singer. |
March 29th
1638 ~ Swedish colonists established first settlement in Delaware, called New Sweden.
1799 ~ New York passed a law aimed at gradually abolishing slavery in the state. 1867 ~ Queen Victoria gave Royal Assent to the British North America Act which established the Dominion of Canada on July 1. 1899 ~ Birthday of Lavrenty Beria, Soviet Communist leader. 1912 ~ Death of Robert Falcon Scott, Explorer. 1981 ~ First running of the London Marathon. 1982 ~ The Canada Act 1982 (U.K.) received the Royal Assent by Queen Elizabeth II, setting the stage for the Queen of Canada to proclaim the Constitution Act, 1982. 1984 ~ The Baltimore Colts of the NFL moved to Indianapolis in the middle of the night. 2004 ~ Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia join NATO as full members. 2004 ~ Death of Alistair Cooke, Television Host. |
March 30th
1746 ~ Birthday of Francisco Goya, Spanish painter and engraver.
1820 ~ Birthday of Anna Sewell, British author. 1842 ~ Anesthesia (ether) was used for the first time in an operation. 1853 ~ Birthday of Vincent van Gogh, Painter. 1870 ~ Texas was readmitted to the Union following Reconstruction. 1912 ~ France established a protectorate over Morocco. 1945 ~ World War II: Soviet Union forces invaded Austria and took Vienna. 1951 ~ Remington Rand delivered the first UNIVAC I computer to the U.S. Census Bureau. 1977 ~ Death of Sergey Ilyushin, Russian aerospace engineer. 1987 ~ Vincent Van Gogh's painting Sunflowers was bought for $39.85 million. |
March 31st
1596 ~ Birthday of René Descartes, Mathematician.
1621 ~ Birthday of Andrew Marvell, English poet. 1732 ~ Birthday of Joseph Haydn, Composer. 1837 ~ Death of John Constable, Painter. 1855 ~ Death of Charlotte Brontë, Author. 1889 ~ The Eiffel Tower was inaugurated. 1918 ~ Daylight Savings Time went into effect in the United States for the first time. 1959 ~ The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, crossed the border into India and was granted political asylum. 1970 ~ Eight terrorists from the Japanese Red Army hijacked a Japan Airlines Boeing 727 at Tokyo International Airport, wielding samurai swords and carrying a bomb. 1991 ~ The Warsaw Pact came to an end. |
April 1st
1578 ~ Birthday of William Harvey, Physician (discovered blood circulation)
1815 ~ Birthday of Otto von Bismarck, Politician. 1873 ~ Birthday of Sergei Rachmaninoff, Composer, Pianist & Conductor. 1917 ~ Death of Scott Joplin, Musician & Composer. 1918 ~ The Royal Flying Corps was replaced by the Royal Air Force. 1924 ~ Adolf Hitler was sentenced to five years in jail for his participation in the Beer Hall Putsch (he spent only nine months in jail). 1948 ~ Cold War: Berlin Airlift - Military forces, under direction of the Soviet-controlled government in East Germany, set-up a land blockade of West Berlin. 1969 ~ The Hawker Siddeley Harrier entered service with the RAF. 1976 ~ Apple Computer Company was formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. 2001 ~ An EP-3E U.S. Navy plane collided with a Chinese PLA fighter jet. The Navy crew made an emergency landing in Hainan, PRC and were detained. |
April 2nd
1725 ~ Birthday of Giacomo Casanova, adventurer and writer.
1755 ~ Commodore William James captured the pirate fortress of Severndroog on the west coast of India. 1805 ~ Birthday of Hans Christian Andersen, Danish writer. 1875 ~ Birthday of Walter Chrysler, automobile pioneer. 1917 ~ The first woman ever elected to the U.S. Congress, Jeannette Rankin, took her seat as a representative from Montana. 1930 ~ Haile Selassie was proclaimed emperor of Ethiopia. 1966 ~ Death of C.S. Forester, Author. 1982 ~ Falklands War: Argentina invades the British-owned Falkland Islands starting the war. 1986 ~ A grandmother, her daughter and her granddaughter were sucked out of a TWA jet to their death when it was bombed by a group calling itself the Ezzedine Kassam Unit of the Arab Revolutionary Cells. 2004 ~ Islamist terrorists involved in the March 11, 2004 Madrid attacks attempted a bombing of the Spanish high-speed train near Madrid. |
April 3rd
1783 ~ Birthday of Washington Irving, Author.
1823 ~ Birthday of William Marcy Tweed, political boss. 1882 ~ Outlaw Jesse James is shot in the back and killed for a $5,000 reward. 1885 ~ Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent for his engine design. 1895 ~ The libel trial instigated by Oscar Wilde against the Marquess of Queensbury began, eventually resulting in Wilde's arrest, trial and imprisonment on charges of homosexuality. 1897 ~ Death of Johannes Brahms, Composer. 1901 ~ Death of Richard D'Oyly Carte, Impresario. 1922 ~ Joseph Stalin succeeded Lenin as leader of the Soviet Union. 1934 ~ Birthday of Jane Goodall, Zoologist. 1996 ~ Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski was arrested at his Montana cabin. |
April 4th
1866 ~ Alexander II of Russia narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in the city of Kiev. A design for a city gate to commemorate his escape was the inspiration for Mussorgsky's The Great Gate of Kiev from Pictures at an Exhibition.
1884 ~ Birthday of Isoroku Yamamoto, naval commander. 1885 ~ Birthday of Arthur Murray, dancer. 1949 ~ Twelve nations signed The North Atlantic Treaty creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. 1964 ~ The Beatles occupied all of the top five positions on the Billboard singles chart in the United States. 1968 ~ Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated. 1969 ~ Dr. Denton Cooley implanted the first temporary artificial heart. 1984 ~ President Ronald Reagan called for an international ban on chemical weapons. 1984 ~ Winston Smith, the main character of George Orwell's book Nineteen Eighty-Four, begins writing in his secret diary. 1994 ~ Netscape Communications Corporation was founded by Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark. |
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