- 1379 End of Gelderse war victory
Timur Sacks Damascus
1401 Timur attacks city of Damascus, second city of the Mameluke Empire. Though scholar and negotiator Ibn Khaldūn's life spared, the city is sacked and the Umayyad Mosque destroyed.
Union of the Crowns
1603 Scottish King James VI son of Mary Queen of Scots, becomes King James I of England in succession to Elizabeth I, thus joining the English and Scottish crowns
Tokugawa Shogunate Established
1603 Tokugawa Ieyasu is granted the title of shogun, officially establishing the Tokugawa Shogunate which would rule Japan until 1867
- 1629 1st game law passed in American colonies, by Virginia
Bach's Brandenburg Concertos
1721 Johann Sebastian Bach dedicates his Brandenburg Concertos to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt
Alexander I
1801 Aleksandr Pavlovich Romanov becomes Tsar Alexander I of Russia
Joseph Smith Tarred and Feathered
1832 Mormon leader Joseph Smith is beaten, tarred and feathered in Hiram, Ohio
The Provincial Freeman
1853 Anti-slavery newspaper "The Provincial Freeman" first published in Windsor, Ontario, edited by Samuel Ringgold Ward and Mary Ann Shadd Cary, first black woman publisher in North America
- 1855 Manhattan Kansas founded as New Boston Kansas
- 1860 Clipper Andrew Jackson arrives in San Francisco, 89 days out of New York
- 1868 Metropolitan Life Insurance Co forms
- 1877 University boat race between Oxford & Cambridge ends in a dead heat
- 1878 British frigate Eurydice sunk; 300 lost
- 1880 Tobacco Growers' Mutual Insurance Company incorporates in CT
Koch Discovers Tuberculosis and Germs
1882 German scientist Robert Koch discovers and describes the tubercle bacillus which causes tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis), and establishes germ theory
- 1883 1st telephone call between NY & Chicago
- 1887 Oscar Straus appointed 1st Jewish ambassador from US (to Turkey)
- 1894 37 miners killed at Franklin, Washington
- 1900 New York City Mayor Robert Anderson Van Wyck breaks ground for a new underground "Rapid Transit Railroad" that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn.
- 1906 "Census of the British Empire" shows Great Britain rules 1/5th of the world
- 1907 The first issue of the Georgian Bolshevik newspaper Dro is published
- 1910 83°F highest temperature ever recorded in Cleveland in March
- 1913 Dutch soccer forward Huug de Groot scores twice as Netherlands score first ever victory over England; 2-1 at HBS, The Hague
- 1913 Palace Theater opens at 1564 Broadway, New York City
- 1916 German submarines torpedo the unarmed French cross-channel packet 'Sussex'
- 1920 1st US coast guard air station established (Morehead City, NC)
Sibelius' 7th Symphony
1924 1st performance of Jean Sibelius' 7th Symphony in C at the Konsertföreningenin in Stockholm
- 1924 Greece becomes a republic
- 1925 KSL-AM in Salt Lake City UT begins radio transmissions
- 1926 The Beehive in the Hague opens 1st escalator in Netherlands
- 1927 Dutch 1st Chamber condemns Belgian and Netherlands Wielingen Treaty
- 1930 1st religious services telecast in US (W2XBS NYC)
- 1932 1st US radio broadcast from a moving train (Belle Baker WABC from MD)
- 1933 Peter I Island incorporated as a Norwegian dependency
Shostakovich's Suite for Jazz
1934 Dmitri Shostakovich's Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 1 premieres in Leningrad, USSR
- 1934 U.S. Congress passes the Tydings-McDuffie Act, declaring the Philippines independent after a period of 10 years
- 1935 Major Bowes' Original Amateur Hour goes national on NBC Radio Network
- 1936 Detroit Red Wings beat Montreal Maroons, 1-0 in 16:30 of 6th period of OT; record Stanley Cup playoff game lasts 9 periods (176 minutes)
- 1937 Bus carrying a roller skater troupe to Cincinnati from St.Louis crashes into a bridge abutment in Salem, Illinois, killing 21 people
- 1937 National Gallery of Art established by Congress
Wuthering Heights
1939 "Wuthering Heights" film based on the Emily Brontë novel, directed by William Wyler and starring Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier, premieres in Los Angeles
- 1941 British troops defeat Italians in Somaliland
- 1941 German troops occupy El Agheila Libya
Glenn Miller's 1st Film
1941 Glenn Miller begins work on his 1st movie "Sun Valley Serenade", starring Sonja Henie and John Payne, for 20th Century Fox
- 1941 Richard Wright and Paul Green's play "Native Son" premieres in NYC
- 1942 US government begins moving native-born citizens with Japanese ancestry into detention centres under Executive Order 9066, with intention of preventing home-grown espionage
- 1944 76 Allied officers escape Stalag Luft 3 (Great Escape)
- 1944 811 British bombers attack Berlin
Ardeatine Massacre
1944 Ardeatine massacre: Nazis led by SS officers Herbert Kappler, Erich Priebke and Karl Hass execute 335 civilians and political prisoners in occupied Rome in retaliation for the previous day's Via Rassela bombing that killed 33 Germans [1]
- 1944 RAF rear gunner Nicholas Alkemade survives a jump from his Lancaster bomber 18,000 feet over Germany without a parachute; his fall broken by pine trees and soft snow, suffers only a sprained leg
Allied Generals Discuss Advance
1945 Allied generals Dwight D. Eisenhower, Bernard Montgomery and Omar Bradley discuss advance in Germany
- 1945 Operation Varsity: In the largest one-day airborne operation of all time, British, US & Canadian paratroopers land east of the Rhine in Northern Germany
- 1945 US minesweepers reach Kerama Retto, South coast of Okinawa
Rockefeller Donates UN Site
1947 John D. Rockefeller Jr. donates NYC East River site to the UN
- 1947 US Congress proposes 2-term limitation on the presidency
- 1949 21st Academy Awards: "Hamlet", Laurence Olivier & Jane Wyman win, Walter & John Huston become 1st father-and-son team to win awards
- 1949 SS police chief in the Netherlands Hanns Albin Rauter's request for a pardon denied, executed by firing squad
- 1952 Great demonstrations against apartheid in South Africa
- 1953 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1955 1st seagoing oil drill rig placed in service
- 1955 British Army patrols withdraw from Belfast after 20 years
Film & TV History
1955 Tennessee Williams' stage drama "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", starring Ben Gazzarra, Barbara Bel Geddes, and Burl Ives, and directed by Elia Kazan, opens at the Morosco Theater, NYC; runs for 694 performances and wins a Pulitzer Prize
Elvis Presley in the Army
1958 Elvis Presley joins the U.S. Army (serial number 53310761)
- 1959 Iraq withdraws from the Baghdad Pact
Event of Interest
1959 The Party of the African Federation (PFA) is launched by Léopold Sédar Senghor and Modibo Keita.
Boxing Title Fight
1962 Emile Griffith beats Benny " Kid" Paret by TKO in 12th round in welterweight boxing title fight at MSG, NYC; Paret dies 10 days later; first use of television slow motion replay
Music History
1962 Mick Jagger & Keith Richards perform as Little Boy Blue & Blue Boys
- 1964 Kennedy half-dollar issued
- 1965 US Ranger 9 strikes Moon, 10 miles (16 km) NE of crater Alphonsus
- 1966 Selective Service announces college deferments based on performance
- 1967 University of Michigan holds 1st "Teach-in" after bombing of North Vietnam
- 1969 Francis Turner is sworn in as the director of the Federal Highway Administration
- 1970 Dutch cartoonist Frans Piet ends "Sjors & Sjimmie" strip
- 1971 Serge Gainsbourg releases his concept album "Histoire de Melody Nelson"
- 1972 Great Britain imposes direct rule over Northern Ireland
- 1973 Professional track debut of Kip Keino defeating Jim Ryun in the mile
- 1973 San Francisco 49er president Lou Spadia proposes the NFL expands to 30 teams
Boxing Title Fight
1975 Muhammad Ali TKOs Chuck Wepner in 15 for heavyweight boxing title
Music Concert
1975 New Orleans R&B piano player Professor Longhair with the Meters perform at record release party for Paul McCartney and Wings' "Venus and Mars", aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California
Coup d'état
1976 Argentine President Isabel Martínez de Perón is deposed in a military coup headed by Jorge Rafael Videla
Tony Awards
1977 Lily Tomlin is the first woman to appear solo in a Broadway show in "Appearing Nitely" (special Tony award 1977)
- 1978 Wings release single "With a Little Luck"
Cricket History
1979 1st appearance as Australian cricket captain for Kim Hughes
- 1979 Columbia flown on carrier aircraft lands at Kennedy Space Center
- 1980 "Nightline with Ted Koppel" premieres on ABC
Iran Hostage Crisis
1980 ABC's nightly Iran Hostage crisis program renamed "Nightline"
- 1980 Capitol Records releases some rare Beatles tracks on the LP "Rarites"
Event of Interest
1980 Deposed Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (60) arrives in Egypt for cancer treatment at Maadi Military Hospital, near Cairo
- 1981 Bombay beat Delhi by innings & 46 to win Ranji Cricket Trophy
- 1981 Colombia drops diplomatic relations with Cuba
- 1982 US sub Jacksonville collides with a Turkish freighter near Virginia
- 1984 Andrea Schone skates ladies world record 5 km (7:34.52)
- 1984 Igor Malkov skates world record 10 km (14:21.51)
- 1984 IOC agrees to 6-team exhibition baseball tournament in Olympics
- 1984 Philip Glass' opera "Akhnaten", based on the life and religious convictions of the Egyptian pharaoh, premieres at the Staatstheater, in Stuttgart, Germany
- 1985 5th Golden Raspberry (Razzie) Awards: "Bolero" wins
- 1985 Norman Gifford makes cricket ODI debuts at age 44 (v Aust, Sharjah)
Sports History
1985 Third straight WTA Tour Championship for tennis legend Martina Navratilova; beats Helena Suková 6–3, 7–5, 6–4 at Madison Square Garden, NYC
Academy Awards
1986 58th Academy Awards: "Out of Africa", William Hurt & Geraldine Page win
Sports History
1986 Men's International Professional Tennis Council announces Jimmy Connors' 10 week suspension and $20,000 fine for storming off the court after defaulting against Ivan Lendl at Boca Raton, Florida in February
- 1986 NASA publishes "Strategy for Safely Returning the Space Shuttle to Flight Status"
- 1986 Suriname army capt Etienne Boerenveen arrested for cocaine smuggling
- 1986 US & Libya clash in Gulf of Sidra
- 1988 San Diego Chargers quarterback Dan Fouts announces his retirement after 15 seasons
- 1989 Exxon tanker Valdez spills 10.8 million gallons of crude oil in Prince William Sound, near Tatitlek, Alaska
Film & TV History
1989 NBC rebroadcasts Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard's 1960 version of "Peter Pan" for the first time since 1973
- 1990 Indian troops leave Sri Lanka
- 1990 Tom Hunter swims world record 50m freestyle (21.81 sec)
Sports History
1991 Ayrton Senna wins the Brazilian Grand Prix for the 1st time, at Interlagos, São Paulo
- 1991 Banks reopen in liberated Kuwait
- 1991 Barcelona Dragons beat NY/NJ Knights 19-7 in their 1st WLAF game
- 1991 NY Yankees beat NY Mets, 9-3
- 1992 Space Shuttle STS-45 (Atlantis 11) launches into space with the 1st Belgium in space onboard, Dirk Frimout
- 1992 Sudanese Boeing 707 crashes on mountain Hymettos at Athens: 5-6 die
- 1993 Ezer Weizman elected president of Israel
- 1996 MTA raises NYC bridge tolls to $3.50 each way
Academy Awards
1997 69th Academy Awards: "The English Patient", Geoffrey Rush and Frances McDormand win
- 1997 Australian parliament overturns world's 1st & only euthanasia law
- 1998 A tornado sweeps through Dantan in India killing 250 people and injuring 3000 others.
- 1998 Jonesboro massacre: Two students, ages 11 and 13, fire upon teachers and students at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas; five people are dead and ten are wounded.
The Matrix
1999 "The Matrix" film written and directed by The Wachowskis, starring Keanu Reeve, Lawrence Fishburne and Carrie-Ann Moss premieres
- 1999 Kosovo War: NATO commences air bombardment against Yugoslavia, marking the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign country.
- 1999 Mont Blanc Tunnel Fire: 39 people die when a Belgian transport truck carrying flour and margarine caught fire in the Mont Blanc Tunnel.
Academy Awards
2002 74th Academy Awards: "A Beautiful Mind", Denzel Washington and Halle Berry win; Berry is the first woman of colour to win the Best Actress award
- 2003 The Arab League votes 21-1 in favor of a resolution demanding the immediate and unconditional removal of U.S. and British soldiers from Iraq.
The Office
2005 US version of "The Office" created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, developed by Greg Daniels, starring Steve Carell and John Krasinski premieres on NBC
- 2006 Long-term protests in Belarus are broken by police.
Event of Interest
2006 Pope Benedict XVI adds 15 men to the College of Cardinals, in the first consistory of his Pontificate
Music History
2010 The World Health Organization appoints Craig David as a Goodwill Ambassador against tuberculosis on World Tuberculosis Day
- 2012 African Union deploys 5,000 strong force with the aim of catching or killing warlord Joseph Kony
- 2013 17 soldiers are killed by a suicide bomber at a military checkpoint in North Waziristan, Pakistan
- 2013 25 people are killed by gunmen in a coordinated attack in Adamawa State, Nigeria
- 2013 A series of emergency meetings in Brussels undertaken to resolve Cyprus’ financial situation
- 2013 Scotland defeats Sweden to win the 2013 World Women's Curling Championship
- 2014 Ukraine withdraws its forces from the Crimea
- 2015 Germanwings flight on route between Barcelona and Düsseldorf crashes in the French Alps killing all 150 on board
Opportunity Rover Runs a Marathon
2015 NASA's Opportunity rover becomes the first to complete a Martian marathon
Event of Interest
2016 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
- 2016 Former English international footballer Adam Johnson sentenced to 6 years in prison for sexual activity with a schoolgirl
Event of Interest
2017 US President Donald Trump and Republican party forced to pull their attempt to repeal Affordable Care Act ('Obamacare') after internal opposition
- 2018 American conducts its first ever drone strike against Al-Qaeda militants in southern Libya
- 2018 Australian batsman Cameron Bancroft is caught on camera rubbing match ball with an object during 3rd Cricket Test in Cape Town, resulting in an infamous ball tampering scandal
- 2018 Hundreds of protesters shut down special meeting at Sacramento City Hall investigating police shooting of Stephon Clark
- 2018 Tens of thousands attend 'March for Our Lives' rallies held in Washington, D.C. and around the world to protest gun violence
- 2019 2-time American League MVP Mike Trout signs the biggest contract in North American sports history, a $426.5 million, 12-year extension with the Los Angeles Angels
- 2019 Margo Hayes completes her third 9a+ (5.15a) graded climb, Papichulo at Oliana, Spain, becoming the first woman to complete the '9a+ Trilogy'
- 2019 New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski announces retirement as 3-time Super Bowl winner, TE postseason record, most receptions (81), receiving yards (1,163) and receiving TDs (12)
- 2019 US Attorney William Barr summarizes report submitted by Special Council Robert S. Mueller (The Mueller Report) in a letter to Congress stating "investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities" and "Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and I have concluded that the evidence developed during the Special Counsel's investigation is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense"
- 2020 China's Hubei province, the original center of the COVID-19 outbreak eases restrictions on travel after a nearly two-month lockdown
Lockdown in India
2020 Indian PM Narendra Modi orders a 21 day lockdown for world's second most populous country of 1.3 billion people to deal with COVID-19
Olympics Postponed
2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzō Abe announces postponement of Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games until summer of 2021 because of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic
- 2023 Africa's first centralised biobank - Biodiversity Biobanks South Africa, collecting more than a million biodiversity samples opens in Pretoria, South Africa [1]
- 2023 Chocolate factory explosion in West Reading borough, Pennsylvania kills at least four people and injuries 10, with three missing [1]
- 2023 Supercell storm produces powerful EF-4 tornado in the Mississippi Delta, which stays on the ground for more than an hour and over 170 miles, killing 26 people [1]
- 2024 Brazilian police arrest two politicians and a police chief for the notorious murder and its cover-up of politician and activist Marielle Franco in 2018 [1]
- 2024 Senegal presidential election won by opposition figure Bassirou Diomaye Faye, only 10 days after he was released from prison [1]
