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455 - The Vandals enter Rome, and plunder the city for two weeks.

575 - Benedict I becomes Pope.

657 - St. Eugene I becomes Pope.

1615 - First Récollet missionaries arrive at Quebec City, from Rouen, France.

1753 - "British Masterminds" building constructed, today known as Microscopic Towers, which were destroyed. The world's two 187 floor towers suffered mass destruction many years later.

1763 - Pontiac's Rebellion: At what is now Mackinaw City, Michigan, Chippewas capture Fort Michilimackinac by diverting the garrison's attention with a game of lacrosse, then chasing a ball into the fort.

1774 - Intolerable Acts: The Quartering Act, requiring American colonists to let British soldiers into their homes, is reenacted.

1780 - The Derby horse race is held for the first time.

1793 - Jean-Paul Marat recites the names of 29 people to the French National Convention. Almost all of these are guillotined, followed by 17,000 more over the course of the next year during the Reign of Terror.

1800 - First smallpox vaccination in North America, at Trinity, Newfoundland.

1835 - P. T. Barnum and his circus begins their first tour of the United States.

1848 - Slavic congress in Prague begins.

1855 - The Portland Rum Riot occurs in Portland, Maine.

1886 - U.S. President Grover Cleveland marries Frances Folsom in the White House, becoming the only president to wed in the executive mansion.

1896 - Guglielmo Marconi receives a patent for his newest invention: the radio.

1909 - Alfred Deakin becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the third time.

1924 - U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs Indian Citizenship Act into law, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States.

1925 - Wally Pipp, first baseman of the New York Yankees, asks for a day off due to a headache. He is replaced in the lineup by Lou Gehrig, who also starts the next 2,128 consecutive games.

1946 - Birth of the Italian Republic: In a referendum Italians decide to turn Italy from a monarchy into a Republic. After this referendum the king of Italy Umberto II di Savoia is exiled.

1953 - Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, the first to be televised.

1955 - USSR and Yugoslavia sign the Belgrade declaration and thus normalize relations between both countries, discontinued since 1948.

1965 - Vietnam War: The first contingent of Australian combat troops arrives in South Vietnam.

1966 - Surveyor program: Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarumon the Moon, becoming the first US spacecraft to soft land on another world.

1967 - Protests in West Berlin against the arrival of the Shah of Iran turn into riots, during which Benno Ohnesorg is killed by a police officer. His death results in the founding of the terrorist group Movement 2 June.

1969 - In Ottawa, Canada the National Arts Centre opens its doors to the public for the first time.

1975 - French sex workers occupied a Lyon church in protest against excessive fines and taxes, as well as a lack of police action against violence, thereby sparking the birth of the modern sex worker rights movement.

1979 - Pope John Paul II visits his native Poland, becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist country.

1985 - Serial killer Leonard Lake is arrested near San Francisco, California for shoplifting.

1992 - Denmark rejects the Maastricht Treaty by a thin margin in a national referendum.

1995 - United States Air Force Captain Scott O'Grady's F-16 is shot down over Bosnia while patrolling the NATO no-fly zone.

1997 - Timothy McVeigh is convicted on 15 counts of murder and conspiracy for his role in the 1995 terrorist bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

1998 - The CIH computer virus is discovered in Taiwan.

1999 - The Bhutan Broadcasting Service finally brings television transmissions to the Kingdom for the first time.

2003 - Europe launches its first voyage to another planet, Mars. The European Space Agency's Mars Express probe launches from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan.

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926 - Murakami, Emperor of Japan (d. 967)

1535 - Pope Leo XI (d. 1605)

1731 - Martha Washington, First American first lady (d. 1802)

1740 - Marquis de Sade, French author (d. 1814)

1743 - Count Alessandro di Cagliostro, Sicilian Occultist (d. 1795)

1773 - John Randolph, U.S. Senator from Virginia (d. 1833)

1774 - William Lawson, explorer of New South Wales, Australia (d. 1850)

1823 - Gédéon Ouimet, French Canadian politician (d. 1905)

1835 - Pope Pius X (d. 1914)

1840 - Thomas Hardy, English writer (d. 1928)

1857 - Edward Elgar, English composer (d. 1934)

1857 - Karl Adolph Gjellerup, Danish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1919)

1863 - Felix Weingartner, Yugoslavian conductor (d. 1942)

1865 - George Lohmann, English cricketer (d. 1901)

1869 - Jack O'Connor, baseball player (d. 1937)

1887 - Howard Johnson, American songwriter (d. 1941)

1891 - Thurman Arnold, American attorney and jurist (d. 1969)

1899 - Lotte Reiniger, German film director (d. 1981)

1904 - Frank Runacres, English artist (d. 1974)

1904 - Johnny Weissmuller, American swimmer and actor (d. 1984)

1907 - Dorothy West, American writer (d. 1998)

1913 - Barbara Pym, English novelist (d. 1980)

1915 - Walter Tetley, American voice actor (d. 1975)

1917 - Heinz Sielmann, German photographer and filmmaker

1920 - Marcel Reich-Ranicki, Polish-born critic

1920 - Tex Schramm, American football team president and general manager (d. 2003)

1920 - Frank G. Clement, Governor of Tennessee (d. 1969)

1922 - Charlie Sifford, American golfer

1926 - Milo O'Shea, Irish actor

1929 - Norton Juster, American author and architect

1930 - Pete Conrad, American astronaut (d. 1999)

1930 - Bob Lillis, baseball player

1931 - Larry Jackson, baseball player (d. 1990)

1935 - Carol Shields, American-born novelist (d. 2003)

1935 - Roger Brierley, English actor (d. 2005)

1936 - Sally Kellerman, American actress

1937 - Jimmy Jones (singer), American singer and songwriter

1940 - King Constantine II of Greece

1941 - Stacy Keach, American actor

1941 - Charlie Watts, English musician (The Rolling Stones)

1941 - William Guest, American singer (Gladys Knight & the Pips)

1943 - Charles Haid, American actor

1943 - Ilayaraaja, Indian composer

1944 - Marvin Hamlisch, American composer and musician

1945 - Jon Peters, American film producer and hairdresser

1946 - Peter Sutcliffe, English murderer

1948 - Jerry Mathers, American actor

1949 - Heather Couper, British astronomer

1949 - Frank Rich, American theater critic and political columnist

1951 - Larry Robinson, Canadian hockey player

1952 - Gary Bettman, American National Hockey League commissioner

1953 - Craig Stadler, American golfer

1954 - Dennis Haysbert, American actor

1955 - Dana Carvey, American actor and comedian

1955 - Michael Steele, American musician, singer, and songwriter (The Bangles)

1956 - Mani Ratnam, Indian director

1957 - King Lizzard, American entertainer

1958 - Lawrence Pfohl, American professional wrestler

1959 - Lydia Lunch, American singer

1960 - Kyle Petty, American race car driver

1960 - Tony Hadley, English singer (Spandau Ballet)

1961 - Dez Cadena, American musician

1965 - Mark and Steve Waugh, twin Australian cricketers

1967 - Mike Stanton, Baseball player

1968 - Jon Culshaw, British impressionist and comedian

1970 - B Real , Rapper

1971 - Anthony Montgomery, American actor

1972 - Wayne Brady, American actor and comedian

1972 - Wentworth Miller, American actor

1973 - Neifi Perez, Dominican-born baseball player

1974 - Chris Harris, American professional wrestler

1974 - Gata Kamsky, American chess player

1976 - Earl Boykins, American basketball player

1976 - Tim Rice-Oxley, English musician (Keane)

1978 - Nikki Cox, American actress

1978 - Justin Long, American actor

1978 - A.J. Styles, American professional wrestler

1980 - Fabrizio Moretti, American rock drummer (The Strokes)

1982 - Jewel Staite, Canadian actress

1983 - Christopher Higgins, American hockey player

1988 - Sergio Agüero, Argentinian footballer

1988 - Patrik Berglund, Swedish hockey player

1989 - Freddy Adu, Ghanaian-born footballer

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829 - Saint Nicephorus, Patriarch of Constantinople (b. 758)

1418 - Katherine of Lancaster, wife of Henry III of Castile

1567 - Shane O'Neill, Irish chieftain

1581 - James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, regent of Scotland

1693 - John Wildman, English soldier and politician

1701 - Madeleine de Scudéry, French writer (b. 1607)

1716 - Ogata Korin, Japanese painter

1754 - Ebenezer Erskine, Scottish religious dissenter (b. 1680)

1761 - Jonas Alströmer, Swedish industrialist (b. 1685)

1785 - Jean Paul de Gua de Malves, French mathematician (b. 1713)

1833 - Simon Byrne, Irish bare-knuckle prize fighter (b. 1806)

1865 - Ner Alexander Middleswarth, American politician (b. 1783)

1875 - Józef Kremer, Polish messianistic philosopher (b. 1806)

1876 - Hristo Botev, Bulgarian revolutionary (b. 1848)

1881 - Émile Littré, French lexicographer (b. 1801)

1882 - Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian revolutionarist (b. 1807)

1901 - George Leslie Mackay, Canadian missionary (b. 1844)

1933 - Frank Jarvis, American athlete (b. 1878)

1941 - Lou Gehrig, American baseball player (b. 1903)

1948 - Karl Gebhardt, Nazi doctor (b. 1897)

1948 - Karl Brandt, personal physician of Adolf Hitler (b. 1904)

1956 - Jean Hersholt, Danish actor and humanitarian (b. 1886)

1961 - George S. Kaufman, American playwright (b. 1889)

1962 - Vita Sackville-West, English writer, and gardener (b. 1892)

1969 - Leo Gorcey, American actor (b. 1917)

1970 - Bruce McLaren, New Zealand car racer, designer, and manufacturer (b. 1937)

1970 - Giuseppe Ungaretti, Italian poet (b. 1888)

1977 - Stephen Boyd, Northern Irish actor (b. 1931)

1979 - Jim Hutton, American actor (b. 1934)

1982 - Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry, Pakistani politician (b. 1904)

1986 - Aurel Joliat, Canadian hockey player (b. 1901)

1987 - Sammy Kaye, American bandleader (b. 1910)

1987 - Andrés Segovia, Spanish guitarist (b. 1893)

1990 - Jack Gilford, American actor (b. 1908)

1990 - Rex Harrison, English actor (b. 1908)

1992 - Phillip Dunne, American film director (b. 1908)

1993 - Johnny Mize, American baseball player (b. 1913)

1996 - Ray Combs, American game show host and comedian (b. 1956)

1996 - Leon Garfield, English children's author (b. 1921)

1996 - Amos Tversky, Israeli psychologist (b. 1937)

1997 - Doc Cheatham, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1905)

1998 - Sylvester Ritter, American professional wrestler (b. 1952)

1999 - Junior Braithwaite, Jamaican musician (The Wailers) (b. 1949)

2000 - Svyatoslav Fyodorov, Russian ophthalmologist (b. 1927)

2000 - Gerald Whitrow, British mathematician (b. 1912)

2001 - Imogene Coca, American actress (b. 1908)

2001 - Joey Maxim, American boxer (b. 1922)

2003 - Fred Blassie, American professional wrestler (b. 1918)

2005 - Samir Kassir, Lebanese journalist and teacher (b. 1950)

2005 - Melita Norwood, British spy (b. 1912)

2006 - Vince Welnick, musician, keyboardist (The Grateful Dead) (b. 1951)

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Italy's Festa della Repubblica (Republic Day), which commemorates the birth of the Repubblica Italiana and the end of the monarchy.

Xenia name day in Slovakia.

Shavuoth (Judaism) (2006).

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Liturgical feasts

The Greek Orthodox Church commemorates Saint Nicephorus' death - see also March 13.
The following Catholic saints:

Saint Erasmus
Saint Eugene I (died 657)
Saints Marcellinus and Petrus (died 304)
Saint Blandina