[Edit]

top

1279 - A Mongolian victory in the Battle of Yamen ends the Song Dynasty in China.

1687 - Explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle, searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, is murdered by his own men.

1831 - The City Bank of New York becomes the site of the first bank robbery in United States history ($245,000 taken).

1861 - The First Taranaki War ends in New Zealand.

1865 - American Civil War: The Battle of Bentonville begins. By the end of the battle two days later the Confederate forces have retreated from Greenville, North Carolina.

1915 - Pluto is photographed for the first time but was not recognized as a planet.

1916 - Eight American planes take off in pursuit of Pancho Villa, the first United States air-combat mission in history.

1918 - The U.S. Congress establishes time zones and approves daylight saving time.

1920 - The United States Senate rejects the Treaty of Versailles for the second time (first time was on November 19, 1919).

1921 - Italian Fascists shoot from the Parenzana train to a group of children in Strunjan (Slovenia): two children are killed, two mangled, three wounded.

1931 - Gambling is legalized in Nevada.

1931 - The Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra played its first concert in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

1932 - The Sydney Harbour Bridge is opened

1942 - The Thoroughbred Racing Association is established in Chicago.

1943 - Frank Nitti, Chicago Outfit Boss after Al Capone committed sucide at the Chicago Central Railyard.

1944 - World War II: Nazi forces occupy Hungary.

1945 - World War II: Off the coast of Japan, a dive bomber hits the aircraft carrier USS ''Franklin'', killing 800 of her crew and crippling the ship.

1945 - World War II: Adolf Hitler issues his "Nero Decree" ordering all industries, military installations, shops, transportation facilities and communications facilities in Germany be destroyed.

1946 - French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion become overseas ''départements'' of France.

1953 - Academy Awards are first televised.

1954 - Joey Giardello knocks out Willie Tory in round seven at Madison Square Garden in the first televised prize boxing fight shown in color.

1958 - A fire in a loft building in New York, New York kills 24 people.

1962 - Algerian War of Independence: A ceasefire takes effect.

1962 - Bob Dylan releases his first, self-titled album.

1969 - collapse of 385 metre tall TV-mast at Emley Moor, UK, because of icing.

1972 - India and Bangladesh sign a friendship treaty.

1978 - UN Security Council Resolution 425 and 426 were passed, calling upon Israel immediately to cease its military action and withdraw its forces from all Lebanese territory (Operation Litani), and established the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

1979 - The United States House of Representatives begins broadcasting its day-to-day business via the cable television network C-SPAN.

1981 - Three workers are killed and five injured during a test of the Space Shuttle Columbia.

1982 - Falklands War: Argentines land on South Georgia Island, precipitating war.

2002 - U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda ends (started on March 2) after killing 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters with 11 allied troop fatalities.

2004 - Äänekoski bus disaster - A semi-trailer truck and a bus crash head-on in Äänekoski, Finland. 24 people are killed and 13 injured.

2004 - A Swedish DC-3 shot down by a Russian Mig-15 in the 1950s is finally recovered after years of work. The remains of the crew are left in place, pending further investigations.

2004 - Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian is shot just before the country's presidential election on March 20. See 3-19 Shooting Incident.

2006 - Second World Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace convened in Seville, Spain

top

1434 - Ashikaga Yoshikatsu, Japanese shogun (d. 1443)

1488 - Johannes Magnus, last Catholic Archbishop of Sweden (d. 1544)

1534 - José de Anchieta, Spanish Jesuit missionary to Brazil (d. 1597)

1684 - Jean Astruc, French physician and scholar (d. 1766)

1721 - Tobias Smollett, Scottish novelist (d. 1771)

1734 - Thomas McKean, American lawyer and signer of the Declaration of Independence (d. 1817)

1739 - Charles-François Lebrun, duc de Plaisance, Third Consul of France (d. 1824)

1778 - Edward Pakenham, British general (d. 1815)

1813 - David Livingstone, Scottish missionary and explorer (d. 1873)

1821 - Richard Francis Burton, British explorer, diplomat and author (d. 1890)

1824 or 1828 - William Allingham, Irish author (d. 1889)

1829 - Carl Frederik Tietgen, Danish financier and industrialist (d. 1901)

1848 - Wyatt Earp, American policeman and gunfighter (d. 1929)

1849 - Alfred von Tirpitz, German World War I Admiral (d. 1930)

1851 - William Henry Stark, American business leader (d. 1936)

1864 - Charles Marion Russell, American artist (d. 1926)

1865 - William Morton Wheeler, American entomologist, myrmecologist, pioneer in ethology (d. 1937)

1871 - Schofield Haigh, British cricketer (d. 1921)

1872 - Sergei Diaghilev, Russian ballet impresario (d. 1929)

1873 - Max Reger, German composer (d. 1916)

1883 - Walter Haworth, British chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1950)

1883 - Joseph Stilwell, U.S. general (d. 1946)

1888 - Josef Albers, German artist (d. 1976)

1888 - Léon Scieur, Belgian cyclist (d. 1969)

1891 - Earl Warren, 14th Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1974)

1892 - James Van Fleet, American general (d. 1992)

1894 - Moms Mabley, American comedian (d. 1975)

1894 - Joe Venuti, American musician (d. 1978)

1900 - Frédéric Joliot, French physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (d. 1958)

1904 - John Sirica, American judge (d. 1992)

1905 - Albert Speer, Nazi official (d. 1981)

1906 - Adolf Eichmann, Nazi official (d. 1962)

1909 - Louis Hayward, British actor (d. 1985)

1909 - Attilio Demaria, Argentinian footballer

1910 - Joseph F. Carroll, US Air Force Lt. Gen. and Founding Director, Defense Intelligence Agency (d. 1991)

1914 - Jay Berwanger, American football player (d. 2002)

1916 - Eric Christmas, British actor (d. 2000)

1916 - Irving Wallace, American novelist (d. 1990)

1917 - Dinu Lipatti, Romanian pianist (d. 1950)

1917 - Laszlo Szabo, Hungarian chess player (d. 1998)

1920 - Kjell Aukrust, Norwegian author (d. 2002)

1921 - Tommy Cooper, Welsh comedy magician (d. 1984)

1923 - Pamela Britton, American actress (d. 1974)

1924 - Mary Wimbush, British actress (d. 2005)

1927 - Richie Ashburn, American baseball player (d. 1997)

1928 - Hans Küng, Swiss theologian

1928 - Patrick McGoohan, American-born actor

1930 - Ornette Coleman, American musician

1933 - Philip Roth, American author

1936 - Ursula Andress, Swiss actress

1936 - Birthe Wilke, Danish singer

1937 - Clarence "Frogman" Henry, American musician

1937 - Egon Krenz, President of East Germany

1939 - Joe Kapp, American football player

1943 - Mario J. Molina, Mexican chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

1943 - Mario Monti, Italian politician

1944 - Said Musa, Prime Minister of Belize

1944 - Sirhan Sirhan, Palestinian-born assassin

1947 - Glenn Close, American actress

1947 - Marinho Peres, Brazilian football player

1953 - Ricky Wilson, American musician (The B-52's) (d. 1985)

1955 - Bruce Willis, American actor

1962 - Ivan Calderon, Puerto Rican baseball player (d. 2003)

1962 - Jim Korderas, American professional wrestling referee

1964 - Yoko Kanno, Japanese composer

1966 - James "Big Jim" Wright, American record producer

1969 - Connor Trinneer, American actor

1971 - Nadja Auermann, German supermodel

1974 - Vida Guerra, Cuban-American swimsuit model

1975 - Vivian Hsu, Taiwanese singer, actress and model

1975 - Matthew Richardson, Australian Rules Footballer

1976 - Alessandro Nesta, Italian footballer

1979 - Hee-Seop Choi, Korean Major League Baseball player

1980 - Mikuni Shimokawa, Japanese singer

1980 - Don Sparrow, Canadian Illustrator

1981 - Kolo Touré, Ivorian footballer

top

1238 - Duke Henry I of Poland (b. 1163)

1263 - Hugh of St Cher, French cardinal

1279 - Emperor Bing of Song China (b. 1271)

1286 - King Alexander III of Scotland (b. 1241)

1330 - Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, English politician (executed) (b. 1301)

1406 - Ibn Khaldun, Arab historian (b. 1332)

1623 - Uesugi Kagekatsu, Japanese samurai and warlord (b. 1556)

1637 - Péter Pázmány, Hungarian cardinal and statesman (b. 1570)

1649 - Gerhard Johann Vossius, German classical scholar and theologian (b. 1577)

1683 - Thomas Killigrew, English dramatist (b. 1612)

1687 - Robert Cavelier de La Salle, French explorer (b. 1643)

1697 - Nicolaus Bruhns, German organist and composer (b. 1665)

1711 - Thomas Ken, English bishop and hymn-writer (b. 1637)

1717 - John Campbell, 1st Earl of Breadalbane and Holland, Scottish royalist

1721 - Pope Clement XI (b. 1649)

1796 - Hugh Palliser, British naval officer and administrator (b. 1722)

1871 - Wilhelm Karl Ritter von Haidinger, Austrian mineralogist (b. 1795)

1914 - Giuseppe Mercalli, Italian volcanologist (b. 1850)

1916 - Vasily Surikov, Russian painter (b. 1848)

1930 - Arthur Balfour, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1848)

1939 - Lloyd L. Gaines, American civil rights activist

1942 - Clinton Hart Merriam, American zoologist (b. 1855)

1943 - Frank Nitti, American gangster (b. 1883)

1944 - William Hale Thompson, American mayor of Chicago (b. 1869)

1945 - Friedrich Fromm, German Nazi official (b. 1888)

1950 - Edgar Rice Burroughs, American author (b. 1875)

1950 - Walter Haworth, British chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1883)

1974 - Edward Platt, American actor (b. 1916)

1976 - Albert Dieudonné, French actor, screenwriter and novelist (b. 1889)

1976 - Paul Kossoff, British guitarist (Free) (b. 1950)

1978 - Gaston Julia, French mathematician (b. 1893)

1979 - Richard Beckinsale, British actor (b. 1947)

1982 - Randy Rhoads, American guitarist (Quiet Riot, Ozzy) (b. 1956)

1987 - Louis, 7th duc de Broglie, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1892)

1989 - Alan Civil, English French horn player (b. 1929)

1990 - Andrew Wood, American musician (Mother Love Bone) (b. 1966)

1995 - Yasuo Yamada, Japanese Voice Actor (b. 1932)

1997 - Willem de Kooning, Dutch artist (b. 1904)

1999 - Jaime Sabines, Mexican poet (b. 1926)

2003 - Michael Mathias Prechtl, German illustrator (b. 1926)

2004 - Mitchell Sharp, Canadian politician (b. 1911)

2005 - John De Lorean, American automobile engineer (b. 1925)

top

The first day of Quinquatria in ancient Rome, held in honor of Minerva.

The swallows return to Mission San Juan Capistrano in California.

Mojoday in Discordianism

---

top

Liturgical feasts

Roman Catholicism and Church of England - Saint Joseph's Day for Saint Joseph of Nazareth, spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, stepfather of Jesus; patron saint of Belgium, a good death, carpenters
hence also (alternative) Father's Day in Spain, Portugal, Belgium
Las Fallas in Valencia, Spain.
Saint Landoald
Saint Adeltrudis (d.670)