March 15
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
March 15 is the 74th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (75th in leap years). There are 291 days remaining until the end of the year.
In the Roman calendar March 15 was known as the Ides of March.
[change] Events
- 44 BC – Julius Caesar, Dictator of the Roman Republic, is stabbed to death by Marcus Junius Brutus, Decimus Junius Brutus and several other Roman senators on the Ides of March.
- 1311 – Battle of Halmyros: The Catalan Company defeats Walter V of Brienne to take control of the Duchy of Athens, a Crusader state in Greece.
- 1493 – Christopher Columbus returns to Spain after his first trip to the Americas.
- 1545 – First meeting of the Council of Trent.
- 1672 – Charles II of England issues the Royal Declaration of Indulgence.
- 1781 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Guilford Courthouse – Near present-day Greensboro, North Carolina, 1,900 British troops under General Charles Cornwallis defeat an American force numbering 4,400.
- 1783 – In an emotional speech in Newburgh, New York, George Washington asks his officers not to support the Newburgh Conspiracy. The plea is successful and the threatened coup d'etat never takes place.
- 1820 – Maine becomes the 23rd U.S. state.
- 1827 – The University of Toronto is chartered.
- 1848 – Revolution breaks out in Pest. The Habsburg rulers are compelled to meet the demands of the Reform party.
- 1877 – The first Test cricket match begins, between England and Australia.
- 1892 – Liverpool FC is founded.
- 1906 – Rolls-Royce Ltd. is registered.
- 1909 – Selfridges department store opens in London.
- 1916 – President Woodrow Wilson sends 12,000 United States troops over the Mexican border to pursue Pancho Villa.
- 1917 – Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates himself and his son from the Russian throne and his brother the Grand Duke becomes Tsar.
- 1919 – The American Legion forms in Paris.
- 1922 – After Egypt gains nominal independence from the United Kingdom, Fuad I becomes King of Egypt.
- 1939 – World War II: Nazi troops occupy the remaining part of Bohemia and Moravia; Czechoslovakia ceases to exist.
- 1943 – World War II: Third Battle of Kharkov – the Germans retook the city of Kharkov from the Soviet armies in bitter street fighting.
- 1944 – World War II: Battle of Monte Cassino – Allied aircraft bomb the Nazi-held monastery and stage an assault.
- 1952 – In Cilaos, Réunion, 73 inches (1,870mm) of rain falls in one day, setting a new world record.
- 1956 – The Broadway musical My Fair Lady opens in New York City.
- 1961 – South Africa withdraws from the British Commonwealth.
- 1963 – Victor Feguer, a Federal prisoner, is put to death at the Fort Madison, Iowa prison. This would be the last execution of a Federal prisoner until the execution of Timothy McVeigh in 2001.
- 1970 – The Expo '70 world's fair opens in Osaka, Japan.
- 1972 – Denzel Q. Crocker 's life changed for the worst.
- 1976 – KISS releases the legendary album Destroyer.
- 1988 – Publication of Marvin Minsky's Society of Mind theory.
- 1988 – The Halabja poison gas attack of the Iran-Iraq War begins.
- 1989 – The United States Department of Veterans Affairs is established.
- 1990 – Gulf War: Iraq hangs British journalist Farzad Bazoft for spying.
- 1990 – Mikhail Gorbachev is elected as the first executive president of the Soviet Union.
- 1990 – The Soviet Union announces that Lithuania's declaration of independence is invalid.
- 1990 – The ethnic clashes of Targu Mures begin on the anniversary of the Revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas.
- 1991 – Four Los Angeles, California police officers are indicted for the videotaped March 3, 1991 beating of motorist Rodney King during an arrest.
- 1991 – Germany formally regains complete independence after the four post-World War II occupying powers (France, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union) relinquish all remaining rights.
- 2004 – Announcement of the discovery of 90377 Sedna, the farthest natural object in the Solar system so far observed.
[change] Births
- 933 – Romanos II, Byzantine Emperor (d. 963)
- 1638 – Shunzhi Emperor of China (d. 1661)
- 1767 – Andrew Jackson, 7th President of the United States (d. 1845)
- 1779 – William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1848)
- 1809 – Joseph Jenkins Roberts, first President of Liberia (d. 1876)
- 1830 – Paul von Heyse, German writer (d. 1914)
- 1854 – Emil Adolf von Behring, German doctor, won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1901) (d. 1917)
- 1857 – Christian Michelsen, Prime Minister of Norway (d. 1925)
- 1869 – Stanislaw Wojciechowski, President of Poland (d. 1953)
- 1907 – Zarah Leander, Swedish singer and actress (d. 1981)
- 1912 – Lightning Hopkins, American musician (d. 1982)
- 1919 – Lawrence Tierney, American actor (d. 2002)
- 1920 – E. Donnall Thomas, American physician
- 1930 – Zhores Ivanovich Alferov, Russian physicist
- 1933 – Ruth Bader Ginsburg, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
- 1935 – Judd Hirsch, American actor
- 1935 – Jimmy Swaggart, American televangelist
- 1940 – Phil Lesh, American musician (Grateful Dead)
- 1943 – David Cronenberg, Canadian director
- 1947 – Ry Cooder, American guitarist
- 1957 – Joaquim de Almeida, Portuguese-American actor
- 1959 – Ben Okri, Nigerian writer
- 1962 – Bret Michaels, American musician
- 1962 – Markus Merk, German football referee
- 1967 – Naoko Takeuchi, Japanese artist
- 1968 – Mark McGrath, American musician
- 1972 – Mark Hoppus, American musician (+44 and blink-182)
- 1975 – Eva Longoria, American actress
- 1975 – Will.i.am, American musician (Black Eyed Peas)
- 1978 – Takeru Kobayashi, Japanese competitive eater
- 1981 – Mikael Forssell, Finnish footballer
- 1985 – Curtis Davies, English footballer
- 1991 – Kii Kitano, Japanese actress
[change] Deaths
- 44 BC – Julius Caesar (b. 100 BC)
- 220 – Cao Cao, King of Wei (b. 155)
- 1842 – Luigi Cherubini, Italian composer (b. 1760)
- 1937 – H. P. Lovecraft, American writer (b. 1890)
- 1961 – Akiba Rubinstein, Polish chess player (b. 1882)
- 1962 – Arthur Compton, American physicist (b. 1892)
- 1975 – Aristotle Onassis, Greek shipping magnate (b. 1900)
- 1983 – Rebecca West, English writer (b. 1892)
- 1990 – Farzad Bazoft, Iranian-British journalist (b. 1958)
- 1993 – Karl Mai, German footballer (b. 1928)
- 1998 – Benjamin Spock, American paediatrician and author (b. 1903)
- 2004 – John Pople, English chemist (b. 1925)
- 2006 – George Rallis, Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1918)
- 2009 – Ron Silver, American actor (b. 1946)
- 2011 – Nate Dogg, American musician (b. 1969)
