Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!
On this day in 37, the Roman Senate annulled Tiberius' will and proclaimed Caligula Emperor. On this day in 1229, German Emperor Frederick II crowned himself King of Jerusalem. The city of Kraków in Poland was ravaged by Mongols on this day in 1241. In 1532 on this day, the English Parliament banned payments by English churches to Rome. Russian Czar Ivan IV, often better known historically as Ivan “The Terrible,” died at age 53 on this day in 1584. On this day in 1766, following four months of widespread protest in the American colonies, the British Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, a taxation measure enacted to raise revenues for a standing British army in America. On this day in 1932, Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Updike was born in the small town of Shillington, Pennsylvania. The War Relocation Authority was established in United States on this day in 1942. In 1950 on this day, military forces of the Nationalist Chinese government on Taiwan invaded communist (PRC) People's Republic of China (mainland) China in a surprise raid and capture the town of Sungmen. On this day in 1962, there was a French-Algerian truce ending the war that had lasted for 7½ years, and saw over a quarter of a million people killed. On this day in 1967, the Beatles' "Penny Lane" single went up to #1. On this day in 1990, the first free elections were held in East Germany, in which Conservatives defeated the Communists.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
• On this day in 37, the Roman Senate annulled Tiberius' will and proclaimed Caligula Emperor.
• 417 - St Zosimus begins his reign as Catholic Pope
• 731 - St Gregory III begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1123 - 1st Latern Council (9th ecumenical council) opens in Rome
1167 - Battle of El-Babein, Egypt: Franks under Amalrik vs Syrians
1184 - Battle of Ichi-no-Tani near Kobe, Japan
1190 - Crusaders kill 57 Jews in Bury St Edmonds England
• On this day in 1229, German Emperor Frederick II crowned himself King of Jerusalem.
The Barbica in Kraków, Poland
• The city of Kraków in Poland was ravaged by Mongols on this day in 1241.
1314 - Jacques de Molay, the 23rd and the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, is burned at the stake.
1325 - According to legend, Tenochtitlan is founded on this date. The event is depicted on the Mexican coat of arms.
1438 - Albrecht II von Habsburg becomes king of Germany
1509 - Emperor Maximilian I names Margaretha land guardians of Netherlands
• In 1532 on this day, the English Parliament banned payments by English churches to Rome.
1541 - Hernan de Soto observes 1st recorded flood in America (Mississippi R)
1582 - Prince William of Orange injured in attack at Antwerp
1583 - Dutch States General & Anjou sign treaty
• Russian Czar Ivan IV, often better known historically as Ivan “The Terrible,” died at age 53 on this day in 1584.
The Lion of Judah Emblem of the Ethiopian Empire
1608 - Susenyos is formally crowned Emperor of Ethiopia.
• 1673 - Lord Berkley sells his half of New Jersey to the Quakers
3rd Roman Emperor Caligula3rd Roman Emperor Caligula
1754 - Duke of Newcastle becomes English premier
• On this day in 1766, following four months of widespread protest in the American colonies, the British Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, a taxation measure enacted to raise revenues for a standing British army in America. The Stamp Act was passed on March 22, 1765, leading to an uproar in the colonies over an issue that was to be a major cause of the Revolution: taxation without representation. Enacted in November 1765, the controversial act forced colonists to buy a British stamp for every official document they obtained. The stamp itself displayed an image of a Tudor rose framed by the word "America" and the French phrase Honi soit qui mal y pense--"Shame to him who thinks evil of it." The colonists, who had convened the Stamp Act Congress in October 1765 to vocalize their opposition to the impending enactment, greeted the arrival of the stamps with outrage and violence. Most Americans called for a boycott of British goods, and some organized attacks on the customhouses and homes of tax collectors. After months of protest, and an appeal by Benjamin Franklin before the British House of Commons, Parliament voted to repeal the Stamp Act in March 1766. However, the same day, Parliament passed the Declaratory Acts, asserting that the British government had free and total legislative power over the colonies.
1773 - Oliver Goldsmith' "She Stoops to Conquer," premieres in London
1781 - Charles Messier rediscovers global cluster M92
1793 - 2nd Battle at Neerwinden: Austria army beats France
1793 - The first republican state in Germany, the Republic of Mainz, is declared by Andreas Joseph Hofmann.
1810 - "Converse," 1st US opera, premieres in NY
1813 - David Melville, Newport, RI, patents apparatus for making coal gas
1818 - Congress approves 1st pensions for government service
1834 - 1st railroad tunnel in US completed, in Penn (275 m long)
1834 - Six farm labourers from Tolpuddle, Dorset, England are sentenced to be transported to Australia for forming a trade union.
British Botanist Charles Darwin
• 1835 - Charles Darwin departs Santiago Chile on his way to Portillo Pass
1847 - 1st Dutch public telegram
1850 - Henry Wells & William Fargo forms American Express in Buffalo
1858 - Dutch Van der Brugghen government resigns
1859 - Vera Cruz besieged by Miramon (Cons) in Mexican War of Reform
1864 - Dale Dike on Humber River crumbles drowning some 240
1865 - Battle of Wilson's raid to Selma, AL
1865 - Congress of Confederate States of American adjourns for last time1865 - The Congress of the Confederate States of America adjourned for the last time.
1870 - 1st US National Wildlife Preserve (Lake Meritt in Oakland California)
• 1871 - Communards revolt in Paris
1874 - Hawaii signs a treaty with the United States granting exclusive trading rights.
Bust of Abolitionist Frederick Douglass
• 1877 - President Hayes appoints Frederick Douglass marshal of Wash DC
1881 - Barnum & Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth opens (Madison Square Garden)
1890 - 1st US state naval militia organized (Massachusetts)
1891 - Britain is linked to the continent by Telephone
1892 - Lord Stanley presents silver challenge cup for hockey (Stanley Cup)
1895 - 200 blacks leave Savannah, Ga for Liberia
1899 - Phoebe, a moon of Saturn is discovered by Pickering
1900 - Ajax (Amsterdam Football Club), forms
1902 - Enrico Caruso becomes 1st well-known performer to make a record
Abolitionist Frederick DouglassAbolitionist Frederick Douglass 1902 - Schoenberg's "Verklärte Nacht," premieres in Vienna
1904 - 1st performance of Edward Elgar's "In the South (Alassio)"
1909 - Einar Dessau of Denmark makes 1st ham broadcast
1910 - 1st opera by an US composer (Converse) performed at the Met, NYC
1911 - North Dakota enacts a hail insurance law
1913 - King George I of Greece is assassinated in the recently liberated city of Thessaloniki.
1914 - White Wolf gang beats government army in Jingdezhen China
1915 - Failed British attack in Dardanelles
1915 - French battleship Bouvet explodes, 640 killed
1918 - Soccer team SON OF Meerssen forms
1918 - Socialist Youth AJC organizes in Amsterdam
1919 - Order of DeMolay forms in Kansas City
1920 - Greece adopts the Gregorian calendar
1921 - 2nd Peace of Riga, Poland enlarged
1921 - Steamer "Hong Koh" runs aground off Swatow China killing 1,000
1922 - 1st intercollegiate indoor polo championship (Princeton vs Yale)1922 - Princeton and Yale played the first intercollegiate indoor polo championship.
Pacifist and Spiritual Leader Mahatma GandhiPacifist and Spiritual Leader Mahatma Gandhi
Statue of Gandhi in State Parliament Square, London, UK
1922 - Mohandas K. Gandhi was sentenced to six years in prison for civil disobedience in India. He served only 2 years of the sentence.
1922 - British magistrates in India sentence Mahatma Gandhi to 6 years imprisonment for disobedience
1922 - WBT-AM in Charlotte NC begins radio transmissions
1922 - The first public celebration of Bat mitzvah, for the daughter of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, is held in New York City.
1925 - (8) 60-MPH tornadoes speed Mo, In, Il, Ky, & Tn kills 689
1929 - Dmitri Shostakovitch' "The new Babylon," premieres in Leningrad
1930 - Boston Bruins win record 20th NHL home game
1931 - 1st electric shavers go on sale in US (Schick)
1931 - Juan Bautista Aznar becomes premier of Spain
• On this day in 1932, Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Updike was born in the small town of Shillington, Pennsylvania. The only child of a math teacher father and aspiring writer mother, Updike developed an early love for reading and drawing and won a scholarship to Harvard. He became editor of the famous Harvard Lampoon and married as an undergraduate. After graduating in 1953, Updike went to England for a year to study art. In England, he met New Yorker writers and editors E.B. and Katherine White, who offered him a job. Updike worked on staff for the illustrious magazine until 1957, when he quit and moved to Ipswich, Massachusetts, to concentrate on fiction and poetry. He supported his wife and children with contributions to the New Yorker and in 1958 published his first novel, The Poorhouse Fair, to favorable reviews. Two years later, he published Rabbit, Run, considered one of his best novels, about a former high school basketball star named Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom. He wrote a sequel, Rabbit Redux, in 1971 and won Pulitzer Prizes for Rabbit Is Rich (1981) and Rabbit at Rest (1990). Updike's 1968 novel, Couples, detailing the sexual high-jinx of married couples in a small town, topped the bestseller chart for several weeks. The prolific Updike published some 60 books during his lengthy career, including novels, children's books, poetry, short story collections and non-fiction. He also wrote frequently for magazines. He died of lung cancer on January 29, 2009, at age 76.
1933 - Radio Clube de Mocambique's, 1st radio transmission
1937 - Gas explosion in school in New London Texas: 294 die
1937 - The human-powered aircraft, Pedaliante, flies 1 kilometre (0.62 miles) outside Milan.
• 1938 - Mexico takes control of foreign-owned oil properties
1938 - NY 1st requires serological blood tests of pregnant women
• 1938 - Pres Cardena of Mexico nationalizes US & British oil companies
Italian Dictator Benito MussoliniItalian Dictator Benito Mussolini
• 1940 - Benito Mussolini joins Hitler in Germany's war against France & Britain 1940 - Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini held a meeting at the Brenner Pass. The Italian dictator agreed to join in Germany's war against France and Britain during the meeting.
1942 - Illegal Free Netherlands announces boycott of theaters
1942 - 2 black players, Jackie Robinson & Nate Moreland, request a tryout with the Chicago White Sox, they are allowed to work out
• The War Relocation Authority was established in United States on this day in 1942. On this day, the War Relocation Authority is created to "Take all people of Japanese descent into custody, surround them with troops, prevent them from buying land, and return them to their former homes at the close of the war." Anger toward and fear of Japanese Americans began in Hawaii shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor; everyone of Japanese ancestry, old and young, prosperous and poor, was suspected of espionage. This suspicion quickly broke out on the mainland; as early as February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered that German, Italian, and Japanese nationals—as well as Japanese Americans—be barred from certain areas deemed sensitive militarily. California, which had a significant number of Japanese and Japanese Americans, saw a particularly virulent form of anti-Japanese sentiment, with the state's attorney general, Earl Warren (who would go on to be the chief justice of the United States), claiming that a lack of evidence of sabotage among the Japanese population proved nothing, as they were merely biding their time. While roughly 2,000 people of German and Italian ancestry were interned during this period, Americans of Japanese ancestry suffered most egregiously. The War Relocation Authority, established on March 18, 1942, was aimed at them specifically: 120,000 men, women, and children were rounded up on the West Coast. Three categories of internees were created: Nisei (native U.S. citizens of Japanese immigrant parents), Issei (Japanese immigrants), and Kibei (native U.S. citizens educated largely in Japan). The internees were transported to one of 10 relocation centers in California, Utah, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho, Colorado, and Wyoming. The quality of life in a relocation center was only marginally better than prison: Families were sardined into 20- by 25-foot rooms and forced to use communal bathrooms. No razors, scissors, or radios were allowed. Children attended War Relocation Authority schools. One Japanese American, Gordon Hirabayashi, fought internment all the way to the Supreme Court. He argued that the Army, responsible for effecting the relocations, had violated his rights as a U.S. citizen. The court ruled against him, citing the nation's right to protect itself against sabotage and invasion as sufficient justification for curtailing his and other Japanese Americans' constitutional rights. In 1943, Japanese Americans who had not been interned were finally allowed to join the U.S. military and fight in the war. More than 17,000 Japanese Americans fought; the all-Nisei 442nd Regiment, which fought in the Italian campaign, became the single most decorated unit in U.S. history. The regiment won 4,667 medals, awards, and citations, including 1 Medal of Honor, 52 Distinguished Service Crosses, and 560 Silver Stars. Many of these soldiers, when writing home, were writing to relocation centers. In 1990, reparations were made to surviving internees and their heirs in the form of a formal apology by the U.S. government and a check for $20,000.
1943 - James Oglethorpe (US) & Terkolei (Neth), torpedoed & sinks
1943 - Red Army evacuates Belgorod
1944 - Nazi Germany occupies Hungary
1944 - 2,500 women trample guards & floorwalkers to purchase 1,500 alarm clocks announced for sale in a Chicago Illinois dept store
1945 - 1,250 US bombers attacks Berlin
1945 - Maurice "Rocket" Richard becomes the 1st NHLer to score 50 goals
1945 - US Task Force 58 attacks targets on Kiushu
1948 - France & Great Britain & Benelux sign Treaty of Brussels
1948 - Philips begin experimental TV broadcasting
1948 - Soviet consultants have left Yugoslavia in first sign of Tito-Stalin split.
1949 - NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Org) ratified
1949 - WGAL TV channel 8 in Lancaster, PA (NBC) begins broadcasting
Soviet Union Premier Joseph StalinSoviet Union Premier Joseph Stalin 1950 - "Touch & Go" closes at Broadhurst Theater NYC after 176 performances
1950 - CCNY beats Bradley 69-61 for the NIT championship
• In 1950 on this day, military forces of the Nationalist Chinese government on Taiwan invaded communist (PRC) People's Republic of China (mainland) China in a surprise raid and capture the town of Sungmen. Because the United States supported the attack, it resulted in even deeper tensions and animosities between the U.S. and the PRC. In October 1949, the leader of the communist revolution in China, Mao Zedong, declared victory against the Nationalist government of China and formally established the People's Republic of China. Nationalist troops, politicians, and supporters fled the country and many ended up on Taiwan, an island off the Chinese coast. Once there, they declared themselves the real Chinese government and were immediately recognized as such by the United States. Officials from the United States refused to have anything to do with the PRC government and adamantly refused to grant it diplomatic recognition. Nationalist Chinese leader Chiang Kai-Shek bombarded the mainland with propaganda broadcasts and pamphlets dropped from aircraft signaling his intention of invading the PRC and removing what he referred to as the "Soviet aggressors." In the weeks preceding the March 18, 1950 raid, Chiang had been particularly vocal, charging that the Soviets were supplying the PRC with military advisors and an imposing arsenal of weapons. On March 18, thousands of Nationalist troops, supported by air and sea units, attacked the coast of the PRC, capturing the town of Sungmen that lay about 200 miles south of Shanghai. The Nationalists reported that they killed over 2,500 communist troops. Battles between the raiding group and communist forces continued for weeks, but eventually the Nationalist forces were defeated and driven back to Taiwan. Perhaps more important than the military encounter was the war of words between the United States and the PRC. Communist officials immediately charged that the United States was behind the raid, and even suggested that American pilots and advisors accompanied the attackers. (No evidence has surfaced to support those charges.) American officials were cautiously supportive of the Nationalist attack, though what they hoped it would accomplish beyond minor irritation to the PRC remains unknown. Just eight months later, military forces from the PRC and the United States met on the battlefield in Korea. Despite suggestions from some officials, including the commander of U.S. troops Gen. Douglas MacArthur, that the United States "unleash" the Nationalist armies against mainland China, President Harry S. Truman refrained from this action, fearing that it would escalate into World War III.
1951 - Pat O'Sullivan wins LPGA Titleholders Golf Championship
1952 - 1st plastic lens for cataract patients fitted (Phila)
• 1952 - Communist offensive in Korea
1953 - 15th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Indiana beats Kansas 69-68
1953 - Boston Braves move to Milwaukee
1953 - Earthquake strikes West Turkey, 250 die
1953 - KGNC (now KAMR) TV channel 4 in Amarillo, TX (NBC) begins broadcasting
1953 - NL approves Boston Braves move to Milwaukee (1st shift since 1903)
1955 - I Hatojama recognized as premier of Japan
1957 - WTWV (now WTVA) TV channel 9 in Tupelo-Columbus, MS (NBC) begins
1958 - Dodgers announces mascot/clown Emmett Kelly will not perform in 1958
1959 - Boston Celtic's Bill Sharman begins record of 56 straight free-throws
General Dwight Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States
• 1959 - President Dwight D Eisenhower signs Hawaii statehood bill
1961 - Poppin' Fresh Pillsbury Dough Boy introduced
• On this day in 1962, there was a French-Algerian truce ending the war that had lasted for 7½ years, and saw over a quarter of a million people killed. On March 18, 1962, France and the leaders of the Front de Liberation Nationale (FLN) sign a peace agreement to end the seven-year Algerian War, signaling the end of 130 years of colonial French rule in Algeria. In late October 1954, a faction of young Algerian Muslims established the Front de Liberation Nationale (FLN) as a guerrilla organization dedicated to winning independence from France. They staged several bloody uprisings during the next year, and by 1956 the FLN was threatening to overrun the colonial cities, home to Algeria's sizable European settler population. In France, a new administration, led by Guy Mollet, promised to quell the Muslim rebellion and sent 500,000 French troops to Algeria to crush the FLN. To isolate the rebels and their area of operations, France granted Tunisia and Morocco independence, and their borders with Algeria were militarized with barbed wire and electric fencing. When FLN leaders attempted to travel to Tunisia in October 1956 to discuss the Algerian War, French forces diverted their plane and jailed the men. In response, the FLN launched a new campaign of terrorism in the colonial capital of Algiers. General Jacques Massu, head of France's crack parachute unit, was given extraordinary powers to act in the city, and through torture and assassination the FLN presence in Algiers was destroyed. By the end of 1957, the rebels had been pushed back into rural areas, and it seemed the tide had turned in the Algerian War. However, in May 1958, a new crisis began when European Algerians launched massive demonstrations calling for the integration of Algeria with France and for the return of Charles de Gaulle to power. In France, the Algerian War had seriously polarized public opinion, and many feared the country was on the brink of army revolt or civil war. On June 1, de Gaulle, who had served as leader of France after World War II, was appointed prime minister by the National Assembly and authorized to write a new national constitution. Days after returning to power, de Gaulle visited Algiers, and though he was warmly welcomed by the European Algerians he did not share their enthusiasm for Algerian integration. Instead, he granted Muslims the full rights of French citizenship and in 1959 declared publicly that Algerians had the right to determine their own future. During the next two years, the worst violence in Algeria was perpetrated by European Algerians rather than the FLN, but scattered revolts and terrorism did not prevent the opening of peace negotiations between France and the FLN-led provisional government of the Algerian Republic in 1961. On March 16, 1962, a peace agreement was signed at Evian-les-Bains, France, promising independence for Algeria pending a national referendum on the issue. French aid would continue, and Europeans could return to their native countries, remain as foreigners in Algeria, or take Algerian citizenship. On July 1, 1962, Algerians overwhelmingly approved the agreement, and most of the one million Europeans in Algeria poured out of the country. More than 100,000 Muslim and 10,000 French soldiers were killed in the seven-year Algerian War, along with thousands of Muslim civilians and hundreds of European colonists.
1962 - Dmitri Shostakovitch becomes member of Supreme Soviet of USSR
1963 - "Tovarich" opens at Broadway Theater NYC for 264 performances
1963 - France performs underground nuclear test at Ecker Algeria
1963 - The U.S. Supreme Court handed down the Miranda decision concerning legal council for defendants.
1965 - Rolling Stones fined £5 each for public urination
1965 - USSR launches Voshkod 2; Alexei Leonov makes 1st spacewalk (20 mins)
1965 - Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becomes the first person to walk in space.
1966 - "Pousse Cafe" opens at 46th St Theater NYC for 3 performances
1966 - General Suharto forms government in Indonesia
1966 - Scott Paper begins selling paper dresses for $1
• On this day in 1967, the Beatles' "Penny Lane" single went up to #1.
1967 - Oil tanker Torrey Canyon hits a rock & spills oil
1968 - Congress repeals requirement for a gold reserve
1970 - -25) US Postal begins strike
• 1970 - Cambodia military coup under Gen Lon Nol, prince Sihanuk flees
1970 - Mail service paralyzed by 1st major postal strike
1970 - NFL selects Wilson as official football & scoreboard as official time
1971 - 200 die in landslide into Lake Yanahuani, Chungar Peru
1972 - AIAW 1st basketball champs, Immaculata beats West Chester State 52-48
1972 - China PR performs nuclear test at Lop Nor PRC
1974 - Most Arab oil producing nations end embargo against US
1975 - Kurds end fight against Iraqi army
• 1977 - Clash releases their 1st recording "White Riot"
• 1977 - US restricts citizens from visiting Cuba, Vietnam, N Korea & Cambodia
• 1977 - Vietnam hands over MIA to US
1978 - 250,000 attend rock concert California Jam II in Ontario Calif
1978 - Pakistani former premier Ali Bhutto sentenced to death
1979 - "On the 20th Century" closes at St James Theater NYC after 460 perfs
• 1979 - Battles between Kurds & Iranians break in Sananday Iran
1979 - Joanne Carner wins LPGA Honda Civic Golf Classic
1980 - Vostok rocket exploded on launch pad while being refueled, killing 50
1981 - Buffalo Sabres sets NHL record of 9 goals in 1 period (vs Toronto)
1982 - Singer Teddy Pendergrass' spinal cord severed in a car accident
1984 - Chris Johnson wins LPGA Tucson Conquistadores Golf Open
1985 - Capital Cities Communications Inc acquires ABC
1985 - Commissioner Peter Ueberroth reinstates Willie Mays & Mickey Mantle
1986 - Exciting draw in final gives NSW the Sheffield Shield over Qld
1986 - Treasury Dept announces plans to alter paper money
1987 - Gerber survey find most popular names for newborns (Jessica & Matthew)
1987 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
• 1989 - 27th space shuttle mission, STS-29 (Discovery 8), returns to Earth
1989 - California Quake amusement ride opens at Universal Studios
1989 - Dino Ciccarelli sets Wash Cap record of 7 pts in a game
1989 - In Egypt, a 4,400-year-old mummy is found in the Pyramid of Cheops.
1990 - Largest ever art robbery at Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston. 13 works valued over $500 million are stolen
Flag of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), better known as East Germany
• On this day in 1990, the first free elections were held in East Germany, in which Conservatives defeated the Communists.
1990 - 32-day lockout by baseball owners ends
1990 - A Tampa little leaguer, dies, after being struck by a pitch
1990 - Colleen Walker wins Circle K Tucson LPGA Golf Open
Heavyweight Boxing Champion Mike TysonHeavyweight Boxing Champion Mike Tyson 1991 - Mike Tyson beats Razor Ruddock in the 7th round
1991 - Phila '76ers retires Wilt Chamberlain's #13 jersey
1991 - Reggie Miller (Indiana) ends NBA free throw streak of 52 games
1992 - "4 Baboons Adoring the Sun" opens at Beaumont Theater NYC for 38 perf
1992 - Donna Summer gets a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame
1992 - Leona Helmsley sentence to 4 years for tax evasion
1992 - White South Africans voted for constitutional reforms that would give legal equality to blacks.
1992 - Zimbabwe beat England by 9 runs in World Cup at Albury
1993 - "Sisters Rosensweig" opens at Barrymore Theater NYC for 556 perfs
1993 - Amsterdam stock exchange hits record Ÿ12.2 billion
1993 - Sri Lanka beat England in Test match by 5 wickets
Flag of South Africa during the apartheid era
• 1994 - South Africa Goldstone committee reveals existence of secret police
• 1994 - Space shuttle STS-62 (Columbia 16), lands
1994 - Zsa Zsa Gabor files for bankruptcy
1995 - Michael Jordan announces he is ending his 17 month NBA retirement
• 1995 - STS 67 (Endeavour 8) lands after 16½ days
Basketball Superstar Michael JordanBasketball Superstar Michael Jordan 1996 - 50,000 swimmers raise 15 million for charity during BT's Swimathon '96
1996 - A nightclub fire in Quezon City, Philippines kills 162.
1997 - Russian AN-24 plane crashes in Turkey, 50 die
The flag of the People's Republic of China
• 2003 - China's new president, Hu Jintao, announced that his country must deepen reforms and raise living standards of workers and farmers.
2003 - FBI agents raid the corporate headquarters of HealthSouth Corporation in Birmingham, Alabama on suspicion of massive corporate fraud led by the company's top executives.
2003 - British Sign Language is recognised as an official British language.
2005 - Terri Schiavo's feeding tube is removed at the request of her husband.
2012 - Superleague Greece football match between Olympiacos and Panathinaikos is abandoned after fans set fire to Athens' Olympic Stadium
2012 - Joachim Gauck elected President of the Federal republic of Germany by the Federal Assembly
2013 - Explosions kill 25 people at a bus park in Kano, Nigeria
2013 - A car bombing kills 10 people and injures 20 in Mogadishu, Somalia
2013 - 98 people are killed and 248 are injured across Iraq from a series of bombings and shootings
0037 - The Roman Senate annuls Tiberius’ will and proclaims Caligula emperor. 1123 - The first Latern Council (9th ecumenical council) opened in Rome. 1190 - Crusaders killed 57 Jews in Bury St. Edmonds England. 1532 - The English parliament banned payments by English church to Rome. 1541 - Hernando de Soto observed the first recorded flood of the Mississippi River. 1583 - Dutch States General & Anjou signed a treaty. 1673 - Lord Berkley sold his half of New Jersey to the Quakers. 1692 - William Penn was deprived of his governing powers. 1766 - Britain repealed the Stamp Act. 1813 - David Melville patented the gas streetlight. 1818 - The U.S. Congress approved the first pensions for government service. 1834 - The first railroad tunnel in the U.S. was completed. The work was in Pennsylvania. 1835 - Charles Darwin left Santiago Chile on his way to Portillo Pass. 1850 - Henry Wells & William Fargo founded American Express. 1874 - Hawaii signed a treaty giving exclusive trading rights with the islands to the U.S. 1881 - Barnum and Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth opened in Madison Square Gardens. 1891 - Britain became linked to the continent of Europe by telephone. 1899 - Phoebe, a moon of the planet Saturn, was discovered. 1900 - Ajax (Amsterdam Football Club) was formed. 1902 - In Turkey, the Sultan granted a German syndicate the first concession to access Baghdad by rail. 1903 - France dissolved the Catholic religious orders. 1905 - Franklin Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt were married. 1906 - In Morocco, it was reported that France and Germany were in a deadlock at the Algeciras Conference. 1909 - Einar Dessau of Denmark used a short wave transmitter to become the first person to broadcast as a "ham" operator. 1910 - The first opera by a U.S. composer performed at the Met in New York City. 1911 - Theodore Roosevelt opened the Roosevelt Dam in Arizona. It was the largest dam in the U.S. at the time. 1911 - North Dakota enacted a hail insurance law. 1913 - Greek King George I was killed by an assassin. Constantine I succeeded him. 1916 - Russia countered the Verdun assault with an attack at Lake Naroch. The Russians lost 100,000 men and the Germans lost 20,000. 1917 - The Germans sank the U.S. ships, City of Memphis, Vigilante and the Illinois, without any warning. 1919 - The Order of DeMolay was established in Kansas City. 1920 - Greece adopted the Gregorian calendar. 1921 - Poland was enlarged with the second Peace of Riga. 1921 - The steamer "Hong Koh" ran aground off of Swatow China. Over 1,000 people were killed. 1931 - Schick Inc. displayed the first electric shaver. 1937 - More than 400 people, mostly children, were killed in a gas explosion at a school in New London, TX. 1938 - Mexico took control of all foreign-owned oil properties on its soil. 1938 - New York first required serological blood tests of pregnant women. 1940 - The soap opera "Light of the World" was first heard on NBC radio. 1942 - The third military draft began in the U.S. because of World War II. 1943 - The Reich called off its offensive in Caucasus. 1943 - American forces took Gafsa in Tunisia. 1944 - The Russians reached the Rumanian border in the Balkans during World War II. 1945 - 1,250 U.S. bombers attacked Berlin. 1945 - Maurice "Rocket" Richard became the first National Hockey League (NHL) player to score 50 goals. 1948 - France, Great Britain, and Benelux signed the Treaty of Brussels. 1949 - The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was ratified. 1950 - Nationalist troops landed on the mainland of China and capture Communist held Sungmen. 1952 - In Philadelphia, PA, the first plastic lenses were fitted for a cataract patient. 1953 - An earthquake hit West Turkey killing 250 people. 1954 - RKO Pictures was sold for $23,489,478. It became the first motion picture studio to be owned by an individual. The person was Howard Hughes. 1959 - U.S. President Eisenhower signed the Hawaii statehood bill. 1962 - French and Algerian rebels agreed to a truce. 1963 - "Tovarich" opened at the Broadway Theater in New York City for 264 performances. 1963 - France performed an underground nuclear test at Ecker Algeria. 1965 - Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov became the first man to spacewalk when he left the Voskhod II space capsule while in orbit around the Earth. He was outside the spacecraft for about 20 minutes. 1966 - The government of Indonesia was formed by General Suharto. 1966 - Scott Paper began selling paper dresses for $1. 1968 - The U.S. Congress repealed the requirement for a gold reserve. 1969 - U.S. President Nixon authorizes Operation Menue. It was the ‘secret’ bombing of Cambodia. 1970 - The U.S. Postal Service experienced the first postal strike. 1970 - The NFL selected Wilson to be the official football and scoreboard as official time. 1971 - U.S. helicopters airlifted 1,000 South Vietnamese soldiers out of Laos. 1971 - A landslide in Lake Yanahuani, Chungar Peru, killed 200. 1974 - Most of the Arab oil-producing nations ended their five-month embargo against the United States, Europe and Japan. 1975 - Saigon abandoned most of the Central Highlands of Vietnam to Hanoi. 1975 - The Kurds ended their fight against Iraq. 1977 - Vietnam turned over an MIA to a U.S. delegation. 1979 - Iranian authorities detained American feminist Kate Millett. The next day she was deported. 1980 - The Vostok rocket exploded on the launch pad killing 50. 1981 - The U.S. disclosed that there were biological weapons tested in Texas in 1966. 1986 - Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Prince Andrew to Sarah Ferguson. 1986 - The U.S. Treasury Department announced that a clear, polyester thread was to be woven into bills in an effort to thwart counterfeiters. 1987 - The U.S. performed nuclear tests at a Nevada test site. 1990 - Thirteen paintings were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. The value was $100 million making it the largest art robbery in history. 1989 - A 4,400-year-old mummy was discovered at the Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt. 1990 - The 32-day lockout of baseball players ended. 1990 - In Tampa, FL, a little league player was killed after being hit with a pitch. 1992 - Leona Hemsly was sentenced to 4 years in prison for tax evasion. 1994 - Zsa Zsa Gabor filed for bankruptcy. 1997 - A Russian AN-24 crashed killing 50 people.
1584 Russian czar Ivan IV, or Ivan “The Terrible,” died at age 53. 1766 After months of American protests, Britain repealed the Stamp Act. 1925 The most violent single tornado in U.S. history, the “Tri-State Tornado,” hit Missouri, Indiana, and Illinois, killing 689 people and injuring 13,000 others. 1963 The Supreme Court held in Gideon v. Wainwright that public defenders must be provided for indigent defendants in felony cases. 1965 Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov made the first spacewalk. 1967 The oil tanker Torrey Canyon was wrecked off the Cornish coast of England, spilling 919,000 barrels of oil into the sea. 1990 The biggest art theft in U.S. history occurs at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. The works, including pieces by Vermeer and Rembrandt, were never recovered. 2004 A small asteroid made the closest approach to Earth ever recorded, only about 26,500 miles away. 2005 After a long legal battle, Terry Schiavo's feeding tube was removed. She died 13 days later.
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/mar18.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
.jpg)
