Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Historical Events on 1 Apr

Historical Events on 1 Apr

1318 - Berwick-upon-Tweed is captured by the Scottish from the English.
1340 - Niels Ebbesen kills Gerhard III of Holstein in his bedroom, ending the 1332-1340 interregnum in Denmark.
1572 - In the Eighty Years' War, the Watergeuzen capture Brielle from the Spaniards, gaining the first foothold on land for what would become the Dutch Republic.
1789 - In New York City, the United States House of Representatives holds its first quorum and elects Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania as its first House Speaker.
1826 - Samuel Morey patents the internal combustion engine.
1854 - Hard Times begins serialisation in Charles Dickens magazine, Household Words.
1857 - Herman Melville publishes The Confidence-Man.
1865 - American Civil War: Battle of Five Forks - In Siege of Petersburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee begins his final offensive.
1867 - Singapore becomes a British crown colony.
1873 - The British steamer SS Atlantic sinks off Nova Scotia, killing 547.
1891 - The Wrigley Company is founded in Chicago, Illinois.
1912 - The Greek athlete Konstantinos Tsiklitiras breaks the world record -in standing long jump jumping 3.47 meters.
1918 - The Royal Air Force is created by merging the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service.
1924 - Adolf Hitler is sentenced to five years in jail for his participation in the "Beer Hall Putsch". However, he spends only nine months in jail, during which he writes the book Mein Kampf.
1924 - First revenue flight for Belgium's Sabena Airlines
1924 - The Royal Canadian Air Force is formed.
1933 - The recently elected Nazis under Julius Streicher organize a one-day boycott of all Jewish-owned businesses in Germany, ushering in the series of anti-Semitic acts that will gradually, yet ultimately lead to the Holocaust.
1936 - Orissa Formerly known as Kalinga or Utkal became a state in India.
1937 - Aden becomes a British crown colony.
1939 - Generalísimo Francisco Franco of the Spanish State announces the end of the Spanish Civil War, when the last of the Republican forces surrender.
1941 - The Blockade Runner Badge for German navy is instituted.
1944 - Accidental American bombing of the Swiss city of Schaffhausen. The bombers were lost.
1945 - World War II: Operation Iceberg - United States troops land on Okinawa in the last campaign of the war.
1946 - Aleutian Island earthquake: A 7.8 magnitude earthquake near the Aleutian Islands creates a tsunami that strikes the Hawaiian Islands killing 159 (mostly in Hilo, Hawaii).
1946 - Formation of the Malayan Union.
1948 - Faroe Islands receive autonomy from Denmark.
1948 - Cold War: Berlin Airlift - Military forces, under direction of the Soviet-controlled government in East Germany, set-up a land blockade of West Berlin.
1949 - Chinese Civil War: Communist Party of China holds unsuccessful peace talks with the Kuomintang in Beijing, after three years of fighting.
1949 - The twenty-six counties of the Irish Free State become the Republic of Ireland.
1954 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes the creation of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado.
1955 - The EOKA rebellion against The Brtish Empire starts in Cyprus, with the goal of obtaining the desired unification ("enosis") with Greece.
1967 - The United States Department of Transportation begins operation.
1969 - The Hawker Siddeley Harrier enters service with the RAF.
1970 - President Richard Nixon signs the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law, requiring the Surgeon General's warnings on tobacco products and banning cigarette advertisements on television and radio in the United States starting on January 1, 1971.
1973 - Project Tiger, a tiger conservation project, is launched in the Corbett National Park, India.
1974 - In the United Kingdom, the Metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties come into being.
1976 - Apple Computer is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.
1976 - Jovian-Plutonian gravitational effect is first reported by the astronomer Patrick Moore.
1976 - Conrail takes over operations from six bankrupt railroads in the northeastern U.S..
1978 - Philippine College of Commerce, through a presidential decree, becomes the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.
1979 - Iran's government becomes an Islamic Republic by a 98% vote, officially overthrowing the Shah.
1980 - New York City's Transit Worker Union 100 begins a strike lasting 11 days.
1981 - Daylight saving time is introduced in the USSR.
1989 - Margaret Thatcher's new local government tax, the Community Charge (commonly known as the 'poll tax'), is introduced in Scotland.
1996 - The Halifax Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia is created.
1999 - Nunavut is established as a Canadian territory carved out of the eastern part of the Northwest Territories.
2001 - Same-sex marriage becomes legal in the Netherlands, which is the first country to allow it.
2001 - An EP-3E United States Navy plane collides with a Chinese People's Liberation Army fighter jet. The Navy crew makes an emergency landing in Hainan, People's Republic of China and is detained. See Hainan Island incident.
2001 - Former president of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milošević surrenders to police special forces, to be tried on charges of war crimes.
2002 - The Netherlands legalizes euthanasia, becoming the first nation in the world to do so.
2004 - Google introduces its Gmail product to the public. The launch is met with scepticism on account of the launch date.
2006 - The Serious Organised Crime Agency, dubbed the 'British FBI', is created in the United Kingdom.
527 - Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Historical Events on 31 Mar

Historical Events on 31 Mar

1146 - Bernard of Clairvaux preaches his famous sermon in a field at Vézelay, urging the necessity of a Second Crusade. Louis VII is present, and joins the Crusade.
1492 - Queen Isabella of Castille issues the Alhambra decree , ordering her 150,000 Jewish subjects to convert to Christianity or face expulsion.
1717 - A sermon on "The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ" by Benjamin Hoadly, the Bishop of Bangor, provoked the Bangorian Controversy.
1774 - American Revolutionary War: The Kingdom of Great Britain orders the port of Boston, Massachusetts closed in the Boston Port Act.
1822 - The massacre of the population of the Greek island of Chios by soldiers of the Ottoman Empire following a rebellion attempt, depicted by the French artist Eugène Delacroix.
1854 - Commodore Matthew Perry signs the Treaty of Kanagawa with the Japanese government, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade.
1866 - The Spanish Navy bombs the harbor of Valparaíso, Chile.
1877 - The family with samurai antecedents who responded to the Saigo army in ÅŒita Nakatsu rebels.
1885 - The United Kingdom establishes a protectorate over Bechuanaland.
1889 - The Eiffel Tower is inaugurated.
1903 - Richard Pearse allegedly makes a powered flight in an early aircraft.
1906 - The Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (later National Collegiate Athletic Association) is established to set rules for amateur sports in the United States.
1909 - Serbia accepts Austrian control over Bosnia-Herzegovina.
1917 - The United States takes possession of the Danish West Indies after paying $25 million to Denmark, and renames the territory the United States Virgin Islands.
1918 - Daylight saving time goes into effect in the United States for the first time.
1921 - The Royal Australian Air Force is formed.
1930 - The Motion Pictures Production Code is instituted, imposing strict guidelines on the treatment of sex, crime, religion and violence in film for the next thirty eight years.
1931 - An earthquake destroys Managua, Nicaragua, killing 2,000.
1933 - The Civilian Conservation Corps is established with the mission to relieve rampant unemployment.
1942 - Holocaust in Ivano-Frankivsk (then called Stanislawow), western Ukraine. German Gestapo organize the first deportation of 5.000 Jews from Stanislawow ghetto to Belzec death camp. It was one of the biggest transports to Belzec in the first phase of the cam
1942 - World War II: Japanese forces invade Christmas Island, then of British possession.
1946 - The first election is held in Greece after World War II.
1949 - The Dominion of Newfoundland joins Confederation and becomes the 10th Province of Canada.
1951 - The first commercial United States made computer, the UNIVAC I, is delivered to the United States Census Bureau.
1957 - Elections to the Territorial Assembly of the French colony Upper Volta. After the elections PDU and MDV form a government.
1959 - The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, crosses the border into India and is granted political asylum.
1964 - The Dictatorship in Brazil, under the aegis of general Castello Branco, begins.
1965 - Iberia Airlines Convair 440, crashed into the sea on approach to Tangier killing 47 of 51 occupants.
1966 - The Soviet Union launches Luna 10 which later becomes the first spaceprobe to enter orbit around the Moon.
1968 - President Lyndon B. Johnson announces he will not run for re-election.
1970 - Explorer 1 re-enters the Earth's atmosphere (after 12 years in orbit).
1970 - Nine terrorists from the Japanese Red Army hijacked Japan Airlines Flight 351 at Tokyo International Airport, wielding samurai swords and carrying a bomb.
1979 - The last British soldier leaves the Maltese Islands. Malta declares its Freedom Day (Jum il-Helsien).
1980 - The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad operates its final train after being ordered to liquidate its assets due to bankruptcy and debt owed to creditors.
1986 - Six metropolitan county councils are abolished in England.
1986 - A Mexicana Boeing 727 en route to Puerto Vallarta erupts in flames and crashes in the mountains northwest of Mexico City, killing 166.
1990 - 200,000 protestors took to the streets of London to protest against the newly introduced Poll Tax.
1991 - The Establishment of Islamic Constitutional Movement - Hadas in Kuwait.
1991 - Georgian independence referendum, 1991: nearly 99 percent of the voters support the country's independence from the Soviet Union.
1992 - The USS Missouri (BB-63), the last active United States Navy Battleship, is decommissioned in Long Beach, California.
1994 - Human evolution: The journal Nature reports the finding in Ethiopia of the first complete Australopithecus afarensis skull.
1995 - In Corpus Christi, Texas, Latin superstar Selena Quintanilla Perez is shot and killed by Yolanda Saldivar, the president of her own fan club.
1998 - Netscape releases the code base of its browser under an open-source license agreement; the project is given the code name Mozilla and would eventually be spun off into the non-profit Mozilla Foundation.
2004 - In Fallujah, Iraq, 4 American private military contractors working for Blackwater USA, are killed and their bodies mutilated after being ambushed.
2007 - In Sydney, Australia 2.2 million people take part in the first Earth Hour.
2008 - Aloha Airlines, a bankrupt airline, permanently ends passenger service
307 - After divorcing his wife Minervina, Constantine marries Fausta, the daughter of the retired Roman Emperor Maximian.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Historical Events on 30 Mar

Historical Events on 30 Mar

1282 - The people of Sicily rebel against the Angevin king Charles I, in what becomes known as the Sicilian Vespers.
1296 - Edward I sacks Berwick-upon-Tweed, during armed conflict between Scotland and England.
1814 - Napoleonic Wars: Sixth Coalition forces march into Paris.
1814 - Murat issues the Rimini Declaration which would later inspire Italian Unification.
1822 - Florida Territory created in the United States.
1842 - Anesthesia is used for the first time in an operation by Dr. Crawford Long.
1844 - One of the most important battles of the Dominican War of Independence from Haiti takes place near the city of Santiago de los Caballeros.
1855 - Origins of the American Civil War: Bleeding Kansas - "Border Ruffians" from Missouri invade Kansas and force election of a pro-slavery legislature.
1856 - The Treaty of Paris (1856) is signed, ending the Crimean War.
1858 - Hymen Lipman patents a pencil with an attached eraser.
1863 - Danish prince Wilhelm Georg is chosen as King George of Greece.
1867 - Alaska is purchased for $7.2 million, about 2 cent/acre ($4.19/km²), by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward. The news media call this Seward's Folly.
1870 - Texas is readmitted to the Union following Reconstruction.
1885 - The Battle for Kushka triggers the Pandjeh Incident which nearly gives rise to war between the British Empire and Russian Empire.
1909 - The Queensboro Bridge opens, linking Manhattan & Queens.
1910 - Mississippi Legislature founded The University of Southern Mississippi.
1912 - Sultan Abdelhafid signs the Treaty of Fez, making Morocco a French protectorate.
1939 - The Heinkel He 100 fighter sets the world airspeed record of 463 mph.
1939 - First flight of the Australian C.A.C. CA-16 Wirraway.
1940 - Sino-Japanese War: Japan declares Nanking to be the capital of a new Chinese puppet government, nominally controlled by Wang Ching-wei.
1945 - World War II: Soviet Union forces invade Austria and take Vienna, Polish and Soviet forces liberate Gdańsk.
1945 - World War II: a defecting German pilot delivers a Messerschmitt Me 262A-1 to Americans.
1949 - Riot breaks out in Austurvöllur square in Reykjavík, when Iceland joined NATO.
1951 - Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau.
1954 - Yonge Street subway line opens in Toronto. It is the first subway in Canada.
1961 - The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is signed at New York.
1965 - Vietnam War: A car bomb explodes in front of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, killing 22 and wounding 183 others.
1972 - Vietnam War: The Easter Offensive begins after North Vietnamese forces cross into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of South Vietnam.
1979 - Airey Neave, a British politician, is killed by a car bomb as he exits the Palace of Westminster. The Irish National Liberation Army claims responsibility.
1981 - President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley, Jr.
1982 - Space Shuttle program: STS-3 Mission completed with the landing of Columbia at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.
1997 - Five (channel) Begins broadcasting in the UK
2006 - Marcos Pontes is the first Brazilian astronaut in space.
2006 - UK Terrorism Act 2006 becomes law.
240 BC - 1st recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Historical Events on 29 Mar

Historical Events on 29 Mar

1461 - Wars of the Roses: Battle of Towton - Edward of York defeats Queen Margaret to become King Edward IV of England.
1549 - The city of Salvador da Bahia, the first capital of Brazil, is founded.
1632 - Treaty of Saint-Germain is signed, returning Quebec to French control after the English had seized it in 1629.
1638 - Swedish colonists establish the first settlement in Delaware, naming it New Sweden.
1792 - King Gustav III of Sweden dies after being shot in the back at a midnight masquerade ball at Stockholm's Royal Opera just 13 days earlier. He is succeeded by Gustav IV Adolf.
1799 - New York passes a law aimed at gradually abolishing slavery in the state.
1806 - Construction is authorized of the Great National Pike, better known as the Cumberland Road, becoming the first United States federal highway.
1809 - King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden abdicates after a coup d'état. At the Diet of Porvoo, Finland's four Estates pledge allegiance to Alexander I of Russia, commencing the secession of the Grand Duchy of Finland from Sweden.
1831 - Great Bosnian uprising: Bosniak rebel against Turkey.
1847 - Mexican-American War: United States forces led by General Winfield Scott take Veracruz after a siege.
1849 - The United Kingdom annexes the Punjab.
1857 - Sepoy Mangal Pandey of the 34th Regiment, Bengal Native Infantry revolts against the British rule in India and inspires a long-drawn War of Independence of 1857 also known as the Sepoy Mutiny.
1865 - American Civil War: The Battle of Appomattox Court House begins.
1867 - Queen Victoria gives Royal Assent to the British North America Act which establishes the Dominion of Canada on July 1.
1871 - The Royal Albert Hall is opened by Queen Victoria.
1879 - Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Kambula: British forces defeat 20,000 Zulus.
1882 - The Knights of Columbus are established.
1886 - Dr. John Pemberton brews the first batch of Coca-Cola in a backyard in Atlanta, Georgia.
1930 - Heinrich Brüning is appointed German Reichskanzler.
1936 - In Germany, Adolf Hitler receives 99% of the votes in a referendum to ratify Germany's illegal reoccupation of the Rhineland, receiving 44.5 million votes out of 45.5 million registered voters.
1941 - World War II: British Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy forces defeat those of the Italian Regia Marina off the Peloponnesus coast of Greece in the Battle of Cape Matapan.
1942 - The Bombing of Lübeck in World War II was the first major success for the RAF Bomber Command against Germany and a German city.
1945 - World War II: Last day of V-1 flying bomb attacks on England.
1951 - Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage.
1961 - The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, allowing residents of Washington, D.C. to vote in presidential elections.
1971 - A Los Angeles, California jury recommends the death penalty for Charles Manson and three female followers.
1971 - My Lai massacre: Lt. William Calley is convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison.
1973 - Vietnam War: The last United States combat soldiers leave South Vietnam.
1974 - NASA's Mariner 10 becomes the first spaceprobe to fly by Mercury. It was launched on November 3, 1973.
1982 - The Canada Act 1982 (U.K.) receives the Royal Assent from Queen Elizabeth II, setting the stage for the Queen of Canada to proclaim the Constitution Act, 1982.
1987 - Wrestlemania III sets a world indoor attendance record at the Pontiac Silverdome with 93,173 fans.
1993 - Catherine Callbeck becomes premier of Prince Edward Island and Canada's first female to be elected in a general election as a premier.
1999 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at 10006.78 - above the 10,000 mark for the first time ever.
2004 - Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia join NATO as full members.
2004 - The Republic of Ireland becomes the first country in the world to ban smoking in all work places, including bars and restaurants.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Historical Events on 28 Mar

Historical Events on 28 Mar

1776 - Juan Bautista de Anza finds the site for the Presidio of San Francisco.
1794 - Allies under the prince of Coburg defeat French forces at Le Cateau.
1795 - Partitions of Poland: The Duchy of Courland, a northern fief of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, ceases to exist and becomes part of Imperial Russia.
1802 - Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers discovers 2 Pallas, the second asteroid known to man.
1809 - Peninsular War: France defeats Spain in the Battle of Medelin.
1834 - The United States Senate censures President Andrew Jackson for his actions in de-funding the Second Bank of the United States.
1854 - Crimean War: France and Britain declare war on Russia.
1860 - First Taranaki War: The Battle of Waireka begins.
1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Glorieta Pass - in New Mexico, Union forces stop the Confederate invasion of New Mexico territory. The battle began on March 26.
1871 - The Paris Commune is formally established in Paris.
1910 - Henri Fabre becomes the first person to fly a seaplane, the Fabre Hydravion, after taking off from a water runway near Martigues, France.
1913 - Guatemala becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
1920 - Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1920 affects the Great Lakes region and Deep South states.
193 - Roman Emperor Pertinax is assassinated by Praetorian Guards, who then sell the throne in an auction to Didius Julianus.
1930 - Constantinople and Angora change their names to Istanbul and Ankara.
1939 - Spanish Civil War: Generalissimo Francisco Franco conquers Madrid.
1940 - Construction begins of the exhibition center to host the Thessaloniki International Trade Fair.
1941 - World War II: Battle of Cape Matapan - in the Mediterranean Sea, British Admiral Andrew Browne Cunningham leads the Royal Navy in the destruction of three major Italian heavy cruisers and two destroyers.
1942 - World War II: In occupied France, British naval forces raid the German-occupied port of St. Nazaire.
1946 - Cold War: The United States State Department releases the Acheson-Lilienthal Report, outlining a plan for the international control of nuclear power.
1969 - The McGill français movement protest occurs, the second largest protest in Montreal's history with 10,000 trade unionists, leftist activists, CEGEP students, and even some McGill students at McGill's Roddick Gates. This led to the majority of the protest
1969 - Greek poet and Nobel Prize laureate Giorgos Seferis makes a famous statement on the BBC World Service opposing the junta in Greece.
1978 - The US Supreme Court hands down 5-3 decision in Stump v. Sparkman, 435 U.S. 349, a controversial case involving involuntary sterilization and judicial immunity.
1979 - British Prime Minister James Callaghan, is defeated by one vote in a Motion of No Confidence. This results in Parliament being dissolved to make way for a General Election.
1979 - In Pennsylvania, a pump in the reactor cooling system fails in the Three Mile Island accident, resulting in the evaporation of some contaminated water causing a nuclear meltdown.
1990 - President George H. W. Bush posthumously awards Jesse Owens the Congressional Gold Medal.
1994 - In South Africa, Zulus and African National Congress supporters battle in central Johannesburg, resulting in 18 deaths.
1994 - BBC Radio Five Live broadcasts for first time in United Kingdom
2000 - A Murray County, Georgia, school bus is hit by a CSX freight train (3 children die in this accident).
2003 - In a "friendly fire" incident, two A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft from the United States Idaho Air National Guard's 190th Fighter Squadron attack British tanks participating in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, killing British soldier Matty Hull.
2005 - The 2005 Sumatran earthquake rocks Indonesia, and at magnitude 8.7 is the second strongest earthquake since 1960.
2006 - At least 1 million union members, students and unemployed take to the streets in France in protest at the government's proposed First Employment Contract law.
364 - Roman Emperor Valentinian I appoints his brother Flavius Valens co-emperor.
37 - Roman Emperor Caligula accepts the titles of the Principate, entitled to him by the Senate.
845 - Paris is sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collects a huge ransom in exchange for leaving.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Historical Events on 27 Mar

Historical Events on 27 Mar

1309 - Pope Clement V excommunicates Venice and all its population.
1329 - Pope John XXII issues his 'In Agro Dominico' condemning some writings of Meister Eckhart as heretical.
1613 - The first English child born in Canada at Cuper's Cove, Newfoundland to Nicholas Guy.
1625 - Charles I becomes King of England, Scotland and Ireland as well as claiming the title King of France.
1642 - The sixth Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Joseph takes office.
1782 - Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
1794 - Denmark and Sweden form a neutrality compact.
1794 - The United States Government establishes a permanent navy and authorizes the building of six frigates.
1814 - War of 1812: In central Alabama, U.S. forces under General Andrew Jackson defeat the Creek at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend.
1836 - Texas Revolution: Goliad massacre - Antonio López de Santa Anna orders the Mexican army to kill about 400 Texans at Goliad, Texas.
1836 - Kirtland Temple in Ohio is dedicated in an 8 hour long service led by Joseph Smith, Jr. and Sidney Rigdon.
1846 - Mexican-American War: Siege of Fort Texas.
1851 - First reported case of Europeans seeing Yosemite Valley.
1854 - Crimean War: The United Kingdom declares war on Russia.
1868 - The Lake Ontario Shore Railroad Company is organized in Oswego, New York.
1871 - The first international rugby football match, England v. Scotland, is played in Edinburgh at Raeburn Place.
1881 - Rioting takes place in Basingstoke in protest against the daily vociferous promotion of rigid Temperance by the Salvation Army.
1890 - A tornado strikes Louisville, Kentucky, killing 76 and injuring 200.
1906 - Founding of the Alpine Club of Canada in Winnipeg, Manitoba
1910 - Fire during a barn-dance in Ököritófülpös, Hungary, killed 312
1918 - Moldova and Bessarabia join Romania.
1938 - The Battle of Taierzhuang takes place.
1941 - World War II: Yugoslavian Air Force officers topple the pro-axis government in a bloodless coup.
1943 - World War II: Battle of the Komandorski Islands - In the Aleutian Islands the battle begins when United States Navy forces intercept Japanese attempting to reinforce a garrison at Kiska.
1945 - World War II: Operation Starvation, the aerial mining of Japan's ports and waterways begins.
1948 - The Second Congress of the Workers Party of North Korea is convened.
1958 - Nikita Khrushchev becomes Premier of the Soviet Union.
196 BC - Ptolemy V ascends to the throne of Egypt.
1963 - Beeching axe: Dr. Richard Beeching issues a report calling for huge cuts to the United Kingdom's rail network.
1964 - The Good Friday Earthquake, the most powerful earthquake in U.S. history at a magnitude of 9.2 strikes South Central Alaska, killing 125 people and inflicting massive damage to the city of Anchorage.
1969 - Mariner 7 is launched.
1970 - The Concorde makes its first supersonic flight.
1976 - The first 4.6 miles of the Washington Metro subway system opens.
1977 - Tenerife disaster: Two Boeing 747 airliners collide on a foggy runway on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, killing 583 (all 247 on KLM and 335 on PAN AM) and 61 survived on a PAN AM flight.
1980 - The Norwegian oil platform Alexander Kielland collapses in the North Sea, killing 123 of its crew of 212.
1985 - Italian Brigate Rosse terrorist group kill economist Ezio Tarantelli in Rome.
1986 - A car bomb explodes at Russell Street Police HQ in Melbourne, killing 1 police officer and injuring 21 people.
1990 - The United States begins broadcasting TV Martí to Cuba in an effort to bridge the information blackout imposed by the Castro regime.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Historical Events on 26 Mar

Historical Events on 26 Mar

1026 - Pope John XIX crowns Conrad II as Holy Roman Emperor.
1484 - William Caxton printed his translation of Aesop's Fables.
1552 - Guru Amar Das becomes the Third Sikh Guru.
1636 - Utrecht University is founded in The Netherlands.
1808 - Charles IV of Spain abdicates in favor of his son, Ferdinand VII.
1812 - An earthquake destroys Caracas, Venezuela.
1830 - The Book of Mormon is published in Palmyra, New York.
1839 - The first Henley Royal Regatta is held.
1852 - Decree regarding streets of Paris passed
1881 - Thessaly is freed and becomes part of Greece again.
1913 - Balkan War: Bulgarian forces take Adrianople.
1917 - World War I: First Battle of Gaza - British troops are halted after 17,000 Turks block their advance.
1934 - Driving test introduced in the United Kingdom.
1942 - World War II: In Poland, Auschwitz receives its first female prisoners.
1945 - World War II: In Iwo Jima, US forces declare Iwo Jima "secure."
1953 - Jonas Salk announces his polio vaccine.
1958 - The African Regroupment Party (PRA) is launched at a meeting in Paris.
1958 - The United States Army launches Explorer 3.
1965 - A truck loses control down Moosic Street, Scranton, Pennsylvania, killing the driver. This accident later inspired the 1974 Harry Chapin song, "30,000 Pounds of Bananas."
1967 - Ten thousand people gather for the Central Park Be-In.
1971 - East Pakistan declares its independence from Pakistan to form People's Republic of Bangladesh and Bangladesh Liberation War begins.
1975 - The Biological Weapons Convention enters into force.
1976 - Queen Elizabeth II sent out the first royal email, from the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment.
1977 - Focus on the Family is founded by Dr. James Dobson
1979 - Anwar al-Sadat, Menachem Begin and Jimmy Carter sign the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty in Washington, DC.
1982 - A groundbreaking ceremony for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is held in Washington, DC.
1995 - The Schengen Treaty goes into effect.
1996 - The International Monetary Fund approves a $10.2 billion loan for Russia.
1997 - Thirty-nine bodies found in the Heaven's Gate cult suicides.
1998 - Oued Bouaicha massacre in Algeria; 52 people killed with axes and knives, 32 of them babies under the age of 2.
1999 - The "Melissa worm" infects Microsoft word processing and e-mail systems around the world.
1999 - A jury in Michigan finds Dr. Jack Kevorkian guilty of second-degree murder for administering a lethal injection to a terminally ill man.
2005 - The Taiwanese government calls on 1 million Taiwanese to demonstrate in Taipei, in opposition to the Anti-Secession Law of the People's Republic of China. Around 200,000 to 300,000 attend the walk.
2006 - In Scotland, the prohibition of smoking in all substantially enclosed public places comes into force.
2006 - The military junta ruling Burma officially named Naypyidaw, a new city in Mandalay Division, as the new capital. Yangon had formerly been the nation's capital.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Historical Events on 25 Mar

Historical Events on 25 Mar

1199 - Richard I is wounded by a crossbow bolt while fighting France which leads to his death on April 6.
1306 - Robert the Bruce becomes King of Scotland.
1409 - The Council of Pisa opens.
1584 - Sir Walter Raleigh is granted a patent to exploit Virginia.
1634 - The first settlers arrive in Maryland.
1655 - Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is discovered by Christian Huygens.
1802 - The Treaty of Amiens is signed as a "Definitive Treaty of Peace" between France and the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1807 - The Slave Trade Act becomes law, abolishing the slave trade in the British Empire.
1807 - The Swansea and Mumbles Railway, then known as the Oystermouth Railway, becomes the first passenger carrying railway in the world.
1811 - Percy Bysshe Shelley is expelled from the University of Oxford for his publication of the pamphlet The Necessity of Atheism.
1821 - (Julian Calendar) Greeks revolt against the Ottoman Empire, beginning the Greek War of Independence.
1865 - American Civil War: In Virginia, Confederate forces capture Fort Stedman from the Union in a bloody battle.
1894 - Coxey's Army, the first significant American protest march, departs Massillon, Ohio for Washington D.C.
1903 - Racing Club de Avellaneda, one of the big five of Argentina, is founded.
1908 - Clube Atletico Mineiro, Founded in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
1911 - In New York City, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire kills 146 garment workers.
1917 - The Georgian Orthodox Church restores its autocephaly abolished by Imperial Russia in 1811.
1918 - The Belarusian People's Republic is established.
1931 - The Scottsboro Boys are arrested in Alabama and charged with rape.
1939 - Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli becomes Pope Pius XII.
1941 - The Kingdom of Yugoslavia joins the Axis powers with the signing of the Tripartite Pact.
1947 - An explosion in a coalmine in Centralia, Illinois kills 111.
1949 - The extensive deportation campaign known as March deportation is conducted in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to force collectivisation by way of terror. The Soviet authorities deported more than 92,000 people from Baltics to remote areas of the Soviet Unio
1955 - United States Customs seizes copies of Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl" as obscene.
1957 - The European Economic Community is established (West Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg).
1958 - Canada's Avro Arrow makes its first flight.
1965 - Civil rights activists led by Martin Luther King, Jr. successfully complete their 4-day 50-mile march from Selma to the capitol in Montgomery, Alabama.
1969 - During their honeymoon, John Lennon and Yoko Ono hold their first Bed-In for Peace in the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel (until March 31).
1971 - Bangladesh Liberation War: Beginning of Operation Searchlight of Pakistan Army against East Pakistani civilians.
1975 - Faisal of Saudi Arabia is shot and killed by a mentally ill nephew.
1979 - The first fully functional space shuttle orbiter, The Columbia, is delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center to be prepared for its first launch.
1988 - The Candle demonstration in Bratislava is the first mass demonstration of the 1980s against the communist regime in Czechoslovakia.
1990 - In The Bronx, a fire at an illegal social club called "Happy Land" kills 87 people.
1992 - Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returns to Earth after a 10-month stay aboard the Mir space station.
1996 - An 81-day-long standoff between the anti-government group Montana Freemen and law enforcement near Jordan, Montana, begins.
1996 - The Labour Party is founded in Turkey.
1996 - The European Union's Veterinarian Committee bans the export of British beef and its by-products as a result of mad cow disease (BSE).
2006 - Capitol Hill massacre: A gunman kills six people before taking his own life at a party in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood.
2006 - Protesters demanding a re-election in Belarus following the rigged Belarusian presidential election, 2006 clash with riot police. Opposition leader Aleksander Kozulin is among several protesters arrested.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Historical Events on 24 Mar

Historical Events on 24 Mar

1401 - Mongol emperor Timur sacks Damascus.
1603 - James VI of Scotland also becomes James I King of England.
1731 - Naturalization of Hieronimus de Salis Parliamentary Act is passed.
1765 - American Revolutionary War: The Kingdom of Great Britain passes the Quartering Act that requires the Thirteen Colonies to house British troops.
1832 - In Hiram, Ohio a group of men beat, tar and feather Mormon leader Joseph Smith, Jr..
1837 - Canada gives African men the right to vote.
1844 - After a month of its independence, Dominican Republic fights against the Haitian army led by Charles Herard and General Pierrot
1868 - Metropolitan Life Insurance Company is formed.
1878 - The British frigate HMS Eurydice sinks, killing more than 300.
1882 - Robert Koch announces the discovery of the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis (mycobacterium tuberculosis).
1900 - New York City Mayor Robert Anderson Van Wyck breaks ground for a new underground "Rapid Transit Railroad" that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn.
1907 - The first issue of the Georgian Bolshevik newspaper Dro is published.
1923 - Greece becomes a republic.
1934 - U.S. Congress passes the Tydings-McDuffie Act.
1936 - The longest game in NHL history was played between Detroit and Montreal. Detroit scored at 16:30 of the sixth overtime and won the game 1-0.
1944 - Ardeatine Massacre: German troops kill 335 Italian civilians in Rome.
1944 - World War II: In an event later dramatized in the movie The Great Escape, 76 prisoners begin breaking out of Stalag Luft III.
1958 - Elvis Presley is officially inducted into the U.S.Army.
1959 - The Party of the African Federation (PFA) is launched by Léopold Sédar Senghor and Modibo Keita.
1965 - NASA spacecraft Ranger 9, equipped to convert its signals into a form suitable for showing on domestic television, brings images of the Moon into ordinary homes before crash landing.
1972 - The United Kingdom imposes "Direct Rule" over Northern Ireland.
1973 - Kenyan track runner Kip Keino defeats Jim Ryun at the first-ever professional track meet in Los Angeles, California.
1976 - Argentina's military forces depose president Isabel Perón and start the National Reorganization Process.
1980 - Archbishop Ã"scar Romero is killed by right-wing terrorists while celebrating Mass in San Salvador.
1989 - Exxon Valdez oil spill: In Prince William Sound in Alaska, the Exxon Valdez spills 240,000 barrels (42,000 m³) of petroleum after running aground.
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.
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.
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.
2006 - Long-term protests in Belarus are broken by police.
2006 - Pope Benedict XVI adds 15 men to the College of Cardinals, in the first consistory of his Pontificate.
2007 - The Australian Labor Party is reinstated after the New South Wales state elections.
2008 - Bhutan officially becomes a democracy, with its first ever general election.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Historical Events on 23 Mar

Historical Events on 23 Mar

1174 - Jocelin, abbot of Melrose, is elected bishop of Glasgow.
1568 - Peace of Longjumeau ends the Second War of Religion in France. Again Catherine de' Medici and Charles IX of France make substantial concessions to the Huguenots.
1708 - James Francis Edward Stuart lands at the Firth of Forth.
1775 - American Revolutionary War: Patrick Henry delivers his famous speech -"give me liberty or give me death" at St. John's Church in Richmond, Virginia.
1801 - Tsar Paul I of Russia is struck with a sword, then strangled, and finally trampled to death in his bedroom at St. Michael's Castle.
1806 - After traveling through the Louisiana Purchase and reaching the Pacific Ocean, explorers Lewis and Clark and their "Corps of Discovery" begin their arduous journey home.
1821 - Battle and fall of city of Kalamata, Greek War of Independence.
1848 - The ship John Wickliffe arrives at Port Chalmers carrying the first Scottish settlers for Dunedin, New Zealand. Otago province is founded.
1857 - Elisha Otis's first elevator is installed at 488 Broadway New York City.
1868 - The University of California is founded in Oakland, California when the Organic Act is signed into law.
1879 - War of the Pacific was fought between Chile and the joints forces of Bolivia and Peru. Chile successfully took over Arica and Tarapacá which left Bolivia as a landlocked country.
1889 - The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community was established by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in Qadian India.
1889 - The free Woolwich Ferry officially opens in east London.
1889 - Land Run: President Benjamin Harrison opens Oklahoma to white settlement starting on April 22.
1896 - The Raines Law is passed by the New York State Legislature, restricting Sunday sale of alcohol to hotels.
1903 - The Wright Brothers apply for a patent on their invention of one of the first successful airplanes.
1908 - American diplomat Durham Stevens is attacked by Korean assassins Jeon Myeong-un and Jang In-hwan, leading to his death in a hospital two days later.
1909 - Theodore Roosevelt leaves New York for a post-presidency safari in Africa. The trip is sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and National Geographic Society.
1919 - In Milan, Italy, Benito Mussolini founds his Fascist political movement.
1931 - Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev embrace the gallows during the Indian struggle for independence. Their request to be shot by a firing squad is refused.
1933 - The Reichstag passes the Enabling act of 1933, making Adolf Hitler dictator of Germany.
1935 - Signing of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of the Philippines.
1940 - The Lahore Resolution (Qarardad-e-Pakistan or the then Qarardad-e-Lahore) is put forward at the Annual General Convention of the All India Muslim League.
1942 - World War II: In the Indian Ocean, Japanese forces capture the Andaman Islands.
1956 - Pakistan becomes the first Islamic republic in the world. (Republic Day in Pakistan)
1962 - NS Savannah, the first nuclear-powered cargo-passenger ship, was launched as a showcase for Dwight D. Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace initiative.
1965 - NASA launches Gemini 3, the United States' first two-man space flight (crew: Gus Grissom and John Young).
1978 - The first UNIFIL troops arrived in Lebanon for peacekeeping mission along the Blue Line.
1980 - Archbishop Ã"scar Romero of El Salvador gives his famous speech appealing to men of the El Salvadoran armed forces to stop killing the Salvadorans.
1982 - Guatemala's government, headed by Fernando Romeo Lucas García is overthrown in a military coup by right-wing General Efraín Ríos Montt.
1983 - Strategic Defense Initiative: President Ronald Reagan makes his initial proposal to develop technology to intercept enemy missiles.
1989 - Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann announce cold fusion at the University of Utah.
1994 - A United States Air Force (USAF) F-16 aircraft collides with a USAF C-130 at Pope Air Force Base and then crashes, killing a group of 24 United States Army soldiers on the ground later to become known as the Green Ramp disaster.
1994 - Aeroflot Flight 593 crashes in Siberia when the pilot's fifteen-year old son accidentally disengages the autopilot, killing 75.
1994 - At an election rally in Tijuana, Mexican presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio is assassinated by Mario Aburto Martínez.
1996 - Taiwan holds its first direct elections and chooses Lee Teng-hui as President.
1999 - Gunmen assassinate Paraguay's Vice President Luis María Argaña.
2001 - The Russian Mir space station is disposed of, breaking up in the atmosphere before falling into the southern Pacific Ocean near Fiji.
2003 - In Nasiriyah, Iraq, 11 soldiers of the 507th Maintenance Company as well as 18 U.S. Marines are killed during the first major conflict of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
2004 - Andhra Pradesh Federation of Trade Unions holds its first conference in Hyderabad, India.
2005 - The United States 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, refuses to order the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube.
2005 - A major explosion at the Texas City Refinery kills 15 workers.
2006 - The Federal Reserve discontinues publishing M3 money supply.
2007 - Burnley Tunnel catastrophe occurs in Melbourne, Australia.
2007 - Iranian Navy seize Royal Navy personnel in Iraqi waters.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Historical Events on 22 Mar

Historical Events on 22 Mar

1621 - The Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony sign a peace treaty with Massasoit of the Wampanoags.
1622 - Jamestown massacre: Algonquian Indians kill 347 English settlers around Jamestown, Virginia, a third of the colony's population.
1630 - Massachusetts Bay Colony outlaws the possession of cards, dice, and gaming tables.
1638 - Anne Hutchinson is expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony for religious dissent.
1765 - The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Stamp Act, which introduced a tax to be levied directly on its American colonies.
1784 - The Emerald Buddha is moved with great ceremony to its current place in Wat Phra Kaew, Thailand.
1809 - Charles XIII succeeds Gustav IV Adolf to the Swedish throne.
1829 - The three protecting powers (Britain, France and Russia) establish the borders of Greece.
1849 - The Austrians defeat the Piedmontese at the Battle of Novara.
1871 - In North Carolina, William Woods Holden becomes the first governor of a U.S. state to be removed from office by impeachment.
1873 - A law is approved by the Spanish National Assembly in Puerto Rico to abolish slavery.
1888 - The Football League is formed.
1894 - The first playoff game for the Stanley Cup starts.
1895 - First display (a private screening) of motion pictures by Auguste and Louis Lumière.
1923 - The first radio broadcast of ice hockey is made by Foster Hewitt.
1933 - President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs into law a bill legalizing the sale of beer and wine.
1939 - World War II: Germany takes Memel from Lithuania.
1941 - Washington's Grand Coulee Dam begins to generate electricity.
1942 - World War II: In the Mediterranean Sea, Britain's Royal Navy confronts Italy's Regia Marina in the Second Battle of Sirte.
1943 - World War II: the entire population of Khatyn in Belarus is burnt alive by German occupation forces.
1945 - The Arab League is founded when a charter is adopted in Cairo, Egypt.
1954 - Closed since 1939, the London bullion market reopens.
1960 - Arthur Leonard Schawlow & Charles Hard Townes receive the first patent for a laser.
1975 - A fire at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant in Decatur, Alabama causes dangerous lowering of cooling water levels.
1978 - Karl Wallenda of the The Flying Wallendas dies after falling off a tight-rope between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
1979 - Margaret Thatcher puts down an early day motion censuring the government, which leads to the defeat of the Labour government of James Callaghan.
1984 - Teachers at the McMartin preschool in Manhattan Beach, California are charged with Satanic ritual abuse of the children in the school. The charges are later dropped as completely unfounded.
1989 - Clint Malarchuk of the Buffalo Sabres suffers a near-fatal injury when another player accidentally slits his throat.
1993 - The Intel Corporation ships the first Pentium chips (80586), featuring a 60 MHz clock speed, 100+ MIPS, and a 64 bit data path.
1995 - Cosmonaut Valeriy Polyakov returns after setting a record for 438 days in space.
1997 - Tara Lipinski, age 14 years and 10 months, becomes the youngest champion of the women's world figure skating competition.
1997 - The Comet Hale-Bopp has its closest approach to earth.
2004 - Ahmed Yassin, co-founder and leader of the Palestinian Sunni Islamist militant group Hamas, and bodyguards are killed in the Gaza Strip when hit by Israeli Air Force AH-64 Apache fired Hellfire missiles.
2006 - ETA, armed Basque separatist group, declares permanent ceasefire.
2006 - Three Christian Peacemaker Teams Hostages are freed by British forces in Baghdad after 118 days captivity and the death of their colleague, American Tom Fox.
2006 - BC Ferries' M/V Queen of the North runs aground on Gil Island British Columbia and sinks; 101 on board, 2 presumed deaths.
2008 - The French Swimmer Alain Bernard sets the world record of 47.50 for the 100 m freestyle long course after winning the European LC Championships 2008.
238 - Gordian I and his son Gordian II are proclaimed Roman emperor.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Historical Events on 21 Mar

Historical Events on 21 Mar

1188 - Accession to the throne of Japan by emperor Antoku.
1413 - Henry V becomes King of England.
1556 - In Oxford, Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer is burned at the stake.
1788 - A fire in New Orleans leaves most of the town in ruins.
1800 - With the church leadership driven out of Rome during an armed conflict, Pius VII is crowned Pope in Venice with a temporary papal tiara made of papier-mâché.
1801 - The Battle of Alexandria is fought between British and French forces near the ruins of Nicopolis in Egypt.
1804 - Code Napoléon is adopted as French civil law.
1821 - First revolutionary act in Monastery of Agia Lavra, Kalavryta, Greek War of Independence.
1844 - The Bahá'í calendar begins. This is the first day of the first year of the Bahá'í calendar. It is annually celebrated by members of the Bahá'í Faith as the Bahá'í New Year or Náw-Rúz.
1844 - The original date predicted by William Miller for the return of Christ.
1857 - An earthquake in Tokyo, Japan kills over 100,000.
1859 - Zoological Society of Philadelphia, 1st in US, incorporated
1871 - Otto von Bismarck is appointed Chancellor of the German Empire.
1871 - Journalist Henry Morton Stanley begins his trek to find the missionary and explorer David Livingstone.
1913 - Over 360 are killed and 20,000 homes destroyed in the Great Dayton Flood in Dayton, Ohio.
1918 - World War I: Second Battle of the Somme begins.
1928 - Charles Lindbergh is presented the Medal of Honor for his first trans-Atlantic flight.
1933 - Construction of Dachau, the first Nazi Germany concentration camp, is completed.
1935 - Shah Reza Pahlavi formally asks the international community to call Persia by its native name, Iran, which means 'Land of the Aryans'.
1937 - Ponce Massacre: 18 people and a 7-yr-old girl in Ponce, Puerto Rico are gunned down by a police squad acting under orders of US-appointed PR Governor, Blanton C. Winship.
1943 - Massacre of the town of Kalavryta, Greece by German Nazi troops.
1945 - World War II: British troops liberate Mandalay, Burma.
1952 - Alan Freed presents the Moondog Coronation Ball, the first rock and roll concert, in Cleveland, Ohio.
1960 - Apartheid: Massacre in Sharpeville, South Africa: Police open fire on a group of unarmed black South African demonstrators, killing 69 and wounding 180.
1963 - Alcatraz, a federal penitentiary on an island in San Francisco Bay, closes.
1964 - In Copenhagen, Denmark, Gigliola Cinquetti wins the ninth Eurovision Song Contest for Italy singing "Non ho l'età " ("I'm not old enough").
1965 - Martin Luther King Jr leads 3,200 people on the start of the third and finally successful civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
1965 - Ranger program: NASA launches Ranger 9 which is the last in a series of unmanned lunar space probes.
1968 - Battle of Karameh in Jordan between Israeli Defense Forces and Fatah.
1970 - The first Earth Day proclamation is issued by San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto.
1970 - Vinko Bogataj crashes during a ski-jumping championship in Germany; his image becomes that of the "agony of defeat guy" in the opening credits of ABC's Wide World of Sports.
1980 - On the season finale of the soap opera Dallas, the infamous character J.R. Ewing is shot by an unseen assailant, leading to the catchphrase "Who Shot JR?"
1980 - US President Jimmy Carter announces a United States boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan.
1985 - Canadian paraplegic athlete and humanitarian Rick Hansen begins his circumnavigation of the globe in a wheelchair in the name of spinal cord injury medical research.
1989 - Sports Illustrated reports allegations tying baseball player Pete Rose to baseball gambling.
1990 - Namibia becomes independent after 75 years of South African rule.
1997 - In a Tel Aviv, Israel coffee shop, a suicide bomber kills 3 and injures 49.
1998 - Good Friday Agreement signed in Northern Ireland.
1999 - Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones become the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon.
2002 - British schoolgirl Amanda Dowler is abducted in broad daylight on her way home from Heathside School in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey.
2002 - In Pakistan, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh along with three other suspects are charged with murder for their part in the kidnapping and killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
2004 - In Malaysia, the 11th Federal and State elections are held, returning the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional to power with an increased majority.
2006 - Immigrant workers constructing the Burj Dubayy in Dubai, The United Arab Emirates and a new terminal of Dubai International Airport join together and riot, causing $1M in damage.
630 - Byzantine emperor Heraclius restores the True Cross to Jerusalem.
717 - Battle of Vincy between Charles Martel and Ragenfrid.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Historical Events on 20 Mar

Historical Events on 20 Mar

1600 - The Linköping Bloodbath takes place on Maundy Thursday in Linköping, Sweden.
1602 - The Dutch East India Company is established.
1616 - Sir Walter Raleigh is freed from the Tower of London after 13 years of imprisonment.
1739 - Nadir Shah occupies Delhi in India and sacks the city, stealing the jewels of the Peacock Throne.
1760 - The "Great Fire" of Boston, Massachusetts destroys 349 buildings.
1815 - After escaping from Elba, Napoleon enters Paris with a regular army of 140,000 and a volunteer force of around 200,000, beginning his "Hundred Days" rule.
1848 - Revolutions of 1848 in the German states: King Ludwig I of Bavaria abdicates.
1852 - Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin is published.
1856 - Costa Rican troops rout Walker's soldiers.
1861 - An earthquake completely destroys Mendoza, Argentina.
1883 - The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property is signed.
1913 - Sung Chiao-jen, a founder of the Chinese Nationalist Party, is wounded in an assassination attempt and dies 2 days later.
1914 - In New Haven, Connecticut, the first international figure skating championship takes place.
1916 - Albert Einstein publishes his general theory of relativity.
1922 - The USS Langley is commissioned as the first United States Navy aircraft carrier.
1933 - Giuseppe Zangara is executed in Florida's electric chair for fatally shooting Anton Cermak in an assassination attempt against President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
1942 - World War II: In Zgierz, Poland, 100 Poles are taken from a labor camp and shot by the Germans.
1942 - Holocaust: in Rohatyn, western Ukraine, the German SS murder 3,000 Jews, including 600 children, annihilating 70% of Rohatyn's Jewish ghetto.
1942 - World War II: General Douglas MacArthur, at Terowie, South Australia, makes his famous speech regarding the fall of the Philippines, in which he says: "I came out of Bataan and I shall return".
1948 - With a Musicians Union ban lifted, the first telecasts of classical music in the United States, under Eugene Ormandy and Arturo Toscanini, are given on CBS and NBC.
1951 - Fujiyoshida, a city located in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan, in the center of the Japanese main island of Honshū is founded.
1952 - The United States Senate ratifies a peace treaty with Japan.
1956 - Tunisia gains independence from France.
1964 - The precursor of the European Space Agency, ESRO (European Space Research Organization) is established per an agreement signed on June 14, 1962.
1969 - John Lennon and Yoko ono were married.
1974 - Ian Ball attempts, but fails, to kidnap Her Royal Highness Princess Anne and her husband Captain Mark Phillips in The Mall, outside Buckingham Palace, London.
1980 - The Radio Caroline ship, Mi Amigo founders in a gale off the English coast.
1985 - Libby Riddles becomes the first woman to win the 1,135-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
1987 - The Food and Drug Administration approves the anti-AIDS drug, AZT.
1988 - Eritrean War of Independence: Having defeated the Nadew Command, the Eritrean People's Liberation Front enters the town of Afabet, victoriously concluding the Battle of Afabet.
1990 - Ferdinand Marcos's widow, Imelda Marcos, goes on trial for bribery, embezzlement, and racketeering.
1993 - An IRA bomb explodes in Warrington, northwest England, killing two children.
1995 - A sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway kills 12 and wounds 1,300 persons.
1999 - Legoland California, the first and only Legoland outside of Europe, opens in Carlsbad, California.
2000 - Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, a former Black Panther once known as H. Rap Brown, is captured after a gun battle that leaves a Georgia sheriff's deputy dead.
2003 - 2003 invasion of Iraq: In the early hours of the morning, the United States and three other countries begin military operations in Iraq.
2004 - Stephen Harper wins the leadership of the newly created Conservative Party of Canada, becoming the party's first leader.
2005 - A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits Fukuoka, Japan, its first major quake in over 100 years. One person is killed, hundreds are injured and evacuated.
2006 - Cyclone Larry makes landfall in eastern Australia, destroying most of the country's banana crop.
2006 - Over 150 Chadian soldiers are killed in eastern Chad by members of the rebel UFDC. The rebel movement sought to overthrow Chadian president Idriss Deby.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Historical Events on 19 Mar

Historical Events on 19 Mar

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.
1861 - The First Taranaki War ends in New Zealand.
1863 - The SS Georgiana, said to have been the most powerful Confederate cruiser, is destroyed on her maiden voyage with a cargo of munitions, medicines and merchandise then valued at over $1,000,000. The wreck was discovered on the same day and month, exactly 1
1865 - American Civil War: The Battle of Bentonville begins. By the end of the battle two days later, Confederate forces had retreated from Four Oaks, North Carolina.
1915 - Pluto is photographed for the first time but is 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 at a group of children in Strunjan (Slovenia): two children are killed, two mangled and three wounded.
1931 - Gambling is legalized in Nevada.
1931 - The Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra plays its first concert in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
1932 - The Sydney Harbour Bridge is opened.
1941 - World War II: The 99th Pursuit Squadron also known as the Tuskegee Airmen, the first all-black unit of the Army Air Corp, is activated.
1943 - Frank Nitti, the Chicago Outfit Boss after Al Capone, commits suicide at the Chicago Central Railyard.
1944 - World War II: Nazi forces occupy Hungary.
1945 - World War II: Adolf Hitler issues his "Nero Decree" ordering all industries, military installations, shops, transportation facilities and communications facilities in Germany to be destroyed.
1945 - World War II: Off the coast of Japan, a dive bomber hits the aircraft carrier USS Franklin, killing 724 of her crew. Badly damaged, the ship is able to return to the U.S. under her own power.
1946 - French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion become overseas départements of France.
1954 - Joey Giardello knocks out Willie Tory in round seven at Madison Square Garden in the first televised prize boxing fight shown in color.
1962 - Algerian War of Independence: A ceasefire takes effect.
1965 - The wreck of the SS Georgiana, valued at over $50,000,000 and said to have been the most powerful Confederate cruiser, was discovered by then teenage diver and pioneer underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence exactly 102 years after its destruction.
1966 - Texas Western becomes the first college basketball team to win the Final Four, to start five black players.
1969 - The 385 metre tall TV-mast at Emley Moor, United Kingdom, collapses due to ice build- up.
1972 - India and Bangladesh sign a friendship treaty.
1978 - UN Security Council Resolution 425 and 426 are passed, calling upon Israel immediately to cease its military action and withdraw its forces from all Lebanese territory (Operation Litani), and establishing the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFI
1979 - The United States House of Representatives begins broadcasting its day-to-day business via the cable television network C-SPAN.
1982 - Falklands War: Argentinian forces land on South Georgia Island, precipitating war with the U.K..
1987 - Televangelist Jim Bakker resigns as head of the PTL Club due to a brewing sex scandal; he hands over control to Jerry Falwell.
2001 - The Bank of Japan issued a monetary policy known as quantitative easing, which stimulated the Japanese economy after the burst of the dot-com bubble.
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 - 3-19 Shooting Incident: Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian is shot just before the country's presidential election on March 20.
2008 - GRB 080319B: A cosmic burst that is the farthest object visible to the naked eye was briefly observed on this day.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Historical Events on 18 Mar

Historical Events on 18 Mar

1229 - Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor declares himself King of Jerusalem during the Sixth Crusade.
1241 - Kraków is ravaged by Mongols.
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 - Albert II of Habsburg becomes King of Germany.
1608 - Susenyos is formally crowned Emperor of Ethiopia.
1673 - John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton sells his part of New Jersey to the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers.
1766 - American Revolution: The British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act, which had been very unpopular in the British colonies.
1781 - Charles Messier rediscovers global cluster M92
1793 - The first republican state in Germany, the Republic of Mainz, is declared by Andreas Joseph Hofmann.
1834 - Six farm labourers from Tolpuddle, Dorset, England are sentenced to be transported to Australia for forming a trade union.
1850 - American Express is founded by Henry Wells and William Fargo.
1865 - American Civil War: The Congress of the Confederate States of America adjourns for the last time.
1871 - Declaration of the Paris Commune; President of the French Republic, Adolphe Thiers, orders evacuation of Paris.
1874 - Hawaii signs a treaty with the United States granting exclusive trading rights.
1893 - Former Governor General Lord Stanley pledges to donate a silver challenge cup, later named after him, as an award for the best hockey team in Canada; originally presented to amateur champions, the Stanley Cup has been awarded to the top pro team since 191
1906 - Traian Vuia flies a self-propelled heavier-than-air aircraft.
1909 - Einar Dessau uses a short-wave radio transmitter, becoming the first radio broadcaster.
1913 - King George I of Greece is assassinated in the recently liberated city of Thessaloniki.
1915 - World War I: Massive naval attack in Battle of Gallipoli. Three battleships are sunk during a failed British and French naval attack on the Dardanelles.
1921 - The second Peace of Riga between Poland and Soviet Union.
1922 - In India, Mohandas Gandhi is sentenced to six years in prison for civil disobedience. He would serve only 2 years.
1922 - The first public celebration of Bat mitzvah, for the daughter of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, is held in New York City.
1925 - The Tri-State Tornado hits the Midwestern states of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, killing 695 people.
1937 - The human-powered aircraft, Pedaliante, flies 1 kilometre (0.62 miles) outside Milan.
1937 - Spanish Civil War: Spanish Republican forces defeat the Italians at the Battle of Guadalajara.
1937 - The New London School explosion kills three hundred, mostly children.
1938 - Mexico nationalizes all foreign-owned oil properties within its borders.
1940 - World War II: Axis Powers - Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini meet at the Brenner Pass in the Alps and agree to form an alliance against France and the United Kingdom.
1944 - The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy kills 26 and causes thousands to flee their homes.
1945 - World War II: 1,250 American bombers attack Berlin.
1946 - Diplomatic relations between Switzerland and the Soviet Union are established.
1948 - Soviet consultants have left Yugoslavia in first sign of Tito-Stalin split.
1953 - An earthquake hits western Turkey, killing 250.
1959 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a bill into law allowing for Hawaiian statehood, which would become official on August 21.
1962 - The Evian Accords put an end to the Algerian War of Independence, which began in 1954.
1965 - Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becomes the first person to walk in space.
1967 - The Supertanker Torrey Canyon runs aground off the Cornish coast.
1968 - Gold standard: The U.S. Congress repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back US currency.
1970 - Lon Nol ousts Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia.
1971 - A landslide at Chungar, Peru crashes into Lake Yanahuani killing 200.
1974 - Oil embargo crisis: Most OPEC nations end a five-month oil embargo against the United States, Europe and Japan.
1980 - At Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia, 50 people are killed by an explosion of a Vostok-2M rocket on its launch pad during a fueling operation.
1989 - In Egypt, a 4,400-year-old mummy is found in the Pyramid of Cheops.
1990 - In the largest art theft in US history, 12 paintings, collectively worth around $300 million, are stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts.
1996 - A nightclub fire in Quezon City, Philippines kills 162.
1997 - The tail of a Russian Antonov An-24 charter plane breaks off while en-route to Turkey causing the plane to crash and killing all 50 on board and leading to the grounding of all An-24s.
2003 - British Sign Language is recognised as an official British language.
2003 - The Iraq War begins.
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.
2005 - Terri Schiavo's feeding tube is removed at the request of her husband.
37 - The Roman Senate annuls Tiberius' will and proclaims Caligula emperor.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Historical Events on 17 Mar

Historical Events on 17 Mar

1337 - Edward, the Black Prince is made Duke of Cornwall, the first Duchy made in England.
1756 - St. Patrick's Day is celebrated in New York City for the first time (at the Crown and Thistle Tavern).
1776 - American Revolution: British forces evacuate Boston, Massachusetts after George Washington and Henry Knox place artillery overlooking the city.
180 - Marcus Aurelius dies. Commodus is now the only emperor of the Roman Empire.
1805 - The Italian Republic, with Napoleon as president, becomes the Kingdom of Italy, with Napoleon as King.
1845 - The rubber band is patented.
1861 - The Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946) is proclaimed.
1901 - A showing of seventy-one Vincent van Gogh paintings in Paris, 11 years after his death, creates a sensation.
1906 - The Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity is founded at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
1910 - Luther Gulick and his wife Charlotte found Camp Fire Girls (now Camp Fire USA) (formally announced in 1912).
1913 - The Uruguayan Air Force is founded.
1917 - Delta Phi Epsilon is founded at New York University Law School.
1921 - The Second Republic of Poland adopts the March Constitution.
1939 - Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945): The Battle of Nanchang between the Kuomintang and the Japanese breaks out.
1941 - In Washington, D.C., the National Gallery of Art is officially opened by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
1942 - Holocaust: The first Jews from the Lviv Ghetto (western Ukraine) are gassed at the Belzec death camp (eastern Poland).
1945 - The Ludendorff Bridge in Remagen, Germany collapses, ten days after its capture.
1948 - Benelux, France, and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Brussels, a precursor to the NATO Agreement.
1950 - University of California, Berkeley researchers announce the creation of element 98, which they name "Californium".
1957 - A plane crash in Cebu, Philippines kills Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay and 24 others.
1958 - The United States launches the Vanguard 1 satellite.
1959 - Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, flees Tibet for India.
1960 - U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the National Security Council directive on the anti-Cuban covert action program that will ultimately lead to the Bay of Pigs Invasion.
1966 - Off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean, the Alvin submarine finds a missing American hydrogen bomb.
1969 - Golda Meir becomes the first female Prime Minister of Israel.
1970 - My Lai massacre: The United States Army charges 14 officers with suppressing information related to the incident.
1973 - The Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph Burst of Joy is taken, depicting a former prisoner of war being reunited with his family.
1975 - The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad enter third and final bankruptcy, and William M. Gibbons selected as receiver and trustee for the railroad.
1979 - The Penmanshiel Tunnel collapses during engineering works, killing two workers.
1985 - Serial killer Richard Ramirez, the "Night Stalker", commits his first two murders in Los Angeles, California murder spree.
1988 - A Colombian Boeing 727 jetliner, Avianca Flight 410, crashes into a mountainside near the Venezuelan border killing 143.
1988 - Eritrean War of Independence: The Nadew Command, an Ethiopian army corps in Eritrea, is attacked on three sides by military units of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) in the opening action of the Battle of Afabet.
1992 - A suicide car-bomb kills 29 and injures 242 at the Israeli Embassy attack in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
2000 - The 800+ deaths of members of the Ugandan cult Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God is considered to be a mass murder and suicide orchestrated by leaders of the cult.
2003 - British Cabinet Minister Robin Cook, resigns over government plans for the war with Iraq.
2004 - Unrest in Kosovo results in more than 22 killed, 200 wounded, and the destruction of 35 Serb Orthodox shrines in Kosovo and two mosques in Belgrade and Nis.
2008 - New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer resigns after a scandal involving a high-end prostitute. David Paterson becomes acting New York State governor.
45 BC - In his last victory, Julius Caesar defeats the Pompeian forces of Titus Labienus and Pompey the Younger in the Battle of Munda.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Historical Events on 16 Mar

Historical Events on 16 Mar

1190 - Crusaders start to massacre the Jews of York; many Jews commit suicide rather than submit to baptism.
1249 - The Servite Order is officially approved by Cardinal Raniero Capocci, papal legate in Tuscany.
1322 - The Battle of Boroughbridge takes place in the First War of Scottish Independence.
1521 - Ferdinand Magellan reaches the Philippines.
1621 - Samoset, a Mohegan, visits the settlers of Plymouth Colony and greets them, "Welcome, Englishmen! My name is Samoset."
1660 - The Long Parliament disbands.
1689 - The 23rd Regiment of Foot or Royal Welch Fusiliers is founded.
1792 - King Gustav III of Sweden is shot; he dies on March 29.
1802 - The United States Military Academy at West Point is established.
1812 - Battle of Badajoz (March 16 - April 6) - British and Portuguese forces besiege and defeat French garrison during Peninsular War.
1815 - Prince Willem of the House of Orange-Nassau proclaims himself King of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, the first constitutional monarch in The Netherlands.
1818 - Second Battle of Cancha Rayada - Spanish forces defeat Chileans under José de San Martín.
1861 - Edward Clark became Governor of Texas, replacing Sam Houston, who was evicted from the office for refusing to take an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy.
1865 - American Civil War: The Battle of Averasborough begins as Confederate forces suffer irreplaceable casualties in the final months of the war.
1867 - First publication of an article by Joseph Lister outlining the discovery of antiseptic surgery, in The Lancet.
1872 - The Wanderers F.C. won the first FA Cup, the oldest football competition in the world, beating Royal Engineers A.F.C. 1-0 at The Oval in Kennington, London.
1900 - Sir Arthur Evans purchases the land around the ruins of Knossos, the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete.
1912 - Lawrence Oates, ill member of Scott's South Pole expedition leaves the tent saying, "I am just going outside and may be some time."
1916 - The 7th and 10th US cavalry regiments under John J. Pershing cross the US-Mexico border to join the hunt for Pancho Villa.
1924 - The free port of Fiume is formally annexed by Mussolini's fascist regime.
1926 - History of Rocketry: Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.
1935 - Adolf Hitler orders Germany to rearm herself in violation of the Versailles Treaty. Conscription was reintroduced to form the Wehrmacht.
1939 - Marriage of Princess Fawzia of Egypt to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran.
1939 - From Prague Castle, Hitler proclaims Bohemia and Moravia a German protectorate.
1942 - History of Rocketry: The first V-2 rocket test launch (exploded at liftoff).
1943 - The Royal Navy Isles Class Trawler HMS Campobello Sinks in the Atlantic.
1945 - World War II: The Battle of Iwo Jima ends but small pockets of Japanese resistance persist.
1945 - Würzburg, Germany is 90% destroyed, with 5,000 dead, in only 20 minutes by British bombers.
1950 - Communist Czechoslovakia's ministry of foreign affairs asked nuncios of Vatican to leave the country.
1952 - In Cilaos, Réunion, 1,870mm (73 inches) of rain falls in one day, setting a new world record.
1958 - The Ford Motor Company produces its 50 millionth automobile, the Thunderbird, averaging almost a million cars a year since the company's founding.
1962 - A Flying Tiger Line Super Constellation disappears in the western Pacific Ocean, with 107 people missing.
1963 - Mount Agung erupts on Bali, as 11,000 die.
1966 - Launch of Gemini 8, the 12th manned American space flight and first space docking with the Agena Target Vehicle.
1968 - Vietnam War: In the My Lai massacre, between 350 and 500 Vietnamese villagers: men, women, and children are killed by American troops.
1968 - General Motors produces its 100 millionth automobile, the Oldsmobile Toronado.
1971 - Government of Trygve Bratteli in Norway.
1976 - British Prime Minister Harold Wilson resigns, citing personal reasons.
1978 - Supertanker Amoco Cadiz splits in two after running aground on the Portsall Rocks, three miles off the coast of Brittany, resulting in the 5th-largest oil spill in history.
1978 - Former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro is kidnapped by left-wing terrorists and is later killed by his captors.
1979 - Edmer Asama
1983 - Demolition of the radio tower Ismaning, the last radio tower in Germany built of wood.
1984 - William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, Lebanon, is kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists and later dies in captivity.
1985 - Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson is taken hostage in Beirut. He is released on December 4, 1991.
1988 - Halabja poison gas attack: The Kurdish town of Halabjah in Iraq was attacked with a mix of poison gas and nerve agents, killing 5000 people and injured about 10000 people.
1988 - Iran-Contra Affair: Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter are indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
1995 - Mississippi formally ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was officially ratified in 1865.
1997 - Sandline affair: On Bougainville Island, soldiers of commander Jerry Singirok arrest Tim Spicer and his mercenaries of the Sandline International.
1998 - Pope John Paul II asks God for forgiveness for the inactivity and silence of some Roman Catholics during the Holocaust.
2003 - The largest coordinated worldwide vigil takes place, as part of the global protests against Iraq war.
2005 - Israel officially hands over Jericho to Palestinian control.
2006 - The United Nations General Assembly votes overwhelmingly to establish the UN Human Rights Council.
597 BC - Babylonians capture Jerusalem, replace Jehoiachin with Zedekiah as king.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Historical Events on 15 Mar

Historical Events on 15 Mar

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.
1776 - South Carolina becomes the first American colony to declare its independence from Great Britain and set up its own government.
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.
1848 - A revolution breaks out in Hungary. The Habsburg rulers are compelled to meet the demands of the Reform party.
1873 - The Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity is founded at Massachusetts Agricultural College.
1877 - The first Test cricket match begins between England and Australia.
1906 - Rolls-Royce Limited is incorporated.
1916 - President Woodrow Wilson sends 12,000 United States troops over the U.S.-Mexico border to pursue Pancho Villa.
1917 - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates 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.
1926 - The dictator Theodoros Pangalos is elected President of Greece without opposition.
1933 - Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss keeps members of the National Council from convening, starting the austrofascist dictatorship.
1939 - World War II: German troops occupy the remaining part of Bohemia and Moravia; Czechoslovakia ceases to exist.
1941 - A blizzard strikes western Canada and USA killing 79.
1943 - World War II: Third Battle of Kharkov - the Germans retake the city of Kharkov from the Soviet armies in bitter street fighting.
1944 - World War II: Battle of Monte Cassino - Allied aircraft bomb the German-held monastery and stage an assault.
1952 - In Cilaos, Réunion, 1870 mm (73 inches) of rain falls in one day, setting a new world record.
1961 - South Africa withdraws from the Commonwealth of Nations.
1965 - President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to the Selma crisis, tells U.S. Congress "We shall overcome" while advocating the Voting Rights Act.
1970 - The Expo '70 world's fair opens in Osaka, Japan.
1985 - The first Internet domain name is registered (symbolics.com).
1988 - The Halabja poison gas attack of the Iran-Iraq War begins.
1989 - The United States Department of Veterans Affairs is established.
1990 - The ethnic clashes of Târgu Mureş begin on the anniversary of the Revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas.
1990 - Mikhail Gorbachev is elected as the first executive president of the Soviet Union.
1990 - Gulf War: Iraq hangs British journalist Farzad Bazoft for spying.
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.
2003 - Hu Jintao takes over presidency for the People's Republic of China.
2004 - Announcement of the discovery of 90377 Sedna, the farthest natural object in the Solar system so far observed.
221 - Liu Bei, a Chinese warlord and member of the Han royal house, declares himself emperor of Shu-Han and claims his legitimate succession to the Han Dynasty.
351 - Constantius II elevates his cousin Gallus to Caesar, and puts him in charge of the Eastern part of the Roman Empire.
44 BC - Julius Caesar, Dictator of the Roman Republic, is stabbed to death by Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus, Decimus Junius Brutus and several other Roman senators on the Ides of March.
933 - After a ten-year truce, German King Henry I defeats a Hungarian army at the Battle of Riade near the Unstrut river.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Historical Events on 14 Mar

Historical Events on 14 Mar

1489 - The Queen of Cyprus, Catherine Cornaro, sells her kingdom to Venice.
1590 - Battle of Ivry: Henry of Navarre and the Huguenots defeat the forces of the Catholic League under the Duc de Mayenne during the French Wars of Religion.
1647 - Thirty Years' War: Bavaria, Cologne, France and Sweden sign the Truce of Ulm.
1757 - On-board the HMS Monarch, Admiral John Byng is executed by firing squad for neglecting his duty.
1794 - Eli Whitney is granted a patent for the cotton gin.
1869 - Defeat of Titokowaru.
1889 - German Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents his "Navigable Balloon"
1900 - The Gold Standard Act is ratified, placing United States currency on the gold standard.
1903 - The Hay-Herran Treaty, granting the United States the right to build the Panama Canal, is ratified by the United States Senate. The Colombian Senate would later reject the treaty.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Historical Events on 13 Mar

Historical Events on 13 Mar

1138 - Cardinal Gregorio Conti is elected Antipope as Victor IV, succeeding Anacletus II.
1639 - Harvard College is named for clergyman John Harvard.
1781 - William Herschel discovers Uranus.
1845 - Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto is premièred in Leipzig with Ferdinand David as soloist.
1862 - American Civil War: The U.S. federal government forbids all Union army officers from returning fugitive slaves, thus effectively annulling the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 and setting the stage for the Emancipation Proclamation.
1865 - American Civil War: The Confederate States of America agree to the use of African American troops.
1881 - Alexander II of Russia is killed near his palace when a bomb is thrown at him. (Gregorian date: it was March 1 in the Julian calendar then in use in Russia.)
1884 - The siege of Khartoum, Sudan begins, ending on January 26, 1885.
1897 - San Diego State University is founded.
1900 - Second Boer War: British forces occupy Bloemfontein, Orange Free State.
1900 - In France the length of the workday for women and children is limited to 11 hours by law.
1920 - The Kapp Putsch briefly oust the Weimar Republic government from Berlin.
1921 - Mongolia, under Baron Roman Ungern von Sternberg, declares its independence from China.
1925 - Scopes Trial: A law in Tennessee prohibits the teaching of evolution.
1930 - The news of the discovery of Pluto is telegraphed to the Harvard College Observatory.
1933 - Great Depression: Banks in the U.S. begin to re-open after President Franklin D. Roosevelt mandated a "bank holiday".
1938 - World News Roundup is broadcast for the first time on CBS Radio in the United States.
1940 - The Russo-Finnish Winter War ends.
1943 - World War II: In Bougainville, Japanese troops end their assault on American forces at Hill 700.
1943 - The Holocaust: German forces liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Kraków.
1954 - Battle of Điện Biên Phủ: Viet Minh forces attack the French.
1957 - Cuban student revolutionaries storm the presidential palace in Havana in a failed attempt on the life of President Fulgencio Batista.
1962 - Lyman Lemnitzer, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, delivers a proposal, called Operation Northwoods, regarding performing terrorist attacks in Guantanamo Bay, to Secretary of Defense Robert Mcnamara. The proposal is scrapped and President John F. Ken
1969 - Apollo program: Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module.
1979 - The New Jewel Movement, headed by Maurice Bishop, ousts Prime Minister Eric Gairy in a nearly bloodless coup d'etat in Grenada.
1986 - Microsoft has its Initial public offering.
1989 - A geomagnetic storm causes the collapse of the Hydro-Québec power grid. Six million people were left without power for nine hours.
1991 - The United States Justice Department announces that Exxon has agreed to pay $1 billion for the clean-up of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.
1992 - An earthquake registering 6.8 on the Richter scale kills over 500 in Erzincan, eastern Turkey.
1996 - Dunblane massacre: in Dunblane, Scotland, 16 children and 1 teacher are shot dead by a spree killer who then commits suicide.
1997 - India's Missionaries of Charity chooses Sister Nirmala to succeed Mother Teresa as its leader.
1997 - The Phoenix lights were seen over Phoenix, Arizona by hundreds of people, and by millions on television. They are now a hotly debated controversy.
2003 - Human evolution: The journal Nature reports that 350,000-year-old footprints of an upright-walking human have been found in Italy.
2005 - Terry Ratzmann shoots and kills six members of the Living Church of God and the minister at Sheraton Inn in Brookfield, Wisconsin before killing himself.
2008 - Gold prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange hit $1,000.00 an ounce for the first time.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Historical Events on 12 Mar

Historical Events on 12 Mar

1622 - Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, is canonized a saint by the Catholic Church.
1664 - New Jersey becomes a colony of Britain.
1832 - The ballet La Sylphide first premieres at the Opéra de Paris.
1868 - Henry O'Farrell attempts to assassinate Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh.
1881 - Andrew Watson makes his Scotland debut as the world's first black international football player and captain.
1894 - In Vicksburg, Mississippi, USA, Coca-Cola is sold in bottles for the first time.
1908 - The Pan-Macedonian group is formed in Athens to support the Greek Struggle for Macedonia.
1912 - The Girl Guides (later renamed the Girl Scouts of the USA) are founded in the United States.
1913 - Canberra Day: The future capital of Australia is officially named Canberra. (Melbourne remained temporary capital until 1927 while the new capital was still under construction.)
1918 - Moscow becomes the capital of Russia again after Saint-Petersburg held this status for 215 years.
1928 - In California, the St. Francis Dam fails, killing over 600 people.
1930 - Mahatma Gandhi leads a 200-mile march known as Dandi March to the sea in defiance of British opposition, to protest the British monopoly on salt.
1933 - Great Depression: Franklin D. Roosevelt addresses the nation for the first time as President of the United States. This was also the first of his "Fireside Chats."
1938 - Anschluss: German troops occupy Austria; annexation declared the following day.
1940 - Winter War: Finland signs the Moscow Peace Treaty with the Soviet Union, ceding almost all of Finnish Karelia. Finnish troops and the remaining population is immediately evacuated.
1947 - The Truman Doctrine is proclaimed to help stem the spread of Communism.
1967 - Suharto takes over from Sukarno to become President of Indonesia.
1968 - Mauritius achieves independence.
1971 - The March 12 Memorandum, second intervention of Turkish Army, is sent to the Demirel government and Demirel government resigned.
1992 - Mauritius becomes a republic while remaining a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.
1993 - Several bombs explode in Bombay (Mumbai), India, killing about 300 and injuring hundreds more.
1993 - North Korea nuclear weapons program: North Korea says that it plans to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and refuses to allow inspectors access to nuclear sites.
1994 - The Church of England ordains its first female priests.
1999 - Former Warsaw Pact members the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland join NATO.
2003 - Zoran ĐinÄ'ić, Prime Minister of Serbia, is assassinated in Belgrade.
2004 - Roh Moo-hyun, President of South Korea is impeached by its national assembly for the first time in the nation's history.
2005 - Tung Chee Hwa, the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong, steps down from his post after his resignation is approved by the Chinese central government.
538 - Witiges, king of the Ostrogoths ends his siege of Rome and retreats to Ravenna, leaving the city in the hands of the victorious Roman general, Belisarius.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Historical Events on 11 Mar

Historical Events on 11 Mar

1387 - The Battle of Castagnaro begins.
1425 BC - Thutmose III, Pharaoh of Egypt, dies (according to the Low Chronology of the 18th Dynasty).
1649 - The Frondeurs (rebels) and the French government sign the Peace of Rueil.
1702 - The first regular English language newspaper, The Daily Courant, is published in London, England.
1708 - Queen Anne withholds Royal Assent from the Scottish Militia Bill, the last time a British monarch vetoes legislation.
1779 - Army Corps of Engineers for the United States is authorized by Congress.
1801 - Paul I of Russia is assassinated, leading the way for his son Alexander I to accede the throne.
1824 - The United States War Department creates the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
1845 - The Flagstaff War: In New Zealand, Chiefs Hone Heke and Kawiti lead 700 Māoris to chop down the British flagpole and drive settlers out of the British colonial settlement of Kororareka because of breaches of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi.
1845 - British baker Henry Jones invents self-raising flour.
1848 - Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin become the first Prime Ministers of the Province of Canada to be democratically elected under a system of responsible government.
1851 - The first performance of Rigoletto, written by Verdi.
1861 - American Civil War: The Constitution of the Confederate States of America is adopted.
1864 - The Great Sheffield Flood: The largest man-made disaster ever to befall England kills over 250 people in Sheffield.
1867 - The first performance of Don Carlos written by Verdi.
1872 - The Meiji Japanese government officially annexes the Ryukyu Kingdom into what would become the Okinawa prefecture.
1872 - Construction of the Seven Sisters Colliery, South Wales, begins; located on one of the richest coal sources in Britain.
1888 - The Great Blizzard of 1888 begins along the eastern seaboard of the United States, shutting down commerce and killing more than 400.
1897 - A meteorite enters the earth's atmosphere and explodes over New Martinsville, West Virginia. The debris causes damage but no human injuries are reported.
1900 - Second Boer War: Boer leader Paul Kruger's peace overtures are rejected by Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Lord Salisbury.
1912 - Eleftherios Venizelos, leader of the Liberal Party, wins the Greek elections again.
1917 - World War I: Baghdad falls to the Anglo-Indian forces commanded by General Stanley Maude.
1918 - First confirmed cases of the Spanish Flu are observed at Fort Riley, Kansas.
1918 - Bolshevist Russia moves the national capital from Petrograd to Moscow.
1927 - In New York City, Samuel Roxy Rothafel opens the Roxy Theatre.
1931 - Ready for Labour and Defence of the USSR, abbreviated as GTO, is introduced in the Soviet Union.
1936 - British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin pardons five convicted Irish militants who promise to join growing conflict with Germany.
1941 - World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act into law, allowing American-built war supplies to be shipped to the Allies on loan.
1942 - World War II: General Douglas MacArthur abandons Corregidor.
1945 - World War II: The Imperial Japanese Navy attempts a large-scale kamikaze attack on the U.S. Pacific fleet anchored at Ulithi atoll in Operation Tan No. 2.
1966 - Supersemar: President Sukarno of Indonesia is forced to give up his executive power.
1966 - A fire at two ski resorts in Numata, Japan kills 31 people.
1977 - The 1977 Hanafi Muslim Siege: more than 130 hostages held in Washington, D.C., by Hanafi Muslims are set free after ambassadors from three Islamic nations join negotiations.
1978 - Nine Palestinian Al Fatah guerrillas hijack a bus in Israel, killing 34 civilians and wounding 70 before being killed by security forces. The Israelis retaliate by invading southern Lebanon three days later in Operation Litani.
1985 - Mikhail Gorbachev becomes the Soviet Union's leader.
1988 - Iran-Iraq War: Iran and Iraq agree to stop attacking civilian centers.
1990 - Lithuania declares itself independent from the Soviet Union.
1990 - Patricio Aylwin is sworn-in as the first democratically elected Chilean president since 1970.
1991 - A curfew is imposed on black townships in South Africa after fighting between rival political gangs kills 49.
1993 - Janet Reno is confirmed by the United States Senate and sworn-in the next day, becoming the first female Attorney General of the United States.
1996 - The EU Database Directive is passed.
1996 - John Winston Howard becomes the 25th Prime Minister of Australia. His term in office is the second longest in Australian history, ending on December 3, 2007.
1997 - An explosion at a nuclear waste reprocessing plant in Japan exposes 35 workers to low-level radioactive contamination in the worst nuclear accident in Japan's history.
1999 - Infosys becomes the first Indian company listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
2003 - The International Criminal Court holds its inaugural session in The Hague.
2004 - Madrid Train Bombings: Simultaneous explosions on rush hour trains in Madrid (Spain) kill 192 people.
2006 - Michelle Bachelet is inaugurated as first female president of Chile.
928 - Trpimir II succeeds to the Croatian throne.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Historical Events on 10 Mar

Historical Events on 10 Mar

1629 - Charles I of England dissolves Parliament, starting the Eleven Years Tyranny in which there was no parliament.
1735 - An agreement between Nadir Shah and Paul I of Russia is signed near Ganja and Russian troops are withdrawn from Baku.
1762 - French Huguenot Jean Calas, who was wrongly convicted of killing his son, dies after being tortured by authorities; the event inspired Voltaire to begin a campaign for religious tolerance and legal reform
1801 - First census in Great Britain
1804 - Louisiana Purchase: In St. Louis, a formal ceremony is conducted to transfer ownership of the Louisiana Territory from France to the United States.
1814 - Napoleon I of France is defeated at the Battle of Laon in France.
1830 - The KNIL also known as the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army is created.
1831 - The French Foreign Legion is established by King Louis-Philippe to support his war in Algeria.
1848 - The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is ratified by the United States Senate, ending the Mexican-American War.
1861 - El Hadj Umar Tall seizes the city of Segou, destroying the Bambara Empire of Mali.
1864 - American Civil War: The Red River Campaign begins as Union troops reach Alexandria, Louisiana.
1876 - Alexander Graham Bell makes the first successful telephone call by saying "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you."
1880 - Members of the Salvation Army land in the United States and begin operations.
1891 - Almon Strowger, an undertaker in Topeka, Kansas, patents the strowger switch, a device which led to the automation of telephone circuit switching.
1893 - Côte d'Ivoire becomes a French colony.
1902 - Second Boer War: South African Boers win their last battle over British forces, with the capture of a British general and 200 of his men.
1902 - A United States court of appeals rules that Thomas Edison did not invent the movie camera.
1905 - Eleftherios Venizelos asks the independence of Crete and its union with Greece again, starting the Cretan Revolution in Theriso.
1906 - The Courrières mine disaster, Europe's worst ever, kills 1099 miners in Northern France.
1912 - Yuan Shikai is sworn in as the second Provisional President of the Republic of China.
1917 - Batangas was formally founded as one of the Philippines's earliest encomiendas.
1922 - Mahatma Gandhi is arrested in India, tried for sedition, and sentenced to six years in prison, although he is released after two years in February 1924 after an operation for appendicitis.
1933 - An earthquake in Long Beach, California kills 120 people.
1945 - The Army Air Force firebombs Tokyo, and the resulting firestorm kills more than 100,000 people, mostly civilians.
1948 - The Indian Union Muslim League is founded, by remnants of the old Muslim League.
1952 - Fulgencio Batista leads a successful coup in Cuba.
1959 - Tibet leads an unsuccessful uprising against ten years of Chinese occupation in Lhasa. Thousands are massacred by the occupying Chinese army.
1969 - In Memphis, Tennessee, James Earl Ray pleads guilty to assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. He would later retract his guilty plea.
1970 - Vietnam War: Captain Ernest Medina is charged with My Lai war crimes.
1975 - Sanyo Shinkansen open between Osaka and Fukuoka.
1975 - Vietnam War: North Vietnamese troops attack Ban Me Thuot, South Vietnam, on their way to capturing Saigon.
1977 - Rings of Uranus: Astronomers discover rings around Uranus.
1980 - Madeira School headmistress Jean Harris shoots and kills Scarsdale diet doctor Herman Tarnower
1982 - The United States places an embargo on Libyan petroleum imports because of their support of terrorist groups.
1982 - Syzygy: all 9 planets align on the same side of the Sun. See also Jupiter effect.
1987 - The Holy See condemns the practice of surrogate motherhood, along with test-tube babies and artificial insemination.
1990 - In Haiti, Prosper Avril is ousted 18 months after seizing power in a coup.
2000 - The NASDAQ Composite stock market index peaks at 5132.52, signaling the beginning of the end of the dot-com boom.
2006 - The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter arrives at Mars.
2006 - Mass unrest by the PCC started in São Paulo (the biggest city in Brazil) which would eventually kill more than 152 people.
241 BC - First Punic War: Battle of the Aegates Islands - The Romans sink the Carthaginian fleet bringing the First Punic War to an end.