Hagia Sophia
843 Icon veneration officially re-instated in Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople
Pope Leo X
1513 Giovanni de' Medici chosen Pope Leo X
- 1567 Geuzen army leaves Walcheren to return to Oosterweel
- 1597 Albert VII Archduke of Austria occupies Amiens, France
- 1649 The Frondeurs (French rebels) and the French government sign the Peace of Rueil.
- 1665 NY approves new code guaranteeing Protestants religious rights
- 1669 Mt Etna in Sicily erupts in its largest recorded eruption, killing 15,000
- 1702 1st English daily newspaper "Daily Courant" publishes
Last Royal Veto
1708 Queen Anne withholds Royal Assent from the Scottish Militia Bill, the last time a British monarch vetoes legislation
Washington D.C. Laid Out
1789 Benjamin Banneker and Pierre Charles L'Enfant begin to lay out Washington, D.C.
St Matthew Passion
1829 Johann Sebastian Bach's "St Matthew Passion" is revived by Felix Mendelssohn, aged 20, conducting in Berlin, Germany
- 1835 HMS Beagle anchors off Valparaiso, Chile
Treaty of Waitangi
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.
Rigoletto
1851 Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Rigoletto" premieres in Venice
Bill the Butcher
1855 Bowery Boys gang leader William Poole aka "Bill the Butcher" is buried in Brooklyn with 155 carriages and 6,000 mourners
- 1861 Confederate convention in Montgomery adopts constitution (US Civil War)
Lincoln removes McClellan
1862 Abraham Lincoln removes George McClellan as General-in-Chief of the US Army
Evacuation of Winchester
1862 Confederate General Stonewall Jackson begins evacuation of Winchester, Virginia
- 1864 Dale Dike on Humber River crumbles killing at least 240, in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England
- 1864 The Great Sheffield Flood: the largest man-made disaster ever to befall England kills over 250 people in Sheffield
Sherman Occupies Fayetteville
1865 General William T. Sherman's Union forces occupies Fayetteville, North Carolina
- 1867 Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Don Carlos" premieres in Paris
- 1869 The West first learns of the Giant Panda via French missionary Armand David who receives a skin from a hunter
- 1872 Construction of the Seven Sisters Colliery, South Wales, begins; located on one of the richest coal sources in Britain
- 1872 The Meiji Japanese government officially annexes the Ryukyu Kingdom into what would become the Okinawa prefecture
- 1882 Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association organized in Princeton, New Jersey
Nansen's Artic Voyage
1882 Norwegian scientist and explorer Fridtjof Nansen sets out on his first expedition on a sea voyage to study Arctic zoology
Gardel Arrives in Argentina
1893 Future Tango icon Carlos Gardel and his mother, Berthe Gardès emigrate to Buenos Aires, Argentina
British Reject Boer Peace Terms
1900 British Prime Minister Lord Salisbury rejects peace overtures from the Boer leader Paul Kruger (on 5 March) as demanding too-favourable terms
- 1901 Cincinnati Enquirer reports Baltimore manager John McGraw signed Cherokee Indian Tokohoma, who is really black 2nd baseman Charlie Grant
- 1904 Stanley Cup: Ottawa Silver 7 sweep Brandon Wheat Kings in 2 games
- 1905 Stanley Cup, Dey's Arena, Ottawa, ON: Ottawa Senators beat Rat Portage Thisles, 5-4 for 2-1 challenge series victory
Hobbs Scores 187
1910 English cricketer Jack Hobbs scores 187 vs South Africa, his 1st international test hundred only to then get out hit wicket
Venizelos Wins Election
1912 Eleftherios Venizelos, leader of the Liberal Party, wins the Greek elections again.
- 1912 First Stanley Cup challenge game to be played in three 20-minute periods (formerly 30-minute halves), Quebec beats Moncton, 9-3 on way to series sweep
The Dead
1914 Rupert Brooke's poems "The Dead" and "The Soldier" are published in The Times Literary Supplement
- 1915 The British declare a blockade of all German ports
- 1917 1st NHL championship game ever played, Toronto Arenas beats Montreal Canadiens 7-3 in 1st of 2 game set (second game on March 13)
- 1917 British forces occupy Baghdad, the capital of Mesopotamia, after Turkish forces evacuated
- 1918 Conservationists John Merriam, Madison Grant, and Henry Fairfield Osborn found "Save the Redwoods League" - a non-profit forest conservation land trust in San Francisco, California founded
- 1919 General strike in Germany crushed
- 1920 Syria proclaims Emir Feisal king after the country has fought off French domination
- 1922 Western Hockey Championship: Vancouver Millionaires (PCHA) sweep Regina Capitals, in 2 games
- 1924 3rd term of Belgium Theunis government begins
- 1924 Eden Phillpotts' "Farmer's Wife" premieres in London
- 1926 Eamon da Valera ends leadership of Sinn Féin
- 1927 1st armored commercial car hold-up in US (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
- 1927 1st boxing Golden Gloves tournament
Film Release
1927 Samuel Rothafel opens the 5,920 seat Roxy Theater in New York City, with silent film "The Love of Sunya" starring Gloria Swanson; largest movie theatre at the time of construction
Appointment of Interest
1930 Hans Luther is appointed as president of the Reichsbank.
Luftwaffe Created
1935 Hermann Goering officially creates the Luftwaffe (German Air Force)
- 1938 Artur Seyss-Inquart replaces Kurt von Schuschnigg as Chancellor of Austria; German troops also entered the country
Nagurski vs Steele
1941 Bronko Nagurski regains the World Wrestling title from Ray Steele in Minnesota, after losing to him a year earlier
- 1942 1st deportation train leaves Paris for Auschwitz Concentration Camp
MacArthur Heads for Australia
1942 General MacArthur leaves Corregidor (Bataan) for Australia
- 1942 Japanese troops land on North Sumatra
- 1943 Nazi Militia forms in Netherlands
- 1944 Dutch resistance fighter Joop Westerweel arrested
- 1945 1,000 allied bombers harass Essen, 4,662 ton bombs
- 1945 Flemish nazi collaborator Maria Huygens sentenced to death
- 1948 Jewish Agency of Jerusalem bombed
- 1948 WBAL TV channel 11 in Baltimore, MD (CBS) begins broadcasting
- 1953 1st woman army doctor commissioned (FM Adams)
Event of Interest
1954 US Army charges Senator Joseph McCarthy used undue pressure tactics
- 1956 LPGA Titleholders Championship Women's Golf, Augusta CC: Louise Suggs wins her 3rd Titleholders title by 1 stroke from Patty Berg
- 1957 Charles Van Doren finally loses on US TV game show "Twenty-One" after winning $129,000 - later revealed to be fixed
- 1958 American B-47 accidentally drops nuclear bomb 15,000 ft on a family home in Mars Bluff, South Carolina; creates crater 75 ft across, bomb without its nuclear capsule
- 1958 Starting this season, AL batters are required to wear batting helmets
- 1960 Pioneer 5 launched into solar orbit between Earth & Venus
- 1961 Then NHL record 40 penalties, Black Hawks & Maple Leafs (20 each)
- 1963 Somalia drops diplomatic relations with Great Britain
Event of Interest
1963 US Defense Secretary Robert MacNamara orders the adoption by the US military of the M16 assault rifle, originally designed as the AR-15 by Eugene Stoner
Film & TV History
1964 Gene Roddenberry brings together a 16-page pitch for the original Star Trek series
Event of Interest
1965 Indonesia President Sukarno signs the 'Supersemar' order, giving army commander Lt. Gen. Suharto authority to do whatever he "deemed necessary" to restore order
- 1966 A fire at two ski resorts in Numata, Japan kills 31 people.
Coup d'état
1966 Military coup led by Indonesian General Suharto breaks out
Arnold Layne
1967 Pink Floyd releases 1st single "Arnold Layne"
- 1968 Anti-Zionist Clandestine Radio Voice of El Assifa starts transmitting
Music History
1968 Dmitri Shostakovich completes his 12nd string quartet
Music History
1968 Episode of "The Monkees" TV show features musician Frank Zappa posing as Mike Nesmith and vice versa, debating qualities of each other's music
(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay
1968 Otis Redding is the first person in the US to posthumously receive gold record for his single "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay"
Grammy Awards
1970 12th Grammy Awards: Aquarius; Crosby Stills & Nash; Peggy Lee win
- 1970 Iraqi Ba'th Party recognizes Kurd nation
Music History
1971 Jim Morrison leaves for Paris to re-orient himself emotionally and creatively, and to avoid the jail sentence given to him in Miami, Florida. He never returns to the US.
- 1972 OPEC threatens "appropriate sanctions" against companies that "fail to comply with ... any action taken by a Member Country in accordance with [OPEC] decisions."
- 1974 Mount Etna in Sicily erupted
- 1974 Rhino Store gives people 5 cents to take home Danny Bonaduce's Album
- 1975 Rightist military coup in Portugal under General António de Spínola fails
- 1975 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
- 1977 Hanafi Muslims hold 130 hostages in Washington, D.C.
- 1978 Terrorists attack mail truck at Tel Aviv, 45 killed
- 1978 USF-led Bill Cartwright scores 23 points as the Dons oust NC
- 1979 Randy Hold receives 67 min in penalties in a 60 min NHL hockey game
Event of Interest
1981 Chile constitution takes effect, Augusto Pinochet's second term begins
- 1981 Johnny Mize and Rube Foster are elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame
- 1982 Detroit Pistons play the Chicago Bulls, with final score of Detroit 152 to Chicago 144 and Detroit having 20 blocked shots
- 1982 Failed military coup under Rambocus and Hawker in Suriname
- 1982 Harrison Williams (Sen-D-NJ) resigns rather than face expulsion
- 1982 US boycotts Libyan crude oil
Sports History
1983 Ice Dance Championship at Helsinki, Finland won by Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean (Great Britain)
- 1983 Ice Pairs Championship at Helsinki won by Valova & Vasiliev (Soviet Union)
Gorbachev Replaces Chernenko
1985 Mikhail Gorbachev replaces Konstantin Chernenko as Soviet leader
- 1986 1 million days since the foundation of Rome on April 21, 753 BC
- 1986 Japanese probe Sakigake flies by Halley's Comet at 6.8 million km
Sports History
1986 New York Islanders Mike Bossy, 1st NHLer to score 50 goals in 9 straight seasons
Music History
1991 Janet Jackson signs $40M 3 album deal with Virgin records
- 1991 John Smith, US amateur wrestler, wins James E Sullivan Award
Sports History
1991 Monica Seles ends Steffi Graf's streak of 186 weeks ranked as #1
Event of Interest
1995 Sinn Féin party leader Gerry Adams arrives in the US
- 1995 Yolanda Chen hop-skip-jumps world indoor record 15.03m
- 1996 John Winston Howard becomes the 25th Prime Minister of Australia. His term in office is the second longest in Australian history, ending December 3, 2007.
- 1996 Mark Waugh scores 110 v NZ for his third century of the World Cup
- 1996 The EU Database Directive is passed
Knighthood
1997 Beatle Paul McCartney is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II
- 1997 San Francisco Giant J T Snow suffers a fractured eye socket when hit by a pitch
- 1999 Infosys becomes the first Indian company listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
- 2003 Nicholas Winton (93), former British stockbroker who helped 669 young Jews flee Czechoslovakia on the eve of the Nazi invasion in 1939, receives knighthood from Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace
- 2003 The International Criminal Court holds its inaugural session in The Hague.
- 2004 Terrorists explode simultaneous bombs on Madrid's rail network ripping through a commuter train and rocking three stations, killing 190
- 2005 Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela, co-founder of the Cali Cartel, is extradited to the United States
Event of Interest
2006 Michelle Bachelet is inaugurated as the first female president of Chile
Music History
2008 Plácido Domingo named "The King of Singers" in BBC Music Magazine, based on voting by 16 renowned opera critics for the April 2008 issue
- 2009 Winnenden school shooting - 17 people are killed at a school in Germany.
Event of Interest
2010 Sebastián Piñera becomes Chilean president for the 1st time
- 2011 9.0 magnitude earthquake strikes 130 km (80 miles) east of Sendai, Japan, triggering a tsunami killing thousands of people and causing the second worst nuclear accident in history at Fukushima nuclear plant
- 2012 US soldier kills 16 civilians in Afghanistan
- 2013 European Union bans the sale of cosmetics that have been tested on animals
- 2013 Falkland Islands’ sovereignty referendum: 99.8% choose to remain an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom
Laureus Awards
2013 Laureus World Sports Awards, Municipal Theater, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Sportsman: Usain Bolt; Sportswoman: Missy Franklin; Team: FC Bayern Munich
Event of Interest
2018 China's National People's Congress approves removal of term limits for a leader, allowing Xi Jinping to be presidency for life
- 2018 Greek football Super League suspended after PAOK Salonika's president Ivan Savvidis invades pitch with a gun after goal disallowed
Film & TV History
2018 Superhero movie "The Black Panther" becomes the fifth Marvel movie to earn $1 billion worldwide
Election of Interest
2019 Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika (82) changes his mind saying he will not seek a fifth term and postpones elections after mass protests
Event of Interest
2019 Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, refutes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statement “Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people – and only it.”
- 2020 11-year bull market ends as the Dow Jones industrial average falls more than 20%, becoming a bear market
COVID-19 Pandemic
2020 COVID-19 declared a pandemic by the head of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, after 121,564 cases worldwide and 4,373 deaths
Film & TV History
2020 Harvey Weinstein is sentenced to 23 years in prison for a criminal sex act and rape in New York
- 2020 NBA suspends 2019-20 season until further notice after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tests positive for COVID-19
- 2020 Smallest dinosaur ever discovered - skull preserved in piece of amber smaller than a fingertip from a mine in Myanmar, reported in "Nature"
Event of Interest
2021 British Prince William says the royal family is “very much not a racist family” in first public comments since interview by his brother Harry and wife Meghan
- 2021 Digital art work "Everydays: The First 5,000 Days" a digital college by Beeple, with a non-fungible token, sells for record $69.3 million in online auction by Christie's [1]
- 2023 China's government appoints Li Qiang, a close ally of President Xi Jinping, as the country's new Premier [1]
Kate Edits Photo
2024 Catherine, Princess of Wales, apologizes for "confusion" caused by releasing an edited family photo after news agencies issue a "kill" notice over digital manipulation [1]
- 2024 Fertilizer spill in Red Oak, Iowa, kills an estimated 789,000 fish along a 60-mile stretch of river after valve was left open at NEW Cooperative [1]
- 2024 Romanian police detain Andrew Tate and his brother following the prosecutor of the Bucharest Court of Appeal's order for a one-day detention
