March 17th in History

45 BC - In his last victory, Julius Caesar defeats the Pompeian forces of Titus Labienus and Pompey the Younger in the Battle of Munda.

455 - Petronius Maximus becomes, with support of the Roman Senate, emperor of the Western Roman Empire.

460 - St. Patrick of Ireland dies

624 - Led by Muhammad, the Muslims of Medina defeat the Quraysh of Mecca in the Battle of Badr.

1337 - Edward, the Black Prince is made Duke of Cornwall, the first Duchy in England.

1805 - The Italian Republic, with Napoleon as president, becomes the Kingdom of Italy, with Napoleon as King.

1861 - The Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946) is proclaimed.

1921 - The Second Republic of Poland adopts the March Constitution.

1942 - Holocaust: The first Jews from the Lvov Ghetto are gassed at the Belzec death camp in what is today eastern Poland.

1959 - Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, flees Tibet for India.

1969 - Golda Meir becomes the first female Prime Minister of Israel.

1979 - The Penmanshiel Tunnel collapses during engineering works, killing two workers.

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 in the opening action of the Battle of Afabet.

1992 - A referendum to end apartheid in South Africa is passed 68.7% to 31.2%.

2004 - Unrest in Kosovo: More than 22 are killed and 200 wounded. 35 Serbian Orthodox shrines in Kosovo and two mosques in Belgrade and Niš are destroyed.

2011 - Libyan civil war: The United Nations Security Council adopts United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, authorizing a military intervention by member states to protect civilians in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.

Famous Birthdays

1231 - Emperor Shijō of Japan

1473 - King James IV of Scotland

1781 - Ebenezer Elliott, poet

1886 - Princess Patricia of Connaught  (Lady Patricia Ramsay)

1920 - Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Founding Leader of Bangladesh

1936 - Patty Maloney, actress

1949 - Patrick Duffy, actor

1951 - Scott Gorham, musician

1956 - Rory McGrath, comedian and writer

1964 - Rob Lowe, actor

1969 - Patricia Ford, model

1969 - Alexander McQueen, fashion designer

1973 - Caroline Corr, singer and musician

1976 - Stephen Gately, singer and actor

1984 - Ryan Rottman, actor

1989 - Mason Musso, singer, songwriter and guitarist

March 16th in History

597 BC - Babylonians capture Jerusalem, and replace Jehoiachin with Zedekiah as king.

37 - Caligula becomes Roman Emperor after the death of his great uncle, Tiberius.

1521 - Ferdinand Magellan reaches the Philippines.

1792 - King Gustav III of Sweden is shot; he dies on March 29th.

1815 - Prince Willem proclaims himself King of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, the first constitutional monarch in the Netherlands.

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.

1924 - In accordance with the Treaty of Rome, Fiume became annexed as part of Italy.

1935 - Adolf Hitler ordered Germany to rearm herself in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Conscription is reintroduced to form the Wehrmacht.

1935 - Adolf Hitler ordered Germany to rearm herself in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Conscription is reintroduced to form the Wehrmacht.


1945 - Ninety percent of Würzburg, Germany is destroyed in only 20 minutes by British bombers. 5,000 are killed.

1950 - Communist Czechoslovakia's ministry of foreign affairs asked nuncios of Vatican to leave the country.

1968 - Vietnam War: In the My Lai massacre, between 350 and 500 Vietnamese villagers (men, women, and children) are killed by American troops.

1976 - British Prime Minister Harold Wilson resigned, citing personal reasons.

1984 - William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, Lebanon, is kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists and later died in captivity.

1985 - Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson is taken hostage in Beirut. He is released on December 4th, 1991.

1988 - The Troubles: Ulster loyalist militant Michael Stone attacks a Provisional IRA funeral in Belfast with pistols and grenades. Three people are killed and more than 60 wounded. The attack was filmed by news crews.


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.

2005 - Israel officially hands over Jericho to Palestinian control.

Famous Birthdays

1399 -Emperor Xuande of China

1473 - Henry IV the Pious, Duke of Saxony

1687 - Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, Queen consort in Prussia

1789 - Georg Simon Ohm, German physicist

1800 - Emperor Ninko of Japan

1839 - John Butler Yeats, artist

1856 - Napoléon Eugène, Prince Imperial, only child of Emperor Napoleon III of France

1912 - Pat Nixon, First Lady of the United States

1920 - Traudl Junge, secretary to Adolf Hitler

1941 - Robert Guéï, ruler of Côte d'Ivoire

1960 - Jenny Eclair, comedienne, novelist and actress

1973 - Tim Kang, actor

1978 - Brooke Burns, actress

1984 - Hosea Gear, rugby player

1988 - Patrick Herrmann, footballer

1992 - Brett Davern, actor

March 15th in History

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.

280 - Sun Hao of Eastern Wu surrenders to Sima Yan which began the Jin Dynasty.


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.


1848 - A revolution breaks out in Hungary. The Habsburg rulers are compelled to meet the demands of the Reform party.

1875 - Archbishop of New York John McCloskey is named the first Cardinal in the United States.

1892 - Liverpool F.C. is founded.


1917 - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates the Russian throne and his brother the Grand Duke becomes Tsar.

1922 - After Egypt gains nominal independence from the United Kingdom, Fuad I becomes King of Egypt.


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.

1943 - World War II: Third Battle of Kharkov – the Germans retake the city of Kharkov from the Soviet armies in bitter street fighting.

1961 - South Africa withdraws from the Commonwealth of Nations.


1978 - Somalia and Ethiopia signed a truce to end the Ethiopian-Somali War.

1985 - The first Internet domain name is registered (symbolics.com).

1985 - Brazilian military dictatorship ends.

1990 - Mikhail Gorbachev is elected as the first President of the Soviet Union.

2011 - Beginning of the Syrian civil war.

Famous Birthdays


938 - Romanos II, Byzantine Emperor

1275 - Princess Margaret of England

1638 - Shunzhi, Emperor of China

1737 - Amarindra, Queen consort to King Rama I of Siam

1767 - Andrew Jackson, 7th President of the United States

1779 - William Lamb, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

1857 - Christian Michelsen, 1st Prime Minister of Norway

1887 - Marjorie Merriweather Post, entrepreneur founder of General Foods, Inc.

1914 - Joe E. Ross, actor and comedian

1931 - D. J. Fontana, musician

1941 - Mike Love, musician

1948 - Kate Bornstein, author

1965 - Svetlana Medvedeva, First Lady of Russia

1972 - Mark Hoppus, musician

1975 - will.i.am (William James Adams Jr.), rapper, producer, and actor

1984 - Wilson Aparecido Xavier Júnior, footballer

1991 - Kevin Müller, footballer

March 14th in History

44 BC - Casca, Cicero and Cassius decide, on the night before the Assassination of Julius Caesar, that Mark Antony should stay alive.

313 - Emperor Jin Huidi is executed by Liu Cong, ruler of the Xiongnu state

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.

1794 - Eli Whitney is granted a patent for the cotton gin.

1915 - World War I: Cornered off the coast of Chile by the Royal Navy after fleeing the Battle of the Falkland Islands, the German light cruiser SMS Dresden is abandoned and scuttled by her crew.

1939 - Slovakia declares independence under German pressure.

1943 - World War II – The Kraków Ghetto is 'liquidated'.


1984 - Gerry Adams, head of Sinn Féin, is seriously wounded in an assassination attempt in central Belfast.

2006 - Members of the Chadian military fail in a coup d'état attempt.

2008 - A series of riots, protests, and demonstrations erupted in Lhasa and elsewhere in Tibet.

Famous Birthdays

1807 - Josephine of Leuchtenberg, Queen of Sweden and Norway


1820 - Victor Emanuel II, First king of united Italy

1822 - Teresa of the Two Sicilies, Empress of Brazil

1844 - King Umberto I of Italy

1868 - Emily Murphy, women's rights activist, first female magistrate in the British Empire

1914 - Bill Owen, actor

1932 - Naina Yeltsina, First Lady of Russia

1951 - Jerry Greenfield, businessman, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's ice cream

1958 - HSH Albert II, Prince of Monaco

1967 - Melissa Reeves, actress

1979 - Chris Klein, actor

1987 - Robert Clark, actor

1991 - Steven Zellner, footballer

March 13th in History

874 - The bones of Saint Nicephorus are interred in the Church of the Holy Apostles, Constantinople.

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.

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.)

1900 - Second Boer War: British forces occupy Bloemfontein, Orange Free State.

1920 - The Kapp Putsch briefly ousts the Weimar Republic government from Berlin.

1933 - Great Depression: Banks in the U.S. begin to re-open after President Franklin D. Roosevelt mandates a "bank holiday".


1940 - The Russo-Finnish Winter War ends.

1943 - The Holocaust: German forces liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Kraków.

1957 - Cuban student revolutionaries storm the presidential palace in Havana in a failed attempt on the life of President Fulgencio Batista.

1988 - The Seikan Tunnel, the longest undersea tunnel in the world, opens between Aomori and Hakodate, Japan.

1997 - India's Missionaries of Charity chooses Sister Nirmala to succeed Mother Teresa as its leader.

2008 - Gold prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange hit $1,000 per ounce for the first time.

2013 - The Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was named as the new pontiff: his new name is Francesco I (Francis I).

Famous Birthdays

1615 - Pope Innocent XII

1741 - Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor

1764 - Earl Grey, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

1798 - Abigail Fillmore, First Lady of the United States

1911 - L. Ron Hubbard, science fiction author and founder of Scientology

1940 - Candi Staton, singer

1948 - Robert S. Woods, actor

1960 - Adam Clayton, bassist

1975 - Chris Ashworth, actor

1984 - Rachael Bella, actress

1989 - Harry Melling, actor

March 12th in History

538 - Vitiges, king of the Ostrogoths ends his siege of Rome and retreats to Ravenna, leaving the city in the hands of the victorious Byzantine general, Belisarius.

1689 - The Williamite War in Ireland begins.

1868 - Henry O'Farrell attempts to assassinate Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh.


1894 - Coca-Cola is bottled and sold for the first time in Vicksburg, Mississippi, by local soda fountain operator Joseph Biedenharn.

1912 - The Girl Guides (later renamed the Girl Scouts of the USA) are founded in the United States.

1918 - Moscow becomes the capital of Russia again after Saint Petersburg held this status for 215 years.

1922 - Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan formed The Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic

1930 - Mahatma Gandhi leads a 200-mile march, known as the Salt March, to the sea in defiance of British opposition, to protest the British monopoly on salt.

1938 - Anschluss: German troops occupy Austria.

1947 - The Truman Doctrine is proclaimed to help stem the spread of Communism.

1968 - Mauritius achieves independence.

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 its 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.


2009 - Financier Bernard Madoff plead guilty in New York to scamming $18 billion, the largest in Wall Street history.

2011 - A reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant melts and explodes and releases radioactivity into the atmosphere a day after Japan's earthquake.

Famous Birthdays


1270 - Charles, Count of Valois, son of Philip III of France

1479 - Giuliano de' Medici, Duke of Nemours, ruler of Florence

1637 - Anne Hyde, wife of James II of England

1806 - Jane Pierce, First Lady of the United States

1878 - St. Gemma Galgani, saint

1889 - King Idris I of Libya

1917 - Googie Withers, actress

1947 - Kalervo Palsa, artist

1957 - Marlon Jackson, singer and actor

1963 - HIH Princess Farahnaz Pahlavi of Iran

1965 - Coleen Nolan, singer

1981 - Holly Williams, musician

1986 - Danny Jones, singer

1990 - Kai-Fabian Schulz, footballer

March 11th in History

222 - Emperor Elagabalus is assassinated, along with his mother, Julia Soaemias, by the Praetorian Guard during a revolt. Their mutilated bodies are dragged through the streets of Rome before being thrown into the Tiber.

1641 - Guaraní forces living in the Jesuit Reductions defeat bandeirantes loyal to the Portuguese Empire at the Battle of Mbororé in present-day Panambí, Argentina.

1708 - Queen Anne of Great Britain withholds Royal Assent from the Scottish Militia Bill, the last time a British monarch vetoes legislation.

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.

1917 - World War I: Baghdad falls to Anglo-Indian forces commanded by General Stanley Maude.

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.


1945 - World War II: The Empire of Vietnam, a short-lived puppet state, is established with Bảo Đại as its ruler.

1946 - Rudolf Höss, the first commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp, is captured by British troops.

1983 - Pakistan successfully conducts a cold test of a nuclear weapon.

1990 - Lithuania declares itself independent from the Soviet Union.

2006 - Michelle Bachelet is inaugurated as first female president of Chile.

2011 - An earthquake measuring 9.0 in magnitude strikes 130 km (81 mi) east of Sendai, Japan, triggering a tsunami killing thousands of people. This event also triggered the second largest nuclear accident in history, and one of only two events to be classified as a Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale.

Famous Birthdays

1745 - Bodawpaya, King of Burma

1811 - Urbain Le Verrier, mathematician

1899 - King Frederick IX of Denmark

1907 - Jessie Matthews, actress

1916 - Harold Wilson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

1935 - Sandra Milo, actress

1945 - Tricia O'Neil, actress

1957 - Cheryl Lynn, singer

1967 - John Barrowman, actor

1972 - Paolo Ponzo, footballer

1978 -Didier Drogba, footballer

1985 - Kai Reus, cyclist

1991 - Mayumi Roller, sailor

1993 - Demi Harman, actress.