The traditional first day of the astrological year
537 - Siege of Rome: King Vitiges attempts to assault the northern and eastern city walls, but is repulsed at the Praenestine Gate, known as the Vivarium, by the defenders under the Byzantine generals Bessas and Peranius.
1152 - Annulment of the marriage of King Louis VII of France and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine.
1413 - Henry V becomes King of England.
1556 - In Oxford, Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer is burned at the stake.
1801 - The Battle of Alexandria is fought between British and French forces near the ruins of Nicopolis in Egypt.
1814 - Napoleonic Wars: Austrian forces repel French troops in the Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube.
1821 - Greek War of Independence: First revolutionary act in the monastery of Agia Lavra, Kalavryta.
1871 - Otto von Bismarck is appointed Chancellor of the German Empire.
1918 - World War I: The first phase of the German Spring Offensive, Operation Michael, begins.
1919 - The Hungarian Soviet Republic is established becoming the first Communist government to be formed in Europe after the October Revolution in Russia.
1933 - Construction of Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp, is completed.
1943 - Wehrmacht officer Rudolf von Gersdorff plots to assassinate Adolf Hitler by using a suicide bomb, but the plan falls through. Von Gersdorff is able to defuse the bomb in time and avoid suspicion.
1945 - World War II: British troops liberate Mandalay, Burma.
1963 - Alcatraz, a federal penitentiary on an island in San Francisco Bay, closes.
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.
1990 - Namibia becomes independent after 75 years of South African rule.
1999 - Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones become the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon.
Famous Birthdays
1417 - St Nicholas of Flüe, patron saint of Switzerland
1521 - Maurice, Elector of Saxony
1801 - Maria Theresa of Austria, Queen of Sardinia
1839 - Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, composer
1885 - Pierre Renoir, actor and director
1923 - Philip Abbott, actor
1934 - Al Freeman, Jr., actor
1958 - Sabrina Le Beauf, actress
1962 - Rosie O'Donnell, comedian and actress
1978 - Nick Baines, keyboardist
1989 - Labrinth, singer-songwriter and producer
1989 - Rochelle Wiseman, singer
2004 - His Highborn Count Claus-Casimir of Orange-Nassau, Jonkheer van Amsberg
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