Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/March

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March 1: Disability Day of Mourning; Saint David's Day; Independence Day in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992); Yap DayinYap State, Federated States of Micronesia

Dmitri Mendeleev

• 1562 – An attempt by Francis, Duke of Guise, to disperse a church service by HuguenotsinWassy, France, turned into a massacre, resulting in 50 dead, and starting the French Wars of Religion.
• 1869 – The Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev (pictured) finished his design of the first periodic table.
• 1921 – The Australian cricket team, led by Warwick Armstrong, became the first team to complete a whitewashinthe Ashes, an achievement that would not be repeated for 86 years.
• 1936 – Hoover Dam, straddling the Arizona–Nevada border on the Colorado River, was completed.
• 1992 – A Bosnian-Serb wedding procession was attackedinSarajevo, resulting in what is widely considered the first casualty of the Bosnian War.

March 2

Wilt Chamberlain

• 1484 – The College of Arms, one of the few remaining official heraldic authorities in Europe, was incorporated by royal charter in the City of London.
• 1776 – American Revolutionary War: Patriot militiamen from Georgia and South Carolina attempted to resist the British action to seize and remove supply ships anchored at Savannah, Georgia.
• 1949 – The B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II landed in Fort Worth, Texas, to complete the first non-stop circumnavigation of the world by airplane.
• 1962 – Playing for the Philadelphia Warriors, American basketball player Wilt Chamberlain (pictured) scored 100 points in a game against the New York Knicks, which remains an NBA record.
• 2022 – Russian forces captured the cityofKherson, the only regional capital to be taken during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

March 3: Liberation DayinBulgaria (1878); Hinamatsuri in Japan

Program for the woman suffrage parade

• 1284 – The Statute of Rhuddlan was enacted, introducing English common law to the Principality of Wales.
• 1891 – Shoshone National ForestinWyoming was established as the first national forest in the United States.
• 1913 – Thousands of women marchedinWashington, D.C. (program cover pictured) "in a spirit of protest" against the exclusion of women from American society.
• 1924 – The Ottoman Caliphate, the world's last widely recognized caliphate, was abolished.
• 1991 – Motorist Rodney King was beaten by Los Angeles Police Department officers during an arrest, causing public outrage that increased tensions between the African-American community and the police department over police brutality and social inequality.

March 4: Feast dayofSaint Casimir (Catholicism)

Władysław II Jagiełło

• 1386 – Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania, was crowned King of PolandasWładysław II Jagiełło (pictured), beginning the Jagiellonian dynasty.
• 1773 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart departed Italy after the last of his three journeys there.
• 1899 – Cyclone Mahina struck Bathurst Bay, Queensland, killing over 300 people in one of the deadliest natural disasters in Australian history.
• 1918 – A case of influenza was recorded at Camp Funston, Kansas, conventionally marking the beginning of the Spanish flu pandemic.
• 2017 – Construction began on a 69-metre (226 ft) statue of the BuddhaatWat Paknam BhasicharoeninBangkok.

March 5: Learn from Lei Feng Day in China; St Piran's DayinCornwall, England

Prototype Spitfire K5054

• 1811 – Peninsular War: At the Battle of Barrosa, Anglo-Iberian forces trying to lift the Siege of Cádiz defeated a French attack but could not break the siege itself.
• 1825 – Roberto Cofresí, one of the last Caribbean pirates, was apprehended after his flagship sloop Anne was captured by authorities.
• 1936 – The prototype (pictured) of the Supermarine Spitfire flew for the first time.
• 1960 – Cuban photographer Alberto Korda took his iconic photograph Guerrillero HeroicoofMarxist revolutionary Che Guevara.
• 1981 – The ZX81, a pioneering British home computer, was launched by Sinclair Research, and went on to sell more than 1.5 million units around the world.

March 6

William Speirs Bruce

• 845 – The Abbasid Caliphate executed 42 Byzantine officials who had been captured in the sack of Amorium of 838 for refusing to convert to Islam.
• 1447 – Tommaso Parentucelli was electedasPope Nicholas V in Rome.
• 1904 – Scottish National Antarctic Expedition: Led by William Speirs Bruce (pictured), the Antarctic region of Coats Land was discovered by the Scotia.
• 1988 – The Troubles: In Operation Flavius, the Special Air Service killed three volunteers of the Provisional Irish Republican Army conspiring to bomb a parade of British military bands in Gibraltar.
• 2000 – The Marine Parade Community Building, the mural cladding of which is the largest installation art in Singapore, was opened.

March 7: Feast dayofSaints Perpetua and Felicity (Catholicism, Anglicanism, Lutheranism)

Police attacking civil rights activists outside Selma, Alabama

• 1573 – A peace treaty brought the Ottoman–Venetian War to an end, ceding Cyprus from the Republic of Venice to the Ottoman Empire.
• 1871 – José Paranhos, Viscount of Rio Branco, began a four-year premiership as Prime Minister of the Empire of Brazil, the longest in the state's history.
• 1941 – The German submarine U-47, one of the most successful U-boatsofWorld War II, disappeared with 45 men on board.
• 1965 – Unarmed civil rights activists marching from SelmatoMontgomery, Alabama, were attacked by police (pictured) on "Bloody Sunday".
• 2021 – A series of four explosions at a military barracks in Bata, Equatorial Guinea caused at least 107 deaths.

March 8: International Women's Day; Aurat March in Pakistan

Io with two volcanic plumes

• 1576 – A Spanish colonial officer wrote a letter to King Philip II containing the first mention of the Maya ruins of Copán in present-day Honduras.
• 1910 – French aviator Raymonde de Laroche became the first woman to receive a pilot's licence.
• 1963 – The Ba'ath Party came to power in a coup d'état by a clique of quasi-leftist Syrian Army officers calling themselves the National Council for the Revolutionary Command.
• 1966 – Nelson's Pillar, a large granite pillar topped by a statue of Lord Nelson in Dublin, Ireland, was severely damaged by a bomb.
• 1979 – Images taken by Voyager 1 proved the existence of volcanoesonIo (pictured), a moon of Jupiter.

March 9

Princess Kaʻiulani

• 1776 – Scottish political economist Adam Smith's book The Wealth of Nations, the first modern work in economics, was published.
• 1891 – Kaʻiulani (pictured) was appointed heir apparent to the throne of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
• 1925 – The Royal Air Force began a bombardment and strafing campaign against the mountain strongholds of Mahsud tribesmen in South Waziristan, in what is now Pakistan.
• 1956 – In Tbilisi, Georgia, Soviet troops suppressed mass demonstrations against Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's de-Stalinization policy.
• 1957 – The M_w 8.6 Andreanof Islands earthquake struck Hawaii and the Aleutian Islands, causing over $5 million in damage from ground movement and a destructive tsunami.

March 10: Mothering Sunday (Western Christianity, 2024)

Eliot Spitzer

• 1695 – Nine Years' War: At the Battle of Sant Esteve d'en Bas, Catalan miquelets attacked a column of French regular infantry and caused them to surrender.
• 1959 – An anti-Chinese uprising began as thousands of Tibetans surrounded the Potala PalaceinLhasa to prevent the Dalai Lama from leaving or being removed by the Chinese army.
• 1968 – Vietnam War/Laotian Civil War: North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao forces overwhelmed the American, Laotian, Thai, and Hmong defenders of Lima Site 85.
• 1977 – Astronomers using NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory discovered a faint ring system around Uranus.
• 2008 – The New York Times revealed that Eliot Spitzer (pictured), Governor of New York, had patronized a prostitution ring.

March 11: Commonwealth Day in the Commonwealth of Nations (2024); National Heroes and Benefactors Day in Belize (2024); Longtaitou Festival in China (2024)

Dale Dyke Dam in Sheffield, after its rupture

• 1864 – The Great Sheffield Flood killed at least 240 people and damaged more than 600 homes, after a crack in the Dale Dike Reservoir (pictured) caused it to fail.
• 1993 – The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Janet Reno as the country's first female attorney general.
• 2007 – Georgian authorities accused Russia of orchestrating a helicopter attack in the Kodori Valley of the breakaway territory of Abkhazia.
• 2009 – A teenage gunman engaged in a shooting spree at a secondary school in Winnenden, Germany, killing 16, including himself.

March 12

Andrew Watson

• 1537 – Croatian–Ottoman wars: After the execution of feudal lord Petar Kružić, Croatian forces at Klis surrendered to the Ottoman forces in exchange for their safe passage to northern locations.
• 1881 – Andrew Watson (pictured) captained the Scotland national football team against England, becoming the world's first black international footballer.
• 1947 – Cold War: U.S. president Harry S. Truman proclaimed the Truman Doctrine to help stem the spread of communism.
• 1952 – British diplomat Lord Ismay was appointed the first secretary general of NATO.
• 1971 – The Turkish Armed Forces executed a "coup by memorandum", forcing the resignation of Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel.
• 2006 – U.S. Army soldiers gang-raped a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and murdered her along with her family members.

March 13

British attack on Cartagena de Indias

• 1567 – A Spanish mercenary army surprised a band of rebels at the Battle of Oosterweel in the Habsburg Netherlands, beginning the Eighty Years' War.
• 1741 – War of Jenkins' Ear: The British began an assault against Spanish forts in the Caribbean in the Battle of Cartagena de Indias (depicted).
• 1964 – Kitty Genovese was murdered in New York City, prompting research into the bystander effect due to the false story that neighbors witnessed the killing and did nothing to help her.
• 1996 – A mass shooting at a school occurred in Dunblane, Scotland, killing 17 people and prompting tighter gun control in the UK.

March 14: New Year's Day (Sikhism); White Day in parts of East Asia; Pi Day

Gioachino Rossini

• 1309 – On Eid al-Fitr, the citizens of Granada stormed palaces in the city, deposing Sultan Muhammad III and placing his half-brother Nasr on the throne.
• 1864 – The Petite messe solennelle was first performed in Paris, 34 years after Gioachino Rossini (pictured) retired as a composer.
• 1931 – Alam Ara, the first Indian sound film, premiered at the Majestic Cinema in Bombay.
• 1988 – China defeated Vietnam in a naval altercation while attempting to establish oceanographic observation posts on the Spratly Islands.
• 2021 – The Burmese military and police forces killed at least 65 civilians during the Hlaingthaya massacreinYangon, including those protesting a recent coup d'état.

March 15: Ides of March

Julius Caesar

• 44 BC – Julius Caesar (bust pictured), the dictator of the Roman Republic, was stabbed to death by a group of senators led by Marcus Junius Brutus.
• 1823 – Sailor Benjamin Morrell erroneously reported the existence of the island of New South Greenland near Antarctica.
• 1916 – Six days after Pancho Villa and his cross-border raiders attacked Columbus, New Mexico, U.S. General John J. Pershing led a punitive expedition into Mexico to pursue Villa.
• 1917 – Russian Revolution: Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate in the February Revolution, ending three centuries of Romanov rule.
• 1943 – The deportation of 50,000 Jews from the Greek city of Thessaloniki began.
• 1951 – The Iranian oil industry was nationalized in a movement led by Mohammad Mosaddegh.

March 16: Remembrance Day of the Latvian Legionnaires

Cap badge of the Royal Welch Fusiliers

• 934 – Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period: Chinese general Meng Zhixiang proclaimed himself emperor and established Later Shu as a new state independent of Later Tang.
• 1689 – The Royal Welch Fusiliers (cap badge pictured), one of the oldest line-infantry regiments of the British Army, was founded.
• 1819 – The Bank for Savings in the City of New-York, the first savings bank in New York City, was incorporated.
• 1984 – William Buckley, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency station chief in Beirut, Lebanon, was kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists.
• 1988 – Michael Stone, an Ulster loyalist, attacked the funeral of three Provisional IRA members, killing three attendees and injuring at least sixty others.

March 17: Saint Patrick's Day (Christianity); Anniversary of the Unification of Italy (1861)

Dorchester Heights Monument

• 1864 – Second Schleswig War: In an attempt to end a Danish blockade, Eduard von Jachmann led a Prussian squadron in an attack against a Danish fleet led by Edvard van Dockum.
• 1902 – The Dorchester Heights Monument (pictured), memorializing the siege of Boston during the American Revolutionary War, was dedicated.
• 1957 – A plane crash on the slopes of Mount Manunggal killed Philippine president Ramon Magsaysay and 24 others.
• 1979 – The Penmanshiel Tunnel in the Scottish Borders region of Scotland collapsed during refurbishing construction, killing two workers, and leading to the abandonment of the tunnel.
• 2004 – Unrest in Kosovo broke out, resulting in the deaths of 28, the wounding of more than 600 others, and the destruction of several Serb Orthodox churches and shrines.

March 18: Feast dayofSaint Cyril of Jerusalem (Christianity)

Traian Vuia's monoplane

• 363 – A fire began in Rome that resulted in the destruction of the Temple of Apollo Palatinus.
• 1277 – Charles I of Anjou acquired a claim on the Kingdom of Jerusalem in exchange for a significant sum of money.
• 1906 – Romanian inventor Traian Vuia became the first person to fly a heavier-than-air monoplane (pictured) with an unassisted takeoff.
• 1959 – Tibetan uprising: After the 14th Dalai Lama sought refuge at Sera MonasteryinLhasa, Tibet, Chinese forces bombarded the monastery, inflicting severe destruction and killing hundreds of Buddhist monks.
• 1977 – The punk group the Clash released their first single, "White Riot", described as their "most controversial song" due to its lyrics about class economics and race.
• 2019 – Syrian civil war: The U.S. Air Force carried out an airstrikeinal-Baghuz Fawqani, killing 64 civilians.

March 19: Saint Joseph's Day (Western Christianity); Nowruz (2024)

Zhao Bing, Emperor of Song

• 1279 – Mongol conquest of Song China: Zhao Bing (pictured), the last emperor of the Song dynasty, drowned at the end of the Battle of Yamen, bringing the dynasty to an end after three centuries.
• 1824 – American explorer Benjamin Morrell departed Antarctica after a voyage later plagued by claims of fraud.
• 1944 – The secular oratorio A Child of Our TimebyMichael Tippett premiered at the Adelphi Theatre in London.
• 1998 – An unscheduled Ariana Afghan Airlines flight crashed into a mountain on approach into Kabul, killing all 45 people aboard.
• 2011 – First Libyan Civil War: The French Air Force launched Opération Harmattan, beginning foreign military intervention in Libya.

March 20

Chemical structure of zidovudine

• 1724 – Following the death of Pope Innocent XIII, a papal conclave convened in Rome to elect a new pope.
• 1861 – An earthquake occurred in the Argentine province of Mendoza, causing at least 6,000 deaths and destroying most of the buildings in the province's capital city.
• 1922 – The United States Navy commissioned its first aircraft carrier, USS Langley.
• 1944 – World War II: U.S. Marines made a landing on Emirau Island in the Bismarck Archipelago to develop an airbase as part of Operation Cartwheel.
• 1987 – The antiretroviral drug zidovudine (chemical structure pictured) became the first treatment approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for HIV/AIDS.
• 2014 – Taliban militants killed nine civilians in a mass shooting at the Kabul Serena Hotel in Afghanistan.

March 21: Fast of Esther (Judaism, 2024); Oltenia Day in Romania

Scottish Cup

• 1874 – Queen's Park defeated Clydesdale 2–0 in the final of the inaugural Scottish Cup (trophy pictured).
• 1913 – More than 360 were killed and 20,000 homes were destroyed in the Great Dayton FloodinDayton, Ohio, U.S.
• 1968 – War of Attrition: The Battle of Karameh took place between the Israel Defense Forces and allied troops of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Jordanian Armed Forces.
• 1980 – The American soap opera Dallas aired the episode "A House Divided", which led to eight months of international speculation on "Who shot J.R.?"
• 2019 – A major explosion at a chemical plant in Yancheng, China, killed 78 people and injured 640 others.

March 22: World Water Day

Charilaos Vasilakos (center) training for the marathon

• 106 – The Bostran era, the official era of the Roman provinceofArabia Petraea, began.
• 1638 – Anne Hutchinson was expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for her participation in the Antinomian Controversy.
• 1896 – Charilaos Vasilakos (pictured) won the first modern marathon in preparation for the inaugural Summer Olympics.
• 1913 – Phan Xích Long, the self-proclaimed emperor of Vietnam, was arrested for organising a revolt against the colonial rule of French Indochina, which was nevertheless carried out by his supporters the following day.
• 1984 – Teachers at a preschool in Manhattan Beach, California, were falsely charged with the sexual abuse of schoolchildren, leading to the longest and costliest criminal trial in United States history.
• 1995 – Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returned from the space station Mir aboard Soyuz TM-20 after 437 days in space, setting a record for the longest spaceflight.

March 23: Earth Hour (20:30 local time, 2024)

Bhagat Singh

• 1888 – Chaired by William McGregor, a meeting of ten English football clubs was held in London, which would eventually result in the establishment of the Football League.
• 1931 – Bhagat Singh (pictured), one of the most influential revolutionaries of the Indian independence movement, and two others were executed by the British authorities.
• 1989 – Two researchers announced the discovery of cold fusion, a claim which was later discredited.
• 1994 – Aeroflot Flight 593 crashed into a hillside in Russia's Kemerovo Oblast, killing all 75 people on board, after the pilot's 15-year-old son had unknowingly disabled the autopilot while seated at the controls.
• 2005 – A fire and explosion at the third-largest oil refinery in the United States killed 15 workers and kicked off process safety programs throughout the world.

March 24: Purim (Judaism 2024), World Tuberculosis Day

Flag of Prince Edward Island

• 1387 – Hundred Years' War: An English fleet led by Richard Fitzalan attacked 250–360 French, Flemish and Castilian vessels in the Battle of Margate.
• 1934 – The Tydings–McDuffie Act came into effect, which provided for self-government of the Philippines and for Filipino independence from the United States after a period of ten years.
• 1939 – Members of the German National Movement in Liechtenstein attempted to overthrow the government and provoke Liechtenstein's annexation into Nazi Germany.
• 1964 – Royal assent was given to Prince Edward Island's Provincial Flag Act, which outlined the design of its provincial flag (pictured).
• 2006 – Hannah Montana, starring Miley Cyrusasan actress whose alter ego is the titular character, premiered.

March 25: Bangladesh Genocide Remembrance Day

Enrico Fermi in 1943

• 1458 – Wars of the Roses: A formal reconciliation ceremony between the Lancastrians and Yorkists led to a brief period of peace.
• 1799 – War of the Second Coalition: In their second battle in seven days, the French Army of the Danube and Habsburg forces battled for control of the Hegau region.
• 1934 – Enrico Fermi (pictured) published his discovery of neutron-induced radioactivity, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.
• 1949 – The Soviet Union began mass deportations of more than 90,000 "undesirable" people from the Baltic statestoSiberia.

March 26

Elbridge Gerry

• 1344 – Reconquista: The Muslim city of Algeciras surrendered after a 21-month siege and was incorporated into the Kingdom of Castile.
• 1651 – The Spanish ship San José ran aground onto coasts controlled by the indigenous Cunco people, who subsequently killed the crew.
• 1697 – The Safavid Empire began a four-year occupation of the Ottoman city of Basra on the Persian Gulf.
• 1812 – The Boston Gazette printed a cartoon coining the term "gerrymander", named after Governor Elbridge Gerry (pictured), who approved the legislation that created oddly shaped electoral districts.
• 1939 – Spanish Civil War: Nationalists began their final offensive of the war, at the end of which they controlled almost the entire country.
• 1999 – A jury began deliberations in the trial of Jack Kevorkian, an American practitioner of physician-assisted suicide who was charged with murder in the death of a terminally ill patient.

March 27: Day of the Union of Bessarabia with Romania (1918)

Ball-and-stick model of sildenafil

• 1884 – Outraged by a jury's decision to convict a man of manslaughter instead of murder, a mob in Cincinnati, Ohio, began three days of rioting.
• 1899 – Philippine–American War: American forces defeated troops commanded by Philippine president Emilio Aguinaldo at the Battle of Marilao River.
• 1998 – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the drug sildenafil (chemical structure pictured), better known by the trade name Viagra, for use as a treatment for erectile dysfunction, the first pill to be approved for this condition in the United States.
• 1999 – During the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, an Army of Yugoslavia unit shot down a U.S. Air Force F-117 stealth aircraft.
• 2020 – North Macedonia became a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

March 28

HMS Campbeltown during the St Nazaire Raid

• 1802 – German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers discovered Pallas, the second asteroid to be identified, but at the time considered to be a planet.
• 1935 – The Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will, directed by Leni Riefenstahl, premiered in Berlin.
• 1942 – Second World War: The port of Saint-NazaireinGerman-occupied France was disabled by British naval forces (ship pictured).
• 1946 – The US Department of State released the Acheson–Lilienthal Report, a proposal for the international control of nuclear weapons.
• 1979 – British prime minister James Callaghan was defeated by one vote in a vote of no confidence after his government struggled to cope with widespread strikes during the Winter of Discontent.
• 1999 – Kosovo War: Serbian police and special forces killed around 93 Kosovo Albanians in the village of Izbica.

March 29: Boganda Day in the Central African Republic (1959); Martyrs' Day in Madagascar (1947)

Mariner 10

• 1461 – Wars of the Roses: The Yorkists defeated the Lancastrian army at the Battle of Towton, allowing Edward IV to secure the English throne.
• 1882 – The Knights of Columbus, the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization, was founded by Michael J. McGivneyinNew Haven, Connecticut, U.S.
• 1974 – NASA's Mariner 10 (pictured) became the first space probe to make a flybyofMercury.
• 1999 – The Chamoli earthquake, one of the strongest to hit the foothills of the Himalayas in more than 90 years, killed at least 100 people.
• 2014 – The first same-sex marriages in England and Wales took place following the passage of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013.

March 30: Land DayinPalestinian communities (1976)

Depiction of the signing of the Treaty of Fes

• 1822 – The United States merged East Florida and West Florida to create the Florida Territory.
• 1912 – Sultan Abd al-Hafid signed the Treaty of Fes (depicted), making Morocco a French protectorate.
• 1977 – Annie Hall had its first screening at the LA Film Festival; it would later be voted the funniest screenplay ever by members of the Writers Guild of America.
• 2009 – The Manawan Police Academy in Lahore, Pakistan, was attacked and held for several hours by 12 gunmen, resulting in 16 deaths and 95 injuries.

March 31: Easter (Western Christianity, 2024); Cesar Chavez Day in various U.S. states (1927); International Transgender Day of Visibility

Woodcut picture of Matthew C. Perry

• 1854 – U.S. Navy Commodore Matthew C. Perry (Japanese depiction pictured) and the Tokugawa shogunate signed the Convention of Kanagawa, forcing the opening of Japanese ports to American trade.
• 1959 – After a two-week escape journey from Tibet, the 14th Dalai Lama reached the Tawang MonasteryinArunachal Pradesh in India.
• 1964 – The Brazilian Armed Forces overthrew President João Goulart, establishing a military dictatorship that lasted 21 years.
• 2004 – The Old National Library Building in Singapore was closed to make way for a tunnel, despite widespread protests.

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