March 12......

March 12 is the 71st (72nd in leap years) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 294 days remaining in the year on this date.

{Disclaimer: I have attempted to give credit to the many different sources that I get entries. Any failure to do so is unintentional. Any statement enclosed by brackets like these are the opinion of the blogger, A Proud Liberal.}

EVENTS

● 515 BC - Construction is completed on the Second Temple in Jerusalem.

● 295 - Maximilian beheaded for refusing military service due to his Christian beliefs. Thevesta, North Africa.

● 417 - St Innocent I ends his reign as Catholic Pope

● 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.

● 604 - St Gregory I ends his reign as Catholic Pope

● 1000 - Odo of Lagery elected as Pope Urban II, replacing Victor III

● 1054 - Pope Leo IX escapes captivity & returns to Rome

● 1144 - Gherardo Caccianemici elected Pope Lucius II, succeeding Callistus II

● 1350 - Orvieto city says it will behead & burn Jewish-Christian couples

● 1496 - Jews are expelled from Syria

● 1507 - Cesare Borgia died while fighting alongside his brother, the king of Navarre in Spain.

● 1587 - English parliament leader Peter Wentworth confined in London Tower

● 1597 - England routes troops to Amiens

● 1607 - Birth of Paul Gerhardt, German clergyman and hymnwriter. He lost four of his five children in childhood, yet also composed over 130 hymns, including "O Sacred Head, Now Wounded." (Gerhardt's music marks the transition in Lutheran hymnody from confessional and high-church hymns to hymns of devotional piety.)

● 1609 - Bermuda becomes an English colony

● 1619 - Dutch settlement on Java changes name to Batavia

● 1622 - Gregory XV canonized Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits; Philip Neri, Italian co-founder of a medical religious order; Teresa of Avila, a Spanish Carmelite nun; and Francis Xavier, the Jesuit "Apostle of Eastern Asia."

● 1642 - Abel Tasman is 1st European in New Zealand

● 1664 - 1st naturalization act in American colonies

● 1664 - New Jersey became a British colony. King Charles II granted land in the New World to his brother James (The Duke of York).

● 1689 - Former English King James II lands in Ireland

● 1710 - Birth of Thomas A. Arne, considered one of the outstanding English composers of the 18th century. Today, Arne is best remembered for his hymn tune ARLINGTON, to which we commonly sing, "Am I a Soldier of the Cross?"

● 1737 - Galileo's body moved to Church of Santa Croce in Florence, Italy

● 1755 - 1st steam engine in America installed, to pump water from a mine

● 1773 - Jeanne Baptiste Pointe de Sable found settlement now known as Chicago

● 1789 - US Post Office established

● 1799 - Austria declares war on France

● 1804 - John Pickering, the first federal judge to be impeached, is convicted by the Senate on charges of "drunkenness, profanity, and violence on the bench," and is removed from office. Went to work for a lobbyist.

● 1809 - Britain signed a treaty with Persia forcing the French to leave the country.

● 1826 - Birth of Robert Lowery, American Baptist clergyman and hymnwriter. He is chiefly remembered today for writing and composing the hymns "Christ Arose," "Nothing But the Blood of Jesus," "We're Marching to Zion," "All the Way My Savior Leads Me" and "I Need Thee Every Hour."

● 1848 - 2nd republic established in France

● 1849 - 1st gold seekers arrive in Nicaragua en route to California

● 1850 - 1st US $20 gold piece issued

● 1858 - Adolph Simon Ochs, the American publisher who built The New York Times into one of the world's top newspapers, was born.

● 1860 - U.S. Congress passes the Pre-emption bill, giving away Indian western territories as "free" land to settlers.

● 1863 - President Jefferson Davis delivered his State of the Confederacy address.

● 1867 - Last French troops leave Mexico

● 1868 - Congress abolishes manufacturer's tax

● 1868 - Great Britain annexes Basutoland in Africa

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

● 1877 - Great Britain annexes Walvis Bay at Cape colony

● 1879 - The British Zulu War began.

● 1881 - Andrew Watson made his Scotland debut as the world's first black international football player and captain.

● 1884 - The State of Mississippi authorized the first state-supported college for women. It was called the Mississippi Industrial Institute and College.

● 1888 - 2nd day of the Great blizzard of '88 in northeast US (400 die)

● 1889 - Battle at Metema (Gallabad); Ethiopian Emperor Yohannes IV, defeated

● 1889 - Almon B. Stowger applied for a patent for his automatic telephone system.

● 1894 - Coca-Cola is sold in bottles for the first time.

● 1900 - President Steyn of Orange-Free state flees from Bloemfontein

● 1903 - The Czar of Russia issued a decree providing for nominal freedom of religion throughout his territory.

● 1904 - After 30 years of drilling, the tunnel under the Hudson River was completed. The link was between Jersey City, NJ, and New York, NY.

● 1904 - 1st main line electric train in UK (Liverpool to Southport)

● 1904 - Raphael Hawaweeny was ordained Eastern Orthodox bishop of Brooklyn, NY, at St. Nicholas Church. As a vicar under the Holy Synod of the Church of Russia, Hawaweeny thus became the first Russian Orthodox bishop ordained in America.

● 1905 - In Rome, Premier Giovanni Giolliwas forced out of office by continued civil strife.

● 1906 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that corporations must yield incriminating evidence in anti-trust suits.

● 1906 - Heavy storm ravages Dutch west coast

● 1909 - The British Parliament increased naval appropriations for Britain.

● 1909 - Three U.S. warships were ordered to Nicaragua to stem the conflict with El Salvador.

● 1911 - Dr. Fletcher of Rockefeller Institute discovered the cause of infantile paralysis.

● 1912 - IWW wins Lawrence "Bread and Roses" textile strike.

● 1912 - Shingleworkers strike in Raymond, Wash.

● 1912 - Juliette Gordon Low founds Girl Guides -- renamed, the following year, Girl Scouts. Savannah GA.

● 1912 - Captain Albert Berry performs 1st parachute jump from an airplane

● 1913 - Canberra, future capital of Australia, is officially named and construction of the new city begins (Melbourne remained temporary capital until 1927).

● 1916 - French airship sinks British submarine D3

● 1917 - Russia - Abolition of the death penalty. Yup.

● 1917 - Russian Dumas sets up Provisional Committee; workers set up Soviets

● 1917 - Stalin, Kamenev & Muranov arrive in St Petersburg

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

● 1919 - Austrian National Meeting affirms Anschluss (incorporate into Germany)

● 1922 - Birth of Jack Kerouac (1922-1969), Lowell, Massachusetts. Novelist/poet, leading figure and spokesman of the Beat Generation. Best known for "On the Road" (1957) -- written in three weeks.

● 1923 - Dr. Lee DeForest demonstrated phonofilm. It was his technique for putting sound on motion picture film.

● 1925 - British government of Baldwin refuses to ratify Geneva agreement

● 1925 - Chinese revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen died at age 68.

● 1926 - Denmark begins unilateral disarmament

● 1926 - Pope Pius XI names J E van Roey archbishop of Malines Belgium

● 1928 - In California, the St. Francis Dam fails, killing 400 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 Delano Roosevelt addresses the nation for the first time as President of the United States. This was also the first of his "Fireside Chats."

● 1933 - President Paul von Hindenburg dropped the flag of the German Republic and ordered that the swastika and empire banner be flown side by side.

● 1934 - Acting President Constantine Päts commits coup in Tallinn Estonia

● 1934 - Josip Broz (Tito) freed from jail

● 1935 - Pari-mutuel betting became legal in the State of Nebraska.

● 1938 - Anschluss: German troops occupy Austria; annexation declared the following day.

● 1939 - Pope Pius XII crowned in Vatican ceremonies

● 1940 - Winter War: Finland signs the Moscow Peace Treaty with the Soviet Union, ceding almost all of Finnish Karelia. Finnish troops and remaining population are immediately evacuated.

● 1940 - Finland surrenders to Russia during WWII, giving up Karelische Isthmus

● 1941 - German occupiers confiscate AVRO studios in Netherlands

● 1942 - British troops vacate the Andamanen in Gulf of Bengal

● 1943 - Soviet troops liberate Wjasma

● 1944 - Britain barred all travel to Ireland.

● 1945 - 30 Amsterdammers executed by Nazi occupiers

● 1945 - Italy's Communist Party (CPI) calls for armed uprising in Italy

● 1945 - New York is 1st to prohibit discrimination by race & creed in employment

● 1945 - The British Empire celebrates its 1st British Empire Day

● 1945 - USSR returns Transylvania to Romania

● 1946 - Part of Petsamo province ceded by Soviet Union to Finland

● 1947 - Belgian government of Huysmans resigns

● 1947 - U.S. President Truman established the "Truman Doctrine" to help Greece and Turkey resist Communism.

● 1948 - -5ºF lowest temperature ever recorded in Cleveland in March

● 1950 - Belgium votes (58%) for return of King Leopold III

● 1950 - Pope Pius XII encyclical "On combating atheistic propaganda"

● 1951 - Communist troops driven out of Seoul

● 1956 - Nearly a hundred Congressional Representatives and Senators sign the "Southern Manifesto," vowing to fight the Supreme Court school desegregation decision.

● 1957 - German Democratic Republic accepts 22 Russian divisions

● 1958 - Manol Vassev (1898-1958), true name Yordan Sotirov, dies. Poisoned by prison guards one day before his release. A popular Bulgarian militant anarcho-trade unionist and a living symbol of resistance of both fascism and Bolshevism. Spent several years in Stalinist concentration camps before his prison years. Yordan Sotirov was an anarcho-syndicalist who, as a factory worker, fought clandestinely most of his life, agitating, initiating and carrying out strikes and fights under the name Vassev. After arrests and being thrown in prison -- whether by the fascist or Bolshevik regimes -- he would emerge only to immediately begin the struggle anew. The Stalinist regime sent him to concentration camps for several years, then to prison where they murdered him rather than let him out yet again.

● 1958 - British Empire Day is renamed "Commonwealth Day"

● 1959 - Dutch Liberal Party wins 2nd parliamentary elections

● 1959 - US House joins Senate approving Hawaii statehood

● 1960 - A fire at a chemical plant in Pusan, Korea kills 68.

● 1962 - Dutch Premier De Quay announces secret talks with Indonesia

● 1964 - Hoffa faces eight years behind bars; The president of the powerful American Teamsters union is sentenced to eight years on bribery charges.

● 1964 - Malcolm X resigns from Nation of Islam

● 1966 - Pioneer Plaza dedicated [San Francisco]

● 1966 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1967 - Suharto takes over from Sukarno to become President of Indonesia.

● 1968 - Sen. Eugene McCarthy, an anti-war candidate, defeats Pres. Lyndon Johnson to win the New Hampshire Democratic primary for President.

● 1968 - Mauritius achieves independence.

● 1968 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1970 - US lowers voting age from 21 to 18

● 1971 - Fourteen-hour vigil for abolition of NATO, Ministry of Defence, London, Britain.

● 1971 - British Columbia Federation of Labor Women's Committee founded.

● 1971 - Syrian premier Hafez Assad elected President

● 1971 - Turkish Government of Demirel forced to resign by Army

● 1974 - Billy Fox, Protestant member of Dublin parliament, assassinated.

● 1974 - Bundy victim Donna Manson disappears, Evergreen SC, Olympia WA

● 1975 - Vietcong conquer Ban me Thuot South Vietnam

● 1976 - South African troops leave Angola

● 1976 - The American Way - CIA plants false story of Cubans raping Angolan women and the victims shooting the rapists.

● 1977 - Massive demonstrations all over Italy. In Bologna, "Radio Alice" is suppressed by the government after one year of broadcasting.

● 1977 - Chile President Pinochet bans Christian-Democratic Party

● 1977 - Egypt's Anwar Sadat pledges to regain Arab territory from Israel

● 1978 - One hundred fifty thousand demonstrate against nuclear reactor. Lemoniz, Spain.

● 1979 - Grenadan revolution begins.

● 1980 - Jury finds John Wayne Gacy guilty of murdering 33 in Chicago

● 1981 - Soyuz T-4 carries 2 cosmonauts to Salyut 6 space station

● 1982 - Three hundred women workers stage slow-down at Control Data in Seoul, South Korea, protesting the firing of their union president.

● 1982 - PLO chief Yassar Arafat appears on "Nightline"

● 1984 - National Union of Mine Workers in England begin a 51 week strike

● 1984 - Lebanese President Gemayel opened the second meeting in five years calling for the end to nine-years of war.

● 1985 - The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. began arms control talks in Geneva.

● 1985 - Former U.S. President Richard M. Nixon announced that he planned to drop Secret Service protection and hire his own bodyguards in an effort to lower the deficit by $3 million.

● 1986 - Giotto encounters Comet Halley

● 1986 - Susan Butcher becomes the first woman to win 1,158 mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. She would become a perennial winner.

● 1987 - Federal judge dismisses lawsuits sought by Oliver North

● 1987 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR

● 1989 - 2 cyanide-contaminated Chilean grapes found (Philadelphia)

● 1989 - Madagascar AREMA party wins parliamentary election

● 1989 - Prime Minister Sadiq al Mahdi of Sudan formed a new cabinet to end civil war.

● 1989 - About 2,500 veterans and supporters marched at the Art Institute of Chicago to demand that officials remove an American flag placed on the floor as part of an exhibit.

● 1990 - Lithuania declares independence.

● 1992 - Efrain Bamaca, husband of U.S. activist Jennifer Harbury, is seized by Guatemalan military in the employ of the CIA; he is later tortured and killed.

● 1992 - Mauritius becomes a republic while remaining a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

● 1992 - 13 are killed and several injured when a tram-car crashes into a crowd of people at the tram-station at Vasaplatsen in Gothenburg, Sweden.

● 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.

● 1993 - In the U.S., the Pentagon called for the closure of 31 major military bases.

● 1993 - Inkhata leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi begins 2½ week speech

● 1994 - Church of England ordains 1st 33 women priests

● 1994 - A photo by Marmaduke Wetherell, previously touted as 'proof' of the Loch Ness monster, is confirmed to be a hoax.

● 1995 - Congress party loses India national election

● 1997 - Police in Los Angeles arrested Mikail Markhasev for the shooting of Bill Cosby's 27-year-old son, Ennis. Markhasev was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

● 1998 - Astronomers cancelled a warning that a mile-wide asteroid might collide with Earth saying that calculations had been off by 600,000 miles.

● 1999 - Former Warsaw Pact members the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland join NATO.

● 1999 - Violinist Yehudi Menuhin, musician of reconciliation, dies; One of the 20th century's finest musicians Yehudi Menuhin dies, aged 82.

● 2000 - Pope John Paul II asked God's forgiveness for the sins of Roman Catholics through the ages, including wrongs inflicted on Jews, women and minorities.

● 2002 - Andrea Yates of Houston was convicted of murder in the drowning deaths of her children in the family bathtub. (Her conviction was later overturned and she was found not guilty by reason of insanity at a second trial.)

● 2002 - U.S. homeland security chief Tom Ridge unveiled a color-coded system for terror warnings. {Thus becoming the first cabinet level officer whose claim to fame was color coordination.}

● 2002 - The U.N. Security Council approved a U.S.-sponsored resolution endorsing a Palestinian state for the first time.

● 2003 - International war crimes court convenes for the first time, without the participation of the United States.

● 2003 - In Utah, Elizabeth Smart was reunited with her family nine months after she was abducted from her home. She had been taken on June 5, 2002, by a drifter that had previously worked at the Smart home.

● 2003 - In Belgrade, Serbia-Montenegro, Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic was assassinated as he walked into government headquarters. Djindjic had helped to topple Slobodan Milosevic and had declared war on organized crime.

● 2003 - The U.S. Air Force announced that it would resume reconnaissance flights off the coast of North Korea. The flights had stopped on March 2 after an encounter with four armed North Korean jets.

● 2004 - In Spain, millions of people marched to protest train bombings in Madrid that killed 191 people the day before.

● 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.

BIRTHS

● 1270 - Charles of Valois, son of Philip III of France (d. 1325)

● 1386 - Ashikaga Yoshimochi, Japanese shogun (d. 1428)

● 1478 - Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici, ruler of Florence (d. 1516)

● 1607 - Paul Gerhardt, German hymnist (d. 1676)

● 1613 - André Le Nôtre, French landscape architect (d. 1700)

● 1620 - Johann Heinrich Hottinger, Swiss philologist and theologian (d. 1667)

● 1626 - John Aubrey, English antiquary and writer (d. 1697)

● 1637 - Anne Hyde, wife of James II of England (d. 1671)

● 1647 - Victor-Maurice, comte de Broglie, French general (d. 1727)

● 1685 - George Berkeley, Irish theologian (d. 1753)

● 1710 - Thomas Augustine Arne, English composer (d. 1778)

● 1718 - Joseph Damer, English politician (d. 1798)

● 1806 - Jane Pierce, First Lady of the United States (d. 1863)

● 1821 - Sir John Abbott, third Prime Minister of Canada (1891-92) (d. 1893)

● 1824 - Gustav Kirchhoff, German physicist (d. 1887)

● 1831 - Clement Studebaker, American automobile pioneer (d. 1901)

● 1838 - William Perkin, English chemist (d. 1907)

● 1858 - Adolph Simon Ochs, American newspaper publisher; owned The New York Times (d. 1935)

● 1859 - Abraham H. Cannon, Mormon apostle (d. 1896)

● 1863 - Gabriele D'Annunzio, Italian writer (d. 1938)

● 1863 - Vladimir Vernadsky, Russian mineralogist (d. 1945)

● 1877 - Wilhelm Frick, German statesman; Hitler's minister of the interior (d. 1946)

● 1880 - Nikolaos Georgantas, Greek discus thrower (d. 1958)

● 1881 - Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, First President of Turkey (d. 1938)

● 1883 - Zoltán Meskó, Hungarian Nazi (d. 1959)

● 1888(90? NYT) - Vaslav Nijinsky, Polish-born ballet dancer (d. 1950)

● 1890 - William Dudley Pelley, American leader of the Silver Legion (d. 1965)

● 1895 - William C. Lee, U.S. Army general (d. 1948)

● 1907 - Arthur Hewlett, actor (d. 1997)

● 1907 - Dorrit Hoffleit, American astronomer

● 1908 - Rita Angus, New Zealand painter (d. 1970)

● 1912 - Irving Layton, Canadian poet (d. 2006)

● 1918(20? NYT) - Elaine de Kooning, American artist (d. 1989)

● 1921 - Gianni Agnelli, Italian auto executive (d. 2003)

● 1921 - Gordon MacRae, American singer and actor (d. 1986)

● 1922 - Jack Kerouac, American writer (d. 1969)

● 1922 - Lane Kirkland, American labor leader (d. 1999)

● 1923 - Hjalmar Andersen, Norwegian speed skater

● 1923 - Wally Schirra, astronaut

● 1923 - Mae Young, professional wrestler

● 1923 - Norbert Brainin, Austrian violinist (d. 2005)

● 1925 - Leo Esaki, Japanese physicist, Nobel laureate

● 1925 - Louison Bobet, French cyclist (d. 1983)

● 1925 - Georges Delerue, French film composer (d. 1992)

● 1925 - Harry Harrison, American author

● 1928 - Edward Albee, American dramatist ("Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf")

● 1929 - U Win Tin, jailed Burmese journalist

● 1931 - Herbert Kelleher, Southwest Airlines co-founder

● 1932 - Barbara Feldon, American actress and model

● 1932 - Andrew Young, American civil rights activist

● 1936 - Patrick Procktor, English artist

● 1940 - Al Jarreau, American singer

● 1940 - M.A. Numminen, Finnish singer and writer

● 1942 - Ratko Mladić, Republika Srpska leader

● 1945 - Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, American gangster

● 1946 - Liza Minnelli, American singer and actress

● 1947 - Kalervo Palsa, Finnish artist (d. 1987)

● 1947 - Mitt Romney, Governor of Massachusetts

● 1948 - Kent Conrad, U.S. senator, D-ND

● 1948 - James Taylor, American musician

● 1949 - Bill Payne, Rock musician (Little Feat)

● 1949 - Natalia Kuchinskaya, Soviet gymnast

● 1949 - Rob Cohen, American film director, producer and writer

● 1950 - Jon Provost, Actor (''Lassie'')

● 1952 - Eliézer Niyitegeka, Rwandan journalist, politician and genocidaire

● 1953 - Carl Hiaasen, American journalist and author

● 1953 - Ron Jeremy, American actor

● 1956 - Dale Murphy, baseball player

● 1957 - Steve Harris, English musician (Iron Maiden)

● 1957 - Marlon Jackson, Singer (The Jackson Five)

● 1957 - Jerry Levine, Actor

● 1960 - Maki Nomiya, Japanese singer

● 1960 - Courtney B. Vance, Actor

● 1961 - Titus Welliver, Actor

● 1962 - Darryl Strawberry, baseball player

● 1963 - Julia Campbell, Actress

● 1963 - Joaquim Cruz, Brazilian runner

● 1965 - Steve Finley, baseball player

● 1965 - Steve Levy, American sports journalist

● 1965 - Shawn Gilbert, baseball player

● 1968 - Aaron Eckhart, American actor

● 1969 - Graham Coxon, English musician

● 1969 - Jake Tapper, American journalist

● 1970 - Roy Khan, Norwegian singer (Kamelot)

● 1970 - Dave Eggers, American writer, editor, and publisher

● 1971 - Tony Eveready (Duane Moore), American adult film actor

● 1972 - Hector Luis Bustamante, Colombian actor

● 1972 - James Maritato, American professional wrestler

● 1975 - Kelle Bryan, British singer

● 1976 - Simon Young, British music journalist

● 1977 - Marcus 40 (Mark Hendry), New Zealand actor

● 1978 - Masuimi Max, American model

● 1978 - Casey Mears, American auto racer

● 1978 - Claudio Sanchez, musician

● 1978 - Arina Tanemura, mangaka

● 1979 - Pete Doherty, musician

● 1979 - Nidia Guenard, former WWE Diva

● 1979 - Edwin Villafuerte, Ecuadorian footballer

● 1982 - Samm Levine, Actor

● 1982 - Tobias Schweinsteiger, German footballer

● 1985 - Bradley Wright-Phillips, English footballer

● 1985 - Tosh Townend, American skateboarder

● 1986 - Danny Jones, British singer

● 1994 - Tyler Patrick Jones, Actor

DEATHS

● 604 - Pope Gregory I

● 1289 - King Demetre II of Georgia (b. 1259)

● 1374 - Emperor Go-Kogon of Japan (b. 1336)

● 1447 - Shah Rukh, ruler of Persia and Transoxonia (b. 1377)

● 1507 - Cesare Borgia, Italian general and statesman (b. 1475)

● 1608 - Koriki Kiyonaga, Japanese warlord (b. 1530)

● 1628 - John Bull, English composer

● 1648 - Tirso de Molina, Spanish writer (b. 1571)

● 1681 - Frans van Mieris, Sr., Dutch painter (b. 1635)

● 1699 - Peder Griffenfeld, Danish statesman (b. 1635)

● 1757 - Giuseppe Galli-Bibiena, Italian architect/painter (b. 1696).

● 1790 - Andreas Hadik, Austro-Hungarian general (b. 1710)

● 1832 - Friedrich Kuhlau, German composer (b. 1786)

● 1872 - Zeng Guofan, Chinese politician and general (b. 1811)

● 1889 - Emperor Yohannes IV of Ethiopia

● 1894 - Illarion Pryanishnikov, Russian painter (b. 1840)

● 1898 - Zacharias Topelius, Finnish-Swedish writer (b. 1818)

● 1908 - Edmondo De Amicis, Italian children's writer (b. 1846)

● 1909 - Joe Petrosino, NYPD lieutenant (b. 1860)

● 1916 - Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, Austrian writer (b. 1830)

● 1925 - Sun Yat-sen, Chinese revolutionary and politician (b. 1866)

● 1930 - Alois Jirásek, Czech writer (b. 1851)

● 1937 - Charles-Marie Widor, French organist and composer (b. 1844)

● 1937 - Jenő Hubay, Hungarian violinist (b. 1858)

● 1943 - Gustav Vigeland, Norwegian sculptor (b. 1869)

● 1944 - Artur Gavazzi, Croatian geographer (b. 1861)

● 1947 - Winston Churchill, American novelist (b. 1871)

● 1955 - Charlie Parker, American jazz saxophonist (b. 1920)

● 1973 - Frankie Frisch, baseball player (b. 1898)

● 1974 - George D. Sax, Drive-in bank and instant loan innovator. Owner of the Saxony Hotel. (b. 1904)

● 1978 - John Cazale, American actor (b. 1935)

● 1978 - Gene Moore, baseball player (b. 1909)

● 1984 - Arnold Ridley, British playwright and actor (b. 1896)

● 1985 - Eugene Ormandy, Hungarian conductor (b. 1899)

● 1987 - Woody Hayes, American football coach (b. 1913)

● 1989 - Maurice Evans, British actor (b. 1901)

● 1990 - Wallace Breem, British author (b. 1926)

● 1991 - Ragnar Granit, Finnish neuroscientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1900)

● 1995 - Juanin Clay, American actress (b. 1949)

● 1998 - Judge Dread, English musician (b. 1945)

● 1998 - Beatrice Wood, American artist and ceramist (b. 1893)

● 1999 - Sir Yehudi Menuhin, American-born violinist (b. 1916)

● 2001 - Morton Downey, Jr., American television talk show host (b. 1933)

● 2001 - Robert Ludlum, American author (b. 1927)

● 2002 - Spyros Kyprianou, Cypriot politician (b. 1932)

● 2003 - Zoran Đinđić, Prime Minister of Serbia (b. 1952)

● 2003 - Howard Fast, American author (b. 1914)

● 2003 - Lynne Thigpen, American actress (b. 1948)

● 2003 - Andrei Kivilev, Kazakh cyclist (b. 1973)

● 2005 - Bill Cameron, Canadian journalist (b. 1943)

● 2006 - István Gyulai, Hungarian athletic official (b. 1943)

● 2006 - Victor Sokolov, Russian dissident journalist and priest (b. 1947)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Alphege
● St. Bernard of Carinola
● St. Egdunus
● St. Fina
● St. Gregory I the Great, Pope (590-604)
● St. Mamilian
● St. Maximilian
● St. Mura McFeredach
● St. Paul Aurelian
● St. Peter of Nicomedia
● St. Peter the Deacon
● St. Seraphina
● St. Theophanes the Confessor
● St. Vindician
● Bl. Joseph Tshang-ta-Pong
● Bl. Luigi Orine, Blessed

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for February 29 (Civil Date: March 12)
● St. John Cassian the Roman, abbot.
● St. John, called Barsanuphius, of Nitria in Egypt.
● Martyr Theocteristus, abbot of Pelecete Monastery near Prusa.
● St. Cassian, recluse and faster of the Kiev Caves.
● St. Meletius, Bishop of Kharkov.

● Christian:
● St. Alphege of Winchester
● St. Bernard of Capua
● St. Maximilian of Theveste
● St. Paul Aurelian of Leon
● Sts. Peter Gorgonius & Dorothheus
● St. Seraphina/Fina & St. Theophanes the Chronicler

● Lutheran & Anglican:
● St. Gregory I the Great, Pope (590-604)

● Faroe Islands - Grækarismessa (Mass of St. Gregor): According to tradition, the oystercatcher, the Faroes' national bird returns this day. This event is celebrated in the capital, Tórshavn

● Mauritius - National Day.

● Ancient Latvia - Gregoru Diena observed.

● Arbor Day in China.

● British Commonwealth : Commonwealth Day (formerly British Empire Day)

● Gabon : Renovation Day (National Day)

● Lesotho : Moshoeshoe's Day

● Libya : King's Birthday

● Mauritius : Independence Day (1968)

● Venezuala : Flag Day

● World : Girl Scouts Day (1912)

● World : World Culture Day (non Leap year)

● These Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
● Memphis TN: Cotton Carnival (held for 5 days) - ( Tuesday )
● New Mexico: Arbor Day - ( Friday )


Click on this LINK to see original Wikipedia list with many having links with details.

Additional facts taken from:

On this day in the New York Times

The BBC’s Take on the day

On This Day Website

Geov Parrish's this Day in Radical History, things that happened on this day that you never had to memorize in school.

Scope Systems Any Day Website

Roman Catholic Saint of the Day

Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar

Permanent Backlink to Post