March 16......

March 16 is the 75th (76th in leap years) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 290 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

● 597 BC According to certain archaeological calculations, the first conquest of Jerusalem by Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar occurred. In the Bible, the event is recorded in 2 Kings 24:1ff. and in 2 Chronicles 36:5-8. It is also implied in the early chapters of Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

● 1079 - Iran adopts solar Hijrah calendar

● 1190 - Jews of York England commit mass suicide rather than submit to baptism, those who don't commit suicide or get baptized are slaughtered by Crusaders.

● 1345 - Accordig to legend the Holy Spirit glides above fire; "the miracle of Amsterdam."

● 1517 - Pope Leo X signs 5th Council of Lateranen

● 1521 - Birth of Nicolas Storch, medieval anarchist communist.

● 1521 - Magelhaes' fleet discovers Zamal (Samar)

● 1521 - Ferdinand Magellan reaches the Philippines. He was killed the next month by natives.

● 1527 - Battle at Khanua: Mogol Emperor Babur beats Rajputen

● 1617 - Pocahontas dies on ship George at Gravesend, England.

● 1621 - Samoset walked into the settlement of Plymouth Colony, later Plymouth, MA. Samoset was a native from the Monhegan tribe in Maine who spoke English. He greeted the Pilgrims by saying, "Welcome, Englishmen! My name is Samoset."

● 1621 - Birth of George Neumark, German educator. Twice in life he lost everything: once by robbers and once by fire. As a poet, Neumark is best remembered as author of the hymn, "If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee."

● 1641 - General court declares Rhode Island a democracy & adopts new constitution

● 1660 - English Long Parliament disbands

● 1689 - The 23rd Regiment of Foot or Royal Welch Fusiliers is founded.

● 1690 - French king Louis XIV sends troops to Ireland

● 1730 - Willem Charles Henry Friso installed as viceroy of Drenthe

● 1731 - Treaty of Vienna: Emperor Charles VI of England & Netherlands

● 1751 - James Madison, the fourth president of the United States, was born in Port Conway, Va.

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

● 1802 - The United States Military Academy West Point is established.

● 1802 - US army Corps of Engineers established (2nd time)

● 1812 - Battle of Badajoz (March 16 - April 6) - British and Portuguese forces besiege and defeat French garrison during Peninsular War.

● 1815 - Prince Willem of the House of Orange-Nassau proclaimed himself King of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, the first constitutional monarch in the Netherlands.

● 1818 - Battle of Cancha Rayada - Spanish forces defeat Chileans under José de San Martín.

● 1827 - First Black newspaper in U.S., Freedom's Journal, published in New York City by John B. Russwurm.

● 1829 - Ohio authorizes high school night classes

● 1830 - London's re-organised police force (Scotland Yard) forms

● 1830 - New York Stock Exchange slowest day ever (31 shares traded)

● 1831 - Textile workers in Lawrence, Mass. strike.

● 1833 - Susan Hayhurst becomes 1st US woman graduate of a pharmacy college

● 1834 - HMS Beagle anchors at Berkeley Sound, Falkland Islands

● 1836 - The Republic of Texas approves a constitution

● 1855 - Bates College in Lewiston, Maine is founded.

● 1861 - Edward Clark became Governor of Texas, replacing Sam Houston, who was evicted from the office for refusing to take an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy.

● 1861 - Arizona Territory votes to leave the Union

● 1861 - Confederate government appoints commissioners to Britain

● 1862 - Battle at Pound Gap KY: Confederates separate battles

● 1865 - Battle of Averasboro NC (1,500 casualities)

● 1867 - First publication of an article by Joseph Lister outlining the discovery of antiseptic surgery, in The Lancet.

● 1868 - Maxim Gorky, a Russian writer of short stories, novels and plays, was born.

● 1869 - Hiram R Revels makes the 1st official speech by a black in the Senate

● 1871 - 1st fertilizer law enacted

● 1877 - Birth of Antoine Bertrand (1877-1964). French antimilitarist, member of the anarchist "Free Youth" group and a union activist opposing the counter-revolutionary influence of reformists and Communists. In 1919, part of the committee for the amnesty of the Black Sea mutineers. Lost his job for his activities previously, and again in May 1920 for striking, and was unable to get work until after the amnesty of 1925.

● 1882 - US Senate ratifies treaty establishing the Red Cross

● 1889 - A major conflict among US, British, and German warships anchored off the Samoan Islands is averted, when a hurricane destroys all but one vessel. A tripartite agreement proclaimed the islands neutral territory, and this lasts until 1899.

● 1892 - Birth of Cesar Vallejo, Peruvian hermitic poet, communist, Santiago de Chuco. A major voice of social change in Latin-American literature. Of mixed blood, his early work reflects firsthand experience of hunger, poverty, and injustices suffered by the Indians.

● 1899 - Lake City, Louisiana free-speech fight.

● 1900 - Sir Arthur Evans purchases the land around the ruins of Knossos, the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete.

● 1907 - August Roden, editor of the 'Wisconsin State Journal" in Madison opens his crusade against Madison Gas & Electric. Roden's lead story charges that the New York-based McMillan Syndicate, which owns the utility, has overcharged for a product that falls below state standards. MG&E's cooking and lighting gas has long been considered inferior, although its price is 21 percent higher than the U.S. average. A study by a University of Wisconsin professor found that 20 percent of the gas is nothing more than nitrogen, which provides no heat or light, but causes the meters to whirl just the same. A study commissioned by progressive Wisconsin Governor James O. Davidson finds that MG&E rates are not based on production costs plus a fair return but on the basis of all the traffic will bear. Roden's crusade is carefully timed for the legislative session. He prompts a new public utilities-regulation law, the forerunner of the state's Public Service Commission. Finally, in March 1910, MG&E will cut its rates by 10 percent. Over the next decade, the rates are rolled back three more times.

● 1907 - The world's largest cruiser, the British Invincible was completed at Glasgow.

● 1908 - China released the Japanese steamship Tatsu Maru.

● 1909 - Cuba suffered its first revolt only six weeks after the inauguration of Gomez.

● 1912 - Lawrence Oates, ill member of Scott's South Pole expedition leaves the tent saying, "I am just going outside and may be some time."

● 1912 - Mrs. William Howard Taft plants 1st cherry tree in Washington DC

● 1913 - The 15,000-ton battleship Pennsylvania was launched at Newport News, VA.

● 1914 - Henriette Caillaux, wife of French minister Joseph Caillaux shoots Gaston Calmet, the editor of Le Figaro.

● 1915 - British battle cruisers Inflexible & Irresistible hit mines in Dardanelle

● 1915 - Federal Trade Commission organizes

● 1915 - Birth of Dr. Robert H. Bowman, missions pioneer. In 1945, along with John Broger and William J. Roberts, Bowman helped found the Far East Broadcasting Company. Today FEBC reaches thousands of Pacific island clusters with the Gospel through Christian radio.

● 1916 - US & Canada sign Migratory bird treaty

● 1916 - 7th and 10th US cavalry regiments under John J. Pershing cross the border to join the hunt of Pancho Villa.

● 1920 - 1 Acre Park also known as Baby Park in the Bronx renamed Melrose Park

● 1921 - War Resisters International founded, London.

● 1921 - Bolsheviks stage final bloody assault on rebellious Kronstadt sailors.

● 1922 - Sultan Fuad I crowned king of Egypt, England recognizes Egypt

● 1924 - Birth of Sarah Caldwell, first woman to conduct at Metropolitan Opera House.

● 1924 - The free port of Fiume formally annexed by Mussolini's fascist regime.

● 1926 - Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts goes 184' (56 meters).

● 1928 - The U.S. planned to send 1,000 more Marines to Nicaragua.

● 1930 - USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) floated out to become a national shrine

● 1931 - Genootschap Onze Taal (Our Language) organizes (Netherlands)

● 1933 - Hitler names Hjalmar Shaft, president of Bank of Germany

● 1934 - Congress passes Migratory Bird Conservation Act

● 1935 - Adolf Hitler orders Germany to rearm herself in violation of the Versailles Treaty. Conscription was reintroduced to form the Wehrmacht.

● 1937 - Bolivia confiscates Standard Oil Co.'s holdings.

● 1939 - From Prague Castle Hitler proclaimed Bohemia and Moravia a German protectorate.

● 1939 - Hungary annexes republic of Karpato-Ukraine

● 1940 - German air raid on British fleet base Scapa Flow

● 1941 - Blizzard hits North Dakota & Minnesota killing 60

● 1941 - Dmitri Shostakovich receives the Stalin Prize

● 1941 - National Gallery of Art opens in Washington DC

● 1942 - Operation Reinhard, the mass murder of Polish Jewry by the Nazis, begins.

● 1942 - First V-2 rocket test launch (exploded at liftoff)

● 1943 - Elin K (No) & Zaanland (Netherlands) torpedoed & sinks

● 1944 - Vichy Internal minister Pucheu sentenced to death

● 1945 - World War II: The Battle of Iwo Jima ends but small pockets of Japanese resistance persist.

● 1945 - Würzburg, Germany is 90% destroyed, with 5,000 dead, in only 20 minutes by British bombers.

● 1946 - Algerian nationalist leader Ferhat Abbas was freed after spending a year in jail.

● 1946 - India called British Premier Attlee's independence offer contradictory and a propaganda move.

● 1947 - Convair Liner, 1st US twin-engine pressurized airplane, tested

● 1947 - Martial law was withdrawn in Tel Aviv.

● 1949 - The first museum to be devoted solely to atomic energy opened in Oak Ridge, TN.

● 1950 - Death of Gregori Maximoff, exiled Russian anarcho-syndicalist. Participated in the 1917 revolution; after his expulsion following his participation in 1921's Kronstadt revolt, he settled in Berlin and eventually Chicago, becoming active in the IWW and remaining an activist, and editor of several publications, until his death.

● 1950 - Congress voted to remove federal taxes on oleomargarine.

● 1952 - In Cilaos, Réunion, 73 inches (1,870mm) of rain falls in one day, setting a new world record.

● 1952 - The first religious program on TV, "This Week in Religion," debuted on Dumont television. It was the only ecumenical program of TV's early religious offerings, and ran for two years, last airing in October 1954.

● 1953 - Marshal Tito makes historic visit to London; Marshal Josef Tito of Yugoslavia has arrived in Britain, the first Communist head of state to visit the country.

● 1955 - Josephine Kroesen appointed as 1st Dutch female judge

● 1955 - President Eisenhower upheld the use of atomic weapons in case of war

● 1956 - St. Urho's Day is first celebrated.

● 1959 - Iraq & USSR sign economic/technical treaty

● 1962 - 1st launching of Titan 2-rocket

● 1962 - A Flying Tiger Line Super Constellation disappears in the western Pacific Ocean, with 167 people missing.

● 1963 - Mount Agung erupts on Bali - 11,000 dead

● 1964 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson submitted a $1 billion war on poverty program to Congress.

● 1964 - Alan Freed charged with tax evasion based on the earlier payola investigation which ruined the career of the Cleveland ex-DJ who helped launch rock and roll's national popularity.

● 1965 - U.S. Supreme Court extends rights of conscientious objection.

● 1965 - Montgomery, Alabama police attack civil rights marchers.

● 1966 - Launch of Gemini 8, the 12th manned American space flight and first space docking with the Agena Target Vehicle. Mission cut short at six and half orbits.

● 1968 - Hundreds of Vietnamese civilians massacred by U.S. troops at My Lai, Vietnam. While the upper brass circles overhead in helicopters, the men of Charlie Company, First Battalion, American Division, enter the hamlet of My Lai 4, in South Vietnam's Quang Ngai Province, and methodically and ruthlessly murder an estimated 347 civilians over an eight hour period. Most are women, children, and old men. Some are slain by bullets fired into their houses, others are herded into small groups and mowed down, and still more die when they are hurled into a ditch and sprayed with automatic rifle fire. The Army, including a young Colin Powell, will first try to cover it up, and the US media will refuse to report it. Later they will portray it as a aberration, one bad guy (Calley), one good guy (who stops it). Calley is later convicted, sent to his room for being a bad boy, then released.

● 1968 - Robert F Kennedy announces Presidential campaign. {He is assassinated before the news of My Lai comes to light.}

● 1969 - Antonio Pereira (1908-1969) (true name Tomaso Ranier) dies. Italian anarchist. In 1928 forced into exile in France, then to Spain in 1932. Fought with the Ortiz column in the Spanish Civil War, and continued fighting in Spain underground after Franco took over. Caught in October 1945 and sent to prison, but the Italian embassy intervened on his behalf and gained his release, allowing him to return to Italy.

● 1969 - A Venezuelan Airlines DC-9 crashes shortly after takeoff in Maracaibo, Venezuela killing 155

● 1970 - The complete text of the New English Bible was published, simultaneously, by the Oxford and Cambridge Presses. (The New Testament of the NEB had been first published in 1961.)

● 1971 - Government of Trygve Bratteli in Norway

● 1972 - The first building of the Pruitt-Igoe housing complex is demolished.

● 1975 - US Mariner 10 makes 3rd & final fly-by of Mercury

● 1976 - Prime Minister Harold Wilson resigns; Harold Wilson, Labour leader for 13 years and Prime Minister for almost eight, announces his resignation to a shocked nation.

● 1977 - US President Carter pleads for Palestinian homeland. {He continues to so but the powers to be ignore him now as then.}

● 1978 - Former premier Aldo Moro is kidnapped by left-wing terrorists in Italy, five die during kidnapping and Moro is later killed by his captors.

● 1978 - Supertanker the Amoco Cadiz, split in two after running aground on Portsall Rocks, three miles off the coast of Brittany, resulting in the 5th-largest oil spill in history, 68.7 million gallons.

● 1978 - Soyuz 26 returns to Earth

● 1978 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1978 - US Senate accepts Panamá Canal treaty

● 1983 - Demolition of the radio tower Ismaning, the last radio tower in Germany built of wood.

● 1984 - Jesse Jackson becomes first African American to win a U.S. presidential preference contest, garnering 46% of votes in Mississippi caucuses.

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

● 1984 - Mozambique and South Africa signed a pact banning the support for one another's internal enemies.

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

● 1987 - "Bostonia" magazine printed an English translation of Albert Einstein’s last high school report card.

● 1988 - Iran-Contra Affair: Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter are indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States.

● 1988 - Halabja poison gas attack: The Kurdish town of Halabjah in Iraq was attacked with a mix of poison gas and nerve agents, killing thousands of people.

● 1988 - Three shot dead at Milltown Cemetery; A gunman kills three mourners and injures at least 50 people attending a funeral for IRA members shot dead in Gibraltar.

● 1988 - US sends 3000 soldiers to Nicaragua's neighbor Honduras

● 1988 - Mickey Thompson and his wife Trudy were shot to death in their driveway. Thompson, known as the "Speed King," set nearly 500 auto speed endurance records including being the first person to travel more than 400 mph on land.

● 1989 - The Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee approved large-scale agricultural reforms and elected the party's 100 members to the Congress of People's Deputies.

● 1991 - 7 members of Reba McEntire's band are killed in a plane crash

● 1991 - Members of Irish Gay & Lesbian Organization march in NYC parade

● 1993 - A blizzard on the east coast of the United States kills 184.

● 1993 - In France, ostrich meat was officially declared fit for human consumption.

● 1994 - Tonya Harding plead guilty in Portland, OR, to conspiracy to hinder prosecution for covering up the attack on her skating rival Nancy Kerrigan. She was fined $100,000. She was also banned from amateur figure skating.

● 1994 - Russia agreed to phase out production of weapons-grade plutonium.

● 1994 - Moravcik forms Slovakia government

● 1995 - U.S. nuclear-powered submarine collides with a freighter near Hong Kong.

● 1995 - Mississippi House of Representatives formally ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery.

● 1995 - NASA astronaut Norman Thagard became the first American to visit the Russian space station Mir.

● 1996 - Göran Persson is elected leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party.

● 1997 - Sandline affair - On Bougainville, soldiers of commander Jerry Singirok arrest Tim Spicer and his mercenaries of the Sandline International

● 1998 - In response to reported Serbian massacres in Drenica, in the ethnically Albanian province of Kosovo, 12,000 women, carrying loaves of bread, attempt to march 50 km to Drenica from the capital of Prishtina. They are turned back by police.

● 1998 - The Vatican expressed remorse for the cowardice of some Roman Catholics during the Holocaust, but defended the actions of Pope Pius XII.

● 1998 - Rwanda began mass trials for 1994 genocide with 125,000 suspects for 500,000 murders.

● 1999 - The 20 members of the European Union's European Commission announced their resignations amid allegations of corruption and financial mismanagement.

● 2000 - Independent counsel Robert Ray said he had found no credible evidence that first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton or senior White House officials were involved in seeking the FBI background files of Republicans.

● 2001 - Teenage woman guilty of rape; An 18-year-old woman is convicted of rape after a horrific sex attack.

● 2001 - The only day between 1993 and 2002 when nobody in the United Kingdom killed themselves, according to a health survey.

● 2002 - Between 300,000 and 500,000 people march in Barcelona, Spain, protesting a European Summit meeting. As per new tradition, the peaceful march was attacked by police with rubber bullets and tear gas.

● 2002 - Brittanie Cecil, 13, was struck by a flying hockey puck during an NHL game between the hometown Columbus Blue Jackets and the Calgary Flames; she died two days later.

● 2003 - Over 5,000 coordinated candlelight vigils take place, in more than 125 countries, in a last-ditch protest against a U.S. invasion of Iraq.

● 2003 - In the Gaza Strip, International Solidarity Movement activist Rachel Corrie, of Olympia, Wash., becomes the first nonviolent Western protester in Palestine murdered by occupying Israeli military forces.

● 2005 - A judge in Redwood City, Calif., sent Scott Peterson to death row for the slaying of his pregnant wife, Laci.

● 2005 - Israel officially hands over Jericho to Palestinian control

● 2005 - Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, accused of the bombing of the Air India Flight 182 in 1985, are found not guilty on all counts.

● 2005 - A jury in Los Angeles acquitted actor Robert Blake of murder in the shooting death of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley. (A civil court jury later ordered Blake to pay $30 million to Bakley's four children.)

● 2006 - Iraq's new parliament met briefly for the first time; lawmakers took the oath but did no business and adjourned after just 40 minutes.

● 2006 - The United Nations General Assembly votes overwhelmingly to establish the UN Human Rights Council.

BIRTHS

● 1338 - Thomas de Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick (d. 1401)

● 1445 - Johann Geiler von Kaisersberg, Swiss-born preacher (d. 1510)

● 1473 - Henry IV the Pious, Duke of Saxony (d. 1541)

● 1478 - Hieronymus Emser, German theologian, lecturer, editor and essayist (d. 1527)

● 1581 - Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, Dutch historian and writer (d. 1647)

● 1585 - Gerbrand Adriaensz Bredero, Dutch writer (d. 1618)

● 1631 - René Le Bossu, French critic (d. 1680)

● 1654 - Andreas Acoluthus, German orientalist (d. 1704)

● 1665 - Giuseppe Crespi, Italian Baroque painter (d. 1747)

● 1750 - Caroline Herschel, German-born English astronomer (d. 1848)

● 1751 - James Madison, 4th President of the United States (1809-17) (d. 1836)

● 1771 - Antoine-Jean Gros, French Romantic painter (d. 1835)

● 1773 - Juan Ramón Balcarce, Argentine military leader and politician (d. 1836)

● 1774 - Captain Matthew Flinders, English explorer of the coasts of Australia (d. 1814)

● 1789 - Francis Chesney, English soldier, explorer and Middle East traveler (d. 1872)

● 1789 - Georg Simon Ohm, German physicist (d. 1854)

● 1794 - Ami Boué, Austrian geologist (d. 1881)

● 1800 - Emperor Ninko of Japan (d. 1846)

● 1805 - Peter Ernst von Lasaulx, German philosopher and writer (d. 1861)

● 1822 - Rosa Bonheur, French realist painter and sculptor (d. 1899)

● 1834 - James Hector, Scottish geologist (d. 1907)

● 1839 - René François Armand Sully-Prudhomme, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1907)

● 1839 - John Butler Yeats, Northern Irish artist (d. 1922)

● 1840 - Shibusawa Eiichi, Japanese industrialist (d. 1931)

● 1851 - Martinus Beijerinck, Dutch microbiologist and botanist (d. 1931)

● 1856 - Napoléon Eugène Louis John Joseph, called Napoleon IV, the only child of Emperor Napoleon III of France (d. 1879)

● 1857 - Charles Harding Firth, British historian (d. 1936)

● 1865 - Patsy Donovan, Irish-American baseball player (d. 1953)

● 1868 - Maxim Gorky, Russian novelist and short-story writer (d. 1936)

● 1874 - Francois-Emile Matthes, Dutch-born American geologist and topographer (d. 1948)

● 1877(78? NYT) - Reza Shah Pahlavi, Shah of Iran (1925-41) (d. 1941)

● 1878 - Clemens August Graf von Galen, German archbishop and cardinal (d. 1946)

● 1889 - Reggie Walker, South African athlete (d. 1951)

● 1890 - Solomon Mikhoels, Soviet actor and chairman of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (d. 1948)

● 1892 - César Vallejo, Peruvian poet (d. 1938)

● 1892 - James Petrillo, leader of the U.S. musicians union (d. 1984)

● 1897 - Conrad Nagel, American actor (d. 1970)

● 1898 - Viktor Chaim Blerot, French/Swedish philosopher (d. 1972)

● 1899 - Alberto Gainza Paz, Argentine newspaper editor of La Prensa (d. 1977)

● 1901 - Edward Pawley, American actor (d. 1988)

● 1902 - Leon Roppolo, American jazz clarinetist (d. 1943)

● 1903 - Mike Mansfield, American politician, and diplomat (d. 2001)

● 1905 - Elisabeth Flickenschildt, German actress (d. 1977)

● 1905 - Marlin Perkins, American naturalist (d. 1986)

● 1906 - Henny Youngman, American comedian (d. 1998)

● 1906 - Francisco Ayala, Spanish writer

● 1908 - René Daumal, French Surrealist writer (d. 1944)

● 1911 - Josef Mengele, Nazi war criminal (d. 1979)

● 1911 - Pierre Harmel, Belgian politician

● 1912 - Pat Nixon, First Lady of the United States (d. 1993)

● 1916 - Mercedes McCambridge, American actress (d. 2004)

● 1917 - Samael Aun Weor, Colombian writer (d. 1977)

● 1918 - Frederick Reines, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)

● 1920 - Leo McKern, British actor (d. 2002)

● 1920 - Traudl Junge, Hitler's secretary (d. 2002)

● 1920 - John Addison, British composer (d. 1998)

● 1922 - Harding Lemay, American television scriptwriter and playwright

● 1925 - Luis E. Miramontes, Mexican chemist, co-inventor of the combined oral contraceptive pill (d. 2004).

● 1926 - Charles Goodell, American politician, (d. 1987)

● 1926 - Jerry Lewis, American comedian

● 1927 - Vladimir Komarov, Soviet cosmonaut (d. 1967)

● 1927 - Daniel Patrick Moynihan, U.S. Senator from New York (d. 2003)

● 1927 - Olga San Juan, American comedian

● 1928 - Christa Ludwig, German mezzo-soprano

● 1928 - Karlheinz Böhm, Austrian actor

● 1932 - Don Blasingame, American baseball player and manager (d. 2005)

● 1932 - Walter Cunningham, American astronaut

● 1933 - Sandy Weill, American financier and philanthropist

● 1934 - Ray Hnatyshyn, Governor-General of Canada (d. 2002)

● 1936 - Fred Neil, American singer-songwriter (d. 2001)

● 1937 - Amos Tversky, Israeli psychologist (d. 1996)

● 1939 - Carlos Bilardo, Argetinian football coach

● 1940 - Bernardo Bertolucci, Italian film director

● 1940 - Jan Pronk, Dutch politician

● 1941 - Robert Guéï, ruler of Côte d'Ivoire (d. 2002)

● 1941 - Chuck Woolery, American game show host

● 1941 - Bernardo Bertolucci, Director

● 1942 - James Soong, Taiwanese politician

● 1942 - Jerry Jeff Walker, American musician

● 1946 - Hubert Soudant, Dutch conductor

● 1947 - Robin Williams, Country singer

● 1948 - Margaret Weis, American author

● 1949 - Erik Estrada, Puerto Rican actor (''CHiPS'')

● 1949 - Victor Garber, Canadian actor (''Alias'')

● 1950(51? NYT) - Kate Nelligan, Canadian actress

● 1951 - Ray Benson, Country singer (Asleep at the Wheel)

● 1952 - Philippe Kahn, French-American entrepreneur

● 1953 - Isabelle Huppert, French actress

● 1953 - Richard Stallman, American free software activist

● 1954 - Jimmy Nail, British actor and singer

● 1954 - Nancy Wilson, American guitarist, singer, and actress (Heart)

● 1955 - Jiro Watanabe, Japanese boxer

● 1955 - Bruno Barreto, Brazilian film director

● 1955 - Isabelle Huppert, Actress

● 1956 - Ozzie Newsome, Member of the Football Hall of Fame

● 1958 - Jorge Ramos, Mexican TV anchor

● 1959 - Flavor Flav, American rapper (Public Enemy)

● 1959 - Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister of Norway

● 1961 - Todd McFarlane, Canadian cartoonist, comic book writer, artist, and media entrepreneur

● 1961 - Brett Kenny, Australian rugby league footballer

● 1963 - Jimmy Degrasso, American musician, drummer (Megadeth)

● 1963 - Kevin Smith, New Zealand actor (d. 2002)

● 1964 - Patty Griffin, American singer and songwriter

● 1964 - Gore Verbinski, American movie director

● 1964 - Pascal Richard, Swiss cyclist

● 1965 - Richard Daniel Roman, English songwriter and record producer

● 1967 - Lauren Graham, American actress (''Gilmore Girls'')

● 1968 - Brooke Burns, Actress

● 1971 - Alan Tudyk, American actor

● 1974 - Georgios Anatolakis, Greek footballer

● 1974 - Fotini Vavatsi, Greek archer

● 1976 - Abraham Núñez, Dominican baseball player

● 1977 - Donal Óg Cusack, Irish hurler

● 1979 - Edison Méndez, Ecuadorian footballer

● 1979 - Leena Peisa, Finnish musician (Lordi)

● 1980 - Felipe Reyes, Spanish basketball player

● 1980 - Todd Heap, American football player

● 1981 - Andrew Bree, Irish swimmer

● 1985 - Nicole Trunfio, Australian supermodel

● 1986 - Ken Doane, American professional wrestler

● 1987 - Tiiu Kuik, Estonian model

● 1989 - Theo Walcott, English footballer

● 1990 - James Bulger, British murder victim (d. 1993)

● 1991 - Wolfgang Van Halen, Rock musician (Van Halen)

DEATHS

● 37 - Tiberius Claudius Nero Caesar, Roman Emperor (b. 46 BC)

● 455 - Valentinian III, Roman Emperor (b. 419)

● 1037 - Robert I, Archbishop of Rouen

● 1072 - Adalbert of Hamburg, German archbishop

● 1322 - Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford, English soldier (b. 1276)

● 1410 - John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset (b. 1373)

● 1457 - László Hunyadi, Hungarian statesman and warrior (b. 1433)

● 1485 - Anne Neville, wife of Richard III of England (b. 1456)

● 1559 - Anthony St. Leger, Lord Deputy of Ireland (b. 1496)

● 1649 - Jean de Brébeuf, French Jesuit missionary (b. 1593)

● 1679 - John Leverett, Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (b. 1616)

● 1721 - James Craggs the Elder, English politician (b. 1657)

● 1736 - Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Italian composer (b. 1710)

● 1737 - Benjamin Wadsworth, American President of Harvard University (b. 1670)

● 1738 - George Bähr, German architect (b. 1666)

● 1747 - Christian Augustus of Anhalt-Zerbst, father of Catherine II of Russia (b. 1690)

● 1888 - Hippolyte Carnot, French statesman (b. 1801)

● 1890 - Zorka of Montenegro, Princess of Serbia (b. 1864)

● 1898 - Aubrey Beardsley, British artist (b. 1872)

● 1899 - Joseph Medill business manager and managing editor of the Chicago Tribune, mayor of Chicago, (b. 1823)

● 1903 - Judge Roy Bean, American jurist and pioneer

● 1914 - Charles Albert Gobat, Swiss politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1843)

● 1926 - Sergeant Stubby, Decorated war dog from World War I

● 1930 - Miguel Primo de Rivera, Spanish dictator (b. 1870)

● 1935 - John James Richard Macleod, Scottish-born physician and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1876)

● 1935 - Aron Nimzowitsch, Latvian-born chess player (b. 1886)

● 1936 - Marguerite Durand, French journalist and feminist leader (b. 1864)

● 1940 - Selma Lagerlöf, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1858)

● 1945 - Börries von Münchhausen, German poet (b. 1874)

● 1955 - Nicolas de Staël, French-Russian painter (b. 1914)

● 1957 - Constantin Brancusi, Romanian sculptor (b. 1876)

● 1968 - Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Italian composer (b. 1895)

● 1970 - Tammi Terrell, American singer (b. 1946)

● 1971 - Thomas Dewey, American presidential candidate (b. 1902)

● 1975 - Richard W. DeKorte, American politician (b. 1936)

● 1975 - T-Bone Walker, American musician (b. 1910)

● 1977 - Kamal Jumblatt, leader of the Lebanese Druze (b. 1917)

● 1979 - Jean Monnet, French politician (b. 1888)

● 1980 - Tamara de Lempicka, Polish-born painter (b. 1898)

● 1983 - Arthur Godfrey, American actor and television host (b. 1903)

● 1984 - John Hoagland, American photographer (b. 1947)

● 1992 - Yves Rocard, French physicist (b. 1903)

● 1996 - Charlie Barnett, American actor (b. 1954)

● 1998 - Derek Harold Richard Barton, British chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)

● 2000 - Thomas Ferebee, Hiroshima bombardier (b. 1918)

● 2001 - Norma MacMillan, American voice actress (b. 1921)

● 2003 - Rachel Corrie, American political activist (b. 1979)

● 2003 - Major Ronald Ferguson, father of Sarah, Duchess of York, (b. 1931)

● 2004 - Vilém Tauský, Czech conductor and composer (b. 1910)

● 2005 - Todd Bell, American football player (b. 1958)

● 2005 - Ralph Erskine, British architect (Byker Wall) (b. 1914)

● 2005 - Anthony George, American TV actor (b. 1921)

● 2005 - Allan Hendrickse, South African politician (b. 1927)

● 2005 - Dick Radatz, baseball player (b. 1937)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Abban
● Sts. Abraham, hermit, & Mary, penitent
● St. Agapitus
● St. Aninus
● St. Benedicta
● St. Dentlin
● St. Eusebia
● St. Finian Lobhar
● St. Finian Munnu
● St. Heribert of Cologne (died 1021)
● St. Hilary
● St. John de Brébeuf & companions/martyrs
● St. Julian of Anazarbus
● St. Megingaud
● St. Patrick
● Bl. John Amias
● Bl. John Cacciafronte
● Bl. Robert Dalby

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for March 3 (Civil Date: March 16)
● Martyr Eutropius of Amasea, and with him Martyrs Cleonicus and Basiliscus.
● RR. Zeno and Zoilus.
● St. Piama, virgin, and St. Alexandra, of Alexandria.
● St. Caluppan of Auvergne (Gaul).

● Greek Calendar:
● Hieromartyr Theodoretus of Antioch.

● The first day of the Bacchanalia in ancient Rome

● Latvia - The controversial Latvia Legions are celebrated in Latvia, where about 140,000 men joined the Waffen SS National Legions during World War II, trying to defend Latvia. Since February 23, 2000, this day is no longer an official celebration day. {In Latvia the Soviets were considered the worst of two evils.}

● Surinam : Holi Phagwah

● Umatilla. OR : Curlew Day

● St. Urho's Day - the fictional patron saint of Finnish immigrants to the US, created by Richard Mattson in 1956

IN FICTION

● 1897 - Start of Sherlock Holmes "The Adventure of The Devil's Foot"


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

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