March 31......

March 31 is the 90th (91st in leap years) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 275 days remaining in the year on this date.

Best Liberal Quote of the Day: On Anti-Intellectualism "It is ironic that the United States should have been founded by intellectuals, for throughout most of our political history, the intellectual has been for the most part either an outsider, a servant, or a scapegoat" — Richard Hofstadter

Stupidest Quote from the Right for the Day: On Gynephobia "The real liberators of American women were not the feminist noise-makers, they were the automobile, the supermarket, the shopping center, the dishwasher, the washer-dryer, the freezer." — Pat Buchanan

{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

● 307 - After divorcing his wife Minervina, Constantine marries Fausta, the daughter of the retired Roman Emperor Maximian.

● 1084 - Anti-pope Clemens crowns German emperor Hendrik IV

● 1146 - Bernard of Clairvaux preaches his famous sermon in a field at Vézelay, urging the necessity of a Second Crusade. Louis VII is present, and joins the Crusade.

● 1492 - King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain issued an edict expelling Jews who were unwilling to convert to Christianity.

● 1504 - France & Spain signs ceasefire

● 1521 - Magelhaes takes possession of Homohon, Archipelago of St Lazarus

● 1547 - Henry II succeeds François I as king of France

● 1596 - Birth of Rene Descartes (1596-1650), La Haye, France. Philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, whose philosophical conclusion "Cogito ergo sum" -- I think therefore I am -- is the best known quotation in all philosophy & revolutionized the ways of thinking. Also generally credited with laying the groundwork for the scientific revolution, with all the good and bad that followed.

● 1644 - Pope Urbanus VIII & duke of Parma signs Peace of Ferrara

● 1651 - Great earthquake at Cuzco Peru

● 1657 - English Humble Petition offers Lord Protector Cromwell the crown

● 1667 - France/England sign anti-Dutch military accord

● 1683 - Emperor Leopold I/Poland signs covenant against Turkey

● 1717 - A sermon on "The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ" by Benjamin Hoadly, the Bishop of Bangor, provoked the Bangorian Controversy.

● 1745 - Jews are expelled from Prague

● 1774 - American Revolutionary War: The Kingdom of Great Britain orders the port of Boston, Massachusetts closed in the Boston Port Act.

● 1776 - Abigail Adams wrote to her husband John that women were "determined to foment a rebellion" if the new Declaration of Independence failed to guarantee their rights.

● 1779 - Russia and Turkey signed a treaty concerning military action in Crimea.

● 1787 - English founder of Methodism John Wesley wrote in a letter: 'When the witness and the fruit of the Spirit meet together, there can be no stronger proof that we are of God.... Were you to substitute...reason for the witness of the Spirit, you would never be established.'

● 1808 - French created Kingdom of Westphalia orders Jews to adopt family names

● 1814 - U.S. wartime economy is in such dire straits that Pres. James Madison recommends repeal of the "Non-Importation & Embargo Acts," a measure permitting merchants to trade with the enemy. Congress saw no alternative (surprise), and within two weeks, both houses passed Madison's new bill by overwhelming majorities.

● 1814 - Forces allied against Napoleon capture Paris France

● 1816 - Death of Francis Asbury, 70, pioneer Methodist bishop. Sent to America in 1771 by John Wesley, he saw the new denomination grow from under 500 members to over 200,000 by the time of his death.

● 1831 - Mainzer Rijnvaart Convention ends

● 1831 - Québec & Montréal incorporated

● 1840 - Ten-hour workday established for federal public works employees.

● 1849 - Colonel John W Geary arrives as 1st postmaster of San Francisco

● 1850 - US population hits 23,191,876 (Black population: 3,638,808 (15.7%))

● 1854 - Commodore Matthew Perry signs the Treaty of Kanagawa with the Japanese government, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade.

● 1861 - Confederacy takes over mint at New Orleans

● 1862 - Civil War action at Island #10 on the Mississippi River

● 1865 - Battle of Boydton, Virginia (White Oaks Roads, Dinwiddie Court House)

● 1865 - General Pickette moves to 5 Forks, abandoning the defense of Peterburg

● 1866 - The Spanish Navy bombs the harbour of Valparaíso, Chile.

● 1868 - Chinese Embassy arrives aboard steamship China

● 1870 - Thomas P Mundy became 1st black to vote in US (Perth Amboy NJ)

● 1871 - France - Commune of Narbonne falls, as incarnated by Emile Digeon. Digeon (1822-1894) was a revolutionary journalist who headed the Commune, proclaimed in conjunction with Paris Commune. In 1883 Digeon was "an anarchist candidate"(!) in the Narbonne elections.

● 1877 - British high director/Governor sir Bartle Frere arrives in Capetown

● 1877 - The family with samurai antecedents who responded to the Saigo army in Oita Nakatsu rebels.

● 1880 - 1st town completely illuminated by electric lighting (Wabash IN)

● 1883 - Utrecht begins water pipe system

● 1885 - The United Kingdom establishes a protectorate over Bechuanaland.

● 1889 - French engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel unfurled the French tricolor from atop the Eiffel Tower to mark its completion. (commemorates French Revolution)

● 1896 - Whitcomb Judson, Chicago IL, patents a hookless fastening (zipper)

● 1900 - Brigadier-General Broadwoods troops fall into guerrilla hands

● 1900 - The W.E. Roach Company was the first automobile company to put an advertisement in a national magazine. The magazine was the "Saturday Evening Post".

● 1900 - In France, the National Assembly passed a law reducing the workday for women and children to 11 hours.

● 1901 - In Russia, the Czar lashed out at Socialist-Revolutionaries with the arrests of 72 people and the seizing of two printing presses.

● 1902 - In Tennessee, 22 coal miners were killed by an explosion.

● 1903 - Richard Pearse flies monoplane several hundred yards (New Zealand)

● 1904 - In India, hundreds of Tibetans were slaughtered by the British.

● 1905 - Kaiser Wilhelm arrived in Tangier proclaiming to support for an independent state of Morocco.

● 1906 - The Conference on Moroccan Reforms in Algerciras ended after two months with France and Germany in agreement.

● 1906 - The Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States was founded to set rules in amateur sports. The organization became the National Collegiate Athletic Association in 1910.

● 1907 - Romanian Army puts down Moldavian farmers' revolt

● 1908 - 250,000 coal miners in Indianapolis, IN, went on strike to await a wage adjustment.

● 1909 - Serbia accepts Austrian control over Bosnia-Herzegovina.

● 1916 - Dutch government ends all military engagements

● 1917 - The United States takes possession of the Danish West Indies after paying $25 million to Denmark, and renames the territory the U.S. Virgin Islands.

● 1918 - Daylight Savings Time goes into effect in the United States for the first time.

● 1919 - Strike against Ruhrgebied government of Scheidemann

● 1920 - British parliament accept Irish "Home Rule"-law

● 1921 - Albert Einstein lectures in New York on his new theory of relativity

● 1921 - Great Britain declared a state of emergency because of the thousands of coal miners go on strike.

● 1923 - French soldiers fire on workers at Krupp factory in Essen; 13 die

● 1924 - Gandhi begins nonviolent campaign for temple entry, Vykom, India.

● 1924 - London public transport strike ends

● 1926 - German Special Court of Justice for state security disbands

● 1927 - Birth of nonviolent activist and labor organizer Cesar Chavez, 20 miles north of Yuma, Ariz.

● 1931 - An earthquake destroys Managua Nicaragua, killing 2,000.

● 1932 - 150 wild swans die in Niagara waterfall

● 1932 - Ford publicly unveils its V-8 engine

● 1933 - German Republic gives power to Hitler

● 1933 - The Civilian Conservation Corps is established with the mission to relieve rampant unemployment.

● 1939 - Britain & France agree to support Poland if invaded by Germany

● 1940 - La Guardia airport in New York officially opened to the public.

● 1940 - Karelo-Finnish SSR becomes 12th Soviet republic (until 1956)

● 1941 - Wisconsin state trooper attacks fail to break the Allis-Chalmers strike in Milwaukee. Union-hating company president Max Babb is fighting against a closed-shop demand from United Auto Workers Local 248, a militant Communist-led union. But today, 76 days into the strike, the troopers fail to get scabs across the picket lines. The plant remains closed until the government negotiates a compromise.

● 1941 - Germany begins a counter offensive in Africa

● 1942 - In World War II, Japanese forces invade Christmas Island, then a British possession.

● 1942 - Holocaust in Ivano-Frankivsk (then called Stanislawow), western Ukraine. German Gestapo organise the first deportation of 5.000 Jews from Stanislawow ghetto to Belzec death camp. It was one of the biggest transports to Belzec in the first phase of the camp.

● 1943 - US errantly bombs Rotterdam, kills 326

● 1944 - Hungary orders all Jews to wear yellow stars

● 1944 - Japanese Navy Marshal Mineichi Koga dies in the performance of job in the Navy Second Incident.

● 1945 - 3rd Algerian division crosses the Rhine

● 1945 - Sicherheitsdienst murders 10 political prisoners in Zutphen

● 1945 - US artillery lands on Keise Shima/begins firing on Okinawa

● 1946 - Belgian government of Acker, forms

● 1946 - Monarchists won the elections in Greece.

● 1947 - John L. Lewis called a strike in sympathy for the miners killed in an explosion in Centralia, IL, on March 25, 1947.

● 1948 - The Soviets in Germany began controlling the Western trains headed toward Berlin.

● 1948 - Congress passes Marshall Aid Act to rehabilitate war-torn Europe

● 1949 - Last great strike of the Canadian Seaman's Union.

● 1949 - Winston Churchill declared that the A-bomb was the only thing that kept the U.S.S.R. from taking over Europe.

● 1949 - The Dominion of Newfoundland joins Confederation and becomes the 10th Province of Canada.

● 1950 - American missionary and martyr Jim Elliot wrote in his journal: 'How the Savior suffered in the sinner's place! What tormented him in time menaces the sinner for eternity.'

● 1951 - US tanks exceed 38º of latitude in Korea

● 1953 - Department of Health, Education & Welfare established

● 1953 - UN Security Council nominates Dag Hammarskjöld Secretary-General

● 1953 - Queen Mary laid to rest in Windsor; More than 1,500 attend the funeral of Queen Mary at St George's Chapel in Windsor.

● 1954 - US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs CO, established

● 1954 - USSR offers to join NATO

● 1957 - Elections to the Territorial Assembly of the French colony Upper Volta. After the elections PDU and MDV form a government.

● 1958 - English apologist C. S. Lewis wrote in "Letters to an American Lady": 'What most often interrupts my own prayers is not great distractions but tiny ones things one will have to do or avoid in the course of the next hour.'

● 1958 - US Navy forms atomic sub division

● 1958 - USSR suspends nuclear weapons tests, & urges US & Britain to do same

● 1959 - The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, crosses the border into India and is granted political asylum.

● 1960 - Pope John XXIII makes the Bishop of Rutabo the Catholic Church's first black African cardinal.

● 1960 - The South African government declared a state of emergency after demonstrations lead to the death of more than 50 Africans.

● 1961 - Aklilou Habtewold becomes 1st premier of Ethiopia

● 1963 - Los Angeles ends streetcar service after 90 years

● 1964 - A right-wing coup topples the government of Brazilian President Joao Goulart. Years of military repression follow.

● 1965 - Iberia Airlines Convair 440, crashed into the sea on approach to Tangier killing 47 of 51 occupants.

● 1965 - US ordered the 1st combat troops to Vietnam

● 1966 - Two-day boycott of Seattle schools begins, protesting de facto segregation.

● 1966 - An estimated 200,000 anti-war demonstrators march in New York City.

● 1966 - Harold Wilson wins sweeping victory; Labour is on course to win the general election with a majority of about 100 seats in the House of Commons.

● 1966 - The Soviet Union launches Luna 10 which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon.

● 1967 - U.S. President Lyndon Johnson signed the Consular Treaty, the first bi-lateral pact with the Soviet Union since the Bolshevik Revolution.

● 1968 - Under continuing attack by protestors and upheavals all over the nation, Pres. Lyndon Johnson announces he will not seek reelection, orders partial bombing halt in Vietnam, and appoints Averell Harriman to seek negotiated peace talks with North Vietnam.

● 1968 - Provisional government of the Republic of New Afrika formed.

● 1970 - Oakland (California) Induction Center is site of spring Vietnam War protests; 2500 Berkeley students turn in draft cards.

● 1970 - The U.S. forces in Vietnam down a MIG-21, it was the first since September 1968.

● 1970 - Explorer 1 re-enters the Earth's atmosphere (after 12 years in orbit).

● 1970 - Eight terrorists from the Japanese Red Army hijacked a Japan Airlines Boeing 727 at Tokyo International Airport, wielding samurai swords and carrying a bomb.

● 1972 - CND begins march to Aldermaston; More than 500 people attend a rally in London ahead of a four-day demonstration against nuclear arms.

● 1972 - The Yokohama Street Car whole-line went out of use.

● 1976 - American Presbyterian apologist Francis Schaeffer wrote in a letter: 'You must not lose confidence in God because you lost confidence in your pastor. If our confidence in God had to depend upon our confidence in any human person, we would be on shifting sand.'

● 1976 - The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that Karen Anne Quinlan could be disconnected from a respirator. Quinlan remained comatose until 1985 when she died.

● 1977 - State government prohibits mining and enrichment of uranium, South Australia.

● 1978 - USSR launches Kosmos 1000 navigational satellite

● 1979 - The last British soldier leaves the Maltese Islands. Malta declares its Freedom Day (Jum il-Helsien).

● 1980 - President Jimmy Carter deregulates banking industry

● 1982 - Arkas tanker at Montz LA, spills 1.47 million gallons of oil

● 1983 - Earthquake in Colombia kills some 5,000 people

● 1984 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1985 - El Salvador's President Duartes Christian-Democrats win election

● 1985 - Three hundred thousand demonstrate in peace rallies across Australia.

● 1986 - Following a 12-year campaign, a New York City Gay Rights ordinance is signed.

● 1986 - English Hampton Court palace destroyed by fire, 1 dead

● 1986 - A Mexicana Boeing 727 en route to Puerto Vallarta erupts in flames and crashes in the mountains northwest of Mexico City, killing 166.

● 1986 - Greater London Council abolished; Thousands of people take part in festivities to mark the historic final hours of 97 years of local rule in London.

● 1988 - Last East Limburg coal mine closes in Gent Belgium

● 1989 - Canada and France signed a fishing rights pact.

● 1990 - Riots began in London over the new poll tax laws

● 1991 - Albania offered a multi-party election for the first time in 50 years. Incumbent President Ramiz Alia won.

● 1991 - Iraqi forces recaptured the northern city of Kirkuk from Kurdish guerillas.

● 1991 - Soviet Republic of Georgia endorsed independence; Warsaw Pact dissolves

● 1991 - Five Plowshares activists hammer missile launching cones on nuclear Navy ship, Milwaukee.

● 1992 - New York state cancels contract to buy power from controversial James Bay II hydroelectric project. The project, a massive series of dams that would have wiped out tens of thousands of square miles of Cree and Inuit land, is eventually cancelled as a result.

● 1992 - ADAPT (American Disabled for Accessible Public Transport) sit in at Tennessee Health Care Association to fight health cuts, Nashville Tenn.

● 1992 - UN Security Council voted to ban flights & arms sales to Libya

● 1992 - USS Missouri (BB-63), the last active US Navy Battleship, is decommissioned in Long Beach, California.

● 1994 - "Nature" magazine announced that a complete skull of Australppithecus afarensis had been found in Ethiopia. The finding is of humankind's earliest ancestor.

● 1995 - Latina singing superstar Selena is shot and killed by her former personal assistant and former president of her fan club, who was fired for embezzlement.

● 1996 - Space Shuttle STS 76 (Atlantis 16), lands

● 1997 - Four East Timorese arrested in Warton, England, at the British Aerospace factory where Indonesian Hawk fighter jets, used in the ongoing occupation and genocide of their homeland, are built.

● 1997 - Pioneer 10, ends its mission

● 1998 - U.N. Security Council imposed arms embargo on Yugoslavia.

● 1998 - For the first time in U.S. history the federal government's detailed financial statement was released. This occurred under the Clinton administration.

● 1999 - Four New York City police officers were charged with murder for killing Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant, in a hail of bullets. (The officers were acquitted in 2000.) {Of course the trial had been moved to upstate New York where the number of Africans is miniscule.}

● 1999 - Three U.S. soldiers were captured by Yugoslav soldiers three miles from the Yugoslav border in Macedonia.

● 2000 - In Uganda, officials set the number of deaths linked to a doomsday religious cult, the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments, at more than 900. In Kanungu, a March 17 fire at the cult's church killed more than 530 and authorities subsequently found mass graves at various sites linked to the cult.

● 2004 - Air America Radio launched five stations around the U.S.

● 2004 - In Fallujah, Iraq, 4 American private military contractors working for Blackwater USA, are killed and their bodies mutilated after being ambushed.

● 2005 - Terri Schiavo died at a hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla., 13 days after her feeding tube was removed in a right-to-die dispute that engulfed the courts, Congress and the White House.

● 2005 - The Kuiper Belt object 2005 FY9 is discovered.

BIRTHS

● 250 - Constantius Chlorus, Roman Emperor (d. 306)

● 1499 - Pope Pius IV (d. 1565)

● 1504 - Guru Angad Dev, second Sikh guru (d. 1552)

● 1519 - King Henry II of France (d. 1559)

● 1536 - Ashikaga Yoshiteru, Japanese shogun (d. 1565)

● 1596 - René Descartes, French mathematician (d. 1650)

● 1621 - Andrew Marvell, English poet (d. 1678)

● 1651 - Karl II, Elector Palatine (d. 1685)

● 1675 - Pope Benedict XIV (d. 1758)

● 1718 - Marianne Victoria of Borbón, queen regent of Portugal (d. 1781)

● 1723 - King Frederick V of Denmark (d. 1766)

● 1730 - Étienne Bézout, French mathematician (d. 1783)

● 1732 - Joseph Haydn, Austrian composer (d. 1809)

● 1777 - Charles Cagniard de la Tour, French physicist (d. 1859)

● 1778 - Coenraad Jacob Temminck, Dutch zoologist (d. 1858)

● 1794 - Thomas McKean Thompson McKennan, American politician (d. 1852)

● 1809 - Edward FitzGerald, English poet (d. 1883)

● 1811 - Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, German chemist and inventor (d. 1899)

● 1819 - Prince Chlodwig zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1901)

● 1847 - Yegor Ivanovich Zolotarev, Russian mathematician (d. 1878)

● 1855 - Alfred E. Hunt, founder of Alcoa

● 1870 - James M. Cox, American newspaper publisher and governor of Ohio (1913-15, 1917-21) (d. 1957)

● 1871(72? NYT) - Arthur Griffith, President of Ireland (d. 1922)

● 1872 - Alexandra Kollontai, Russian ambassador to Norway (d.1952)

● 1872 - Serge Diaghilev, Russian impresario; created Ballets Russes in 1909 (d. 1929)

● 1878 - Jack Johnson, American boxer (d. 1946)

● 1885 - Pascin, Bulgarian painter (d. 1930)

● 1890 - William Lawrence Bragg, English physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1971)

● 1891 - Victor Varconi, Hungarian film actor (d. 1976)

● 1895 - John McCloy, American diplomat, lawyer, and presidential adviser (d. 1989)

● 1906 - Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, Japanese physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1979)

● 1907 - Eddie Quillan, American actor (d. 1990)

● 1911 - Elisabeth Grümmer, Alsatian soprano (d. 1986)

● 1914 - Octavio Paz, Mexican diplomat and writer, Nobel laureate (d. 1998)

● 1915 - Albert Hourani, English historian (d. 1993)

● 1915 - Shoichi Yokoi, Japanese military man (d. 1997)

● 1916 - John H. Wood, Jr., American federal judge (d. 1979)

● 1919 - Frank Akins, American football player (d. 1993)

● 1922 - Richard Kiley, American actor and singer (d. 1999)

● 1924 - Leo Buscaglia, American author (d. 1998)

● 1924 - Charles Guggenheim, American film director/producer (d. 2002)

● 1926 - John Fowles, English author (d. 2005)

● 1927 - César Chávez, American labor activist (d. 1993)

● 1927 - William Daniels, American actor

● 1928 - Lefty Frizzell, American singer and songwriter (d. 1975)

● 1928 - Gordie Howe, Canadian ice hockey player and Hall of Fame member

● 1929 - Lucille Bliss, American voice actress

● 1929 - Liz Claiborne, Belgian fashion designer

● 1929 - Bertram Fields, American lawyer

● 1931 - Miller Barber, American golfer

● 1932 - Nagisa Oshima, Japanese film director

● 1933 - Nichita Stănescu, Romanian poet (d. 1983)

● 1934 - Richard Chamberlain, American actor

● 1934 - Shirley Jones, American singer and actress ("The Partridge Family")

● 1934 - Carlo Rubbia, Italian physicist, Nobel laureate

● 1934 - John D. Loudermilk, Country singer, songwriter

● 1935 - Herb Alpert, American trumpeter and band leader

● 1935 - Judith Rossner, American author

● 1936 - Bob Pulford, Canadian hockey player

● 1936 - Marge Piercy, American writer

● 1938 - Sheila Dikshit, Chief Minister of Delhi

● 1938 - David Steel, Scottish politician

● 1938 - Michiko Nomura, Japanese voice actor

● 1939 - Zviad Gamsakhurdia, first President of Georgia (d. 1993)

● 1939 - Volker Schlöndorff, German film director

● 1940 - Patrick Leahy, U.S. Senator from Vermont

● 1940 - Barney Frank, U.S. Representative from Massachusetts

● 1942 - Michael Savage, American talk radio host and commentator

● 1943 - Christopher Walken, American actor

● 1945 - Valerie Curtin, American actress, writer, and producer

● 1945 - Gabe Kaplan, American actor and comedian ("Welcome Back Kotter")

● 1946 - Gonzalo Márquez, Venezuelan baseball player (d. 1984)

● 1947 - Cesar Gaviria Trujillo, President of Colombia

● 1948 - Al Gore, Vice President of the United States and winner of the 2000 Presidential election

● 1948 - Rhea Perlman, American actress ("Cheers")

● 1950 - Ed Marinaro, American football player and actor ("Hill Street Blues")

● 1950 - András Adorján, Hungarian chess player

● 1955 - Angus Young, Scottish-born Australian guitarist (AC/DC)

● 1957 - Marc McClure, American actor

● 1957 - Alan Duncan, British politician

● 1963 - Paul Mercurio, Australian actor/dancer

● 1964 - Paul Wong Koon-Chung, Hong Kong musician (Beyond)

● 1965 - Tom Barrasso, American ice hockey player

● 1965 - Steven T. Seagle, American comic-book writer

● 1965 - William McNamara, Actor

● 1966 - Roger Black, English athlete

● 1968 - Naoya Ogawa, Japanese professional wrestler

● 1969 - Samantha Brown, American television host

● 1971 - Pavel Bure, Russian ice hockey player

● 1971 - Ewan McGregor, Scottish actor

● 1972 - Hristos Polihroniou, Greek hammer thrower

● 1973 - Bold Forbes, Puerto Rican/American thoroughbred racehorse (d. 2000)

● 1974 - Stefan Olsdal, Swedish bassist (Placebo)

● 1974 - Benjamin Eicher, Swiss film director

● 1976 - Josh Saviano, American actor

● 1977 - Toshiya, Japanese musician (Dir en grey)

● 1978 - Stephen Clemence, English footballer

● 1978 - Jérôme Rothen, French footballer

● 1978 - Tony Yayo, American rapper

● 1979 - Josh Kinney, American baseball player

● 1980 - Chien-Ming Wang, Taiwanese baseball player

● 1980 - Maaya Sakamoto, Japanese voice actor

● 1982 - Lennon Murphy, American rock singer/songwriter and Suicide Girl

● 1982 - Philippe Mexès, French footballer

● 1983 - Paddy McCarthy, Irish footballer

● 1983 - Vlasios Maras, Greek gymnast

● 1987 - Georg Listing, German bassist (Tokio Hotel)

DEATHS

● 1074 - Regency Yorimichi Fujiwara of Japan (b. 992)

● 1204 - Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of France and England (b. 1121)

● 1340 - Ivan I of Russia, Prince of Moscow (b. 1288)

● 1567 - Philipp I of Hesse (b. 1504)

● 1621 - Philip III of Spain (b. 1578)

● 1631 - John Donne, English writer and prelate (b. 1572)

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

● 1703 - Johann Christoph Bach, German composer (b. 1642)

● 1723 - Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon, British-born American statesman (b. 1661)

● 1727 - Sir Isaac Newton, English mathematician and physicist (b. 1643)

● 1741 - Pieter Burmann the Elder, Dutch classical scholar (b. 1668)

● 1783 - Nikita Ivanovich Panin, Russian statesman (b. 1718)

● 1837 - John Constable, English painter (b. 1776)

● 1855 - Charlotte Brontë, English author (b. 1816)

● 1877 - Antoine Augustin Cournot, French mathematician (b. 1801)

● 1880 - Henryk Wieniawski, Polish composer (b. 1835)

● 1885 - Franz Wilhelm Abt, German composer (b. 1819)

● 1913 - John Pierpont Morgan, American financier (b. 1837)

● 1917 - Emil Adolf von Behring, German physician, Nobel laureate (b. 1854)

● 1915 - Wyndham Halswelle, Scottish athlete (b. 1882)

● 1931 - Knute Rockne, American football coach (b. 1888)

● 1945 - Hans Fischer, German chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1881)

● 1945 - Anne Frank, German-born diarist (b. 1929)

● 1952 - Wallace H. White, Jr., American politician (b. 1877)

● 1954 - Edwin Armstrong, American electrical engineer (b. 1890)

● 1956 - Ralph DePalma, Italian-born race car driver (b. 1884)

● 1968 - Grover Lowdermilk, American baseball player (b. 1885)

● 1976 - Paul Strand, American photographer (b. 1890)

● 1978 - Charles Best, Canadian medical scientist (b. 1899)

● 1980 - Vladimír Holan, Czech poet (b. 1905)

● 1980 - Jesse Owens, American athlete (b. 1913)

● 1981 - Enid Bagnold, British playwright (b. 1889)

● 1984 - Ronald Clark O'Bryan, American murderer (b. 1944)

● 1985 - Jeanine Deckers, Belgian nun (b. 1933)

● 1988 - William McMahon, 20th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1908)

● 1993 - Brandon Lee, American actor (b. 1965)

● 1995 - Selena, American singer (b. 1971)

● 1996 - Jeffrey Lee Pierce, American singer member of The Gun Club (b. 1958)

● 1998 - Bella Abzug, American politician (b. 1920)

● 1998 - Tim Flock, American race car driver (b. 1924)

● 1999 - Yuri Knorosov, Russian linguist (b. 1922)

● 2001 - Clifford Shull, American physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1915)

● 2002 - Barry Took, British comedian (b. 1928)

● 2003 - H.S.M. Coxeter, English-born geometer (b. 1907)

● 2003 - Tommy Seebach, Danish singer (b. 1949)

● 2005 - Stanley J. Korsmeyer, American oncologist (b. 1951)

● 2005 - Frank Perdue, American poultry farmer (b. 1920)

● 2005 - Terri Schiavo, American figure in right to die case (b. 1963)

● 2006 - Jackie McLean, American jazz saxophonist (b. 1931 or 1932)

● 2006 - Angela Devi, American adult model (b. 1975)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Achatius
● St. Amos
● St. Balbina
● St. Benjamin Gray
● St. Cornelia
● St. Daniel
● St. Guy of Pomposa
● St. Machabeo
● St. Renovatus
● St. Theodulus
● Bl. Hendrik Werner

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for March 18 (Civil Date: March 31)
● St. Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem.
● St. Ananias, monk of the Euphrates.
● Martyrs Trophimus and Eucarpus of Nicomedia.
● Martyrdom of King Edward of England
● Repose of Abbot Mark of Optina (1909).

● Anglican and Lutheran:
● John Donne, priest

● New Jersey - Thomas Mundy Peterson Day.

● César Chávez Day - official holiday in five states and many cities across the U.S.

● Malta : Republic Day/National Day (1974)

● These Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
● Alaska: Seward Day (1867) - (Monday)
● US Virgin Island: Transfer Day (1917) - (Monday)


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

Quotes of the Day taken from "The Best Liberal Quotes Ever: Why the Left Is Right" Compiled by William P. Martin 2004

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