March 9......

March 9 is the 68th (69th in leap years) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 297 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

● 590 - Bahram Chobin is crowned as king Barham VI of Persia

● 1230 - Bulgarian tsar Ivan Asen II defeats Theodore of Epirus near the village of Klokotnitsa.

● 1276 - Augsburg becomes an Imperial Free City.

● 1452 - Pope Nicolas I crowns Frederik III Roman Catholic-German emperor

● 1454 - Amerigo Vespucci was born in Florence, Italy. Matthias Ringmann, a German mapmaker, named the American continent in his honor.

● 1496 - Jews are expelled from Carinthia Austria

● 1497 - Nicolaus Copernicus 1st recorded astronomical observation,

● 1500 - Pedro Cabral departs with 13 ships to India

● 1522 - Marten Luther preaches his Invocavit

● 1551 - Emperor Karel appoints son Philip as heir to the throne

● 1562 - Kissing in public banned in Naples (punishable by death)

● 1566 - David Rizzio, the private secretary to Mary I of Scotland, was murdered in the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, Scotland.

● 1617 - The Treaty of Stolbovo ended the occupation of Northern Russia by Swedish troops.

● 1697 - Czar Peter the Great begins tour of West-Europe

● 1701 - France, Cologne & Bavaria sign alliance

● 1721 - English Chancellor Exchequer John Aislabie confined in London Tower

● 1734 - The Russians took Danzig (Gdansk) in Poland.

● 1741 - English fleet under Admiral Ogle begins assault on Cartagena

● 1745 - Bells for 1st American carillon shipped from England to Boston

● 1763 - Birth of radical British journalist William Cobbett.

● 1765 - After a public campaign by the writer Voltaire, judges in Paris posthumously exonerate Jean Calas of murdering his son. Calas had been tortured and executed in 1762 on the charge, though his son had actually committed suicide.

● 1788 - Connecticut became the 5th united state, ratifies Constitution.

● 1791 - George Hayward, US, surgeon, 1st to use ether

● 1793 - Jean Pierre Blanchard made the first balloon flight in North America. The event was witnessed by U.S. President George Washington.

● 1798 - Dr George Balfour becomes 1st naval surgeon in the US navy

● 1799 - The U.S. Congress contracted with Simeon North, of Berlin, CT, for 500 horse pistols at the price of $6.50 each.

● 1812 - Swedish Pomerania was seized by Napoleon.

● 1820 - The U.S. Congress passed the Land Act that paved the way for westward expansion of North America.

● 1820 - Philippines chases out foreigners; about 125 die

● 1822 - Charles M Graham of New York patents artificial teeth

● 1832 - Abraham Lincoln announced that he would run for a political office for the first time. He was unsuccessful in his run for a seat in the Illinois state legislature.

● 1839 - Prussian government limits work week for children to 51 hours

● 1839 - Birth of Phoebe Palmer Knapp, American Methodist hymnwriter. She published more than 500 hymn tunes during her lifetime; her most famous melody comprises the tune to Fanny Crosby's hymn, "Blessed Assurance."

● 1839 - The French Academy of Science announced the Daguerreotype photo process.

● 1841 - Slaves who mutinied and took over the Spanish slave ship Amistad -- subsequently captured by the U.S. warship Washington -- are declared free men by the Supreme Court. The slave leader, Joseph Cinque (who would serve, 130 years later, as the inspiration for Symbionese Liberation Field Marshall Cinque) returned to Africa to become a slaver himself.

● 1842 - Giuseppe Verdi's third opera Nabucco premieres in Milan; its success establishes Verdi as one of Italy's foremost opera writers.

● 1843 - Scottish clergyman Robert Murray McCheyne wrote in a letter: 'You will never find Jesus so precious as when the world is one vast howling wilderness. Then he is like a rose blooming in the midst of the desolation, a rock rising above the storm.'

● 1847 - Mexican-American War: United States forces under General Winfield Scott invade Mexico near Vera Cruz.

● 1856 - Sigma Alpha Epsilon: was founded in the Johnston Mansion House on the University of Alabama

● 1858 - Albert Potts of Philadelphia patents the street mailbox

● 1860 - 1st Japanese ambassador arrives in San Francisco en route to Washington DC

● 1861 - Confederate currency authorized-$50, $100, $500, $1,000

● 1862 - American Civil War: The first battle between two ironclad warships - In a five-hour battle near Hampton Roads, Virginia the USS Monitor fights the CSS Virginia to a draw.

● 1863 - Ulysses S Grant is appointed commander of Union Army

● 1873 - Royal Canadian Mounted Police founded

● 1883 - Large demonstration of the unemployed at the Esplanade of Les Invalides in Paris is broken up by police. A large contingent marches across Paris. There were three incidents of loaves of bread being looted from bakers' shops. Anarchist leaders Louise Michel and Emile Pouget were charged as "leaders and instigators of looting committed by a band." Michel was condemned to six years of solitary confinement, and 10 years of police supervision; Pouget got eight years.

● 1889 - Battle at Gallabat (Metema); Mahdi's beat Abyssinian emperor John IV

● 1889 - Kansas passes 1st general antitrust law in US

● 1893 - Congo cannibals killed 1000s of Arabs

● 1900 - In Germany, women petition Reichstag for the right to take university entrance exams.

● 1905 - In Egypt, U.S. archeologist Davies discovered the royal tombs of Tua and Yua.

● 1905 - In Manchuria, Japanese troops surrounded 200,000 Russian troops that were retreating from Mudken.

● 1905 - In Congo, Belgian Vice Gov. Costermans committed suicide following an investigation of colonial policy.

● 1906 - In the Philippines, fifteen Americans and 600 Moros were killed in the last two days of fighting.

● 1907 - 1st involuntary sterilization law enacted, Indiana

● 1908 - Birth of Henri Jullien, Hanoi, son of Paule Mink. Socialist, trade unionist, then mutualist & anarchist. A founder of the first confederated trade union of journalists in 1935. Joined the resistance in WWII, and the anarchists in Marseilles after the war.

● 1908 - Inter Milan was founded.

● 1909 - The French National Assembly passed an income tax bill.

● 1910 - Union men urged for a national sympathy strike for miners in Pennsylvania.

● 1911 - The funding for five new battleships was added to the British military defense budget.

● 1914 - US Senator Albert Fall (Teapot Dome) demands "Cubanisation of Mexico"

● 1916 - Pancho Villa leads 1,500 Mexican raiders in an attack against Columbus, New Mexico, killing 17.

● 1916 - Germany declares war against Portugal

● 1918 - Russian Bolshevik Party becomes the Communist Party

● 1918 - Ukrainian mobs massacre Jews of Seredino Buda

● 1923 - Amsterdam taxi strike ended

● 1924 - Italy annexes Fiume.

● 1924 - South Slavia aproves Italy's annexation of Fiume (Rijeka)

● 1926 - Bertha Landes elected 1st woman mayor of Seattle

● 1928 - Anti-imperialist demonstrations against England throughout Egypt.

● 1930 - Pioneer linguist Frank Laubach wrote in a letter: 'It seems to me...that the very Bible cannot be read as a substitute for meeting God soul to soul and face to face.'

● 1931 - The World Radio Missionary Fellowship (WRMF) was incorporated in Lima, Ohio, by co_founders Clarence W. Jones and Reuben Larson. Today, this interdenominational mission agency broadcasts the Gospel in 15 languages to South America and throughout Europe.

● 1932 - Eamon De Valera becomes President of Ireland

● 1932 - Former Chinese emperor Henry Pu-Yi installed as head of Manchuria

● 1932 - The Egyptian University rector "Ahmed Lotfy El-Said" resigned to protest against the transfer of Dr.Taha Hussein without the University permission. In 2003, an academic group called "March 9" was established in Egypt to defend academic rights and university independence.

● 1932 - The first Ford Flathead engine left the assembly line at Ford Motor Company.

● 1933 - Great Depression: The U.S. Congress begins its first 100 days of enacting New Deal legislation. President Franklin D. Roosevelt submits the Emergency Banking Act to Congress.

● 1933 - Bulgarian communists Dimitrov, Popov & Vassili arrested in Berlin

● 1933 - Congress is called into special session by FDR, & began its "100 days"

● 1934 - Yury Gagarin, the world's first man in space, was born.

● 1935 - Hitler announced the creation of a new air force.

● 1936 - The German press warned that all Jews who vote in the upcoming elections would be arrested.

● 1939 - Spain - In Madrid, the anarchist Cipriano Mera (1896-1975), heading the IV army corps, routs the communist troops which besieged the national Council of Defense.

● 1942 - Construction of the Alaska Highway began

● 1943 - Delft opposition group-Pahud de Mortanges overthrown

● 1943 - Greek Jews of Salonika are transported to Nazi extermination camps

● 1945 - "Foodless Lunch" for hungry of Europe held at Waldorf hotel in London.

● 1945 - Japanese proclaim the "independence" of Indo-China

● 1945 - World War II: Bombing of Tokyo - American B-29 bombers attack Tokyo, Japan with incendiary bombs. The resulting fire storm kills over 100,000 people.

● 1946 - Dutch troops land at Batavia/Semarang

● 1946 - The A.F.L. accused Juan Peron of using the army to establish a dictatorship over Argentine labor.

● 1948 - Provisionary Indonesian government installed in Batavia

● 1949 - Brigadier General Edwin K Wright, USA, ends term as deputy director of CIA

● 1949 - The first all-electric dining car was placed in service on the Illinois Central Railroad.

● 1950 - Willie Sutton robs Manufacturers Bank of $64,000 in New York NY

● 1953 - Josef Stalin buried in Moscow

● 1954 - McCarthyism: CBS television broadcasts the See It Now episode, "A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy," produced by Edward R. Murrow.

● 1956 - British authorities arrested and deported Archbishop Makarios from Cyprus. He was accused of supporting terrorists.

● 1956 - Weather forecasting phone line set up in London England

● 1957 - The magnitude 8.6 Andreanof Islands Earthquake and tsunami occurs.

● 1957 - Egyptian leader Nasser barred U.N. plans to share the tolls for the use of the Suez Canal.

● 1959 - The Barbie doll debuts.

● 1959 - 1st known radar contact is made with Venus

● 1961 - 1st animal returned from space, dog named Blackie aboard Sputnik 9

● 1961 - Mine cave-in in Japan, kills 72

● 1961 - Sputnik 9 carries Chernushka (dog) into orbit

● 1962 - Egyptian President Nasser declares Gaza belongs to Palestinians

● 1962 - US advisors in South-Vietnam join the fight

● 1964 - Supreme Court issues New York Times vs Sullivan decision, public officials must prove malice to claim libel & recover damages

● 1964 - The first Ford Mustang rolls off the assembly line at Ford Motor Company.

● 1965 - Three white Unitarian ministers, including the Rev. James J. Reeb, were attacked with clubs on the streets of Selma, Alabama, while participating in a civil rights demonstration. Reeb later died in a Birmingham, Alabama hospital.

● 1966 - Ronnie Kray murders George Cornell in the Blind Beggar pub.

● 1966 - Andrew Brimmer becomes 1st black Governor of Federal Reserve Board

● 1967 - Josef Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva defects to the United States.

● 1969 - "The Smothers Brothers' Comedy Hour," which featured edgy political satire and such rock bands as the Beatles, the Who, Jefferson Airplane and the Doors, is canceled by CBS-TV. This is in the wake of controversy over the on-air censorship of guest star Joan Baez.

● 1972 - Detroit police burst in on four men playing cards; in the ensuing shooting, one of the cardplayers is killed and the other three wounded -- all of whom turned out to be off-duty Wayne County deputy sheriffs.

● 1972 - Allen Klein already accused of laundering money from UNICEF, which was to receive the royalties from the sales of George Harrison's album "Bangladesh"; he turned over just one-tenth of the $1.2 million due the organization.

● 1973 - Northern Ireland votes for union; The people of Northern Ireland vote overwhelmingly to remain within the United Kingdom.

● 1974 - Last Japanese soldier, a guerrilla operating in Philippines, surrenders, 29 years after World War II ended

● 1975 - First International Women's Art Festival, New York.

● 1975 - Construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System begins.

● 1975 - Iraq launched an offensive against the rebel Kurds.

● 1976 - Forty-two people die in a Cavalese cable-car disaster, the worst cable-car accident to date.

● 1976 - 1st female cadets accepted to West Point Military Academy

● 1977 - Admiral Stansfield Turner, USN (Ret), becomes 12th director of CIA replacing acting director Knoche

● 1977 - Approximately a dozen armed Hanafi Muslims take over three buildings in Washington, DC, killing one person and taking more than 130 hostages. The hostage situation ends two days later.

● 1979 - France performs nuclear test at Muruora Island

● 1979 - First extraterrestrial active volcano discovered on Jupiter's satellite Io.

● 1979 - U.S. Supreme Court issues temporary restraining order prohibiting publication by "The Progressive" of an article on H-bomb secrecy.

● 1980 - Flemish/Walloon battles in Belgium, 40 injured

● 1981 - M5 rapist jailed for life; A man who for three-and-a-half years terrorised women in the south west of England is sentenced to life behind bars.

● 1981 - Dan Rather becomes primary anchorman of CBS-TV News

● 1981 - Ketchup is declared a vegetable, by the Department of Agriculture, to help public schools in the USA with the balanced meal plan.

● 1982 - "Washington Post" reveals $19 million in CIA covert aid given to Contras.

● 1983 - Zimbabwe opposition leader Joshua Nkomo flees to Botswana

● 1984 - Emile Gumbs' Anguilla National Alliance wins elections

● 1984 - The Competitive Enterprise Institute in founded in Washington, D.C.

● 1986 - Soviet probe Vega 2 flies by Halley's Comet at 8,030 km

● 1986 - United States Navy divers find the largely intact but heavily-damaged crew compartment of the Space Shuttle Challenger. The bodies of all seven astronauts were still inside.

● 1986 - One hundred thousand march in Washington, D.C. for freedom of choice and reproductive rights.

● 1987 - Rock band U2 release the album The Joshua Tree.

● 1989 - Edgy gay photographer Robert Mapplethorpe dies of complications from AIDS. A favorite target of conservative censors such as Sen. Jesse Helms.

● 1989 - A strike forces financially-troubled Eastern Air Lines into bankruptcy.

● 1989 - Senate rejects Bush's nomination of John Tower as Defense Secretary

● 1989 - Soviet Union officially submits to jurisdiction of the World Court

● 1989 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1989 - In Maylasia, 30 Asian nations conferred on the issue of "boat people".

● 1989 - In the U.S., President Bush urged for a mandatory death penalty in drug-related killings.

● 1990 - Dr. Antonia Novello is sworn in as Surgeon General of the United States, becoming the first female and Hispanic American to serve in that position.

● 1990 - Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Clyde Wells confirms he will rescind Newfoundland's approval of the Meech Lake Accord, effectively killing the Accord.

● 1991 - Massive demonstrations are held against Slobodan Milošević in Belgrade. Two people are killed and tanks are in the streets.

● 1991 - US 70th manned space mission STS 39 (Discovery 12) launches into orbit

● 1992 - Former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin died in Tel Aviv at age 78.

● 1993 - Rodney King testifies at the federal trial of four Los Angeles, California police officers accused of violating King's civil rights when they beat him during an arrest.

● 1994 - IRA launch 1st of 3 mortar attacks on London's Heathrow Airport

● 1995 - Queen marks peace in Belfast; The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh pay a symbolic visit to Northern Ireland - their first since the IRA and Loyalist ceasefires came into effect last year.

● 1995 - The Canadian Navy arrested a Spanish trawler for illegally fishing off of Newfoundland.

● 1995 - President Konstantine Karamanlis (88) of Greece, resigns

● 1995 - Los Angeles police detective Mark Fuhrman took the stand at the O.J. Simpson murder trial, denying ever meeting a woman who had accused him of making racist remarks.

● 1996 - Comedian George Burns died at age 100.

● 1996 - STS 75 (Columbia 19), lands

● 1996 - In first mass demonstration under independence, women from around Lithuania gather at Ignalia to commemorate Chernobyl victims and demand an accelerated timetable (by 2005) for decommissioning the plant.

● 1996 - Fred Crabtree, a San Francisco Bay area transit cop (BART) who killed an unarmed black youth, Jerrold Hall, dies of auto-erotic asphyxiation.

● 1997 - Gangsta rapper The Notorious B.I.G., whose real name was Christopher Wallace, was killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles at age 24.

● 1998 - Innu protesters confront Quebec and Newfoundland ministers gathered to announce the largest hydroelectric project in North American history, on the lower Churchill River in Labrador, Canada.

● 2000 - In Norway, the coalition government of Kjell Magne Bondevik resigned as a result of an environmental dispute.

● 2004 - John Allen Muhammad is sentenced to death for his part in the Beltway sniper attacks of October 2002. Lee Boyd Malvo is sentenced to life in prison.

● 2004 - A terrorist attack on a restaurant in Istanbul kills one and injures 5.

● 2005 - Dan Rather presents his final broadcast of the CBS Evening News.

● 2006 - Bowing to ferocious opposition in Congress, a Dubai-owned company relinquished its quest to take over operations at U.S. ports.

● 2006 - Liquid Water discovered on Enceladus, the sixth largest moon of Saturn.

BIRTHS

● 1213 - Hugh IV, Duke of Burgundy, French crusader (d. 1271)

● 1285 - Emperor Go-Nijō of Japan (d. 1318)

● 1454 - Amerigo Vespucci, Italian explorer and cartographer (d. 1512)

● 1564 - David Fabricius, German astronomer (d. 1617)

● 1568 - Aloysius Gonzaga, Italian saint (d. 1591)

● 1629 - Tsar Alexis I of Russia (d. 1676)

● 1720 - Philip Yorke, 2nd Earl of Hardwicke, English politician (d. 1790)

● 1737 - Josef Mysliveček, Czech composer (d. 1781)

● 1749 - Honore Mirabeau, French writer and politician (d. 1791)

● 1753 - Jean-Baptiste Kleber, French general (d. 1800)

● 1758 - Franz Joseph Gall, German neuroscientist (d. 1828)

● 1763 - William Cobbett, English journalist and author (d. 1835)

● 1806 - Edwin Forrest, American Actor, philanthropist (d. 1872)

● 1814 - Taras Shevchenko, Ukrainian poet (d. 1861)

● 1825 - Alexander F. Mozhaiski, Russian aviation pioneer (d. 1890)

● 1839 - Phoebe Knapp, American hymn writer (d. 1908)

● 1839 (O.S.) - Modest Mussorgsky, Russian composer who wrote "Boris Godunov" (d. 1881)

● 1856 - Eddie Foy, American singer and dancer (d. 1928)

● 1858 - Gustav Stickley, American designer and maker of Mission furniture (d. 1942)

● 1881 - Ernest Bevin, English statesman and trade unionist (d. 1951)

● 1885 - Tamara Karsavina, Russian-English ballerina (d. 1978)

● 1886 - Robert Eichelberger, American general during World War II (d. 1961)

● 1887 - Phil Mead, English cricketeer (d. 1958)

● 1890 - Vyacheslav Molotov, Russian politician (d. 1986)

● 1892 - Vita Sackville-West, English writer and gardener (d. 1962)

● 1894 - Frank Arnau, German writer (d. 1976)

● 1900 - Howard Aiken, American computing pioneer (d. 1973)

● 1900 - Tomislav II of Croatia, 4th Duke of Aosta, Italian aristocrat (d. 1948)

● 1902 - Will Geer, American actor (d. 1978)

● 1902 - Edward Durell Stone, American architect (d. 1978)

● 1905 - Rex Warner, English novelist, poet and critic (d. 1986)

● 1907 - Mircea Eliade, Romanian historian of religions and writer (d. 1986)

● 1909 - Derk Bodde, American sinologist

● 1910 - Samuel Barber, American composer (d. 1981)

● 1918 - George Lincoln Rockwell, American Nazi leader (d. 1967)

● 1918 - Mickey Spillane, American writer (d. 2006)

● 1923 - Walter Kohn, Austrian-born physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

● 1929 - Desmond Hoyte, Prime Minister and President of Guyana (d. 2002)

● 1932 - Keely Smith, American singer

● 1932 - Walter Mercado, Puerto Rican astrologist and actor

● 1933 - Mel Lastman, Canadian politician

● 1933 - Lloyd Price, R&B singer

● 1934 - Joyce Van Patten, Actress

● 1934 - Yuri Gagarin, Soviet cosmonaut (d. 1968)

● 1934 - Del Close, American actor, improviser, writer, and teacher (d. 1999)

● 1935 - Andrew Viterbi, American telecommunications scientist and business man.

● 1936 - Tom Sestak, American football player (d. 1987)

● 1936 - Mickey Gilley, American musician and singer

● 1936 - Marty Ingels, Actor, comedian

● 1937 - Bernard Landry, Premier of Quebec from 2001-2003

● 1937 - Brian Redman, British racing driver

● 1938 - Lill-Babs, Swedish singer

● 1940 - Raúl Juliá, Puerto Rican actor (d. 1994)

● 1941 - Ernesto Miranda, American litigant (d. 1976)

● 1942 - John Cale, Welsh musician, (The Velvet Underground)

● 1942 - Mark Lindsay, American singer/musician (Paul Revere & The Raiders)

● 1943 - Bobby Fischer, American chess player

● 1943 - Charles Gibson, American television journalist

● 1945 - Robin Trower, British rock musician (Procol Harum)

● 1945 - Dennis Rader, American serial killer

● 1946 - Jim Cregan, British rock musician

● 1947 - Keri Hulme, New Zealandic writer

● 1948 - Jimmie Fadden, Country singer (The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band)

● 1948 - Jeffrey Osborne, American singer

● 1949 - Jaime Lyn Bauer, Actress

● 1950 - Doug Ault, baseball player (d. 2004)

● 1950 - Danny Sullivan, American race car driver

● 1951 - Michael Kinsley, American journalist and editor

● 1951 - Helen Zille, South African politician

● 1954 - Bobby Sands, Irish republican (d. 1981)

● 1955 - Teo Fabi, Italian racing driver

● 1956 - Shashi Tharoor, Indian author & United Nations Under-Secretary General

● 1956 - David Willetts, UK Shadow Secretary for Education (Conservative)

● 1957 - Mark Mancina, American Composer

● 1957 - Faith Daniels, American Journalist

● 1957 - Mona Sahlin, Swedish Politician

● 1958 - Martin Fry, English pop singer (ABC)

● 1959 - Lonny Price, Actor-director

● 1960 - Linda Fiorentino, American actress

● 1961 - Robert Rechsteiner, US Professional wrestler

● 1963 - Sean Salisbury, American football player

● 1963 - Terry Mulholland, American baseball player

● 1963 - David Pogue, Technology columnist and musician

● 1964 - Juliette Binoche, French actress

● 1964 - Phil Housley, American ice hockey player

● 1965 - Brian Bosworth, American football player

● 1965 - Benito Santiago, Puerto Rican baseball player

● 1966 - Michael Patrick MacDonald, American memorist

● 1966 - Tony Lockett, Australian Rules Footballer

● 1968 - Johnny Kelly, American drummer (Type O Negative)

● 1968 - Youri Djorkaeff, French footballer

● 1968 - Robert Sledge, Rock musician (Ben Folds Five)

● 1969 - Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, American basketball player

● 1970 - Shannon Leto, American drummer and occasional actor

● 1971 - Emmanuel Lewis, American actor

● 1971 - C Miller, American rapper

● 1971 - Diego Torres, Argentine singer

● 1972 - Kerr Smith, American actor (''Dawson's Creek'')

● 1972 - Jean Louisa Kelly, Actress

● 1972 - Spencer Howson, Australian radio broadcaster

● 1973 - Aaron Boone, American baseball player

● 1975 - Roy Makaay, Dutch footballer

● 1975 - Juan Sebastián Verón, Argentine footballer (soccer player)

● 1976 - Thor Halvorssen, Human rights activist

● 1977 - Radek Dvořák, Czech hockey player

● 1977 - Yamila Diaz, Argentine supermodel

● 1978 - Lucas Neill, Australian footballer

● 1979 - Melina Perez, WWE Diva

● 1980 - Chingy, American rapper

● 1981 - Antonio Bryant, American football player

● 1982 - Paul Ballard, English television presenter

● 1983 - Clint Dempsey, American football (soccer) player

● 1984 - Julia Mancuso, American Olympic gold medalist

● 1986 - Brittany Snow, American actress ("American Dreams," "John Tucker Must Die")

● 1987 - Bow Wow, American rapper and actor

● 1992 - Luis Armand Garcia, Actor (''George Lopez'')

DEATHS

● 1202 - King Sverre of Norway

● 1422 - Jan Zelivsky, Hussite priest (b. 1380)

● 1440 - St Frances of Rome, Italian nun (b. 1384)

● 1566 - David Rizzio, Italian secretary of Mary I of Scotland (b. 1533)

● 1649 - James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton, Scottish statesman (b. 1606)

● 1649 - Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland, English soldier (executed) (b. 1590)

● 1661 - Jules Cardinal Mazarin, French cardinal and statesman (b. 1602)

● 1709 - Ralph Montagu, 1st Duke of Montagu, English diplomat

● 1808 - Joseph Bonomi the Elder, architect (b. 1739)

● 1851 - Hans Christian Ørsted, Danish physicist (b. 1777)

● 1888 - William I, German Emperor, (b. 1797)

● 1897 - Sondre Norheim, Norwegian skier (b. 1825)

● 1937 - Paul Elmer More, American critic and essayist (b. 1864)

● 1954 - Eva Ahnert-Rohlfs, German astronomer (b. 1912)

● 1954 - V. Walfrid Ekman, Swedish oceanographer (b. 1874)

● 1960 - Jack Beattie, Northern Irish politician (b. 1886)

● 1964 - Paul Erich von Lettow-Vorbeck, German general (b. 1870)

● 1971 - Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria, Coptic Orthodox Patriarch (b. 1902)

● 1974 - Earl Wilbur Sutherland Jr., American physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1915)

● 1975 - Gleb W. Derujinsky, Russian-American sculptor (b. 1888)

● 1983 - Faye Emerson, American actress (b. 1917)

● 1983 - Ulf von Euler, Swedish physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)

● 1989 - Robert Mapplethorpe, American artist (b. 1946)

● 1992 - Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1913)

● 1993 - C. Northcote Parkinson, British historian and writer (b. 1909)

● 1994 - Charles Bukowski, American writer (b.1920)

● 1994 - Fernando Rey, Spanish-born actor (b. 1917)

● 1996 - George Burns, American actor and singer (b. 1896)

● 1997 - The Notorious B.I.G., American rapper (b. 1972)

● 2000 - Ivo Robić, Croatian singer and songwriter (b 1923)

● 2003 - Stan Brakhage, American filmmaker (b. 1933)

● 2003 - Bernard Dowiyogo, President of Nauru (b. 1946)

● 2004 - Albert Mol, Dutch actor (b.1917)

● 2004 - Alf Bicknell, British chauffeur (b.1928)

● 2004 - Robert Pastorelli, American actor (b. 1954)

● 2005 - Chris LeDoux, American Country singer (b. 1948)

● 2005 - István Nyers, Hungarian footballer (b. 1924)

● 2005 - Jeanette Schmid, Austrian professional whistler; aka Baroness Lips von Lipstrill (b. 1924)

● 2006 - John Profumo, British cabinet minister (b. 1915)

● 2006 - Geir Ivarsøy, Norwegian programmer, co-founder of Opera Software ASA (b. 1957)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Anthony
● St. Bosa
● St. Catherine of Bologna
● Forty Martyrs of Sebaste
● St. Frances of Rome, patron of motorists, housewives
● St. Gregory of Nyssa, bishop
● St. Pacian

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for February 26 (Civil Date: March 9)
● St. Porphyrius, Bishop of Gaza.
● St. Sebastian, monk of Poshekhonye.
● New-Martyr John Calphas ("the Apprentice") at Constantinople.

● Greek Calendar:
● St. Photina the Samaritan Woman and her sisters Anatola, Phota, Photis, Parasceva, and Cyriaca; her sons Photinus and Joses; and Sebastian the Duke, Victor, and Christodulus, martyrs.

● Anglican:
● Gregory, bishop of Nyssa

● Belize : Baron Bliss Day

● Ukraine : Taras Shevchenko (Ukrainian poet) Day (1814)

● World : Amerigo Vespucci Day (1451)

● 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