On this day

[Richard Frost]

18th March

AWKWARD MOMENTS DAY
On March 18th, we recognize Awkward Moments Day. This is an annual day that every person can relate. We have all had our awkward moments from time to time. They are a part of life; they just happen.

BIODIESEL DAY
Each year, Biodiesel Day on March 18th commemorates the birthday of Rudolf Diesel and a few that continue to gain a growing interest across the country and around the world.

Rudolf Diesel invented the diesel engine and unveiled it at the World Fair in 1900. The engine was originally designed to run on peanut oil, and R. Diesel was a big believer in the role plant oils could play in fuels.

In a 1912 speech, Diesel said, “…the use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may seem insignificant today, but such oils may become, in the course of time, as important as petroleum and the coal-tar products of the present time.”

On this day in history - 18th March

37 Roman Senate annuls Tiberius' will and proclaims Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (aka Caligula = Little Boots) emperor
417 Saint Zosimus begins his reign as Catholic Pope
731 St Gregory III begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1123 1st Latern Council (9th ecumenical) opens in Rome, agreements of the Concordat of Worms ratified
1167 Battle of El-Babein, Egypt: Franks under Amalrik vs Syrians
1184 Battle of Ichi-no-Tani near Kobe, Japan
1190 Crusaders kill 57 Jews in Bury St Edmunds, England
1229 Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II crowns himself King of Jerusalem
1241 Kraków is ravaged by Mongols
1314 Jacques de Molay, the 23rd and the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, is burned at the stake by King Philip IV of France
1325 According to legend, Tenochtitlan is founded on this date on an island in what was then Lake Texcoco in the Valley of Mexico
1438 Albrecht II of Habsburg becomes king of Germany
1509 Emperor Maximilian I names Margaretha land guardians of Netherlands
1532 English parliament bans payments by English church to Rome
1582 Prince William of Orange injured in attack at Antwerp
1583 Dutch States General & Anjou sign treaty
1608 Susenyos is formally crowned Emperor of Ethiopia
1662 First public bus service begins, promoted by Blaise Pascal, operates in Paris as the "Carosses a Cinq Sous" until 1675
1673 Lord Berkley sells his half of New Jersey to the Quakers
1754 Thomas Pelham-Holles becomes British Prime Minister on the death of his brother Henry Pelham
1766 Britain repeals the Stamp Act, which had caused outrage in colonial America and helped lead to the American Revolution
1773 Oliver Goldsmith's "She Stoops to Conquer" premieres in London
1781 Charles Messier rediscovers global cluster M92
1791 Robert Burns poem “Tam o’ Shanter,” is published in the "Edinburgh Herald"
1793 Second Battle at Neerwinden: Austria army beats France
1793 The first republican state in Germany, Mainz, is declared by Andreas Joseph Hofmann
1813 David Melville, Newport, Rhode Island, patents apparatus for making coal gas
1818 US Congress approves 1st pensions for government service
1834 1st railroad tunnel in US completed, in Pennsylvania (275 m long)
1834 Six farm labourers from Tolpuddle, Dorset, England are sentenced to be transported to Australia for forming a trade union
1847 1st Dutch public telegram
1850 Henry Wells & William Fargo form American Express in Buffalo
1858 Dutch Van der Brugghen government resigns
1859 Vera Cruz besieged by Miramon (Cons) in Mexican War of Reform
1864 Dale Dike on Humber River crumbles drowning some 240
1865 Battle of Wilson's raid to Selma, Alabama
1865 Congress of Confederate States of American adjourns for last time
1870 1st US National Wildlife Preserve (Lake Meritt in Oakland California)
1871 Communards revolt in Paris
1874 Hawaii signs a treaty with the United States granting exclusive trading rights.
1875 37th Grand National: Tommy Pickernell wins his 3rd GN aboard 100/6 chance Pathfinder
1876 English FA Cup Final Replay, Kennington Oval, London: Wanderers beat Old Estonians, 3-0 after initial 1-1 draw; Wanderers 3rd title
1877 US President Rutherford B. Hayes appoints Frederick Douglass marshal of Washington, D.C.
1878 City of Anaheim in California incorporates for the 2nd time
1881 Barnum & Bailey Circus, travelling as "The Greatest Show on Earth", debuts at (Madison Square Garde, New York City, would last 146 years before closing in 2017
1882 Morgan Earp is assassinated by outlaws while playing billiards in Tombstone
1890 1st US state naval militia organized (Massachusetts)
1890 German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck resigns after 19 years after disagreement with German
1891 Britain is linked to the continent by Telephone
1892 Lord Stanley presents silver challenge cup for hockey (Stanley Cup)
1895 200 African Americans leave Savannah, Georgia for Liberia
1899 Phoebe, a moon of Saturn is discovered by William Pickering
1900 Ajax soccer club forms in Amsterdam, The Netherlands (33 Eredivisie titles, 18 KNVB Cups, 4 Champions League); named after legendary Greek hero
1900 Japan uses its influence over Korea to deny Russia's efforts to obtain a naval station at Korean Port of Masampo, the lead up to the Russo-Japanese war
1902 Italian operatic tenor Enrico Caruso becomes 1st well-known performer to make a record
1902 Arnold Schoenberg's "Verklärte Nacht" premieres in Vienna
1902 Turkey grants Germany syndicate the first concession to construct a railroad through Turkish territory to Baghdad, to be linked to Berlin
1903 Following through on its attacks on Roman Catholic institutions, the French Government dissolves the Catholic religious orders
1904 First performance of Edward Elgar's "In the South (Alassio)"
1909 Einar Dessau of Denmark makes 1st ham broadcast
1909 Russia and Bulgaria reach an agreement in which late 19th century Russian financial claims are cancelled to meet compensation due to Turkey from Bulgaria
1910 Frederick Converse's opera "The Pipe of Desire" is the first American opera to be performed at the Metropolitan Opera, NYC
1910 72nd Grand National: Bob Chadwick wins aboard 100/8 chance Jenkinstown; earliest Grand National to which there are moving images
1911 North Dakota enacts a hail insurance law
1913 King George I of Greece is assassinated in the recently liberated city of Thessaloniki
1914 White Wolf gang beats government army in Jingdezhen, China
1915 Failed British attack in Dardanelles
1915 French battleship Bouvet explodes, 640 killed
1918 Soccer team SON OF Meerssen forms
1918 Socialist Youth AJC organizes in Amsterdam
1919 Order of DeMolay forms in Kansas City
1920 Greece adopts the Gregorian calendar
1921 2nd Peace of Riga, Poland enlarged
1921 Steamer "Hong Koh" runs aground off Swatow China killing 1,000
1921 80th Grand National: Fred Rees wins aboard 100/9 bet Shaun Spadah; winner is only horse to complete the course without falling
1922 1st intercollegiate indoor polo championship (Princeton vs Yale)
1922 British magistrates in India sentence Mahatma Gandhi to 6 years imprisonment for disobedience
1922 WBT-AM in Charlotte NC begins radio transmissions
1922 The first public celebration of Bat mitzvah, for the daughter of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, is held in New York City.
1925 (8) 60-MPH tornadoes speed Mo, In, Il, Ky, & Tn kills 689
1929 Dmitri Shostakovich's "The new Babylon" premieres in Leningrad
1930 Boston Bruins win record 20th NHL home game
1931 1st electric shavers go on sale in US (Schick)
1931 Juan Bautista Aznar becomes premier of Spain
1932 91st Grand National: Tim Hamey wins aboard 50/1 outsider Forbra
1933 Radio Clube de Mocambique's 1st radio transmission
1933 US Ladies' Figure Skating championship won by Maribel Vinson
1933 US Men's Figure Skating championship won by Roger Turner
1937 Gas explosion in school in New London, Texas: 294 die
1937 The human-powered aircraft, Pedaliante, flies 1 kilometre (0.62 miles) outside Milan.
1938 NY 1st requires serological blood tests of pregnant women
1938 President Cardena of Mexico nationalizes US & British oil companies
1939 England beats Scotland, 9-6 at Murrayfield, Edinburgh to force a share of the Home Nations Rugby Championship with Wales and Ireland
1940 Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler meet at Brenner Pass where the Italian dictator agrees he will, in due course, join Germany's impending war effort in the west
1942 Illegal Free Netherlands announces boycott of theatres
1942 2 black players, Jackie Robinson & Nate Moreland, request a tryout with the Chicago White Sox, they are allowed to work out
1942 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9102, creating the War Relocation Authority, which was charged with overseeing the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II
1943 Ships James Oglethorpe (US) & Terkolei (Netherlands), torpedoed & sink
1943 Red Army evacuates Belgorod
1944 Nazi Germany occupies Hungary
1945 1,250 US bombers attacks Berlin
1945 Maurice "Rocket" Richard becomes the 1st NHLer to score 50 goals
1945 US Task Force 58 attacks targets on Kiushu
1948 France & Great Britain & Benelux sign Treaty of Brussels
1948 Philips begin experimental TV broadcasting
1948 Soviet consultants leave Yugoslavia in first sign of Tito-Stalin split
1949 WGAL TV channel 8 in Lancaster, PA (NBC) begins broadcasting
1950 "Touch & Go" closes at Broadhurst Theater NYC after 176 performances
1950 CCNY beats Bradley 69-61 for the NIT championship
1951 LPGA Titleholders Championship Women's Golf, Augusta CC: Pat O'Sullivan wins her only major title by 2 strokes from fellow amateur Beverly Hanson
1952 1st plastic lens for cataract patients fitted (Philadelphia)
1953 15th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Indiana beats Kansas, 69-68; Jayhawks' center B. H. Born is named tournament Most Outstanding Player
1953 Boston Braves move to Milwaukee
1953 Earthquake strikes West Turkey, 250 die
1953 KGNC (now KAMR) TV channel 4 in Amarillo, TX (NBC) begins broadcasting
1953 NL approves Boston Braves move to Milwaukee (1st shift since 1903)
1955 Ichirō Hatojama recognized as premier of Japan
1957 WTWV (now WTVA) TV channel 9 in Tupelo-Columbus, MS (NBC) begins
1958 Dodgers announces their mascot and clown Emmett Kelly will not perform in 1958
1959 Boston Celtic's Bill Sharman begins record of 56 straight free-throws
1959 US President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs Hawaii statehood bill
1960 5th Eurovision Song Contest: Jacqueline Boyer for France wins singing "Tom Pillibi"
1961 6th Eurovision Song Contest: Jean-Claude Pascal for Luxembourg wins "Nous les amoureux"
1962 Algerian War ends after 7½ yrs (250,000 die), Ben Bella flees
1962 Dmitri Shostakovich becomes member of Supreme Soviet of USSR
1962 7th Eurovision Song Contest: Isabelle Aubret for France wins singing "Un premier amour"
1963 "Tovarich" opens at Broadway Theater NYC for 264 performances
1963 France performs underground nuclear test at Ecker, Algeria
1963 WGSF TV channel 31 in Newark, OH (PBS) begins broadcasting
1965 Poppin' Fresh Pillsbury Dough Boy introduced
1965 "Do I Hear a Waltz?" opens at 46th St Theater NYC for 220 performances
1965 Rolling Stones fined £5 each for public urination
1965 USSR launches Voshkod 2
1965 Cosmonaut Alexey Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becomes the first person to walk in space
1965 A truck loses control down Moosic Street, Scranton, Pennsylvania, killing the driver. This accident later inspired the 1974 Harry Chapin song, "30,000 Pounds of Bananas."
1966 "Pousse Cafe" opens at 46th St Theater NYC for 3 performances
1966 General Suharto forms government in Indonesia
1966 Scott Paper begins selling paper dresses for $1
1967 Beatles' "Penny Lane" single goes #1
1967 Oil tanker Torrey Canyon hits a rock off Cornwall & spills oil
1968 US Congress repeals requirement for a gold reserve
1968 WVER TV channel 28 in Rutland, VT (PBS) begins broadcasting
1968 WVTA TV channel 41 in Windsor, VT (PBS) begins broadcasting
1969 "Come Summer" opens at Lunt Fontanne Theater NYC for 7 performances
1970 Cambodia military coup under General Lon Nol, Prince Sihanuk flees
1970 KAEC TV channel 19 in Lufkin, Texas (ABC) suspends broadcasting
1970 NFL selects Wilson as official football & scoreboard as official time
1970 Two-week US postal strike begins; it is against the government and is the largest wildcat strike in US history
1970 Five Unionist Members of Parliament (MPs), including William Craig and Harry West, are expelled from the Unionist Parliamentary Party, Northern Ireland
1971 200 die in landslide into Lake Yanahuani, Chungar Peru
1972 China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor, PRC
1972 Cornell NCAA hockey team shut out for 1st time in 225 games (Boston U)
1972 Memphis' Larry Miller sets ABA record of 67 pts in a game
1972 Ulster Vanguard hold a rally of 60,000 people in Belfast; William Craig tells the crowd: "if and when the politicians fail us, it may be our job to liquidate the enemy"
1973 "Seesaw" opens at Uris Theater NYC for 296 performances
1974 Most Arab oil producing nations end embargo against US
1975 Kurds end fight against Iraqi army
1977 The Clash release their first recording "White Riot"
1977 US restricts citizens from visiting Cuba, Vietnam, North Korea & Cambodia
1977 Vietnam hands over MIA to US
1978 250,000 attend rock concert California Jam II in Ontario, California
1978 Former Pakistani premier Ali Bhutto sentenced to death
1978 Wales beats France, 16-7 at the National Stadium, Cardiff to clinch its 20th outright Five Nations Rugby Championship, a record 8th Grand Slam and record 3rd consecutive Triple Crown
1979 "On the 20th Century" closes at St James Theater NYC after 460 performances
1979 Battles between Kurds & Iranians break in Sananday, Iran
1980 Vostok rocket explodes on the launch pad while being refueled, killing 50
1981 Buffalo Sabres sets NHL record of 9 goals in 1 period (vs Toronto)
1982 Singer Teddy Pendergrass' spinal cord severed in a car accident
1985 Capital Cities Communications Inc acquires ABC for $3.5 billion, first transfer of ownership of a TV network
1985 Commissioner Peter Ueberroth reinstates Willie Mays & Mickey Mantle
1986 Exciting draw in final gives NSW the Sheffield Shield over Queensland
1986 US Treasury Department announces plans to alter paper money
1987 Gerber survey find most popular names for newborns are Jessica and Matthew
1987 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1989 27th space shuttle mission, STS-29 (Discovery 8), returns to Earth
1989 California Quake amusement ride opens at Universal Studios
1989 Dino Ciccarelli sets Washington Capital record of 7 pts in a game
1989 In Egypt, a 4,400-year-old mummy is found in the Pyramid of Cheops
1990 Largest art robbery in US history: 13 works of art worth over $500 million are stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston
1990 1st free elections in East Germany, Conservatives beat Communists
1990 32-day lockout by baseball owners ends
1990 A Tampa little leaguer dies after being struck by a pitch
1990 PGA Players Championship, TPC at Sawgrass: Jodie Mudd wins by 1 stroke ahead of runner-up Mark Calcavecchia; winner's cheque $270,000
1991 Mike Tyson beats Razor Ruddock in the 7th round
1991 Philadelphia '76ers retires Wilt Chamberlain's #13 jersey
1991 Reggie Miller (Indiana) ends NBA free throw streak of 52 games
1992 "4 Baboons Adoring the Sun" opens at Beaumont Theater NYC for 38 performances
1992 Donna Summer gets a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame
1992 American businesswoman Leona Helmsley sentenced to 4 years for tax evasion "We don't pay taxes; only the little people pay taxes"
1992 Zimbabwe beat England by 9 runs in World Cup at Albury
1993 "Sisters Rosensweig" opens at Barrymore Theater NYC for 556 performances
1993 Amsterdam stock exchange hits record Ÿ12.2 billion
1993 Sri Lanka beat England in Test match by 5 wickets
1994 South Africa Goldstone committee reveals existence of secret police
1994 Space shuttle STS-62 (Columbia 16), lands
1994 Zsa Zsa Gabor files for bankruptcy
1995 Michael Jordan announces he is ending his 17 month NBA retirement
1995 STS 67 (Endeavour 8) lands after 16½ days
1995 In a final round title decider, England beats Scotland, 24-12 at Twickenham to claim the Five Nations Rugby Championship, Grand Slam, Triple Crown and Calcutta Cup
1996 50,000 swimmers raise 15 million for charity during BT's Swimathon '96
1996 A nightclub fire in Quezon City, Philippines kills 162.
1997 Russian AN-24 plane crashes in Turkey, 50 die
2000 England clinch inaugural Six Nations Rugby Championship with 59-12 thrashing of Italy at Stadio Flaminio, Rome; England flyhalf Jonny Wilkinson kicks 7 goals and winger Austin Healey scores 3 tries
2002 The Ramones are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
2003 FBI agents raid the corporate headquarters of HealthSouth Corporation in Birmingham, Alabama on suspicion of massive corporate fraud led by the company's top executives.
2003 British Sign Language is recognised as an official British language
2005 Terri Schiavo's feeding tube is removed at the request of her husband
2005 "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody" premieres on the Disney Channel, starring Dylan and Cole Sprouse
2006 France wins Six Nations Rugby Championship on points difference over Ireland, with a 21-16 win over Wales at Millennium Stadium, Cardiff; Ireland receives consolation prize of the Triple Crown Trophy
2007 Former England Test cricket batsman, and Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer is found dead one day after his team's defeat to Ireland puts them out of the World Cup in the West Indies; cause of death remains suspicious
2011 MESSENGER spacecraft enters Mercury's orbit
2012 Superleague Greece football match between Olympiacos and Panathinaikos is abandoned after fans set fire to Athens' Olympic Stadium
2012 Joachim Gauck elected President of the Federal republic of Germany by the Federal Assembly
2013 Explosions kill 25 people at a bus park in Kano, Nigeria
2013 A car bombing kills 10 people and injures 20 in Mogadishu, Somalia
2013 98 people are killed and 248 are injured across Iraq from a series of bombings and shootings
2014 Phil Jackson signs a five-year contract to be president of the New York Knicks
2014 Transnistria formally requests to join the Russian Federation
2014 Russia formally annexes Crimea, previously part of Ukraine. by signing Treaty on Accession
2014 US closes the Syrian embassy in Washington & expels all Syrian diplomats
2018 Vladimir Putin is elected to a new six-year term as Russian President with 76% of the vote, his fourth term
2018 First fatal accident involving an Uber self-driving car hitting a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona
2018 Bushfire in Tathra, New South Wales, Australia, destroys over 70 buildings
2018 Turkish-backed Syrian rebels seize Kurdish held northern Syrian town of Afrin
2018 Serial bomber suspected after fourth bomb goes off in Austin, Texas, injuring two, total bombing death toll, 2 dead, 5 injured
2018 US Senator Amy Klobuchar calls on Mark Zuckerberg to testify before the Senate Judiciary in wake in data mining scandal with Cambridge Analytica
2018 African American Stephon Clark shot 20 times by police in his Grandmother's backyard in Sacramento, California during vandalism investigation
2018 Portuguese soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo records his 50th career hat-trick in Real Madrid's 6-3 win over Girona
2019 Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi makes national radio address to the nation after Cyclone Idai, saying more than 1,000 people feared dead with 100,000 at risk
2019 “Historic to catastrophic flooding" faced by Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and South Dakota according to US National Weather Service
2019 UK Speaker of the House John Bercow rules a third vote on Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal is not possible without new changes
2019 Suspected terrorist attack by shooter aboard a tram in Utrecht, Netherlands kills 3 and injures 5
2019 Italian charity ship Mare Jonio rescues 50 migrants off the coast of Libya
2019 Champion racing pigeon Armando "the Lewis Hamilton of pigeons" sells for a record $1.42 million in Belgium
2019 40-year old Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki overtakes Wilt Chamberlain to go 6th with 31,424 points on the NBA scorers' list; Mavs suffer 129-125 OT loss to New Orleans Pelicans
2020 Turing Award given to Pixar employees Pat Hanraha and Ed Catmull for three-dimensional computer graphics
2020 US President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau agree to close the US-Canada border, the world's longest, to non-essential travel to curb COVID-19

[Richard Frost]

19th March

LET’S LAUGH DAY
Each year, Let’s Laugh Day on March 19th reminds us to add a little humour to our day. It’s never good to be serious all the time and letting the laughter bubble up from time to time is good for all of us!

We have all heard the saying, “Laughter is the best medicine.” This is the day to take your medicine.

CERTIFIED NURSES DAY
Every March 19th, Certified Nurses Day celebrates the nurses who impact lives every day.

Nurses dedicate their entire careers to helping others and often work long, hard hours. The day honours and recognizes them and their significant achievements. Their advanced skills require continuing education, re-certification, and continued knowledge of ever-changing technology. Certified nurses balance clinical needs and patient care. Helping patients meet their healthcare goals in complex and challenging times makes a Certified Nurse’s commitment even more valuable.

CHOCOLATE CARAMEL DAY
A great combination is celebrated each year on Chocolate Caramel Day. On March 19th, enjoy chocolate and caramel in your favorite candy bar, ice cream, or dessert. It will put a smile on most people’s faces! The combination also invokes some cravings for chocolate caramel coffee, milkshakes, or just about any treat with this hard-to-resist combination.

On this day in History 19th March

1227 Count Ugolino of Segna elected Pope Gregory IX
1279 A Mongolian victory at the naval Battle of Yamen ends the Song Dynasty in China
1452 Frederick III of Hapsburg crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Nicholas V in Rome
1524 Giovanni de Varrazano, a Florentine explorer in the service of King Francis I of France, lands around area of Carolinas
1540 Court of Holland names Amsterdam sheriff John Hubrechtsz a "heretic"
1563 Peace of Amboise: Rights for Huguenots
1571 Spanish troops occupy Manila
1628 Massachusetts Bay Colony granted land by England
1644 200 members of Peking imperial family and court commit suicide in loyalty to the Emperor
1682 Assembly of the French clergy issues a declaration stating, among other things, that the power of the King is not subject to papal authority
1687 Explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle, searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, is murdered by his own men
1748 Naturalization Act passes granting Jews right to colonize North American colonies
1775 4 people buried by avalanche for 37 days, 3 survive (Italy)
1775 Poland & Prussia sign trade agreement
1799 Joseph Haydn's "Die Schöpfung" premieres in Vienna
1803 Friedrich Schiller's "Die Braut von Messina" premieres in Weimar
1808 Charles IV, king of Spain, abdicates after riots and a popular revolt at the winter palace Aranjuez. His son, Ferdinand VII, takes the throne
1812 The first Spanish constitution is enacted, one of the earliest constitutions ever promulgated
1822 Boston, Massachusetts incorporated as a city
1831 1st US bank robbery, the City Bank in New York robbed of $245,000
1859 Opera "Faust" by Charles Gounod premieres in Paris
1861 The First Taranaki War ends in New Zealand
1863 Confederate cruiser SS Georgiana destroyed on her maiden voyage with a cargo of munitions, and medicines then valued over $1,000,000. Wreck discovered exactly 102 years later by teenage diver and pioneer underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence.
1864 Opera "Mireille" premieres in Paris
1865 Battle of Bentonville, Confederates retreat from Greenville North Carolina
1866 Immigrant ship Monarch of the Seas sinks in Liverpool; 738 die
1870 The opera "Guarany" premieres in Milan
1877 Australia beat England by 45 runs in very first Test match
1880 42nd Grand National: Tommy Beasley aboard Irish 8/1 chance Empress wins by 2 lengths from defending champion The Liberator
1882 1st stone laid for the Sagrada Familia basilica in Barcelona, designed by Antoni Gaudí
1883 Jan Matzeliger invents first machine to manufacture entire shoes
1885 Louis Riel returns to Canada, proclaims provisional government
1892 3 brothers Hearne play in same Test Cricket England v South Africa (Cape Town)
1895 Los Angeles Railway established to provide streetcar service
1906 Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari's "Quattro Rusteghi" premieres in Munich
1907 18.8 cm precipitation at Lewer's Ranch, Nevada (state record)
1910 Australasian Championships Men's Tennis, Adelaide: Rodney Heath wins his 2nd and last Australasian title; beats fellow Australian Horace Rice 6-4, 6-3, 6-2
1911 1st International Women's Day sees over 1 million men and women attend rallies in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. Issues discussed included women's right to vote and to hold public office, the right to work, to vocational training and an end to discrimination on the job.
1914 Stanley Cup, Arena Gardens, Toronto ON: Toronto HC (NHA) defeat Victoria Aristocrats (PCHA), 2-1 for a 3-0 series sweep; final series of the "challenge" era
1915 Pluto photographed for 1st time (although unknown at the time)
1915 VI Summer (Modern) Olympic Games: IOC President Pierre de Coubertin writes to Associated Press indicating 1916 Berlin Games won't take place because of WWI
1917 US Supreme Court uphoelds 8-hr work day for railroad employees
1917 Victor Herbert and Harry Blossom's operetta "Eileen", loosely based on a novel by Herbert's grandfather, premieres at Shubert Theater, New York City
1918 US Congress authorizes time zones & approves daylight saving time
1918 S Potter becomes 1st US pilot to shoot down a German seaplane
1919 Literary Magazine "Littérature", edited by André Breton, Philippe Soupault, and Louis Aragon publishes its first issue
1920 US Senate rejects Treaty of Versailles for 2nd time refusing to ratify League of Nations' covenant (maintaining isolation policy)
1921 Italian Fascists shoot from the Parenzana train at a group of children in Strunjan (Slovenia): two children are killed, two mangled and three wounded
1925 Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli (future Pope John XXIII) becomes a bishop, appointed as Apostolic Visitor to Bulgaria
1927 Bloody battles between communists & nazis in Berlin
1928 "Amos & Andy" debuts on radio (NBC Blue Network-WMAQ Chicago)
1930 Nakagawa Soen accepted as a student of Katsube Keigaku Roshi
1931 Nevada legalizes gambling
1932 The Sydney Harbour Bridge is opened in Sydney, Australia
1932 England beats Scotland, 16-3 at Twickenham, London to force a 3-way share with Wales and Ireland of renewed Home Nations Rugby Championship; France expelled, alleged professionalism
1937 Pope Pius XI publishes encyclical Divini redemptoris against communism
1937 Astronomer Fritz Zwicky publishes his research on stellar explosion in which he coins the term "supernova" and hypothesizes that they were the origin of cosmic rays
1937 96th Grand National: With King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in attendance, aptly-named Royal Mail ridden by jockey Evan Williams wins at odds of 100/6; estimated crowd, 300,000
1938 NHL Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Americans combine to score 8 goals in just under 5 minutes; Toronto wins game 8-5
1938 Scotland beats England, 21-16 at Twickenham, London to win the Home Nations Rugby Championship, Triple Crown and Calcutta Cup
1940 Failed British air raid on German base at Sylt
1940 French government of Édouard Daladier falls
1941 Jimmy Dorsey & orchestra record "Green Eyes" & "Maria Elena"
1942 FDR orders men between 45 & 64 to register for non-military duty
1942 Thoroughbred Racing Association of US formed in Chicago
1943 Airship Canadian Star torpedoed & sinks
1943 British 8th army opens assault on Mareth line, Tunisia
1943 Frank Nitti, the Chicago Outfit Boss after Al Capone, commits suicide at the Chicago Central Railyard
1943 In their third match, Jake LaMotta finally defeats Jimmy Reeves by knocking him out in the sixth round
1944 Tippett's oratorium "Child of Our Time" premieres in London
1945 800 killed as Kamikaze attacked USS Franklin off Japan
1945 Adolf Hitler issues "Nero Decree" to destroy all German factories
1945 British 36th division conquers Mogok (ruby mine)
1945 US Task Force 58 attacks ships near Kobe/Kure
1946 French Guyana, Guadeloupe, Martinique & Reunion become overseas "departments" of France
1946 Nikolai Mikhailovich Schwernik succeeds Kalinin as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR
1947 Belgian government of Paul-Henri Spaak (Belgium Socialist Party) forms
1947 Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek conquers Jenan
1948 Lee Savold KOs Gino Buonvino in 54 seconds at Madison Square Garden, NYC
1949 1st museum devoted exclusively to atomic energy, Oak Ridge, Tennessee
1950 US Open Women's Golf, Rolling Hills CC: Babe Didrikson-Zaharias wins by 9 strokes from amateur Betsy Rawls
1950 City College of NY defeats Bradley to win the NIT
1950 LPGA Titleholders Championship Women's Golf, Augusta CC: Babe Didrikson Zaharias wins her 2nd of 3 Titleholders titles by 8 strokes from amateur Claire Doran
1951 Herman Wouk's novel "The Caine Mutiny" published (Pulitzer Prize 1952)
1953 Tennessee Williams' "Camino Real" premieres in NYC
1953 25th Academy Awards: "Greatest Show on Earth", Gary Cooper & Shirley Booth win (1st time televised)
1954 1st color telecast of a prize fight, Giardello vs Troy in Madison Square Garden, NYC
1954 1st rocket-driven sled on rails tested in Alamogordo, NM
1954 US Ladies' Figure Skating championship won by Tenley Albright
1954 US Men's Figure Skating championship won by Hayes A Jenkins
1954 "The Three Ws" of West Indian cricket each score centuries in one innings; Clyde Walcott scores 124 following Everton Weekes (206) and Frank Worrell (167) in 1st innings of drawn 4th Test v England at Port of Spain
1955 17th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: San Francisco beats La Salle, 77-63; Dons' future Hall of Fame center Bill Russell is named tournament Most Outstanding Player
1956 Biggest NBA margin of victory - Minn Lakers-133, St Louis Hawks-75
1957 Indians reject Boston's offer of $1 million for Herb Score
1958 Britain's first planetarium opens at Madame Tussaud's, London
1958 Gary Sobers completes a century in each innings for WI vs. Pakistan
1959 "1st Impressions" opens at Alvin Theater NYC for 84 performances
1960 "Redhead" closes at 46th St Theater NYC after 455 performances
1960 22nd NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Ohio State beats California, 75-55; Buckeyes' future Hall of Fame forward Jerry Lucas is named tournament MOP
1962 "All American" opens at Winter Garden Theater NYC for 80 performances
1962 Archbishop Suenens of Mechelen-Brussels appointed cardinal
1964 Sean Connery's 1st day of shooting on James Bond film "Goldfinger"
1965 Indonesia nationalizes all foreign oil companies
1965 Rembrandt's "Titus" sells for then record 7,770,000 guilders
1965 Stoica becomes president & Ceausescu party leader of Romania
1965 The wreck of the SS Georgiana, valued at over $50,000,000, said to have been most powerful Confederate cruiser, discovered by then teenage diver and pioneer underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence exactly 102 years after its destruction.
1966 "Poussé Cafe" closes at 46th St Theater NYC after 3 performances
1966 28th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Texas Western beats Kentucky, 72-65; Miners first title in first title game
1966 Belgium government of Vanden Boeynants begins
1967 French Somaliland (Djibouti) votes to continue association with France
1968 Howard University, Washington, D.C., students seize administration building
1969 British invade Anguilla
1969 Chicago 8 indicted in aftermath of Chicago Democratic convention
1969 The 385 metre tall TV-mast at Emley Moor, United Kingdom, collapses due to ice build- up.
1970 W German chancellor & E German premier meet
1971 Philadelphia 76ers outscore Cincinnati Royals 90-80 in 2nd half enroute to a 147-127 victory
1972 1st AIAW Women's Basketball Tournament, Immaculata beats West Chester State 52-48 in Normal
1972 "To Live Another Summer" closes at Helen Hayes NYC after 173 performances
1972 India & Bangladesh sign friendship treaty
1972 LA Lakers beat Golden State Warriors, 162-99, by then record 63 pts
1973 Dean tells Nixon, "There is a cancer growing on the Presidency"
1974 Jefferson Starship begins their 1st tour
1975 "Dr Jazz" opens at Winter Garden Theater NYC for 5 performances
1975 Pennsylvania is 1st state to allow girls to compete with boys in HS sports
1977 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll
1977 Jevgeni Kulikov skates world record 1000m (1:15.33)
1977 France beats Ireland, 15-6 at Lansdowne Road, Dublin to clinch its 6th outright Five Nations Rugby Championship and 2nd Grand Slam
1978 50,000 demonstrate in Amsterdam against neutron bomb
1978 PGA Tournament Players Championship, Sawgrass CC: Jack Nicklaus wins his 3rd TPC title, 1 stroke ahead of Lou Graham; 4th straight start for Nicklaus that ends with a top-2 finish
1979 US House of Representatives begins live TV broadcasts via C-SPAN
1981 -21] Emmy 8th Daytime Awards - Susan Lucci loses for 2nd time
1981 2 workers killed in space shuttle Columbia accident
1981 Buffalo Sabres beat Toronto Maple Leafs 14-4
1982 National Guard jet tanker crashes killing 27
1982 Falklands War: Argentinian forces land on South Georgia Island, precipitating war with the U.K.
1983 France (16-9 v Wales) and Ireland (25-15 v England) win final round matches to finish level and share the Five Nations Rugby Championship; no tie-break procedure exists before 1993
1984 American sitcom "Kate & Allie" premieres on CBS TV starring Susan Saint James and Jane Curtin
1984 John J O'Connor named 8th archbishop of New York
1984 KSD-AM in St Louis MO changes call letters to KUSA
1984 Mobil oil tanker spills 200,000 gallons into Columbia River
1984 MLB Pitcher Denny McLain indicted on charges of racketeering
1984 STS 41-C vehicle moves to launch pad
1985 "Spin Magazine" begins publishing
1985 NSW wins cricket Sheffield Shield by beating Queensland by 1 wicket
1985 US Senate votes 55-45 to authorize production of the MX "Peacekeeper" intercontinental ballistic missile
1987 Bonnie Blair skates ladies' world record 500 m (39.43 sec)
1987 Fred Currey acquires Greyhound Bus Company
1987 Hassanali inaugurated as president of Trinidad & Tobago
1987 American televangelist Jim Bakker resigns amid rape accusation by his secretary, Jessica Hahn
1987 Yvonne van Gennip skates ladies world record 3 km (4:16.85)
1988 2 British soldiers lynched in Belfast, North Ireland
1988 Yvonne van Gennip skates un-official world record 10 km (15:25.25)
1988 France edges Wales, 10-9 at the National Stadium, Cardiff to share the Five Nations Rugby Championship with the Welsh with 3-1 records
1989 Boeing V-22 Osprey VTOL aircraft makes maiden flight
1989 Ice Dance Championship at Paris won by M Klimova & S Ponomarenko (USSR)
1989 Ice Pairs Championship at Paris won by E Gordeeva & S Grinkov (USSR)
1989 Men's Figure Skating Championship in Paris won by Kurt Browning (CAN)
1989 Worlds Ladies' Figure Skating Champ in Paris won by Midori Ito (Japan)
1989 PGA Players Championship, TPC at Sawgrass: Tom Kite wins the title in gusty conditions, 1 stroke ahead of runner-up Chip Beck
1989 Wales beats England, 12-9 at Cardiff Arms Park to allow France to claim it's 9th outright Five Nations Rugby Championship
1990 1st world ice hockey tournament for women held (Ottawa)
1991 KC Royals announce they are putting Bo Jackson on waivers
1991 Sacramento Kings set NBA record of 29 consecutive road loses
1991 St Louis Blues Brett Hull is 3rd NHLer to score 80 goals in a season
1991 NFL owners strip Phoenix of 1993 Super Bowl game due to Arizona Not recognizing Martin Luther King Day
1991 Gorbachev says the Soviet Union will cut its oil exports by nearly half
1992 "Master Builder" opens at Belasco Theater NYC for 45 performances
1992 Britain's Prince Andrew & Sarah, Duchess of York, announce separation
1993 Ice Dance Championship in Prague won by M Usova & A Zhulin (RUS)
1993 Ice Pairs Championship in Prague won by I Brasseur & L Eisler (CAN)
1993 US Supreme Court Justice Byron R White announced plans to retire
1994 2,500 kilograms of cocaine intercepted in Zeewolde, Netherlands
1994 Lara scores 167 for WI v England at Georgetown
1994 Largest omelette (1,383sq ft) made with 160,000 eggs in Yokohama, Japan
1994 NJ Devils club record 41st win of the season
1994 England beats Wales, 15-8 at Twickenham, London but the Welsh take the Five Nations Rugby Championship as title decided by using points difference for the first time
1995 "Translations" opens at Plymouth Theater NYC for 25 performances
1995 "Uncle Vanya" closes at Circle in Sq Theater NYC after 29 performances
1995 Arizona outside of Phoenix begins using new telephone area code 520
1995 Bonnie Blair skates female world record point total (156.450)
1995 Finnish Social Democratic Party wins parliamentary election
1995 Michael Jordan rejoins Chicago Bulls after 17 months, beats Pacers
1995 NBA NY Knicks beat NY Nets in 100th meeting (Knicks 53 Nets 47)
1995 Neil Marshall skates world record 3 km (3:54.08)
1997 Ice Pairs won by Mandy Woetzel & Ingo Steuer (GER)
1997 Major League Baseball announces 5 year/$50M deal with Pepsi
1997 US Supreme Court hears Internet indecency arguments
1998 "Ah Wilderness!" opens at Vivian Beaumont theater
2001 The Bank of Japan issued a monetary policy known as quantitative easing, which stimulated the Japanese economy after the burst of the dot-com bubble.
2002 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda ends (started on March 2) after killing 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters with 11 allied troop fatalities
2003 Airstrikes by an American and British-led coalition signal the beginning of the invasion of Iraq, without United Nations support and in defiance of world opinion
2004 A truck and a bus crash head-on in Äänekoski, Finland. 24 people are killed and 13 injured.
2004 A Swedish DC-3 shot down by a Russian MiG-15 in the 1950s is finally recovered after years of work. The remains of the crew are left in place, pending further investigations.
2004 Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian is shot just before the country's presidential election on March 20.
2005 Wales beats Ireland, 32-20 at Millennium Stadium, Cardiff to win the Six Nations Rugby Championship and become the 1st team to complete a Grand Slam playing more games away than at home
2006 On the weekend of his 84th birthday, Fred Shuttlesworth gives his final sermon in front of 300 people at the Greater New Light Baptist Church
2008 GRB 080319B: A cosmic burst that is the farthest object visible to the naked eye is briefly observed
2011 Despite a final round 24-8 defeat to Ireland at the new Aviva Stadium in Dublin, England wins the Six Nations Rugby Championship courtesy of their opening 4 straight victories
2012 Wendy's overtakes Burger King to become the second best-selling hamburger chain
2013 27 people are killed and 14 are injured in a bus crash in Maharashtra, India
2013 16 people are killed by mudslides in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2013 NASA's Mars rover Curiosity discovers further evidence of water-bearing minerals
2014 Russia captures the Ukrainian naval base in Sevastopol
2014 Israel sends airforce against Syrian military units involved in an attack yesterday on an Israeli patrol in the Golan Heights
2016 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, directed by Zack Synder and starring Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill, first premieres in Mexico City
2016 England beats France 31-21 at Stade de France, Paris to claim Six Nations Rugby Championship; secure their first Grand Slam since 2003; Owen Farrell with 7 goals, England's 2nd-highest points scorer behind Jonny Wilkinson
2018 Mississippi signs into law the US's strictest abortion laws, no termination after 15 weeks
2018 World's last male northern white rhino, 45 year old Sudan, dies in Kenya
2019 Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev announces his resignation after nearly 30 years in office, the last soviet-era head of state
2019 American Karen Uhlenbeck becomes the 1st woman to win mathematics Abel Prize
2019 Singer Sam Smith comes out as non-binary in interview on Jameela Jamil’s Instagram show
2019 Image of Australian rules footballer Tayla Harris attacked by internet trolls and controversially removed before being reinstated
2019 Houston Rockets guard James Harden becomes first player in NBA history to score at least 30 points against all 29 opponents in a single season with 31 in a 121-105 win over the Atlanta Hawks
2019 "Superbloom" of poppies in Walker Canyon, southern California visible from space, after high rainfall
2020 Italian death toll from COVID-19 at 3,405 surpasses China's official total (3,245) making it then the worst-affected country in the world
2020 State of California with 910 cases of COVID-19 locks down and orders people to "stay at home"
2020 Professional football in England is further postponed until 'no earlier than 30 April' due to the COVID-19 pandemic

[Richard Frost]

March 23rd

WORLD POETRY DAY
World Poetry Day is celebrated on 21 March, and was declared by UNESCO in 1999, "with the aim of supporting linguistic diversity through poetic expression and increasing the opportunity for endangered languages to be heard". Its purpose is to promote the reading, writing, publishing and teaching of poetry throughout the world and, as the original UNESCO declaration says, to "give fresh recognition and impetus to national, regional and international poetry movements".

Little known fact. I won a bronze medal from the Poetry Society 50 years ago for my efforts in poetry.

The Poetry Society was founded in 1909 to promote “a more general recognition and appreciation of poetry”. Since then, it has grown into one of Britain’s most dynamic arts organisations, representing British poetry both nationally and internationally. Today it has more than 4000 members worldwide and publishes The Poetry Review.

COMMON COURTESY DAY
Common Courtesy Day on March 21st serves as a reminder of the behaviour that keeps society from melting into a sea of madness. The day brings awareness to how important common courtesy is in our lives.

In the Merriam-Webster dictionary, courtesy is described as a: behaviour marked by polished manners or respect for others: courteous behaviour b: a courteous and respectful act or expression.

FRAGRANCE DAY
Spring is now in the air, and so is Fragrance Day. Each year on March 21st, let your favourite scents lift your mood or carry you to another place.

NATIONAL SINGLE PARENT DAY
On March 21st, Single Parents Day honours the mothers and fathers holding down the fort with all the hard work, devotion, and sacrifices involved in single parenting. Raising children can be challenging. Doing it without a partner doubles the burden. Whether by choice or circumstance, single parents carry a heavy load. Between work, school, daycare, doctor visits, and the list goes on, one person can only do so much.

WORLD DOWN SYNDROME DAY
World Down Syndrome Day on March 21st gives people with Down Syndrome and their advocates a voice and an opportunity to be heard. It’s a day where we assemble and organize activities to promote public awareness for the genetic disorder. The goal is to educate others on the importance of supporting our friends and family who have directly and indirectly experienced life with Down syndrome.

On this day in History 21st March

630 Byzantine emperor Heraclius restores the True Cross to Jerusalem
717 Battle of Vincy between Charles Martel and Ragenfrid
1188 Accession to the throne of Japan by emperor Antoku
1349 Between 100 and 3,000 Jews are killed in Black Death riots in Erfurt, Germany
1413 Henry of Monmouth, Prince of Wales, becomes King Henry V of England
1610 King James I of England and VI of Scotland addresses English House of Commons
1681 3rd Exclusion Parliament meets in London
1702 Queen Anne addresses English parliament
1788 Fire destroys 856 buildings in New Orleans, Louisiana
1788 Olaudah Equiano (aka Gustavus Vassa), a freed slave, petitions King George III and Queen Charlotte, to free enslaved Africans
1791 Captain Hopley Yeaton becomes 1st commissioned officer in the Revenue Marine, later the Revenue Cutter Service, the forerunner of the modern US Coast Guard
1804 Napoleonic Code adopted in France, stresses clearly written and accessible law
1821 First revolutionary act in Monastery of Agia Lavra, Kalavryta, Greek War of Independence.
1824 Fire at Cairo ammunitions dump kills 4,000 horses
1826 Beethoven's "String Quartet No. 13" in B flat major (Op 130) premieres in Vienna
1844 Origin of Baha'i Era-Baha'i calendar starts here (Baha 1, 1)
1844 The original date predicted by William Miller of Massachusetts for the return of Christ and the end of the world
1859 Scottish National Gallery opens in Edinburgh
1859 Zoological Society of Philadelphia, 1st in US, incorporated
1860 US extradition treaty with Sweden
1860 English novelist George Eliot finishes her novel "The Mill on the Floss" in Wandsworth, London
1863 Naval Engagement at Havana, Cuba: USS Henrick Hudson vs Confederate blockade runner Wild Pigeon
1864 Battle at Henderson's Hill (Bayou Rapids) Louisiana
1865 Battle of Bentonville ends, last Confederate effort to stop Sherman
1866 US Congress authorizes national soldiers' homes
1868 1st US professional women's club, Sorosis, forms in NYC
1871 Journalist Henry Morton Stanley begins his famous expedition to Africa
1871 Otto von Bismarck elevated to rank of Fürst (Prince)
1871 33rd Grand National: Irish 1868 winner The Lamb claims second GN at 11/2; ridden by Tommy Pickernell
1872 34th Grand National: John Page wins his second GN aboard 20/1 shot Casse Tete
1885 2nd French government of Ferry resigns
1888 Arthur Pinero's "Sweet Lavender" premieres in London
1890 Austrian Jewish communities are defined by law
1899 British & French accord over West Africa
1902 64th Grand National: David Read aboard 20/1 chance Shannon Lass wins by 3 lengths from Matthew
1907 US sends troops to Honduras to halt the Nicaraguan army takeover
1909 Moran & MacFarland (US) wins Europe's 1st 6 day bicycle race (Berlin)
1909 Germany sends Russia a diplomatic notes requesting recognition of the Austrian annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and cessation of support to Serbia in the controversy
1913 -26] Flood in Ohio, kills 400
1914 US Ladies' Figure Skating championship won by Theresa Weld
1914 US Men's Figure Skating championship won by Norman M Scott
1916 JP Van Limburg Stirum succeeds AWF Idenburg as Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies
1917 Loretta Walsh becomes US Navy's 1st female Petty Officer
1918 -28] During WW I Germany launches Somme offensive
1921 Walter Kerr Theater (Ritz, CBS, NBC, ABC) opens at 223 W 48th St NYC
1922 KGW-AM in Portland OR begins radio transmissions
1923 US foreign minister Charles Hughes refuses USSR recognition
1924 1st foreign language course broadcast on US radio (WJZ, NYC)
1924 Mass Investors Trust becomes 1st mutual fund set up in US
1925 Edinburgh's Murreyfield Stadium officially opens
1925 Iran adopts Khorshidi solar Hijri calendar
1925 Tennessee governor Austin Peay passes the "Butler Act," making Tennessee the 1st state to outlaw teaching the theory of evolution (repealed 1967)
1927 Guomindang Army conquers Shanghai as British marines flee
1931 KRO-broadcast studio initiated in Hilversum Holland
1931 US Ladies' Figure Skating championship won by Maribel Vinson
1931 US Men's Figure Skating championship won by Roger Turner
1933 Day of Potsdam in Nazi Germany, a ceremony to open the new Reichstag after the fire in February; Adolf Hitler and Paul von Hindenburg shake hands in public
1934 Fire destroys Hakodate Japan, killing about 1,500
1935 Jean Anouilh's play "Y avait un prisonnier" premieres in Paris
1935 Persia is officially renamed Iran
1937 Ponce massacre, police kill 19 at Puerto Rican Nationalist parade
1939 Nazi Germany demands the return of Danzig (Gdańsk) from Poland
1940 "Rebecca" based on the book by Daphne du Maurier, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine premieres in Miami, Florida (Best Picture 1941)
1941 In a hard fought 15th title defence Joe Louis KOs Abe Simon in the 13th round at Olympia Stadium, Detroit to retain NYSAC heavyweight boxing crown
1942 Convoy QP9 departs Great Britain to Murmansk
1943 Assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler fails
1943 Massacre of the town of Kalavryta, Greece by German Nazi troops.
1944 General Eisenhower postpones invasion of the south of France until after Normandy
1945 1st Japanese flying bombs (ochas) attack Okinawa
1945 During WW II Allied bombers begin 4-day raid over Germany
1945 Dutch Resistance fighter Hannie Schaft arrested by Nazi police
1946 Kenny Washington signs with Rams, 1st black NFLer since 1933
1946 UN set up temporary HQ at Hunter (now Lehman) College (Bronx)
1947 Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Fulgens radiatur
1947 US President Harry Truman signs Executive Order 9835 requiring all federal employees to have allegiance to the United States
1947 Test Cricket debut of Bert Sutcliffe, NZ v England at Christchurch
1948 "Stop the Music" with Bert Parks premieres on ABC radio
1948 LPGA Titleholders Championship Women's Golf, Augusta CC: Patty Berg wins her 4th Titleholders title by 1 stroke ahead of Babe Zaharias and Peggy Kirk
1949 WTVJ TV channel 4 in Miami, FL (NBC/CBS) begins broadcasting
1951 2,900,000 US soldiers in Korea
1952 "3 Wishes for Jamie" opens at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC for 94 performances
1952 -22] Tornadoes in Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Mississippi, Alabama and Kentucky cause 343 deaths
1952 Alan Freed presents Moondog Coronation Ball at old Cleveland Arena, 25,000 attend 1st rock & roll concert ever
1953 NBA record 106 fouls & 12 players foul out (Boston-Syracuse)
1953 England beats Scotland, 26-8 at Twickenham, London to clinch their 14th Five Nations Rugby Championship
1954 KFBB TV channel 5 in Great Falls, MT (ABC/CBS/NBC) begins broadcasting
1955 Archbishop Makarios of Cyprus desires Cyprus to join Greece
1955 Brooklyn Bulletin ask Dodger fans not to call their team "Bums"
1956 28th Academy Awards: "Marty", Anna Magnani & Ernest Borgnine win
1956 "The Rose Tattoo" wins 3 Academy awards, including Anna Manini for Best Actress and Cinematography (Black & White)
1957 Tennessee Williams' "Orpheus Descending" premieres in NYC
1958 1st presentation of West Point's Sylvanus Thayer Award
1958 USSR performs atmospheric nuclear test
1959 "Juno" closes at Winter Garden Theater NYC after 16 performances
1959 21st NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: California beats West Virginia, 71-70; WV future Hall of Fame point guard Jerry West is named MOP
1959 113th Grand National: Michael Scudamore wins aboard 8/1 second favourite Oxo; only 4 of 32 starters finish the race
1960 Sharpeville Massacre: Police kill 72 in South Africa & outlaws ANC
1961 Art Modell purchases Cleveland Browns for then record ($3,925,000)
1961 The Beatles' first appearance at the Cavern Club in Liverpool
1962 Yogi the bear becomes the 1st creature to be ejected at supersonic speeds by the US military testing ejection seats
1962 Dutch RC bishop Beckers declares himself in favor of birth control
1962 Philadelphia retires pitcher Robin Roberts' # 36
1963 Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay is closed
1963 David Hendon & Douglas Cross' musical premieres in London
1964 26th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: UCLA beats Duke, 98-83; Bruins first title in first title game; undefeated season (30-0)
1964 Beatles' single "She Loves You" goes #1 in the US & stays #1 for 2 weeks
1964 118th Grand National: Willie Robinson aboard American-owned 12-year-old Team Spirit wins at odds of 18/1
1964 9th Eurovision Song Contest: Gigliola Cinquetti for Italy wins singing "Non ho l'eta" in Copenhagen
1964 Wales draws 11-11 with France in Cardiff, whilst Scotland beats England, 15-6 at Murrayfield to leave the Five Nations Rugby Championship shared by Wales and Scotland on 6 competition points
1965 Martin Luther King Jr. begins march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama
1965 US Ranger 9 launched; takes 5,814 pictures before lunar impact
1966 US Supreme Court reverses Massachusetts ruling that "Fanny Hill" is obscene
1968 "Royals" chosen as the name of new KC AL franchise
1968 Hill, Hawkins & Coghill's musical premieres in London
1968 Israeli forces cross Jordan River to attack PLO bases
1968 Portuguese socialist Mário Soares banished to Sao Tomé, having been arrested by secret police under dictator António de Oliveira Salazar
1969 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1970 32nd NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: UCLA beats Jacksonville, 80-69; Bruins' 4th straight title under coach John Wooden
1970 Vinko Bogataj crashes during a ski-jumping championship in Germany; his image becomes that of the "agony of defeat guy" in the opening credits of ABC's Wide World of Sports.
1970 1st San Diego Comic-Con International opens at U.S. Grant Hotel
1970 15th Eurovision Song Contest: Dana for Ireland wins singing "All Kinds of Everything" in Amsterdam
1971 Indian cricket great Sunil Gavaskar scores first of his 34 Test Cricket centuries; 116 in drawn 3rd Test at Georgetown, Guyana
1971 Vermont seasonal snowfall totals 132.2"
1971 WCPB TV channel 28 in Salisbury, MD (PBS) begins broadcasting
1972 US Supreme Court rules states can't require 1-yr residency to vote
1973 Montreal Canadiens' left wing Frank Mahovlich becomes 5th NHL player to score 500 goals
1974 Attempt made to kidnap Princess Anne in London's Pall Mall
1975 Ethiopia abolishes its monarchy after 3,000 years
1978 Padres fire Al Dark (2nd manager ever fired during spring training)
1978 San Francisco passes its and the U.S.' most comprehensive homosexual rights bill
1979 Egyptian Parliament unanimously approve peace treaty with Israel
1980 On TV show "Dallas", J.R. is shot
1981 France beats England 16-12 at Twickenham, London for it's 7th outright Five Nations Rugby Championship and 3rd Grand Slam title
1981 9-time World Grand Prix motor cycle champion Mike Hailwood along with his 9-year old daughter Michelle are killed when his Rover SD1 collides with a truck near their home in Tanworth-in-Arden in England
1982 "Little Johnny Jones" opens & closes at Alvin Theater NYC
1982 Jerry Pate celebrates golf win by jumping into the water hazard
1982 Movie "Annie" directed by John Huston, starring Aileen Quinn, Albert Finney and Carol Burnett premieres
1982 PGA Tournament Players Championship, TPC at Sawgrass: Jerry Pate shoots a final round 67 to win by 2 strokes over runners-up Scott Simpson and Brad Bryant
1983 Only known typo on Time Magazine cover (control=contol), all recalled
1984 Border scores 100* v WI Trinidad after 98* in 1st cricket innings
1984 NFL owners passed the infamous anti-celebrating rule
1984 Part of Central Park is named Strawberry Fields honouring John Lennon
1984 Soviet submarine crashes into USS aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk off Japan
1985 Arthur Ashe is nominated for the International Tennis Hall of Fame
1985 Bloodbath at Langa (Uitenhage) South-Africa, 19 killed
1986 199.22 million shares traded in NY Stock Exchange
1986 Kania skates ladies world record 500 m (39.52 sec) & 3 km (4:18.02)
1986 Pittsburgh Associates buy Pittsburgh Pirates for $218 million
1987 PSV sells soccer player Ruud Gullit to AC Milan (Ÿ17 million)
1987 France beats Ireland, 19-13 at Lansdowne Road, Dublin the clinch the outright Five Nations Rugby Championship for the 8th time and 4th Grand Slam title
1988 23rd Academy of Country Music Awards: Hank Williams Jr, Randy Travis, and Reba McEntire win
1989 1st sea test of Trident 2 missile self-destructs, Cape Canaveral, Florida
1990 "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" opens at Eugene O'Neill Theater NYC for 149 performances
1990 "Normal Life" starring Moon Unit & Dweezil Zappa premieres on CBS-TV
1990 "Sydney" starring Valerie Bertinelli premieres on CBS-TV
1990 Namibia becomes independent of South Africa, Sam Nujoma becomes president
1991 27 lost at sea when 2 US Navy anti-submarine planes collide
1991 Largest wrestling crowd in Japan (64,500) at Tokyo Dome
1991 Tatsumi Fujinami beats Ric Flair for NWA wrestling championship
1991 UN Security Council panel decided to lift the food embargo on Iraq
1992 Pakistan scores 6-264 to overhaul NZ in exciting World Cup semi
1993 Pope John Paul II beatifies Duns Scotus, a philosopher-theologian of the Middle Ages
1993 South Africa White Wolves kill 5 year old black girl
1994 66th Academy Awards: "Schindler's List", Tom Hanks & Holly Hunter win
1994 Anne P Sidamon-Eristoff named chairwoman of Museum of National History
1994 English actor Dudley Moore arrested for hitting his girlfriend
1994 Wayne Gretzky ties Gordie Howe's NHL record of 801 goals
1994 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) enters into force after being ratified by the required number of nations
1995 New Jersey officially dedicates the Howard Stern Rest Area along Route 295
1995 NYC agrees to sell its 2 owned radio stations (WNYC AM & FM)
1996 "Night of the Iguana" opens at Criterion Theater NYC for 68 performances
1997 Ice Dance Championship in Lausanne, Switzerland won by Oksana Grishuk & Evgeny Platov (Rus)
1999 Swiss aviator Bertrand Piccard and British aviator Brian Jones become the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon.
1999 71st Academy Awards: "Shakespeare in Love", Roberto Benigni & Gwyneth Paltrow win
2000 NSYNC release their 4th studio album “No Strings Attached” (2000 Billboard Album of the Year)
2002 In Pakistan, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh along with three other suspects are charged with murder for their part in the kidnapping and killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
2002 Schoolgirl Amanda Dowler is abducted in broad daylight on her way home from Heathside School in Walton-on-Thames, England
2004 In Malaysia, the 11th Federal and State elections are held, returning the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional to power with an increased majority.
2006 Immigrant workers constructing the Burj Dubayy in Dubai, The United Arab Emirates and a new terminal of Dubai International Airport join together and riot, causing $1M in damage.
2009 Ireland completes a Grand Slam with a 17-15 win over Wales at Millennium Stadium, Cardiff to win the Six Nations Rugby Championship
2012 Five former Guatemalan paramilitaries are sentenced to 7,710 years in jail for their role in the Plan de Sanchez massacre in 1982
2012 Greek Parliament votes in favour of an international bailout deal
2012 Sergio Agüero & Samir Nasri score to give Manchester City 2-1 win over Chelsea at City of Manchester Stadium; EPL record 20th consecutive home win; streak ends with 3-3 draw v Sunderland 31/3
2013 12 people are killed and 30 are injured by a car bombing in Peshawar, Pakistan
2013 42 people are killed and 84 are injured by a bombing in a mosque in Damascus, Syria
2013 At least 45 people drown and 60 are missing after a Nigerian boat sinks off the shore of Gabon
2013 24 people are killed and 100 are injured by a tornado and hail storm in southern China
2013 A barter dispute loses control and results in 10 people being killed, 20 injured, and 4 mosques being burnt to the ground in Myanmar
2013 The European Space Agency reveals new data that indicates the universe is 13.82 billion years old
2013 Martin Gould defeats Ali Carter to win the snooker 2013 Championship League
2014 Russia formally annexes Crimea amid international condemnation
2014 Canadian freestyle skier (moguls) and two-time Olympic gold medalist Alexandre Bilodeau retires at 26
2015 Ireland retains Six Nations Rugby Championship with 40-10 win over Scotland at Murrayfield; England needs 26 point win over France for title but can only beat Les Bleus, 55-35 at Twickenham
2017 Singer Wyclef Jean wrongly identified as a suspect, handcuffed and detained by LA county sheriff’s department
2018 Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg admits they "made mistakes" after data on 50 million users is harvested by Cambridge Analytica
2018 Nigerian government confirms 101 out of 110 schoolgirls kidnapped from Dapchi returned
2018 English TV presenter Ant McPartlin charged with drink driving following an accident in London
2018 African trade deal agreed by 44 African countries in Kigali, Rwanda
2018 Peru's President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski offers his resignation amid vote-buying scandal
2018 Palestinian teenager Ahed Tamimi accepts plea deal for 8 months in prison after slapping Israeli officer
2018 Suicide bomber kills 31 in crowd celebrating Persian New Year in Kabul, Afghanistan
2018 Dave Patterson and John Hennessy win computings' Turing Award for RISC computer chips
2018 Austin bombing suspect Mark Conditt kills himself in chase with police in Austin, Texas
2018 China announces greater controls over the media, including merging state-run radio and television broadcasters into a single conglomerate called “Voice of China”
2019 New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announces a ban on military-style semiautomatic weapons, 6 days after the Christchurch terrorist attack
2019 US President Donald Trump says US should recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights on Twitter
2019 Overloaded boat sinks in the Tigris river near Mosul, Iraq, drowning nearly 100
2019 Levi Strauss & Company is traded publicly for the second time in its history on the New York stock exchange
2019 Governor of Missouri Mike Parson declares a state of emergency as flooding from Nebraska and Iowa flows downstream into the state
2019 Former Brazilian President Michel Temer is arrested in São Paulo as part of a large corruption investigation
2019 A huge blast from a chemical factory in Chenjiagang Chemical Industry Park in eastern China is so big it registers as an earthquake, kills 78 people and injuries 617
2019 Bangladeshi woman with two uteruses safely gives birth to twins 26 days after giving birth to another child
2019 Emilia Clarke reveals she suffered two brain aneurysms while filming "Games of Thrones" in an article for "The New Yorker"
2019 Japanese baseball right fielder Ichiro Suzuki finishes his career with a record 4,367 base hits (NPB & MLB) as Seattle Mariners beat the Oakland A's, 5-4 in Tokyo, Japan
2020 Italy records record daily death toll of 793 for COVID-19 as the worldwide death tolls surpasses 12,000 with 299,000 known infections (John Hopkins university figures)

[Richard Frost]

22 MARCH

WORLD WATER DAY

https://www.worldwaterday.org

World Water Day, held on 22 March every year since 1993, celebrates water and raises awareness of the 2.2 billion people living without access to safe water. It is about taking action to tackle the global water crisis and achieving Sustainable Development Goal 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030.

World Water Day highlights the importance of fresh water. The day is used to advocate for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. The theme of each day focuses on topics relevant to clean water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), which is in line with the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 6.The UN World Water Development Report (WWDR) is released each year around World Water Day.

UN-Water is the convener for World Water Day and selects the theme for each year in consultation with UN organizations that share an interest in that year's focus. The theme for 2021 was "Valuing Water" and the public campaign invited people to join a global conversation on social media to "tell us your stories, thoughts and feelings about water".

In 2020, the theme was "Water and Climate Change". Previous themes for the years 2016 to 2019 were "Water and Jobs'","Why waste water?" "Nature for Water", and "Leaving no one behind".

World Water Day is celebrated around the world with a variety of events. These can be theatrical, musical or lobbying in nature. The day can also include campaigns to raise money for water projects. The first World Water Day, designated by the United Nations, was in 1993.

On this day in history - 22nd March

238 Gordian I and his son Gordian II are proclaimed Roman emperor
752 Stephen II elected Catholic Pope (or 23rd)
871 Battle at Marton: Ethelred van Wessex beats Danish invasion army
1349 Townspeople of Fulda, Germany massacre Jews, blaming them for the Black Death
1421 Battle of Baugé - French defeat English
1556 Cardinal Reginald Pole becomes archbishop of Canterbury
1594 French King Henry IV festival in Paris
1621 Dutch jurist Hugo de Groot (Hugo Grotius) escapes in book chest from Loevestein Castle in the Netherlands
1622 First American Indian (Powhatan) massacre of Europeans in Jamestown Virginia, 347 killed
1630 1st colonial legislation prohibiting gambling enacted (Boston)
1638 Religious dissident Anne Hutchinson expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony
1680 Parliament of Breisach accepts French sovereignty over Elzas
1692 Emperor Leopold I names Duke Earnest August of Braunschweig, king
1765 Stamp Act passed; 1st direct British tax on American colonists, organized by Prime Minister George Grenville
1775 British MP Edmund Burke makes a speech to the English Parliament advocating for peace with the
1778 Captain James Cook sights Cape Flattery, now in Washington state
1784 The Emerald Buddha is moved with great ceremony to its current place in Wat Phra Kaew, Thailand
1790 Thomas Jefferson becomes the 1st US Secretary of State under President Washington
1794 Congress bans US vessels from supplying slaves to other countries
1809 Charles XIII succeeds Gustav IV Adolf to the Swedish throne
1822 NY Horticultural Society founded
1829 The three protecting powers (Britain, France and Russia) establish the borders of Greece
1832 British Parliament, led by Charles Grey, passes the Reform Act, introducing wide-ranging changes to electoral system of England and Wales, increasing electorate from about 500,000 voters to 813,000
1841 A method for alkali starch extraction is patented in the US by Orlando Jones, which is later applied to corn (cornstarch)
1861 1st US nursing school chartered
1862 San Marino & Italy conclude treaty of friendship & cooperation
1865 Raid at Wilson's: Chickaswas AL to Macon GA
1871 William Holden of North Carolina becomes 1st governor removed by impeachment
1872 Illinois becomes 1st state to require sexual equality in employment
1873 Slavery is abolished in Puerto Rico, celebrated as Emancipation Day
1874 Young Men's Hebrew Association organizes in NYC
1888 English Football League established
1894 Stanley Cup, Victoria Rink, Montreal, Quebec: Montreal Hockey Club defeats Ottawa HC, 3-1 to win 3-team challenge tournament
1895 Auguste & Louis Lumiere show their 1st movie to an invited audience
1896 Charilaos Vasilakos of Greece wins 1st modern marathon in 3:18 at the Panhellenic Games
1903 NY Highlanders (Yankees) tickets 1st go on sale
1903 Niagera Falls runs out of water because of a drought
1903 US Anthracite Coal Commission, set up by President Theodore Roosevelt, submits its recommendations for shorter hours, a 10-per cent wage increase, and an 'open shop'
1904 "Bailundo Revolt" ends after almost 2-years in Portuguese victory over Ovimbundu kingdom & allies
1907 The new Boer government in the Transvaal passes an Asiatic Registration Bill, that restricts immigration from India
1907 69th Grand National: Alf Newey wins aboard 8/1 chance Eremon
1913 Song Jiaoren, leader of the Chinese Kuomintang Party, shot at Shanghai Railway Station, dies 2 day later (thought orchestrated by Kuomintang President Yuan Shikai)
1914 The St. Petersburg–Tampa Airboat Line becomes the world's first scheduled airline
1917 The USA is the first nation to recognize the new government of Russia
1922 The Rand Rebellion in Southern Africa, which started as a strike by white mineworkers and became an armed rebellion against the state, is brought to a brutal end by the police
1927 Federico Garcia Lorca's first play "El Maleficio" (The Butterfly's Evil Spell) premieres in Madrid
1928 Noël Coward's musical "This Year of Grace" premieres in London
1929 KIT-AM in Yakima WA begins radio transmissions
1929 US Coast Guard vessel sinks Canadian schooner suspected of carrying liquor
1929 88th Grand National: Robert W. H. Everett wins aboard 100/1 outsider Gregalach
1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt makes wine & beer with up to 3.2% alcohol legal
1934 Fire destroys Hakodate, Japan, kills 1,500, injures 1,000
1935 Blood tests authorized as evidence in court cases in New York
1936 "The Great Ziegfeld" directed by Robert Z. Leonard and starring William Powell and Luise Rainer premieres in Los Angeles (Best Picture 1937
1939 Lithuania forced to give Memel territory to Germany
1941 Grand Coulee Dam in Washington goes into operation
1941 James Stewart is inducted into the Army, becoming the first major American movie star to wear a military uniform in World War II
1943 Dutch work week extended to 54 hour
1943 Obligatory work for woman ends in Belgium
1943 Dutch SS police chief Hans Albin Rauter threatens to kill half Jewish children
1944 600+ 8th Air Force bombers attack Berlin
1944 American movie star Jimmy Stewart flies his 12th combat mission, leading the 2nd Bomb Wing in an attack on Berlin
1945 Arab League forms with adoption of a charter in Cairo, Egypt
1945 US 3rd Army crosses Rhine at Nierstein
1946 1st US rocket to leave the Earth's atmosphere (50 miles up)
1946 Britain signs treaty granting independence to Jordan
1947 President Harry Truman signs executive order calling for loyalty
1952 Dutch DC-6 crashes near Frankfurt, killing 44
1952 Wales wins Five Nations Rugby Championship, Grand Slam & Triple Crown with a 9-5 win over France at St. Helen's Ground, Swansea
1953 Antonín Zápotocký chosen as President of Czechoslovakia
1954 Northland Center, the world's largest shopping mall at the time, opens in Oakpark, Michigan
1954 Closed since 1939, the London bullion market reopens
1956 Musical "Mr Wonderful" with Sammy Davis Jr. and father Sammy Davis Sr. opens at Broadway Theater NYC for 383 performances
1957 Earthquake shakes San Francisco
1957 Republic of India adopts Saka calendar along with Gregorian
1957 "All Shook Up" single released by Elvis Presley
1958 20th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Kentucky beats Seattle, 84-72; Seattle's future Hall of Fame small forward Elgin Baylor is named tournament MOP
1958 Under pressure King Saud appoints Faisal Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia
1958 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
1960 1st patent for lasers granted to Arthur Schawlow & Charles Townes
1962 Musical "I Can Get It For You Wholesale" starring Barbra Streisand in her Broadway debut opens at Shubert NYC for 300 performances
1963 The Beatles release their 1st album, "Please Please Me"
1963 British Minister of War John Profumo denies having sex with Christine Keeler
1964 Barbra Streisand appears on the cover of NY Times Magazine section
1964 LPGA Western Open Women's Golf, Scenic Hills CC: Carol Mann her 1st of 2 major titles by 2 shots from Ruth Jessen and Judy Kimball
1965 Dudley Senanayake wins his third in general elections in Ceylon (Sri Lanka)
1965 US confirms its troops used chemical warfare against the Vietcong
1965 Nicolae Ceausescu is elected General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party
1967 Muhammad Ali KOs Zora Folley in 7 for heavyweight boxing title
1968 Jarmila Novotna resigns presidency of Czechoslovakia
1968 Lynda Johnson ordered off San Francisco cable car for eating an ice cream cone
1968 Student riot in Nanterre near Paris
1969 "Billy" opens & closes at Billy Rose Theater NYC after 1 performance
1969 "Come Summer" closes at Lunt Fontanne Theater NYC after 7 performances
1969 31st NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: UCLA beats Purdue 92-72; Bruins' 3-peat; center Lew Alcindor tournament Most Outstanding Player for 3rd consecutive year
1970 "Blood Red Roses" opens & closes at John Golden Theater NYC
1971 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1971 Brian Faulkner becomes the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland
1971 6th Academy of Country Music Awards: Merle Haggard and Lynn Anderson win
1972 Musical "The Selling of the President" opens at Shubert Theater NYC for 5 performances
1972 US Congress approves the Equal Rights Amendment (still not ratified)
1972 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar named NBA MVP
1972 Nick Mileti purchases Cleveland Indians for $9 million
1972 Yankees trade Danny Cater to the Red Sox for Sparky Lyle
1972 In Eisenstadt v. Baird the US Supreme Court rules unmarried people have same right to contraception as married people.
1975 Netherlands' "Ding-a-dong" performed by Tech-In wins Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm,
1975 "Dr Jazz" closes at Winter Garden Theater NYC after 5 performances
1975 "Letter for Queen Victoria" opens at ANTA Theater NYC for 18 performances
1975 AIAW Women's Basketball Tournament, Delta State beats Immaculata 90-81 in Harrisonburg
1975 Walt Disney World Shopping Village opens
1975 A fire at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant in Decatur, Alabama causes dangerous lowering of cooling water levels
1975 20th Eurovision Song Contest: Teach-In for Netherlands wins singing "Ding-a-dong" in Stockholm
1977 Indira Gandhi resigns as Prime Minister of India
1977 Dutch Labour Party (PvdA) government under Joop den Uyl falls
1978 France performs nuclear test
1978 Robert Frost Plaza, at California, Drumm & Market, San Francisco, dedicated to the poet
1978 Karl "The Great" Wallenda, German acrobat (The Flying Wallendas) dies after falling off a tight-rope between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico, at 73
1978 The Rutles mockumentary "All You Need is Cash" debuts on NBC television
1979 Israeli parliament approves peace treaty with Egypt
1979 NHL votes to accept 4 WHA teams (Oilers, Jets, Nordiques & Whalers)
1979 Provisional Irish Republican Army assassinates Richard Sykes, the British ambassador to the Netherlands, in Den Haag
1979 The Provisional Irish Republican Army explode 24 bombs in various locations across Northern Ireland
1981 US 1st class postage raised to 18 cents from 15 cents
1981 Soyuz 39 carries 2 cosmonauts (1 Mongolian) to Salyut 6
1981 Toshihiko Seko runs world record 25k (1:13:55.8)/30k (1:29:18.8)
1982 3rd Space Shuttle Mission-Columbia 3 launched
1982 Iran offensive against Iraq
1983 Chaim Herzog elected Israeli president
1984 Islander Bryan Trottier ties NHL record scores 5 seconds into game
1984 Teachers at the McMartin preschool in Manhattan Beach, California are charged with Satanic ritual abuse of the children in the school. The charges are later dropped as completely unfounded.
1985 NASA launches Intelsat VA F-10
1986 Ehrig skates ladies world record 5 km (7:20.99)
1986 HBO launches boxing's heavyweight-title-unification-tournament
1986 Heart's "These Dreams" single goes #1
1986 Ice Pairs Championship at Geneva won by Gordeeva & Grinkov (URS)
1986 Kania skates ladies' world record 1500m (1:59.30)
1986 Ladies' Figure Skating Championship in Geneva won by Debi Thomas (USA)
1986 Trevor Berbick beats Pinklon Thomas in 15 for heavyweight boxing title
1986 "On My Own" single release by Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald (Billboard Song of the Year 1986)
1988 US Congress overrides President Reagan's veto of sweeping civil rights bill
1988 WA beat Queensland by 5 wkts to win the Sheffield Shield Final
1989 Pete Rozelle announces retirement as NFL commissioner after 29 years
1989 US Supreme Court upholds 1 person 1 vote rule of NYC Board of Estimate
1989 Clint Malarchuk of the Buffalo Sabres suffers a near-fatal injury when another player accidentally slits his throat.
1990 "Grapes of Wrath" opens at Cort Theater NYC for 188 performances
1990 Anchorage jury finds Capt Hazelwood not guilty of Valdez oil spill
1990 The ML umpires announce that they will boycott exhibition games
1991 Law enforcement officers raid fraternities at University of Virginaa, seizing drugs
1991 NY Daily News begins using motto "Forward with NY"
1991 Pamela Smart (HS teacher) found guilty in NH of manipulating her student-lover to kill her husband
1992 "Private Lives" closes at Broadhurst Theater NYC after 37 performances
1992 England beat South Africa in rain-ruined cricket World Cup semi final
1992 Joseph A Molloy elected NY Yankee general partner
1992 US Air NY to Cleveland crashes on take off at LaGuardia, 27 die
1993 Intel introduces Pentium-processor (80586) 64 bits-60 MHz-100+ MIPS
1993 André the Giant's induction into inaugural WWE Hall of Fame is announced; no ceremony takes place and he is inducted posthumously
1994 Dutch Ambassador to US christens a new tulip (the Hillary Clinton)
1994 Mark Foster swims world record 50m butterfly (23.68 sec)
1994 South African government and ANC take power in Ciskei homeland
1994 Soyuz TM-21 lands
1994 "Not a Moment Too Soon" 2nd studio album by Tim McGraw release (Billboard year album 1994)
1995 Deputy Governor of Bank of England, Rupert Pennant-Rea, resigns following revelations of his affair with a freelance journalist
1996 Cheryl Depew of Florida crowned 13th Miss Hawaiian Tropic International
1996 STS 76 (Atlantis 16), launches into orbit
1997 "Sunset Boulevard" closes at Minskoff NYC after 977 performances
1997 Comet Hale-Bopp Closest Approach to Earth (1.315 AU)
1997 Ladies' Figure Skating Championship in Lausanne won by Tara Lipinski (USA)
1998 18th Golden Raspberry Awards: The Postman wins
1999 "Amazed" single released by Lonestar (Billboard Song of the Year 1999)
2003 23rd Golden Raspberry Awards: "Swept Away" wins
2004 Ahmed Yassin, co-founder and leader of the Palestinian Sunni Islamist militant group Hamas, and bodyguards killed in the Gaza Strip by Israeli Air Force AH-64 Apache fired Hellfire missiles
2006 ETA, armed Basque separatist group, declares permanent ceasefire
2006 BC Ferries' M/V Queen of the North runs aground on Gil Island British Columbia and sinks; 101 on board, 2 presumed deaths
2006 Three Christian Peacemaker Teams Hostages are freed by British forces in Baghdad after 118 days captivity and the death of their colleague, American Tom Fox
2008 French Swimmer Alain Bernard sets world record of 47.50 for 100m freestyle long course after winning the European LC Championships 2008
2009 Mount Redoubt, a volcano in Alaska began erupting after a prolonged period of unrest
2009 Cricket Women's World Cup: England defeats New Zealand by 4 wickets
2011 Lawrence Taylor pleads guilty for misdemeanors of sexual misconduct and is sentenced to six years probation
2012 Fire devours thousands of hectares of ancient forests and threatens wildlife on Mount Kenya
2012 Australia's most wanted man, Malcolm Naden, is captured after seven years on the run in Gloucester, New South Wales
2012 Largest protest in Quebec's history occurs in Montreal with over 200,000 people marching against government tuition hikes and for free access to post-secondary education
2012 Ireland returns to recession as GDP falls by 0.2% in the fourth quarter of 2011 following a fall of 1.1% in the third quarter
2013 37 people are killed and 200 are injured in a refugee camp fire in Ban Mae, Thailand
2013 American rock band My Chemical Romance announce their break-up
2014 251 people are killed after a boat capsizes in Lake Albert, Uganda
2014 43 people are killed by a mudslide in Oso, Washington
2014 Guinea confirms Ebola outbreak has already killed 59 people
2014 The US and EU impose sanctions on Russia
2016 Suicide bombings at Brussel's Zaventem airport and Maelbeek metro station, leave around 28 victims dead and 260 injured, ISIS claim responsibility
2017 Arctic records its lowest ever winter ice cover according to US National Snow and Ice Data Center, 5.5 million square miles
2017 Tomb of Jesus reopens after restoration in Jerusalem
2017 Terrorist attack on London's Westminster Bridge and Houses of Parliament kills 4 including a police officer and injures 40
2018 US President Donald Trump imposes $60 billion worth of tariffs on Chinese imports
2018 The "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" between Hawaii and California has 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic and increasing rapidly according to new research
2018 Musical "Frozen" opens on Broadway based on the film, starring Patti Murin and Caissie Levy
2019 "Mind-blowing" discovery announced of 518 million year old fossil site in near Danshui river, Hubei province, China, with thousands of unknown fossils well preserved
2020 India puts 1 billion people under a daytime curfew to curb COVID-19
2020 Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei refuses American COVID-19 help, refers to conspiracy theory that it was manufactured by the US

[Richard Frost]

23 March

WORLD METEOROLOGICAL DAY
World Meteorological Day is a global observance and not a public holiday. The International Meteorological Organization was established at the first International Meteorological Congress in Vienna, Austria, in 1873. The organization aimed to establish meteorological station networks.

NEAR MISS DAY
Each day many of us face a near miss here and there. March 23rd commemorates the day the entire Earth faced a near miss when a massive asteroid (4581 Asclepius) nearly hit us in 1989. Near Miss Day celebrates the day 4581 Asclepius flew right on by.

On March 22-23, 1989, a mountain-sized asteroid came within 500,000 miles of colliding with the earth. “On the cosmic scale of things, that was a close call,” said Dr. Henry Holt. Geophysicists estimate that a collision with Asclepius would release energy comparable to the explosion of a 600 megaton atomic bomb. A collision would have had catastrophic effects on our planet. Scientists discovered the asteroid on March 31, 1989 – nine days after its closest approach to Earth.

There have been other near misses that have happened on an infrequent basis.

On this day in history - 23rd March

1026 Conrad II crowns himself King of Italy
1066 18th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet
1153 Treaty of Konstanz between Frederick I "Barbarossa" & Pope Eugene III
1174 Jocelin, abbot of Melrose, is elected bishop of Glasgow
1490 1st dated edition of Maimonides "Mishneh Torah", a code of Jewish religious law is published
1534 Aragonese legal code formally recognised
1568 Treaty of Longjumeau: French huguenots go on strike
1579 Friesland joins Union of Utrecht
1593 English Separatist Puritans John Greenwood and Henry Barrowe tried and sentenced to death on the charge of devising and circulating seditious books
1630 French troops occupy Pinerolo Piedmont
1657 France & England form alliance against Spain; England gets Dunkirk
1708 Pretender to the English throne James III lands at Firth of Forth
1743 George Frideric Handel's oratorio "Messiah" premieres in London
1752 Pope Stephen II elected to succeed Zacharias, dies 2 days later
1775 Patrick Henry proclaims "Give me liberty or give me death" in speech in favour of Virginian troops joining US Revolutionary war
1782 "Les Liaisons dangereuses" by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos is published by Durand Neveu
1794 Josiah Pierson patents a "cold-header" (rivet) machine
1794 Lt-general Tadeusz Kościuszko returns to Poland
1808 Napoleon's brother Joseph takes the throne of Spain
1821 Battle and fall of city of Kalamata, Greek War of Independence
1839 1st recorded use of "OK" [oll korrect] (Boston's Morning Post)
1840 Draper takes 1st successful photo of the Moon (daguerreotype)
1848 The ship John Wickliffe arrives at Port Chalmers carrying the first Scottish settlers for Dunedin, New Zealand. Otago province is founded.
1849 Battle of Novara (King Charles Albert vs Italian republic)
1857 Elisha Otis installs his 1st elevator at 488 Broadway in New York City
1858 Streetcar patented (E A Gardner of Philadelphia)
1861 London's 1st tramcars, designed by Mr Train of NY, begins operating
1862 Battle of Kernstown Virginia, Jackson begins his Valley Campaign
1864 Encounter at Camden, Arkansas
1865 General Sherman and Cox' troops reach Goldsboro, North Carolina
1867 Congress passes 2nd Reconstruction Act over President Andrew Johnson's veto
1868 University of California founded in Oakland, California
1877 39th Grand National: Fred Hobson aboard 15/1 shot Austerlitz wins by 4 lengths from Congress
1878 English FA Cup Final, Kennington Oval, London: Wanderers beat Royal Engineers, 3–1; Wanderers' back-to-back and 5th title overall
1879 War of the Pacific fought between Chile and the joints forces of Bolivia and Peru. Chile successfully takes over Arica and Tarapacá, leaving Bolivia a landlocked country.
1880 Flour rolling mill patented (John Stevens of Wisconsin)
1881 Boers & Britain sign peace accord; end 1st Boer war
1881 Gas lamp sets fire to opera house in Nice, France; 70 die
1882 The Edmunds Act (Edmunds Anti-Polygamy Act) is adopted by the US to suppress polygamy. 1300 men are later imprisoned under the act
1888 50th Grand National: George Mawson aboard 40/1 outsider Playfair easily wins by 10 lengths from Frigate
1889 The free Woolwich Ferry officially opens in east London
1889 The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community established by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in Qadian, India
1896 Umberto Giordano's opera "Andrea Chénier" premieres in Milan
1896 The Raines Law is passed by the New York State Legislature, restricting Sunday sale of alcohol to hotels
1901 Dame Nellie Melba reveals secret of her now famous toast
1903 The Wright brothers 1st file a patent for a flying machine, which is granted 3 years later
1908 American diplomat Durham Stevens is attacked by Korean assassins Jeon Myeong-un and Jang In-hwan, leading to his death in hospital two days later
1915 Zion Mule Corp formed by the British Army
1917 Tornadoes kills 211 over 4 days in Midwest US
1918 Alick Wickham dives 200' into Australia's Yarra River
1918 Crépy-en-Laonnoise: German artillery shells Paris, 256 killed
1918 Lithuania proclaims independence
1918 Paris bombs "Thick Bertha's Dike" (nickname for the widow Krupp)
1918 German forces advance 14 miles to the Somme River (WW1)
1919 Bashkir ASSR, in RSFSR, constituted
1919 Benito Mussolini forms Fascist movement in Milan Italy
1919 8th Congress of the Russian Communist Party re-establishes a five-member Politburo which becomes the centre of political power in the Soviet Union. Original members Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Joseph Stalin, Lev Kamenev and Nikolai Krestinsky
1920 Perserikatan Communist of India (PKI) political party forms
1921 Germany announces it will be unable to meet its Great War reparation payments
1922 1st airplane lands at the US Capitol in Washington, D.C.
1922 KMJ-AM in Fresno CA begins radio transmissions
1922 WEW-AM in Saint Louis MO begins radio transmissions
1923 Frank Silver & Irving Conn release "Yes, We Have No Bananas"
1923 82nd Grand National: Capt. Tuppy Bennett wins aboard 13-year-old 100/6 shot Sergeant Murphy; first US bred horse to win race
1926 NHL Championship: Montreal Canadiens outscore Pitt Pirates, 6-4 in 2 games
1929 1st telephone installed at the President’s desk under the Hoover administration at the White House
1930 US Ladies Figure Skating championship won by Maribel Vinson
1930 US Mens Figure Skating championship won by Roger Turner
1931 Indian independence fighters Bhagat Singh, Shivaram Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar are hung after conducting an assassination and a bombing. Their request to be shot by a firing squad is refused.
1933 Enabling Act: German Reichstag grants Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers
1933 Kroll Opera in Berlin opens
1934 93rd Grand National: Gerry Wilson wins aboard 8/1 Golden Miller in race record 9:20.04; becomes only horse to win both UK's premier steeplechases with Cheltenham Gold Cup victory 1934
1936 Italy, Austria & Hungary sign Pact of Rome
1936 Physician Joseph G. Hamilton injects a leukemia patient with a sodium radioisotope, first intravenous injection of a human with a radioisotope
1937 LA Railway Co starts using PCC streetcars
1938 Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis frees 74 St Louis Cardinals minor league players
1940 1st radio broadcast of "Truth or Consequences" on CBS
1940 All-India-Muslim League calls for a Muslim homeland
1940 The Lahore Resolution (Qarardad-e-Pakistan or the then Qarardad-e-Lahore) is put forward at the Annual General Convention of the All India Muslim League.
1942 2,500 Jews of Lublin massacred or deported
1942 Japanese forces occupy Andaman Islands in Indian Ocean
1943 German counter attack on US lines in Tunisia
1944 Bomb assassination against Southern Tirol congregation in Rome, 33 die
1945 British 7th Black Watch crosses the Rhine into Germany
1945 Battle of Okinawa: US Navy ships bomb the Japanese island of Okinawa in preparation for the Allied invasion; it would become the largest battle of the Pacific War in World War II
1945 The Swallow Sidecar Company headed by William Lyons agrees to change its name to Jaguar
1945 Lt. Gen. Miles Dempsey becomes the first British commander to cross the Rhine during the Allied invasion of Germany
1946 8th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Oklahoma State beats North Carolina, 43-40; Cowboys' back-to-back titles and center Bob Kurland MOP for 2nd straight year
1948 10th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Kentucky beats Baylor, 58-42; Wildcats' first victory in first title game
1948 John Cunningham sets world altitude record (54,492' (18,133 m))
1949 Sidney Kingsley's "Detective Story" premieres in NYC
1950 "Great to Be Alive" opens at Winter Garden Theater NYC for 52 performances
1950 22nd Academy Awards: "All The King's Men", Broderick Crawford and Olivia de Havilland win
1950 Sophocles Venizelos forms liberal Greek government
1950 UN World Meteorological Org established
1950 Frances Farmer is released from Western State Hospital
1951 Wages in France increase 11%
1952 NY Rangers blow 6-2 lead, lose 7-6 to Chicago Black Hawks; Bill Mosienko scores fastest hat trick in NHL history, 21 seconds
1956 Pakistan proclaimed an Islamic republic in Commonwealth (National Day)
1956 Sudan becomes independent
1957 19th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: North Carolina beats Kansas, 54-53 (3 OT); Wilt Chamberlain of Kansas 4th player to be named tournament MOP despite not playing for the championship team
1957 US army sells last homing pigeons
1960 Explorer (8) fails to reach Earth orbit
1962 JFK visits San Francisco
1962 Nawab of Pataudi captains India cricket v WI age 21 years 77 days
1962 Wake Forest coach "Bones" McKinney becomes 2nd person to play and coach
1962 William DeWitt buys Cincinnati Reds for $4,625,000
1963 25th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Loyola-Chicago beats Cincinnati, 60-58 (OT); Ramblers' first title in first title game
1963 Rolf Hochhuth's play "Der Stellvertreter" (The Representative) premieres in Berlin
1963 8th Eurovision Song Contest: Grethe and Jorgen Ingmann for Denmark win singing "Dansevise" in London
1964 UNCTAD 1 world conference opens in Geneva
1964 "In His Own Write", a book of short stories, poems and drawings by John Lennon is published
1965 Gemini 3 launched, 1st US 2-man space flight (Grissom & Young)
1965 Moroccan army shoots on demonstrators, about 100 killed
1966 1st official meeting after 400 years of Catholic & Anglican Church
1968 30th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: UCLA beats North Carolina, 78-55; Bruins back-to-back titles; Lew Alcindor tournament Most Outstanding Player for the 2nd of 3 consecutive years
1968 Rev Walter Fauntroy, is 1st non-voting congressional delegate from DC
1968 France retains the Five Nations Rugby Championship with an 14-9 win over Wales at the National Stadium, Cardiff; first Grand Slam victory for France
1969 Rally for Decency in Miami
1970 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1970 "Hello Darlin'" single released by Conway Twitty (Billboard Song of the Year 1970)
1971 USSR performs underground nuclear test
1971 Dutch 2nd Chamber accept simplified divorce
1972 NY Yankees agree to continue playing ball in the Bronx
1972 Geoge Harrison and Friends: "The Concert for Bangladesh" film directed by Saul Swimmer released in the US
1973 After a 5½ year run soap "Love is a Many Splendored Thing" ends
1973 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1973 Yoko Ono is granted permanent residence in USA
1974 AIAW Women's Basketball Tournament, Immaculata beat Mississippi College 68-53 in Manhattan, Kansas
1976 International Bill of Rights goes into effect (35 nations ratifying)
1977 Elvis Presley begins his final concert tour
1978 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1979 Larry Holmes TKOs Osvaldo Ocasio in 7 for heavyweight boxing title
1979 Wings release "Goodnight Tonight"
1980 Australian cricketer Allan Border becomes the first and only batsman to reach 150 in each innings of a test, in the 3rd test vs Pakistan in Lahore
1980 Deposed Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi arrives in Egypt
1980 AIAW Women's Basketball Tournament, Old Dominion beat Tennessee 68-53 at Mount Pleasant
1980 18 year old American tennis star Tracey Austin wins her only WTA Tour Championship; upsets Martina Navratilova in the final 6–2, 2–6, 6–2 in NYC
1980 PGA Tournament Players Championship, Sawgrass CC: Lee Trevino wins by 1 stroke ahead of runner-up Ben Crenshaw
1981 US Supreme Court upholds law making statutory rape a crime only for men
1981 US Supreme Court rules states could require, with some exceptions, parental notification when teen-age girls sought abortions
1981 PGA Tournament Players Championship, Sawgrass CC: Raymond Floyd beats Barry Jaeckel and Curtis Strange on the first hole of a sudden death playoff in a rain affected Monday finish
1982 Guatemala military coup under General Efraín Rios Montt, President Romeo Lucas flees
1982 Isle's Mike Bossy's 20th career hat trick-4 goals
1983 US President Ronald Reagan introduces Strategic Defense Initiative ("Star Wars")
1984 Andrea Schone skates ladies world record 3 km (4:20.91)
1984 World Ice Dancing Championship won by Jayne Torvill & Christopher Dean (GRB) in Ottawa, Canada
1984 Ice Pairs Championship at Ottawa won by Underhill & Paul Martini (CAN)
1984 Ladies Figure Skating Championship in Ottawa won by Katarina Witt (GDR)
1984 Men's Figure Skating Championship in Ottawa won by Scott Hamilton (USA)
1985 Space Shuttle Discovery moves to Vandenberg AFB for mating of STS 51-D mission
1985 Julian Lennon's 1st concert (San Antonio Texas)
1985 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1986 6th Golden Raspberry Awards: "Rambo: First Blood Part II" wins
1986 Heavyweight Trevor Berbick KOs Pinklon Thomas
1986 First of 2 WTA Tour Championships of the year; change of tennis schedule; Martina Navratilova wins 4th straight and 7th overall title 6–2, 6–0, 3–6, 6–1 against Hana Mandlíková in NYC
1987 Soap "Bold & Beautiful" premieres
1987 US offers military protection to Kuwaiti ships in the Persian Gulf
1987 Former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt resigns as chairman of the Social Democratic Party
1989 2 Utah scientists claim they have produced fusion at room temperature
1989 Joel Steinberg sentenced to 25 yrs for killing his adopted daughter
1990 Former Exxon Valdez Captain Joseph Hazelwood ordered to help clean up Prince William Sound & pay $50,000 in restitution for 1989 oil spill
1991 20 Tornadoes kill 5 in Tennessee
1991 Sergei Bubka pole vaults world record indoor (6.12m)
1991 1st World League of American Football games, London beats Frankfurt 24-11, Sacramento beats Raleigh-Dur 9-3 & Mont beats Birmingham 20-5
1992 Florida Marlins begin selling tickets
1993 Belgian government of Jean-Luc Dehaene resigns
1993 NY Knicks & Phoenix Suns get into a major brawl
1994 Amy Fisher's lover Joey Buttafuoco is released from jail after 4 months & 9 days
1994 Graeme Obree bicycles world record 10 km (11:28)
1994 Howard Stern formally announces his Libertarian run for NY governor
1994 Last day of Test cricket for Kapil Dev
1994 Russian Airbus A-310 crashes in Siberia (74-75 killed)
1994 Wayne Gretzky sets NHL record with 802 goals scored
1994 Richard Jacobs buys naming rights to Indians new ball park at Gateway for $13.8 million (renamed Jacobs Field)
1995 "How To Succeed in Business..." opens at R Rodgers NYC for 548 performances
1995 Dollar equals 88.41 yen (record)
1996 Taiwan holds its first direct elections and chooses Lee Teng-hui as President.
1997 "Mandy Patinkin in Concert" closes at Lyceum Theater NYC
1997 17th Golden Raspberry Awards: "Striptease" wins
1997 WrestleMania XIII, Rosemont Horizon, IL: Undertaker beats Sycho Sid for WWF Heavyweight title
1998 70th Academy Awards: "Titanic", Jack Nicholson & Helen Hunt win
1999 Gunmen assassinate Paraguay's Vice President Luis María Argaña
1999 "Livin' la Vida Loca" sung by Ricky Martin released - goes on to sell over 8 million copies
2000 Joe Sakic records his 400th career goal and becomes the Quebec Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche all-time leading point scorer
2001 The Russian Mir space station is disposed of, breaking up in the atmosphere before falling into the southern Pacific Ocean near Fiji
2002 22nd Golden Raspberry Awards: "Freddy Got Fingered" wins
2003 In Nasiriyah, Iraq, 11 soldiers of the 507th Maintenance Company as well as 18 U.S. Marines are killed during the first major conflict of Operation Iraqi Freedom
2003 75th Academy Awards: "Chicago Best Picture," Adrien Brody & Nicole Kidman win
2003 Cricket World Cup, Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg, RSA: Ricky Ponting scores 140 no as defending champions Australia beat India by 125 runs; Sachin Tendulkar, Player of Series
2004 Andhra Pradesh Federation of Trade Unions holds its first conference in Hyderabad, India
2004 Usher releases his 4th studio album “Confessions” (2004 Billboard Album of the Year, Grammy Award Best Contemporary R&B Album 2005)
2005 The United States 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, refuses to order the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube
2005 A major explosion at the Texas City Refinery kills 15 workers
2006 The Federal Reserve discontinues publishing M3 money supply
2007 Burnley Tunnel catastrophe occurs in Melbourne, Australia
2007 Iranian Navy seize Royal Navy personnel in Iraqi waters
2007 After some initial hesitation, Emma Watson signs on to appear as Hermione in the final three Harry Potter films
2012 African Union suspends Mali's membership following a coup
2013 20 people are killed and 200 are injured by a tornado in Brahmanbaria, Bangladesh
2013 The US Senate approves its first budget in four years by a margin of 50–49
2016 GPR investigation of Shakespeare's tomb at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford concludes the Bard's skull probably has been stolen
2018 A Sahara sandstorm turns snow in Sochi, Russia, orange in one of the largest-ever transfers of desert sand
2018 Peru's Congress swears in Vice-President Martín Vizcarra as the new President after Pedro Pablo Kuczynski resigned amid corruption scandal
2019 More than 1 million march to demand a new EU referendum in London, England
2019 More than 130 Fulani people killed in Ogossagou, Mali, in attack by Dogon hunters, prompting government ban on the hunters
2019 Italy signs up to China's Belt and Road Initiative with deals signed in Rome between Italian Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio and Chinese President Xi Jinping
2019 Syrian Democratic Forces announce that the last Islamic State territory has been retaken raising flags in Baghuz, Syria and ending the five-year Islamic State "caliphate"
2020 New York confirmed as new center of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US with 20,875 cases (5,707 in the last day) and 157 deaths
2020 Immediate global ceasefire to fight COVID-19 called for by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres
2020 WHO says the COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating, 1st 100,000 cases took 67 days, 2nd 100,000 cases 11 days, 3rd 100,000 cases 4 days
2020 COVID-19 lockdowns imposed in South Africa and the United Kingdom while other European nations extend and strengthen their lockdowns

[Richard Frost]

24 March

WORLD TUBERCULOSIS DAY
In 1882 German scientist Robert Koch discovers and describes the tubercle bacillus which causes tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis), and establishes germ theory

World Tuberculosis Day, observed on 24 March each year, is designed to build public awareness about the global epidemic of tuberculosis and efforts to eliminate the disease. In 2018, 10 million people fell ill with TB, and 1.5 million died from the disease, mostly in low and middle-income countries. This also makes it the leading cause of death from an infectious disease. World TB Day is one of eleven official global public health campaigns marked by the World Health Organization.

CHOCOLATE COVERED RAISIN DAY
When it comes to a National Day, a chocolate covered raisin or a box of them is worth celebrating. On March 24th, Chocolate Covered Raisin Day celebrates raisins coated in a shell of either milk chocolate or dark chocolate.

Moviegoers have been snacking on chocolate covered raisins for many, many years. Somehow, popcorn, a box of chocolate covered raisins go together perfectly. It doesn’t matter the kind of movie either. Chocolate covered raisins are also a conventional bulk vending item across the country.

TODAY IN HISTORY - 24TH MARCH

1379 End of Gelderse war victory
1545 German Parliament opens in Worms
1550 France & England sign Peace of Boulogne
1603 Scottish King James VI son of Mary Queen of Scots, becomes King James I of England in succession to Elizabeth I, thus joining the English and Scottish crowns
1603 Tokugawa Ieyasu is granted the title of shogun, officially establishing the Tokugawa Shogunate which would rule Japan until 1867
1629 1st game law passed in American colonies, by Virginia
1664 Roger Williams is granted a charter to colonize Rhode Island
1721 Johann Sebastian Bach dedicates his Brandenburg Concertos to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt
1731 Jerome (aka Hieronimus) de Salis naturalised as British by Act of Parliamentary.
1765 Britain enacts Quartering Act, required colonists to provide temporary housing to British soldiers
1792 Benjamin West (US) becomes president of Royal Academy of London
1801 Aleksandr Pavlovich Romanov becomes Tsar Alexander I of Russia
1815 Handel & Haydn Society of Boston founded
1824 1st performance of Ludwig van Beethoven's "Missa Solemnis" in St. Petersburg
1828 Philadelphia & Columbia Railway (1st state owned) authorized
1832 Mormon Joseph Smith beaten, tarred & feathered in Ohio
1837 Canada gives its black citizens the right to vote
1848 State of siege proclaimed in Amsterdam
1853 Anti-slavery newspaper "The Provincial Freeman" first published in Windsor, Ontario, edited by Samuel Ringgold Ward and Mary Ann Shadd Cary, first black woman publisher in North America
1855 Manhattan Kansas founded as New Boston Kansas
1860 Clipper Andrew Jackson arrives in San Francisco, 89 days out of New York
1868 Metropolitan Life Insurance Co forms
1876 38th Grand National: Joe Cannon aboard 25/1 chance Regal wins by a neck from Congress
1877 University boat race between Oxford & Cambridge ends in a dead heat
1877 English FA Cup Final, Kennington Oval, London: Wanderers beat Oxford University, 2–1 (a.e.t.); Wanderers' 4th title
1878 British frigate Eurydice sunk; 300 lost
1880 Tobacco Growers' Mutual Insurance Company incorporates in CT
1882 German scientist Robert Koch discovers and describes the tubercle bacillus which causes tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis), and establishes germ theory
1882 44th Grand National: Lord Manners aboard 10/1 shot Seaman wins in heavy snow and freezing conditions
1883 1st telephone call between NY & Chicago
1887 Oscar Straus appointed 1st Jewish ambassador from US (to Turkey)
1893 55th Grand National: Bill Dollery aboard 9/2 favourite Cloister wins by a massive 40 lengths from Aesop; owner Charles Duff fields 2 more winners 1912-13
1894 37 miners killed at Franklin, Washington
1899 61st Grand National: George Williamson aboard 1897 winner Manifesto wins by 4 lengths from Ford Of Fyne
1900 New York City Mayor Robert Anderson Van Wyck breaks ground for a new underground "Rapid Transit Railroad" that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn.
1905 A group of Cretans dedicated to Crete's union with Greece led by Eleutherios Venizelos, meet at the village of Therisso and proclaim a union in defiance of the Great Powers
1906 "Census of the British Empire" shows Great Britain rules 1/5th of the world
1907 The first issue of the Georgian Bolshevik newspaper Dro is published
1910 83°F highest temperature ever recorded in Cleveland in March
1911 73rd Grand National: legendary jockey Jack Anthony wins his first of 3 GN's aboard 20/1 Glenside in torrential rain
1913 Dutch soccer forward Huug de Groot scores twice as Netherlands score first ever victory over England; 2-1 at HBS, The Hague
1913 Palace Theater opens at 1564 Broadway, New York City
1916 German submarines torpedo the unarmed French cross-channel packet 'Sussex'
1920 1st US coast guard air station established (Morehead City, NC)
1922 81st Grand National: Lewis Rees aboard 100/9 chance Music Hall wins; only 5 out of 32 starters finish
1924 Greece becomes a republic
1924 1st performance of Jean Sibelius' 7th Symphony in C at the Konsertföreningenin in Stockholm
1925 KSL-AM in Salt Lake City UT begins radio transmissions
1926 The Beehive in the Hague opens 1st escalator in Netherlands
1927 Cuban chess champion José Raúl Capablanca wins 33-day Grand Chess Tournament
1927 Dutch 1st Chamber condemns Belgian and Netherlands Wielingen Treaty
1930 1st religious services telecast in US (W2XBS NYC)
1932 1st US radio broadcast from a moving train (Belle Baker WABC from MD)
1933 Peter I Island incorporated as a Norwegian dependency
1933 92nd Grand National: Dudley Williams aboard 25/1 chance Kellsboro' Jack wins by 3 lengths and a neck from Really True
1934 U.S. Congress passes the Tydings-McDuffie Act, declaring the Philippines independent after a period of 10 years
1935 Major Bowes' Original Amateur Hour goes national on NBC Radio Network
1936 Detroit Red Wings beat Montreal Maroons, 1-0 in 16:30 of 6th period of OT; record Stanley Cup playoff game lasts 9 periods (176 minutes)
1937 Bus blew a tire, going out of control, killing 18 (Salem Illinois)
1937 National Gallery of Art established by Congress
1939 98th Grand National: Irish jockey Tim Hyde wins riding 100/8 shot Workman
1939 "Wuthering Heights" based on the novel by Emily Brontë, directed by William Wyler and starring Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier, premieres in Los Angeles
1941 British troops defeat Italians in Somaliland
1941 German troops occupy El Agheila Libya
1941 Glenn Miller begins work on his 1st movie for 20th Century Fox
1941 LIU beats Ohio U 56-42 for NIT basketball championship
1941 Richard Wright & Paul Green's "Native Son" premieres in NYC
1942 US government begins moving native-born citizens with Japanese ancestry into detention centres under Executive Order 9066, with intention of preventing home-grown espionage
1944 76 Allied officers escape Stalag Luft 3 (Great Escape)
1944 811 British bombers attack Berlin
1944 In occupied Rome, Nazis execute 335 civilians in retaliation for the previous day's Via Rassela bombing that killed 33 Germans
1944 RAF rear gunner Nicholas Alkemade survives a jump from his Lancaster bomber 18,000 feet over Germany without a parachute; his fall broken by pine trees and soft snow, suffers only a sprained leg
1945 Allied generals Dwight D. Eisenhower, Bernard Montgomery and Omar Bradley discuss advance in Germany
1945 Operation Varsity: In the largest one-day airborne operation of all time, British, US & Canadian paratroopers land east of the Rhine in Northern Germany
1945 US minesweepers reach Kerama Retto, South coast of Okinawa
1947 Congress proposes 2-term limitation on the presidency
1947 John D. Rockefeller Jr donates NYC East River site to the UN
1949 21st Academy Awards: "Hamlet", Laurence Olivier & Jane Wyman win, Walter & John Huston become 1st father-and-son team to win awards
1949 SS police chief in the Netherlands Hanns Albin Rauter's request for a pardon denied, executed by firing squad
1950 US Ladies Figure Skating championship won by Yvonne C Sherman
1950 US Mens Figure Skating championship won by Richard Button
1952 Great demonstrations against apartheid in South Africa
1953 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1955 1st seagoing oil drill rig placed in service
1955 British Army patrols withdraw from Belfast after 20 years
1955 Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" opens for 694 performances
1956 18th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: San Francisco beats Iowa, 83-71; Dons' back-to-back National titles
1956 Wales beats France, 5-3 at the National Stadium, Cardiff to clinch their 13th Five Nations Rugby Championship
1956 110th Grand National: race best remembered for Devon Loch's inexplicable fall on final straight, just 40 yards from a certain victory; Dave Dick wins aboard E.S.B.
1958 Elvis Presley joins the U.S. Army (serial number 53310761)
1959 Iraq withdraws from the Baghdad Pact
1959 The Party of the African Federation (PFA) is launched by Léopold Sédar Senghor and Modibo Keita.
1960 US appeals court rules novel "Lady Chatterly's Lover" not obscene
1961 NY Senate approves $55M for a baseball stadium at Flushing Meadows
1962 24th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Cincinnati beats Ohio State, 71-59; Bearcats win back-to-back National titles
1962 Mick Jagger & Keith Richards perform as Little Boy Blue & Blue Boys
1962 Emile Griffith beats Benny " Kid" Paret by TKO in 12th round in welterweight boxing title fight at MSG, NYC; Paret dies 10 days later; first use of television slow motion replay
1964 Kennedy half-dollar issued
1965 US Ranger 9 strikes Moon, 10 miles (16 km) NE of crater Alphonsus
1966 Selective Service announces college deferments based on performance
1967 University of Michigan holds 1st "Teach-in" after bombing of North Vietnam
1969 Francis Turner is sworn in as the director of the Federal Highway Administration
1970 Dutch cartoonist Frans Piet ends "Sjors & Sjimmie" strip
1971 Serge Gainsbourg releases his concept album "Histoire de Melody Nelson"
1972 Great Britain imposes direct rule over Northern Ireland
1973 Harley Race beats Dory Funk Jr in Kansas City, to become NWA champ
1973 Professional track debut of Kip Keino defeating Jim Ryun in the mile
1973 San Francisco 49er pres Lou Spadia proposes NFL expand to 30 teams
1974 36th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: North Carolina State beats Marquette, 76-64; Wolfpack first title; first tournament officially designated as a Division I championship
1975 Muhammad Ali TKOs Chuck Wepner in 15 for heavyweight boxing title
1976 Argentine President Isabel Martínez de Perón is deposed in a military coup
1978 Wings release "With a Little Luck"
1979 "Ballroom" closes at Majestic Theater NYC after 116 performances
1979 1st appearance as Australian cricket captain for Kim Hughes
1979 Columbia flown on carrier aircraft lands at Kennedy Space Center
1979 10 rebounds & 10 assists, as the Spartans cruise to a 101-67 by Penn Mich State's Earvin "Magic" Johnson registers triple-double 29 pts
1980 42nd NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Louisville beats UCLA, 59-54; Cardinals' first title in first title game
1980 ABC's nightly Iran Hostage crisis program renamed "Nightline"
1980 Capitol Records releases some rare Beatles tracks on the LP "Rarites"
1981 "Nightline with Ted Koppel" premieres on ABC
1981 Bombay beat Delhi by innings & 46 to win Ranji Cricket Trophy
1981 Colombia drops diplomatic relations with Cuba
1982 US sub Jacksonville collides with a Turkish freighter near Virginia
1984 Andrea Schone skates ladies world record 5 km (7:34.52)
1984 IOC agrees to 6-team exhibition baseball tournament in Olympics
1984 Igor Malkov skates world record 10 km (14:21.51)
1985 5th Golden Raspberry (Razzie) Awards: "Bolero" wins
1985 Norman Gifford makes cricket ODI debuts at age 44 (v Aust, Sharjah)
1985 Third straight WTA Tour Championship for tennis legend Martina Navratilova; beats Helena Suková 6–3, 7–5, 6–4 at Madison Square Garden, NYC
1986 Men's International Professional Tennis Council announces Jimmy Connors' 10 week suspension and $20,000 fine for storming off the court after defaulting against Ivan Lendl at Boca Raton, Florida in February
1986 58th Academy Awards: "Out of Africa", William Hurt & Geraldine Page win
1986 Suriname army capt Etienne Boerenveen arrested for cocaine smuggling
1986 US & Libya clash in Gulf of Sidra
1986 NASA publishes "Strategy for Safely Returning the Space Shuttle to Flight Status"
1987 1st Soul Train Music Awards: Janet Jackson, Luther Vandross win
1987 WA win the Sheffield Shield by drawing cricket final vs Victoria
1988 "Gospel at Colonus" opens at Lunt Fontanne Theater NYC for 61 performances
1988 Quarterback Dan Fouts retires
1989 Mary Martin in "Peter Pan" 1st seen on TV since 1973
1989 Worst US oil spill, Exxon's Valdez spills 11.3 mil gallons off Alaska
1990 Indian troops leave Sri Lanka
1990 Tom Hunter swims world record 50m freestyle (21.81 sec)
1991 11th Golden Raspberry Awards: Ford Fairlane & Ghosts Can't Do It wins
1991 Barcelona Dragons beat NY/NJ Knights 19-7 in their 1st WLAF game
1991 Banks reopen in liberated Kuwait
1991 NY Yankees beat NY Mets, 9-3
1991 WrestleMania VII in LA Memorial Sports Arena, CA: Hulk Hogan beats Sgt Slaughter for WWF Heavyweight title
1991 Ayrton Senna wins the Brazilian Grand Prix for the 1st time, at Interlagos, São Paulo
1992 "Jake's Women" opens at Neil Simon Theater NYC for 245 performances
1992 Space Shuttle STS-45 (Atlantis 11) launches into space
1992 Sudanese Boeing 707 crashes on mountain Hymettos at Athens: 5-6 die
1992 1st Belgium in the space, Dirk Frimout on Atlantis Space Shuttle STS-45 (Atlantis 11) launches into space
1993 Ezer Weizman elected president of Israel
1994 "Carousel" opens at Beaumont Theater NYC for 322 performances
1994 "Song of Jacob Zulu" opens at Plymouth Theater NYC for 53 performances
1994 F-16 collides with C-130 Hercules above AFB in NC, 120 die
1996 16th Golden Raspberry Awards: "Showgirls" wins
1996 MTA raises NYC bridge tolls to $3.50 each way
1997 69th Academy Awards: "The English Patient", Geoffrey Rush and Frances McDormand win
1997 Australian parliament overturns world's 1st & only euthanasia law
1998 Jonesboro massacre: Two students, ages 11 and 13, fire upon teachers and students at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas; five people are dead and ten are wounded.
1998 A tornado sweeps through Dantan in India killing 250 people and injuring 3000 others.
1999 Kosovo War: NATO commences air bombardment against Yugoslavia, marking the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign country.
1999 Mont Blanc Tunnel Fire: 39 people die when a Belgian transport truck carrying flour and margarine caught fire in the Mont Blanc Tunnel.
1999 "The Matrix" film written and directed by The Wachowskis, starring Keanu Reeve, Lawrence Fishburne and Carrie-Ann Moss premieres
2001 21st Golden Raspberry Awards: "Battlefield Earth" wins
2002 74th Academy Awards: "A Beautiful Mind", Denzel Washington and Halle Berry win; Berry is the first woman of colour to win the Best Actress award
2002 PGA Players Championship, TPC at Sawgrass: Unheralded New Zealander Craig Perks chips-in twice on the final 3 holes for his only PGA Tour career win, 2 strokes ahead of Stephen Ames
2003 The Arab League votes 21-1 in favor of a resolution demanding the immediate and unconditional removal of U.S. and British soldiers from Iraq.
2005 US version of "The Office" created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, developed by Greg Daniels, starring Steve Carell and John Krasinski premieres on NBC
2006 Long-term protests in Belarus are broken by police.
2006 Pope Benedict XVI adds 15 men to the College of Cardinals, in the first consistory of his Pontificate
2007 The Australian Labor Party is reinstated after the New South Wales state elections.
2008 Bhutan officially becomes a democracy, with its first ever general election.
2010 Lee Kun-hee returns to Samsung Electronics chief executive officer (CEO) position after his resignation in April 21, 2008
2010 The World Health Organization appoints Craig David as a Goodwill Ambassador against tuberculosis on World Tuberculosis Day
2012 African Union deploys 5,000 strong force with the aim of catching or killing warlord Joseph Kony
2013 17 soldiers are killed by a suicide bomber at a military checkpoint in North Waziristan, Pakistan
2013 25 people are killed by gunmen in a coordinated attack in Adamawa State, Nigeria
2013 A series of emergency meetings in Brussels undertaken to resolve Cyprus’ financial situation
2013 Scotland defeats Sweden to win the 2013 World Women's Curling Championship
2014 Ukraine withdraws its forces from the Crimea
2015 Germanwings flight on route between Barcelona and Düsseldorf crashes in the French Alps killing all 150 on board
2015 The Opportunity rover becomes the first to complete a Martian marathon
2016 Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić found guilty of genocide during 1995 Srebrenica massacre, sentenced to 40 years
2016 English footballer Adam Johnson sentenced to 6 years in prison for sexual activity with a schoolgirl
2017 US President Donald Trump and Republican party forced to pull their attempt to repeal Obamacare after internal opposition
2018 Tens of thousands attend 'March for Our Lives' rallies held in Washington, D.C. and around the world to protest gun violence
2018 American conducts it first ever drone strike against Qaeda militants in southern Libya
2018 Hundreds of protesters shut down special meeting at Sacramento City Hall investigating police shooting of Stephon Clark
2018 Australian batsman Cameron Bancroft is caught on camera rubbing match ball with an object during 3rd Cricket Test in Cape Town, resulting in an infamous ball tampering scandal
2019 New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski announces retirement as 3-time Super Bowl winner, TE postseason record, most receptions (81), receiving yards (1,163) and receiving TDs (12)
2019 Investigation headed by Special Council Robert S. Mueller finds no evidence President Trump colluded with Russia in 2016 election
2019 2-time American League MVP Mike Trout signs the biggest contract in North American sports history, a $426.5 million, 12-year extension with the Los Angeles Angels
2020 Indian PM Narendra Modi orders a 21 day lockdown for world's second most populous country of 1.3 billion people to deal with COVID-19
2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzō Abe announces postponement of Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games until summer of 2021 because of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic
2020 China's Hubei province, the original center of the COVID-19 outbreak eases restrictions on travel after a nearly two-month lockdown

[Richard Frost]

25 MARCH

International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade

Every year on 25 March, the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade offers the opportunity to honour and remember those who suffered and died at the hands of the brutal slavery system. The International Day also aims to raise awareness about the dangers of racism and prejudice today.

International Day of Solidarity with Detained and Missing Staff Members

The International Day of Solidarity with Detained and Missing Staff Members is marked each year on the anniversary of the abduction of Alec Collett, a former journalist who was working for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) when he was abducted by armed gunman in 1985. His body was finally found in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley in 2009.

The International Day of Solidarity with Detained and Missing Staff Members has taken on even greater importance in recent years, as attacks against the United Nations intensify. This is a day to mobilize action, demand justice and strengthen our resolve to protect UN staff and peacekeepers, as well as our colleagues in the non-governmental community and the press.

Purpose
This is a day to mobilize action, demand justice and strengthen our resolve to protect UN staff and peacekeepers, as well as our colleagues in the non-governmental community and the press.

City Farm Day

City Farms across the UK, from Bath to Spitalfields, will be taking part in the first ever City Farm Day .today

There are more than 50 City Farms across the UK. Over the last five decades they have played an important role in connecting communities to farming and welcoming visitors.

City Farms have provided life-changing opportunities for people suffering from mental health challenges, such as depression or loneliness. They have also given people the chance to develop new skills to help get them back into work. This includes working with animals, helping with growing fruit and veg or running cafes.

Tolkein Reading Day

Celebrated around the world on March 25th, Tolkien Reading Day is a favoUrite among fans of the renowned author.

J.R.R. Tolkien (Jan. 3, 1892 – Sept. 2, 1973) was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor. He was best known as the author of the classic works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarrillion as well as Roverandom and Farmer Giles of Ham. However, he has published more than 30 books, several posthumously. The author has sold more than 150 million copies of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and that number continues to grow.

The day encourages readers of all ages to explore the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien and learn more about the author. With over 30 published works, he had a lot to say and not just about hobbits, though many are on medieval order.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY - 25/3/21

1 Origin of Dionysian Incarnation of the Word
31 1st Easter, according to calendar-maker Dionysius Exiguus
421 Friday at 12 PM - city of Venice founded
708 Constantine begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1150 Tichborne family of Hampshire England start tradition of giving gallon of flour to residents to keep
1199 Richard I, Lion Heart, King o f England, is wounded by a crossbow bolt while fighting France, leads to his death on April 6
1306 Robert the Bruce crowned Robert I, King of Scots, having killed his rival John Comyn, Lord of Badenoch
1409 Council of Pisa opens - elects Antipope Alexander V
1436 Florentine cathedral Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore with then the largest dome in the world by Filippo Brunelleschi, consecrated by Pope Eugene IV (begun 1296)
1571 Catholic Italian businessman Roberto Ridolfi leaves England
1581 Portuguese Cortes calls Philip II king of Portugal
1584 English explorer Walter Raleigh renews Humphrey Gilbert's patent to explore North America
1593 Recantation of Loos, Dutch scholar Coinelius Loos recants his earlier written protest against witchcraft persecution in Trier, Germany before officials in Brussels
1598 Cornelis de Houtman's fleet departs for East-Indies
1609 Henry Hudson embarks on an exploration for Dutch East India Company to find a passage to Asia
1634 Under charter granted to Lord Baltimore and led by his brother Leonard Calvert first settlers found Catholic colony of Maryland
1647 Cape of Good Hope: tour ship Haerlem stranded in Tafel Bay
1655 Christiaan Huygens discovers Titan (Saturn's largest satellite)
1669 Mount Etna in Sicily erupts, destroying Nicolosi, killing 20,000
1740 Construction begins on evangelist George Whitefield's Bethesda Orphanage in Georgia
1753 Voltaire leaves the court of Frederik II of Prussia
1776 Continental Congress authorizes a medal for George Washington
1802 Great Britain and the French Republic sign the Treaty of Amiens
1807 First fare-paying, passenger railway service in the world established on the Oystermouth Railway in Swansea, Wales
1807 British Parliament abolishes slave trade throughout the British Empire; penalty of £120 per slave introduced for ship captains
1807 George Canning becomes British Foreign Secretary
1811 Percy Bysshe Shelley is expelled from the University of Oxford for his publication of the pamphlet The Necessity of Atheism
1813 1st US flag flown in battle on the Pacific by the frigate Essex
1814 Netherlands Bank established
1817 Tsar Alexander I recommends formation of Society of Israeli Christians
1821 The Greek revolution against the Ottoman Turks is officially declared, with hostilities having started two months earlier
1846 German explorer Ludwig Leichhardt arrives in Sydney to a hero's welcome after completing his exploration of Australia's Northern Territory
1847 Pope Pius issues IX encyclical "On aid for Ireland"
1851 Yosemite Valley discovery made public by Major James D. Savage and Captain John Boling after being shown by Indian guides in California
1852 Friedrich Hebbel's tragedy "Agnes Bernauer" premieres in Munich
1856 A E Burnside patents Burnside carbine
1857 Frederick Laggenheim takes 1st photo of a solar eclipse
1857 Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville receives a patent for his phonautograph, a device which created visual images of sound
1863 1st US Army Medal of Honor awarded to six army soldiers by US Secretary of War Edwin Stanton in Washington
1863 Skirmish at Brentwood, Tennessee
1864 Battle of Paducah, Kentucky (Forrest's raid)
1865 Battle of Bluff Spring, Florida
1865 Battle of Petersburg: In an unsuccessful counter attack, Confederate forces attack Fort Stedman
1865 Battle of Mobile, Alabama (Spanish Fort, Fort Morgan, Fort Blakely)
1865 SS General Lyon at Cape Hatteras catches fire & sinks, killing 400
1876 Glasgow 1st soccer match Scotland defeat Wales (4-0)
1881 43rd Grand National: Irish jockey Tommy Beasley wins his second consecutive GN aboard 11/2 co-favourite Woodbrook
1882 1st demonstration of pancake making, held at a department store in NYC
1887 49th Grand National: Bill Daniels aboard 20/1 chance Gamecock wins by 3 lengths from Savoyard
1888 Socialist leader Domela Nieuwenhuis elected to Dutch 2nd chamber
1889 1st Test Cricket match played at Newlands, Cape Town v England
1894 Coxey's Army of the unemployed sets out from Massillon, Ohio, for Washington, D.C.
1895 Italian troops invade Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
1898 Intercollegiate Trapshooting Association formed in NYC
1898 60th Grand National: John Gourley wins aboard 25/1 shot Drogheda
1898 Swami Vivekananda initiates Margaret Noble (Sister Nivedita) into vow of Brahmacharya, first western woman received into Indian monastic order
1898 Writer O. Henry sentenced to 5 years in prison for embezzling $854 from a bank reportedly to pay for his sick wife's medical bills. Goes on to write many classics while in jail including "Whistling Dick's Christmas Stocking".
1900 US Socialist Party forms in Indianapolis
1901 55 die as Rock Island train derailed near Marshalltown, Iowa
1902 Irving W. Colburn patents sheet glass drawing machine
1902 In Russia, 567 students are tried for rioting and 'political disaffection' are found guilty; 95 are banished to Siberia
1903 Racing Club de Avellaneda, one of the big five of Argentina, is founded.
1904 66th Grand National: Arthur Birch wins aboard 25/1 New Zealand bred Moifaa; horse survives shipwreck off Ireland a year earlier
1905 Confederate battle flags captured during the American Civil War are returned to South
1907 Stanley Cup, Winnipeg Auditorium, Winnipeg, Manitoba: Montreal Wanderers lose to Kenora Thistles, 6-5 but win on 2 game aggregate, 12-8
1908 Clube Atletico Mineiro, Founded in Belo Horizonte, Brazil
1910 Chalmers Auto Co offers a new car to each leagues' batting champ
1911 L. D. Swamikannu publishes "Manual of Indian Chronology" in Bombay
1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory catches fire 145 die, all but 13 girls in Greenwich Village, New York
1913 Great Dayton Flood: winter rains cause Great Miami River to flood, Ohio's greatest natural disaster
1913 Home of vaudeville, Palace Theatre, opens (NYC) starring Ed Wynn
1915 1st submarine disaster; a US F-4 sinks off Hawaii, killing 21
1915 German U boat torpedoes Netherlands merchant ship Medea
1916 Jess Willard fights Frank Moran to no decision in 10 for heavyweight boxing title in NYC
1917 Canadian flying ace Billy Bishop claims his first victory, shooting down and mortally wounding German Leutnant Theiller
1918 Belarusian People's Republic is established
1919 Woodrow Wilson's dream of a League of Nations becomes a reality after the League Covenant is adopted at the Paris Peace Conference
1920 Greek Independence Day
1923 British government grants Trans-Jordan autonomy
1924 Greek parliament selects admiral Paul Koundouriotis as premier
1924 Stanley Cup Final, Ottawa Auditorium, Ottawa, ON: Montreal Canadiens (NHL) beat Calgary Tigers (WCHL), 3-0 for a 2-0 series sweep
1927 86th Grand National: 8/1 favourite Sprig wins; ridden by jockey Ted Leader, trained by his father Tom Leader
1931 Hal Kemp & his orchestra record Whistles, with Skinnay Ennis
1931 Scottsboro Boys arrested in Alabama, accused of raping a white woman
1934 1st Augusta National Invitation Tournament (Masters) Golf: Horton Smith wins with 20-foot birdie putt at the 17th hole, 1 stroke ahead of Craig Wood
1935 1st Belgium government of Van Zealand resigns
1936 200-inch mirror blank to build the Hale telescope leaves Corning New York for California (then largest telescopic mirror ever made)
1937 It is revealed Quaker Oats pays Babe Ruth $25,000 per year for ads
1937 Italy & Yugoslavia sign non-aggression treaty (Pact of Belgrade)
1937 Lionel Conacher misses on 1st Stanley Cup penalty shot
1937 Washington Daily News is 1st US newspaper with perfumed advertising page
1938 97th Grand National: 17 year old jockey Bruce Hobbs wins aboard 40/1 Battleship; first US bred and owned winner; only horse to win GN and American Grand National (1934)
1939 Billboard Magazine introduces hillbilly (country) music chart
1941 Carolina Paprika Mills in Dillon, South Carolina, incorporated
1942 1st 700 Jews from Polish Lvov district reach the Bełżec Concentration camp
1943 97% of all Dutch physicians strike against Nazi registration
1943 Jimmy Durante & Garry Moore premiere on radio
1944 Germany troop executes 335 residents of Rome
1945 US 1st army breaks out bridgehead near Remagen, Germany after crossing the Rhine
1945 US 4th Armored div arrives at Hanau & Aschaffenburg
1945 US Northern Tractor Flotilla departs Ulithi to Okinawa
1946 1st performance of Igor Stravinsky's "Ebony Concerto"
1947 9th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Holy Cross beats Oklahoma, 58-47; Crusaders' first victory in first title game
1947 Agreement of Linggadjati ratified in Batavia
1947 Coal mine explosion in Centralia, Illinois kills 111
1947 Last day of Test cricket for Walter Hammond (v NZ, Christchurch)
1949 The Soviet Union begins Operation Pribioi, the mass deportation of 90,000 Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians to inhospitable areas in the Soviet Union
1950 104th Grand National: Jimmy Power wins aboard 10/1 Irish co-favourite Freebooter; estimated 500,00 in attendance including Royal Family
1950 Wales outclasses France, 21-0 at the National Stadium, Cardiff to clinch the Five Nations Rugby Championship, Grand Slam and Triple Crown
1951 5th Tony Awards: "Guys & Dolls" (musical) and "The Rose Tattoo" (play) win
1951 E Purcell & EM Ewen detect 21-cm radiation at Harvard physics lab
1954 26th Academy Awards: "From Here to Eternity" best film, William Holden & Audrey Hepburn best actor, actress
1954 Pope Pius XII encyclical "Sacra virginitas" (On consecrated virginity)
1954 RCA manufactures 1st color TV set (12½" screen at $1,000)
1955 East Germany granted full sovereignty by occupying power, USSR
1955 United States Customs seizes copies of Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl" as obscene.
1957 NBA modifies the free-throw rule
1957 Treaty of Rome establishes European Economic Community (Common Market)
1958 Sugar Ray Robinson is 1st boxing champ to win 5 times
1958 West German parliament desires German atomic weapons
1959 Bill White traded to St Louis for pitchers Sam Jones & Don Choate
1959 French President De Gaulle acknowledges Oder-Neisse boundary
1960 1st guided missile launched from nuclear powered sub (Halibut)
1960 DH Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover" ruled not obscene (NYC)
1960 Ford Frick voids Indians-Red Sox deal as Sam White retires
1960 Italian government Tambroni forms
1961 "13 Daughters" closes at 54th St Theater NYC after 28 performances
1961 "Gypsy" closes at Broadway Theater NYC after 702 performances
1961 23rd NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Cincinnati beats Ohio State, 70-65 (OT); Buckeyes' future Hall of Fame forward Jerry Lucas is MOP for 2nd straight year
1961 Elvis Presley performs live on the USS Arizona
1961 Explorer 10 launched into elongated Earth orbit (177/181,000 km)
1961 Sputnik 10 carries a dog into Earth orbit; later recovered
1961 3rd place game is one of the wildest contests in NCAA Tournament history as St Joseph's defeats Utah, 127-120 in quadruple overtime
1961 115th Grand National: Bobby Beasley wins aboard Nicolaus Silver, 5 lengths ahead of defending champion Merryman II; first grey winner for 90 years
1962 "Family Affair" closes at Billy Rose Theater NYC after 65 performances
1962 French OAS-leader ex-general Jouhaud arrested
1963 KWHY TV channel 22 in Los Angeles, CA (IND) begins broadcasting
1964 Britain sets memorial for the late President John F. Kennedy
1964 Egypt ends state of siege (1952-64)
1965 Martin Luther King Jr. leads 25,000 to state capitol in Montgomery, Alabama
1965 West German Bondsdag extends war crimes retribution
1966 US Supreme court rules "poll tax" unconstitutional
1966 Beatles pose for photographer Robert Whitaker with mutilated dolls and butchered meat for the cover of the "Yesterday & Today" album, it is later pulled
1967 29th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: UCLA beats Dayton, 79-64; Bruins center Lew Alcindor (later named Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) tournament MOP
1967 The Turtle's "Happy Together" goes #1
1967 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1967 Who & Cream make US debut at Murray the K's Easter Show
1968 KLVX TV channel 10 in Las Vegas, NV (PBS) begins broadcasting
1968 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1968 Members of the Derry Housing Action Committee (DHAC) disrupt a meeting of Londonderry Corporation to protest at the lack of housing provision in the city, Northern Ireland
1969 Andes Pact signed in Peru
1969 John Lennon and Yoko Ono stage their 1st bed-in for peace (Amsterdam)
1969 Pakistan General Agha Mohammed Jagja Khan succeeds Ayub Chan as president
1969 Ian Paisley and Ronald Bunting, loyalists in Northern Ireland are jailed for organising an illegal counter demonstration in Armagh on 30 November 1968
1970 Concorde makes its 1st supersonic flight (700 MPH/1,127 KPH)
1971 Boston Patriots become New England Patriots
1971 European council accepts Mansholt plan laying off 5 million farmers
1971 Tom Jones' "She's a Lady" goes gold
1971 James Callaghan speaks at a rally of the Northern Ireland labour movement, but rejects calls for the Labour Party to open membership to those living in N. Ireland
1972 "Selling of the President" closes at Shubert Theater NYC after 5 performances
1972 34th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: UCLA beats Florida, 81-76; 6th straight title for Bruins; future Hall of Fame center Bill Walton tournament MOP
1972 America's LP "America" goes #1
1972 Bobby Hull becomes the 2nd NHLer to score 600 goals
1972 UCLA wins its 6th consecutive national basketball title
1972 17th Eurovision Song Contest: Vicky Leandros for Luxembourg wins singing "Apres toi" in Edinburgh
1973 AIAW Women's Basketball Tournament, Immaculata beats Queens College, 59-52, Immaculata 1st undefeated team in New York
1973 27th Tony Awards: "That Championship Season" and "Little Night Music" win
1974 Barbra Streisand records the album "Butterfly"
1974 9th Academy of Country Music Awards: Charlie Rich and Loretta Lynn win
1976 "My Fair Lady" opens at St James Theater NYC for 384 performances
1976 "Rex" opens at Lunt-Fontaine Theater NYC for 48 performances
1976 Argentine military junta bans leftist political parties
1978 AIAW Women's Basketball Tournament, UCLA beat Maryland 90-74 in Los Angeles
1979 Space Shuttle Columbia arrives at Kennedy Space Centre to prepare for its first launch, which would eventually happen in 1981
1979 Major riot at Bourda prevents day's play in WSC Supertest
1979 AIAW Women's Basketball Tournament, Old Dominion beat Louisiana Tech 75-65 in Greensboro
1979 Czech tennis star Martina Navratilova retains her WTA Tour Championship with a 6–3, 3–6, 6–2 win over American teenager Tracey Austin in NYC
1979 PGA Tournament Players Championship, Sawgrass CC: Lanny Wadkins wins in windy conditions, 5 strokes ahead of runner-up Tom Watson
1982 Wayne Gretzky becomes 1st NHL to score 200 points in a season
1982 1st broadcast of "Cagney & Lacey" starring Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly on CBS-TV
1983 Christa Rothenburger skates world record 500 m ladies (39.69 sec)
1983 Pavel Pegov skates world record 1000m (1:12.58)
1985 57th Academy Awards: "Amadeus", F. Murray Abraham & Sally Field win
1985 Edwin Meese III takes office as US Attorney General
1986 Men's Figure Skating Championship in Geneva won by Brian Boitano (USA)
1986 Supreme Court rules Air Force could ban wearing of yarmulkes
1986 Kurt Browning (Canada) becomes 1st skater to land a quadruple jump
1987 The US Supreme Court rules that gender-based workplace affirmative action plans do not constitute discrimination on the basis of sex under the Civil Rights Act 1964
1988 "Les Miserables" opens at Chunichi Theatre, Nagoya, Japan
1988 NASA launches space vehicle S-206
1988 Robin Givens demands full access to husband Mike Tyson's money
1988 "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, starring Carmen Maura and Antonio Banderas is released
1989 "Les Miserables" opens at Auditorium Theatre, Chicago
1990 "Lettice & Lovage" opens at Barrymore Theater NYC for 284 performances
1990 10th Golden Raspberry Awards: Star Trek V wins
1990 Fire in illegal NYC social club, kills 87
1991 63rd Academy Awards: "Dances with Wolves", Kathy Bates & Jeremy Irons win
1991 Allan Border takes 5-68 v WI at Bourda (!), Georgetown
1991 Nigerian crude becomes competitive in US Gulf Coast as Nigeria cuts crude prices
1992 British scientists find new largest perfect # (2 756839 -1 * 2 756839)
1992 Cricket World Cup, Melbourne (MCG): Imran Khan scores 72 in his final ODI as Pakistan beats England by 22 runs for their first title; Martin Crowe (NZ), Player of Series
1992 Russian manned space craft TM-14, lands
1992 Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returns to Earth after a 10-month stay aboard the Mir space station.
1993 "Candida" opens at Criterion Theater NYC for 45 performances
1994 Gunda Niemann skates ladies world record 3 km (4:09.32)
1994 Yasunori Miyabe skates world record 1000 m (1:12.37)
1995 Boxer Mike Tyson released from jail after serving 3 years
1996 68th Academy Awards: "Braveheart", Nicolas Cage & Susan Sarandon win
1996 Comet C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake) approaches within 0.1018 AUs of Earth
1996 Freedom Shoemakers on Maryport's Solway Estate closes
1996 Ice Dance Championship at Edmonton won by Gritshuk & Platov (RUS)
1996 Ice Pairs Championship at Edmonton won by Eltsova & Bushkov (RUS)
1996 Ladies Figure Skating Championship in Edmonton won by Michelle Kwan (USA)
1996 Men's Figure Skating Championship in Edmonton won by Todd Eldredge (USA)
1996 US issues newly-redesigned $100 bill
1996 The European Union's Veterinarian Committee bans the export of British beef and its by-products as a result of "mad cow disease" (BSE).
1997 "Barrymore" opens at Music Box Theater NYC for 240 performances
1997 Indians trade Lofton & Embree to Braves for Grissom & Justice
1997 "Life After Death" 2nd studio album by The Notorious B.I.G. is released (Billboard Song of the Year 1997)
1999 13th Soul Train Music Awards: Luther Vandross, R. Kelly & Lauryn Hill win
2000 20th Golden Raspberry Awards: "Wild Wild West" wins
2001 73rd Academy Awards: "Gladiator", Russell Crowe & Julia Roberts win
2001 Nabisco Championship Women's Golf, Mission Hills CC: Sweden's Annika Sörenstam shoots a final round 69 to win the first of her 3 titles at this event, 3 strokes ahead of 5 runners-up
2002 TV reality show "The Bachelor" hosted by Chris Harrison debuts on ABC in the US
2005 36th NAACP Image Awards: "Ray" wins Outstanding Motion Picture
2006 Capitol Hill massacre: A gunman kills six people before taking his own life at a party in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood
2006 Protesters demanding a re-election in Belarus following the rigged Belarusian presidential election, 2006 clash with riot police. Opposition leader Aleksander Kozulin is among several protesters arrested.
2009 Gay dating site Grindr launched by Joel Simkhai, first ever dating application to combine dating information and location
2012 Peter Cruddas, treasurer of Britain's Conservative Party, resigns after being caught on film selling access to British Prime Minister David Cameron
2013 Golfer Tiger Woods returns to his world number one ranking
2015 British musician Zayn Malik announces he is leaving the band One Direction
2016 Suicide attack during a football match in Iskandariya, Iraq kills at least 32 people, ISIS claim responsibility
2016 Zayn's [Zayn Malik] solo debut album "Mind of Mine" is released, 1st British male artist to debut at No. 1 in US
2017 Largest banana split ever, at 8,040 metres long, is made in Innisfail, Australia
2018 First scheduled non-stop flight between Australia and the UK, leaves Perth for Heathrow airport in London, arrives after 17 hours
2018 Australian cricket captain Steve Smith handed one-match ban after admitting Australian team tampered with the ball in 3rd test against South Africa in South Africa
2018 Fire in a shopping mall in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, Russia, kills at least 64
2018 North Korean leader Kim Jong un begins surprise trip to Beijing by train to meet Chinese President
2019 First rocket fired from Gaza since 2014 toward Tel Aviv prompts Israeli return air strikes on Gaza
2019 Apple introduces new TV streaming platform Apple TV+, news service Apple News+ and an Apple credit card at star-studded event featuring Oprah
2019 Teacher of the Year awarded to rural Kenyan math and physics teacher and Franciscan brother Peter Tabichi in Dubai, United Arab Emirates
2019 Further power blackouts in Caracas, Venezuela, prompt government to tell workers and students to stay at home
2019 NASA cancels a planned historic all-female spacewalk because it doesn't have enough spacesuits to fit women
2019 British Airways flight from London mistakenly flies to Edinburgh, Scotland instead of Düsseldorf, Germany when wrong flight plan submitted
2019 First organ transplant between a live HIV donor and an HIV recipient with a kidney transplant in
2020 United Kingdom's Prince Charles tests positive for COVID-19

[Richard Frost]

EPILEPSY AWARENESS DAY - PURPLE DAY

Epilepsy Awareness Day on March 26th aims to increase the public’s knowledge of a neurological condition affecting nearly 50 million people worldwide. Also known as Purple Day, people are encouraged to wear purple in support of epilepsy awareness.

The neurological condition, epilepsy, impacts the central nervous system causing seizures and other symptoms. The types of seizures vary depending on the cause and type of epilepsy. Some known causes of epilepsy include:

brain injury
genetics
metabolic disorders
immune disorders
infection
However, sometimes no known cause can be found for epilepsy. While epilepsy is not contagious, any age group can develop epilepsy. The good news is that it’s highly treatable. Although the condition can be confusing for children. In some parts of the world, treatment can be challenging to find. Another important goal for the day is removing the stigma associated with epilepsy. Those with epilepsy can lead normal lives, especially when their epilepsy is controlled.

On this day in history - 26th March

127 Greek astronomer and mathematician Ptolemy begins his observations of the heavens (until 141 AD)
685 Cuthbert (later Saint Cuthbert) is consecrated Bishop of Lindisfarne by Archbishop Theodore at York
1027 Pope John XIX crowns Conrad II Holy Roman Emperor, founder of the Salian dynasty
1147 Jewish community in Cologne fasts to commemorate anti-Jewish violence
1484 William Caxton prints his translation of Aesop's Fables
1526 King Francis I returns from Spanish captivity to France
1534 Lübeck accepts free Dutch ships into East Sea
1552 Guru Amar Das becomes the Third Sikh Guru
1636 University of Utrecht opening ceremony
1668 England takes control of Bombay, India
1692 King Maximilian installed as land guardian of South Netherlands
1780 1st British Sunday newspaper appears (British Gazette & Sunday Monitor)
1790 US Congress passes Naturalization Act, requires 2-year residency
1793 Pro-royalist uprising in Vendée region of France
1799 Napoleon captures Jaffa, Palestine
1804 Congress orders removal of Indians east of Mississippi to Louisiana
1804 Territory of Orleans organizes in Louisiana Purchase
1808 Charles IV of Spain abdicates in favor of his son, Ferdinand VII
1812 Earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale destroys 90% of Caracas, Venezuela and kills an estimated 15,000–20,000 people
1820 Future Mormon church leader Joseph Smith has his "First Vision" in a wooded area of New York, according to Mormon scholars
1821 Franz Grillparzer's "Das Goldene Vliess" premieres in Vienna
1830 The Book of Mormon is published in Palmyra, New York
1839 1st Henley Royal Regatta on the river Thames, England
1845 Joseph Francis from NYC, patents a corrugated sheet-iron lifeboat
1845 Patent awarded for adhesive medicated plaster, precursor of band-aid
1852 Decree regarding streets of Paris passed
1856 New South Wales's first 1st-class game, v Victoria at Melbourne NSW wins
1859 1st supposed sighting of Vulcan, a planet thought to orbit inside Mercury; it doesn't exist
1862 Battle of La Glorieta Pass, New Mexico Territory (Apache Canyon, Pigeon's Ranch)
1863 Voters in West Virginia approve gradual emancipation of slaves
1871 Municipal elections bring revolutionaries to power in Paris to form Commune government
1872 7.8 earthquake shakes Owens Valley, California
1872 Thomas J. Martin, of Alabama, receives a U.S. patent for a pipe and valve fire extinguisher system
1874 36th Grand National: Mr. J. M. Richardson wins his second consecutive GN aboard French 5/1 favourite Reugny
1878 Hastings College of Law founded in California
1878 Sabi Game Reserve opens in South Africa, the world's 1st officially designated game reserve
1881 Thessaly is freed and becomes part of Greece again
1885 Eastman Film Co manufactures 1st commercial motion picture film
1885 Louis Riel's forces defeat Canadian forces at Duck Lake, Sask
1885 1st cremation held in England at Woking
1886 48th Grand National: Tommy Skelton wins aboard 25/1 chance Old Joe
1889 Bernard Tancred carries bat for 26* out of 47! South Africa v England
1889 Johnny Briggs takes 15-26 (7-17 & 8-11) v South Africa at Newlands
1889 South Africa all out 47, then follow-on all out 43 v England
1895 King Alfonso plants pine sapling in Madrid, starts Spain's Arbor Day
1897 59th Grand National: Terry Kavanagh aboard 6/1 favourite Manifesto wins by 20 lengths from Filbert
1900 1st edition The (Free) People (Netherlands, probably Amsterdam)
1903 American Hotel opens in Amsterdam
1909 August Strindberg's "Bjalb-jarle-ti" premieres in Stockholm
1909 In support of Mohammed Ali Shah's coup d'etat against the constitutional government in Persia, a Russian military force invades northern Persia to relieve the siege of Tabriz
1909 71st Grand National: Georges Parfrement wins aboard French 100/9 hope Lutteur III
1910 US forbids immigration to criminals, anarchists, paupers and the sick
1910 William H. Lewis appointed US Assistant Attorney General
1913 Bulgaria captures Adrianople, ending the 1st Balkan War
1913 Dayton, Ohio almost destroyed when Scioto, Miami and Muskingum River reach flood stage simultaneously
1915 Stanley Cup Final, Denman Arena, Vancouver, BC: Barney Stanley scores 5 goals as Vancouver Millionaires beat Ottawa Senators, 12-3 for a 3-0 sweep of first non-challenge series; Vancouver first PCHA champions
1915 77th Grand National: legendary jockey Jack Anthony wins his second of 3 GN's aboard 100/8 bet Ally Sloper
1917 Stanley Cup Final, Seattle Ice Arena, Seattle, WA: Seattle Metropolitans (PCHA) beat Montreal Canadiens (NHL), 9-1 for a 3-1 series victory; first US team to win SC
1917 British win a battle against Turks at Gaza
1920 79th Grand National: legendary jockey Jack Anthony wins his record 3rd GN aboard 6/1 Troytown
1924 Premiere of Bernard Shaw's "Saint Joan" in London
1926 ACD de Graeff appointed governor general of Dutch East Indies
1926 First lip-reading tournament held in America
1926 85th Grand National: Billy Watkinson victorious aboard 25/1 bet Jack Horner; first Australian jockey to win the race
1927 Alfred Hugenberg purchases German film company UFA
1927 Gaumont-British Film Corporation forms
1930 Congress appropriates $50,000 for Inter-American highway
1931 Iraq & Trans-Jordan sign peace treaty
1931 Leo Bentley bowls 3 consecutive perfect games in Lorain, Ohio
1931 New Delhi replaces Calcutta as capital of British-Indies
1934 Driving tests introduced in Britain
1935 RJ Mitchell & Major Sorley discuss armament of Supermarine Spitfire
1936 1st parliamentary debate on NZ radio
1936 200" telescope lens shipped, Corning Glass Works, NY-Cal Tech
1936 Mary Joyce ends a 1,000 mile trip by dog in Alaska
1937 Joe DiMaggio takes Ty Cobb's advice and replaces his 40 oz bat with a 36 oz one
1937 Spinach growers of Crystal City, Texas, erect statue of Popeye
1937 William H. Hastie becomes 1st black federal judge (Virgin Islands)
1938 NBC radio performance of Howard Hanson's 3rd Symphony
1940 "The Fifth Column", a play by Ernest Hemingway and adapted by Benjamin Glazer premieres in NYC courtesy of the Theater Guild
1942 First "Eichmann transport" to Auschwitz & Birkenau concentration camps
1942 Explosion of 20 tons of gelignite in a stone quarry at Easton, Pennsylvania, kills 21
1942 German offensive in North Africa under General Erwin Rommel
1943 Battle of Komandorski Islands, naval battle between American navy and Japanese Imperial forces in the Pacific Ocean, ends inconclusively
1943 Elsie S. Ott is 1st woman to be awarded US Air Force Medal
1944 705 British bombers attack Essen, Germany
1945 Allies led by US Marine Corps secure island of Iwo Jima from Imperial Japanese Army, after 18,000 Japanese & 6,000 Americans killed
1945 British premier Winston Churchill looks over at the Rhine (near Ginsberg)
1945 De Paul wins NIT basketball championship, George Mikan scores 34
1945 Allied generals Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar Bradley and George S. Patton launch attack at Remagen on the Rhine
1945 Kamikaze attack on US battle fleet near Kerama Retto
1945 US 7th Army crosses Rhine at Worms
1945 Venray soccer team forms
1949 11th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Kentucky beats Oklahoma State, 46-36; Wildcats' back-to-back titles; center Alex Groza MOP
1949 103rd Grand National: Leo McMorrow aboard 66/1 outsider Russian Hero wins by a comfortable 8 lengths ahead of Roimond
1951 United States Air Force flag officially adopted by President Harry S. Truman
1952 14th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Kansas beats St. Johns, 80-63; first tournament to have a true "Final Four" format
1952 Friedrich Durrenmatt's "Die Ehe des Herrn Mississippi" premieres in Munich
1953 Dr. Jonas Salk announces that he has successfully tested a vaccine to prevent polio, clinical trials began the next year
1953 "Ugetsu", Japanese film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, starring Masayuki Mori, Machiko Kyō and Kinuyo Tanaka, is released
1954 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Bikini Island
1955 "Ballad of Davy Crockett" version recorded by Hill Hayes becomes the #1 record in US
1955 109th Grand National: Pat Taaffe wins aboard Quare Times at 100/9; third consecutive GN victory for trainer Vincent O'Brien
1955 France misses out on a maiden Grand Slam after losing, 16-11 to Wales at Stade Colombes; share Five Nations Rugby Championship with Wales with 3-1 record
1956 Medic Alert Foundation forms
1956 Red Buttons debuts on TV in Studio One
1958 30th Academy Awards-"The Bridge on the River Kwai" wins Best Picture, Joanne Woodward & Alec Guinness win Best Actress and Best Actor, respectively
1958 US Army launches America's third successful satellite, "Explorer III"
1958 The African Regroupment Party (PRA) is launched at a meeting in Paris
1959 Test debut for Pakistani cricketer Mushtaq Mohammad v West Indies, aged 15 years
1960 Iraq executes 30 after attack on President Kassem
1960 Orioles-Reds series planned for Havana is moved to Miami
1960 USC captures NCAA swimming title
1960 114th Grand National: Gerry Scott wins aboard 13/2 favourite Merryman II; first clear favourite to win in 33 years
1962 US Supreme Court backs 1-man-1-vote apportionment of seats in state legistature
1964 "Funny Girl" opens at Winter Garden Theater NYC for 1,348 performances
1966 Large-scale anti-Vietnam War protests take place in the United States, including in New York, Washington, D.C. and Chicago
1966 120th Grand National: Tim Norman aboard 50/1 outsider Anglo wins by 20 lengths, giving Freddie 2nd place for a second straight year
1966 Wales beats France, 9-8 at the National Stadium, Cardiff to clinch their 15th Five Nations Rugby Championship
1967 21st Tony Awards: Homecoming & Cabaret win
1967 Pope Paul VI publishes encyclical Populorum progressio
1969 "Marcus Welby, M.D.", starring Robert Young and James Brolin debuts as a TV movie on ABC-TV, prior to becoming a weekly series
1969 Nuclear reactor Dodewaard Neth goes into use
1969 Soviet weather satellite Meteor 1 launched
1970 "Minnie's Boys" opens at Imperial Theater NYC for 80 performances
1970 500th nuclear explosion announced by the US since 1945
1970 Golden Gate Park Conservatory made city landmark
1970 Peter Yarrow (Peter, Paul & Mary) pleads guilty to "taking immoral liberties" with a 14 year old girl
1970 The Police (Northern Ireland) Act becomes law; the act provides for the disarmament of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and the establishment of an RUC reserve force
1971 "Benny Hill Show" tops TV ratings
1971 "Cannon" starring William Conrad as a private detective premieres on CBS-TV; airs for 5 seasons
1971 Bangladesh (East Pakistan) under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declares its independence from Pakistan
1972 "Only Fools Are Sad" closes at Edison Theater NYC after 144 performances
1972 LA Lakers break NBA wins record by winning 69 of 82 games (69-13), record will stand for 24 years
1972 William Whitelaw appointed as the first Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
1973 35th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: UCLA beats Memphis 81-76; Bruins' 7th straight title; future Hall of Fame center Bill Walton tournament MOP for 2nd consecutive year
1973 TV Soap "The Young & the Restless" premieres on CBS
1973 Susan Shaw is first woman in 171 years in London's Stock exchange
1974 George Foreman TKOs Ken Norton in 2 for heavyweight boxing title in Caracas, Venezuela
1974 Romanian communist party names party leader Ceausescu president
1975 "Tommy" premieres in London
1975 Washington Capitals play record NHL 37th road game without a win & NHL record of 17 straight loses
1975 The Biological Weapons Convention enters into force.
1976 AL approves purchase of Toronto franchise by LaBatt Brewing for $7M
1976 Wings release "Wings at the Speed of Sound" album
1976 Queen Elizabeth II sent out the first royal email, from the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment
1977 Elvis Costello releases his 1st record "Less Than Zero"
1977 Focus on the Family is founded by Dr. James Dobson
1977 AIAW Women's Basketball Tournament, Delta State beat Louisiana State University 68-55 in
1979 Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat sign the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty in Washington, D.C.
1979 41st NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Michigan State beats Indiana State, 75-64; marks start of rivalry between future Hall of Famers Magic Johnson and Larry Bird; highest-rated game in history of televised college basketball
1979 Michigan State Spartans snaps Indiana State's 33-game winning streak
1979 MLB San Diego Padres & San Francisco Giants announce plans to play exhibition series in Tokyo but Giant players reject it
1979 OPEC makes full 14.5% oil price increase for 1979 effective on April 1
1980 Bombay gets its 1st rock concert in 10 years (The Police)
1981 Police & Albanian demonstrators battle in Kosovo, Yugoslavia
1981 Soviet space mission Soyuz T-4 lands
1982 Groundbreaking in Washington, D.C. for Vietnam Veterans Memorial
1982 Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder release the single "Ebony & Ivory" in the UK
1982 Soap opera "Capitol" premieres
1983 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1985 Pope John Paul II proclaims first ever World Youth Day
1986 Geffen records signs Guns & Roses
1987 August Wilson's "Fences" premieres at the 46th Street Theatre, New York City in NYC; wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama, 4 Tony and 3 Drama desk Awards
1987 Hyderabad beat Delhi on 1st innings to win Ranji Trophy
1987 NASA launches Fltsatcom-6, it fails to reach orbit
1987 National Federation of State High School Associations adopt the college 3 point shot (21 feet)
1988 American Janet Evans swims 1,500m freestyle female world record 15:52.10 in the USA Spring Nationals in Orlando, Florida
1990 62nd Academy Awards: "Driving Miss Daisy", Daniel Day-Lewis, Jessica Tandy win
1990 Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa wins the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement
1991 Fuel pipe explodes under 58th street & Lexington Ave, NYC
1991 Marc Camoletti's "Don't Dress for Dinner" premieres in London
1991 Orlando Thunder beats San Antonio Riders in their 1st WLAF game 35-34
1991 Victoria beat NSW by 7 wickets to win Sheffield Shield Final
1992 Mike Tyson sentenced to 10 years in rape of Desiree Washington
1992 NHL NY Rangers clinch 1st NHL regular season championship in 50 years
1994 Bonnie Blair skates world record 500 m ladies (38.99 sec)
1994 Gunda Niemann skates world record 5 km ladies (7:03.26)
1994 Gunda Niemann skates un-official world record 10 km ladies (14:22.60)
1994 Yuka Sato of Japan wins world figure skating championship in Tokyo
1995 "Defending the Caveman" opens at Helen Hayes Theater NYC for 671 performances
1995 "Moliere Comedies" closes at Criterion Theater NYC after 56 performances
1995 15th Golden Raspberry Awards: "Color of Night" wins
1995 Mashonaland beat Mashonaland U-24 by 165 runs to win Logan Cup
1995 The Schengen Treaty goes into effect.
1995 PGA Players Championship, TPC at Sawgrass: Lee Janzen wins by a stroke ahead of runner-up Bernhard Langer of Germany
1995 Nabisco Dinah Shore Women's Golf, Mission Hills CC: Nanci Bowen wins her only major title, 1 stroke ahead of runner-up Susie Redman; her sole LPGA Tour victory
1996 Last day of 1st-class cricket for Allan Border (Qld v Vic)
1996 The International Monetary Fund approves a $10.2 billion loan for Russia
1997 "Annie" opens at Martin Beck Theater NYC
1997 NHL announces Anaheim Mighty Ducks & Vancouver Canucks to open 1998 season in Japan
1997 Thirty-nine bodies found in the Heaven's Gate cult suicides
1998 Oued Bouaicha massacre in Algeria; 52 people killed with axes and knives, 32 of them babies under the age of 2.
1999 The "Melissa worm" infects Microsoft word processing and e-mail systems around the world.
1999 A jury in Michigan finds Dr. Jack Kevorkian guilty of second-degree murder for administering a lethal injection to a terminally ill man
2000 72nd Academy Awards: "American Beauty", Kevin Spacey & Hilary Swank win
2000 Nabisco Championship Women's Golf, Mission Hills CC: Karrie Webb of Australia wins the first of her 2 titles in this event, 10 strokes ahead of defending champion Dottie Pepper
2001 Kazakhstan's Prime Minister opens an oil pipeline from the giant Tengiz Field to the Russian port of Novorossiysk on Monday, giving the Central Asian producer its first direct link to international markets
2001 PGA Players Championship, TPC at Sawgrass: Tiger Woods wins the first of his 2 PC's, 1 stroke ahead of runner-up Vijay Singh of Fiji
2005 The Taiwanese government calls on 1 million Taiwanese to demonstrate in Taipei, in opposition to the Anti-Secession Law of the People's Republic of China. Around 200,000 to 300,000 attend the walk.
2005 "Doctor Who" returns to BBC TV after 16 years with the debut of Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose
2006 In Scotland the prohibition of smoking in all substantially enclosed public places comes into force
2006 Burma's military junta officially names Naypyidaw, a new city in Mandalay Division, the new capital (Yangon previous capital)
2006 PGA Players Championship, TPC at Sawgrass: Canadian Stephen Ames shoots a final round 67 to complete biggest win of his career by 6 strokes from Retief Goosen of South Africa
2012 Macky Sall elected as President of Senegal
2012 Canadian filmmaker James Cameron becomes the first person to visit Challenger Deep, the deepest point on Earth in over 50 years
2013 Ariana Grande's first single, "The Way", is released
2014 Taavi Rõivas becomes Prime Minister of Estonia
2014 Laureus World Sports Awards, Istana Budaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Sportsman: Sebastian Vettel; Sportswoman: Genzebe Dibaba; Team: Germany Men's National Football team
2015 Richard III of England (1452-1485) is reburied at Leicester Cathedral in England, after being discovered under a carpark in Leicester in 2012
2016 US primary elections: Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders wins Washington, Hawaii and Alaska
2017 Anti-corruption protests in Russia result in hundreds arrested including opposition leader Alexei Navalny
2017 Mass protests in Chile over country's privatised pension system
2017 Carrie Lam is first woman elected to lead Hong Kong by Beijing-influenced electoral commission
2018 US, European Union and Ukraine expel more than 100 Russian diplomats in response to Russian use of nerve gas in UK
2018 E-commence group Alibaba Group and US car maker Ford unveil a car vending machine without sales people 5 stories high in Guangzhou, China
2018 Porn star Stormy Daniels claims she had an affair with Donald Trump in an interview with CBS's 60 Minutes and was later threatened to keep quiet
2018 US Federal Trade Commission confirms it will investigate Facebook over privacy concerns
2018 "The Black Panther" becomes the highest grossing superhero film in America earning $630.9m
2018 US soldier receives world's first penis and scrotum transplant at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland
2019 European Parliament votes for changes to copyright laws, making internet companies responsible for copyright infringements
2019 Stolen Pablo Picasso painting "Buste de Femme" (Dora Maar) (1938) recovered after 20 years by Dutch art detective
2019 Charges of staging fake racist and homophobic attack dropped against Justin Smollet by Chicago prosecutors
2019 Maker of Oxyconti, Purdue Pharma agrees to pay Oklahoma $270 million settlement ahead of trial accusing the company of fueling the opioid epidemic
2019 State of emergency declared in Rockland |County, New York, due to measles epidemic with unvaccinated children banned from public spaces for 30 days after 153 cases
2019 Michelle Obama's biography "Becoming" sells over 10 million copies according to its publisher Bertelsmann
2020 American cases of COVID-19 exceed all other countries on this date, with 81,578 cases and 1,180 deaths (New York Times)
2020 Record number of Americans file for unemployment - 3.3 million according to US Department of Labor
2020 US charges Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and other officials with "narco-terrorism", by flooding the US with drugs

[Richard Frost]

27th March

WORLD THEATRE DAY
Since 1962 World Theatre Day has been celebrated by ITI Centres, ITI Cooperating Members, theatre professionals, theatre organizations, theatre universities and theatre lovers all over the world on the 27th of March. This day is a celebration for those who can see the value and importance of the art form “theatre”, and acts as a wake-up-call for governments, politicians and institutions which have not yet recognised its value to the people and to the individual and have not yet realised its potential for economic growth.

“We gather to weep and to remember; to laugh and to contemplate; to learn and to affirm and to imagine”
Brett Bailey, Stage Director from South Africa, World Theatre Day Message Author 2014

EARTH HOUR
Started by WWF and partners as a symbolic lights-out event in Sydney in 2007, Earth Hour is now one of the world's largest grassroots movements for the environment. Held every year on the last Saturday of March, Earth Hour engages millions of people in more than 180 countries and territories, switching off their lights to show support for our planet. 

But Earth Hour goes far beyond the symbolic action of switching off - it has become a catalyst for positive environmental impact, driving major legislative changes by harnessing the power of the people and collective action.

Earth Hour is open-source and we welcome everyone, anyone, to take part and help amplify our mission to unite people to protect our planet.

On this day in history - 27th March

196 BC Ptolemy V ascends to the throne of Egypt.
1309 Pope Clement V excommunicates Venice and all its population.
1329 Pope John XXII issues 'In Agro Dominico' condemning some writings of Meister Eckhart as heretical.
1513 Spaniard Juan Ponce de León and his expedition first sight Florida
1599 English nobleman Robert Devereux becomes Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
1613 The first English child born in Canada at Cuper's Cove, Newfoundland to Nicholas Guy
1625 Charles I, King of England, Scotland and Ireland ascends the English throne
1642 The sixth Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Joseph takes office.
1668 English king Charles II gives Bombay to East India Company
1708 Pretender to the English throne James III flees to Dunkirk
1709 Dike at Hardinxveld breaks (Alblasserwaard flooded)
1713 Spain loses Menorca and Gibraltar to Britain under the Treaty of Utrecht
1721 France & Spain sign Treaty of Madrid
1782 Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain
1790 The modern shoelace with an aglet patented in England by Harvey Kennedy
1794 The United States Government establishes a permanent navy and authorizes the building of six frigates.
1794 Denmark and Sweden form a neutrality compact
1808 Joseph Haydn's oratorio "Die Schopfung" premieres in Vienna
1814 Battle at Horseshoe Bend: General Andrew Jackson defeats the Red Sticks, part of the Creek Indian tribe near Dadeville, Alabama
1836 1st Mormon temple dedicated (Kirtland, Ohio)
1841 1st US steam fire engine tested, NYC
1848 John Parker Paynard originates medicated adhesive plaster
1849 Joseph Couch patents steam-powered percussion rock drill
1855 Abraham Gesner patents kerosene
1860 M L Byrn patents "covered gimlet screw with a 'T' handle" (corkscrew)
1863 American Confederate President Jefferson Davis calls for this to be a day of fasting & prayer
1865 Siege of Spanish Fort, AL-captured by Federals
1866 Andrew Rankin patents the urinal
1866 US President Andrew Johnson vetoes civil rights bill; it later becomes 14th amendment
1868 The Lake Ontario Shore Railroad Company is organized in Oswego, New York.
1871 1st international rugby union match - Scotland 1, England 0 at Raeburn Place, Edinburgh
1873 35th Grand National: J. M. Richardson wins aboard 20/1 shot Disturbance by 6 lengths from Rhyshworth
1879 Longest championship fight (136 rounds)
1881 Rioting takes place in Basingstoke, Hampshire, in protest against the daily vociferous promotion of rigid Temperance by the Salvation Army.
1884 1st long-distance telephone call, Boston-NY
1885 47th Grand National: Jockey Ted Wilson wins his second consecutive GN aboard 10/3 favourite Roquefort
1890 A tornado strikes Louisville, Kentucky, killing 76 and injuring 200.
1896 58th Grand National: Former owner David Campbell wins aboard 40/1 outsider The Soarer
1900 Recognising that the war in South Africa is going to take a major commitment, Parliament passes the War Loan Act, calling for £35 million to support the fight against the Boers.
1903 65th Grand National: Percy Woodland aboard 13/2 chance Drumcree wins by 3 lengths from Detail
1906 Founding of the Alpine Club of Canada in Winnipeg, Manitoba
1908 70th Grand National: Henry Bletsoe wins aboard American 66/1 outsider Rubio
1910 Fire during a barn-dance in Ököritófülpös, Hungary, killed 312
1912 1st Japanese cherry blossom trees planted in Washington, D.C.
1914 1st successful non-direct blood transfusion is performed by Dr. Albert Hustin in Brussels
1914 76th Grand National: Bill Smith aboard Sunloch wins by 8 lengths from Trianon III
1915 Typhoid Mary [Mary Mallon] is arrested and returned to quarantine on North Brother Island, New York after spending five years evading health authorities and causing several further outbreaks of typhoid
1918 Moldova and Bessarabia join Romania
1920 Hermann Muller becomes German chancellor (SPD)
1924 Canada recognizes USSR
1924 New French government of Poincaré begins
1925 84th Grand National: Major John Wilson wins aboard 100/9 shot Double Chance; first year a tape, known then as a 'gate', used at the start line
1928 KGB-AM in San Diego CA begins radio transmissions
1928 US Ladies' Figure Skating championship won by Maribel Vinson
1928 US Men's Figure Skating championship won by Roger Turner
1929 US Ladies' Figure Skating championship won by Maribel Vinson
1929 US Men's Figure Skating championship won by Roger Turner
1930 1st US radio broadcast from a ship at sea
1931 Charlie Chaplin receives France's distinguished Legion of Honor
1931 John McGraw says night baseball will not catch on
1931 90th Grand National: 9 year old Grakle, at odds of 100/6 and ridden by jockey Bob Lyall wins by 1.5 lengths from 1929 winner Gregalach
1932 De Bataven soccer team forms in Gendt
1933 Farm Credit Administration (US) authorized
1933 Japan leaves League of Nations
1933 Polythene discovered by Reginald Gibson & Eric William Fawcett
1936 WOS-AM in Jefferson City Missouri goes off the air
1936 95th Grand National: Fulke Walwyn scores back-to-back GN victories aboard Reynoldstown at 10/1
1937 Feijenoord Stadion, home ground of Dutch football club Feyenoord Rotterdam and nicknamed De Kuip opens after 2 years in construction
1938 The Battle of Taierzhuang takes place.
1939 1st NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: U of Oregon beats Ohio State, 46-33; Ohio State forward Jimmy Hull is named tournament Most Outstanding Player
1940 Peter Fraser becomes Prime Minister of New Zealand after the death of his predecessor Michael Joeseph Savage from cancer
1941 Britain leases defense bases in Trinidad to US for 99 years
1941 Adolf Hitler signs Directive 27 (assault on Yugoslavia)
1941 Yugoslavian coup gets rid of pro-German Prince Paul
1942 -28] Allies raid German submarine base in St Nazaire
1942 Japan forces Java to use "Tokyo time" 1½ hour forward
1942 Joe Louis KOs Abe Simon in 6 to retain heavyweight boxing title (NYC)
1943 Assassination attempt on Van de Peat at Amsterdams census bureau
1943 Blue Ribbon Town (with Groucho Marx) 1st heard on CBS Radio
1943 US begins assault on Fondouk Pass, Tunisia
1944 1,000 Jews leave Drancy, France, for Auschwitz concentration camp
1944 2,000 Jews are murdered in Kaunas Lithuania
1944 40 Jewish policemen in Riga, Latvia, ghetto are shot by the Gestapo
1944 Children's Aktion-Nazis collect all the Jewish children of Lovno
1945 7th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Oklahoma State beats NYU, 49-44; Cowboys' center Bob Kurland is named tournament Most Outstanding Player
1945 British premier Winston Churchill sails to eastern banks of Rhine
1945 DePaul beats Bowling Green for NIT title
1945 Ella Fitzgerald and Delta Rhythm Boys record the Harold Arlen-Yip Harburg-Billy Rose song "It's Only a Paper Moon"
1945 General Eisenhower declares German defenses on Western Front broken
1945 US 20th Army corps captures Wiesbaden
1945 World War II: Operation Starvation, the aerial mining of Japan's ports and waterways begins.
1948 The Second Congress of the Workers' Party of North Korea is convened
1948 Just 11 days after being released from prison, Billie Holiday plays in front of a sold-out crowd at Carnegie Hall
1950 Jazz pianist, Erroll Garner's solo concert (Cleveland, Ohio)
1950 Netherlands recognizes People's Republic of China
1950 WHAS TV channel 11 in Louisville, Kentucky (CBS) begins broadcasting
1951 13th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Kentucky beats Kansas, 68-58; Wildcats' 3rd title; 16-team field is introduced
1951 Frank Sinatra records "I'm a Fool to Want You"
1952 Failed assassination attempt of West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer
1952 Sun Records of Memphis begins releasing records
1952 "Singin' in the Rain", musical comedy directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, starring Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds, premieres at Radio City Music Hall in NYC
1953 21 die in a train crash in Conneaut, Ohio
1955 9th Tony Awards: Desperate Hours & Pajama Game win
1955 Steve McQueen makes his network TV debut (Goodyear Playhouse, episode "The Chivington Raid")
1955 WPRI TV channel 12 in Providence, Rhode Island (ABC) begins broadcasting
1956 French commandos land in Algeria
1957 29th Academy Awards: "Around World in 80 Days", Ingrid Bergman, Yul Brynner win
1958 CBS Labs announce new stereophonic records
1958 Havana Hilton opens in Cuba, later HQ for Fidel Castro
1958 Nikita Khrushchev becomes Soviet Premier as well as First Secretary of the Communist Party
1961 Black demonstrators in Charleston staged ride-ins on street cars
1961 Failed assassination attempt on King Saif al-Islam Achmad of Yemen
1962 Ann Jellicoe's play "Knack" premieres in London
1962 Archbishop Rummel ends race segregation in New Orlean Catholic school
1962 Jacques Plante ties record winning 6th NHL Vezina trophy
1963 Beeching axe: Dr. Richard Beeching issues a report calling for huge cuts to the United Kingdom's rail network.
1964 1st true Pirate Radio station, Radio Caroline (England)
1964 The Great Alaska Earthquake (9.2 magnitude) and resulting tsunami kill 139 people in the largest US earthquake and second largest ever recorded
1964 Great Train Robbers sentenced to a total of 307 years behind bars
1964 UN troops arrive in Cyprus
1965 119th Grand National: Tommy Smith becomes first American jockey to win GN aboard US trained and owned horse, Jay Trump at 100/6
1968 Japanese Trade & Cultural Center (Japan Center) dedicated in San Francisco
1968 Suharto officially succeeds Sukarno as president of Indonesia
1969 Black Academy of Arts & Letters forms in Boston
1969 Launch of Mariner 7, flies 2,190-mi above southern Mars
1970 Ringo Starr releases his 1st solo album "Sentimental Journey"
1970 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1971 33rd NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: UCLA beats Villanova, 68-62; UCLA's 5th consecutive title; Villanova later disqualified, ineligible player Howard Porter
1971 The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (APNI) holds its first Annual Conference in the Ulster Hall in Belfast
1971 Wales clinches its 17th Five Nations Rugby Championship, 6th Grand Slam and 12th Triple Crown with a 9-5 win over France at Stade Colombes, Paris
1972 Adolph Rupp retires after 42 years of coaching University of Kentucky
1972 Venera 8 launches to explore Venus
1972 Wyoming officially names "Curt Gowdy State Park", in honor of the nationally recognized broadcaster
1972 Ulster Vanguard organise industrial strike against the imposition of direct rule on Northern Ireland by Westminster
1973 Dennis Amiss out for 99 v Pakistan, 3rd 99 in Test Cricket
1973 Jerry Garcia (Grateful Dead) stopped for speeding and LSD possession
1973 45th Academy Awards: "The Godfather", Marlon Brando & Liza Minnelli win. Marlon Brando then turns down the Oscar for best actor to protest Hollywood’s portrayal of Native Americans in film.
1976 Washington, D.C. underground Metro opens
1977 583 die in aviation's worst ever disaster when two Boeing 747s collide at Tenerife airport in Spain
1977 American tennis star Chris Evert wins her 4th and final WTA Tour Championship 2–6, 6–1, 6–1 against England's Sue Barker at Madison Square Garden, NYC
1978 40th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Kentucky beats Duke, 94-88; Wildcats 5th title; forward Jack Givens scores 41 points
1978 Bob Fosse's "Dancin'" opens at Broadhurst Theater NYC for 1,774 performances
1978 The Rutles mockumentary "All You Need is Cash" is shown on British TV
1979 US Supreme Court rules 8-1 that cops can't randomly stop cars
1980 "Happy New Year" opens at Morosco Theater NYC for 17 performances
1980 "Reggae" opens at Biltmore Theater NYC for 21 performances
1980 Elevator in Vaal Reefs gold mine, South Africa plunges more than 1900m killing all 23 miners aboard
1980 Mount St Helens becomes active after 123 years
1980 Norwegian oil platform Alexander Kielland collapses in the North Sea, killing 123 of its crew of 212
1981 John Lennon single "Watching the Wheels" released posthumously in UK
1981 "Blizzard of Ozz", the debut solo album by English rock musician Ozzy Osbourne, is released in the United States
1982 "Best Little Whorehouse..." closes at 46th St NYC after 1577 performances
1982 Imran takes 14-116 for cricket match v Sri Lanka at Lahore
1982 Randy Holt sets Wash Cap record of 34 penalty minutes
1983 Larry Holmes beats Lucien Rodriguez in 12 for heavyweight boxing title
1983 Neil Simon's "Brighton Beach Memoirs" premieres in NYC
1984 Premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe's rock musical "Starlight Express"
1984 Beginning of "tanker war": over the next 9 months, 44 ships, including Iranian, Iraqi, Saudi Arabian and Kuwaiti tankers, are attacked by Iraqi or Iranian warplanes or damaged by mines
1985 Billy Dee Williams receives a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
1986 Disney-MGM Studio Tour groundbreaking
1987 President Habre's troops reconquer Faya Largeau Chad
1988 Ice Dance Championship at Budapest won by Bestemianova & Bukin (URS)
1988 Ice Pairs Championship at Budapest won by E Valova & O Vasiliev (URS)
1988 Ladies' Figure Skating Championship in Budapest won by Katarina Witt (GDR)
1988 Men's Figure Skating Champions in Budapest won by Brian Boitano (USA)
1988 Ok-Hee Ku wins Standard Register Turquoise Classic Golf Tournament
1988 WrestleMania IV, Historic Atlantic City Convention Hall, NJ: Randy "Macho Man" Savage beats Ted DiBiase for WWF Heavyweight title
1988 PGA Players Championship, TPC at Sawgrass: Local resident Mark McCumber wins with record total 273 (−15), 4 strokes ahead of runner-up Mike Reid
1989 1st African American soap opera, "Generations" premieres on NBC-TV
1989 Delhi beat Bengal by innings & 210 to win Cricket's Ranji Trophy
1990 Bus accidentally touches high voltage wire in Karagpur India; 21 die
1990 NSW beat Queensland by 345 runs to win Sheffield Shield Final
1990 The United States begins broadcasting TV Martí to Cuba in an effort to bridge the information blackout imposed by the Castro regime.
1991 NCAA bans U of Minn football team from postseason play in 1992
1991 New Kid Donnie Wahlberg, arrested on arson charges in Kentucky
1991 Scotty Bowman inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a "builder" of the game
1992 Bruce Springsteen releases two music albums on the same day, "Human Touch" and "Lucky Town"
1993 Jiang Zemin appointed President of the People's Republic of China
1994 Church in Piedmont Alabama collapses in tornado, 19 killed
1994 Ice Dance Championship at Chiba Japan won by Gritschuk & Platov (RUS)
1994 Ice Pairs Championship at Chiba won by Shishkova/Vadim Naumov (RUS)
1994 Ladies Figure Skating Championship in Chiba won by Yuka Sato (JPN)
1994 World Men's Figure Skating Championship in Chiba won by Elvis Stojko of Canada
1994 The Eurofighter takes its first flight in Manching, Germany
1994 PGA Players Championship, TPC at Sawgrass: Australian Greg Norman sets scoring record of 264 (−24) to finish 4 strokes ahead of runner-up Fuzzy Zoeller
1994 Nabisco Dinah Shore Women's Golf, Mission Hills CC: Donna Andrews wins her only major title by 1 over British runner-up Laura Davies; Andrews birdies final hole while Davies makes bogey.
1995 67th Academy Awards: "Forrest Gump", Jessica Lange & Tom Hanks win
1995 "Back for Good" single released by British boy Band Take That, reaches No. 1 in 31 countries
1996 Rodgers & Hammerstein's musical "State Fair" opens at Music Box Theater, New York City; runs for 118 performances
1997 "Young Man From Atlanta" opens at Longacre NYC for 85 performances
1997 Martin Luther King's son meets James Earl Ray, his father's killer
1998 Chicago Bulls - Atlanta Hawks matchup at Georgia Dome in Atlanta, draws a crowd of 62,046, largest in any game in NBA history; Bulls win, 89-74
2000 Phillips explosion kills 1 and injures 71 in Pasadena, Texas.
2000 PGA Players Championship, TPC at Sawgrass: 1983 champion Hal Sutton leads wire-to-wire to win by a stroke ahead of runner-up Tiger Woods
2002 Passover Massacre: A suicide bomber kills 29 people in Netanya, Israel.
2004 HMS Scylla, a decommissioned Leander class frigate, is sunk as an artificial reef off Cornwall, the first of its kind in Europe.
2004 France beats England, 24-21 at Stade de France, Saint Denis to complete a Grand Slam and win the Six Nations Rugby Championship; England earns the Triple Crown
2005 Kraft Nabisco Championship Women's Golf, Mission Hills CC: Annika Sörenstam of Sweden wins event for the 3rd time, 8 strokes ahead of American Rosie Jones
2005 TV medical drama "Grey's Anatomy" created by Shonda Rhimes starring Ellen Pompeo and Sandra Oh debuts on ABC
2006 The United Nations Commission on Human Rights holds its final meeting.
2009 Situ Gintung, an artificial lake in Indonesia, fails killing at least 99 people.
2012 Danielle Steel’s novel “Betrayal” is published
2012 On This Day launches a sister site in Spanish, Hoy en la Historia
2013 12 people are killed in the Philippines after a mini-tornado causes a boat to capsize
2014 UN General Assembly condemns Russia's annexation of Crimea
2015 Russia's Soyuz TMA-16M launches to deliver three crew members to the international space station to research the long-term effects of micro gravity
2016 Suicide bomb kills more than 70 people at a park in Lahore, Pakistan, Taliban connected Jamaat-ul-
2019 Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announces the country is now a "space power" after successfully shooting down a satellite from space in a ballistic missile test
2019 UK Prime Minister Theresa May promises to stand down if parliament accepts her Brexit plan
2019 Former president of the Gambia Yahya Jammeh stole almost 1 billion from his country before his exile in 2017 according to a corruption report
2019 Facebook bans white nationalism and white supremacy following criticism that Christchurch terrorist able to live-stream his attack
2020 UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announces he has contracted COVID-19 but will continue to lead the country "thanks to the wizardry of modern technology" while in self-isolation
2020 $2.2 trillion stimulus package, largest in US history, signed into law by President Donald Trump saying "I never signed anything with a 'T' on it"

[Richard Frost]

28th March

WEED APPRECIATION DAY
Weed Appreciation Day on March 28th each year reminds us that some weeds are beneficial to us and our ecosystem.

Humans have used weeds for food and as herbs for much of recorded history. Some are edible and nutritious, while other weeds have medicinal value.

Do you remember as a small child the fun you had with dandelions? Well, these bright yellow flowers serve a purpose. Dandelions are a food source for insects and some birds. Humans eat young dandelion leaves and enjoy tea and wine made from the leaves and flowers. The Native Americans used dandelions to treat specific ailments. Nutritionally, dandelions contain a source of vitamin A and C, calcium, iron, and fibre

On this day in History 28th March

37 Roman Emperor Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, better known as Caligula (which means "little soldier's boots), accepts the titles of the Principate, entitled to him by the Senate
193 Roman Emperor Pertinax is assassinated by Praetorian Guards, who then sell the throne in an auction to Didius Julianus.
364 Roman Emperor Valentinian I appoints his brother Flavius Valens co-emperor
519 Pope Hormisdas reunites the Eastern and Western church, ending the Acacian schism in a ceremony in the cathedral of Constantinople
1535 Bloemkamp Abbey (Oldeklooster) attacked & destroyed in Friesland
1556 Karel V's son Philip II crowned King of Spain
1556 Origin of Fasli Era (India)
1738 Parliament sends an address to the king requesting that he demand redress from Spain (War of Jenkin's Ear)
1774 Britain passes Coercive Act against Massachusetts
1776 Juan Bautista de Anza finds the site for the Presidio of San Francisco
1794 Louvre opens to the public (although officially opened since August)
1794 Allies under the prince of Coburg defeat French forces at Le Cateau
1795 Partitions of Poland: The Duchy of Courland, a northern fief of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, ceases to exist and becomes part of Imperial Russia.
1796 Bethel African Methodist Church of Philadelphia is 1st US-African church
1797 Nathaniel Briggs of New Hampshire patents a washing machine
1799 New York State abolishes slavery
1802 Wilhelm Olbers discovers 2 Pallas, the second asteroid known to man
1804 Ohio passes law restricting movement of Blacks
1809 Peninsular War: France defeats Spain in the Battle of Medelin
1834 Senate censure President Jackson for taking fed deposits from Bank of US
1844 Jose Zorilla's "Don Juan Tenorio" premieres in Madrid
1845 Mexico drops diplomatic relations with US
1854 Britain and France declare war on Russia during the Crimean War
1859 1st performance of Johannes Brahms' 1st Serenade for orchestra
1860 First Taranaki War: The Battle of Waireka begins in New Zealand
1862 Skirmish at Bealeton Station, Virginia
1866 1st ambulance goes into service
1871 San Francisco Art Association holds open reception at 430 Pine
1879 41st Grand National: Garry Moore aboard 5/1 chance The Liberator wins by 2 lengths from Jackal
1881 "Greatest Show On Earth" formed by P. T. Barnum and James Anthony Bailey
1884 46th Grand National: Ted Wilson aboard 10/1 shot Voluptuary wins by 4 lengths from Frigate
1885 US Salvation Army officially organized
1890 52nd Grand National: Arthur Nightingall wins aboard 4/1 favourite Ilex
1891 1st world weightlifting championship won by Edward Lawrence in London, England
1896 Umberto Giordano's opera "Andrea Chenier" premieres at La Scala, Milan with Giuseppe Borgatti singing the title role
1902 27.9 cm precipitation at McMinnville, Tennessee (state record)
1904 Japanese troops advance in Korea, defeat the Russians at Chengiu, and capture the town
1905 The Lawa railway from Paramaribo to Dam railway opens in Suriname
1910 1st seaplane takes off from water at Martinques France (Henri Fabre)
1913 Guatemala becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty
1916 First performance of "Jerusalem" by George Parry set to words by William Blake at a 'Fight for Right' meeting at the Queen’s Hall, London
1917 Jews are expelled from Tel Aviv & Jaffa by Turkish authorities
1917 Puccini's "La Rondine" premieres in Monte Carlo
1919 78th Grand National: Ernie Piggott wins aboard Poethlyn; shortest price winner in history at 11-4
1920 Tomáš Masaryk elected President of Czechoslovakia
1920 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1920 affects the Great Lakes region and Deep South states
1920 Anton Denkin's White Russian troops defeated by Bolsheviks and Soviets at Novorossijsk on the Black Sea (The British aid Denkin in his escape)
1922 1st microfilm device introduced
1922 Stanley Cup Final, Mutual Street Arena, Toronto, ON: Toronto St Patricks (NHL) beat Vancouver Millionaires (PCHA), 5-1 for a 3-2 series win
1924 WGN-AM in Chicago IL begins radio transmissions
1924 83rd Grand National: Bob Trudgill wins aboard 25/1 shot Master Robert; last GN from a general riding start, now-familiar 'tape' introduced the following year.
1927 Majestic Theater opens at 245 W 44th St NYC
1929 Democratic constitution goes into effect in Ecuador
1930 1st performance of Walter Piston's Suite for orchestra (Boston)
1930 Turkish cities Constantinople and Angora change their names to Istanbul and Ankara
1933 1st SEC Men's Basketball Tournament: Kentucky beats Mississippi State, 46-27
1935 Robert Goddard uses gyroscopes to control a rocket
1935 Influential Nazi Propaganda film "Triumph of the Will" released showing Nuremberg rallies, commissioned by Adolf Hitler and directed by Leni Riefenstahl
1939 Dutch hunter shoots down British bombers
1939 Philip Barry's "Philadelphia Story" premieres in NYC
1939 Renaissance Big 5 win 1st pro basketball championship
1939 Spanish Civil War ends, Madrid falls to the Nationalists headed by Francisco Franco
1940 Construction begins of the exhibition center to host the Thessaloniki International Trade Fair
1941 Sea battle at Cape Matapan: British fleet under Cunningham defeats Italy
1942 -29] 234 RAF bombers attack Lubeck
1942 4th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Stanford beats Dartmouth, 53-38; Cardinal forward Howie Dallmar is named tournament Most Outstanding Player
1942 British naval forces raid Nazi occupied French port of St Nazaire
1944 6th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Utah defeats Dartmouth, 42-40; Utes' first title; small forward Arnie Ferrin is named tournament MOP
1944 Astrid Lindgren sprains ankle & begins writing "Pippi Longstocking"
1945 Last German V-1 (buzz bomb) attack on London
1946 Cold War: The United States State Department releases the Acheson-Lilienthal Report, outlining a plan for the international control of nuclear power.
1948 2nd Tony Awards: Mister Roberts win
1950 12th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: CCNY beats Bradley, 71-68; City College of NY first to win NCAA & National Invitational Basketball in same year
1952 US Ladies' Figure Skating championship won by Tenley Albright
1952 US Men's Figure Skating championship won by Richard Button
1953 "New Faces (of 1952)" closes at Royale Theater NYC after 365 performances
1953 "Stock exchanges open, dikes closed" raises 5,200,000 guilders
1953 7th Tony Awards: Crucible & Wonderful Town win
1953 KCAU TV channel 9 in Sioux City, IA (ABC) begins broadcasting
1953 US Ladies' Figure Skating championship won by Tenley Albright
1953 US Men's Figure Skating championship won by Hayes A Jenkins
1953 107th Grand National: Bryan Marshall wins aboard Irish 8-year old Early Mist; first of 3 consecutive GN victories for trainer Vincent O'Brien
1954 8th Tony Awards: Teahouse of the August Moon & Kismet win
1954 WKAQ TV channel 2 in San Juan, PR (TM) begins broadcasting
1955 NZ cricket all out for 26 v England at Eden Park
1957 1st National Curling Championship held
1959 11 days after Tibet uprising, China dissolves Tibet's government & installs Panchen Lama
1960 Pope John appoints the first Japanese, African & Filipino cardinals
1960 Scotch whisky factory explodes burying 20 fire fighters in Glasgow, Scotland
1962 Devastating 8 for 6 spell by Gibbs gives WI cricket victory over India
1962 Military coup in Syria, President Nazim al-Kudsi flees
1963 AFL's NY Titan's become the NY Jets
1964 1st pirate radio station near England (Radio Caroline)
1967 "Sherry!" opens at Alvin Theater NYC for 65 performances
1967 UN Secretary General U Thant makes public proposals for peace in Vietnam
1969 Greek poet and Nobel Prize laureate Giorgos Seferis makes a famous statement on the BBC World Service opposing the junta in Greece
1970 1,086 die when 7.4 quake destroys 254 villages in Gediz Turkey
1971 25th Tony Awards: Sleuth & Company win
1972 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1972 Wilt Chamberlain plays his last pro basketball game
1972 Elvis Presley records his final Top Ten hit, a cover of "Burning Love", written by Dennis Linde and first recorded by Arthur Alexander
1974 Rock group Raspberries breakup
1975 Wash Caps win 1st game on road after 37 straight road loses also
1976 AIAW Women's Basketball Tournament, Delta States beat Immaculata, 69-64 at Pennsylvania State University
1977 39th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Marquette beats North Carolina, 67-59; Warriors' first title; coach Al McGuire retires
1977 49th Academy Awards: "Rocky", Peter Finch & Faye Dunaway win
1977 Morarji Desai forms a government in India
1978 Daryl Gates becomes the 49th Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department
1979 British government of Jim Callaghan falls
1979 Lazarus & Vosburgh's "Day in Hollywood & night in Ukraine" premieres
1979 A partial meltdown at Three Mile Island nuclear plant in the US results in the release of radioactive gas and iodine into the atmosphere but no deaths
1981 Christa Rothenburger skates ladies' world record 500 m 40.18 sec)
1981 France performs nuclear test
1981 Gabi Schonbrunn skates ladies world record 3 km (4:21.70)
1981 Viv Richards scores century in the 1st Test at his home Antigua
1981 Yevgeni Kulikov skates world record 500m (36.91 secs)
1981 Martina Navratilova beats 16 year old American tennis prodigy Andrea Jaeger 6-3, 7-6 in the final of the WTA Tour Championships at Madison Square Garden, NYC
1982 12th Easter Seal Telethon raises $19,500,000
1982 1st NCAA Women's Basketball Championship: Louisiana Tech beats Cheney, 76-62; Lady Techsters' forward Janice Lawrence tournament MOP
1982 JN Duartes' Christian Democrats win elections in El Salvador
1982 Last AIAW Women's Basketball Championship, Rutgers beat Texas 83-77 in Philadelphia
1983 PGA Tournament Players Championship, TPC at Sawgrass: Hal Sutton comes from 4 strokes back with a final round 69 to win a rain-affected Monday finish by 1 stroke ahead of Bob Eastwood
1985 International Cometary Explorer measures solar wind ahead of Halley
1985 Neil Simon's play "Biloxi Blues" premieres in NYC
1985 STS 51-D vehicle moves to launch pad
1986 Extremist Sikhs kill 13 Hindus in Ludhiana, India
1986 John N McMahon, ends term as deputy director of CIA
1987 Stacking of Discovery's SRBs gets underway
1989 New Zealand wins America's Cup over Stars & Stripes, in a NY court
1990 Bengal beat Delhi in rained-out cricket Ranji Trophy final on quotient
1990 Michael Jordan scores 69 points, 4th time he scores 60 pts in a game
1990 US President George H. W. Bush posthumously awards Jesse Owens the Congressional Gold Medal
1991 Mike Tyson admits paternity to Kimberly Scarborough's son
1992 6th American Comedy Award: Cathy Ladman, Judy Watkins, Billy Crystal
1992 Ann Transon runs female world record 50k (3:35:31)
1992 PBA National Championship Won by Eric Forkel
1993 13th Golden Raspberry Awards: "Shining Through" wins
1993 Conservatives win French parliamentary election
1993 Type II supernova detected in M81 (NGC 3031)
1993 PGA Players Championship, TPC at Sawgrass: Nick Price of Zimbabwe sets a scoring record of 270 (−18) to finish 5 strokes ahead of Germany's Bernhard Langer
1993 Nabisco Dinah Shore Women's Golf, Mission Hills CC: Helen Alfredsson of Sweden wins her only major title, 2 strokes ahead of 3 runners-up; first non-American to win the event as a major
1994 Armed Zulus demonstrate in Johannesburg, over 53 killed
1994 Italy's right-wing alliance under Silvio Berlusconi wins election
1994 BBC Radio Five Live broadcasts for first time in United Kingdom
1995 Julia Roberts and Lyle Lovette split up
1995 Queensland beat S Aust to win 1st ever cricket Sheffield Shield
1995 World's largest bank-Japan's Mitsubishi Bank & Bank of Tokyo merge
1996 "Seven Guitars" opens at Walter Kerr Theater NYC
1997 "City" soap opera's final episode on ABC-TV
1999 18th NCAA Women's Basketball Championship: Purdue beats Duke, 62-45; Boilermakers' Ukari Figgs is named Most Outstanding Player
1999 PGA Players Championship, TPC at Sawgrass: David Duval wins by 2 strokes from Scott Gump; Duval's father Bob wins Senior Tour's Emerald Coast Classic on the same day
1999 Nabisco Championship Women's Golf, Mission Hills CC: 1992 champion Dottie Pepper wins the last of her 2 major titles, 6 strokes ahead of runner-up Meg Mallon
1999 WrestleMania XV, First Union Center, Philadelphia, PA: 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin beats The Rock in no disqualification match for the WWF Heavyweight title
2000 A Murray County, Georgia, school bus is hit by a CSX freight train (3 children die in this accident).
2003 In a "friendly fire" incident, two US A-10 Thunderbolt IIs from the 190th Fighter Squadron attack British tanks participating in the invasion of Iraq, killing British soldier Matty Hull
2004 Kraft Nabisco Championship Women's Golf, Mission Hills CC: Grace Park wins her only major title by 1 stroke, sinking a 6-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole; fellow South Korean Aree Song is runner-up
2004 PGA Players Championship, TPC at Sawgrass: 23-year old Australian Adam Scott holds on for his 2nd PGA Tour title, 1 stroke ahead of Irishman Pádraig Harrington
2005 The 2005 Sumatran earthquake rocks Indonesia, and at magnitude 8.7 is the second strongest earthquake since 1960.
2005 PGA Players Championship, TPC at Sawgrass: 48-year old Fred Funk becomes oldest event winner, 1 stroke ahead of runners-up Luke Donald, Tom Lehman, and Scott Verplank
2006 At least 1 million union members, students and unemployed take to the streets in France in protest at the government's proposed First Employment Contract law.
2007 Sri Lankan cricket fast bowler Lasith Malinga produces unprecedented sequence of 4 wickets in 4 balls, as South Africa scrambles to a 1-wicket Super 8's ICC World Cup win in Guyana
2009 The first cases of H1N1 swine flu in the United States occur in two people in California
2010 WrestleMania XXVI, Uni of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, AZ (72,219): Chris Jericho defeats Edge; John Cena downs Batista; The Undertaker beats Shawn Michaels
2013 143 rebels and 20 government troop are killed in conflict in Pibor County, Sudan
2013 15 students are killed and 7 are injured after a mortar strikes Damascus University
2013 Pope Francis becomes the first Pope to wash the feet of women in the Maundy Thursday service
2013 Banks in Cyprus re-open after having been closed for two weeks; the government agrees a 10 billion euro bailout deal with the EU and IMF
2014 Russia increases the price of gas to the Ukraine by 80%
2014 2 cases of Ebola are reported in Liberia among people who have travelled to Guinea
2017 US confirms likely it is behind the air strike in Mosul, Iraq, that led to collapse of a building that killed more than 100 civilians
2017 Britain introduces 1st new pound coin in 30 years with secret security feature inside to stop counterfeiting
2017 World's largest dinosaur footprint at 1.7 metres found in Kimberley, Western Australia
2017 US President Donald Trump signs Energy Independence executive order undoing Obama climate-control measures
2017 Cyclone Debbie strikes north east Queensland coast as a category 4 storm
2018 North Korea's Kim Jong-un meets Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing, China, his first trip outside of North Korea since coming to power in 2011
2018 At least 68 people die and scores are injured in a fire caused by a prison riot in the cells at the Carabobo state police headquarters in Valencia, Venezuela
2018 Captain Steve Smith and David Warner are suspended by Cricket Australia for 12 months, and Cameron Bancroft (9 months) for their part in the infamous ball-tampering scandal in South Africa
2019 European parliament bans single-use plastics, including cutlery and straws by 2021
2019 Study of a 71 year-old British woman who has never felt pain, for the first time understood as due to a gene mutation, published in British Journal of Anaesthesia
2020 US President Donald Trump makes grim projection that 240,000 American could die from COVID-19, even with restrictions in place