March 15
March 15 is the 74th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (75th in Leap years). There are 291 days remaining.
In the Roman calendar March 15 was known as the Ides of March.
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Events
- 44 BC - Julius Caesar, Dictator of the Roman Republic, was stabbed to death by Marcus Junius Brutus, Decimus Junius Brutus and several other Roman senators on the Ides of March.
- 1311 - Battle of Halmyros: The Catalan Company defeats Walter V of Brienne to take control of the Duchy of Athens, a Crusader state in Greece.
- 1493 - Christopher Columbus returns to Spain after his first trip to the Americas.
- 1545 - First meeting of the Council of Trent.
- 1672 - Charles II of England issues the Royal Declaration of Indulgence.
- 1781 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Guilford Courthouse - Near present-day Greensboro, North Carolina, 1,900 British troops under General Charles Cornwallis defeat an American force numbering 4,400.
- 1783 - In an emotional speech in Newburgh, New York, George Washington asks his officers not to support the Newburgh Conspiracy. The plea is successful and the threatened coup d'etat never takes place.
- 1820 - Maine becomes the 23rd U.S. state.
- 1827 - The University of Toronto is chartered.
- 1848 - Revolution breaks out in Pest. The Habsburg rulers are compelled to meet the demands of the Reform party.
- 1877 - The first Test cricket match begins, between England and Australia.
- 1906 - Rolls-Royce Ltd. is registered.
- 1909 - Selfridges department store opens in London.
- 1916 - President Woodrow Wilson sends 12,000 United States troops over the Mexican border to pursue Pancho Villa.
- 1917 - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates himself and his son from the Russian throne and his brother the Grand Duke becomes Tsar.
- 1919 - The American Legion forms in Paris.
- 1922 - After Egypt gains nominal independence from the United Kingdom, Fuad I becomes King of Egypt.
- 1939 - World War II: Nazi troops occupy the remaining part of Bohemia and Moravia; Czechoslovakia ceases to exist.
- 1943 - World War II: Third Battle of Kharkov - the Germans retook the city of Kharkov from the Soviet armies in bitter street fighting.
- 1944 - World War II: Battle of Monte Cassino - Allied aircraft bomb the Nazi-held monastery and stage an assault.
- 1952 - In Cilaos, Réunion, 73 inches (1,870mm) of rain falls in one day, setting a new world record.
- 1956 - The Broadway musical My Fair Lady opens in New York City.
- 1961 - South Africa withdraws from the British Commonwealth.
- 1963 - Victor Feguer, a Federal prisoner, is put to death at the Fort Madison, Iowa prison. This would be the last execution of a Federal prisoner until the execution of Timothy McVeigh in 2001.
- 1970 - The Expo '70 world's fair opens in Osaka, Japan.
- 1988 - Publication of Marvin Minsky's Society of Mind theory.
- 1988 - The Halabja poison gas attack of the Iran-Iraq War begins.
- 1989 - The United States Department of Veterans Affairs is established.
- 1990 - Gulf War: Iraq hangs British journalist Farzad Bazoft for spying.
- 1990 - Mikhail Gorbachev is elected as the first executive president of the Soviet Union.
- 1990 - The Soviet Union announces that Lithuania's declaration of independence is invalid.
- 1990 - The ethnic clashes of Targu Mures begin on the anniversary of the Revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas.
- 1991 - Four Los Angeles, California police officers are indicted for the videotaped March 3, 1991 beating of motorist Rodney King during an arrest.
- 1991 - Germany formally regains complete independence after the four post-World War II occupying powers (France, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union) relinquish all remaining rights.
- 2004 - Announcement of the discovery of 90377 Sedna, the farthest natural object in the Solar system so far observed.
Births
- 1638 - Shunzhi Emperor of China
- 1767 - Andrew Jackson, 7th President of the United States, (d. 1845)
- 1779 - Lord Melbourne, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, (d. 1848)
- 1800 - Heinrich von Dechsen, geologist and mineralogist, (d. 1889)
- 1813 - John Snow, English physician (d. 1858)
- 1830 - Paul Heyse, German writer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature (d. 1914)
- 1835 - Eduard Strauss, composer (d. 1916)
- 1854 - Emil Adolf von Behring, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1901, (d. 1917)
- 1865 - Johan Halvorsen, Norwegian composer
- 1882 - Jim Lightbody, American runner (d. 1953)
- 1890 - Boris Nikolaevich Delaunay, Russian mathematician, (d. 1980)
- 1897 - Jackson Scholz, American sprinter
- 1905 - Berthold Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg, German lawyer and Nazi opponent (d. 1944)
- 1907 - Zarah Leander, actress and singer, (d. 1981)
- 1910 - Nick Stewart, American actor (d. 2000)
- 1912 - Lightnin' Hopkins, musician, (d. 1982)
- 1913 - Lew Wasserman, Hollywood agent (d. 2002)
- 1913 - MacDonald Carey, American actor (d. 1994)
- 1914 - Aniello Dellacroce, gangster (d. 1985)
- 1915 - Joe E. Ross, American actor and comedian (d. 1982)
- 1916 - Harry James, musician and band leader (d. 1983)
- 1918 - Richard Ellmann, biographer (d. 1987)
- 1919 - Lawrence Tierney, actor (d. 2002)
- 1920 - Lawrence Sanders, novelist (d. 1998)
- 1924 - Walter Gotell, actor (d. 1997)
- 1926 - Norm Van Brocklin, American football player (d. 1983)
- 1927 - Carl Smith, country music singer
- 1927 - Stanislaw Kania, Polish politician
- 1930 - Zhores Ivanovich Alferov, Russian physicist
- 1932 - Alan Bean, astronaut
- 1933 - Ruth Bader Ginsburg, associate justice of the United States Supreme Court
- 1933 - Roy Clark, country musician
- 1935 - Jimmy Swaggart, televangelist
- 1935 - Judd Hirsch, actor
- 1940 - Phil Lesh, musician (Grateful Dead)
- 1941 - Mike Love, musician (The Beach Boys)
- 1943 - David Cronenberg, director
- 1944 - Sly Stone, musician
- 1944 - Elisabeth Plessen, writer
- 1945 - Mark J. Green, lawyer, author, and public official
- 1946 - Bobby Bonds, baseball player (d. 2003)
- 1947 - Ry Cooder, guitarist
- 1948 - Sérgio Vieira de Mello, Brazilian diplomat (d. 2003)
- 1955 - Dee Snider, singer
- 1956 - Clay Matthews, American football player
- 1959 - Harold Baines, Major League Baseball player
- 1959 - Fabio, model
- 1961 - Ervin Nemeth, educator, author, and translator
- 1962 - Terence Trent D'Arby, singer
- 1963 - Bret Michaels, American musician (Poison)
- 1967 - Naoko Takeuchi, manga artist
- 1968 - Mark McGrath, musician (Sugar Ray)
- 1972 - Mark Hoppus, musician (Blink 182)
- 1975 - Veselin Topalov, chess player
- 1975 - Eva Longoria, actress
- 1976 - Jennifer 8. Lee, journalist
- 1977 - Joe Hahn, American musician (Linkin Park)
- 1981 - Young Buck, rapper (G-Unit)
- 1983 - Sean Biggerstaff, Scottish actor
- 1985 - Antti Autti, Finnish snowboarder
Deaths
- 44 BC - Julius Caesar, (b. 100 BC)
- 220 - Cao Cao, King of Wei
- 493 - Odoacer, King of Italy (murdered) (b. 435)
- 1311 - Walter V of Brienne, Duke of Athens
- 1820 - St Clemens Maria Hofbauer, patron saint of Vienna (b. 1751
- 1842 - Luigi Cherubini, Italian composer (b. 1760)
- 1849 - Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti, cardinal and linguist
- 1891 - Théodore de Banville, French writer (b. 1823)
- 1891 - Sir Joseph Bazalgette, civil engineer (b. 1819)
- 1898 - Henry Bessemer, English metallurgist (b. 1813)
- 1937 - H. P. Lovecraft, horror writer (b. 1890)
- 1941 - Alexej von Jawlensky, Russian painter (b. 1864)
- 1959 - Lester Young, American jazz musician
- 1966 - Abe Saperstein, creator of the Harlem Globetrotters
- 1975 - Aristotle Onassis, shipping magnate (b. 1906)
- 1980 - Robert Ritzenthaler, American ethnologist
- 1983 - Rebecca West, writer (b. 1892)
- 1990 - Farzad Bazoft, Iranian-born journalist (hanged)
- 1990 - Tom Harmon, American football player and broadcaster
- 1994 - Mai Zetterling, Swedish actress and director, (b. 1925)
- 1997 - Gail Davis, American actress
- 1998 - Benjamin Spock, American pediatrician and writer (b. 1903)
- 2001 - Ann Sothern, American actress (b. 1909)
- 2002 - Sylvester Weaver, television executive
- 2002 - William Scholl, American footwear designer
- 2003 - Dame Thora Hird, British actress (b. 1911)
- 2003 - Joseph Coors, American brewer
- 2004 - Sir William Pickering, head of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (b. 1910)
- 2004 - John Pople, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1925)
Saints of the day
Holidays and observances
- In the Roman calendar, the Ides of March.
- Turkey buzzards return to Hinkley, Ohio.
- International Day Against Police Brutality
External links
March 14 - March 16 - February 15 - April 15 -- listing of all days
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