March 15th in History

On this day in history —

  • Julius Caesar is assassinated (44 BCE)
  • Columbus returns to Spain after his visit to the New World (1493 CE)
  • Charles II issues the Royal Declaration of Indulgence, permitting religious freedom for Catholics in England (1672 CE)
  • 1,900 British soldiers defeat 4,000 colonial rebels at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse (1781 CE)
  • George Washington ends the Newburgh Conspiracy, a threatened rebellion of the Continental Army for Congressional failure to provided promised back pay and benefits (1783 CE)
  • Maine secedes from Massachusetts and forms its own state (1820 CE)
  • The Hungarian Revolution begins (1848 CE)
  • Rolls-Royce is founded (1906 CE)
  • Nicholas II, last Tsar of Russia, abdicates following the February Revolution (1917 CE)
  • The first dot-com domain, symbolics.com, is registered (1985 CE)
  • The “Two Plus Four Agreement” allows the reunification of Germany (1990 CE)
  • The Syrian Civil War begins (2011 CE)

It’s the birthday of —

  • Kevin Youkilis, baseball player (1979)
  • will.i.am, rapper (1975)
  • Terence Trent D’Arby, musician (1962)
  • Heather Graham, romance novelist (1953)
  • Ry Cooder, guitarist (1947)
  • David Cronenberg, director (1943)
  • Sly Stone, rocker (1943)
  • Mike Love, Beach Boy (1941)
  • Judd Hirsch, actor (1935)
  • Jimmy Swaggart, televangelist (1935)
  • Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Supreme Court justice (1933)
  • Alan Bean, astronaut (1932)
  • Norm Van Brocklin, football player (1926)
  • Lawrence Sanders, mystery writer (1920)
  • Harry James, bandleader (1916)
  • Macdonald Carey, soap star (1913)
  • Lightnin’ Hopkins, blues guitarist (1912)
  • Marjorie Merriweather Post, cereal heiress (1887)
  • Andrew Jackson, seventh U.S. president (1767)

Deaths —

  • Ken Reardon, hockey player (2008)
  • Bowie Kuhn, baseball commissioner (2007)
  • Ann Sothern, actress (2001)
  • Benjamin Spock, child care expert (1998)
  • Tom Harmon, football player (1990)
  • Dmitri Polyakov (Дмитрий Поляков), Cold War spy for the U.S. (1988)
  • Rebecca West, writer (1983)
  • Aristotle Onassis (Αριστοτέλης Ωνάσης) , magnate and Jackie husband (1975)
  • Abe Saperstein, shortest member of the Basketball Hall of Fame (1966)
  • Lester Young, saxophonist (1959)
  • H. P. Lovecraft, horror writer (1937)
  • Henry Bessemer, steel process inventor (1898)
  • Cao Cao (曹操), Chinese emperor (220)

Holidays —

  • Ides of March (Roman Empire)
  • Hōnen Matsuri (豊年祭) (Japan)
  • National Day (Hungary)
  • Constitution Day (Дзень Канстытуцыi) (Belarus)
  • Feast of Leocritia (Catholicism)