On March 15th...

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44 B.C. Julius Caeser was assassinated.

1545 The Council of Trent held its first session.

1744 King Louis XV of France declared war on Great Britain.

1754 Archibald Menzies, physician and naturalist, was born.

1767 Andrew Jackson, 7th President of the United States, was born.

1776 South Carolina declared its independence from Great Britain and set up its own government.

1781 The Battle of Guilford Courthouse (North Carolina) was fought.

1820 Maine was admitted as the 23rd state.

1827 The University of Toronto was chartered.

1854 Bacteriologist Emil Adolf von Behring was born.

1855 Louisiana established the first health board to regulate quarantines.

1867 Michigan became the first state to tax property to support a university.

1869 The Cincinnati Red Stockings became the first professional baseball team.

1873 Phi Sigma Kappa Fraternity was founded at Massachusetts Agricultural College.

1874 Harold Ickes, U. S. Secretary of the Interior under Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, was born.

1875 John McCloskey became the first U. S. Cardinal.

1887 William Alden Smith became the first salaried fish and game warden, in Michigan.

1889 Six U. S. and German warships were sunk by a typhoon in Apia harbor, Samoa; 200 sailors were killed.

1892 The escalator was patented by Jesse W. Reno.
1892 The State of New York unveiled an automaic ballot booth.

1898 Henry Bessemer, inventor and founder of the modern steel industry, died.

1904 Actor J. Pat O'Malley was born.

1906 Rolls Royce Ltd. was formed.

1907 Finland became the first European country to give women the right to vote.

1909 The first Selfridges department store opened in London.

1913 The first small claims court was established in Cleveland, Ohio.
1913 Woodrow Wilson held the first U. S. presidential press conference.
1913 Actor Macdonald Carey was born.

1916 U.S. troops were sent into Mexico to pursue Pancho Villa.
1916 Bandleader Harry James was born.

1917 Czar Nicholas II of Russia was forced to abdicate.

1919 The American Legion was founded.

1922 Sultan Faud was crowned King of Egypt.

1932 Astronaut Alan L. Bean was born.

1933 U. S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was born.

1934 The U. S. Information Service was established.
1934 Anthropologist Davidson Black died.

1935 Actor Judd Hirsch was born.
1935 Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart was born.

1937 The first American blood bank in a hospital was established at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Illinois.
1937 The first state contraceptive clinic opened in Raleigh, North Carolina.
1937 Author H. P. Lovecraft died.

1939 Germany occupied and annexed Czechoslovakia.

1940 Musician Phil Lesh was born.

1941 A blizzard in North Dakota killed 151 persons.
1941 Musician Mike Love was born.

1944 Musician Sly Stone was born.

1947 John Lee became the first black commissioned officer in the U. S. Navy.

1945 Billboard published its first album chart.

1950 New York City, New York, hired Dr. Wallace E. Howell as its official "rainmaker."

1951 United Nations forces recaptured Seoul, South Korea.

1954 The "CBS Morning Show" premiered.

1955 Musician Dee Snider was born.

1956 The musical My Fair Lady opened on Broadway.

1957 Great Britain became the third nation in the world to explode a nuclear bomb.
1957 A head-on collision of two trains between Tampere and Haemeenlinna, Finland, killed 24 persons and injured 51.

1959 Model Fabio was born.
1959 Businessman Duncan Hines died.

1960 The National Observatory at Kitt Peak was dedicated.
1960 Key Largo Coral Reef Preserve was established.

1961 Fire in the Shin-Otus colliery at Fuduoka, Japan, killed 26 men.

1962 Five research groups announced the discovery of anti-matter.
1962 Actor Jimmy Baio was born.
1962 Musician Terence Trent D'Arby was born.

1963 Singer Bret Michaels was born.

1964 Actress Elizabeth Taylor and actor Richard Burton were married.

1965 The first T.G.I. Friday's opened in New York City, New York.

1966 Riots broke out in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, California.

1967 Arthur da Costa e Silva was inaugurated President of Brazil.

1968 The U. S. Mint stopped buying and selling gold.

1970 The Japan World Exposition (EXPO 70) opened to the general public.

1971 The first internet chatroom debuted.

1972 A Danish airliner struck a mountain in Oman, killing 112 persons.
1972 The Godfather premiered in New York City, New York.

1974 Garastazu Médici resigned as President of Brazil.

1975 Actress Eva Longoria was born.
1975 Businessman Aristotle Onassis died.

1977 "Eight Is Enough" debuted on ABC-TV.

1982 Nicaragua suspended citizens' rights for 30 days.
1982 Actress Theresa Saladana was stabbed by an obsessed fan.

1985 The first internet domain name was registered (symbolics.com).

1987 Starlight Express opened at Gershwin Theater in New York City, New York.

1988 Eugene Marino was appointed the first black Archbishop in the United States.
1988 The St. Louis Cardinals officially moved to Phoenix, Arizona.

1989 The U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs was officially established as a Cabinet-level position.

1990 Fernando Collor de Mello was sworn in as President of Brazil.

1991 Four Los Angeles, California, policemen were charged with beating Rodney King.

1997 Pittsburgh Penguin player Joe Mullen became the first American to score 500 NHL goals.

1998 A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck southeastern Iran.
1998 Pediatrician Benjamin Spock died.

2001 The world'slargest oil rig, located off Brazil and operated by Petrobras, suffered three explosions.
2001 Actress Ann Sothern died.

2003 Hu Jintao became President of the People's Republic of China.
2003 Actress Thora Hird died.

2004 The discovery of 90377 Sedna, the farthest natural object in the Solar System so far observed, was announced.

2006 The 18th Commonwealth Games opened in Melbourne, Australia.

2007 Bowie Kuhn, former Commissioner of Baseball, died.

2009 Actor Ron Silver died.

2013 A double-decker bus veered off a pass in Cape Town, South Africa, killing 24 persons.
2013 A fireworks accident killed 16 persons in Tlaxcala, Mexico.

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This page was last updated on March 15, 2018.