On March 18th...

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1123 The first Latern Council opened in Rome.

1229 Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II crowned himself King of Jerusalem.

1314 Jacques de Molay, the 23rd and last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, was burned at the stake by King Philip IV of France.

1325 According to Mexican legend, Tenochtitlan was founded.

1438 Albrecht II of Habsburg became King of Germany.

1509 Emperor Maximilian I named Margretha land guardian of the Netherlands.

1532 The English Parliament banned payments by the English church to Rome.

1608 Susenyos was formally crowned Emperor of Ethiopia.

1673 Lord Berkley sold his half of New Jersey to the Quakers.

1745 Sir Robert Walpole, Prime Minister of England, died.

1766 The Stamp Act was repealed by the British Parliament.

1782 American politician John C. Calhoun was born.

1793 The first republican state in Germany, the Republic of Mainz, was declared by Andreas Joseph Hofmann.

1813 David Melville patented an apparatus for making coal gas.

1818 The U. S. Congress approved the first pensions for government service.

1834 The first railroad tunnel in the United States was completed, in Pennsylvania.

1836 David G. Burnet was chosen as the first President of the Republic of Texas.

1837 Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th President of the United States, was born.

1844 Composer Nicholas Rimsky-Korsakov was born.

1850 Henry Wells and William Fargo formed American Express in Buffalo, New York.

1858 Inventor Rudolf Diesel was born.

1869 Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of Great Britain, was born.

1870 Lake Merritt in Oakland, California, became the first National Wildlife Preserve in the United States.

1874 Hawaii signed a treaty with the United States granting exclusive trading rights.

1881 Barnum & Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth opened.

1882 "Wild West" figure Morgan Earp was shot to death.

1890 Otto von Bismarck stepped down as Chancellor of Germany.
1890 Massachusetts organized the first state naval militia.

1891 Great Britain was linked to the European mainland by telephone.

1892 Lord Stanley presented a silver challenge cup for hockey.

1899 William Pickering discovered the Saturnian moon Phoebe.

1903 The French government dissolved all Catholic religious orders.

1911 North Dakota enacted a hail insurance law.

1913 The Grover Cleveland Birthplace was opened to the public.
1913 King George I of Greece was assassinated in Thessaloniki.

1915 The French battleship Bouvet exploded, killing 640 persons.

1919 The Order of DeMolay was formed in Kansas City.

1921 About 1,000 people died when the steamer Hong Koh ran aground off Swatow, China.

1926 Actor Peter Graves was born.

1927 American composer John Kander was born.

1931 The first electric shavers went on sale in the United States.

1932 Author John Updike was born.

1936 F.W. de Klerk, President of South Africa, was born.

1937 A gas explosion in a New London, Texas, school killed 294 persons.

1938 Singer Charley Pride was born.

1939 Georgia ratified the Bill of Rights.

1940 Italian dictator Benito Mussolini agreed to join Adolf Hitler's war against France and Britain.

1943 Actor Kevin Dobson was born.

1947 William C. Durant, founder of General Motors, died.

1948 Philips began experimental television broadcasting.

1950 Actor Brad Dourif was born.

1951 Jazz musician Bill Frisell was born.

1953 An earthquake killed 250 people in western Turkey.
1953 The Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee.
1953 Indiana defeated Kansas 69-68 in the 15th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship.

1957 Vice-President Carlos P. Garcia was sworn in to succeed Ramón Magsaysay as President of the Philippines.
1957 A Bolivian airliner crashed into the Andes about 100 miles northeast of Cochabamba, Bolivia, killing all 19 persons aboard.

1959 President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Hawaii Statehood Bill.
1959 Former Colombian President General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla was found guilty of violating the constitution and degrading the presidency during his tenure in office.
1959 A fireworks factory explosion near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, killed 13 persons.
1959 Singer Irene Cara was born.

1962 Five persons were reported killed, 77 were injured, and 2,700 homes were damaged when an earthquake hit Albania.
1962 The French government and the Algerian nationalist organization signed a peace treaty.
1962 Actor Thomas Ian Griffith was born.
1962 Singer James McMurtry was born.

1963 Singer-actress Vanessa Williams was born.

1964 Bonnie Blair, Olympic gold medal speedskater, was born.

1965 The Poppin' Fresh Pillsbury Dough Boy was introduced.
1965 Farouk, former King of Egypt, died in exile.

1966 General Suharto formed a government in Indonesia.

1967 South Vietnam's Constituent Assembly adopted a draft constitution for civilian government.
1967 The oil tanker Torrey Canyon grounded on a reef west of Land's End, England.

1970 Cambodian Chief of State Norodom Sihanouk was ousted by right-wing military leaders.
1970 U. S. Post Office workers went on strike.
1970 The NFL selected Wilson as its official football supplier and the scoreboard as the official timekeeper.
1970 Queen Latifah, actress-talk show host, was born.

1979 Rock singer Adam Levine was born.

1971 A landslide into Lake Tanahuani, in Chungar, Peru, killed 200 people.

1977 President Marien Ngouabi of Congo was assassinated.

1980 A Vostol rocket exploded on the launch pad while being refueled, killing 50 persons.
1980 Psychologist Erich Fromm died.

1982 Singer Teddy Pendergrass was paralyzed in a car accident.

1989 A 4,400-year-old mummy was found in the Pyramid of Cheops.

1990 Thirteen paintings with a total value of more than $500 million were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts.
1990 East Germany held its first free elections.

1991 The Philadelphia 76ers retired Wilt Chamberlain's #13 jersey.

1996 A nightclub fire in Quezon City, Philippines, killed 162 persons.

1997 A Russian AN-24 crashed in Turkey, killing 50 persons.

2010 Actor Fess Parker died.

2011 The Messenger spacecraft entered orbit around Mercury.

2013 Explosions killed 25 persons at a bus park in Kano, Nigeria.
2013 A car bombing killed 10 persons and injured 20 in Mogadishu, Somalia.
2013 A series of bombings and shootings across Iraq killed 98 persons and injured 248.

2014 Russia formally annexed Crimea.

2016 Actor Joe Santos died.

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This page was last updated on June 03, 2018.