On March 20th...

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1413 King Henry IV of England died.

1602 The United Dutch East Indian Company was formed.

1774 The British Parliament passed the Boston Port Act, closing Boston Harbor until colonists paid for damages done during the Boston Tea Party.

1800 Alessandro Volta reported his discovery of the electric battery in a letter to Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society of London.

1811 Painter George Caleb Bingham was born.

1815 Napoleon Bonaparte returned to power in France.

1816 The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed its right to review state court decisions.

1820 Alexandru Ioan Cuza, first Prince of Romania, was born.

1828 Poet and dramatist Henrik Ibsen was born.

1834 Educator Charles W. Eliot was born.

1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was published.

1861 An earthquake destroyed Mendoza, Argentina.

1885 John Matzeliger patented a shoe lacing machine.

1886 The first AC power plant in the United States began commercial operation in Massachusetts.

1890 The General Federation of Women's Clubs was founded.
1890 Tenor Lauritz Melchior was born.

1904 Psychologist B.F. Skinner was born.

1906 Actor Ozzie Nelson was born.

1907 American politician Ellis Arnall was born.

1908 Actor Michael Redgrave was born.

1911 The National Squash Tennis Association was formed.

1917 Gideon Sundback received a patent for what is now known as a zipper.

1921 Upper Silesia voted for amalgamation with Germany.

1922 The USS Langley was commissioned as the U.S. Navy's first aircraft carrier.
1922 Television director Carl Reiner was born.

1924 The Montreal Canadiens defeated the Vancouver Millionaires for the Stanley Cup.

1928 Fred Rogers, of "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" fame, was born.

1931 Actor Hal Linden was born.

1935 The radio show "Your Hit Parade" premiered.

1937 Country musician Jerry Reed was born.

1939 Martin Brian Mulroney, Prime Minister of Canada, was born.

1948 Hockey player Bobby Orr was born.

1954 LaSalle defeated Bradley 92-76 to win the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship.

1956 Tunisia gained its independence from France.
1956 Mount Bezymianny on Kamchatka Peninsula exploded.

1957 Film director Spike Lee was born.

1964 The European Space Research Organization was established.

1965 UCLA defeated Michigan 91-80 to win the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship.

1969 John Lennon married Yoko Ono.

1972 An avalanche killed 19 mountain climbers on Japan's Mount Fuji.
1972 The Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated a car bomb on Donegall Street in Belfast, killing 7 persons and wounding 148.

1973 "Police Story" premiered on NBC-TV.

1974 Television journalist Chet Huntley died.

1976 Patricia Hearst was convicted of participating in a bank robbery carried out by the Symbionese Liberation Army.

1980 An earthquake shook Mount St. Helens in Washington.

1985 Libby Rhodes became the first woman to win the Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Race.

1988 Mike Tyson KO'd Tony Tubbs in the 2nd round for the heavyweight boxing title.

1990 Namibia gained its independence from Great Britain.
1990 The Los Angeles Lakers retired Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's #33.
1990 Singer Gloria Estefan broke her collarbone in a bus accident.

1995 Poison gas was released in a Tokyo, Japan, subway; 12 persons died, about 4,700 were injured.

1999 Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones completed the first ever non-stop balloon circumnavigation of the world.
1999 The first Legoland outside of Europe opened in Carlsbad, California.

2004 The Phoenix Suns retired Charles Barkley's number.
2004 Queen Juliana of the Netherlands died.

2005 A magnitude 6.6 earthquake struck Fukuoka, Japan.

2010 U.S. Congressman and Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall died.

2016 Barack Obama became the first U. S. President to visit Cuba since 1928.
2016 Anker Jorgensen, former Prime MInister of Denmark, died.

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This page was last updated on February 03, 2018.