Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/March
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March 1: Independence Day in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992); Saint David's Day in Wales; Mărţişor in Romania and Moldova; Martenitsa in Bulgaria
- 1565 – Portuguese knight Estácio de Sá founded the city of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro (St Sebastian of the January River) in honour of King Sebastian I.
- 1872 – Yellowstone National Park, one of the first national parks in the world, was established.
- 1896 – Ethiopia won the decisive Battle of Adwa over Italy, ending the First Italo-Abyssinian War.
- 1919 – Korea under Japanese rule: The Samil Movement began with numerous peaceful protests in Korea, but was brutally suppressed by the Japanese police and army.
- 1954 – The 15-megaton hydrogen bomb Castle Bravo was detonated (pictured) on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, resulting in one of the worst cases of radioactive contamination ever caused by nuclear testing.
More events: February 29 – March 1 – March 2
March 2: Mothering Sunday in the United Kingdom (2008); Laetare Sunday in Western Christianity (2008); Maslenitsa begins in Russia (2008); Independence Day in Morocco
- 1836 – Texas Revolution: At a convention in Washington-on-the-Brazos, the Mexican state of Texas adopted a declaration of independence from Mexico, establishing the Republic of Texas.
- 1865 – Second Taranaki War: Protestant missionary Carl Sylvius Völkner died at the hands of Hauhau militants in Opotiki for working as an agent for George Grey, Governor-General of New Zealand.
- 1943 – World War II: Australian and American air forces attacked and destroyed a large convoy of the Japanese Navy at the Battle of the Bismarck Sea in the Bismarck Sea north of the island of Papua New Guinea.
- 1970 – Rhodesia formally broke its links with the British crown and declared itself a republic.
- 1978 – Aboard the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 28 (insignia patch pictured), Czech Vladimír Remek became the first person not from the Soviet Union or the United States to go into space.
More events: March 1 – March 2 – March 3
March 3: Casimir Pulaski Day in Illinois (2008); Liberation Day in Bulgaria (1878); Hinamatsuri in Japan
- 1585 – The Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, Italy, a theatre designed by the Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, was inaugurated.
- 1776 – American Revolutionary War: Samuel Nicholas (pictured) and the Continental Marines successfully landed on New Providence and captured Nassau in the Bahamas.
- 1878 – The signing of the Treaty of San Stefano established Bulgaria as an autonomous principality in the Ottoman Empire.
- 1931 – "The Star-Spangled Banner", originally a poem written by American author Francis Scott Key after watching the Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812, officially became the national anthem of the United States.
- 1958 – Nuri as-Said became the Prime Minister of Iraq for the 14th time.
- 1997 – The Sky Tower in Auckland, the tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere at 328 metres (1,080 ft), opened.
More events: March 2 – March 3 – March 4
- 1461 – Wars of the Roses in England: Lancastrian King Henry VI (pictured) was deposed by his Yorkist cousin, who then became King Edward IV.
- 1681 – King Charles II of England granted Quaker William Penn a charter for the Pennsylvania Colony.
- 1769 – French astronomer Charles Messier first noted the Orion Nebula, a bright nebula visible to the naked eye in the night sky situated south of Orion's Belt, later cataloguing it as Messier 42 in his List of Messier objects.
- 1849 – According to urban legend, President pro tempore of the U.S. Senate David Rice Atchison became the de jure U.S. President for one day after Zachary Taylor refused to be sworn into office on a Sunday when his predecessor James Polk's term expired.
- 1980 – Robert Mugabe of the Zimbabwe African National Union was elected to head the first government in Zimbabwe.
More events: March 3 – March 4 – March 5
March 5: Lei Feng Day in the People's Republic of China
- 1770 – The pelting of British soldiers with snowballs soon escalated into a riot in Boston, Massachusetts, leaving at least five civilians dead.
- 1824 – Britain officially declared war on Burma, beginning the First Anglo–Burmese War.
- 1850 – The Britannia Bridge, a tubular bridge of wrought iron rectangular box-section spans crossing the Menai Strait between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales, opened.
- 1872 – American entrepreneur and engineer George Westinghouse patented the air brake for trains to stop more reliably.
- 1946 – The term "Iron Curtain" was popularized by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (pictured) during a speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, USA.
- 1970 – The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, an international treaty to limit the spread of nuclear weapons, entered into force.
- 1999 – Paul Okalik was elected as the first Premier of the Canadian territory of Nunavut.
More events: March 4 – March 5 – March 6
March 6: Independence Day in Ghana (1957)
- 1836 – Texas Revolution: Mexican forces captured the Alamo after a 13-day siege.
- 1869 – Dmitri Mendeleev presented the first Periodic Table of Elements to the Russian Chemical Society.
- 1899 – The German chemical and pharmaceutical company Bayer registered Aspirin as a trademark.
- 1945 – Petru Groza (pictured) of the Ploughmen's Front, a party closely associated with the Communists, became Prime Minister of Romania.
- 1964 – In a radio broadcast, Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad announced that American boxer Cassius Clay would change his name to Muhammad Ali, symbolizing his new identity as a member of the religious, social and political organization.
- 1988 – In Operation Flavius, the British Special Air Service killed Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers Daniel McCann, Seán Savage and Mairéad Farrell while they were conspiring to bomb a parade of British military bands in Gibraltar.
More events: March 5 – March 6 – March 7
March 7: Teachers' Day in Albania
- 161 – Following the death of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus agreed to become co-Emperors in an unprecedented arrangement in the Roman Empire.
- 1277 – Étienne Tempier, Bishop of Paris, promulgated a Condemnation of 219 philosophical and theological propositions that were being discussed at the University of Paris.
- 1862 – American Civil War: Union forces engaged Confederate troops at the Battle of Pea Ridge in Pea Ridge, Arkansas, fighting to a victory one day later that essentially cemented their control in Missouri.
- 1945 – World War II: In Operation Lumberjack, Allied forces seized the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine in Remagen, enabling them to establish and expand a lodgement on German soil that changed the entire nature of the conflict on the Western Front.
- 1950 – The Soviet Union issued a statement denying that German nuclear physicist Klaus Fuchs (pictured) had served as a Soviet spy.
More events: March 6 – March 7 – March 8
March 8: International Women's Day; Mother's Day in various European countries
- 1702 – Princess Anne (pictured) became the Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland, succeeding William III.
- 1782 – American Revolutionary War: Almost 100 Native Americans in Gnadenhutten, Ohio died at the hands of Pennsylvanian militiamen in a mass murder known as the Gnadenhutten massacre.
- 1966 – Nelson's Pillar, a large granite pillar with a statue of Lord Nelson on top in Dublin, Ireland, was destroyed by a bomb.
- 1983 – The Cold War: During a speech to the National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando, Florida, U.S. President Ronald Reagan described the Soviet Union as an "evil empire".
- 1985 – A failed assassination attempt on Islamic cleric Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah in a car-bombing in Beirut killed more than 80 people and injured almost 200 others.
More events: March 7 – March 8 – March 9
March 9: Baron Bliss Day in Belize
- 1841 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that captive Africans who seized control of La Amistad, the trans-Atlantic slave-trading ship carrying them, had been taken into slavery illegally.
- 1842 – Nabucco, an opera by Italian Romantic composer Giuseppe Verdi, premiered at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan.
- 1862 – American Civil War: In the world's first major battle between two powered ironclad warships, the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia fought to a draw at the Battle of Hampton Roads near the mouth of Hampton Roads in Virginia.
- 1945 – World War II: A bomb raid on Tokyo by American B-29 heavy bombers started a firestorm, killing over 100,000 people.
- 1959 – Barbie (pictured), the world's best-selling doll, debuted at the American International Toy Fair in New York City.
More events: March 8 – March 9 – March 10
March 10: Great Lent begins in Eastern Christianity (2008); Commonwealth Day in the Commonwealth of Nations (2008); Canberra Day in the Australian Capital Territory (2008)
- 241 BC – The Roman Republic defeated Carthage at the Battle of the Aegates Islands, a naval battle off the coast of the Aegadian Islands near the western coast of the island of Sicily, ending the First Punic War.
- 1831 – King Louis-Philippe of France created the French Foreign Legion as a unit of foreign volunteers because foreigners were forbidden to serve in the French Army after the 1830 July Revolution.
- 1861 – Toucouleur forces led by El Hadj Umar Tall seized Ségou and conquered the Bamana Empire in present-day Mali.
- 1906 – More than a thousand coal miners were killed in the Courrières mine disaster in Northern France, Europe's worst mining accident.
- 1952 – Forbidden by law to seek re-election, former President Fulgencio Batista (pictured) staged a coup d'état to resume control in Cuba.
- 2000 – The NASDAQ stock market index peaked at 5048.62, the high point of the dot-com boom.
More events: March 9 – March 10 – March 11
March 11: Independence Day in Lithuania (1990)
- 1649 – The Peace of Rueil was signed, signaling an end to the opening episodes of the Fronde, France's civil war, after little blood had been shed.
- 1801 – Russian Emperor Paul I was assassinated in his bedroom by a band of dismissed officers, leading the way for his son Alexander I to accede the throne.
- 1848 – Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin become the first Prime Ministers of the Province of Canada to be democratically elected under a system of responsible government.
- 1917 – World War I: British forces led by Sir Stanley Maude captured Baghdad, the southern capital of the Ottoman Empire.
- 1966 – In power since World War II, President Sukarno of Indonesia (pictured) was essentially ousted by Suharto and the military after being forced to sign the Presidential Order Supersemar.
- 2003 – The International Criminal Court, a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression, held its inaugural session.
More events: March 10 – March 11 – March 12
March 12: Independence Day in Mauritius (1968); Arbor Day in China
- 1881 – Andrew Watson made his debut with the Scotland national football team and became the world's first black international football player.
- 1930 – Gandhi began the Dandi March (pictured), a 24-day walk to defy the British tax on salt in colonial India.
- 1938 – Anschluss Österreichs: Austria was occupied by the Wehrmacht, and subsequently became Ostmark, a province within the German Reich.
- 1940 – The Moscow Peace Treaty was signed, ending the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union.
- 1993 – A series of thirteen coordinated bomb explosions took place in Bombay, India, killing over 250 civilians and injuring over 700 others.
- 2003 – Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić was assassinated in Belgrade.
More events: March 11 – March 12 – March 13
- 1781 – German-born British astronomer and composer William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus while in the garden of his house in Bath, Somerset, England, thinking it was a comet.
- 1845 – German composer Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto, one of the most popular and most frequently performed violin concertos of all time, was first played in Leipzig, with violinist Ferdinand David as soloist.
- 1943 – The Holocaust: Nazi troops under SS Hauptsturmführer Amon Göth began liquidating the Jewish Ghetto in Kraków, Poland, sending about 8,000 Jews deemed able to work to the Plaszow labor camp. Those deemed unfit for work were either killed or sent to die at the Auschwitz concentration camp.
- 1954 – Viet Minh forces under Vo Nguyen Giap (pictured) unleashed a massive artillery barrage on the French military to begin the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, the climactic battle in the First Indochina War.
- 1996 – In the deadliest attack on children in the history of the United Kingdom, a spree killer killed sixteen children and a teacher at a primary school in Dunblane, Scotland before committing suicide.
More events: March 12 – March 13 – March 14
March 14: New Year's Day in the Sikh Nanakshahi calendar; White Day in Japan; Pi Day
- 1590 – French Wars of Religion: Henry of Navarre and the Huguenots defeated the forces of the Catholic League under the Duc de Mayenne at the Battle of Ivry in Ivry, France.
- 1757 – British Royal Navy Admiral John Byng was court-martialled and executed by firing squad for breaching the Articles of War when he failed to "do his utmost" during the Battle of Minorca at the start of the Seven Years' War.
- 1794 – American inventor Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin (pictured).
- 1978 – Israeli-Lebanese conflict: The Israel Defense Forces began Operation Litani, invading and occupying southern Lebanon, and pushing Palestine Liberation Organization troops north up to the Litani River.
- 1991 – The "Birmingham Six", wrongly convicted of the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings in Birmingham, England, were released after sixteen years in prison.
More events: March 13 – March 14 – March 15
March 15: Saint Patrick's Day (observed, 2008); National Day in Hungary; Hōnen Matsuri in Japan
- 44 BC – Dictator Julius Caesar of the Roman Republic was stabbed to death by Marcus Junius Brutus and several other Roman senators on the Ides of March.
- 1311 – The Catalan Company defeated Walter V of Brienne in the Battle of Halmyros and took control of the Duchy of Athens, a Crusader state in Greece.
- 1877 – Cricketers representing England and Australia began the first match in Test cricket at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
- 1917 – Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (pictured) was forced to abdicate in the February Revolution, ending three centuries of Romanov rule.
- 1939 – Nazi German troops began their occupation of Czechoslovakia and established the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
- 1988 – Iran–Iraq War: Iraqi forces began attacking the Kurdish town of Halabja with chemical weapons, killing up to 5,000 people.
More events: March 14 – March 15 – March 16
March 16: Palm Sunday in Western Christianity (2008)
- 1660 – The Long Parliament, originally called by King Charles I of England in 1640 following the Bishops' Wars, dissolved itself.
- 1872 – In the first-ever final of the FA Cup, the world's oldest football (soccer) competition, Wanderers F.C. defeated Royal Engineers A.F.C. 1–0 at The Oval in Kennington, London.
- 1926 – At the then-Asa Ward Farm in Auburn, Massachusetts, American scientist Robert H. Goddard (pictured) launched the world's first liquid-fueled rocket, a 10-foot (3 m) cylinder that reached an altitude of about 41 feet (12 m) and flew for two-and-a-half seconds before falling to the ground.
- 1968 – Vietnam War: American soldiers killed hundreds of unarmed civilians in the Sơn Mỹ village in the Sơn Tịnh district of South Vietnam.
- 1978 – The oil tanker Amoco Cadiz split in two after running aground on Portsall Rocks, about 3 miles (5 km) off the coast of Brittany, France, resulting in one of the largest oil spills ever.
More events: March 15 – March 16 – March 17
March 17: Saint Patrick's Day (Traditional date)
- 45 BC – Caesar's civil war: Julius Caesar scored his final military victory at the Battle of Munda, defeating the Optimate forces of Titus Labienus and Pompey the Younger.
- 624 – History of Islam: The Muslims of Medina defeated the Quraysh of Mecca at the Battle of Badr in Badr, present-day Saudi Arabia, a victory that has been attributed to divine intervention or the genius of Muhammad.
- 1958 – Vanguard 1 (pictured), the first solar-powered satellite, was launched. It is the oldest human-launched object still in Earth orbit today.
- 1969 – Golda Meir of the Labor Party became the first female Prime Minister of Israel.
- 2004 – Unrest in Kosovo broke out, resulting in more than 20 killed, 200 wounded, and the destruction of several Serb Orthodox churches and shrines.
More events: March 16 – March 17 – March 18
March 18: Flag Day in Aruba (1976)
- 1229 – Sixth Crusade: Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II crowned himself King of Jerusalem, although this was technically improper since his wife Queen Yolande of Jerusalem had died, leaving their infant son Conrad as the rightful heir.
- 1871 – French President Adolphe Thiers ordered the evacuation of Paris after an uprising broke out as the result of France's defeat in the Franco–Prussian War, leading to the establishment of the Paris Commune government.
- 1892 – Canadian Governor General Frederick Stanley of Preston pledged to donate what would become the Stanley Cup (1893 version pictured), today the oldest professional sports trophy in North America, as an award for Canada's top-ranking amateur ice hockey club.
- 1921 – The Polish–Soviet War, which determined the borders between the Republic of Poland and Soviet Russia, formally concluded with the signing of the Peace of Riga.
- 1965 – Cosmonaut Alexey Leonov donned a space suit and ventured outside the Voskhod 2 spacecraft, becoming the first person to walk in space.
More events: March 17 – March 18 – March 19
March 19: Father's Day in various countries
- 1279 – The Song Dynasty in Imperial China ended with a victory by the Yuan Dynasty at the Battle of Yamen off the coast of Xinhui, Guangdong Province.
- 1687 – The search for the mouth of the Mississippi River led by French explorer René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (pictured) ended with a mutiny and his murder in present-day Texas.
- 1915 – Pluto was photographed for the first time, 15 years before it was eventually discovered by Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory.
- 1941 – The Tuskegee Airmen, the first all-African American unit of the United States Army Air Corps, was activated.
- 1978 – In response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the United Nations called on Israel to immediately withdraw its forces from Lebanon, and established the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.
- 1982 – Argentine forces led by Alfredo Astiz occupied South Georgia, precipitating the Falklands War against the United Kingdom.
More events: March 18 – March 19 – March 20
March 20: Equinox (05:48 UTC, 2008); International Earth Day (2008); Nowruz in Iran, Central Asia, and Zoroastrianism (2008); Mawlid (Sunni Islam, 2008); Fast of Esther begins at dawn (Judaism, 2008); Purim begins at sundown (Judaism, 2008); Maundy Thursday (Western Christianity, 2008); Independence Day in Tunisia
- 1852 – Uncle Tom's Cabin, a novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe (pictured) about slavery in the United States before the Civil War, was first published.
- 1883 – Eleven countries signed the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, one of the first intellectual property treaties.
- 1987 – The antiretroviral drug zidovudine (AZT) became the first antiviral medication approved for use against HIV and AIDS.
- 1995 – The Aum Shinrikyo sect carried out a poison gas attack on the Tokyo Subway, killing 12 people and injuring thousands of others with sarin.
- 2003 – A U.S.-led coalition force invaded Iraq, beginning the Iraq War.
More events: March 19 – March 20 – March 21
March 21: Good Friday (Western Christianity, 2008); Purim ends at sundown (Judaism, 2008); Naw-Rúz in the Bahá'í calendar; Benito Juárez Day in Mexico; World Poetry Day
- 1556 – Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer (pictured), one of the founders of Anglicanism, was burnt at the stake in Oxford, England for heresy.
- 1800 – Pius VII was crowned Pope in Venice with a temporary papal tiara made of papier-mâché.
- 1804 – The Napoleonic code, the French civil code established under Napoleon, entered into force.
- 1960 – Police in Sharpeville, South Africa opened fire on a group of unarmed black demonstrators who were protesting pass laws, killing almost 70 people and wounding about 180 others.
- 1980 – The United States announced the boycott of the Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan.
- 1990 – Formerly known as South West Africa, Namibia gained independence from South Africa, with Sam Nujoma as its first President.
More events: March 20 – March 21 – March 22
March 22: Holi in Hinduism (2008); Holy Saturday in Western Christianity (2008); World Day for Water
- 238 – Because of his advanced age, both Gordian I and his son Gordian II were proclaimed Roman Emperors.
- 1622 – The Powhatan Confederacy under Chief Opchanacanough killed almost 350 English settlers around Jamestown, a third of the Colony of Virginia's population.
- 1765 – The Parliament of Great Britain passed the Stamp Act, adding fuel to the growing separatist movement in the Thirteen Colonies in British North America.
- 1784 – The Emerald Buddha of Thailand was installed at the Wat Phra Kaew on the grounds of the Grand Palace in Bangkok.
- 1849 – First Italian War of Independence: After capturing the fortress town of Mortara, forces led by Austrian General Joseph Radetzky von Radetz (pictured) routed Sardinian troops at the Battle of Novara.
- 1963 – Please Please Me, the first album recorded by The Beatles, was released.
More events: March 21 – March 22 – March 23
March 23: Easter in Western Christianity (2008); Republic Day in Pakistan; Day of Hungarian–Polish Friendship in Hungary and Poland
- 1775 – American Revolution: Patrick Henry (pictured) made his "Give me liberty or give me death" speech to the Virginia House of Burgesses, urging the legislature to take military action against the British Empire.
- 1801 – Tsar Alexander I acceded to the Russian throne after his father Paul I was murdered in his bedroom at St. Michael's Castle.
- 1933 – The Reichstag passed the Enabling Act, giving Chancellor Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers in Germany.
- 1940 – Pakistan Movement: The All India Muslim League adopted the Lahore Resolution, calling for greater autonomy in British India.
- 1996 – Lee Teng-hui was elected President of the Republic of China in the first direct presidential election in Taiwan.
More events: March 22 – March 23 – March 24
March 24: Easter Monday in Western Christianity (2008); World Tuberculosis Day
- 1603 – King James VI of Scotland acceded to the throne of England and Ireland, unifying the crowns of the three kingdoms for the first time.
- 1882 – German physician Robert Koch (pictured) announced the discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a bacterium that causes tuberculosis.
- 1976 – Dirty War: President Isabel Perón of Argentina was kidnapped and deposed in a bloodless coup d'état.
- 1989 – The tanker Exxon Valdez spilled more than 10 million U.S. gallons of oil into Prince William Sound, Alaska, causing one of the most devastating man-made environmental disasters at sea.
- 1999 – Kosovo War: NATO launched air strikes against Yugoslavia, marking the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign country.
More events: March 23 – March 24 – March 25
March 25: Mawlid in Shi'a Islam (2008); Struggle for Human Rights Day in Slovakia; Independence Day in Greece
- 1306 – Robert the Bruce was crowned King of Scotland at Scone near Perth.
- 1634 – Lord Baltimore, his younger brother Leonard Calvert, and a group of Catholic settlers founded the English colony of Maryland.
- 1655 – Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens (pictured) discovered Titan, the largest natural satellite of the planet Saturn.
- 1802 – France and the United Kingdom signed the Treaty of Amiens, temporarily ending the hostilities between the two during the French Revolutionary Wars.
- 1807 – The Slave Trade Act became law, abolishing the slave trade in the British Empire.
- 1918 – The Belarusian People's Republic was established during World War I, when Belarus was occupied by the German Empire according to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
More events: March 24 – March 25 – March 26
March 26: Independence Day in Bangladesh (1971)
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- 1027 – Pope John XIX crowned Conrad II as Holy Roman Emperor.
- 1636 – Utrecht University, one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands and one of the largest in Europe, was established.
- 1971 – After the Pakistan Army attempted to curb the Bengali nationalist movement in Operation Searchlight, East Pakistan declared its independence from Pakistan to form Bangladesh (original 1971 flag pictured), starting the Bangladesh Liberation War.
- 1973 – The first episode of The Young and the Restless was broadcast, eventually becoming the most watched daytime drama on American television from 1988 onwards.
More events: March 25 – March 26 – March 27
March 27: Feast day of Rupert of Salzburg in the Roman Catholic Church
- 1513 – Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León (pictured) first sighted Florida, purportedly while searching for the Fountain of Youth in the New World.
- 1794 – To protect American merchant ships from Barbary pirates, the United States Congress passed the Naval Act to establish a naval force of six frigates, which eventually became the United States Navy.
- 1964 – The Good Friday Earthquake and subsequent tsunamis devastated Anchorage, Alaska, killing over 130 people.
- 1998 – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the drug Viagra for use as a treatment for erectile dysfunction, the first pill to be approved for this condition in the United States.
- 2002 – A suicide bomber killed about 30 Israeli civilians and injured about 140 others at the Park Hotel in Netanya, triggering Operation Defensive Shield, a large-scale counter-terrorist Israeli military incursion into the West Bank, two days later.
More events: March 26 – March 27 – March 28
March 28: Teachers' Day in the Czech Republic
- 193 – Praetorian Guards assassinated Roman Emperor Pertinax and sold the throne in an auction to Didius Julianus.
- 845 – According to a Legendary Norse saga, Viking raiders under Ragnar Lodbrok captured Paris and held the city for a huge ransom.
- 1795 – Partitions of Poland: The Duchy of Courland, a northern fief of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, ceased to exist and became part of the Russian Empire.
- 1979 – British Prime Minister James Callaghan (pictured) was defeated by one vote in a motion of no confidence by the House of Commons after his government struggled to cope with widespread strikes by trade unions during the "Winter of Discontent".
- 2005 – The Sumatra earthquake hit Indonesia, killing approximately 1,300 people.
More events: March 27 – March 28 – March 29
March 29: Earth Hour (20:00 local time in various areas, 2008)
- 1461 – Yorkist troops defeated Lancastrian forces at the Battle of Towton in Yorkshire, England, the largest battle in the Wars of the Roses up until that time with approximately 20,000 casualties.
- 1638 – Swedish settlers founded New Sweden near Delaware Bay, the first Swedish colony in America.
- 1807 – German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers (pictured) discovered 4 Vesta, the brightest asteroid and the second-most massive body in the asteroid belt.
- 1831 – Bosniak general Husein Gradaščević began an uprising against Sultan Mahmud II and the Ottoman Empire.
- 1911 – The M1911 single-action, semi-automatic pistol developed by American firearms designer John Browning became the standard-issue side arm in the United States Army.
More events: March 28 – March 29 – March 30
March 30: Spiritual Baptist/Shouter Liberation Day in Trinidad and Tobago
- 1282 – Sicilians began to rebel against the rule of the Angevin King Charles I of Naples, starting the War of the Sicilian Vespers.
- 1867 – U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward (pictured) negotiated the purchase of Alaska for US$7.2 million from Russia.
- 1912 – Sultan Abdelhafid signed the Treaty of Fez, making Morocco a French protectorate.
- 1940 – World War II: Wang Jingwei was installed by Japan as head of the puppet government in China.
- 1964 – Jeopardy!, the popular international game show created by Merv Griffin, made its debut on the NBC television network.
- 1981 – Trying to impress actress Jodie Foster, obsessed fan John Hinckley, Jr. shot and wounded U.S. President Ronald Reagan and three others outside the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C.
More events: March 29 – March 30 – March 31
March 31: Feast of the Annunciation in Western Christianity (observed, 2008); César Chávez Day in various U.S. states; Freedom Day in Malta
- 1778 – English explorer James Cook landed on Vancouver Island and claimed it for Great Britain.
- 1854 – Commodore Matthew Perry of the U.S. Navy signed the Treaty of Kanagawa, forcing the opening of Japanese ports to American trade.
- 1889 – The Eiffel Tower (pictured) was inaugurated in Paris, becoming a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world.
- 1903 – New Zealand inventor Richard Pearse reportedly flew in one of the first powered flying machines for a distance of several hundred metres, about nine months before the Wright brothers flew their Wright Flyer.
- 1917 – The Danish West Indies became the U.S. Virgin Islands after the United States paid Denmark US$25 million for the Caribbean islands.
More events: March 30 – March 31 – April 1
Selected anniversaries/On this day archive
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