March
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1 March 1954 – The U.S. tests a hydrogen bomb at Bikini Atoll, in the Marshall Island, Pacific Ocean.
1 March 1981 – Bobby Sands, member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) begins a hunger strike at HM Prison Maze, Dublin. He was protesting certain conditions in prison. During the strike he was elected as a Member of Parliament. He died after 65 days.
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2 March 1904 – birth of Theodore Seuss Geisel, (Dr Seuss), children’s author. Died 24 September 1991.
2 March 1917 – Russian Czar Nicholas II is forced to abdicate following the Bloody Sunday massacres in which palace guards opened fire on unarmed protesters, killing many of them. His abdication brought an end to 300 years of rule by the Romanov dynasty.
2 March 1942 – birth of Lou Reed (Lewis Allan Reed), American glam rock musician, singer and song-writer. Was lead singer of 60s alternative band, Velvet Underground, before going solo and having hits such as ‘Walk on the Wild Side’, ‘Vicious’, ‘Satellite of Love’ and ‘Perfect Day’. His albums Transformer and Berlin are considered among the most influential albums of the 20th century. Reed coined the term ‘Ostrich tuning’ in relation to a type of trivial tuning of strings. The six strings of a guitar are normally tuned to EADGbe. However in his 1964 song, The Ostrich (performed by the Primitives, which later became Velvet Underground) Reed tuned all six strings of his guitar to a single D note: DDDDdd. Died 27 October 2013.
2 March 1969 – The Concorde, the world’s first supersonic passenger jet, makes its maiden flight.
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3 March 1923 – the first edition of Time magazine is published featuring Joseph Gurney Cannon, a U.S. congressman.
3 March 1931 – the Star Spangled Banner becomes the United States national anthem. The song was written by Francis Scott Key on 14 September 1814.
3 March 1991 – In Los Angeles, three white police officers are filmed viciously bashing African American, Rodney King. The video of police brutality is shown publicly. Four police officers are charged in relation to the bashing, but are later acquitted. News of the acquittal led to the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
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4 March – National Grammar Day.
4 March 1918 – first case of Spanish flu is identified when company cook, Albert Gitchell reports sick at Fort Riley, Kansas. The influenza pandemic infected 500 million people across the globe, killing an estimated 50 to 100 million people, or between 3% and 6% of the global population. The 1918 Spanish Flu killed more people in 24 weeks than AIDS killed in 24 years. It killed more people in one year than the Bubonic Plague (Black Death), killed in a century. The flu affected the entire planet. It was named the Spanish flu after wartime censors in Germany, France, Britain and the US banned reporting of it in order to maintain morale. Spain was a neutral country during World War I, so the media was free to report the impact of the pandemic in that country, including the grave illness of Spanish King Alfonso XIII, giving rise to it being called the Spanish flu.
4 March 1987 – President Ronald Reagan admits that the U.S. negotiated the Iran-Contra deal, which swapped ‘military arms for hostages’ in order to secure the release of hostages from Iran.
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5 March 1946 – The term ‘Iron Curtain’ to describe the Soviet Union and Communist Europe, is coined in a speech by Winston Churchill.
5 March 1953 – USSR leader Joseph Stalin died at his dacha at Kuntseva,15km west of Moscow, following a stroke three days earlier. An autopsy suggested he may have died from ingesting warfarin, a rat poison which thins the blood, and that this may have caused the cerebral hemorrhage. The warfarin may have been added to his food by Deputy Premier Beria and Nikita Khrushchev. It was later revealed by former Politburo member, Vyacheslav Molotov in his 1993 memoirs that Beria had boasted of poisoning Stalin. Born 18 December 1878.
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6 March 1836 – death of Davy Crocket, American frontiersman, King of the Wild Frontier. Born 17 August 1786.
6 March 1899 – aspirin is patented in Germany by Friedrich Bayer and Co. It is the brand name for acetylsalicylic acid, which included an extract from the bark of the willow tree.
6 March 1984 – death of Martin Niemöller, German pastor. Niemöller originally supported Adolf Hitler, however, he soon realised he’d made a mistake. He blamed Hitler’s rise to power and the ensuing war and genocide, on the support and acceptance of his policies from churches and ordinary citizens, as well as the lack of speaking up against injustice. Niemöller is most well known for his statement, ‘First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me’. Born 14 January 1892.
6 March 2012 – A three-year old McNuggett shaped like George Washington is sold on eBay for $8,100 by a woman in Nebraska.
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7 March 1876 – Scottish-born Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone.
7 March 1958 – birth of Rik Mayall, British comedian and actor. Starred in The Young Ones, Bottom, Black Adder and Drop Dead Fred. Died 9 June 2014.
7 March 1988 – Cyclone Bola strikes Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne/East Cape region of north-eastern New Zealand. It is one of the costliest cyclones to hit N.Z. Three people were killed and thousands were evacuated.
7 March 1999 – death of Stanley Kubrick, legendary movie producer. Some of his movies include ‘2001 – A Space Odyssey’, ‘The Shining’, ‘A Clockwork Orange’, ‘Full Metal Jacket’ and ‘Eyes Wide Shut’. Born 26 July 1928.
7 March 2011 – Charlie Sheen fired from U.S. sitcom, ‘Two and a Half Men’ after allegations of drug abuse.
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8 March – International Women’s Day.
8 March 1010 – Abolqasem Ferdowsi completes his epic poem, Shahnameh (The Book of Kings). The poem is 50,000 verses long and tells the story of Persia, from creation to the Islamic conquest in the 7th century. Ferdowsi commenced the poem in 977AD. It is the national poem of Iran and is revered by Zoroastrians. The poem is celebrated every year in Iran and by Persian speakers in surrounding areas, including Afghanistan and Tajikstan.
8 – 12 March 1917 – February Revolution in Russia. Following International Women’s Day celebrations many women march out of factories and encourage male counterparts to participate in the strikes and rallies. The first of two events that formed the Russian Revolution, resulting in the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, which ended the Romanov dynasty and saw the creation of the Russian Provisional Government, initially led by Prince George L’vov and then by socialist Alexander Kerensky.
8 March 1973 – Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, Australia, is fire-bombed, killing 15 people. The building was on the corner of Amelia Street and St Paul’s Terrace. It was claimed the fire was part of an extortion attempt of night-club owners. The men found guilty of the crime, continued protesting their innocence from prison, claiming they were verballed.
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9 March 1454 – birth of Amerigo Vespucci in Florence, Italy. Italian explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer. Vespucci believed that Christopher Columbus’s discovery of the ‘New World’ or ‘East Asia’ (now known as the Bahamas) and the land mass beyond it, was not part of Asia, but a separate ‘super-continent’. America is named after Vespucci. Died 22 February 1512 in Seville, Spain.
9 – 10 March 1945 – A new U.S. offensive against Japan is launched in which more than 2,000 bombs were dropped on Tokyo over a 2 day period, killing around 80,000 people and destroying 40km2. The attack was known as ‘Operation Meetinghouse’ and is considered the single worst bombing in history. It is also believed the official death toll was greatly understated by both Japan and America for their own reasons. Operation Meetinghouse was only one of a number of fire (incendiary) bombings of Japan between 17 November 1944 and 15 August 1945. The fire-bombings demolished every Japanese city, except for Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which were reserved for the atomic bomb attacks of 6 and 9 August 1945. The incendiary and atomic bombings killed at least 2 million Japanese civilians.
9 March 1934 – birth of Yuri Gagarin, Soviet astronaut. On 12 April 1961, he became the first man into space and to orbit Earth while aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft.
9 March 1954 – birth of Bobby Sands, member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who died following a hunger strike while imprisoned at HM Prison Maze. He and other prisoners, were protesting against the removal of special category status which conferred a ‘Prisoner of War’ status on prisoners convicted of ‘Troubles-related’ offences in Ireland. Special Category Status meant they were subject to the Geneva Convention so didn’t have to wear prison uniforms or do prison work, were housed within paramilitary factions, received extra visits and more food. During his fast, Sands was elected to British Parliament as an anti-H-Block candidate (H-Block representing Maze Prison’s H-shaped block). Sands was one of 10 hunger strikers to die during the 1981 hunger strike. Died 5 May 1981
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10 March 1876 – Alexander Graham Bell makes the first successful telephone call. His first words were ‘Mr Watson, come here, I want to see you’.
10 March 1917 – British forces drive Turkish forces out of Baghdad, taking control of the city.
10 March 1964 – birth of Neneh Cherry, Swedish singer, song-writer.
10 March 1940 – birth of Carlos Ray Norris, aka Chuck Norris, American actor, martial artist and invincible superhero.
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11 March 1845 – death of Johnny Appleseed, American environmentalist. The exact date of Appleseed’s death is in dispute, with some sources claiming 18 March 1845 and others as ‘Summer 1845’. 11 March is celebrated in the USA as ‘Johnny Appleseed Day’. He was born as John Chapman and was a nurseryman who introduced significant numbers of apple trees to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia and Illinois. His legend grew while he was still alive because of his generous nature, care for animals and the environment, and respect he had for the American Indian tribes who believed he’d been touched by the ‘Great Spirit’ because of his love and admiration for them and the gospel message he preached. Born 26 September 1774.
11 March 1952 – birth of Douglas Adams, British author most famous for his Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, a comical science fiction trilogy in five parts. Also wrote Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul and co-wrote, The Meaning of Liff, The Deeper Meaning of Liff and Last Chance to See. Adams also wrote three episodes of Dr Who. Adams campaigned for conservation and the environment. Died 11 May 2001.
11 March 2003 – The United States renames the humble ‘french fries’ to ‘freedom fries’ in response to the French President, Jacques Chirac, condemning the U.S. actions in Iraq.
11 March 2004 – Madrid bombings in which 191 people are killed and 1800 injured. Basque Separatists were blamed for the bombing, although did not claim responsibility. Al Qaeda-linked terrorists were also suspected of the attacks as they occurred exactly 911 days after the 9/11 attacks in the USA. In 2007, 28 suspected terrorists with links to Al Qaeda were charged. On 31 October 2007, the Spanish National Court found 21 of the defendants guilty on charges ranging from forgery to murder. Most were sentenced to 23 years or less, however, three of the accused were sentenced to 42,924 years in prison.
11 March 2007 – an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter Scale strikes off the coast of Japan, triggering a tsunami that kills thousands of people and causes the Fukushima nuclear disaster, in which three of the six nuclear reactors melted down, releasing significant amounts of radiation. It was the world’s second largest nuclear disaster, surpassed only by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986.
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12 March 1922 – birth of Jack Kerouac, American beat-generation writer, ‘On the road‘. Died 21 October 1969.
12 March 1922 – Mahatma Gandhi arrested for promoting boycotts and civil unrest. He had campaigned for passive resistance to the British Empire and encouraged followers to not buy anything made in Britain or Europe.
12 March 1930 – Mahatma Gandhi, 61 years old, leads a peaceful protest against the ‘salt tax’ which the British Empire had introduced. He and his followers marched more than 320 km to the salt mines in Jalalpur.
12 March 1945 – death of Anne Frank, author of the ‘Diary of Anne Frank’, from typhus. She was born on 12 June 1929.
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13 March 1929 – The Butler Act is passed, making it illegal to teach the theory of evolution in schools in Tennessee. The Act was repealed in 1967.
13 March 1969 – Disney releases the hit movie, The Love Bug, based on a Volkswagen Beetle with a life of its own.
13 March 1979 – a left-wing military coup in Grenada overthrows Prime Minister, Sir Eric Gairy. His leadership was controversial with allegations of illegitimately winning the election, rigging a Miss World contest and calling for the United Nations to establish a committee to investigate UFOs and extraterrestrial life.
13 March 1996 – Sixteen children at the Dunblane Primary School in Scotland are shot dead by former boy scout leader, Thomas Hamilton. The massacre resulted in stricter gun laws in the United Kingdom.
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14 March – Pi Day – the date being 3/14 and of course, pi being 3.14.
14 March 1883. – death of Karl Marx, German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist and revolutionary socialist. One of the most influential economists in history. Marx’s work included Das Kapital, as well as The Communist Manifesto which he co-authored with German social scientist, Friedrich Engels. He fathered modern communism and socialism with the aim of putting the means of production in the hands of the workers to end exploitation at the hands of the bourgeoisie. He believed in the redistribution of wealth for the benefit of all, rather than accumulation of wealth in the hands of the few. The wealth, he believed, was created by the workers and should therefore be shared amongst the workers. He stated that communism would not succeed in the individual nation unless other nations supported it, hence the adoption of L’internationale as the socialist anthem following the ‘First International’ conference held by Marx and Engels in 1864. His international theory perhaps makes him the world’s first globalisationist. He believed socialism would not succeed in poverty, but required the building of wealth to succeed and distribution of wealth to be sustainable. Born 5 May 1818.
14 March 1879 – birth of Albert Einstein, German-born theoretical physicist. He developed the theory of relativity and of course his mass-energy equivalence formula, E=mc2 (energy = mass x speed of light squared). Died 18 April 1955, aged 76.
14 March 1939 – the independent republic of Czechoslovakia is dissolved, enabling occupation by Nazi forces following the 1938 Munich Act. Czechoslovakia had been created in 1918.
14 March 1983 – Reggae legend, Peter Tosh, plays the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne, Australia, as part of the annual Moomba festival.
14 March 2018. – death of Stephen Hawking at the age of 76, English theoretical physicist, cosmologist and author. In 1963, at the age of 21, Hawking was diagnosed with motor neuron disease, a degenerative condition that worsened over the years, leaving him paralysed and unable to speak. He communicated through a speech-generating device. Hawking proposed that black holes emit radiation and set out a theory of cosmology explained by a union of Einstein’s general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. Born 8 January 1942.
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15 March 44BC – Roman dictator and self-declared Emperor of Rome, Julius Caesar, stabbed to death on the Ides of March by Marcus Junus Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus, Decimus Junius Brutus and other Roman senators. Julius Caesar’s assassination was one of the events that marked the transition from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire.
15 March 270 – birth of St Nikolaos of Myra. Greek bishop of Myra (in what is now Turkey). He would often secretly leave gifts for people. The most famous story of his gift-giving related to a father who couldn’t afford the dowry for his three daughters, which would mean they’d remain unmarried. Legend has it that St Nikolaos secretly threw three bags of gold coins through the window one night so that there would be enough dowry for each. He became the model on which Santa Claus was based. Died 6 December 343.
15 March 1892 – founding of the English football club, Liverpool F.C.
15 March 1916 – President Woodrow Wilson sends thousands of troops into Mexico to capture the Mexican revolutionary, Pancho Villa.
15 March 1985 – the first internet domain name is registered, Symbolics.com.
15 March 1990 – Mikael Gorbachev elected as first president of the Soviet Union and held the office until 25 December 1991. He was the only person to occupy the office. He resigned as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on 24 August 1991 following a coup by hard-line members of the CPSU. During the coup, Gorbachev’s Presidency was briefly usurped from 19 August to 21 August 1991 by the Vice-President, Gennady Yanayev. On 8 December 1991, in a legally questionable move, the Soviet Union was dissolved with the agreement of Boris Yeltsin, Leonid Kravchuk and Stanislav Shushkevich, respective leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, creating the Commonwealth of Independent States (or Russian Commonwealth), whose leaders governed their own states.
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16 March 1968 – Mỹ Lai Massacre, when American forces in Vietnam massacred between 347 and 504 unarmed civilians, with victims including men, women, children and infants. (The US Army claims 347 were killed, Vietnam claims 504 were killed). Some of the women and girls were gang-raped and their bodies burnt. Twenty-six soldiers were charged over the massacre, but only Lieutenant William Calley Jr was found guilty. Calley was the Commanding Officer at time of the attack. He was sentenced to life imprisonment but only serviced three of half years under house arrest. A US helicopter crew that was hovering arrived on the scene when 347 or 504 people had been murdered. The crew were horrified at what they were witnessing and landed near a ditch full of bodies. The pilot, Hugh Thompson, asked a Sergeant on the ground to help get survivors out the ditch. The Sergeant stated he would help put them out of their misery. As the chopper took off, the crew witnessed US soldiers shoot an unarmed woman being kicked and shot at point blank range. The helicopter crew saw a bunker full of civilians who were cowering from the attack, while US forces were descending on them. The pilot, Hugh Thompson set the helicopter down between the civilians and US forces. Thompson exited the aircraft and told his gunner to cover him while he went to speak to the Americans. He ordered the gunner to open fire on the US forces if they attacked the civilians. No further attacks were launched thanks to the heroic actions of Thompson. The US Army initially covered up the massacre, however, eventually journalist Seymour Hirsch learned of the massacre and reported on it. The global outrage is considered one of the turning points of the war. Disturbingly, Calley was defended by many of his supporters and Thompson was vilified and called a traitor for his actions and for testifying against the US soldiers who committed the massacre. It wasn’t until 1998, 30 years later, that the US Army were willing to admit that Thompson had done the right thing by stopping the massacre.
16-17 March 1982 – New-wave band, Chrissie Hinde and the Pretenders play the Palais Theatre, Melbourne as part of an Australian tour. This was the band’s original four piece line-up, which had formed in 1978. Their single, ‘Brass in Pocket’ reached number 1 in the UK and numbr 14 on the US’s Billboard Charts. They had a number of other hit songs, such as ‘Message of Love’, and received much critical acclaim. On 14 June 1982, bassist Pete Farndon was sacked because of excessive drug use. Two days later, on 16 June 1982, guitarist James Honeyman-Scott died of heart failure after overdosing on cocaine/heroin. On 14 April 1983, Farndon drowned in his bathtub after collapsing from a heroin overdose. Left with two original band members, Hinde reformed the band in 1983 with two new musicians, however, over the years the band went through numerous line-up changes and often included session musicians. In March 2005, The Pretenders were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
16 March 1988 – Iraqi forces under the direction of Saddam Hussein, kill thousands of Kurds in Northern Iraq by unleashing a cocktail of gases, including mustard gas, sarin and cyanide.
16 March 1998 – Rwanda commences mass trials relating to the 1994 genocide of approximately 1,000,000 Tutsis and Hutus by Interahamwe militia which had been backed by the Rwandan government.
16 March 2003 – 23 year old, American peace activist, Rachel Corrie, is killed when run over by an Israeli bulldozer which she had tried to stop from demolishing a Palestinian house in Gaza.
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17 March – St Patrick’s Day.
17 March 180AD – death of Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor. Born 26 April 121AD.
17 March 1931 – The U.S. state of Nevada legalises gambling, which paves the way for the establishment of Las Vegas as the casino capital of America.
17 March 1966 – a hydrogen bomb is recovered from the floor of the Mediterranean Sea. The bomb had fallen from a U.S. B-52 after it collided with a KC-135 refuelling jet.
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18 March 1922 – Mahatma Gandhi sentenced to six years imprisonment by an Indian court for civil disobedience against the British Empire, which included boycotting British made goods. He ended up serving two years.
18 March 1965 – Russian cosmonaut, Lt Col Alexei Leonov becomes the first man to walk in space, when he exits his spacecraft for a short ‘walk’, which included a somersault.
18 March 2017 – Death of Chuck Berry, legendary American musician and pioneer of rock and roll. Famous for songs such as ‘Roll Over Beethoven’ and ‘Johnny B. Goode’. Born 18 October 1926.
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19 March 1932 – Opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Captain Frank de Groot is arrested when he rides up on his horse and cuts the ribbon before the Premier of New South Wales, Jack Lang, can cut it. Captain de Groot was a member of a right-wing paramilitary group called the New Guard who was politically opposed to the more left-wing Premier Lang. De Groot claimed he was protesting that the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Phillip Game, should have opened the Bridge.
19 March 1950 – death of Edgar Rice Burroughs, American science fiction author: Tarzan, Mars series (on which the 2012 movie ‘John Carter‘ was based). Born 1 September 1875.
19 March 1982 – death of Randy Rhoads, American heavy metal guitarist, played with Ozzy Osbourne and Quiet Riot. Rhoads was on tour with Ozzy Osbourne, heading to Orlando, Florida when their bus broke down near an airstrip at Leesburg, Florida. While some of the band continued sleeping in the van, the driver (an ex-commercial pilot) took one of the light planes for joy-rides with some of the band members. He didn’t have permission for the flights. Randy Rhoads and make-up artist, Rachel Youngblood were on the second flight. The pilot thought it would be funny to buzz the tour bus by flying as close as possible to it. On the third pass, the plane’s wing clipped the bus causing the plane to spiral out of control and for Rhoads and Youngblood’s heads to smash through the plane’s windshield. The plane severed the top of a pine tree before crashing into a garage at a nearby mansion. Rhoads, Youngblood and the pilot (Andrew Aycock) died instantly, all burnt beyond recognition. In 1987, Ozzy Osbourne released a live album in memory of Rhoads, called ‘Tribute’, it featured Osbourne and Rhoad’s work together. Rhoads was born on 6 December 1956.
19 March 2003 – The Second Gulf War commences as the U.S. led ‘Coalition of the Willing’ invade Iraq in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
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20 March – International Day of Happiness (first stated in 2012 by the UN).
20 March 1915 – birth of Sister Rosetta Tharpe (born Rosetta Nubin), gospel singer and the God Mother and inventor of rock and roll. In 1938 she released a hit record called ‘Rock Me’, which fused gospel and what would later became known as rock and roll. She became a sensation, playing sell-out concerts to audiences cheering on as she howled and stamped her way through tunes on her driving electric guitar and singing about faith, love and sexuality. Audiences of the 1930s and 40s, had never seen an act like Sister Rosetta, a gay, black woman punching out energetic songs that fused blues, jazz and gospel. In 1947, she brought to the stage a 14 year old boy named Richard Pennimen. He immediately decided he wanted a career as a musician. Ten years later he was releasing hits under the name, Little Richard. Pioneer rock musicians were inspired by Sister Rosetta, including Elvis Presley, Johnny Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. From 1957 and through the 1960s, Tharpe toured Europe and Britain. Died 9 October 1973.
20 March 1969 – John Lennon marries Yoko Ono in Gibraltar.
20 March 1995 – Sarin gas, a nerve agent, is released in a Tokyo subway, killing 12 people and injuring 5,500. A doomsday cult known as Aum Shinrikyo is responsible.
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21 March – International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
21 March – National Harmony Day in which Australia celebrates its cultural diversity.
21 March – World Poetry Day. Declared by UNESCO in 1999 to promote the reading, writing, publishing and teaching of poetry.
21 March 1960 – Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa, when Afrikaner police opened fire on unarmed protestors in front of the police station, killing 69 people and wounding 180. In South Africa, every 21 March is a public holiday to celebrate human rights and commemorate the Sharpeville massacre.
21 March 1963 – President John F. Kennedy orders the closure of federal penitentiary, Alcatraz (The Rock).
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22 March – World Water Day. Established by the UN in 1993 to encourage nations to implement UN initiatives and promote wise use of water resources. People are encouraged to not use their taps all day.
22 March 1418 – death (?) of Nicholas Flamel, French alchemist who purportedly made it his life’s work to decode a mysterious book, known as Book of Abramelin the Mage. Some believe he decoded the recipe for the Philosopher’s Stone, which could turn base metals into silver and gold, and that he also had the ‘elixir of life’ which reputedly made him and his wife immortal. It’s been claimed that he was seen at least 3 times after his death, which led to rumour that he had produced the elixir of life. He has been immortalised in numerous books and movies, including ‘Harry Potter‘ by J.K. Rowling, and the ‘Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel‘ series by Michael Scott. Born 28 September 1330.
22 March 1829 – Following the Greek War of Independence, the London Protocol (1829) is signed by Great Britain, Russia and France, establishing the borders of an internally autonomous Greece, although it remained under Ottoman Empire suzerainty. The Ottoman Empire was forced to accept the London Protocol following the Treaty of Adrianople. Greece achieved full independence from the Ottoman Empire with the signing of the London Protocol (1830) of 3 February 1830.
22 March 1916 – The last Emperor of China, Yuan Shikai, abdicates the throne and the Republic of China is restored.
22 March 1963 – the Beatles’ first album, Please, Please Me, is released in the UK.
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23 March 1919 – Benito Mussolini establishes the Italian National Fascist Party. In 1936, Mussolini joins forces with Adolf Hitler through the Axis Pact. Following Mussolini’s arrest in 1943, the party was dissolved. The Italian Constitution has banned the reformation of the INF.
23 March 1924 – birth of Bette Nesmith Graham in Dallas, Texas. Bette is the inventor of Liquid Paper. Her son, Mike Nesmith, was a member of 1960s UK/American pop/rock band, The Monkees.
23 March 1956 – Pakistan becomes the first Islamic republic in the world. Republic Day in Pakistan.
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24 March 1958 – Elvis Presley is conscripted into the U.S. Army as a Private. He was discharged on 2 March 1960 with the rank of Sergeant.
24 March 1989 – the oil-tanker, Exxon Valdez, is seriously damaged after running aground on a reef in Alaska’s Prince William Sound. Over 11 million gallons of crude oil was released, resulting in a five mile oil slick, which caused severe environmental damage, including the deaths of 250,000 birds, 3,000 sea otters, 300 seals, 22 killer whales and an untold number of fish.
24 March 1973 – Pink Floyd release their iconic ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ album, which is the 6th best-selling album of all time with over 40 million sales worldwide.
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25 March 1947 – birth of Elton John (Reginald Dwight), British singer-songwriter.
25 March 1957 – the Treaty of Rome is signed by France, West Germany, Holland, Belgium, Italy and Luxembourg, establishing the European Economic Community (EEC). In 1993, following the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty, the European Union (EU) was created, and the EEC incorporated to became known as the European Community (EC).
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26 March 1827 – death of Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer. One of the world’s most influential composers. He composed 9 symphonies, 5 concertos for piano, 32 piano sonatos and 16 string quartets. Baptised on 17 December 1770.
26 March 1971 – The country of East Pakistan declares its independence and renames itself Bangladesh.
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27 March 1963 – birth of Quentin Tarantino, Hollywood producer, director and writer. He has developed a cult-following with movies such as Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill, Natural Born Killers, Killing Zoe, True Romance, Four Rooms, From Dusk Till Dawn, Jackie Brown, Sin City, Hostel, Grindhouse, Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained.
27 March 2001 – California electricity prices rise by up to 46% following the partial deregulation of the electricity system.
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28 March 1930 – Turkey changes the name of Constantinople to Istanbul and Angora to Ankara.
28 March 1939 – end of the Spanish Civil War, with Nationalist General Francisco Franco taking control of Madrid after a 3 year war against the Government of the Second Spanish Republic, which was led by President Manuel Azaña. Franco established a fascist dictatorship which lasted for 36 years. The Civil War had been fought between Fascist and Republican forces. The Republicans were comprised of a number of socialist, communist and anarchist forces. The Soviet Union backed the Republicans, but opposed other socialist forces such as the POUM (Workers Party of Marxist Unification), PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party), CNT (Confederationo of anarcho-syndicalist trade unions) and others.
28 March 1964 – The Beatles have 10 hits in the Billboard charts at the same time.
28 March 2008 – President George W. Bush states that the USA is not in recession, but just slowing down and that tax cuts will stimulate spending. The US National Bureau of Economic Research declared the USA recession started in December 2007 and ended in July 2009.
28 March 2008 – The Pew Centre reports that the USA has the highest number of incarcerations in the world, at 2.3 million, which surpasses the number of prisoners in China, Russia and Iran. The USA also has the highest rate of imprisonments in the world as a percentage of population.
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29 March 1946 – birth of Billy Thorpe, English-born Australian rock legend. Front man for ‘Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs’. Died 28 February 2007.
29 March 1971 – Charles Manson and three of his followers are sentenced to death for the 1969 murders of actress Sharon Tate and six others. California abolished the death penalty in 1972, before the death sentences could be carried out. Even though California reinstated the death penalty in 1978, Manson is still held in prison.
29 March 1971 – A court martial finds Lieutenant Calley guilty of murder for his role in the massacre of 500 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai. Calley had been in charge of Charlie Company, 11th Infantry Brigade, which had raped, maimed, assaulted and murdered civilians living in My Lai. Calley was the only one of 26 members of Charlie Company to be convicted. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, but on the instructions of President Richard Nixon the following day was released to house arrest at Fort Benning, Georgia. During this time his sentence was cut to 10 years and he was paroled, only having served three and a half years while under house arrest. Many people protested the sentencing, claiming he was a scapegoat. Others were horrified that he was the only one in the chain of command to be charged and convicted.
29 March 1973 – America’s direct involvement in the Vietnamese War ends with the withdrawal of last USA troops from South Vietnam.
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30 March – Land Day, annual day of commemoration for Palestinians following the events of 1976 in which 6 Palestinian protestors were killed campaigning against the Israeli government’s announcement of plans to expropriate large amounts of Palestinian land for Israel. Land Day is recognised as a pivotal event in the struggle over Palestinian land and Palestine’s relationship to Israel.
30 March 1853 – birthday of Vincent Van Gogh, dutch painter. Died 29 July 1890.
30 March 1878 – the USA buys Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million.
30 March 1981 – US President Ronald Reagan shot at close range by John Hinckley, who was later found not guilty by reason of insanity. Hinckley was obsessed with actress Jodie Foster and thought he could get her attention and impress her, by killing the President. Also shot were Reagan’s press secretary, a Washington police officer and a Secret Service agent. None were injured fatally. Reagan underwent emergency surgery. He was released from hospital on 11 April 1981 and is the first president to survive an assassination attempt.
30 March 1987 – an anonymous buyer purchases the Vincent Van Gogh painting, ‘Sunflowers‘ for $36.3 million.
30 March 2002 – the Queen Mother dies at the age 101. Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was born 4 August 1900. She was the wife of King George VI and the mother of Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret Countess of Snowden. She was the Queen Consort of the United Kingdom and its Dominions. After the death of King George VI, she was known as Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother to avoid confusion with her daughter.
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31 March 1992 – the Warsaw Pact ends. This was a defence treaty between the Soviet Union and Communist states in Central and Eastern Europe.
31 March 1993 – death of Brandon Lee on set, while filming ‘The Crow’, during a scene in which Lee’s character, Eric Draven, was shot. A real bullet had been lodged in the barrel of the pistol used and when the dummy bullet was loaded and fired, it triggered the real bullet which hit and fatally wounded Lee. Lee is the son of martial arts champion, Bruce Lee. He was to marry his fiance, Eliza Hutton, on 17 April 1993. ‘The Crow’ was dedicated to Brandon and Eliza.
31 March 2005 – death of Terry Schiavo who was the centre of the most prolonged right-to-die case in U.S. history. She had collapsed in 1990 from a cardiac arrest and entered a coma from which she did not recover. Doctors declared her to be in a ‘persistent vegetative state’. Her husband petitioned the court in 1998 to remove her feeding tubes, but her parents opposed the request. The case ran from 1998 – 2005 with numerous petitions to either remove the tubes or to keep them in. Terry died 13 days after her feeding tubes were removed on order of the court in 2005.
31 March 2017 – death of Gilbert Baker, American artist and gay rights activist, who designed the ‘rainbow flag’ in 1978 which came to symbolise the gay rights movement. Born 2 June 1951.