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March 19 is the 78th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (79th in leap years). There are 287
days remaining.
Events
- 1279 - Mongolian victory in the Battle of Yamen ends the Song Dynasty in China.
- 1687 - The men under explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle murder him while searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River.
- 1831 - The City Bank of New York is the site of the first bank robbery in United States history
($245,000 taken).
- 1861 - The First Taranaki
War ends in New Zealand.
- 1865 - American Civil
War: The Battle
of Bentonville begins. By the end of the battle on the 21st the Confederate forces had retreated from Greenville, North Carolina.
- 1915 - Pluto is
photographed for the first time but was not recognized as a planet.
- 1916 - First United States air
combat mission in history as eight American planes take off in pursuit of Pancho Villa.
- 1918 - The United
States Congress establishes time zones and approves daylight saving time.
- 1920 - The United
States Senate rejects the Treaty of Versailles for the
second time (first time was on November 19, 1919).
- 1932 - Sydney
Harbour Bridge opens.
- 1942 - The Thoroughbred Racing Association is established in Chicago, Illinois.
- 1944 - World War II: Nazi forces occupy Hungary.
- 1945 - World War II: Off the
coast of Japan, a dive bomber hits
the aircraft carrier USS Franklin, killing 800 of her crew and crippling the ship.
- 1945 - World War II: Adolf Hitler issues his "Nero Decree" ordering all industries, military installations, shops, transportation
facilities and communications facilities in Germany be destroyed.
- 1946 - French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion become overseas départements of
France.
- 1954 - Joey Giardello knocks
out Willie Tory in round seven at
Madison Square Garden in the first televised prize boxing fight shown in
color.
- 1962 - Algerian War of Independence: A cease fire takes effect.
- 1972 - India and Bangladesh sign a friendship treaty.
- 1979 - The United States House of Representatives begins broadcasting its day-to-day business
via the cable television network C-SPAN.
- 1981 - Three workers are killed and five injured during a test of the Space Shuttle Columbia.
- 1982 - Falklands War: Argentines land on South Georgia
Island, precipitating war.
- 1987 - Following a scandal involving Jessica Hahn, televangelist Jim Bakker
resigns from the PTL.
- 2002 - U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda ends (started on March 2) after killing
500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters with
11 allied troop fatalities.
- 2003 - The invasion
of Iraq begins (with the time difference, it actually begins on March 20 at
0100 UTC)
- 2004 - Äänekoski bus disaster - A long-distance lorry and a bus crashed head-on in
Äänekoski, Finland. Heavy paper
rolls, carried by the lorry from Stora Enso, came loose and totally destroyed
the bus. 24 people were killed and 13 injured, four of them seriously. Besides the bus driver, the victims were youths headed for
a skiing weekend in the mountains.
- 2004 - The Swedish DC-3, shot down by a Russian Mig-15 in the 1950s, is finally rescued after years of
recovery work. The remains of the crew were left in place, pending further investigations.
- 2004 - An attempt on the life of Taiwanese president Chen Shui-ban takes place just days
before the country's elections take place.
Births
- 1684 - Jean Astruc, French
physician and scholar, (d. 1766)
- 1721 - Tobias Smollett,
Scottish novelist (d. 1771)
- 1813 - David
Livingstone, missionary and explorer, (d. 1873)
- 1848 - Wyatt Earp, policeman,
gunfighter, (d. 1929)
- 1849 - Alfred von
Tirpitz, German soldier, (d. 1930)
- 1864 - Charles
Marion Russell, artist, (d. 1926)
- 1865 - William
Morton Wheeler, US entomologist, myrmecologist, pioneer in ethology, (d. 1937)
- 1873 - Max Reger, composer, (d.
1916)
- 1883 - Joseph Stilwell, US
general, (d. 1946)
- 1888 - Josef Albers, artist (d.
1976)
- 1891 - Earl Warren, Chief Justice
of the United States, (d. 1974)
- 1894 - Joe Venuti, jazz musician and violinist, (d. 1978)
- 1894 - Moms Mabley, comedienne,
(d. 1975)
- 1900 - Frédéric Joliot,
physicist and winner of 1935 Nobel Prize in chemistry, (d. 1958)
- 1905 - Albert Speer, Nazi
official, (d. 1981)
- 1906 - Adolf Eichmann, Nazi
official, (d. 1962)
- 1909 - Louis Hayward, actor, (d. 1985)
- 1914 - Jay Berwanger, American
football star, winner of the first Heisman Trophy, (d. 2002)
- 1916 - Irving Wallace,
novelist, (d. 1990)
- 1917 - Dinu Lipatti, pianist, (d.
1950)
- 1921 - Tommy Cooper, comedy
magician
- 1928 - Hans Küng, theologian
- 1928 - Patrick McGoohan, actor
- 1930 - Ornette Coleman,
musician
- 1933 - Philip Roth, author
- 1936 - Ursula Andress,
actress
- 1939 - Joe Kapp, US football star
- 1943 - Mario Monti, aka "Super
Mario"
- 1944 - Said Musa, Prime Minister of
Belize
- 1944 - Sirhan Sirhan, assassin
- 1947 - Glenn Close, actress
- 1955 - Bruce Willis, actor
(Die Hard, The
Sixth Sense)
- 1969 - Connor Trinneer,
actor (Star Trek: Enterprise)
- 1980 - Liav Hertsman, producer (yes)
Deaths
- 1286 - King Alexander III of Scotland, (b. 1241)
- 1721 - Pope Clement XI, (b.
1649)
- 1939 - Lloyd L. Gaines,
civil rights activist, (b. c. 1913)
- 1945 - Friedrich Fromm, Nazi official
- 1950 - Edgar Rice
Burroughs, author, (b. 1875)
- 1980 - Tamara de
Lempicka, art deco painter, (b. 1898)
- 1982 - Randy Rhoads, guitarist of
Quiet Riot (b. 1956)
- 1987 - Louis-Victor de Broglie, physicist and winner 1929 of the
Nobel Prize in Physics, (b. 1892)
- 1997 - Willem de
Kooning, artist, (b. 1904)
- 2003 - Michael Mathias Prechtl, illustrator
- 2004 - Mitchell Sharp, former
Canadian Liberal cabinet minister (b.
1911)
Holidays and observances
March 18 - March 20 - February 19 - April 19 -- listing of all days
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