21st MARCH
Johann Sebastian Bach (b. 1685)
Joseph Fourier (b. 1768)
Benito Juàrez (b. 1806)
Modest Mussorgsky (b. OS 1839)
Albert Chevalier (b. 1861)
Florenz Ziegfeld (b. 1869)
Nora Barnacle (b. 1884)
Son House (b. 1902)
John D Rockefeller III (b. 1906)
Paul Tortelier (b. 1914)
Sterling Hayden (b. 1916)
Russ Meyer (b. 1922)
Otis Spann (b. 1930)
Christopher Trace (b. 1933)
Brian Clough (b. 1935)
Vivian Stanshall (b. 1943)
Ayrton Senna (b. 1960)
Thomas Cranmer (d. 1556)
James Ussher (d. 1656)
Robert Southey (d. 1843)
Philip Wilson Steer (d. 1942)
Harry H Corbett (d. 1982)
Sir Michael Redgrave (d. 1985)
Robert Preston (d. 1987)
Gil Evans (d. 1988)
Leo Fender (d. 1991)
Rev W Awdry (d. 1997)
Sir Victor Pritchett (d. 1997)
Galina Ulanova (d. 1998)
Ernie Wise (d. 1999)
Amanda Dowler (d. 2002)
Johnny Bristol (d. 2004)
Coronation of Henry V, 1413
Battle of Alexandria, 1801
Code Napoleon, the French civil code, adopted, France, 1804
Scottish National Gallery opened, Edinburgh, 1859
1st Reichstag officially opened, Berlin, 1871
Stanley begians expedition to Africa to locate missing missionary Livingstone, 1871
Last German offensive on Western Front begins, Somme, 1918
2nd Battle of Arras begins, 1918
Waterloo Station opened, 1922
1st Parliament of Chancellor Hitler's Nazi Germany opened, 1933
Hitler seizes Memel from Lithuania, 1939
Allied bombers begin 4 days of raids over Germany, 1945
Bevan announces plans for a National Health Service, UK, 1946
Kwame Nkrumah elected 1st African prime minister south of Sahara, 1952
Alan Freed presents 1st live rock'n'roll concert, Cleveland OH, 1952
London Planetarium opened, Madame Tussaud's, 1958
70 die in massacre of Africans by police, Sharpeville, S Africa, 1960
Alcatraz Prison closed, San Francisco Bay, 1963
Civil rights march led by Martin Luther King begins, Selma AL-Montgomery AL, 1965
Stax Revue featuring Otis Redding recorded for LP, Olympic Theatre, Paris, 1967
Led Zeppelin make only live UK TV appearance, How Late It Is, 1969
John Stonehouse arrested on fraud allegations, Australia, 1975
Sid Vicious 1st appears with Sex Pistols, Notre Dame Roman Catholic Church Hall, 1977
Krystyna Choynowska-Liskievicz is 1st woman to sail single-handedly round world, 1978
21 die in police shootings on Sharpeville Anniversary March, Langa, 1985
TV Guide launched, UK, 1989
Van Morrison plays final concert of Town & Country Club, London, 1993
Liggett Group, tobacco firm, are 1st to admit that cigarettes are harmful, US, 1997

22nd MARCH
Maximilian I (b. 1459)
Sir Anthony Van Dyck (b. 1599)
William Pulteney, Earl of Bath (b. 1684)
Anton Raffael Mengs (b. 1728)
Adam Sedgwick (b. 1785)
Carl Rose (b. 1842)
Randolph Caldecott (b. 1846)
Chico Marx (b. 1887)
Louis L'Amour (b. 1908)
Nicholas Monsarrat (b. 1910)
Wilfrid Brambell (b. 1912)
Marcel Marceau (b. 1923)
Gerard Hoffnung (b. 1925)
Keith Relf (b. 1943)
Thomas Plantaganet, Duke of Clarence (d. 1421)
Agostino Carracci (d. 1602)
Thomas Carew (d. 1639)
Jean Baptiste Lully (d. 1817)
Johann von Goethe (d. 1832)
Thomas Hughes (d. 1896)
EW Hornung (d. 1921)
Michael Todd (d. 1958)
Ben Lyon (d. 1979)
Donald Swann (d. 1994)
Walter Lantz (d. 1994)
Peter Woods (d. 1995)
William Hanna (d. 2001)
Order of the Templars abolished by the Pope, 1312
Edward II orders the execution of Earl of Lancaster, Pontefract, 1322
Scots and French defeat English, Bauge, Anjou, 1421
Joseph Priestley invents carbonated water, 1733
Baa Baa Black Sheep 1st published, Tommy Thumb's Song Book, 1774
National Gallery founded, 1824
Orlando Jones patents corn starch, UK, 1841
Electric telegraph 1st used in battle, the Sudan, 1885
English Football League founded, 1888
Lumière brothers publically present 1st celluloid films, Lyon, 1895
Niagara Falls runs short of water in drought, 1903
1st colour newspaper pictures published, New York Illustrated Mirror, 1904
1st taxi-cabs with meters introduced, London, 1907
1st international airline service begins, Paris-Brussels, 1919
1st directional markings on UK roads introduced, Hyde Park Corner, 1926
Sir Malcolm Campbell sets 272 mph land speed record, Daytona Beach, 1933
1st high-definition television service inaugurated, Berlin, 1935
Grand Coulee Dam goes into operation, Washington DC, 1941
Arab League founded, Cairo, 1945
Jordan becomes independent, 1946
Carl Perkins becomes 1st rock & roll act on national TV, Perry Como Show, US, 1956
Beatles begin recording Help! LP, London, 1965
Mohammed Ali defeats Zara Foley to retain world heavyweight championship, 1967
Equal Rights Amendment fails approval, Hawaii, 1972
Soyuz XXXIX launched bearing 1st Mongolian astronaut, 1981
Bristol Exchange closes, 1991
Valeri Polyakov returns to Earth after record 438 days in space, Kazakhstan, 1995
Tara Lipinski becomes youngest women's world figure skating champion, 1997

23rd MARCH
Margaret of Anjou, Queen of Henry VI (b. 1430)
Josiah Spode I (b. 1733)
Pierre Simon, Marquis de Laplace (b. 1749)
Juan Gris (b. 1887)
Dane Rudhyar (b. 1895)
Erich Fromm (b. 1900)
Joan Crawford (b. 1908)
Akira Kurosawa (b. 1910)
Josef Locke (b. 1912)
Jimmy Edwards (b. 1920)
Donald Campbell (b. 1921)
Patrice Holloway (b. 1948)
Pedro the Cruel (d. 1369)
Stendhal (d. 1842)
Raoul Dufy (d. 1953)
Peter Lorre (d. 1964)
Pete Johnson (d. 1967)
Basil Dearden (d. 1971)
Jacob Miller (d. 1980)
Lord (Richard) Beeching (d. 1985)
Zoot Sims (d. 1985)
Giulietta Masina (d. 1994)
David Kossoff (d. 2005)
Pope declares Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon valid, 1534
Window Tax imposed, England, 1695
Vivaldi enters the priesthood, 1703
Stamp Act, taxing colonists in America, passed, UK, 1765
Patrick Henry says, "Give me liberty or give me death", US, 1775
Coleridge completes Rime of the Ancient Mariner, 1798
1st official settlers land, Dunedin, New Zealand, 1848
1st tramcars in London begin operating, Bayswater, 1861
Polygamy abolished by Congress, US, 1882
Woolwich steam ferry inaugurated, 1889
Goal nets 1st used in FA Cup Final, 1891
German gun Big Bertha 1st shells Paris, from 75 miles, 1918
Lithuana proclaimed independent, 1918
Fascist movement founded by Mussolini, Milan, 1919
1st telephone installed in White House, US, 1929
Hitler becomes Dictator of Germany, 1933
The News 1st featured on BBC TV, 1938
UK troops launch final offensive, the Rhine, 1945
Pakistan proclaimed an Islamic Republic, 1956
Foundation stone laid, new Coventry Cathedral, 1956
Birth pill 1st prescribed, UK, 1960
Lennon's In His Own Write published, 1964
Gemini 3, 1st US two-man spacecraft, launched, 1965
Archbishop of Canterbury & Pope meet officially for 1st time in 400 years, Rome, 1966
Bangladesh proclaimed independent, 1971
Billy Joel marries Christie Brinkley, Statue of Liberty, 1985
Sony DAT recorder launched, Japan, 1987
Asteroid FC1989 misses impact with Earth by 500,000 miles, 1989
Thatcher attacked by woman with bunch of daffodils, 1992
McDonalds stop using UK beef in burgers because of BSE worries, 1996
Titanic ties a record by winning 11 Academy Awards, Los Angeles CA, 1998
Mir space station leaves orbit to return to Earth, 2001
US Army Marine Jessica Lynch and her unit ambushed, Iraq, 2003

24th MARCH
Lao Tse (b. BC 604)
Georgius Agricola (b. 1490)
William Morris (b. 1834)
Fatty Arbuckle (b. 1887)
Wilhelm Reich (b. 1897)
Ub Iwerks (b. 1901)
Tommy Trinder (b. 1909)
Clyde Barrow (b. 1909)
Dame Jane Drew (b. 1911)
Joseph Barbera (b. 1911)
Malcolm Muggeridge (b. 1913)
Steve McQueen (b. 1930)
Johnny Burnette (b. 1934)
Billy Stewart (b. 1937)
Klaus Dinger (b. 1946)
Elizabeth I, Queen of England (d. 1603)
John Harrison (d. 1776)
Humphry Repton (d. 1818)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (d. 1882)
Jules Verne (d. 1905)
John Millington Synge (d. 1909)
Enrique Granados (d. 1916)
Charlotte Mew (d. 1928)
Alexander Alekhine (d. 1946)
Mary, Queen of George V (d. 1953)
Auguste Piccard (d. 1962)
Cristobal Balenciaga (d. 1972)
EH Shepard (d. 1976)
Lord (Bernard) Montgomery of El Alamein (d. 1976)
Harold Melvin (d. 1997)
Richard Widmark (d. 2008)
Tamerlane captures Damascus, 1401
James I ascends English throne, uniting English & Scottish Crown, 1603
UK enacts the Quartering Act, 1765
Texas thrown open to colonisation, 1825
University Boat Race ends in dead heat for 1st time, 1877
Robert Koch discovers bacillus as cause of TB, 1882
Sussex torpedoed by German submarine, near Dieppe, 1916
National loaf introduced, UK, 1942
Nazis execute 300+ civilians, Rome, 1944
76 RAF POWs escape through a tunnel called Harry, Stalagluft 3, 1944
Alistair Cooke reads 1st Letter From America, BBC Radio, 1946
Boat Race called off when Oxford's boat sinks, 1951
1st woman's body, Mrs Ethel Christie, discovered at 10 Rillington Place, 1953
Tennessee Williams' Cat On A Hot Tin Roof opened, Broadway NY, 1955
Elvis Presley enrolled in US Army, Memphis TN, 1958
Unique Br Guiana 1 cent stamp sold for £116,000, 1970
Imposition of direct rule on Northern Ireland announced, 1972
Isabel Perón ousted as President of Argentina in bloodless coup, 1976
Exxon Valdez spills 11m gallons oil, Prince William Sound, Alaska, 1989
Michael Foale becomes 1st UK man in space, Cape Canaveral, 1992
Old Royal Observatory re-opened, Greenwich, 1993
Comet Shoemaker Levy 9 discovered, 1993
Jewel House opened, London, 1994
NATO launches airstrikes against Yugoslavia, 1999
Halle Berry becomes 1st black actress to win Oscar for leading role, US, 2002

25th MARCH
Saint Catherine of Siena (b. 1347)
John Stuart Bute, Earl of Bute (b. 1713)
Arturo Toscanini (b. 1867)
Gutzon Borglum (b. 1871)
Bela Bártok (b. 1881)
Jean Epstein (b. 1897)
John Laurie (b. 1897)
Pete Johnson (b. 1904)
AJP Taylor (b. 1906)
Dame Bridget D'Oyly Carte (b. 1908)
Sir David Lean (b. 1908)
Dorothy Squires (b. 1915)
Patrick Troughton (b. 1920)
Simone Signoret (b. 1921)
Alexandra, Queen of Yugoslavia (b. 1921)
Giambattista Marini (d. 1635)
Carolan (d. 1738)
Novalis (Baron Friedrich von Hardenberg) (d. 1801)
Anna Seward (d. 1809)
Frédéric Mistral (d. 1914)
Claude Debussy (d. 1918)
Nunnally Johnson (d. 1977)
Robert Joffrey (d. 1988)
Nancy Walker (d. 1992)
John Snagge (d. 1996)
Buck Owens (d. 2006)
Malcolm II accedes to throne of Alba (Scotland), Scone, 1005
Robert the Bruce crowned King of Scots, Scone, 1306
Raleigh granted patent to exploit Virginia, 1584
Hudson leaves on North West Passage search, Amsterdam, 1609
Shakespeare makes his final will, 1616
Maryland founded by English colonists sent by the second Lord Baltimore, US, 1634
Huygens discovers Titan, one of Saturn's moons, 1655
Lady Day ceases to be legal beginning of year, UK, 1752
Parliament abolishes slave trade, UK, 1807
1st passenger railway service, pulled by horses, begins, Oystermouth-Swansea, 1807
Commercial Bank of Scotland founded, Edinburgh, 1810
Shelley sent down from Oxford, 1811
Wapping-Rotherhithe Thames Tunnel formally opened, 1843
Jacob S Coxey leads unemployment march for government help, from Massillon OH, 1894
1st gold medal of modern Olympic Games presented, 1896
1st diesel engine demonstrated in UK, Manchester, 1901
Palace Theatre, the home of vaudeville, opened, New York NY, 1913
350,000 gallons of liquor dumped after prohibition, Chicago River, 1922
Greece proclaimed a republic, 1924
Grand National 1st broadcast by wireless, 1927
1st national hillbilly music chart published, Billboard, US, 1939
Maiden flight of Mosquito bomber takes place, 1940
Hamlet becomes 1st UK film to win Academy Award for Best Picture, 1949
EEC established at Treaty of Rome, 1957
Fireball XL5 1st shown, 1963
US stage debut of Cream and the Who, RKO Theater, New York NY, 1967
Roy Orbison marries Barbara Wellhonen, 1969
Julian Cope injured by mike stand, Hammersmith Palais, 1984
Sergei Krikalyov returns after record 310 days at Mir space station, 1992
Barbara Hamer becomes 1st supersonic woman civil pilot, Concorde, 1993
US troops complete their withdrawal from Somalia, 1994
Diane Modahl cleared of all drugs charges by IAAF, 1996
Dylan wins Oscar for Things Have Changed, US, 2001

26th MARCH
AE Housman (b. 1859)
Sir Gerald du Maurier (b. 1873)
Robert Frost (b. 1874)
Tennessee Williams (b. 1911)
Bill Edrich (b. 1916)
Rufus Thomas (b. 1917)
Gregory Corso (b. 1930)
Didier Pironi (b. 1952)
Leigh Bowery (b. 1961)
Sir John Vanbrugh (d. 1726)
Ludwig van Beethoven (d. 1827)
Augustus Egg (d. 1863)
Walt Whitman (d. 1892)
Cecil Rhodes (d. 1902)
Sarah Bernhardt (d. 1923)
Lord (David) Lloyd George (d. 1945)
Max Ophüls (d. 1957)
Raymond Chandler (d. 1959)
Sir Noël Coward (d. 1973)
Joseph Albers (d. 1976)
Duster Bennett (d. 1976)
Roland Barthes (d. 1980)
Anthony Blunt (d. 1983)
Dame Whina Cooper (d. 1994)
Eazy-E (d. 1995)
Marshall Applewhite (d. 1997)
Daniel Massey (d. 1998)
Ananda Shankar (d. 1999)
Alex Comfort (d. 2000)
Kenneth Wolstenholme (d. 2002)
Jan Berry (d. 2004)
Lord (James) Callaghan of Cardiff (d. 2005)
Nikki Sudden (d. 2006)
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, opened, 1674
1st UK Sunday paper (British Gazette & Sunday Monitor) published, Uk, 1780
La Purchase divided into territory of Orleans and district of Louisiana, 1804
Herbal pills for rheumatism, leprosy and scurvy patented by Richard Brandon, 1805
Lescarbault claims to 1st sight the planet Vulcan, 1859
Sabi Game Reserve, 1st officially designated Game Reserve, opened, S Africa, 1878
1st commercial motion picture film, manufactured by Eastman Film Co, 1885
1st cremation in England takes place, Woking, 1886
Paris Commune established, 1871
Daily weather forecasting begins, BBC Radio, 1923
Gaumont-British Film Corporation founded, 1927
World's 1st driving tests introduced, UK, 1934
Battle of Iwo Jima ended, 1945
Polia vaccine announced by Jonas Salk, 1953
Col Tom Parker becomes manager of Elvis Presley, 1956
1st parking fine tickets issued, UK, 1958
7 men found guilty of the Great Train Robbery of 8 August 1963, 1964
John Lennon and Yoko Ono begin Bed-In For Peace, Amsterdam Hilton, 1969
East Pakistan declared independent as Bangladesh, provoking civil war, 1971
Susan Shaw becomes 1st woman allowed on floor of Stock Exchange, London, 1973
582 die when a KLM Boeing 747 crashes into a Pan Am 747, Tenerife, 1977
Guardian Angels founded, New York NY, 1979
Camp David peace treaty signed by Sadat and Begin, Washington DC, 1979
Police play the 1st pop concert in 10 years in Bombay, 1980
SDP officially comes into being, 1981
Serbs, Croats and Muslims begin Civil War, Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1992
Mike Tyson jailed for rape of beauty queen Desiree Washington, US, 1992
39 Higher Source members commit suicide as Comet Hale-Bopp nears, San Diego CA, 1997
Vladimir Putin elected Russia's 2nd democratically chosen president, 2000
Post Office adopt the logo and name of Consignia, UK, 2001

27th MARCH
Louis XVII, King of France (b. 1785)
Alfred-Victor Vigny (b. 1797)
Wilhelm von Röntgen (b. 1845)
Sir Frederick Royce (b. 1863)
Heinrich Mann (b. 1871)
Catherine Carswell (b. 1879)
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (b. 1886)
Gloria Swanson (b. 1899)
Pee Wee Russell (b. 1906)
Alberto Semprini (b. 1908)
Ben Webster (b. 1909)
Lord (James) Callaghan of Cardiff (b. 1912)
Sarah Vaughan (b. 1924)
Mstislav Rostropovich (b. 1927)
David Janssen (b. 1931)
Janis Martin (b. 1940)
Billy MacKenzie (b. 1957)
Margaret of Valois (d. 1615)
James I, King of Gt Britain (d. 1625)
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (d. 1770)
Sir George Gilbert Scott (d. 1878)
Sir James Dewar (d. 1923)
Arnold Bennett (d. 1931)
Yuri Gagarin (d. 1968)
MC Escher (d. 1971)
Sir Arthur Bliss (d. 1975)
John Addey (d. 1982)
Ella Maillart (d. 1997)
Ian Dury (d. 2000)
Anthony Powell (d. 2000)
Dudley Moore (d. 2002)
Billy Wilder (d. 2002)
Milton Berle (d. 2002)
Stanislaw Lem (d. 2006)
Richard, Duke of York declared Protector & Defender of the Kingdom, 1454
Charles I accedes to throne, 1625
Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield published, 1766
US Navy authorised, 1794
Treaty of Amiens concluded, 1802
1st Morman temple dedicated, Kirtland OH, 1836
Corkscrew patented to ML Byrn, New York NY, 1860
1st Rugby International played, Edinburgh, 1871
1st long-distance telephone call made, Boston MA-New York NY, 1884
Marconi conducts 1st radio transmission between two counties, Boulogne-England, 1899
1st blood transfusion without clotting from bottled blood, Brussels, 1914
Polythene discovered by Reginald Gibson and EW Fawcett, ICI, Northwich, 1933
Raid on St Nazaire begins, 1942
Last German V-2 bomb falls, Orpington, Kent, 1945
Kruschev becomes Chairman of Council of Ministers, USSR, 1958
Belgrade Theatre, 1st UK civic theatre, opened, Coventry, 1958
1st women traffic wardens in UK introduced, Leicester, 1961
100 die in earthquake and tidal waves, Alaska, 1964
UN peace-keeping forces take over, Cyprus, 1964
Mariner 7 launched for Mars fly-by, Cape Kennedy FL, 1969
583 die in jumbo jet ground collision, Tenerife, 1977
Eric Clapton marries Patti Boyd, Tucson AZ, 1979
147 die when Alexander Kielland oil platform collapses, North Sea, 1980
Communist hardliners defeated in 1st elections for Soviet parliament, 1989
George Carey becomes 102nd Archbishop of Canterbury, St Mary-le-Bow, 1991
Radio 5 Live launched, UK, 1994
Food & Drug Administration approve Viagra to help improve men's sex life, US, 1998

28th MARCH
Raphael (b. 1483)
St Teresa of Ávila (b. 1515)
George I, King of Gt Britain (b. 1660)
William Henry Hunt (b. 1790)
St John Neumann (b. 1811)
Paul Whiteman (b. 1890)
Dame Flora Robson (b. 1902)
Sir Dirk Bogarde (b. 1921)
Thad Jones (b. 1923)
Freddie Bartholomew (b. 1924)
Lord Cardigan (d. 1868)
Virginia Woolf (d. 1941)
Sergei Rachmaninov (d. 1943)
Stephen Leacock (d. 1944)
Jack B Yeats (d. 1957)
WC Handy (d. 1958)
Mary, Princess Royal (d. 1965)
Dwight D Eisenhower (d. 1969)
Arthur (Big Boy) Crudup (d. 1974)
Dorothy Fields (d. 1974)
Marc Chagall (d. 1985)
Patrick Troughton (d. 1987)
Lady (Maria) von Trapp (d. 1987)
Eugène Ionesco (d. 1994)
Albert Goldman (d. 1994)
Sir Peter Ustinov (d. 2004)
Dame Moura Lympany (d. 2005)
Caspar Weinberger (d. 2006)
Ian Hamilton Finlay (d. 2006)
Scots Guards commissioned, 1642
Mercurius Caledonius ceases publication after 9 issues, 1661
Nathaniel Briggs of New Hampshire patents a washing machine, 1797
Irish Parliament passes Act of Union with England, 1800
Minor planet Pallas discovered, 1802
UK declares war on Russia, Crimean War, 1854
Electric lighting installed, Houses of Parliament, 1878
Supreme Court rules that a child born in the US to Chinese immigrants is a US citizen, 1898
1st seaplane takes off from water, Marseilles, 1910
Boat Race has to be re-started after both boats sink, 1912
1st Morris Oxford leaves factory, Cowley, 1913
Douglas Fairbanks marries Mary Pickford, Hollywood CA, 1920
Constantinople renamed Istanbul, 1930
Angora renamed Ankora, 1930
Madrid surrenders to Franco, Spanish Civil War, 1939
Battle of Cape Matapan, 1941
Last V-1 flying-bomb (Doodlebug) explodes, near London, 1945
Lowest cricket score, 26, recorded by New Zealand against England, 1955
Eddie Cochran records Summertime Blues, 1958
Radio Caroline begins transmitting, North Sea, 1964
Largest recorded US earthquake strikes Prince William Sound, Alaska, 1964
428 die when earthquake bursts reservoir, China, 1965
1,000 die in earthquake, Turkey, 1970
Marlon Brando refuses Oscar for The Godfather, US, 1973
Breakfast TV begins in UK, Yorkshire TV, 1977
Near-meltdown occurs in nuclear reactor accident, 3 Mile Island PA, 1979

29th MARCH
Don Carlos (Charles V) (b. 1788)
John Tyler (b. 1790)
Lord (Edward) Derby (b. 1799)
Cy Young (b. 1867)
Sir Edwin Lutyens (b. 1869)
Warner Baxter (b. 1889)
Carrington (b. 1893)
Sir William Walton (b. 1902)
Arthur Negus (b. 1903)
Rudolf Serkin (b. 1903)
Edward Burra (b. 1905)
RS Thomas (b. 1913)
Camille Howard (b. 1914)
George Chisholm (b. 1915)
Eugene McCarthy (b. 1916)
Pearl Bailey (b. 1918)
Ruby Murray (b. 1935)
Emmanuel Swedenborg (d. 1772)
Charles Wesley (d. 1788)
Maria Fitzherbert (d. 1837)
John Keble (d. 1866)
Georges Seurat (d. 1891)
Robert Scott (d. near South Pole, 1912)
Karol Szymanowski (d. 1937)
Joyce Cary (d. 1957)
Vera Brittain (d. 1970)
Raymond Postgate (d. 1971)
Lord (J Arthur) Rank (d. 1972)
Mantovani (d. 1980)
Carl Orff (d. 1982)
Bill Travers (d. 1994)
Joe Williams (d. 1999)
Bob Copper (d. 2004)
Lancastrians beaten, Battle of Towton, Wars of the Roses, 1461
Other Great Eclipse of Sun occurs, Dark Monday, 1652
Helvetic Republic formed, 1798
Asteroid Vesta discovered, 1807
Forces led by Winfield Scott occupy Veracruz after Mexican capitulation, 1847
Punjab annexed by UK, 1849
Marble Arch moved from Buckingham Palace to Oxford St, 1851
Manchester granted City status by Victoria, 1853
British Parliament passes North America Act to create Dominion of Canada, 1867
Royal Albert Hall officially opened by Victoria, 1871
Knights of Columbus chartered, Connecticut, 1882
Horse and Hound 1st published, 1884
1st Coca-Cola, brewed by John S Pemberton, launched, Atlanta GA, 1886
Richmond Park opened to public, 1904
Einstein's Theory of Relativity confirmed during solar eclipse, 1919
Equal Franchise Bill, giving votes to women of 21+ passed in House of Commons, 1928
Spanish Civil War declared to have ended, 1939
1st £1 notes issued with anti-forgery metal strips, 1940
Soviet troops enter Austria, 1945
Brezhnev becomes 1st Secretary of the USSR, 1966
Redoutable, 1st French nuclear-submarine, launched, 1967
Last US troops leave Vietnam, 1973
Mariner 10 takes 1st close-up pictures of Mercury, 1974
1st London marathon won by Inge Simonsen, 1981
1st laptop computer, Tandy TRS-80 Model 100, launched, 1983
1st test-tube quintuplets born, London, 1986
Grand Louvre opened, Paris, 1989
2,346 refugees rescued by United Nations, Srebrenica, East Bosnia, 1993
Dow Jones index closes above 10,000 for the 1st time, at 10,006.78, 1999

30th MARCH
Sir Henry Wotton (b. 1568)
Jethro Tull (bapt. 1674)
Francisco de Goya (b. 1746)
Anna Sewell (b. 1820)
Paul Verlaine (b. 1844)
Vincent van Gogh (b. 1853)
Sean O'Casey (b. 1880)
Melanie Klein (b. 1882)
Ted Heath (b. 1900)
Frankie Laine (b. 1913)
Sonny Boy Williamson I (b. 1914)
Ray McAnally (b. 1926)
Beau Brummell (d. 1840)
Rudolf Steiner (d. 1925)
Léon Blum (d. 1950)
Airey Neave (d. 1979)
The Singing Nun (d. 1985)
James Cagney (d. 1986)
Elizabeth, Queen Consort of George VI (d. 2002)
Alistair Cooke (d. 2004)
Timi Yuro (d. 2004)
Robert Creeley (d. 2005)
John McGahern (d. 2006)
Sicilian Vespers breaks out, 1282
May sails 30 families from Amsterdam to New York area, 1624
New England Restriction Act enacted, 1775
UK and allies against Napoleon march in triumph into Paris, 1814
Florida becomes US territory, 1822
Crawford Long 1st to use anaesthetics, on a neck tumour, Jefferson GA, 1842
Treaty of Paris signed ending Crimean war, 1856
Hyman L Lipman granted patent for pencil with attached eraser, Philadelphia PA, 1858
Alaska purchased from Russia for $7_2m by US, 1867
Right to vote regardless of race granted, 15th Amendment, US, 1870
Texas readmitted to the Union, 1870
Oklahoma! opened on Broadway, New York NY, 1943
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg found guilty of selling atomic secrets to USSR, 1951
Mods and Rockers riot, Clacton, 1964
13 die when US Embassy blown up by Vietcong, Saigon, 1966
Michael Cooper photographs Beatles for Sgt Pepper LP sleeve, London, 1967
The Byrds appeaer live on Top Of The Pops, 1967
Sex Pistols 1st play 100 Club, London, 1976
Paul Simonon and Topper Headon arrested for shooting racing pigeons, Camden, 1978
Ronald Reagan shot by John Hinckley, Washington DC, 1981
Northern Ireland comes under London rule, 1972
Emma Thompson wins Oscar as Best Actress, Academy Awards, 1993
Channel 5 begins broadcasting, UK, 1997
Jim Shekhdar completes 1st unaided row across Pacific, Peru-Brisbane, 2001
1st UK analogue television signals switched off, S Wales, 2005

31st MARCH
Henri II, King of France (b. 1519)
René Descartes (b. 1596)
Andrew Marvell (b. 1621)
John Harrison (b. 1693)
Franz Joseph Haydn (b. 1732)
Edward FitzGerald (b. 1809)
Robert Wilhelm Bunsen (b. 1811)
Andrew Lang (b. 1844)
Arthur Griffith (b. 1872)
Antonia White (b. 1899)
Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (b. 1900)
Lowell Fulson (b. 1921)
Sid Weighell (b. 1922)
Patrick Magee (b. 1924)
John Fowles (b. 1926)
Lefty Frizell (b. 1928)
John Donne (d. 1631)
Anne Hyde, Duchess of York (d. 1671)
John Constable (d. 1837)
Charlotte Brontë (d. 1855)
Jesse Owens (d. 1980)
O'Kelly Isley (d. 1986)
Brandon Lee (d. 1993)
Jeffrey Lee Pierce (d. 1996)
Barry Took (d. 2002)
Jules Dassin (d. 2008)
Constantine I begins record 30-year Roman occupation of UK, 307
Peterhouse College founded, Cambridge, 1284
Ferdinand and Isabella expel Jews unwilling to convert to Christianity, Spain, 1492
Scottish Regalia saved from Cromwell by James Granger, Kinneff, 1652
Napoleon abdicates, 1814
Quebec and Montreal incorporated as cities, 1831
1st monthly instalment of Dicken's Pickwick Papers appears, UK, 1836
Treaty of Kanagawa concluded, 1854
Thomas P Mundy becomes 1st US black to vote, Perth, Amboy NJ, 1870
1st town completely illuminated by electric light, Wabash IN, 1880
Inauguration of Eiffel Tower, Paris, 1889
1st fingerprint bureau set up by police, Buenos Aires, 1892
1st zip fastener patented by Whitcomb Judson, Chicago IL, 1896
1st Mercedes car built for an Austrian diplomat, 1901
DW Griffith's film The Birth Of A Nation opened, New York NY, 1915
West Indies become Virgin Islands under US possession, 1917
Daily Herald 1st published, UK, 1919
Church in Wales disestablished, 1920
Coal-miners begin strike, UK, 1921
Alma Cummings sets 27 hr record at 1st Dance Marathon, New York NY, 1923
1st UK airline founded, Croydon Airport, 1924
Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma opened on Broadway, New York NY, 1943
Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie opened on Broadway, New York NY, 1943
7" 45 rpm vinyl disc introduced by RCA Victor, US, 1949
Dalai Lama granted political asylum, India, 1959
Los Angeles Railway streetcar service ends, 1963
Wilson elected with 97-seat majority for Labour Party, 1966
Hendrix 1st burns his guitar onstage, Astoria, London, 1967
Mariner 7 launched for Mars fly-by, Cape Kennedy FL, 1969
Red Rum wins Grand National in record 9 minutes 1_9 seconds, 1973
Red Rum retires after 3rd consecutive Grand National win, 1978
Hampton Court Palace badly damaged by fire, 1986
GLC and 6 metropolitan councils abolished, 1986
200,000 demonstrate against Poll Tax riot, Trafalgar Square, 1990
The Silence Of The Lambs sweeps board at Academy Awards, US, 1992
Benjamin Laing sentenced for murdering Alison Mainwaring & father, UK, 1993
British Rail ceases to exist, UK, 1997
Moby, sperm whale, dies trapped in Firth of Forth, Edinburgh, 1997



Last updated: May 05, 2008