March 19

Events

• 1279 - A Mongolian victory in the Battle of Yamen ends the Song Dynasty in China.
• 1687 - Explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle, searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, is murdered by his own men.
• 1831 - The City Bank of New York becomes 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 two days later the Confederate forces have retreated from Greenville, North Carolina.
• 1915 - Pluto is photographed for the first time but was not recognized as a planet.
• 1916 - Eight American planes take off in pursuit of Pancho Villa, the first United States air-combat mission in history.
• 1918 - The U.S. 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.
• 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.
• 1953 - Academy Awards are first televised.
• 1954 - Joey Giardello knocks out Willie Tory in round seven at Madison Square Garden in the first televised prize boxing fight shown in color.
• 1958 - A fire in a loft building in New York, New York kills 24 people.
• 1962 - Algerian War of Independence: A ceasefire takes effect.
• 1963 - Saxophonist Stan Getz records Getz/Gilberto, including The Girl from Ipanema, sung by Astrud and Joăo Gilberto.
• 1972 - India and Bangladesh sign a friendship treaty.
• 1978 - UN Security Council Resolution 425 and 426 were passed, calling upon Israel immediately to cease its military action and withdraw its forces from all Lebanese territory (Operation Litani), and established the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
• 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 crash head-on in Äänekoski, Finland. 24 people are killed and 13 injured.
• 2004 - A Swedish DC-3 shot down by a Russian Mig-15 in the 1950s is finally recovered after years of work. The remains of the crew are left in place, pending further investigations.
• 2004 - Taiwanese president Chen Shui-ban is shot just before the country's presidential election on March 20. See 3-19 Shooting Incident.
  

  Births

• 1434 - Ashikaga Yoshikatsu, Ashikaga shogun (b. 1443)
• 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)
• 1892 - James Van Fleet, American general (d. 1992)
• 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)
• 1904 - John Sirica, American judge (d. 1992)
• 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)
• 1920 - Kjell Aukrust, Norwegian author (d. 2002)
• 1921 - Tommy Cooper, comedy magician (d. 1984)
• 1923 - Pamela Britton, American actress (d. 1974)
• 1927 - Richie Ashburn, American baseball player (d. 1997)
• 1925 - Brent Scowcroft, former United States National Security Advisor
• 1928 - Hans Küng, theologian
• 1928 - Patrick McGoohan, actor
• 1930 - Ornette Coleman, musician
• 1933 - Philip Roth, author
• 1935 - Renée Taylor, American actress
• 1936 - Ursula Andress, actress
• 1937 - Clarence "Frogman" Henry, American musician
• 1939 - Joe Kapp, American football star
• 1943 - Mario Monti, aka "Super Mario"
• 1944 - Said Musa, Prime Minister of Belize
• 1944 - Sirhan Sirhan, assassin
• 1947 - Glenn Close, actress
• 1953 - Ricky Wilson, American musician (The B-52's) (d. 1985)
• 1955 - Bruce Willis, actor
• 1969 - Connor Trinneer, actor
  

  Deaths

• 1286 - King Alexander III of Scotland, (b. 1241)
• 1623 - Uesugi Kagekatsu, Japanese samurai and warlord (b. 1556)
• 1687 - Robert Cavelier de La Salle, explorer (b. 1643)
• 1721 - Pope Clement XI (b. 1649)
• 1939 - Lloyd L. Gaines, civil rights activist (b. ca. 1913)
• 1943 - Frank Nitti, gangster (b. 1883)
• 1944 - William Hale Thompson, mayor of Chicago (b. 1869)
• 1945 - Friedrich Fromm, Nazi official (b. 1888)
• 1950 - Edgar Rice Burroughs, author (b. 1875)
• 1974 - Anne Klein, fashion designer (b. 1923)
• 1974 - Edward Platt, American actor (b. 1916)
• 1978 - Gaston Julia, mathematician (Julia Sets) (b. 1893)
• 1980 - Tamara de Lempicka, art deco painter (b. 1898)
• 1982 - Randy Rhoads, guitarist of Quiet Riot (b. 1956)
• 1987 - Louis, 7th duc de Broglie, physicist and 1929 winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics (b. 1892)
• 1989 - Alan Civil, English French horn player (b. 1929)
• 1990 - Andrew Wood, American musician (Mother Love Bone) (b. 1966)
• 1997 - Willem de Kooning, artist (b. 1904)
• 2003 - Michael Mathias Prechtl, German illustrator (b. 1926)
• 2004 - Mitchell Sharp, former Canadian Liberal cabinet minister (b. 1911)
• 2005 - John De Lorean, American automobile engineer (b. 1925)
  

  Holidays and observances

• Roman Catholicism and Church of England - Saint Joseph's Day for Saint Joseph of Nazareth, spouse of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
• *Father's Day in Spain, Portugal, Belgium.
• *Las Fallas in Valencia, Spain.
• The first day of Quinquatria in ancient Rome, held in honor of Minerva.
• The swallows return to Mission San Juan Capistrano in California.
• Mojoday in Discordianism

  External links

• BBC: On This Day

March 18 - March 20 - February 19 - April 19 -- listing of all days