March 1 encyclopedia topics

Events

86 BC - Lucius Cornelius Sulla, at the head of a Roman Republic army, enters in Athens, removing the tyrant Aristion who was supported by troops of Mithridates VI of Pontus.
286 - Roman Emperor Diocletian raises Maximian to the rank of Caesar.
293 - Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximian appoint Constantius Chlorus and Galerius as Caesares, thus beginning the Tetrarchy.
317 - Crispus and Constantine II, sons of Roman Emperor Constantine I, and Licinius Iunior, son of Emperor Licinius, are made Caesares
1457 - The Unitas Fratrum is established in the village of Kunvald, on the Bohemian-Moravian borderland. It is to date the second oldest Protestant denomination.
1562 - Over 1,000 Huguenots are massacred by Catholics in Wassy, France, marking the start of the French Wars of Religion.
1565 - The city of Rio de Janeiro is founded.
1593 - The Uppsala Synod is summoned to confirm the exact forms of the Lutheran Church of Sweden.
1628 - Writs are issued in February by Charles I of England mandating that every county in England (not just seaport towns) pay ship tax by this date.
1633 - Samuel de Champlain reclaims his role as commander of New France on behalf of Cardinal Richelieu.
1642 - Georgeana, Massachusetts (now known as York, Maine) becomes the first incorporated city in the USA.
1692 - Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba are brought before local magistrates in Salem Village, Massachusetts, beginning what would become known as the Salem witch trials.
1700 - Sweden introduces its own Swedish calendar, in an attempt to gradually merge into the Gregorian calendar, reverts to the Julian calendar on this date in 1712, and introduces the Gregorian Calendar on this date in 1753.
1781 - The Continental Congress adopts the Articles of Confederation.
1790 - The first United States census is authorized.
1803 - Ohio is admitted as the 17th U.S. state.
1805 - Justice Samuel Chase is acquitted at the end of his impeachment trial by the U.S. Senate.
1811 - Leaders of the Mameluke dynasty are killed by Egyptian ruler Muhammad Ali.
1815 - Napoleon returns to France from his banishment on Elba.
1836 - A convention of delegates from 57 Texas communities convenes in Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas, to deliberate independence from Mexico.
1840 - Adolphe Thiers becomes prime minister of France.
1845 - President John Tyler signs a bill authorizing the United States to annex the Republic of Texas.
1847 - The state of Michigan formally abolishes capital punishment.
1852 - Archibald William Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
1854 - German psychologist Friedrich Eduard Beneke disappears; two years later his remains are found in a canal near Charlottenburg.
1867 - Nebraska becomes the 37th U.S. state; Lancaster, Nebraska is renamed Lincoln and becomes the state capital.
1872 - Yellowstone National Park is established as the world's first national park.
1873 - E. Remington and Sons in Ilion, New York begins production of the first practical typewriter.
1878 - First winter ascent of Aneto
1886 - The Anglo-Chinese School, Singapore is founded by Bishop William Oldham.
1896 - Battle of Adowa: an Ethiopian army defeats an outnumbered Italian force, ending the First Italo–Ethiopian War.
1896 - Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity.
1912 - Albert Berry makes the first parachute jump from a moving airplane.
1914 - The Republic of China joins the Universal Postal Union.
1917 - U.S. government releases the plaintext of the Zimmermann Telegram to the public.
1919 - March 1st Movement begins in Korea.
1932 - The son of Charles Lindbergh, Charles Augustus Lindbergh III, is kidnapped.
1936 - The Hoover Dam is completed.
1936 - A strike occurs aboard the S.S. California, leading to the demise of the International Seamen's Union and the creation of the National Maritime Union.
1939 - Japanese Imperial Army ammunition dump exploded at Hirakata, Osaka, Japan, killing 94.
1941 - World War II: Bulgaria signs the Tripartite Pact, allying itself with the Axis powers.
1941 - W47NV (now known as WSM-FM) begins operations in Nashville, Tennessee becoming the first FM radio station in the U.S..
1943 - World War II: Battle of Bismarck Sea begins.
1946 - The Bank of England is nationalised.
1947 - The International Monetary Fund begins financial operations.
1949 - Indonesia seizes Yogyakarta from the Dutch.
1950 - Cold War: Klaus Fuchs is convicted of spying for the Soviet Union by disclosing top secret atomic bomb data.
1953 - Joseph Stalin suffers a stroke and collapses. He dies four days later.
1954 - Nuclear testing: The Castle Bravo, a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb, is detonated on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, resulting in the worst radioactive contamination ever caused by the United States.
1954 - Puerto Rican nationalists attack the United States Capitol building, injuring five Representatives. (See U.S. Capitol shooting incident (1954).)
1956 - The International Air Transport Association finalizes a draft of the Radiotelephony spelling alphabet for the International Civil Aviation Organization.
1956 - formation of the National People's Army
1958 - Samuel Alphonsus Stritch, is appointed Pro-Prefect of the Propagation of Faith and thus becomes the first American member of the Roman Curia.
1958 - Turkish passenger ship Uskudar capsized and sank at Izmit Bay, Kocaeli, Turkey, killing at least 300.
1961 - President of the United States John F. Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps.
1961 - Uganda becomes self-governing and holds its first elections.
1962 - American Airlines Flight 1 crashes on take off in New York.
1966 - Venera 3 Soviet space probe crashes on Venus becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet's surface.
1966 - The Ba'ath Party takes power in Syria.
1971 - A bomb explodes in a men's room in the United States Capitol: the Weather Underground claims responsibility.
1971 - Pakistani President Yahya Khan indefinitely postpones the pending national assembly session, precipitating massive civil disobedience in East Pakistan.
1972 - The Thai province of Yasothon is created after being split off from the Ubon Ratchathani province.
1973 - Black September terrorists storm the Saudi embassy in Khartoum, Sudan resulting in the 1973 Khartoum diplomatic assassinations.
1974 - Watergate scandal: Seven are indicted for their role in the Watergate break-in and charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice.
1975 - Colour television transmissions begin in Australia.
1980 - Voyager 1 probe confirms that Janus (moon of Saturn) exists.
1989 - The United States becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
1990 - Steve Jackson Games is raided by the United States Secret Service, prompting the later formation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
1992 - Bosnia and Herzegovina declares its independence from Yugoslavia.
1995 - Polish Prime Minister Waldemar Pawlak resigns from parliament and is replaced by ex-communist Józef Oleksy.
2000 - The Constitution of Finland is rewritten.
2000 - Hans Blix assumes the position of Executive Chairman of UNMOVIC.
2002 - U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda begins in eastern Afghanistan.
2002 - The Envisat environmental satellite successfully reaches an orbit 800 kilometers (500 miles) above the Earth on its 11th launch, carrying the heaviest payload to date at 8500 kilograms (9.5 tons).
2002 - The peseta is discontinued as official currency of Spain and is replaced with the euro (€).
2003 - Management of the United States Customs Service and the United States Secret Service move to the United States Department of Homeland Security.
2004 - Terry Nichols is convicted of state murder charges and being an accomplice to Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
2004 - Mohammed Bahr al-Uloum becomes President of Iraq.
2006 - Tarja Halonen is inaugurated as President of Finland for the second and last time.
2006 - English-language Wikipedia reaches its one millionth article, Jordanhill railway station.
2007 - Tornadoes swarm across the southern United States, killing at least 20; eight of the deaths were at a high school in Enterprise, Alabama.
2007 - "Squatters" are evicted from Ungdomshuset in Copenhagen, Denmark, provoking the March 2007 Denmark Riots.

Births

40 - Martial, Latin poet (d. 102)
1432 - Isabel of Coimbra, queen of Portugal (d. 1455)
1445 - Sandro Botticelli, Italian painter (d. 1510)
1456 - King Ladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary (d. 1516)
1474 - Angela Merici, Italian nun (d. 1540)
1547 - Rudolph Goclenius, German philosopher (d. 1628)
1597 - Jean-Charles de la Faille, Belgian mathematician (d. 1652)
1610 - John Pell, English mathematician (d. 1685)
1657 - Samuel Werenfels, Swiss theologian (d. 1740)
1683 - Caroline of Ansbach, wife of George II of Great Britain (d. 1737)
1732 - William Cushing, 2nd Chief Justice of the United States. (d. 1810)
1760 - François Nicolas Leonard Buzot, French revolutionary (d. 1794)
1769 - François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers, French general (d. 1796)
1807 - Wilford Woodruff, fourth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1898)
1810 - Frédéric Chopin, Polish-born composer (d. 1849)
1812 - Augustus Pugin, English-born architect (d. 1852)
1817 - Giovanni Duprè, Italian sculptor (d. 1882)
1821 - Joseph Hubert Reinkens, German Catholic bishop (d. 1896)
1837 - William Dean Howells, American writer, historian, and politician (d. 1920)
1842 - Nicholaos Gysis, Greek painter (d. 1901)
1848 - Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Irish-born American sculptor (d. 1907)
1852 - Théophile Delcassé, French statesman (d. 1923)
1858 - Georg Simmel, German sociologist and philosopher (d. 1918)
1863 - Alexander Golovin, Russian painter (d. 1930)
1865 - Abe Iso, Japanese politician (d. 1949)
1871 - Ben Harney, American composer and ragtime pianist (d. 1938)
1876 - Henri de Baillet-Latour, Belgian IOC president (d. 1942)
1880 - Giles Lytton Strachey British writer (d. 1932)
1886 - Oskar Kokoschka, Austrian painter and poet (d. 1980)
1888 - Ewart Astill, English cricketer (d. 1948)
1889 - Watsuji Tetsuro, Japanese philosopher (d. 1960)
1892 - Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Japanese writer (d. 1927)
1893 - Mercedes de Acosta, American socialite (d. 1968)
1896 - Dimitris Mitropoulos, Greek conductor and composer (d. 1960)
1896 - Moriz Seeler, German writer and producer (d. 1942)
1899 - Erich von dem Bach, Nazi official (d. 1972)
1904 - Paul Hartman, American actor (d. 1973)
1904 - Glenn Miller, American bandleader (d. 1944)
1905 - Doris Hare, Welsh actress (d. 2000)
1910 - Archer John Porter Martin, English chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 2002)
1910 - David Niven, English actor (d. 1983)
1912 - Gerald Emmett Cardinal Carter, archbishop of Toronto (d. 2003)
1913 - Ralph Ellison, American writer (d. 1994)
1914 - Harry Caray, American sportscaster (d. 1998)
1917 - Robert Lowell, American poet (d. 1977)
1918 - Roger Delgado, English actor (d. 1973)
1918 - João Goulart, President of Brazil (d. 1976)
1918 - Gladys Noon Spellman, American politician (d. 1988)
1920 - Howard Nemerov, American poet (d. 1991)
1920 - Max Bentley, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1984)
1921 - Terence Cardinal Cooke, American Catholic archbishop (d. 1983)
1921 - Richard Wilbur, American poet
1922 - William Gaines, American publisher (d. 1992)
1922 - Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1995)
1923 - Kuczka Péter, Hungarian writer and editor (d. 1999)
1924 - Deke Slayton, American astronaut (d. 1993)
1926 - Robert Clary, French-born actor
1926 - Pete Rozelle, American commissioner of the NFL (d. 1996)
1926 - Cesare Danova, Italian-born American actor (d. 1992)
1927 - Harry Belafonte, American musician and activist
1927 - Robert Bork, American legal scholar
1928 - Seymour Papert, South African mathematician
1928 - Jacques Rivette, French film director
1929 - Georgi Markov, Bulgarian dissident (d. 1978)
1930 - Gastone Nencini, Italian cyclist (d. 1980)
1935 - Robert Conrad, American actor
1936 - Monique Bégin, French-Canadian politician
1936 - Jean-Edern Hallier, French author (d. 1997)
1937 - Jed Allan, American actor
1939 - Leo Brouwer, Cuban composer and guitarist
1940 - Robert Grossman, American illustrator
1942 - Richard Bowman Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
1943 - Gil Amelio, American venture capitalist
1943 - Akinori Nakayama, Japanese gymnast
1943 - Richard H. Price, American physicist
1943 - Rashid Sunyaev, Russian physicist
1943 - José Ángel Iribar, Spanish footballer
1944 - John Breaux, U.S. Senator from Louisiana
1944 - Mike d'Abo, English singer (Manfred Mann)
1944 - Roger Daltrey, English musician (The Who)
1945 - Dirk Benedict, American actor
1946 - Lana Wood, American actress
1946 - Gerry Boulet, French-Canadian singer (d. 1990)
1946 - Elvin Bethea, American football player
1947 - Alan Thicke, Canadian actor and songwriter
1948 - Burning Spear, Jamaican singer and musician
1952 - Steven Barnes, American writer
1952 - Leigh Matthews, Australian rules footballer
1952 - Martin O'Neill, Northern Irish footballer and manager
1953 - Richard Bruton, Irish politician and economist
1954 - Catherine Bach, American actress
1954 - Ron Howard, American actor and director
1956 - Timothy Daly, American actor
1958 - Bertrand Piccard, Swiss balloonist and psychiatrist
1958 - Nik Kershaw, English musician
1958 - Chosei Komatsu, Japanese conductor
1960 - William Bennett, English musician (Whitehouse)
1963 - Rob Affuso, American drummer
1963 - Thomas Anders, German singer (Modern Talking)
1963 - Ron Francis, Canadian ice hockey player
1963 - Dan Michaels, American musician and record producer
1964 - Paul Le Guen, French football manager
1964 - Clinton Gregory, American musician
1965 - Stewart Elliott, Canadian jockey
1965 - Booker Huffman, American professional wrestler
1965 - Mary Lou Lord, American singer/songwriter
1966 - Susan Auch, Canadian speed-skater
1967 - Yelena Afanasyeva, Russian athlete
1967 - George Eads, American actor
1967 - Aron Winter, Dutch footballer
1969 - Javier Bardem, Spanish actor
1969 - Doug Creek, American baseball player
1969 - Dafydd Ieuan, Welsh drummer (Super Furry Animals)
1971 - Tyler Hamilton, American cyclist
1973 - Jack Davenport, English actor
1973 - Ryan Peake, Canadian guitarist (Nickelback)
1973 - Carlo Resoort, Dutch DJ
1973 - Chris Webber, American basketball player
1974 - Mark-Paul Gosselaar, American actor
1974 - Stephen Davis, American football player
1976 - Peter F. Bell, Australian rules footballer
1976 - Dave Malkoff, American TV News Reporter
1977 - Rens Blom, Dutch athlete
1977 - Esther Cañadas, Spanish actress and supermodel
1978 - Jensen Ackles, American actor
1978 - Donovan Patton, Guamanian television star
1978 - Alicia Leigh Willis, American actress
1980 - Shahid Afridi, Pakistani cricketer
1980 - Abdur Rehman, Pakistani cricketer
1980 - Djimi Traoré, Malian footballer
1981 - Ana Hickmann, Brazilian supermodel
1981 - Adam LaVorgna, American actor
1981 - Will Power, Australian racing driver
1981 - Brad Winchester, American ice hockey player
1983 - Daniel Carvalho, Brazilian footballer
1983 - Elan Sara DeFan, Mexican singer-songwriter
1983 - Chris Hackett, English footballer
1983 - Blake Hawksworth, Canadian baseball player
1984 - Naima Mora, American model
1984 - Alexander Steen, Canadian-born Swedish ice hockey player
1985 - Andreas Ottl, German footballer
1985 - J Leman, American Football Player
1986 - Jonathan Spector, American soccer player
1987 - Sammie, American singer
1988 - Katija Pevec, American actress
1989 - Sonya Kitchell, American singer
1989 - Carlos Vela, Mexican footballer
1990 - Harry Eden, English actor
1990 - Nikolas Tsattalios, Australian soccer player