1815: Napoleon<\/a> boldly returns to France<\/h4>\nOn 1 March, something extraordinary happened on the south coast of France. Napoleon \u2013 who had escaped from Elba on the brig\u00a0Inconstant\u00a0\u2013 landed in the seaside village of Golfe-Juan, between Cannes and Antibes, with a thousand men. He issued a defiant proclamation, asserting his right to rule.<\/p>\n
![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> A painting of Napoleon. Located in: Musee du Louvre, Paris, France. (Photo by Francis G. Mayer\/Corbis\/VCG via Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
2 March<\/a><\/h2>\n537: Belisarius saves Rome from the Goths<\/h4>\n
As smoke rose from the Goths\u2019 camps, Belisarius knew that his gamble had paid off. He waited until half the retreating Gothic forces were across the Milvian Bridge, and then ordered his troops out of the city. They killed thousands of Goths, and many more were drowned. Belisarius had won. For the time being at least, Rome remained Roman.<\/p>\n
3 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1913: Women\u2019s suffrage takes off in Washington DC<\/h4>\n ![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> A group of Women\u2019s Suffrage activists march in the 1913 parade carrying a banner reading \u2018I Wish Ma Could Vote\u2019. (Photo by FPG\/Archive Photos\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nAlthough the parade got off to a slow start, it was soon evident that this was no passing demonstration. Never before had so many women marched together in pursuit of their right to vote. Marching down Pennsylvania Avenue with two dozen floats, nine bands and four mounted brigades, they were led by the figure of the lawyer and activist Inez Milholland, atop a white horse and wearing a white cape.<\/p>\n
- Read more |\u00a0The 1913 march for women\u2019s suffrage<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
4 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1918: The first case of \u201cSpanish flu<\/a>\u201d is recorded<\/h4>\nThere was still a chill in the air on the morning of 4 March 1918. Private Albert Gitchell,\u00a0a US Army mess cook, woke feeling hot and achy, his throat burning. Physically unable to attend to his duties, he dragged himself to the infirmary \u2013 Hospital Building 91 \u2013 where his temperature was taken, recording a shocking 39.4\u00b0C. Wary of spreading whatever disease had infected Gitchell, the camp doctor recom- mended that the cook \u2013 whom he diagnosed with \u201ca bad cold\u201d \u2013 spend a few days in a separate tent.<\/p>\n
It was already too late. Almost immediately afterwards, several more patients descended on the infirmary complaining of the same symptoms. Before lunchtime, 107 cases of the mysterious\u00a0flu were recorded at Fort Riley.<\/p>\n
5 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1953: Death of Stalin<\/a><\/h4>\nStalin\u2019s daughter Svetlana remembered the final moment. \u201cHe literally choked to death as we watched,\u201d she wrote. \u201cThe death agony was terrible \u2026 At the last minute, he opened his eyes. It was a terrible look, either mad or angry, and full of the fear of death.\u201d For a moment, Stalin raised his hand, as if pointing or threatening. \u201cThen,\u201d Svetlana wrote, \u201cthe next moment, his spirit after one last effort tore itself from his body.\u201d<\/p>\n
6 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1836: Rebel settlers take a last stand at the Alamo<\/h4>\n
It was at about 5.30 in the morning that the Mexicans launched their final assault on the Alamo. Five months earlier, American settlers in Texas, or \u2018Texians\u2019, had rebelled against the Mexican government, driving away their forces. During the inevitable Mexican counterattack, more than 200 Texian rebels had become trapped at the Alamo Mission, near San Antonio. Steadily the besiegers tightened their grip, and now they were ready to finish the job.<\/p>\n
7 March<\/a><\/h2>\n321: Constantine orders that Sunday become a day of rest<\/h4>\n
\u201cOn the venerable day of the Sun,\u201d Constantine ordered, \u201clet the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country however persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits because it often happens that another day is not suitable for grain-sowing or vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost.\u201d<\/p>\n Famous births in March<\/h2>\n1 March 1810<\/h6>\n
Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Fran\u00e7ois Chopin, composer and pianist<\/p>\n
1 March 1812<\/h6>\n
Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, English Gothic Revival architect and designer<\/p>\n
3 March 1847<\/h6>\n
Alexander Graham Bell, telephone pioneer<\/p>\n
3 March 1911<\/h6>\n
Jean Harlow<\/a>, film actress and original \u2018blonde bombshell\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n4 March 1678<\/h6>\n
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi, violinist and composer<\/p>\n
6 March 1937\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Valentina Tereshkova, first woman to orbit the earth<\/p>\n
7 March 1857\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Julius Wagner von Jauregg, Nobel Prize winning psychiatrist<\/p>\n
8 March 1712<\/h6>\n
Quaker John Fothergill, physician and naturalist\u00a0<\/p>\n
9 March 1763<\/h6>\n
William Cobbett, radical politician, farmer and author<\/p>\n
10 March 1858<\/h6>\n
Henry Watson Fowler, lexicographer and author\u00a0<\/p>\n
12 March 1613<\/h6>\n
Andr\u00e9 Le N\u00f4tre, landscape gardener\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
14 March 1808<\/h6>\n
Narcissa Whitman, in 1836, she and Eliza Spalding are hailed as the first two women to cross the Rocky Mountains\u00a0<\/p>\n
14 March 1879<\/h6>\n
Albert Einstein<\/a>, pioneering theoretical physicist<\/p>\n15 March 1813<\/h6>\n
John Snow, English obstetrician, epidemiologist and public health reformer<\/p>\n
16 March 1751<\/h6>\n
James Madison, fourth US president<\/p>\n
20 March 1811<\/h6>\n
Napoleon II, the son of Napoleon Bonaparte<\/a> and his second wife, Marie Louise of Austria<\/p>\n21 March 1527<\/h6>\n
Hermann Finck, German composer<\/p>\n
21 March 1768<\/h6>\n
Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier, mathematician and physicist<\/p>\n
22 March 1783<\/h6>\n
Sarah Goodin Barrett Moulton, young subject of one of Thomas Lawrence\u2019s most famous portraits<\/p>\n
23 March 1430<\/h6>\n
Margaret of Anjou<\/a>, de facto leader of the Lancastrian faction for much of the Wars of the Roses\u00a0<\/p>\n23 March 1882<\/h6>\n
Emmy Noetherm, mathematician<\/p>\n
30 March 1811<\/h6>\n
Robert Bunsen, chemist<\/p>\n
31 March 1732<\/h6>\n
Joseph Haydn, Austrian composer<\/p>\n
31 March 1878<\/h6>\n
John Arthur \u201cJack\u201d Johnson, first black world heavyweight boxing champion<\/p>\n
Famous deaths in March<\/h2>\n2 March 1930<\/h6>\n
DH Lawrence, novelist<\/p>\n
3 March 1792<\/h6>\n
Robert Adam, Scottish neoclassical architect and interior designer<\/p>\n
3 March 1808<\/h6>\n
Johann Christian Fabricius, Danish entomologist<\/p>\n
4 March 1193\u00a0\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Saladin, sultan of Egypt and Syria and founder of the Ayyubid dynasty<\/p>\n
4 March 1790<\/h6>\n
Flora MacDonald, Jacobite heroine\u00a0<\/p>\n
5 March 1827\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist and battery inventor<\/p>\n
6 March 1888<\/h6>\n
Louisa M Alcott<\/a>, American writer, feminist and abolitionist<\/p>\n7 March 1810<\/h6>\n
Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, Nelson\u2019s second-in-command at the battle of Trafalgar<\/p>\n
8 March 1917<\/h6>\n
Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, German airship designer<\/p>\n
10 March 1513<\/h6>\n
John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford<\/p>\n
13 March 1842<\/h6>\n
Henry Shrapnel, British soldier and inventor<\/p>\n
25 March 1650<\/h6>\n
John Williams, Archbishop of York<\/p>\n
25 March 1809<\/h6>\n
Anna Seward, poet known as \u2018the Swan of Lichfield\u2019<\/p>\n
26 March 1827<\/h6>\n
Ludwig van Beethoven<\/a>, composer<\/p>\n27 March 1770<\/h6>\n
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Venetian artist<\/p>\n
31 March 1631<\/h6>\n
John Donne, English metaphysical poet<\/p>\n
<\/p><\/div> <\/section>
8 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1711: Marquis de Guiscard stabs Sir Robert Harley<\/h4>\n
Members of the British cabinet were questioning the French spy the Marquis de Guiscard when he pulled out a knife and stabbed Sir Robert Harley in the chest. Harley, who as chancellor of the exchequer was one of Queen Anne\u2019s chief ministers, was said to have been saved from death thanks to the heavy gold thread embroidery that his sister Abigail had sewn onto his coat, which broke the blade of the knife. Harley was, however, wounded by a second blow and forced to take to his bed for six weeks.<\/p>\n
9 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1841: The US Supreme Court frees the slaves of La Amistad<\/h4>\n
As Justice Story began speaking, it became clear that the Supreme Court had sided with the slaves. As their lawyer put it, they had been \u201cunlawfully kidnapped, and forcibly and wrongfully carried on board\u201d, so they were entitled to their freedom. Abolitionist supporters paid for them to be put up in Farmington, Connecticut, where they were given English lessons and Bible classes, while fundraisers collected money to send them back home. A year later, they set eyes on the African coast for the first time since they had been kidnapped. Most disappeared into obscurity. But one, Sarah Margru Kinson, later returned to the United States to study at Oberlin College, before going back to Sierra Leone as a Christian missionary.<\/p>\n
10 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1910: Release of the silent movie In Old California<\/em>. Directed by DW Griffith of the Biograph Company, it is the first film to be shot in Hollywood<\/a><\/h4>\n11 March<\/a><\/h2>\nAD 222: Rome\u2019s emperor of excess meets a bloody end<\/h4>\n ![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Elagabalus (Photo by Pictures From History\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nThe Praetorian Guard, sick of Elagabalus\u2019s excesses, switched their allegiance to his cousin Severus Alexander and turned on Elagabalus. As the historian Cassius Dio recorded, there was no mercy for either Elagabalus or his mother: \u201cTheir heads were cut off and their bodies, after being stripped naked, were first dragged all over the city, and then the mother\u2019s body was cast aside somewhere or other while his was thrown into the river.\u201d<\/p>\n
- On the podcast | Everything you wanted to know about Roman emperors<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
12 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1612: King James VI<\/a> and I granted the Virginia Company of London a third royal charter, extending its American territories to include Bermuda.<\/h4>\nThe move gave more control to ordinary investors and allowed the company to run a lottery to raise funds<\/p>\n
13 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1781: William Herschel observes Uranus<\/h4>\n
Using a telescope of his own design, astronomer William Herschel observed the planet later named Uranus from the back garden of his house in New King Street, Bath. He originally thought it was a comet.<\/p>\n
- On the podcast | The space race: everything you wanted to know<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
14 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1942: Anne Miller, a nurse from Connecticut, becomes the first known person to have her life saved by penicillin after developing a streptococcal infection after a miscarriage<\/h4>\n15 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1927: Female rowers battle it out at the first women\u2019s boat race<\/h4>\n
Even the sceptics had to admit that it was a colourful occasion. As if determined to confirm their killjoy reputation, the heads of the women\u2019s colleges had scheduled the race for 1.15pm, \u201cin order to avoid a large body of spectators\u201d. All the same, the banks were packed with \u201centhusiastic undergraduates, flinging confetti over the river, and blowing toy trumpets\u201d.<\/p>\n
16 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1968: As many as 500 Vietnamese civilians are murdered by US troops at My Lai, South Vietnam. Lieutenant William Calley will be the only participant to be convicted for the crime<\/h4>\n17 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1921: Marie Stopes opens Britain\u2019s first family planning clinic<\/h4>\n
Marie Stopes opened Britain \u2018s first family planning clinic, the Mothers\u2019 Clinic, in Holloway, north London. In 1925 the clinic moved to Whitfield Street in central London, where it remains to this day.<\/p>\n
![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Dr. Marie Stopes (Photo by GettyImages)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n18 March<\/a><\/h2>\n978: King Edward is murdered at Corfe<\/h4>\n
On 18 March 978, a brutal murder was committed at Corfe in Dorset \u2013 and the victim was Edward, king of the English. \u201cNo worse deed for the English race was done than this,\u201d the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle lamented.<\/p>\n
The main suspect for the assassination was Edward\u2019s stepmother, \u00c6lfthryth, widow of his father, King Edgar. Certainly she had a motive: with Edward dead, his younger half-brother \u2013 her son, \u00c6thelred \u2013 would inherit the English throne. It has been supposed that she invited the young king to Corfe to participate in a hunt, with murder in mind.<\/p>\n
19 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1962: In the US, a young folk singer called Bob Dylan releases his first album, the imaginatively titled Bob Dylan<\/em><\/h4>\n ![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Bob Dylan recording his first album, \u2018Bob Dylan\u2019. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n20 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1966: A thief steals into church and pinches the World Cup<\/a><\/h4>\nAs the secretary of the Football Association admitted, the theft had cast \u201cquite a cloud\u201d over the forthcoming tournament. But then, on 27 March, the cup was found. Out walking with his owner in South Norwood, a dog called Pickles disappeared beneath a hedge, and reappeared with something wrapped in newspaper \u2013 the Jules Rimet trophy.<\/p>\n
21 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1617: Pocahontas is buried, far from home<\/h4>\n
By March 1617, at the end of her London visit, Pocahontas was possibly already gravely unwell, and not keen to travel back to Virginia. As an observer wrote: \u201cShe is on her return though sore against her will, if the wind would come about to send them away.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was planned that the family would sail from London on the George, belonging to Samuel Argall, deputy governor of Virginia. Before the ship set out on the long ocean voyage, it dropped anchor at Gravesend to gather supplies and fresh water. Here, Pocahontas was taken off the ship, dying or possibly already dead. Her body was laid to rest in the chancel of Saint George\u2019s Church \u2013 a superior place of burial usually reserved for clergy or high-standing parishioners.<\/p>\n
22 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1960: American physicists Arthur Schawlow and Charles Townes are awarded the world\u2019s first patent for a laser<\/h4>\n
Gordon Gould, who coined the term laser and whose patent application had been rejected, began a 30-year legal battle for his patent rights<\/p>\n
23 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1801: Russia\u2019s tsar is brutally beaten to death<\/h4>\n
Many accounts agree that the plotters initially planned to force Paul to abdicate, but alcohol soon took over. In the confusion, one officer hit the struggling Paul in the face with a golden snuffbox. The emperor went down, and a group of the plotters piled on top of him, kicking and choking him. One of them wrapped a sash around his neck and began to tighten. Then, when he had stopped twitching, they kicked and stamped on his body, until they were pulled away.<\/p>\n
The next morning, when Paul\u2019s son Alexander, now emperor, reviewed the guards, they were wearing their old uniforms.<\/p>\n
24 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1944: The Great Escape arouses Hitler<\/a>\u2019s fury<\/h4>\nAs night fell on the 24th, the men chosen for the escape attempt assembled in Hut 104.<\/p>\n
By the time the Germans realised the prisoners were getting out, 76 men had crawled to freedom. The snow was so deep that they were forced to use main roads rather than forest paths, as they had planned, and all but three were soon recaptured. Hitler wanted them all shot; in the end, 50 were executed.<\/p>\n
25 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1807: The slave trade is abolished in the British empire<\/h4>\n
The Abolition of the Slave Trade Act entered the statute books on 25 March 1807, making it illegal to trade enslaved people within the British colonies. The act \u2013 culmination of a decades-long struggle by abolitionists in Britain \u2013 ruled that, from\u00a01 May 1807, \u201cdealing and reading in the purchase, sale, barter, or transfer of slaves\u00a0or of persons intending to be sold, transferred, used, or dealt with as slaves, practiced or carried in, at, or from any part of the coast or countries of Africa shall be abolished, prohibited and declared to be unlawful\u201d.<\/p>\n
- Read more |\u00a0A brief guide to the transatlantic slave trade<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
26 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1830: The Book of Mormon<\/em> debuts with a whimper<\/h4>\n ![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Woodcut illustration of the inception of Mormonism (Photo by GettyImages)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nToday, with an estimated 15 million Mormons worldwide, original copies of the Book of Mormon<\/em> change hands for well over $50,000. But when the book first went on sale on 26 March 1830, sales were disappointing. Many local citizens thought it was blasphemous; another Palmyra paper even called it \u201cthe greatest piece of superstition that has come to our knowledge\u201d.<\/p>\nLocal farmer Martin Harris had mortgaged his property to pay for Smith\u2019s security. Harris lost everything, yet he never lost his faith in the Book of Mormon. It was \u201cno fake,\u201d he said on his deathbed. \u201cI know what I know. I have seen what I have seen and I have heard what I have heard. I have seen the gold plates from which the Book of Mormon is written.\u201d<\/p>\n
27 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1881: In the then violent town of Basingstoke, troops are called to clear the streets after the Salvation Army\u2019s anti-alcohol campaign provokes rioting by local brewery workers<\/h4>\n28 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1979: Labour<\/a> receives a vote of no confidence<\/h4>\nAs Hamilton reached the clerk\u2019s table he gave \u201can almost imperceptible thumbs up\u201d. On the other side, a Tory whip was whispering to Mrs Thatcher, and her face paled. \u201cI don\u2019t believe it,\u201d she mouthed, and a gasp of triumph came from the Labour benches. Had they pulled it off, against all the odds?<\/p>\n
Then the clerk of the house handed the voting slip to the Conservative teller, Spencer Le Marchant, and the mood changed. Suddenly the government benches were deathly silent, and all the noise was coming from the opposition. \u201cOrder, order!\u201d said the speaker, and the house fell absolutely still.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Ayes to the right, 311,\u201d Le Marchant said. \u201cThe Noes to the left, 310.\u201d Even before he had finished, there came from the Tory benches a roar of unbridled joy. They had done it. Now the election was on.<\/p>\n
29 March<\/a><\/h2>\n2014: As midnight strikes, the first same-sex marriages are solemnised in England and Wales<\/h4>\n- On the podcast | LGBT+ history podcast episodes<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
30 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1282: Sicilians revolt against their French oppressors<\/h4>\n
It was on Easter Monday, just before the evening Vespers service at the Church of the Holy Spirit, Palermo, that the moment came. As crowds gathered outside the church for the annual festival, a group of swaggering, tipsy French officials, with a man called Drouet particularly prominent, made overtures to some young Sicilian women. In the ensuing melee, one outraged husband plunged his knife into Drouet \u2013 and all hell broke loose.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo the sound of the bells,\u201d wrote the great historian Steven Runciman, \u201cmessengers ran through the city calling on the men of Palermo to rise against the oppressor. At once the streets were filled with angry armed men, crying \u2018Death to the French\u2019\u2026 They poured into the inns frequented by the French and the houses where they dwelt, sparing neither man, woman nor child.\u201d Whenever they found a suspected Frenchmen, the mob demanded that he pronounce the local word ciciri, which outsiders invariably found difficult. Anyone who failed the test was killed.<\/p>\n
By the next morning, 2,000 people lay dead. The War of the Sicilian Vespers had begun; it would last for another 20 years.<\/p>\n
31 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1889: France\u2019s Eiffel Tower<\/a> opens<\/h4>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/02\/GettyImages-640483679-475c696-e1677513242894.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\u00a0<\/p>\n
2 March<\/a><\/h2>\n537: Belisarius saves Rome from the Goths<\/h4>\n
As smoke rose from the Goths\u2019 camps, Belisarius knew that his gamble had paid off. He waited until half the retreating Gothic forces were across the Milvian Bridge, and then ordered his troops out of the city. They killed thousands of Goths, and many more were drowned. Belisarius had won. For the time being at least, Rome remained Roman.<\/p>\n
3 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1913: Women\u2019s suffrage takes off in Washington DC<\/h4>\n ![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> A group of Women\u2019s Suffrage activists march in the 1913 parade carrying a banner reading \u2018I Wish Ma Could Vote\u2019. (Photo by FPG\/Archive Photos\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nAlthough the parade got off to a slow start, it was soon evident that this was no passing demonstration. Never before had so many women marched together in pursuit of their right to vote. Marching down Pennsylvania Avenue with two dozen floats, nine bands and four mounted brigades, they were led by the figure of the lawyer and activist Inez Milholland, atop a white horse and wearing a white cape.<\/p>\n
- Read more |\u00a0The 1913 march for women\u2019s suffrage<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
4 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1918: The first case of \u201cSpanish flu<\/a>\u201d is recorded<\/h4>\nThere was still a chill in the air on the morning of 4 March 1918. Private Albert Gitchell,\u00a0a US Army mess cook, woke feeling hot and achy, his throat burning. Physically unable to attend to his duties, he dragged himself to the infirmary \u2013 Hospital Building 91 \u2013 where his temperature was taken, recording a shocking 39.4\u00b0C. Wary of spreading whatever disease had infected Gitchell, the camp doctor recom- mended that the cook \u2013 whom he diagnosed with \u201ca bad cold\u201d \u2013 spend a few days in a separate tent.<\/p>\n
It was already too late. Almost immediately afterwards, several more patients descended on the infirmary complaining of the same symptoms. Before lunchtime, 107 cases of the mysterious\u00a0flu were recorded at Fort Riley.<\/p>\n
5 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1953: Death of Stalin<\/a><\/h4>\nStalin\u2019s daughter Svetlana remembered the final moment. \u201cHe literally choked to death as we watched,\u201d she wrote. \u201cThe death agony was terrible \u2026 At the last minute, he opened his eyes. It was a terrible look, either mad or angry, and full of the fear of death.\u201d For a moment, Stalin raised his hand, as if pointing or threatening. \u201cThen,\u201d Svetlana wrote, \u201cthe next moment, his spirit after one last effort tore itself from his body.\u201d<\/p>\n
6 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1836: Rebel settlers take a last stand at the Alamo<\/h4>\n
It was at about 5.30 in the morning that the Mexicans launched their final assault on the Alamo. Five months earlier, American settlers in Texas, or \u2018Texians\u2019, had rebelled against the Mexican government, driving away their forces. During the inevitable Mexican counterattack, more than 200 Texian rebels had become trapped at the Alamo Mission, near San Antonio. Steadily the besiegers tightened their grip, and now they were ready to finish the job.<\/p>\n
7 March<\/a><\/h2>\n321: Constantine orders that Sunday become a day of rest<\/h4>\n
\u201cOn the venerable day of the Sun,\u201d Constantine ordered, \u201clet the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country however persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits because it often happens that another day is not suitable for grain-sowing or vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost.\u201d<\/p>\n Famous births in March<\/h2>\n1 March 1810<\/h6>\n
Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Fran\u00e7ois Chopin, composer and pianist<\/p>\n
1 March 1812<\/h6>\n
Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, English Gothic Revival architect and designer<\/p>\n
3 March 1847<\/h6>\n
Alexander Graham Bell, telephone pioneer<\/p>\n
3 March 1911<\/h6>\n
Jean Harlow<\/a>, film actress and original \u2018blonde bombshell\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n4 March 1678<\/h6>\n
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi, violinist and composer<\/p>\n
6 March 1937\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Valentina Tereshkova, first woman to orbit the earth<\/p>\n
7 March 1857\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Julius Wagner von Jauregg, Nobel Prize winning psychiatrist<\/p>\n
8 March 1712<\/h6>\n
Quaker John Fothergill, physician and naturalist\u00a0<\/p>\n
9 March 1763<\/h6>\n
William Cobbett, radical politician, farmer and author<\/p>\n
10 March 1858<\/h6>\n
Henry Watson Fowler, lexicographer and author\u00a0<\/p>\n
12 March 1613<\/h6>\n
Andr\u00e9 Le N\u00f4tre, landscape gardener\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
14 March 1808<\/h6>\n
Narcissa Whitman, in 1836, she and Eliza Spalding are hailed as the first two women to cross the Rocky Mountains\u00a0<\/p>\n
14 March 1879<\/h6>\n
Albert Einstein<\/a>, pioneering theoretical physicist<\/p>\n15 March 1813<\/h6>\n
John Snow, English obstetrician, epidemiologist and public health reformer<\/p>\n
16 March 1751<\/h6>\n
James Madison, fourth US president<\/p>\n
20 March 1811<\/h6>\n
Napoleon II, the son of Napoleon Bonaparte<\/a> and his second wife, Marie Louise of Austria<\/p>\n21 March 1527<\/h6>\n
Hermann Finck, German composer<\/p>\n
21 March 1768<\/h6>\n
Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier, mathematician and physicist<\/p>\n
22 March 1783<\/h6>\n
Sarah Goodin Barrett Moulton, young subject of one of Thomas Lawrence\u2019s most famous portraits<\/p>\n
23 March 1430<\/h6>\n
Margaret of Anjou<\/a>, de facto leader of the Lancastrian faction for much of the Wars of the Roses\u00a0<\/p>\n23 March 1882<\/h6>\n
Emmy Noetherm, mathematician<\/p>\n
30 March 1811<\/h6>\n
Robert Bunsen, chemist<\/p>\n
31 March 1732<\/h6>\n
Joseph Haydn, Austrian composer<\/p>\n
31 March 1878<\/h6>\n
John Arthur \u201cJack\u201d Johnson, first black world heavyweight boxing champion<\/p>\n
Famous deaths in March<\/h2>\n2 March 1930<\/h6>\n
DH Lawrence, novelist<\/p>\n
3 March 1792<\/h6>\n
Robert Adam, Scottish neoclassical architect and interior designer<\/p>\n
3 March 1808<\/h6>\n
Johann Christian Fabricius, Danish entomologist<\/p>\n
4 March 1193\u00a0\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Saladin, sultan of Egypt and Syria and founder of the Ayyubid dynasty<\/p>\n
4 March 1790<\/h6>\n
Flora MacDonald, Jacobite heroine\u00a0<\/p>\n
5 March 1827\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist and battery inventor<\/p>\n
6 March 1888<\/h6>\n
Louisa M Alcott<\/a>, American writer, feminist and abolitionist<\/p>\n7 March 1810<\/h6>\n
Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, Nelson\u2019s second-in-command at the battle of Trafalgar<\/p>\n
8 March 1917<\/h6>\n
Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, German airship designer<\/p>\n
10 March 1513<\/h6>\n
John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford<\/p>\n
13 March 1842<\/h6>\n
Henry Shrapnel, British soldier and inventor<\/p>\n
25 March 1650<\/h6>\n
John Williams, Archbishop of York<\/p>\n
25 March 1809<\/h6>\n
Anna Seward, poet known as \u2018the Swan of Lichfield\u2019<\/p>\n
26 March 1827<\/h6>\n
Ludwig van Beethoven<\/a>, composer<\/p>\n27 March 1770<\/h6>\n
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Venetian artist<\/p>\n
31 March 1631<\/h6>\n
John Donne, English metaphysical poet<\/p>\n
<\/p><\/div> <\/section>
8 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1711: Marquis de Guiscard stabs Sir Robert Harley<\/h4>\n
Members of the British cabinet were questioning the French spy the Marquis de Guiscard when he pulled out a knife and stabbed Sir Robert Harley in the chest. Harley, who as chancellor of the exchequer was one of Queen Anne\u2019s chief ministers, was said to have been saved from death thanks to the heavy gold thread embroidery that his sister Abigail had sewn onto his coat, which broke the blade of the knife. Harley was, however, wounded by a second blow and forced to take to his bed for six weeks.<\/p>\n
9 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1841: The US Supreme Court frees the slaves of La Amistad<\/h4>\n
As Justice Story began speaking, it became clear that the Supreme Court had sided with the slaves. As their lawyer put it, they had been \u201cunlawfully kidnapped, and forcibly and wrongfully carried on board\u201d, so they were entitled to their freedom. Abolitionist supporters paid for them to be put up in Farmington, Connecticut, where they were given English lessons and Bible classes, while fundraisers collected money to send them back home. A year later, they set eyes on the African coast for the first time since they had been kidnapped. Most disappeared into obscurity. But one, Sarah Margru Kinson, later returned to the United States to study at Oberlin College, before going back to Sierra Leone as a Christian missionary.<\/p>\n
10 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1910: Release of the silent movie In Old California<\/em>. Directed by DW Griffith of the Biograph Company, it is the first film to be shot in Hollywood<\/a><\/h4>\n11 March<\/a><\/h2>\nAD 222: Rome\u2019s emperor of excess meets a bloody end<\/h4>\n ![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Elagabalus (Photo by Pictures From History\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nThe Praetorian Guard, sick of Elagabalus\u2019s excesses, switched their allegiance to his cousin Severus Alexander and turned on Elagabalus. As the historian Cassius Dio recorded, there was no mercy for either Elagabalus or his mother: \u201cTheir heads were cut off and their bodies, after being stripped naked, were first dragged all over the city, and then the mother\u2019s body was cast aside somewhere or other while his was thrown into the river.\u201d<\/p>\n
- On the podcast | Everything you wanted to know about Roman emperors<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
12 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1612: King James VI<\/a> and I granted the Virginia Company of London a third royal charter, extending its American territories to include Bermuda.<\/h4>\nThe move gave more control to ordinary investors and allowed the company to run a lottery to raise funds<\/p>\n
13 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1781: William Herschel observes Uranus<\/h4>\n
Using a telescope of his own design, astronomer William Herschel observed the planet later named Uranus from the back garden of his house in New King Street, Bath. He originally thought it was a comet.<\/p>\n
- On the podcast | The space race: everything you wanted to know<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
14 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1942: Anne Miller, a nurse from Connecticut, becomes the first known person to have her life saved by penicillin after developing a streptococcal infection after a miscarriage<\/h4>\n15 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1927: Female rowers battle it out at the first women\u2019s boat race<\/h4>\n
Even the sceptics had to admit that it was a colourful occasion. As if determined to confirm their killjoy reputation, the heads of the women\u2019s colleges had scheduled the race for 1.15pm, \u201cin order to avoid a large body of spectators\u201d. All the same, the banks were packed with \u201centhusiastic undergraduates, flinging confetti over the river, and blowing toy trumpets\u201d.<\/p>\n
16 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1968: As many as 500 Vietnamese civilians are murdered by US troops at My Lai, South Vietnam. Lieutenant William Calley will be the only participant to be convicted for the crime<\/h4>\n17 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1921: Marie Stopes opens Britain\u2019s first family planning clinic<\/h4>\n
Marie Stopes opened Britain \u2018s first family planning clinic, the Mothers\u2019 Clinic, in Holloway, north London. In 1925 the clinic moved to Whitfield Street in central London, where it remains to this day.<\/p>\n
![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Dr. Marie Stopes (Photo by GettyImages)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n18 March<\/a><\/h2>\n978: King Edward is murdered at Corfe<\/h4>\n
On 18 March 978, a brutal murder was committed at Corfe in Dorset \u2013 and the victim was Edward, king of the English. \u201cNo worse deed for the English race was done than this,\u201d the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle lamented.<\/p>\n
The main suspect for the assassination was Edward\u2019s stepmother, \u00c6lfthryth, widow of his father, King Edgar. Certainly she had a motive: with Edward dead, his younger half-brother \u2013 her son, \u00c6thelred \u2013 would inherit the English throne. It has been supposed that she invited the young king to Corfe to participate in a hunt, with murder in mind.<\/p>\n
19 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1962: In the US, a young folk singer called Bob Dylan releases his first album, the imaginatively titled Bob Dylan<\/em><\/h4>\n ![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Bob Dylan recording his first album, \u2018Bob Dylan\u2019. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n20 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1966: A thief steals into church and pinches the World Cup<\/a><\/h4>\nAs the secretary of the Football Association admitted, the theft had cast \u201cquite a cloud\u201d over the forthcoming tournament. But then, on 27 March, the cup was found. Out walking with his owner in South Norwood, a dog called Pickles disappeared beneath a hedge, and reappeared with something wrapped in newspaper \u2013 the Jules Rimet trophy.<\/p>\n
21 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1617: Pocahontas is buried, far from home<\/h4>\n
By March 1617, at the end of her London visit, Pocahontas was possibly already gravely unwell, and not keen to travel back to Virginia. As an observer wrote: \u201cShe is on her return though sore against her will, if the wind would come about to send them away.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was planned that the family would sail from London on the George, belonging to Samuel Argall, deputy governor of Virginia. Before the ship set out on the long ocean voyage, it dropped anchor at Gravesend to gather supplies and fresh water. Here, Pocahontas was taken off the ship, dying or possibly already dead. Her body was laid to rest in the chancel of Saint George\u2019s Church \u2013 a superior place of burial usually reserved for clergy or high-standing parishioners.<\/p>\n
22 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1960: American physicists Arthur Schawlow and Charles Townes are awarded the world\u2019s first patent for a laser<\/h4>\n
Gordon Gould, who coined the term laser and whose patent application had been rejected, began a 30-year legal battle for his patent rights<\/p>\n
23 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1801: Russia\u2019s tsar is brutally beaten to death<\/h4>\n
Many accounts agree that the plotters initially planned to force Paul to abdicate, but alcohol soon took over. In the confusion, one officer hit the struggling Paul in the face with a golden snuffbox. The emperor went down, and a group of the plotters piled on top of him, kicking and choking him. One of them wrapped a sash around his neck and began to tighten. Then, when he had stopped twitching, they kicked and stamped on his body, until they were pulled away.<\/p>\n
The next morning, when Paul\u2019s son Alexander, now emperor, reviewed the guards, they were wearing their old uniforms.<\/p>\n
24 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1944: The Great Escape arouses Hitler<\/a>\u2019s fury<\/h4>\nAs night fell on the 24th, the men chosen for the escape attempt assembled in Hut 104.<\/p>\n
By the time the Germans realised the prisoners were getting out, 76 men had crawled to freedom. The snow was so deep that they were forced to use main roads rather than forest paths, as they had planned, and all but three were soon recaptured. Hitler wanted them all shot; in the end, 50 were executed.<\/p>\n
25 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1807: The slave trade is abolished in the British empire<\/h4>\n
The Abolition of the Slave Trade Act entered the statute books on 25 March 1807, making it illegal to trade enslaved people within the British colonies. The act \u2013 culmination of a decades-long struggle by abolitionists in Britain \u2013 ruled that, from\u00a01 May 1807, \u201cdealing and reading in the purchase, sale, barter, or transfer of slaves\u00a0or of persons intending to be sold, transferred, used, or dealt with as slaves, practiced or carried in, at, or from any part of the coast or countries of Africa shall be abolished, prohibited and declared to be unlawful\u201d.<\/p>\n
- Read more |\u00a0A brief guide to the transatlantic slave trade<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
26 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1830: The Book of Mormon<\/em> debuts with a whimper<\/h4>\n ![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Woodcut illustration of the inception of Mormonism (Photo by GettyImages)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nToday, with an estimated 15 million Mormons worldwide, original copies of the Book of Mormon<\/em> change hands for well over $50,000. But when the book first went on sale on 26 March 1830, sales were disappointing. Many local citizens thought it was blasphemous; another Palmyra paper even called it \u201cthe greatest piece of superstition that has come to our knowledge\u201d.<\/p>\nLocal farmer Martin Harris had mortgaged his property to pay for Smith\u2019s security. Harris lost everything, yet he never lost his faith in the Book of Mormon. It was \u201cno fake,\u201d he said on his deathbed. \u201cI know what I know. I have seen what I have seen and I have heard what I have heard. I have seen the gold plates from which the Book of Mormon is written.\u201d<\/p>\n
27 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1881: In the then violent town of Basingstoke, troops are called to clear the streets after the Salvation Army\u2019s anti-alcohol campaign provokes rioting by local brewery workers<\/h4>\n28 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1979: Labour<\/a> receives a vote of no confidence<\/h4>\nAs Hamilton reached the clerk\u2019s table he gave \u201can almost imperceptible thumbs up\u201d. On the other side, a Tory whip was whispering to Mrs Thatcher, and her face paled. \u201cI don\u2019t believe it,\u201d she mouthed, and a gasp of triumph came from the Labour benches. Had they pulled it off, against all the odds?<\/p>\n
Then the clerk of the house handed the voting slip to the Conservative teller, Spencer Le Marchant, and the mood changed. Suddenly the government benches were deathly silent, and all the noise was coming from the opposition. \u201cOrder, order!\u201d said the speaker, and the house fell absolutely still.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Ayes to the right, 311,\u201d Le Marchant said. \u201cThe Noes to the left, 310.\u201d Even before he had finished, there came from the Tory benches a roar of unbridled joy. They had done it. Now the election was on.<\/p>\n
29 March<\/a><\/h2>\n2014: As midnight strikes, the first same-sex marriages are solemnised in England and Wales<\/h4>\n- On the podcast | LGBT+ history podcast episodes<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
30 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1282: Sicilians revolt against their French oppressors<\/h4>\n
It was on Easter Monday, just before the evening Vespers service at the Church of the Holy Spirit, Palermo, that the moment came. As crowds gathered outside the church for the annual festival, a group of swaggering, tipsy French officials, with a man called Drouet particularly prominent, made overtures to some young Sicilian women. In the ensuing melee, one outraged husband plunged his knife into Drouet \u2013 and all hell broke loose.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo the sound of the bells,\u201d wrote the great historian Steven Runciman, \u201cmessengers ran through the city calling on the men of Palermo to rise against the oppressor. At once the streets were filled with angry armed men, crying \u2018Death to the French\u2019\u2026 They poured into the inns frequented by the French and the houses where they dwelt, sparing neither man, woman nor child.\u201d Whenever they found a suspected Frenchmen, the mob demanded that he pronounce the local word ciciri, which outsiders invariably found difficult. Anyone who failed the test was killed.<\/p>\n
By the next morning, 2,000 people lay dead. The War of the Sicilian Vespers had begun; it would last for another 20 years.<\/p>\n
31 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1889: France\u2019s Eiffel Tower<\/a> opens<\/h4>\n
1913: Women\u2019s suffrage takes off in Washington DC<\/h4>\n ![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> A group of Women\u2019s Suffrage activists march in the 1913 parade carrying a banner reading \u2018I Wish Ma Could Vote\u2019. (Photo by FPG\/Archive Photos\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nAlthough the parade got off to a slow start, it was soon evident that this was no passing demonstration. Never before had so many women marched together in pursuit of their right to vote. Marching down Pennsylvania Avenue with two dozen floats, nine bands and four mounted brigades, they were led by the figure of the lawyer and activist Inez Milholland, atop a white horse and wearing a white cape.<\/p>\n
- Read more |\u00a0The 1913 march for women\u2019s suffrage<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
4 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1918: The first case of \u201cSpanish flu<\/a>\u201d is recorded<\/h4>\nThere was still a chill in the air on the morning of 4 March 1918. Private Albert Gitchell,\u00a0a US Army mess cook, woke feeling hot and achy, his throat burning. Physically unable to attend to his duties, he dragged himself to the infirmary \u2013 Hospital Building 91 \u2013 where his temperature was taken, recording a shocking 39.4\u00b0C. Wary of spreading whatever disease had infected Gitchell, the camp doctor recom- mended that the cook \u2013 whom he diagnosed with \u201ca bad cold\u201d \u2013 spend a few days in a separate tent.<\/p>\n
It was already too late. Almost immediately afterwards, several more patients descended on the infirmary complaining of the same symptoms. Before lunchtime, 107 cases of the mysterious\u00a0flu were recorded at Fort Riley.<\/p>\n
5 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1953: Death of Stalin<\/a><\/h4>\nStalin\u2019s daughter Svetlana remembered the final moment. \u201cHe literally choked to death as we watched,\u201d she wrote. \u201cThe death agony was terrible \u2026 At the last minute, he opened his eyes. It was a terrible look, either mad or angry, and full of the fear of death.\u201d For a moment, Stalin raised his hand, as if pointing or threatening. \u201cThen,\u201d Svetlana wrote, \u201cthe next moment, his spirit after one last effort tore itself from his body.\u201d<\/p>\n
6 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1836: Rebel settlers take a last stand at the Alamo<\/h4>\n
It was at about 5.30 in the morning that the Mexicans launched their final assault on the Alamo. Five months earlier, American settlers in Texas, or \u2018Texians\u2019, had rebelled against the Mexican government, driving away their forces. During the inevitable Mexican counterattack, more than 200 Texian rebels had become trapped at the Alamo Mission, near San Antonio. Steadily the besiegers tightened their grip, and now they were ready to finish the job.<\/p>\n
7 March<\/a><\/h2>\n321: Constantine orders that Sunday become a day of rest<\/h4>\n
\u201cOn the venerable day of the Sun,\u201d Constantine ordered, \u201clet the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country however persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits because it often happens that another day is not suitable for grain-sowing or vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost.\u201d<\/p>\n Famous births in March<\/h2>\n1 March 1810<\/h6>\n
Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Fran\u00e7ois Chopin, composer and pianist<\/p>\n
1 March 1812<\/h6>\n
Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, English Gothic Revival architect and designer<\/p>\n
3 March 1847<\/h6>\n
Alexander Graham Bell, telephone pioneer<\/p>\n
3 March 1911<\/h6>\n
Jean Harlow<\/a>, film actress and original \u2018blonde bombshell\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n4 March 1678<\/h6>\n
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi, violinist and composer<\/p>\n
6 March 1937\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Valentina Tereshkova, first woman to orbit the earth<\/p>\n
7 March 1857\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Julius Wagner von Jauregg, Nobel Prize winning psychiatrist<\/p>\n
8 March 1712<\/h6>\n
Quaker John Fothergill, physician and naturalist\u00a0<\/p>\n
9 March 1763<\/h6>\n
William Cobbett, radical politician, farmer and author<\/p>\n
10 March 1858<\/h6>\n
Henry Watson Fowler, lexicographer and author\u00a0<\/p>\n
12 March 1613<\/h6>\n
Andr\u00e9 Le N\u00f4tre, landscape gardener\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
14 March 1808<\/h6>\n
Narcissa Whitman, in 1836, she and Eliza Spalding are hailed as the first two women to cross the Rocky Mountains\u00a0<\/p>\n
14 March 1879<\/h6>\n
Albert Einstein<\/a>, pioneering theoretical physicist<\/p>\n15 March 1813<\/h6>\n
John Snow, English obstetrician, epidemiologist and public health reformer<\/p>\n
16 March 1751<\/h6>\n
James Madison, fourth US president<\/p>\n
20 March 1811<\/h6>\n
Napoleon II, the son of Napoleon Bonaparte<\/a> and his second wife, Marie Louise of Austria<\/p>\n21 March 1527<\/h6>\n
Hermann Finck, German composer<\/p>\n
21 March 1768<\/h6>\n
Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier, mathematician and physicist<\/p>\n
22 March 1783<\/h6>\n
Sarah Goodin Barrett Moulton, young subject of one of Thomas Lawrence\u2019s most famous portraits<\/p>\n
23 March 1430<\/h6>\n
Margaret of Anjou<\/a>, de facto leader of the Lancastrian faction for much of the Wars of the Roses\u00a0<\/p>\n23 March 1882<\/h6>\n
Emmy Noetherm, mathematician<\/p>\n
30 March 1811<\/h6>\n
Robert Bunsen, chemist<\/p>\n
31 March 1732<\/h6>\n
Joseph Haydn, Austrian composer<\/p>\n
31 March 1878<\/h6>\n
John Arthur \u201cJack\u201d Johnson, first black world heavyweight boxing champion<\/p>\n
Famous deaths in March<\/h2>\n2 March 1930<\/h6>\n
DH Lawrence, novelist<\/p>\n
3 March 1792<\/h6>\n
Robert Adam, Scottish neoclassical architect and interior designer<\/p>\n
3 March 1808<\/h6>\n
Johann Christian Fabricius, Danish entomologist<\/p>\n
4 March 1193\u00a0\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Saladin, sultan of Egypt and Syria and founder of the Ayyubid dynasty<\/p>\n
4 March 1790<\/h6>\n
Flora MacDonald, Jacobite heroine\u00a0<\/p>\n
5 March 1827\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist and battery inventor<\/p>\n
6 March 1888<\/h6>\n
Louisa M Alcott<\/a>, American writer, feminist and abolitionist<\/p>\n7 March 1810<\/h6>\n
Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, Nelson\u2019s second-in-command at the battle of Trafalgar<\/p>\n
8 March 1917<\/h6>\n
Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, German airship designer<\/p>\n
10 March 1513<\/h6>\n
John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford<\/p>\n
13 March 1842<\/h6>\n
Henry Shrapnel, British soldier and inventor<\/p>\n
25 March 1650<\/h6>\n
John Williams, Archbishop of York<\/p>\n
25 March 1809<\/h6>\n
Anna Seward, poet known as \u2018the Swan of Lichfield\u2019<\/p>\n
26 March 1827<\/h6>\n
Ludwig van Beethoven<\/a>, composer<\/p>\n27 March 1770<\/h6>\n
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Venetian artist<\/p>\n
31 March 1631<\/h6>\n
John Donne, English metaphysical poet<\/p>\n
<\/p><\/div> <\/section>
8 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1711: Marquis de Guiscard stabs Sir Robert Harley<\/h4>\n
Members of the British cabinet were questioning the French spy the Marquis de Guiscard when he pulled out a knife and stabbed Sir Robert Harley in the chest. Harley, who as chancellor of the exchequer was one of Queen Anne\u2019s chief ministers, was said to have been saved from death thanks to the heavy gold thread embroidery that his sister Abigail had sewn onto his coat, which broke the blade of the knife. Harley was, however, wounded by a second blow and forced to take to his bed for six weeks.<\/p>\n
9 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1841: The US Supreme Court frees the slaves of La Amistad<\/h4>\n
As Justice Story began speaking, it became clear that the Supreme Court had sided with the slaves. As their lawyer put it, they had been \u201cunlawfully kidnapped, and forcibly and wrongfully carried on board\u201d, so they were entitled to their freedom. Abolitionist supporters paid for them to be put up in Farmington, Connecticut, where they were given English lessons and Bible classes, while fundraisers collected money to send them back home. A year later, they set eyes on the African coast for the first time since they had been kidnapped. Most disappeared into obscurity. But one, Sarah Margru Kinson, later returned to the United States to study at Oberlin College, before going back to Sierra Leone as a Christian missionary.<\/p>\n
10 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1910: Release of the silent movie In Old California<\/em>. Directed by DW Griffith of the Biograph Company, it is the first film to be shot in Hollywood<\/a><\/h4>\n11 March<\/a><\/h2>\nAD 222: Rome\u2019s emperor of excess meets a bloody end<\/h4>\n ![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Elagabalus (Photo by Pictures From History\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nThe Praetorian Guard, sick of Elagabalus\u2019s excesses, switched their allegiance to his cousin Severus Alexander and turned on Elagabalus. As the historian Cassius Dio recorded, there was no mercy for either Elagabalus or his mother: \u201cTheir heads were cut off and their bodies, after being stripped naked, were first dragged all over the city, and then the mother\u2019s body was cast aside somewhere or other while his was thrown into the river.\u201d<\/p>\n
- On the podcast | Everything you wanted to know about Roman emperors<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
12 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1612: King James VI<\/a> and I granted the Virginia Company of London a third royal charter, extending its American territories to include Bermuda.<\/h4>\nThe move gave more control to ordinary investors and allowed the company to run a lottery to raise funds<\/p>\n
13 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1781: William Herschel observes Uranus<\/h4>\n
Using a telescope of his own design, astronomer William Herschel observed the planet later named Uranus from the back garden of his house in New King Street, Bath. He originally thought it was a comet.<\/p>\n
- On the podcast | The space race: everything you wanted to know<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
14 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1942: Anne Miller, a nurse from Connecticut, becomes the first known person to have her life saved by penicillin after developing a streptococcal infection after a miscarriage<\/h4>\n15 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1927: Female rowers battle it out at the first women\u2019s boat race<\/h4>\n
Even the sceptics had to admit that it was a colourful occasion. As if determined to confirm their killjoy reputation, the heads of the women\u2019s colleges had scheduled the race for 1.15pm, \u201cin order to avoid a large body of spectators\u201d. All the same, the banks were packed with \u201centhusiastic undergraduates, flinging confetti over the river, and blowing toy trumpets\u201d.<\/p>\n
16 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1968: As many as 500 Vietnamese civilians are murdered by US troops at My Lai, South Vietnam. Lieutenant William Calley will be the only participant to be convicted for the crime<\/h4>\n17 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1921: Marie Stopes opens Britain\u2019s first family planning clinic<\/h4>\n
Marie Stopes opened Britain \u2018s first family planning clinic, the Mothers\u2019 Clinic, in Holloway, north London. In 1925 the clinic moved to Whitfield Street in central London, where it remains to this day.<\/p>\n
![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Dr. Marie Stopes (Photo by GettyImages)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n18 March<\/a><\/h2>\n978: King Edward is murdered at Corfe<\/h4>\n
On 18 March 978, a brutal murder was committed at Corfe in Dorset \u2013 and the victim was Edward, king of the English. \u201cNo worse deed for the English race was done than this,\u201d the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle lamented.<\/p>\n
The main suspect for the assassination was Edward\u2019s stepmother, \u00c6lfthryth, widow of his father, King Edgar. Certainly she had a motive: with Edward dead, his younger half-brother \u2013 her son, \u00c6thelred \u2013 would inherit the English throne. It has been supposed that she invited the young king to Corfe to participate in a hunt, with murder in mind.<\/p>\n
19 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1962: In the US, a young folk singer called Bob Dylan releases his first album, the imaginatively titled Bob Dylan<\/em><\/h4>\n ![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Bob Dylan recording his first album, \u2018Bob Dylan\u2019. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n20 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1966: A thief steals into church and pinches the World Cup<\/a><\/h4>\nAs the secretary of the Football Association admitted, the theft had cast \u201cquite a cloud\u201d over the forthcoming tournament. But then, on 27 March, the cup was found. Out walking with his owner in South Norwood, a dog called Pickles disappeared beneath a hedge, and reappeared with something wrapped in newspaper \u2013 the Jules Rimet trophy.<\/p>\n
21 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1617: Pocahontas is buried, far from home<\/h4>\n
By March 1617, at the end of her London visit, Pocahontas was possibly already gravely unwell, and not keen to travel back to Virginia. As an observer wrote: \u201cShe is on her return though sore against her will, if the wind would come about to send them away.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was planned that the family would sail from London on the George, belonging to Samuel Argall, deputy governor of Virginia. Before the ship set out on the long ocean voyage, it dropped anchor at Gravesend to gather supplies and fresh water. Here, Pocahontas was taken off the ship, dying or possibly already dead. Her body was laid to rest in the chancel of Saint George\u2019s Church \u2013 a superior place of burial usually reserved for clergy or high-standing parishioners.<\/p>\n
22 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1960: American physicists Arthur Schawlow and Charles Townes are awarded the world\u2019s first patent for a laser<\/h4>\n
Gordon Gould, who coined the term laser and whose patent application had been rejected, began a 30-year legal battle for his patent rights<\/p>\n
23 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1801: Russia\u2019s tsar is brutally beaten to death<\/h4>\n
Many accounts agree that the plotters initially planned to force Paul to abdicate, but alcohol soon took over. In the confusion, one officer hit the struggling Paul in the face with a golden snuffbox. The emperor went down, and a group of the plotters piled on top of him, kicking and choking him. One of them wrapped a sash around his neck and began to tighten. Then, when he had stopped twitching, they kicked and stamped on his body, until they were pulled away.<\/p>\n
The next morning, when Paul\u2019s son Alexander, now emperor, reviewed the guards, they were wearing their old uniforms.<\/p>\n
24 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1944: The Great Escape arouses Hitler<\/a>\u2019s fury<\/h4>\nAs night fell on the 24th, the men chosen for the escape attempt assembled in Hut 104.<\/p>\n
By the time the Germans realised the prisoners were getting out, 76 men had crawled to freedom. The snow was so deep that they were forced to use main roads rather than forest paths, as they had planned, and all but three were soon recaptured. Hitler wanted them all shot; in the end, 50 were executed.<\/p>\n
25 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1807: The slave trade is abolished in the British empire<\/h4>\n
The Abolition of the Slave Trade Act entered the statute books on 25 March 1807, making it illegal to trade enslaved people within the British colonies. The act \u2013 culmination of a decades-long struggle by abolitionists in Britain \u2013 ruled that, from\u00a01 May 1807, \u201cdealing and reading in the purchase, sale, barter, or transfer of slaves\u00a0or of persons intending to be sold, transferred, used, or dealt with as slaves, practiced or carried in, at, or from any part of the coast or countries of Africa shall be abolished, prohibited and declared to be unlawful\u201d.<\/p>\n
- Read more |\u00a0A brief guide to the transatlantic slave trade<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
26 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1830: The Book of Mormon<\/em> debuts with a whimper<\/h4>\n ![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Woodcut illustration of the inception of Mormonism (Photo by GettyImages)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nToday, with an estimated 15 million Mormons worldwide, original copies of the Book of Mormon<\/em> change hands for well over $50,000. But when the book first went on sale on 26 March 1830, sales were disappointing. Many local citizens thought it was blasphemous; another Palmyra paper even called it \u201cthe greatest piece of superstition that has come to our knowledge\u201d.<\/p>\nLocal farmer Martin Harris had mortgaged his property to pay for Smith\u2019s security. Harris lost everything, yet he never lost his faith in the Book of Mormon. It was \u201cno fake,\u201d he said on his deathbed. \u201cI know what I know. I have seen what I have seen and I have heard what I have heard. I have seen the gold plates from which the Book of Mormon is written.\u201d<\/p>\n
27 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1881: In the then violent town of Basingstoke, troops are called to clear the streets after the Salvation Army\u2019s anti-alcohol campaign provokes rioting by local brewery workers<\/h4>\n28 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1979: Labour<\/a> receives a vote of no confidence<\/h4>\nAs Hamilton reached the clerk\u2019s table he gave \u201can almost imperceptible thumbs up\u201d. On the other side, a Tory whip was whispering to Mrs Thatcher, and her face paled. \u201cI don\u2019t believe it,\u201d she mouthed, and a gasp of triumph came from the Labour benches. Had they pulled it off, against all the odds?<\/p>\n
Then the clerk of the house handed the voting slip to the Conservative teller, Spencer Le Marchant, and the mood changed. Suddenly the government benches were deathly silent, and all the noise was coming from the opposition. \u201cOrder, order!\u201d said the speaker, and the house fell absolutely still.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Ayes to the right, 311,\u201d Le Marchant said. \u201cThe Noes to the left, 310.\u201d Even before he had finished, there came from the Tory benches a roar of unbridled joy. They had done it. Now the election was on.<\/p>\n
29 March<\/a><\/h2>\n2014: As midnight strikes, the first same-sex marriages are solemnised in England and Wales<\/h4>\n- On the podcast | LGBT+ history podcast episodes<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
30 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1282: Sicilians revolt against their French oppressors<\/h4>\n
It was on Easter Monday, just before the evening Vespers service at the Church of the Holy Spirit, Palermo, that the moment came. As crowds gathered outside the church for the annual festival, a group of swaggering, tipsy French officials, with a man called Drouet particularly prominent, made overtures to some young Sicilian women. In the ensuing melee, one outraged husband plunged his knife into Drouet \u2013 and all hell broke loose.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo the sound of the bells,\u201d wrote the great historian Steven Runciman, \u201cmessengers ran through the city calling on the men of Palermo to rise against the oppressor. At once the streets were filled with angry armed men, crying \u2018Death to the French\u2019\u2026 They poured into the inns frequented by the French and the houses where they dwelt, sparing neither man, woman nor child.\u201d Whenever they found a suspected Frenchmen, the mob demanded that he pronounce the local word ciciri, which outsiders invariably found difficult. Anyone who failed the test was killed.<\/p>\n
By the next morning, 2,000 people lay dead. The War of the Sicilian Vespers had begun; it would last for another 20 years.<\/p>\n
31 March<\/a><\/h2>\n1889: France\u2019s Eiffel Tower<\/a> opens<\/h4>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/02\/GettyImages-2035233-1af9b7b-e1677513183700.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C412"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Although the parade got off to a slow start, it was soon evident that this was no passing demonstration. Never before had so many women marched together in pursuit of their right to vote. Marching down Pennsylvania Avenue with two dozen floats, nine bands and four mounted brigades, they were led by the figure of the lawyer and activist Inez Milholland, atop a white horse and wearing a white cape.<\/p>\n
- Read more |\u00a0The 1913 march for women\u2019s suffrage<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
4 March<\/a><\/h2>\n
1918: The first case of \u201cSpanish flu<\/a>\u201d is recorded<\/h4>\n
There was still a chill in the air on the morning of 4 March 1918. Private Albert Gitchell,\u00a0a US Army mess cook, woke feeling hot and achy, his throat burning. Physically unable to attend to his duties, he dragged himself to the infirmary \u2013 Hospital Building 91 \u2013 where his temperature was taken, recording a shocking 39.4\u00b0C. Wary of spreading whatever disease had infected Gitchell, the camp doctor recom- mended that the cook \u2013 whom he diagnosed with \u201ca bad cold\u201d \u2013 spend a few days in a separate tent.<\/p>\n
It was already too late. Almost immediately afterwards, several more patients descended on the infirmary complaining of the same symptoms. Before lunchtime, 107 cases of the mysterious\u00a0flu were recorded at Fort Riley.<\/p>\n
5 March<\/a><\/h2>\n
1953: Death of Stalin<\/a><\/h4>\n
Stalin\u2019s daughter Svetlana remembered the final moment. \u201cHe literally choked to death as we watched,\u201d she wrote. \u201cThe death agony was terrible \u2026 At the last minute, he opened his eyes. It was a terrible look, either mad or angry, and full of the fear of death.\u201d For a moment, Stalin raised his hand, as if pointing or threatening. \u201cThen,\u201d Svetlana wrote, \u201cthe next moment, his spirit after one last effort tore itself from his body.\u201d<\/p>\n
6 March<\/a><\/h2>\n
1836: Rebel settlers take a last stand at the Alamo<\/h4>\n
It was at about 5.30 in the morning that the Mexicans launched their final assault on the Alamo. Five months earlier, American settlers in Texas, or \u2018Texians\u2019, had rebelled against the Mexican government, driving away their forces. During the inevitable Mexican counterattack, more than 200 Texian rebels had become trapped at the Alamo Mission, near San Antonio. Steadily the besiegers tightened their grip, and now they were ready to finish the job.<\/p>\n
7 March<\/a><\/h2>\n
321: Constantine orders that Sunday become a day of rest<\/h4>\n
\u201cOn the venerable day of the Sun,\u201d Constantine ordered, \u201clet the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country however persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits because it often happens that another day is not suitable for grain-sowing or vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost.\u201d<\/p>\n
Famous births in March<\/h2>\n
1 March 1810<\/h6>\n
Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Fran\u00e7ois Chopin, composer and pianist<\/p>\n
1 March 1812<\/h6>\n
Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, English Gothic Revival architect and designer<\/p>\n
3 March 1847<\/h6>\n
Alexander Graham Bell, telephone pioneer<\/p>\n
3 March 1911<\/h6>\n
Jean Harlow<\/a>, film actress and original \u2018blonde bombshell\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
4 March 1678<\/h6>\n
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi, violinist and composer<\/p>\n
6 March 1937\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Valentina Tereshkova, first woman to orbit the earth<\/p>\n
7 March 1857\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Julius Wagner von Jauregg, Nobel Prize winning psychiatrist<\/p>\n
8 March 1712<\/h6>\n
Quaker John Fothergill, physician and naturalist\u00a0<\/p>\n
9 March 1763<\/h6>\n
William Cobbett, radical politician, farmer and author<\/p>\n
10 March 1858<\/h6>\n
Henry Watson Fowler, lexicographer and author\u00a0<\/p>\n
12 March 1613<\/h6>\n
Andr\u00e9 Le N\u00f4tre, landscape gardener\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
14 March 1808<\/h6>\n
Narcissa Whitman, in 1836, she and Eliza Spalding are hailed as the first two women to cross the Rocky Mountains\u00a0<\/p>\n
14 March 1879<\/h6>\n
Albert Einstein<\/a>, pioneering theoretical physicist<\/p>\n
15 March 1813<\/h6>\n
John Snow, English obstetrician, epidemiologist and public health reformer<\/p>\n
16 March 1751<\/h6>\n
James Madison, fourth US president<\/p>\n
20 March 1811<\/h6>\n
Napoleon II, the son of Napoleon Bonaparte<\/a> and his second wife, Marie Louise of Austria<\/p>\n
21 March 1527<\/h6>\n
Hermann Finck, German composer<\/p>\n
21 March 1768<\/h6>\n
Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier, mathematician and physicist<\/p>\n
22 March 1783<\/h6>\n
Sarah Goodin Barrett Moulton, young subject of one of Thomas Lawrence\u2019s most famous portraits<\/p>\n
23 March 1430<\/h6>\n
Margaret of Anjou<\/a>, de facto leader of the Lancastrian faction for much of the Wars of the Roses\u00a0<\/p>\n
23 March 1882<\/h6>\n
Emmy Noetherm, mathematician<\/p>\n
30 March 1811<\/h6>\n
Robert Bunsen, chemist<\/p>\n
31 March 1732<\/h6>\n
Joseph Haydn, Austrian composer<\/p>\n
31 March 1878<\/h6>\n
John Arthur \u201cJack\u201d Johnson, first black world heavyweight boxing champion<\/p>\n
Famous deaths in March<\/h2>\n
2 March 1930<\/h6>\n
DH Lawrence, novelist<\/p>\n
3 March 1792<\/h6>\n
Robert Adam, Scottish neoclassical architect and interior designer<\/p>\n
3 March 1808<\/h6>\n
Johann Christian Fabricius, Danish entomologist<\/p>\n
4 March 1193\u00a0\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Saladin, sultan of Egypt and Syria and founder of the Ayyubid dynasty<\/p>\n
4 March 1790<\/h6>\n
Flora MacDonald, Jacobite heroine\u00a0<\/p>\n
5 March 1827\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist and battery inventor<\/p>\n
6 March 1888<\/h6>\n
Louisa M Alcott<\/a>, American writer, feminist and abolitionist<\/p>\n
7 March 1810<\/h6>\n
Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, Nelson\u2019s second-in-command at the battle of Trafalgar<\/p>\n
8 March 1917<\/h6>\n
Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, German airship designer<\/p>\n
10 March 1513<\/h6>\n
John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford<\/p>\n
13 March 1842<\/h6>\n
Henry Shrapnel, British soldier and inventor<\/p>\n
25 March 1650<\/h6>\n
John Williams, Archbishop of York<\/p>\n
25 March 1809<\/h6>\n
Anna Seward, poet known as \u2018the Swan of Lichfield\u2019<\/p>\n
26 March 1827<\/h6>\n
Ludwig van Beethoven<\/a>, composer<\/p>\n
27 March 1770<\/h6>\n
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Venetian artist<\/p>\n
31 March 1631<\/h6>\n
John Donne, English metaphysical poet<\/p>\n
<\/p><\/div> <\/section>
8 March<\/a><\/h2>\n
1711: Marquis de Guiscard stabs Sir Robert Harley<\/h4>\n
Members of the British cabinet were questioning the French spy the Marquis de Guiscard when he pulled out a knife and stabbed Sir Robert Harley in the chest. Harley, who as chancellor of the exchequer was one of Queen Anne\u2019s chief ministers, was said to have been saved from death thanks to the heavy gold thread embroidery that his sister Abigail had sewn onto his coat, which broke the blade of the knife. Harley was, however, wounded by a second blow and forced to take to his bed for six weeks.<\/p>\n
9 March<\/a><\/h2>\n
1841: The US Supreme Court frees the slaves of La Amistad<\/h4>\n
As Justice Story began speaking, it became clear that the Supreme Court had sided with the slaves. As their lawyer put it, they had been \u201cunlawfully kidnapped, and forcibly and wrongfully carried on board\u201d, so they were entitled to their freedom. Abolitionist supporters paid for them to be put up in Farmington, Connecticut, where they were given English lessons and Bible classes, while fundraisers collected money to send them back home. A year later, they set eyes on the African coast for the first time since they had been kidnapped. Most disappeared into obscurity. But one, Sarah Margru Kinson, later returned to the United States to study at Oberlin College, before going back to Sierra Leone as a Christian missionary.<\/p>\n
10 March<\/a><\/h2>\n
1910: Release of the silent movie In Old California<\/em>. Directed by DW Griffith of the Biograph Company, it is the first film to be shot in Hollywood<\/a><\/h4>\n
11 March<\/a><\/h2>\n
AD 222: Rome\u2019s emperor of excess meets a bloody end<\/h4>\n
![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Elagabalus (Photo by Pictures From History\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n The Praetorian Guard, sick of Elagabalus\u2019s excesses, switched their allegiance to his cousin Severus Alexander and turned on Elagabalus. As the historian Cassius Dio recorded, there was no mercy for either Elagabalus or his mother: \u201cTheir heads were cut off and their bodies, after being stripped naked, were first dragged all over the city, and then the mother\u2019s body was cast aside somewhere or other while his was thrown into the river.\u201d<\/p>\n
- On the podcast | Everything you wanted to know about Roman emperors<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
12 March<\/a><\/h2>\n
1612: King James VI<\/a> and I granted the Virginia Company of London a third royal charter, extending its American territories to include Bermuda.<\/h4>\n
The move gave more control to ordinary investors and allowed the company to run a lottery to raise funds<\/p>\n
13 March<\/a><\/h2>\n
1781: William Herschel observes Uranus<\/h4>\n
Using a telescope of his own design, astronomer William Herschel observed the planet later named Uranus from the back garden of his house in New King Street, Bath. He originally thought it was a comet.<\/p>\n
- On the podcast | The space race: everything you wanted to know<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
14 March<\/a><\/h2>\n
1942: Anne Miller, a nurse from Connecticut, becomes the first known person to have her life saved by penicillin after developing a streptococcal infection after a miscarriage<\/h4>\n
15 March<\/a><\/h2>\n
1927: Female rowers battle it out at the first women\u2019s boat race<\/h4>\n
Even the sceptics had to admit that it was a colourful occasion. As if determined to confirm their killjoy reputation, the heads of the women\u2019s colleges had scheduled the race for 1.15pm, \u201cin order to avoid a large body of spectators\u201d. All the same, the banks were packed with \u201centhusiastic undergraduates, flinging confetti over the river, and blowing toy trumpets\u201d.<\/p>\n
16 March<\/a><\/h2>\n
1968: As many as 500 Vietnamese civilians are murdered by US troops at My Lai, South Vietnam. Lieutenant William Calley will be the only participant to be convicted for the crime<\/h4>\n
17 March<\/a><\/h2>\n
1921: Marie Stopes opens Britain\u2019s first family planning clinic<\/h4>\n
Marie Stopes opened Britain \u2018s first family planning clinic, the Mothers\u2019 Clinic, in Holloway, north London. In 1925 the clinic moved to Whitfield Street in central London, where it remains to this day.<\/p>\n
![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Dr. Marie Stopes (Photo by GettyImages)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n 18 March<\/a><\/h2>\n
978: King Edward is murdered at Corfe<\/h4>\n
On 18 March 978, a brutal murder was committed at Corfe in Dorset \u2013 and the victim was Edward, king of the English. \u201cNo worse deed for the English race was done than this,\u201d the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle lamented.<\/p>\n
The main suspect for the assassination was Edward\u2019s stepmother, \u00c6lfthryth, widow of his father, King Edgar. Certainly she had a motive: with Edward dead, his younger half-brother \u2013 her son, \u00c6thelred \u2013 would inherit the English throne. It has been supposed that she invited the young king to Corfe to participate in a hunt, with murder in mind.<\/p>\n
19 March<\/a><\/h2>\n
1962: In the US, a young folk singer called Bob Dylan releases his first album, the imaginatively titled Bob Dylan<\/em><\/h4>\n
![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Bob Dylan recording his first album, \u2018Bob Dylan\u2019. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n 20 March<\/a><\/h2>\n
1966: A thief steals into church and pinches the World Cup<\/a><\/h4>\n
As the secretary of the Football Association admitted, the theft had cast \u201cquite a cloud\u201d over the forthcoming tournament. But then, on 27 March, the cup was found. Out walking with his owner in South Norwood, a dog called Pickles disappeared beneath a hedge, and reappeared with something wrapped in newspaper \u2013 the Jules Rimet trophy.<\/p>\n
21 March<\/a><\/h2>\n
1617: Pocahontas is buried, far from home<\/h4>\n
By March 1617, at the end of her London visit, Pocahontas was possibly already gravely unwell, and not keen to travel back to Virginia. As an observer wrote: \u201cShe is on her return though sore against her will, if the wind would come about to send them away.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was planned that the family would sail from London on the George, belonging to Samuel Argall, deputy governor of Virginia. Before the ship set out on the long ocean voyage, it dropped anchor at Gravesend to gather supplies and fresh water. Here, Pocahontas was taken off the ship, dying or possibly already dead. Her body was laid to rest in the chancel of Saint George\u2019s Church \u2013 a superior place of burial usually reserved for clergy or high-standing parishioners.<\/p>\n
22 March<\/a><\/h2>\n
1960: American physicists Arthur Schawlow and Charles Townes are awarded the world\u2019s first patent for a laser<\/h4>\n
Gordon Gould, who coined the term laser and whose patent application had been rejected, began a 30-year legal battle for his patent rights<\/p>\n
23 March<\/a><\/h2>\n
1801: Russia\u2019s tsar is brutally beaten to death<\/h4>\n
Many accounts agree that the plotters initially planned to force Paul to abdicate, but alcohol soon took over. In the confusion, one officer hit the struggling Paul in the face with a golden snuffbox. The emperor went down, and a group of the plotters piled on top of him, kicking and choking him. One of them wrapped a sash around his neck and began to tighten. Then, when he had stopped twitching, they kicked and stamped on his body, until they were pulled away.<\/p>\n
The next morning, when Paul\u2019s son Alexander, now emperor, reviewed the guards, they were wearing their old uniforms.<\/p>\n
24 March<\/a><\/h2>\n
1944: The Great Escape arouses Hitler<\/a>\u2019s fury<\/h4>\n
As night fell on the 24th, the men chosen for the escape attempt assembled in Hut 104.<\/p>\n
By the time the Germans realised the prisoners were getting out, 76 men had crawled to freedom. The snow was so deep that they were forced to use main roads rather than forest paths, as they had planned, and all but three were soon recaptured. Hitler wanted them all shot; in the end, 50 were executed.<\/p>\n
25 March<\/a><\/h2>\n
1807: The slave trade is abolished in the British empire<\/h4>\n
The Abolition of the Slave Trade Act entered the statute books on 25 March 1807, making it illegal to trade enslaved people within the British colonies. The act \u2013 culmination of a decades-long struggle by abolitionists in Britain \u2013 ruled that, from\u00a01 May 1807, \u201cdealing and reading in the purchase, sale, barter, or transfer of slaves\u00a0or of persons intending to be sold, transferred, used, or dealt with as slaves, practiced or carried in, at, or from any part of the coast or countries of Africa shall be abolished, prohibited and declared to be unlawful\u201d.<\/p>\n
- Read more |\u00a0A brief guide to the transatlantic slave trade<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
26 March<\/a><\/h2>\n
1830: The Book of Mormon<\/em> debuts with a whimper<\/h4>\n
![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Woodcut illustration of the inception of Mormonism (Photo by GettyImages)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n Today, with an estimated 15 million Mormons worldwide, original copies of the Book of Mormon<\/em> change hands for well over $50,000. But when the book first went on sale on 26 March 1830, sales were disappointing. Many local citizens thought it was blasphemous; another Palmyra paper even called it \u201cthe greatest piece of superstition that has come to our knowledge\u201d.<\/p>\n
Local farmer Martin Harris had mortgaged his property to pay for Smith\u2019s security. Harris lost everything, yet he never lost his faith in the Book of Mormon. It was \u201cno fake,\u201d he said on his deathbed. \u201cI know what I know. I have seen what I have seen and I have heard what I have heard. I have seen the gold plates from which the Book of Mormon is written.\u201d<\/p>\n
27 March<\/a><\/h2>\n
1881: In the then violent town of Basingstoke, troops are called to clear the streets after the Salvation Army\u2019s anti-alcohol campaign provokes rioting by local brewery workers<\/h4>\n
28 March<\/a><\/h2>\n
1979: Labour<\/a> receives a vote of no confidence<\/h4>\n
As Hamilton reached the clerk\u2019s table he gave \u201can almost imperceptible thumbs up\u201d. On the other side, a Tory whip was whispering to Mrs Thatcher, and her face paled. \u201cI don\u2019t believe it,\u201d she mouthed, and a gasp of triumph came from the Labour benches. Had they pulled it off, against all the odds?<\/p>\n
Then the clerk of the house handed the voting slip to the Conservative teller, Spencer Le Marchant, and the mood changed. Suddenly the government benches were deathly silent, and all the noise was coming from the opposition. \u201cOrder, order!\u201d said the speaker, and the house fell absolutely still.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Ayes to the right, 311,\u201d Le Marchant said. \u201cThe Noes to the left, 310.\u201d Even before he had finished, there came from the Tory benches a roar of unbridled joy. They had done it. Now the election was on.<\/p>\n
29 March<\/a><\/h2>\n
2014: As midnight strikes, the first same-sex marriages are solemnised in England and Wales<\/h4>\n
- On the podcast | LGBT+ history podcast episodes<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
30 March<\/a><\/h2>\n
1282: Sicilians revolt against their French oppressors<\/h4>\n
It was on Easter Monday, just before the evening Vespers service at the Church of the Holy Spirit, Palermo, that the moment came. As crowds gathered outside the church for the annual festival, a group of swaggering, tipsy French officials, with a man called Drouet particularly prominent, made overtures to some young Sicilian women. In the ensuing melee, one outraged husband plunged his knife into Drouet \u2013 and all hell broke loose.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo the sound of the bells,\u201d wrote the great historian Steven Runciman, \u201cmessengers ran through the city calling on the men of Palermo to rise against the oppressor. At once the streets were filled with angry armed men, crying \u2018Death to the French\u2019\u2026 They poured into the inns frequented by the French and the houses where they dwelt, sparing neither man, woman nor child.\u201d Whenever they found a suspected Frenchmen, the mob demanded that he pronounce the local word ciciri, which outsiders invariably found difficult. Anyone who failed the test was killed.<\/p>\n
By the next morning, 2,000 people lay dead. The War of the Sicilian Vespers had begun; it would last for another 20 years.<\/p>\n
31 March<\/a><\/h2>\n
1889: France\u2019s Eiffel Tower<\/a> opens<\/h4>\n
- On the podcast | LGBT+ history podcast episodes<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
- Read more |\u00a0A brief guide to the transatlantic slave trade<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
- On the podcast | The space race: everything you wanted to know<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
- On the podcast | Everything you wanted to know about Roman emperors<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
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