Events Pre-1600 1018 – Poland and the Holy Roman Empire conclude the Peace of Bautzen. 1287 – King Wareru founds the Hanthawaddy kingdom, and proclaims independence from the Pagan Kingdom.
1601–1900 1607 – An estimated 200 square miles (51,800 ha) along the coasts of the Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary in England are destroyed by massive flooding, resulting in an estimated 2,000 deaths. 1648 – Eighty Years' War: The Treaty of Münster and Osnabrück is signed, ending the conflict between the Netherlands and Spain. 1649 – Charles I of England is executed in Whitehall, London. 1661 – Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, is ritually executed more than two years after his death, on the 12th anniversary of the execution of the monarch he himself deposed. 1667 – The Truce of Andrusovo is signed, ending the Russian-Polish War of 1654-1667. 1789 – Tây Sơn forces emerge victorious against Qing armies and liberate the capital Thăng Long. 1806 – The original Lower Trenton Bridge (also called the Trenton Makes the World Takes Bridge), which spans the Delaware River between Morrisville, Pennsylvania and Trenton, New Jersey, is opened. 1820 – Edward Bransfield sights the Trinity Peninsula and claims the discovery of Antarctica. 1826 – The Menai Suspension Bridge, considered the world's first modern suspension bridge, connecting the Isle of Anglesey to the northwest coast of Wales, is opened. 1835 – In the first assassination attempt against a President of the United States, Richard Lawrence attempts to shoot president Andrew Jackson, but fails and is subdued by a crowd, including several congressmen as well as Jackson himself. 1847 – Yerba Buena, California is renamed San Francisco, California. 1858 – The first Hallé concert is given in Manchester, England, marking the official founding of The Hallé orchestra as a full-time, professional orchestra. 1862 – American Civil War: The first American ironclad warship, the is launched. 1889 – Archduke Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian crown, is found dead with his mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera in the Mayerling.
1901–present 1902 – The first Anglo-Japanese Alliance is signed in London. 1908 – Indian pacifist and leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is released from prison by Jan C. Smuts after being tried and sentenced to two months in jail earlier in the month. 1911 – The destroyer makes the first airplane rescue at sea saving the life of Douglas McCurdy from Havana, Cuba. 1920 – Japanese carmaker Mazda is founded, initially as a cork-producing company. 1925 – The Government of Turkey expels Patriarch Constantine VI from Istanbul. 1930 – The Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union orders the confiscation of lands belonging to the Kulaks in a campaign of Dekulakization, resulting in the executions and forced deportations of millions.Stalin: A Biography by Robert Service, page 267 1933 – Adolf Hitler's rise to power: Hitler takes office as the Chancellor of Germany. 1939 – During a speech in the Reichstag, Adolf Hitler makes a prediction about the end of the Jewish race in Europe if another world war were to occur. 1942 – World War II: Japanese forces invade the island of Ambon in the Dutch East Indies. Some 300 captured Allied troops are killed after the surrender. One-quarter of the remaining POWs remain alive at the end of the war. 1944 – World War II: The Battle of Cisterna, part of Operation Shingle, begins in central Italy. 1945 – World War II: The Wilhelm Gustloff, overfilled with German refugees, sinks in the Baltic Sea after being torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, killing approximately 9,500 people. 1945 – World War II: Raid at Cabanatuan: One hundred and twenty-six American Rangers and Filipino resistance fighters liberate over 500 Allied prisoners from the Japanese-controlled Cabanatuan POW camp. 1948 – British South American Airways' Tudor IV Star Tiger disappears over the Bermuda Triangle. 1948 – Following the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in his home compound, India's prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, broadcasts to the nation, saying "The light has gone out of our lives". The date of the assassination becomes observed as "Martyrs' Day" in India. 1956 – In the United States, Civil Rights Movement leader Martin Luther King Jr.'s home is bombed in retaliation for the Montgomery bus boycott. 1959 – The forces of the Sultanate of Muscat occupy the last strongholds of the Imamate of Oman, Saiq and Shuraijah, marking the end of Jebel Akhdar War in Oman. 1959 – , specifically designed to operate in icebound seas, strikes an iceberg on her maiden voyage and sinks, killing all 95 aboard. 1960 – The African National Party is founded in Chad, through the merger of traditionalist parties. 1964 – In a bloodless coup, General Nguyễn Khánh overthrows General Dương Văn Minh's military junta in South Vietnam. 1968 – Vietnam War: Tet Offensive launch by forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army against South Vietnam, the United States, and their allies. 1969 – The Beatles' last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert is broken up by the police. 1972 – The Troubles: Bloody Sunday: British paratroopers open fire on anti-internment marchers in Derry, Northern Ireland, killing 13 people; another person later dies of injuries sustained. 1972 – Pakistan leaves the Commonwealth of Nations in protest of its recognition of breakaway Bangladesh. 1974 – Pan Am Flight 806 crashes near Pago Pago International Airport in American Samoa, killing 97. 1975 – The Monitor National Marine Sanctuary is established as the first United States National Marine Sanctuary. 1975 – Turkish Airlines Flight 345 crashes into the Sea of Marmara near Istanbul Yeşilköy Airport, killing 42. 1979 – A Varig Boeing 707-323C freighter, flown by the same commander as Flight 820, disappears over the Pacific Ocean 30 minutes after taking off from Tokyo. 1982 – Richard Skrenta writes the first PC virus code, which is 400 lines long and disguised as an Apple boot program called "Elk Cloner". 1989 – The American embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan is closed. 1995 – Hydroxycarbamide becomes the first approved preventive treatment for sickle cell disease. 2000 – Kenya Airways Flight 431 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Ivory Coast, killing 169. 2006 – The Goleta postal facility shootings occur, killing seven people before the perpetrator took her own life. 2007 – Microsoft Corporation releases Windows Vista, a major release of the operating system Microsoft Windows and the NT based kernel. 2013 – Naro-1 becomes the first carrier rocket launched by South Korea. 2020 – The World Health Organization declares the COVID-19 pandemic to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
Births Pre-1600 58 BC – Livia, Roman wife of Augustus (died 29) 1410 – William Calthorpe, English knight (died 1494) 1520 – William More, English courtier (died 1600) 1563 – Franciscus Gomarus, Dutch theologian and academic (died 1641) 1573 – Georg Friedrich, Margrave of Baden-Durlach (died 1638) 1580 – Gundakar, Prince of Liechtenstein, court official in Vienna (died 1658) 1590 – Lady Anne Clifford, 14th Baroness de Clifford (died 1676)
1601–1900 1628 – George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, English statesman (died 1687) 1661 – Charles Rollin, French historian and educator (died 1741) 1697 – Johann Joachim Quantz, German flute player and composer (died 1773) 1703 – François Bigot, French politician (died 1778) 1720 – Charles De Geer, Swedish entomologist and archaeologist (died 1778) 1754 – John Lansing Jr., American lawyer and politician (died 1829) 1775 – Walter Savage Landor, English poet and author (died 1864) 1781 – Adelbert von Chamisso, German botanist and poet (died 1838) 1816 – Nathaniel P. Banks, American general and politician, 24th Governor of Massachusetts (died 1894) 1822 – Franz Ritter von Hauer, Austrian geologist and curator (died 1899) 1841 – Félix Faure, French politician, 7th President of France (died 1899) 1844 – Richard Theodore Greener, American lawyer, academic, and diplomat (died 1922) 1846 – Angela of the Cross, Spanish nun and saint (died 1932) 1861 – Charles Martin Loeffler, German-American violinist and composer (died 1935) 1862 – Walter Damrosch, German-American conductor and composer (died 1950) 1866 – Gelett Burgess, American author, poet, and critic (died 1951) 1878 – A. H. Tammsaare, Estonian author (died 1940) 1882 – Franklin D. Roosevelt, American lawyer and statesman, 32nd President of the United States (died 1945) 1889 – Jaishankar Prasad, Indian poet and playwright (died 1937) 1899 – Max Theiler, South African-American virologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1972) 1900 – Martita Hunt, Argentine-born British actress (died 1969)
1901–present 1901 – Rudolf Caracciola, German racing driver (died 1959) 1902 – Nikolaus Pevsner, German-English historian and scholar (died 1983) 1910 – Chidambaram Subramaniam, Indian lawyer and politician, Indian Minister of Defence (died 2000) 1911 – Roy Eldridge, American jazz trumpet player (died 1989) 1912 – Werner Hartmann, German physicist and academic (died 1988) 1912 – Francis Schaeffer, American pastor and theologian (died 1984) 1912 – Barbara W. Tuchman, American historian and author (died 1989) 1913 – Amrita Sher-Gil, Hungarian-Indian painter (died 1941)Great Minds , The Tribune, 12 March 2000. 1914 – Luc-Marie Bayle, French commander and painter (died 2000) 1914 – John Ireland, Canadian-American actor and director (died 1992) 1914 – David Wayne, American actor (died 1995) 1915 – Joachim Peiper, German SS officer (died 1976) 1915 – John Profumo, English soldier and politician, Secretary of State for War (died 2006) 1917 – Paul Frère, Belgian racing driver and journalist (died 2008) 1918 – David Opatoshu, American actor and screenwriter (died 1996) 1919 – Fred Korematsu, American activist (died 2005) 1920 – Michael Anderson, English director and producer (died 2018) 1920 – Patrick Heron, British painter (died 1999) 1920 – Delbert Mann, American director and producer (died 2007) 1922 – Dick Martin, American comedian, actor, and director (died 2008) 1923 – Marianne Ferber, Czech-American economist and author (died 2013) 1924 – Ernie Calverley, American basketball player and coach (died 2003) 1924 – S. N. Goenka, Burmese-Indian author and educator (died 2013) 1925 – Douglas Engelbart, American computer scientist, invented the computer mouse (died 2013) 1927 – Olof Palme, Swedish statesman, 26th Prime Minister of Sweden (died 1986) 1928 – Harold Prince, American director and producer (died 2019) 1928 – Paul Seymour, American basketball player and coach (died 1998) 1929 – Lois Hole, Canadian businesswoman and politician, 15th Lieutenant Governor of Alberta (died 2005) 1929 – Hugh Tayfield, South African cricketer (died 1994) 1929 – Lucille Teasdale-Corti, Canadian-Italian physician and humanitarian (died 1996) 1930 – Gene Hackman, American actor and author (died 2025) 1930 – Magnus Malan, South African general and politician, South African Minister of Defence (died 2011) 1931 – John Crosbie, Canadian lawyer and politician, 34th Canadian Minister of Justice (died 2020) 1931 – Shirley Hazzard, Australian-American novelist, short story writer, and essayist (died 2016) 1932 – Knock Yokoyama, Japanese comedian and politician (died 2007) 1934 – Tammy Grimes, American actress and singer (died 2016) 1935 – Richard Brautigan, American novelist, poet, and short story writer (died 1984) 1935 – Tubby Hayes, English saxophonist and composer (died 1973) 1936 – Horst Jankowski, German pianist and composer (died 1998) 1937 – Vanessa Redgrave, English actress 1937 – Boris Spassky, Russian chess grandmaster (died 2025) 1938 – Islam Karimov, Uzbek politician, 1st President of Uzbekistan (died 2016) 1941 – Gregory Benford, American astrophysicist and author