March 19

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Template:Linked-title is the 78th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (79th in leap years). There are 287 days remaining. March 19 is usually the last day of the winter season in the Northern Hemisphere, and the last day of the summer season in the Southern Hemisphere.

Events

• 1279 - A Mongolian victory in the Battle of Yamen ends the Song Dynasty in China.
• 1687 - Explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle, searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, is murdered by his own men.
• 1831 - The City Bank of New York becomes the site of the first bank robbery in United States history ($245,000 taken).
• 1861 - The First Taranaki War ends in New Zealand.
• 1863 - The SS Georgiana, described as the most powerful Confederate cruiser and said to have been owned by the real Rhett Butler, was destroyed on her maiden voyage, while attempting to run the blockade into Charleston, South Carolina. Lost to history, the wreck was discovered on the same day and month, exactly 102 years later by then teenage diver and adventurer E. Lee Spence.
• 1865 - American Civil War: The Battle of Bentonville begins. By the end of the battle two days later the Confederate forces have retreated from Greenville, North Carolina.
• 1915 - Pluto is photographed for the first time but was not recognized as a planet.
• 1916 - Eight American planes take off in pursuit of Pancho Villa, the first United States air-combat mission in history.
• 1918 - The U.S. Congress establishes time zones and approves daylight saving time.
• 1920 - The United States Senate rejects the Treaty of Versailles for the second time (first time was on November 19, 1919).
• 1921 - Italian Fascists shoot from the Parenzana train to a group of children in Strunjan (Slovenia): two children are killed, two mangled, three wounded.
• 1931 - Gambling is legalized in Nevada.
• 1931 - The Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra played its first concert in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
• 1932 - The Sydney Harbour Bridge is opened
• 1942 - The Thoroughbred Racing Association is established in Chicago.
• 1943 - Frank Nitti, Chicago Outfit Boss after Al Capone committed suicide at the Chicago Central Railyard.
• 1944 - World War II: Nazi forces occupy Hungary.
• 1945 - World War II: Off the coast of Japan, a dive bomber hits the aircraft carrier USS Franklin, killing 800 of her crew and crippling the ship.
• 1945 - World War II: Adolf Hitler issues his "Nero Decree" ordering all industries, military installations, shops, transportation facilities and communications facilities in Germany be destroyed.
• 1946 - French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion become overseas départements of France.
• 1953 - Academy Awards are first televised.
• 1954 - Joey Giardello knocks out Willie Tory in round seven at Madison Square Garden in the first televised prize boxing fight shown in color.
• 1958 - A fire in a loft building in New York, New York kills 24 people.
• 1962 - Algerian War of Independence: A ceasefire takes effect.
• 1962 - Bob Dylan releases his first, self-titled album.
• 1969 - collapse of 385 metre tall TV-mast at Emley Moor, UK, because of icing.
• 1972 - India and Bangladesh sign a friendship treaty.
• 1978 - UN Security Council Resolution 425 and 426 were passed, calling upon Israel immediately to cease its military action and withdraw its forces from all Lebanese territory (Operation Litani), and established the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
• 1979 - The United States House of Representatives begins broadcasting its day-to-day business via the cable television network C-SPAN.
• 1981 - Three workers are killed and five injured during a test of the Space Shuttle Columbia.
• 1982 - Falklands War: Argentines land on South Georgia Island, precipitating war.
• 2002 - U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda ends (started on March 2) after killing 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters with 11 allied troop fatalities.
• 2004 - Äänekoski bus disaster - A semi-trailer truck and a bus crash head-on in Äänekoski, Finland. 24 people are killed and 13 injured.
• 2004 - A Swedish DC-3 shot down by a Russian Mig-15 in the 1950s is finally recovered after years of work. The remains of the crew are left in place, pending further investigations.
• 2004 - Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian is shot just before the country's presidential election on March 20. See 3-19 Shooting Incident.
• 2006 - Second World Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace convened in Seville, Spain.
• 2007 - Solar Eclipse

Births

• 1434 - Ashikaga Yoshikatsu, Japanese shogun (d. 1443)
• 1488 - Johannes Magnus, last Catholic Archbishop of Sweden (d. 1544)
• 1534 - José de Anchieta, Spanish Jesuit missionary to Brazil (d. 1597)
• 1684 - Jean Astruc, French physician and scholar (d. 1766)
• 1721 - Tobias Smollett, Scottish novelist (d. 1771)
• 1734 - Thomas McKean, American lawyer and signer of the Declaration of Independence (d. 1817)
• 1739 - Charles-François Lebrun, duc de Plaisance, Third Consul of France (d. 1824)
• 1778 - Edward Pakenham, British general (d. 1815)
• 1813 - David Livingstone, Scottish missionary and explorer (d. 1873)
• 1821 - Richard Francis Burton, British explorer, diplomat and author (d. 1890)
• 1824 or 1828 - William Allingham, Irish author (d. 1889)
• 1829 - Carl Frederik Tietgen, Danish financier and industrialist (d. 1901)
• 1848 - Wyatt Earp, American policeman and gunfighter (d. 1929)
• 1849 - Alfred von Tirpitz, German World War I Admiral (d. 1930)
• 1851 - William Henry Stark, American business leader (d. 1936)
• 1864 - Charles Marion Russell, American artist (d. 1926)
• 1865 - William Morton Wheeler, American entomologist, myrmecologist, pioneer in ethology (d. 1937)
• 1871 - Schofield Haigh, British cricketer (d. 1921)
• 1872 - Sergei Diaghilev, Russian ballet impresario (d. 1929)
• 1873 - Max Reger, German composer (d. 1916)
• 1883 - Walter Haworth, British chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1950)
• 1883 - Joseph Stilwell, U.S. general (d. 1946)
• 1888 - Josef Albers, German artist (d. 1976)
• 1888 - Léon Scieur, Belgian cyclist (d. 1969)
• 1891 - Earl Warren, 14th Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1974)
• 1892 - James Van Fleet, American general (d. 1992)
• 1894 - Moms Mabley, American comedian (d. 1975)
• 1894 - Joe Venuti, American musician (d. 1978)
• 1900 - Frédéric Joliot, French physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (d. 1958)
• 1904 - John Sirica, American judge (d. 1992)
• 1905 - Albert Speer, Nazi official (d. 1981)
• 1906 - Adolf Eichmann, Nazi official (d. 1962)
• 1909 - Louis Hayward, British actor (d. 1985)
• 1909 - Attilio Demaria, Argentinian footballer (d. 1990)
• 1910 - Joseph F. Carroll, US Air Force Lt. Gen. and Founding Director, Defense Intelligence Agency (d. 1991)
• 1914 - Jay Berwanger, American football player (d. 2002)
• 1915 - Robert G. Cole, American Paratrooper of the 101st, 502nd division (d. 1944)
• 1916 - Eric Christmas, British actor (d. 2000)
• 1916 - Irving Wallace, American novelist (d. 1990)
• 1917 - Dinu Lipatti, Romanian pianist (d. 1950)
• 1917 - Laszlo Szabo, Hungarian chess player (d. 1998)
• 1920 - Kjell Aukrust, Norwegian author (d. 2002)
• 1921 - Tommy Cooper, Welsh comedy magician (d. 1984)
• 1923 - Pamela Britton, American actress (d. 1974)
• 1924 - Mary Wimbush, British actress (d. 2005)
• 1927 - Richie Ashburn, American baseball player (d. 1997)
• 1928 - Hans Küng, Swiss theologian
• 1928 - Patrick McGoohan, American-born actor
• 1930 - Ornette Coleman, American musician
• 1933 - Philip Roth, American author
• 1936 - Ursula Andress, Swiss actress
• 1936 - Birthe Wilke, Danish singer
• 1937 - Clarence "Frogman" Henry, American musician
• 1937 - Egon Krenz, President of East Germany
• 1939 - Joe Kapp, American football player
• 1943 - Mario J. Molina, Mexican chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1943 - Mario Monti, Italian politician
• 1944 - Said Musa, Prime Minister of Belize
• 1944 - Sirhan Sirhan, Palestinian-born assassin
• 1947 - Glenn Close, American actress
• 1947 - Marinho Peres, Brazilian football player
• 1953 - Ricky Wilson, American musician (The B-52's) (d. 1985)
• 1955 - Bruce Willis, American actor
• 1962 - Ivan Calderon, Puerto Rican baseball player (d. 2003)
• 1962 - Jim Korderas, American professional wrestling referee
• 1964 - Yoko Kanno, Japanese composer
• 1966 - James "Big Jim" Wright, American record producer
• 1969 - Connor Trinneer, American actor
• 1971 - Nadja Auermann, German supermodel
• 1974 - Vida Guerra, Cuban-American swimsuit model
• 1975 - Vivian Hsu, Taiwanese singer, actress and model
• 1975 - Matthew Richardson, Australian Rules footballer
• 1976 - Alessandro Nesta, Italian footballer
• 1979 - Hee-Seop Choi, Korean Major League Baseball player
• 1980 - Mikuni Shimokawa, Japanese singer
• 1980 - Don Sparrow, Canadian illustrator
• 1981 - Kim Rae Won, South Korean actor and model
• 1981 - Kolo Touré, Ivorian footballer
• 1982 - Matt Littler, British actor
• 1985 - Ernesto Viso, Venezuelan racing driver

Deaths

• 1238 - Duke Henry I of Poland (b. 1163)
• 1263 - Hugh of St Cher, French cardinal
• 1279 - Emperor Bing of Song China (b. 1271)
• 1286 - King Alexander III of Scotland (b. 1241)
• 1330 - Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, English politician (executed) (b. 1301)
• 1406 - Ibn Khaldun, Arab historian (b. 1332)
• 1623 - Uesugi Kagekatsu, Japanese samurai and warlord (b. 1556)
• 1637 - Péter Pázmány, Hungarian cardinal and statesman (b. 1570)
• 1649 - Gerhard Johann Vossius, German classical scholar and theologian (b. 1577)
• 1683 - Thomas Killigrew, English dramatist (b. 1612)
• 1687 - Robert Cavelier de La Salle, French explorer (b. 1643)
• 1697 - Nicolaus Bruhns, German organist and composer (b. 1665)
• 1711 - Thomas Ken, English bishop and hymn-writer (b. 1637)
• 1717 - John Campbell, 1st Earl of Breadalbane and Holland, Scottish royalist
• 1721 - Pope Clement XI (b. 1649)
• 1796 - Hugh Palliser, British naval officer and administrator (b. 1722)
• 1871 - Wilhelm Karl Ritter von Haidinger, Austrian mineralogist (b. 1795)
• 1900 - John Bingham, American politician and lawyer (b. 1815)
• 1914 - Giuseppe Mercalli, Italian volcanologist (b. 1850)
• 1916 - Vasily Surikov, Russian painter (b. 1848)
• 1930 - Arthur Balfour, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1848)
• 1939 - Lloyd L. Gaines, American civil rights activist
• 1942 - Clinton Hart Merriam, American zoologist (b. 1855)
• 1943 - Frank Nitti, American gangster (b. 1883)
• 1944 - William Hale Thompson, American mayor of Chicago (b. 1869)
• 1945 - Friedrich Fromm, German Nazi official (b. 1888)
• 1950 - Edgar Rice Burroughs, American author (b. 1875)
• 1950 - Walter Haworth, British chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1883)
• 1974 - Edward Platt, American actor (b. 1916)
• 1976 - Albert Dieudonné, French actor, screenwriter and novelist (b. 1889)
• 1976 - Paul Kossoff, British guitarist (Free) (b. 1950)
• 1978 - Gaston Julia, French mathematician (b. 1893)
• 1979 - Richard Beckinsale, British actor (b. 1947)
• 1982 - Randy Rhoads, American guitarist (Quiet Riot, Ozzy) (b. 1956)
• 1987 - Louis, 7th duc de Broglie, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1892)
• 1989 - Alan Civil, English French horn player (b. 1929)
• 1990 - Andrew Wood, American musician (Mother Love Bone) (b. 1966)
• 1995 - Yasuo Yamada, Japanese voice actor (b. 1932)
• 1997 - Willem de Kooning, Dutch artist (b. 1904)
• 1999 - Jaime Sabines, Mexican poet (b. 1926)
• 2003 - Michael Mathias Prechtl, German illustrator (b. 1926)
• 2004 - Mitchell Sharp, Canadian politician (b. 1911)
• 2005 - John De Lorean, American automobile engineer (b. 1925)

Holidays and observances

• The first day of Quinquatria in ancient Rome, held in honor of Minerva.
• The swallows return to Mission San Juan Capistrano in California.
• Mojoday in Discordianism

Liturgical feasts

• Roman Catholicism and Church of England - Saint Joseph's Day for Saint Joseph of Nazareth, spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, stepfather of Jesus; patron saint of Belgium, a good death, carpenters
  • hence also (alternative) Father's Day in Spain, Portugal, Belgium
  • Las Fallas in Valencia, Spain.
• Saint Landoald
• Saint Adeltrudis (d.670)

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• NY Times: On this day
• On This Day in Canada

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