On This Day In History
Did You Know?
1st stone laid for the Sagrada Familia basilica in Barcelona, designed by Antoni Gaudí
Today in History in 1882
Would You Believe?
The wreck of the SS Georgiana, valued at over $50,000,000, said to have been most powerful Confederate cruiser, discovered by then teenage diver and pioneer underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence exactly 102 years after its destruction.
Today in History in 1965
March 20th
1602 United Dutch East Indian Company (VOC) forms
1800 Alessandro Volta reports his discovery of the electric battery in a letter to Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society of London
1815 Napoleon enters Paris after escape from Elba, begins 100-day rule
1900 US Secretary of State John Hay announces that all nations to whom he sent notes calling for an ‘open door’ policy in China have essentially accepted his stand
1933 Dachau the first Nazi concentration camp, is completed
2016 Barack Obama becomes the first US President to visit Cuba since 1928, arriving for a 3 day tour
Did You Know?
Harriet Beecher Stowe‘s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” published in Boston
Today in History in 1852
Would You Believe?
Indian rivers Yamuna and the Ganges declared “living entities” by court in the state of Uttarakhand
Today in History in 2017
You're up before the lark this morning Lana - And a lovely morning it is too ! 😎
The world of Formula 1 has paid tribute to Eddie Jordan, who passed away at the age of 76.#F1www.planetf1.com/news/eddie-j...
— PlanetF1 (@planetf1com.bsky.social) 2025-03-20T10:06:11.850Z
March 21st
1349 Between 100 and 3,000 Jews are killed in Black Death riots in Erfurt, Germany
1804 Napoleonic Code adopted in France, stresses clearly written and accessible law
1871 Journalist Henry Morton Stanley begins his famous expedition to Africa
1975 Ethiopia abolishes its monarchy after 3,000 years
2014 Russia formally annexes Crimea amid international condemnation
Did You Know?
The European Space Agency reveals new data that indicates that the universe is 13.82 billion years old
Today in History in 2013
Would You Believe?
Yogi the bear becomes the 1st creature to be ejected at supersonic speeds by the US military testing ejection seats
Today in History in 1962
March 22nd
1622 First American Indian (Powhatan) massacre of Europeans in Jamestown Virginia, 347 killed
1765 Stamp Act passed; 1st direct British tax on American colonists, organized by Prime Minister George Grenville
1784 The Emerald Buddha is moved with great ceremony to its current place in Wat Phra Kaew, Thailand
1832 British Parliament, led by Charles Grey, passes the Reform Act, introducing wide-ranging changes to electoral system of England and Wales, increasing electorate from about 500,000 voters to 813,000
1954 Northland Center, the world’s largest shopping mall at the time, opens in Oakpark, Michigan
1965 US confirms its troops used chemical warfare against the Vietcong
2018 US President Donald Trump imposes $60 billion worth of tariffs on Chinese imports
Did You Know?
In Eisenstadt v. Baird the US Supreme Court rules unmarried people have same right to contraception as married people.
Today in History in 1972
Would You Believe?
Niagara Falls runs out of water due to a drought
Today in History in 1903
March 23rd
1490 1st dated edition of Maimonides “Mishneh Torah”, a code of Jewish religious law is published
1775 Patrick Henry proclaims “Give me liberty or give me death” in speech in favour of Virginian troops joining US Revolutionary war
1919 8th Congress of the Russian Communist Party re-establishes a five-member Politburo which becomes the center of political power in the Soviet Union. Original members Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Joseph Stalin, Lev Kamenev and Nikolai Krestinsky
1933 German Reichstag hastily passes the Enabling Act and President Paul von Hindenburg signs it the same day, granting Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers
1945 Battle of Okinawa: US Navy ships bomb the Japanese island of Okinawa in preparation for the Allied invasion; it would become the largest battle of the Pacific War in World War II
2019 Syrian Democratic Forces announce that the last Islamic State territory has been retaken raising flags in Baghuz, Syria and ending the five-year Islamic State “caliphate”
Did You Know?
Elisha Otis installs his 1st elevator at 488 Broadway in New York City
Today in History in 1857
Would You Believe?
US Army sells its last homing pigeons
Today in History in 1957
March 24th
1603 Scottish King James VI son of Mary Queen of Scots, becomes King James I of England in succession to Elizabeth I, thus joining the English and Scottish crowns
1837 Canada gives its black citizens the right to vote
1882 German scientist Robert Koch discovers and describes the tubercle bacillus which causes tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis), and establishes germ theory
1976 Argentine President Isabel Martínez de Perón is deposed in a military coup headed by Jorge Rafael Videla
2020 China’s Hubei province, the original center of the COVID-19 outbreak eases restrictions on travel after a nearly two-month lockdown
2020 Indian PM Narendra Modi orders a 21 day lockdown for world’s second most populous country of 1.3 billion people to deal with COVID-1
Did You Know?
Kosovo War: NATO commences air bombardment against Yugoslavia, marking the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign country.
Today in History in 1999
Would You Believe?
RAF rear gunner Nicholas Alkemade survives a jump from his Lancaster bomber 18,000 feet over Germany without a parachute; his fall broken by pine trees and soft snow, suffers only a sprained leg
Today in History in 1944
March 25th
31 1st Easter, according to calendar-maker Dionysius Exiguus
1436 Florentine Cathedral Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore with then the largest dome in the world by Filippo Brunelleschi with support from Cosimo de’ Medici, consecrated by Pope Eugene IV (begun 1296)
1807 British Parliament abolishes slave trade throughout the British Empire; penalty of £120 per slave introduced for ship captains
1895 Italian troops invade Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
1960 1st guided missile launched from nuclear powered sub (Halibut)