Today, March 24th. In History.

March
24 is the 83rd day of the year (84th in leap years) in the Gregorian
calendar. There are 282 days remaining until the end of the year.



March 24th is the 365th and last day of the year in many European implementations of the Julian calendar.






1401 – Turko-Mongol emperor Timur sacks Damascus.





1603 – Tokugawa Ieyasu is granted the title of shogun from Emperor
Go-Yozei, and establishes the Tokugawa Shogunate in Edo, Japan.


1707 –
The Acts of Union 1707 is signed, officially uniting the Kingdoms of
England and Scotland to create the Kingdom of Great Britain.



1721 – Johann Sebastian Bach dedicated six concertos to Christian
Ludwig, margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt, now commonly called the
Brandenburg Concertos, BWV 1046-1051.

1731 – Naturalization of Hieronimus de Salis Parliamentary Act is passed.



1765 –
American Revolutionary War: The Kingdom of Great Britain passes the
Quartering Act that requires the Thirteen Colonies to house British
troops.



1829 –
Catholic Emancipation: The Parliament of the United Kingdom passes the
Roman "Catholic Relief Act" 1829, allowing Catholics to serve in
Parliament.



1832 – In Hiram, Ohio a group of men beat, tar and feather Mormon leader Joseph Smith, Jr..



1837 – Canada gives African Canadian men the right to vote.

1860 – Sakuradamon incident (1860): Assassination of Japanese Chief Minister (Tairō) Ii Naosuke

1869 – The last of Titokowaru's forces surrendered to the New Zealand government, ending his uprising.



1878 – The British frigate HMS Eurydice sinks, killing more than 300.



1882 – Robert Koch announces the discovery of mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis.

1896 – A. S. Popov makes the first radio signal transmission in history.

1900 – Mayor of New York City Robert Anderson Van Wyck breaks ground
for a new underground "Rapid Transit Railroad" that would link
Manhattan and Brooklyn.

1907 – The first issue of the Georgian Bolshevik newspaper Dro is published.



1922 – Irish
War of Independence: In Belfast, Northern Irish policemen break into
the home of a Catholic family and shoot all eight males inside.



1923 – Greece becomes a republic.


1927 – Nanjing Incident: Foreign warships bombard Nanjing, China, in defense of the foreign citizens within the city.



1934 – U.S. Congress passes the Tydings-McDuffie Act allowing the Philippines to become a self-governing commonwealth.



1944 – Ardeatine Massacre: German troops kill 335 Italian civilians in Rome.


1944 – World War II: In an event later dramatized in the movie The
Great Escape, 76 prisoners begin breaking out of Stalag Luft III.

1946 – The British Cabinet Mission, consisting of Lord
Pethick-Lawrence, Sir Stafford Cripps and A. V. Alexander, arrives in
India to discuss and plan for the transfer of power from the British Raj
to Indian leadership.



1958 – Rock 'N' Roll teen idol Elvis Presley is drafted in the U.S. Army.

1959 – The Party of the African Federation is launched by Léopold Sédar Senghor and Modibo Keita.

1965 – NASA spacecraft Ranger 9, equipped to convert its signals
into a form suitable for showing on domestic television, brings images
of the Moon into ordinary homes before crash landing.


1972 – The United Kingdom imposes direct rule over Northern Ireland.



1973 – Kenyan athlete Kip Keino defeats Jim Ryun at the first-ever professional track meet in Los Angeles, California.

1976 –
In Argentina, the armed forces overthrow the constitutional government
of President Isabel Perón and start a 7-year dictatorial period
self-styled the National Reorganization Process. Since 2006, a public
holiday known as Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice is held on
this day.



1980 – Archbishop Óscar Romero is killed while celebrating Mass in San Salvador.



1986 – The Loscoe gas explosion leads to new UK laws on landfill gas migration and gas protection on landfill sites.

1989 – Exxon Valdez oil spill: In Prince William Sound in Alaska,
the Exxon Valdez spills 240,000 barrels (38,000 m3) of petroleum after
running aground.



1989 -- Cold Fusion Announced.



1993 – Discovery of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9.

1998 – Jonesboro massacre: Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden, aged
11 and 13 respectively, fire upon teachers and students at Westside
Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas; five people are killed and ten are
wounded.



1998 – A tornado sweeps through Dantan in India killing 250 people and injuring 3000 others.



1999 – Mont Blanc Tunnel fire kills 38 people



1999 – Kosovo War: NATO commences air bombardment against Yugoslavia, marking (999) the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign country.



2000 – S&P; 500 index
reaches an intraday high of 1,552.87, a peak that, due to the collapse
of the dot-com bubble, it will not reach again for another
seven-and-a-half years.



2003 – The Arab League votes 21-1 in favor of a resolution demanding
the immediate and unconditional removal of U.S. and British soldiers
from Iraq.



2008 – Bhutan officially becomes a democracy, with its first ever general election.

Births

• 1494 – Georg Agricola, German scientist (d. 1555)
• 1607 – Michiel de Ruyter, Dutch admiral (d. 1667)
• 1628 – Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg, queen of Denmark and Norway (d. 1685)
• 1657 – Arai Hakuseki, Japanese writer and politician (d. 1725)
• 1693 – John Harrison, British clockmaker (d. 1776)
• 1725 – Samuel Ashe, 9th Governor of North Carolina (d. 1813)
• 1725 – Thomas Cushing, American Continental Congressman and acting Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1788)
• 1740 – John Antes, American composer (d. 1811)
• 1755 – Rufus King, American politician (d. 1827)
• 1762 – Marcos Portugal, Portuguese composer (d. 1830)
• 1775 – Muthuswami Dikshitar, South Indian poet and composer, considered one of the musical trinity of Carnatic music (d. 1835)
• 1782 – Orest Kiprensky, Russian painter (d. 1836)
• 1796 – John Corry Wilson Daly, Canadian politician (d. 1878)
• 1803 – Egerton Ryerson, Canadian educator and politician (d. 1882)
• 1808 – Maria Malibran, Spanish-French singer (d. 1836)
• 1809 – Mariano José de Larra, Spanish journalist and writer (d. 1837)
• 1809 – Joseph Liouville, French mathematician (d. 1882)
• 1820 – A. E. Becquerel, French physicist (d. 1891)
• 1820 – Fanny Crosby, American hymnist (d. 1915)
• 1826 – Matilda Joslyn Gage, American feminist and suffragette (d. 1898)
• 1828 – Horace Gray, American jurist and Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1902)
• 1829 – George Francis Train, American businessman (d. 1904)
• 1829 – Ignacio Zaragoza, Mexican general (d. 1862)
• 1830 – Robert Hamerling, Austrian poet (d. 1889)
• 1834 – William Morris, English writer and designer (d. 1896)
• 1834 – John Wesley Powell, American explorer and environmentalist (d. 1902)
• 1835 – Jožef Stefan, Slovenian physicist (d. 1893)
• 1848 – Honoré Beaugrand, Quebec journalist and newspaper publisher (La Patrie) (d. 1906)
• 1850 – Silas Hocking, British novelist and preacher (d. 1935)
• 1855 – Andrew Mellon, American financier (d. 1937)
• 1855 – Olive Schreiner, South African writer (d. 1920)
• 1874 – Harry Houdini, (Erik Weisz), Hungarian-born magician (d. 1926)
• 1874 – Luigi Einaudi, 2nd President of the Italian Republic (d. 1961)
• 1884 – Peter Debye, Dutch chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1966)
• 1884 – Eugène Tisserant, French Cardinal and Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals (d. 1972)
• 1886 – Athenagoras I, 268th Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople (d. 1972)
• 1886 – Edward Weston, American photographer (d. 1958)
• 1887 – Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, American actor (d. 1933)
• 1888 – Viktor Kingissepp, Estonian Bolshevik politician (d. 1922)
• 1889 – Albert Hill, British athlete (d. 1969)
• 1890 – Agnes Macphail, first female member of the Canadian House of Commons (d. 1954)
• 1891 – Sergey Ivanovich Vavilov, Soviet physicist (d. 1951)
• 1893 – George Sisler, American baseball player (d. 1973)
• 1892 – Marston Morse, American mathematician (d. 1977)
• 1893 – Walter Baade, German astronomer (d. 1960)
• 1897 – Wilhelm Reich, Austrian-born psychotherapist (d. 1957)
• 1901 – Ub Iwerks, American cartoonist (d. 1971)
• 1902 – Thomas E. Dewey, American politician (d. 1971)
• 1903 – Adolf Butenandt, German chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1995)
• 1903 – Malcolm Muggeridge, British author and scholar (d. 1990)
• 1905 – Pura Santillan-Castrence, Filipino writer and diplomat (d. 2007)
• 1906 – Klavdiya Shulzhenko, Soviet singer (d. 1984)
• 1907 – Paul Sauvé, Quebec politician (d. 1960)
• 1909 – Clyde Barrow, American criminal (d. 1934)
• 1910 – Richard Conte, American actor (d. 1975)
• 1911 – Joseph Barbera, American cartoonist (d. 2006)
• 1912 – Dorothy Height, American activist (d. 2010)
• 1915 – "Gorgeous" George Wagner, American professional wrestler (d. 1963)
• 1916 – Donald Hamilton, Swedish-American novelist (d. 2006)
• 1916 – Harry Blackmore Whittington, British palaeontologist (d. 2010)
• 1917 – John Kendrew, British molecular biologist, Nobel laureate (d. 1997)
• 1917 – Constantine Andreou, Greek-Brazilian artist (d. 2007)
• 1919 – Lawrence Ferlinghetti, American author and publisher
• 1919 – Robert Heilbroner, American economist (d. 2005)
• 1920 – Gene Nelson, American actor (d. 1996)
• 1921 – Franciszek Blachnicki, Polish priest (d. 1987)
• 1921 – Vasily Smyslov, Russian chess player (d. 2010)
• 1922 – Onna White, Canadian choreographer (d. 2005)
• 1923 – Murray Hamilton, American actor (d. 1986)
• 1923 – Michael Legat, England writer (d. 2011)
• 1924 – Norman Fell, American actor (d. 1998)
• 1925 – Puig Aubert, French rugby league footballer (d. 1994)
• 1926 – Dario Fo, Italian writer, Nobel laureate
• 1926 – Desmond Connell, Cardinal Archbishop Emeritus of Dublin
• 1927 – Martin Walser, German author
• 1928 – Byron Janis, American pianist
• 1930 – David Dacko, Central African Republician politician (d. 2003)
• 1930 – Agustín González, Spanish actor (d. 2005)
• 1930 – Steve McQueen, American actor (d. 1980)
• 1931 – Hanno Drechsler, German politician (d. 2003)
• 1933 – William Smith, American actor
• 1935 – Peter Bichsel, Swiss writer
• 1935 – Carol Kaye, American musician
• 1936 – David Suzuki, Canadian scientist and environmentalist
• 1937 – Billy Stewart, American singer (d. 1970)
• 1938 – Holger Czukay, German musician (Can)
• 1938 – David Irving, British historian
• 1940 – Bob Mackie, American fashion designer
• 1940 – Don Jardine, Canadian professional wrestler (d. 2006)
• 1944 – R. Lee Ermey, American actor
• 1944 – Vojislav Koštunica, Serbian Prime Minister
• 1945 – Robert T. Bakker, American paleontologist
• 1945 – Curtis Hanson, American film director
• 1946 – Klaus Dinger, German musician (d. 2008)
• 1947 – Dennis Erickson, American football coach
• 1947 – Christine Gregoire, American politician
• 1947 – Meiko Kaji, Japanese singer and actress
• 1947 – Alan Sugar, English businessman
• 1948 – Jerzy Kukuczka, Polish mountaineer (d. 1989)
• 1948 – Lee Oskar, Danish musician (War)
• 1949 – Nick Lowe, British musician
• 1949 – Ruud Krol, Dutch footballer
• 1949 – Steve Lang, Canadian musician (April Wine)
• 1949 – Tabitha Spruce, American writer, poet and activist
• 1950 – Gary Wichard, American professional sports agent (d. 2011)
• 1951 – Pat Bradley, American golfer
• 1951 – Tommy Hilfiger, American fashion designer
• 1951 – Dougie Thomson, British bassist
• 1953 – Anita L. Allen, American law professor
• 1953 – Louie Anderson, American comedian
• 1954 – Robert Carradine, American actor
• 1954 – Donna Pescow, American actress
• 1955 – Doug Jarvis, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1955 – Pat Price, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1956 – Steve Ballmer, American businessman
• 1957 – Gilles Baril, Canadian politician
• 1957 – Pierre Harvey, Canadian cyclist and cross-country skier
• 1958 – Mike Woodson, American basketball player and head coach
• 1959 – Derek Statham, English footballer
• 1960 – Kelly LeBrock, American actress
• 1960 – Barry Horowitz, American professional wrestler
• 1960 – Nena, German pop singer
• 1960 – Scott Pruett, American race car driver
• 1961 – Dean Jones, Australian cricketer
• 1962 – Angèle Dubeau, Canadian violinist
• 1962 – Star Jones, American television personality
• 1963 – Raimond van der Gouw, Dutch footballer goalkeeper
• 1965 – Peter Jacobson, American actor
• 1965 – Patrick Scales, British-German electric bass guitar player
• 1965 – Gurmit Singh, Singaporean actor
• 1965 – Mark Calaway, an American professional wrestler
• 1969 – Houston, American pornographic actress
• 1970 – Lara Flynn Boyle, American actress
• 1970 – Sharon Corr, Irish musician (The Corrs)
• 1970 – Judith Draxler, Austrian swimmer
• 1970 – Mike Vanderjagt, Canadian football player
• 1971 – Megyn Price, American actress
• 1972 – Steve Karsay, American baseball player
• 1973 – Jacek Bąk, Polish footballer
• 1973 – Philippe Boucher, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1973 – Jim Parsons, American actor
• 1973 – Steve Corica, Australian footballer
• 1973 – Mette Jacobsen, Danish swimmer
• 1974 – Chad Butler, American drummer (Switchfoot)
• 1974 – Alyson Hannigan, American actress
• 1975 – Thomas Johansson, Swedish tennis player
• 1975 – Krisdayanti, Indonesian singer and actress
• 1976 – Aaron Brooks, American football player
• 1976 – Aliou Cissé, Senegalese footballer
• 1976 – Athanasios Kostoulas, Greek footballer
• 1976 – Peyton Manning, American football player
• 1977 – Corneille, Rwandan/Canadian singer
• 1977 – Angellica Bell, English TV presenter
• 1977 – Olivia Burnette, American actress
• 1977 – Darren Lockyer, Australian rugby league footballer
• 1978 – Michael Braun, Australian rules footballer
• 1978 – Kaori Mochida, Japanese singer (Every Little Thing)
• 1979 – Lake Bell, American actress
• 1979 – Emraan Hashmi, Indian actor
• 1979 – Norris Hopper, American baseball player
• 1979 – Periklis Iakovakis, Greek athlete
• 1979 – Graeme Swann, English cricketer
• 1980 – Tassos Venetis, Greek footballer
• 1981 – Mike Adams, American football player
• 1981 – Ron Hainsey, American ice hockey player
• 1981 – Dirk Hayhurst, American baseball player
• 1981 – Mark Looms, Dutch footballer
• 1981 – Gary Paffett, British racing driver
• 1982 – Corey Hart, American baseball player
• 1982 – Jimmy Hempte, Belgian footballer
• 1982 – Christian Hug, German rugby player
• 1982 – Dustin McGowan, American baseball player
• 1982 – Nivea, American singer
• 1982 – Jack Swagger, American professional wrestler
• 1982 – Epico, American professional wrestler
• 1983 – Luca Ceccarelli, Italian footballer
• 1983 – T. J. Ford, American basketball player
• 1983 – Kelvin Kwan, Hong Kong singer
• 1983 – Riccardo Musetti, Italian footballer
• 1983 – Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1984 – Chris Bosh, American basketball player
• 1984 – Benoît Assou-Ekotto, French-born Cameroonian footballer
• 1984 – Adrian D'Souza, Indian field hockey player
• 1984 – Park Bom, South Korean singer (2NE1)
• 1985 – Haruka Ayase, Japanese actress and model
• 1985 – Amanda Lameche, Swedish singer
• 1986 – Kohei Hirate, Japanese racing driver
• 1986 – Tony McMahon, English footballer
• 1987 – Yuma Asami, Japanese adult video actress
• 1987 – Ramires, Brazilian Footballer
• 1987 – Shakib Al Hasan, Bangladeshi cricketer
• 1988 – Ryan Higgins, Zimbabwean cricketer
• 1989 – Aziz Shavershian, Australian bodybuilder (d. 2011)
• 1990 – Keisha Castle-Hughes, Australian/New Zealand actress
• 1990 – Aljur Abrenica, Filipino actor
• 1990 – Starlin Castro, American baseball player
• 1998 – Isabel Suckling, British Choirgirl

Deaths

• 809 – Harun al-Rashid, Abbasid caliph (b. 763)
• 1284 – King Hugh III of Cyprus (b. 1235)
• 1381 – Saint Catharine of Sweden, Swedish saint (b. 1332)
• 1396 – Walter Hilton, English mystic (b. 1340)
• 1455 – Pope Nicholas V (b. 1397)
• 1558 – Anna of Egmond, Countess of Egmond and Buren (b. 1533)
• 1563 – Hosokawa Harumoto, Japanese military leader (b. 1514)
• 1575 – Yosef Karo, Spanish-born rabbi (b. 1488)
• 1603 – Queen Elizabeth I of England (b. 1533)
• 1653 – Samuel Scheidt, German composer (b. 1587)
• 1773 – Philip Dormer Stanhope, English statesman (b. 1694)
• 1776 – John Harrison, English clockmaker (b. 1693)
• 1869 – Antoine-Henri Jomini, French general (b. 1779)
• 1881 – Achille Ernest Oscar Joseph Delesse, French geologist (b. 1817)
• 1882 – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American author (b. 1807)
• 1887 – Ivan Kramskoi, Russian painter and art critic (b. 1837)
• 1888 – Vsevolod Garshin, Russian author (b. 1855)
• 1905 – Jules Verne, French author (b. 1828)
• 1909 – John Millington Synge, Irish playwright (b. 1871)
• 1915 – Karol Olszewski, Polish scientist (b. 1846)
• 1916 – Enrique Granados, Spanish composer (b. 1867)
• 1921 – Larry McLean, Canadian baseball player (b. 1881)
• 1926 – Phan Chu Trinh, Vietnamese nationalist (b. 1872)
• 1940 – Édouard Branly, French inventor and physicist (b. 1844)
• 1944 – Orde Charles Wingate, British Major-General, prominent Zionist, eccentric (b. 1903)
• 1946 – Alexander Alekhine, Russian chess player (b. 1892)
• 1948 – Sigrid Hjertén, Swedish modernist painter (b. 1885)
• 1950 – James Rudolph Garfield, American politician (b. 1865)
• 1953 – Mary of Teck, Queen Consort to George V of the United Kingdom (b. 1867)
• 1962 – Jean Goldkette, Greek-born musician (b. 1899)
• 1962 – Auguste Piccard, Swiss physicist and explorer (b. 1884)
• 1968 – Alice Guy-Blaché, American film director (b. 1873)
• 1976 – Bernard Montgomery, British field marshal (b. 1887)
• 1980 – Óscar Romero, Salvadoran Catholic archbishop (b. 1917)
• 1984 – Sam Jaffe, American actor (b. 1891)
• 1990 – Ray Goulding, American comedian (b. 1922)
• 1991 – Sir John Kerr, Australian Governor-General (b. 1914)
• 1993 – Albert Arlen, Australian pianist, composer, actor, director (b. 1905)
• 1993 – John Hersey, American author (b. 1914)
• 1995 – Joseph Needham, British academic and sinologist (b. 1900)
• 1997 – Martin Caidin, American aviation writer (b. 1927)
• 1997 – Harold Melvin, American singer (Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes) (b. 1939)
• 1999 – Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, German women's activist (b. 1902)
• 1999 – Birdie Tebbetts, American baseball player and manager (b. 1912)
• 2001 – Muriel Young, English TV entertainer (b. 1928)
• 2002 – César Milstein, Argentine scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1927)
• 2003 – Hans Hermann Groër, Austrian Catholic archbishop (b. 1919)
• 2006 – Lynne Perrie, English actress (b. 1931)
• 2008 – Chalmers "Spanky" Alford, American guitarist (b. 1955)
• 2008 – Neil Aspinall, British record producer (b. 1941)
• 2008 – Hal Riney, American advertising executive (b. 1932)
• 2008 – Richard Widmark, American actor (b. 1914)
• 2009 – George Kell, American baseball player (b. 1922)
• 2010 – Jim Marshall, American photographer (b. 1936)
• 2010 – Robert Culp, American actor (b. 1930)
• 2010 – Johnny Maestro, American singer (b. 1939)