Today in History - Famous Events for Yesterday

🏰 On this day in History - Mar 15

0493 Theodorik the Great beats Odoaker of Italy

0933 Battle at Riade: German King Henry I beats Magyaren

1360 France invasion army lands on English south coast, conquers Winchel

1382 Conservative "Popolo Grasso" regain power in Florence Italy

1391 Jew hating Monk in Seville Spain stirs up people to attack Jews

1493 Christopher Columbus returns to Spain after 1st new world voyage

1560 Failed assault on royal palace in Amboise France

1562 General Fran‡ois de Guise enters Paris

1580 Spanish king Philip II puts 25,000 gold coins on head of prince Willem of Orange

1672 King Charles II enacts Declaration of Indulgence

1729 Sister St Stanislas Hachard, 1st US nun, takes her vows, N Orleans

1744 French King Louis XV declares war on England

1778 Nootka Sound, Vancouver Is discovered by Capt Cook

1781 Battle of Guilford Court House, SC (British suffer heavy losses)

1812 1st Russian settlement in California, Russian River

1820 Maine admitted as 23rd state

1827 Freedom's Journal, 1st Black newspaper, publishes

1827 University of Toronto is chartered

1855 Louisiana establishes 1st health board to regulate quarantine

1862 Gen John Hunt Morgan begins 4 days of raids near Gallatin, TN

1864 Red River Campaign-Union forces reach Alexandria, LA

1867 Michigan becomes 1st state to tax property to support a university

1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings become the 1st pro baseball team

1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings beat Antioch 41-7

1875 1st US cardinal (John McCloskey) invested

1877 Commencement of 1st Test Cricket, Australia v England at MCG

1885 1st performance of C‚sar Franck's "Lesson Djinns"

1887 1st salaried fish & game warden (William Alden Smith in Michigan)

1889 6 US & German warships perish in harbor of Apia Samoa, 200 die

1892 1st escalator patented by inventor Jesse W Reno (NYC)

1892 NY State unveils automatic ballot booth (voting machine)

1897 1st indoor fly casting tournament opens, at Madison Square Garden

1901 Horse racing is banned in San Francisco, last race Mar 16th

1903 Frederick Lugard occupies Sokoto West Africa

1906 Brits Rolls, Royce & Johnson form Rolls Royce Ltd

1907 Finland is 1st European country to give women the right to vote

1908 1st performance of Maurice Ravel's "Rapsodie Espagnole"

1912 Pitcher Cy Young retires from baseball with 511 wins

1913 1st presidential press conference (Woodrow Wilson)

1913 Cleveland establishes 1st small claims court

1915 Neth merchant ship Tubantia torpedoed & sinks in North Sea

1916 Gen Pershing, 15,000 troops chasing Villa into Mexico, stays 10-mos

1916 University of Gent goes under Dutch control

1917 Nicholas II, last Russian tsar, says he will abdicate [3/3 OS]

1919 American Legion forms (Paris)

1922 1st southern radio station begins (WSB, Atlanta Georgia)

1923 Lenin is hit with his 3rd stroke

1926 Belgium's "black monday," franc falls

1928 Mussolini modifies Italy electoral system (abolishes right to choose)

1930 1st seaplane glider flown, Port Washington, NY

1930 1st streamlined submarine of US navy, USS Nautilus, launched

1933 NAACP begins coordinated attack on segregation & discrimination

1934 US Information Service opens

1935 George Headley completes 270 in cricket v England at Kingston

1937 1st blood bank forms (Chicago IL)

1937 1st state contraceptive clinic opens (Raleigh NC)

1939 Hitler occupies Bohemia & Moravia (Czechoslovakia); Slovakia independ

1940 G”ring says 100-200 church bells enough for Germany, smelt the rest

1941 Blizzard in ND kills 151

1943 Allied reconnaissance flight over Java

1943 Red Army evacuates Kharkov

1944 Italian town of Cassino destroyed by Allied bombing

1945 17th Academy Awards - "Going my Way," Bing Cosby & Ingrid Bergman win

1945 Bert Shepard (1 legged WW II vet) tries out as a pitcher for Senators

1945 Billboard publishes its 1st album chart (King Cole Trio is #1)

1945 Catholic University of Nijmegen reopens

1945 Dodgers open spring training at Bear Mountain NY

1946 British premier Attlee agrees with India's right to independence

1947 John Lee appointed 1st black commissioned officer in US Navy

1948 Bradman scores 115 for the Australian cricket team v Western Australia

1948 Sir Laurence Olivier on the cover of LIFE magazine

1948 WCAU TV channel 10 in Philadelphia, PA (CBS) begins broadcasting

1949 WICU TV channel 12 in Erie, PA (NBC) begins broadcasting

1949 WLWD (now WDTN) TV channel 2 in Dayton, OH (NBC) begins broadcasting

1950 "Consul" opens at Barrymore Theater NYC for 269 performances

1950 Gian Carlo Menotti's opera "Consul," premieres in NYC

1950 NYC hires Dr Wallace E Howell as its official "rainmaker"

1951 Persia nationalizes Anglo-Iranian Oil Company

1952 "2 in the Aisle" closes at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC after 276 perfs

1952 Greatest 24-hr rainfall begins: 187 cm at La R‚union, Indian Ocean

1953 Patty Berg wins LPGA Titleholders Golf Championship

1953 West Germany loses in soccer to Netherlands, 2-1

1954 "CBS Morning Show" premieres with Walter Cronkite & Jack Paar

1954 WSJV TV channel 28 in Elkhart-South Bend, IN (ABC) begins broadcasting

1955 Dutch 2nd Chamber requires TV licenses

1955 US Air Force unveils self-guided missile

1955 WLEX TV channel 18 in Lexington, KY (NBC) begins broadcasting

1956 "My Fair Lady" opens at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC for 2,715 perfs

1956 Whipper Billy Watson beats Lou Thesz in Toronto, to become NWA champ

1957 3rd nation to explode a nuclear bomb (Britain)

1958 "Body Beautiful" closes at Broadway Theater NYC after 60 performances

1958 KULR TV channel 8 in Billings, MT (NBC/ABC/CBS) begins broadcasting

1958 Oscar Robertson of Cin scores a NCAA midwest region-record 56 pts

1958 Royals basketball star Maurice Stokes collapsed during a playoff game with encephalitis; He goes into a coma & is permanently disabled

1958 USSR performs atmospheric nuclear test

1959 Louise Suggs wins LPGA Titleholders Golf Championship

1959 Richard Rogers' "No Strings" opens on Broadway

1959 Robert Foster sets record by staying underwater 13 m 42.5 s

1959 WILX TV channel 10 in Lansing, MI (NBC) begins broadcasting

1960 Key Largo Coral Reef Preserve established (1st underwater park)

1960 National Observatory at Kitt Peak, Arizona dedicated

1961 South Africa withdrews from British Commonwealth

1962 "No Strings" opens at 84th St Theater NYC for 580 performances

1962 5 research groups announce simultaneously discovery of anti-matter

1962 Donald Jackson of Canada, is 1st to land a triple lutz ice skate jump

1962 KATU TV channel 2 in Portland, OR (ABC) begins broadcasting

1962 Richard Rodger's musical "No Strings," premieres in NYC

1962 Wilt Chamberlain is 1st to score 4,000 pts in an NBA season

1963 WFAN TV channel 14 in Washington, DC (IND) begins broadcasting

1964 LBJ asks for a War on Poverty

1964 Liz Taylor's 5th marriage (Richard Burton)

1964 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR

1965 LBJ asks congress to ensure everybody's right to vote

1965 T.G.I. Friday's 1st restaurant opens in NYC

1965 WMFE TV channel 24 in Orlando, FL (PBS) begins broadcasting

1966 8th Grammy Awards: Taste of Honey, Tom Jones, Sintra & Striesand

1966 Racial riots erupt in the Watts section of Los Angeles

1967 AFCENT-headquarter moves to Brunssum

1967 Marshal Arturo da Costa e Silva sworn in as pres of Brazil

1967 WSJK TV channel 2 in Sneedville/Knoxville, TN (PBS) 1st broadcast

1968 Bob Beamon sets indoor long jump record (27'2-3/4")

1968 British minister of Foreign affairs George Brown resigns

1968 LIFE mag calls Jimi Hendrix "most spectacular guitarist in the world"

1968 US Mint stops buying & selling gold

1968 Uprising in South Yemen

1968 Diocese of Rome announces that it "deplored the concept," but wouldn't prohibit rock & roll masses at Church of San Lessio Falconieri

1969 US Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas resigns

1969 Violent Chinese-Russian border dispute (100s dead?)

1970 "Purlie" opens at Broadway Theater NYC for 689 performances

1970 Expo '70 opens in Osaka, Japan

1970 Gary Geld & Peter Udell's "Purlie," premieres in NYC

1971 CBS TV announces it is dropping "Ed Sullivan Show"

1971 Chatrooms make their debut on the Internet

1972 Assassination attempt on governor George Wallace of Alabama

1972 Danish airliner hit mountain in Sheikdom of Oman killing 112

1972 NASA selects 3 part configuration for Space Shuttle

1974 Brazilian president Garastazu M‚dici resigns

1975 Bundy victim Julie Cunningham disappears from Vail, Colo

1975 Jevgeni Kulikov skates world record 500m (37.99 sec)

1976 Failed coup in Niger

1977 "Eight is Enough" premiers on ABC-TV

1977 US House of Reps begin 90 day test of televising its sessions

1978 -21] operation Litani: Israeli offensive in South Lebanon

1978 A's trade Vida Blue to Giants for 7 players & $390,000

1978 China PR performs nuclear test at Lop Nor PRC

1979 Apparat releases Newdos + 2.1 for Radio Shack's TRS-80

1979 Isle's Bryan Trottier's 5th career hat trick

1979 Sarfraz takes 9-86 at MCG as Australia lose 7-5 to lose the Test

1981 "Broadway Follies" opens/closes at Nederlander Theater NYC

1981 Patty Hayes wins LPGA Sun City Golf Classic

1981 Suriname failed coup under sgt-mjr Wilfred Hawker

1982 Actress Theresa Saladana, stabbed repeatedly by obsessed fan

1982 KGB-AM in San Diego CA changes call letters to KCNN (now KPOP)

1982 Nicaragua suspends their citizens rights for 30 days

1983 Karnataka beat Bombay on 1st innings to win cricket Ranji Trophy

1984 10th People's Choice Awards: Brooke Shields

1984 Tanzania adopts constitution

1985 Larry Holmes TKOs David Bey in 10 for heavyweight boxing title

1985 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1986 Funeral services held for Swedish PM Olaf Palme

1987 "Starlight Express" opens at Gershwin Theater NYC for 761 performances

1987 "Sweet Charity" closes at Minskoff Theater NYC after 368 performances

1987 13th People's Choice Awards: Bill Cosby

1987 Last day in Test cricket for Larry Gomes & Joel Garner

1987 NZ beat WI by 5 wickets in Jeremy Coney's last Test Cricket

1987 US Davis Cup team loses to Paraguay

1988 Eugene Marino of Atlanta, appointed 1st African American archbishop

1988 NASA reports accelerated breakdown of ozone layer by CFK

1988 NFL's St Louis Cardinals officially move to Phoenix

1989 "Les Miserables," opens at Royal Alexandra Theatre Toronto

1989 Dept of Veterans Affairs officially established as a Cabinet position

1989 NY Rangers retire goalie Eddie Giacomin's #1 uniform

1990 Fernando Collor de Mello sworn in as pres of Brazil

1991 4 LA police are charged with beating Rodney King

1991 Sergei Bubka pole vaults record 20¬'

1991 Territories of Amapa & Roraima become states in Brazil

1992 Brandie Burton wins LPGA Ping/Welch's Golf Championship

1992 UN officially embarks on its largest peacekeeping operation

1993 Vinod Kambli scores 227 v Zimbabwe, his 2nd consecutive Test 200

1994 8th Soul Train Music Awards: Toni Braxton, Whitney Houston win

1994 Experts from AL certify Indian's Jacobs Field is properly lit

1997 Pitts Penguins' Joe Mullen, is 1st American to score 500 NHL goals

1998 "Cabaret," opens at Club Expo Theater NYC

1998 Welch's/Circle K Golf Championship

1999 Pluto again becomes outermost planet

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