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Events

44 BC - Julius Caesar, Dictator of the Roman Republic, is stabbed to death by Marcus Junius Brutus, Decimus Junius Brutus and several other Roman senators on the Ides of March.

221 AD - Liu Bei, a Chinese warlord and member of the Han royal house, declares himself emperor of Shu-Han, claiming his legitimate succession to the Han dynasty.

351 - Constantius II elevates his cousin Gallus to Caesar, and puts him in charge of the Eastern part of the Roman Empire.

1311 - Battle of Halmyros: The Catalan Company defeats Walter V of Brienne to take control of the Duchy of Athens, a Crusader state in Greece.

1493 - Christopher Columbus returns to Spain after his first trip to the Americas.

1545 - First meeting of the Council of Trent.

1672 - Charles II of England issues the Royal Declaration of Indulgence.

1781 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Guilford Courthouse - Near present-day Greensboro, North Carolina, 1,900 British troops under General Charles Cornwallis defeat an American force numbering 4,400.

1783 - In an emotional speech in Newburgh, New York, George Washington asks his officers not to support the Newburgh Conspiracy. The plea is successful and the threatened coup d'etat never takes place.

1820 - Maine becomes the 23rd U.S. state.

1827 - The University of Toronto is chartered.

1848 - Revolution breaks out in Pest. The Habsburg rulers are compelled to meet the demands of the Reform party.

1873 - Phi Sigma Kappa Fraternity is founded at Massachusetts Agricultural College

 
 

1877 - The first Test cricket match begins, between England and Australia.

1892 - Liverpool Football Club founded by John Houlding

1906 - Rolls-Royce Ltd. is registered.

1909 - Selfridges department store opens in London.

1916 - President Woodrow Wilson sends 12,000 United States troops over the U.S.-Mexico border to pursue Pancho Villa.

1917 - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates himself and his son from the Russian throne and his brother the Grand Duke becomes Tsar.

1919 - The American Legion forms in Paris.

1922 - After Egypt gains nominal independence from the United Kingdom, Fuad I becomes King of Egypt.

1939 - World War II: Nazi troops occupy the remaining part of Bohemia and Moravia; Czechoslovakia ceases to exist.

1943 - World War II: Third Battle of Kharkov - the Germans retook the city of Kharkov from the Soviet armies in bitter street fighting.

1944 - World War II: Battle of Monte Cassino - Allied aircraft bomb the Nazi-held monastery and stage an assault.

1952 - In Cilaos, Réunion, 73 inches (1,870mm) of rain falls in one day, setting a new world record.

1953 - World contact day

 
 

1956 - The Broadway musical My Fair Lady opens in New York City.

1961 - South Africa withdraws from the Commonwealth of Nations.

1963 - Victor Feguer, a Federal prisoner, is put to death at the Fort Madison, Iowa prison. This would be the last execution of a Federal prisoner until the execution of Timothy McVeigh in 2001.

1970 - The Expo '70 world's fair opens in Osaka, Japan.

1988 - Publication of Marvin Minsky's Society of Mind theory.

1988 - The Halabja poison gas attack of the Iran-Iraq War begins.

1989 - The United States Department of Veterans Affairs is established.

1990 - Gulf War: Iraq hangs British journalist Farzad Bazoft for spying.

1990 - Mikhail Gorbachev is elected as the first executive president of the Soviet Union.

1990 - The Soviet Union announces that Lithuania's declaration of independence is invalid.

1990 - The ethnic clashes of Targu Mures begin on the anniversary of the Revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas.

1991 - Germany formally regains complete independence after the four post-World War II occupying powers (France, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union) relinquish all remaining rights.

1998 - Titanic defeats Star Wars for the #1 place in the North American domestic box office, grossing $471 million.

2004 - Announcement of the discovery of 90377 Sedna, the farthest natural object in the Solar system so far observed.

 

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