"Beware, Caesar, the Ides of March!"
Today is Friday, March 15, 2019, the 74th day of the year. 5 days until spring, and a mere 599 days until the next presidential election.
- Sunrise: 7:21am
- Sunset: 7:17pm ...giving us 11 hours and 56 minutes of daylight. A mere 54% of the waxing moon visible, rising at 1:23pm.
Tides at the Golden Gate
- High: 6:37am/9:22pm
- Low: 12:28am/1:45pm
Special celebrations & commemorations today…
- Constitution Day - Belarus
- National Day Hungary
- Buzzards Day
- Ides of March
- International Day of Action Against Canadian Seal Slaughter
- National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence
- National Shoe The World Day
- True Confessions Day
- World Consumer Rights Day
- World Sleep Day
- Pears Helene Day
- Everything You Think You Know is Wrong Day
On this day in…
44 BC - Roman Emperor Julius Caesar was assassinated by high ranking Roman Senators. The day is known as the "Ides of March."
1341 - During the Hundred Years War, an alliance was signed between Roman Emperor Louis IV and France's Philip VI.
1493 - Christopher Columbus returned to Spain after his first New World voyage.
1778 - In command of two frigates, the Frenchman la Perouse sailed east from Botany Bay for the last lap of his voyage around the world.
1781 - During the American Revolution, the Battle of Guilford Courthouse took place in North Carolina. British General Cornwallis' 1,900 soldiers defeated an American force of 4,400.
1820 -Maine was admitted as the 23rd state of the Union.
1862 - General John Hunt Morgan began four days of raids near the city of Gallatin,TN.
1864 - Red River Campaign began as the Union forces reach Alexandria,LA.
1875 - The Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York, John McCloskey, was named the first American cardinal.
1877 - The first cricket test between Australia and England was played in Melbourne. Australia won by 45 runs.
1892 -New York State unveiled the new automatic ballot voting machine.
1892 - Jesse W. Reno patented the Reno Inclined Elevator. It was the first escalator.
1900 - In Paris, Sarah Bernhardt starred in the premiere of Edmond Rostand's "L'Aiglon."
1901 - German Chancellor von Bulow declared that an agreement between Russia and China over Manchuria would violate the Anglo-German accord of October 1900.
1903 - The British conquest of Nigeria was completed. 500,000 square miles were now controlled by the U.K.
1904 - Three hundred Russians were killed as the Japanese shelled Port Arthur in Korea.
1907 - In Finland, woman won their first seats in the Finnish Parliament. They took their seats on May 23.
1910 - Otto Kahn offered $500,000 for a family portrait by Dutch artist Frans Hals. Kahn had outbid J.P. Morgan for the work.
1913 -U.S. President Woodrow Wilson held the first open presidential news conference.
1916 -U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sent 12,000 troops, under General Pershing, over the border of Mexico to pursue bandit Pancho Villa. The mission failed.
1917 - Russian Czar Nicholas II abdicated himself and his son. His brother Grand Duke succeeded as czar.
1919 - The American Legion was founded in Paris.
1922 - Fuad I assumed the title of king of Egypt after the country gained nominal independence from Britain.
1935 - Joseph Goebbels, German Minister of Propaganda banned four Berlin newspapers.
1937 - In Chicago,IL, the first blood bank to preserve blood for transfusion by refrigeration was established at the Cook County Hospital.
1938 - Oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia.
1939 - German forces occupied Bohemia and Moravia, and part of Czechoslovakia.
1944 - Cassino, Italy, was destroyed by Allied bombing.
1946 - British Premier Attlee offered India full independence after agreement on a constitution.
1948 - Sir Laurence Olivier was on the cover of "LIFE" magazine for his starring role in Shakespeare’s "Hamlet."
1949 - Clothes rationing in Great Britain ended nearly four years after the end of World War II.
1951 - General de Lattre demanded that Paris send him more troops for the fight in Vietnam.
1951 - The Persian parliament voted to nationalize the oil industry.
1954 - CBS television debuted its "Morning Show."
1955 - TheU.S. Air Force unveiled a self-guided missile.
1956 - The musical "My Fair Lady" opened on Broadway.
1960 - The first underwater park was established as Key Largo Coral Reef Preserve.
1964 - In Montreal, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were married.
1968 - TheU.S. mint halted the practice of buying and selling gold.
1974 - The Emerson, Lake and Palmer movie "Pictures at an Exhibition" premiered in Los Angeles,CA
1977 - TheU.S. House of Representatives began a 90-day test to determine the feasibility of showing its sessions on television.
1982 - Nicaragua's ruling junta proclaimed a month-long state of siege and suspended the nation's constitution for one day. This came a day after anti-government rebels destroyed two bridges near the Honduran border.
1985 - In Brazil, two decades of military rule came to an end with the installation of a civilian government.
1989 - The U.S. Department of Veteran's Affairs became the 14th Department in the President's Cabinet.
1990 - Mikhail Gorbachev was elected the first executive president of the Soviet Union.
1990 - The Soviet parliament ruled that Lithuania's declaration of independence was invalid and that Soviet law was still in force in the Baltic republic.
1991 - Four Los Angeles police officers were indicted in the beating of Rodney King on March 3, 1991. (California)
1994 -U.S. President Clinton extended the moratorium on nuclear testing until September of 1995.
1998 - More than 15,000 ethnic Albanians marched in Yugoslavia to demand independence for Kosovo.
2002 - Libyan Abdel Baset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi began his life sentence in a Scottish jail for his role in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 on December 21, 1988.
2002 -U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told the Associated Press that theU.S. would stand by a 24-year pledge not to use nuclear arms against states that don't have them.
Today’s birthday celebrants include (or included)...
- Andrew Jackson 1767
- Emil von Behring 1854 - Physiologist
- Jimmy McPartland 1907 - Musician
- Samuel "Lightnin" Hopkins 1912 - Singer, guitarist
- Macdonald Carey 1913 - Actor ("Days of Our Lives")
- Harry James 1916 - Musician
- Norm Van Brocklin 1926 - Football player
- Carl Smith 1927 - Musician
- Alan L. Bean 1932 - Astronaut
- Cecil Taylor 1933 - Piano player
- Judd Hirsch 1935 - Actor ("Taxi")
- Jimmy Lee Swaggart 1935 - Pastor
- Phil Lesh 1940 - Musician (The Grateful Dead)
- Mike Love 1941 - Musician (The Beach Boys)
- David Costell 1944 - Musician (Gary Lewis & The Playboys)
- Sly Stone 1944 - Musician (Sly & the Family Stone)
- Tracy Smith 1945 - Runner
- Bobby Bonds 1946 - Baseball player
- Howard Scott 1946 - Musician (War)
- Ry Cooder 1947 - Musician
- Dee Snider 1953 - Musician (Twisted Sister)
- Craig Wasson 1954 - Actor
- Park Overall 1957 - Actress
- Harold Baines 1959 - Baseball player
- Fabio 1961 - Model
- Terry Cummings 1961 - Basketball player
- Terence Trent D'Arby 1962 - Singer
- Bret Michaels 1963 - Musician (Poison)
- Rockwell (Kenneth Gordy) 1964 - Singer
- Mark McGrath 1968 - Singer (Sugar Ray)
- Eva Longoria Parker 1975 - Actress ("Desperate Housewives")
- will.i.am 1975 - Musician (Black Eyed Peas)
- Joseph "Joe" Hahn 1977 - Musician (Linkin Park)
- Kellan Lutz 1985 - Actor ("Twilight")
- Caitlin Wachs 1989 - Actress ("Thirteen Days")
