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8 March 1937 – Spanish Civil War: The Battle of Guadalajara begins

Battle of Guadalajara

1937 battle of the Spanish Civil War

The Battle of Guadalajara (March 8–23, 1937) saw the victory of the People's Republican Army (Ejército Popular Republicano, or EPR) and of the International Brigades over the Italian and Nationalist forces attempting to encircle Madrid during the Spanish Civil War. The Nationalist forces involved in the Battle of Guadalajara were primarily the Italian Corps of Volunteer Troops (Corpo Truppe Volontarie, or CTV).

The battle opened with an Italian offensive on 8 March. This offensive was halted by 11 March. Between 12 March and 14 March, renewed Italian attacks were supported by Spanish Nationalist units. These were halted too. On 15 March, a Republican counter-offensive was prepared. The Republicans successfully launched their counter-offensive from 18 March to 23 March.

1. ^ ^{a b c} Thomas, Hugh.The Spanish Civil War. Penguin Books. London. 2001. p.579
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} COVERDALE, J. F. (1975). Italian Intervention in the Spanish Civil War. Princeton University Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt13x112j
3. ^ ^{a b} Knighton, A. (2016, January 24). An Italian Civil War in Spain: Guadalajara, 1937. Retrieved from https://www.warhistoryonline.com/history/italian-civil-war-spain-guadalajara-1937.html
4. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Thomas, Hugh.The Spanish Civil War. Penguin Books. London. 2001. p.585

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9 March 1967 – Trans World Airlines Flight 553 crashes in a field in Concord Township, Ohio following a mid-air collision with a Beechcraft Baron, killing 26 people.

TWA Flight 553

1967 aviation disaster in Concord Township, Ohio, USA

Trans World Airlines (TWA) Flight 553 was a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-15 jet airliner, registration N1063T, operated by Trans World Airlines on March 9, 1967 between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Dayton, Ohio. While descending toward Dayton about 29 miles (25 nmi; 47 km) from the airport, the flight collided in midair with a Beechcraft Baron, a small, general-aviation airplane, near Urbana, Ohio. All 25 aboard the DC-9 and the sole occupant of the Beechcraft were killed.^[1]

1. ^ "AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT REPORT. TRANS WORLD AIRLINES INC., DOUGLAS DC-9, TANN COMPANY BEECHCRAFT BARON B-55 IN-FLIGHT COLLISION NEAR URBANA, OHIO, MARCH 9, 1967" (PDF). National Transportation Safety Board. June 19, 1968. Retrieved September 11, 2019.

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10 March 2000 – The Dot-com bubble peaks with the NASDAQ Composite stock market index reaching 5,048.62.

Dot-com bubble

Tech stock speculative craze, c. 1997–2003

The NASDAQ Composite index spiked in the late 1990s and then fell sharply as a result of the dot-com bubble.

Quarterly U.S. venture capital investments, 1995–2017

The dot-com bubble (or dot-com boom) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s. The period coincided with massive growth in Internet adoption, a proliferation of available venture capital, and the rapid growth of valuations in new dot-com startups.

Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Composite stock market index rose 800%, only to fall 78% from its peak by October 2002, giving up all its gains during the bubble.

During the dot-com crash, many online shopping companies, notably Pets.com, Webvan, and Boo.com, as well as several communication companies, such as Worldcom, NorthPoint Communications, and Global Crossing, failed and shut down.^[1][2] Others, like Lastminute.com, MP3.com and PeopleSound, survived the burst but were acquired. Larger companies like Amazon and Cisco Systems lost large portions of their market capitalization, with Cisco losing 80% of its stock value.^[3][4]

1. ^ "The greatest defunct Web sites and dotcom disasters". CNET. June 5, 2008. Archived from the original on August 28, 2019. Retrieved February 10, 2020.
2. ^ Kumar, Rajesh (December 5, 2015). Valuation: Theories and Concepts. Elsevier. p. 25.
3. ^ Kumar, Rajesh (December 5, 2015). Valuation: Theories and Concepts. Elsevier. p. 25.
4. ^ Powell, Jamie (2021-03-08). "Investors should not dismiss Cisco's dot com collapse as a historical anomaly". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 2022-12-10. Retrieved 2022-04-06.

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11 March 1872 – Construction of the Seven Sisters Colliery, South Wales, begins; it is located on one of the richest coal sources in Britain.

Seven Sisters, Neath Port Talbot

For other uses, see Seven Sisters (disambiguation).

Human settlement in Wales

Seven Sisters (Welsh: Blaendulais: source of the (river) Dulais) is a village and community in the Dulais Valley, Wales, UK. It lies 10 miles (16 km) north-east of Neath. Seven Sisters falls within the Seven Sisters ward of Neath Port Talbot county borough.

1. ^ "Ward population 2011". Retrieved 12 April 2015.

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12 March 1928 – In California, the St. Francis Dam fails; the resulting floods kill 431 people.

St. Francis Dam

Former dam in Los Angeles County, California, US

Dam in California, U.S.

The St. Francis Dam was a concrete gravity dam located in San Francisquito Canyon in Los Angeles County, California, United States, built from 1924 to 1926 to serve Los Angeles's growing water needs. It catastrophically failed in 1928 due to a defective soil foundation and design flaws, triggering a flood that claimed the lives of at least 431 people.^[2][3] The collapse of the dam is considered to be one of the worst American civil engineering disasters of the 20th century and remains the second-greatest loss of life in California's history, after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire.^[4]

The St. Francis Dam was built to create a large regulating and storage reservoir that was an integral part of the Los Angeles Aqueduct. It was located in San Francisquito Canyon of the Sierra Pelona Mountains, about 40 miles (64 km) northwest of downtown Los Angeles, and approximately 10 miles (16 km) north of the present day city of Santa Clarita, California.

The dam was designed and built by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, then named the Bureau of Water Works and Supply. The department was under the direction of its general manager and chief engineer, William Mulholland. The disaster effectively ended Mulholland's career.^[5]

1. ^ Cite error: The named reference CHL was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
2. ^ Stansell, Ann (August 2014). Memorialization and Memory of Southern California's St. Francis Dam Disaster of 1928. California State University, Northridge (Thesis).
3. ^ Stansell, Ann C. (February 2014). "Roster of St. Francis Dam Disaster Victims". Santa Clarita Valley History In Pictures.
4. ^ "California's Worst Disasters Remembered" seecalifornia.com. Quote: "600 people in 1928 died in the St. Francis Dam flood in Santa Clarita. It was around midnight that Southern California suffered one of the worst disasters in the state's history, second only to the earthquake and fire that devastated San Francisco in 1906."
5. ^ Cite error: The named reference William Mulholland was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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13 March Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module.

Apollo 9

3rd crewed mission of the Apollo space program

For the single by Adam Ant, see Vive Le Rock.

Apollo 9 (March 3–13, 1969) was the third human spaceflight in NASA's Apollo program. Flown in low Earth orbit, it was the second crewed Apollo mission that the United States launched via a Saturn V rocket, and was the first flight of the full Apollo spacecraft: the command and service module (CSM) with the Lunar Module (LM). The mission was flown to qualify the LM for lunar orbit operations in preparation for the first Moon landing by demonstrating its descent and ascent propulsion systems, showing that its crew could fly it independently, then rendezvous and dock with the CSM again, as would be required for the first crewed lunar landing. Other objectives of the flight included firing the LM descent engine to propel the spacecraft stack as a backup mode (as would be required on the Apollo 13 mission), and use of the portable life support system backpack outside the LM cabin.

The three-man crew consisted of Commander James McDivitt, Command Module Pilot David Scott, and Lunar Module Pilot Rusty Schweickart. During the ten-day mission, they tested systems and procedures critical to landing on the Moon, including the LM engines, backpack life support systems, navigation systems and docking maneuvers.

After launching on March 3, 1969, the crew performed the first crewed flight of a lunar module, the first docking and extraction of the same, one two-person spacewalk (EVA), and the second docking of two crewed spacecraft—two months after the Soviets performed a spacewalk crew transfer between Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5. The mission concluded on March 13 and was a complete success. It proved the LM worthy of crewed spaceflight, setting the stage for the dress rehearsal for the lunar landing, Apollo 10, before the ultimate goal, landing on the Moon.

1. ^ ^{a b c} Orloff & Harland, p. 227.
2. ^ Cite error: The named reference nasa nine was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
3. ^ Orloff & Harland, p. 230.
4. ^ Ezell 1988, Table 2-37: "Apollo 9 Characteristics".
5. ^ McDowell, Jonathan. "SATCAT". Jonathan's Space Pages. Retrieved March 23, 2014.

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14 March 1900 – The Gold Standard Act is ratified, placing the United States currency on the gold standard.

Gold Standard Act

1900 U.S. legislation which established gold as the standard for the U.S. dollar

The Gold Standard Act was an Act of the United States Congress, signed by President William McKinley and effective on March 14, 1900, defining the United States dollar by gold weight and requiring the United States Treasury to redeem, on demand and in gold coin only, paper currency the Act specified.^[1]

The Act formalized the American gold standard that the Coinage Act of 1873, which demonetized silver, had established by default. Before and after the Act, silver currency including silver certificates and the silver dollar circulated at face value as fiat currency not redeemable for gold.^[2]

The Act fixed the value of one dollar at 25.8 grains of 90% pure gold, equivalent to about $20.67 per troy ounce, very near its historic value. American circulating gold coins of the period comprised an alloy of 90% gold and 10% copper for durability.

After the realigning election of 1932 following the onset of the Great Depression, from March 1933 the gold standard was abandoned, and the Act abrogated, by a coordinated series of policy changes including executive orders by President Franklin D. Roosevelt,^[3] new laws,^[4] and controversial Supreme Court rulings.

After World War II international agreements comprising the Bretton Woods system formally restored foreign central banks' ability to exchange United States dollars for gold at a fixed price. World trade growth increasingly stressed this system, which was abandoned in the Nixon shock of 1971.^[5] Attempts to reform the Bretton Woods system quickly proved unworkable and failed. All modern currencies thus became fiat currencies freely floating and subject to market forces despite capital controls imposed by some central banks, with gold as a commodity.

1. ^ Including gold certificates, United States notes, Treasury notes, and later Federal Reserve notes, but excluding silver certificates and National Bank notes which were secured by government bonds issuing national banks had deposited with the Treasury. Though the Act did not require national banks to redeem their issued National Bank notes in gold coin, ordinarily they would, as might other banks.
2. ^ Johnson, Joseph French (1900). "The Currency Act of March 14, 1900". Political Science Quarterly. 15 (3): 482–507. doi:10.2307/2140799. ISSN 0032-3195. JSTOR 2140799.
3. ^ Federal Reserve. "Roosevelt's Gold Program".
4. ^ Wikisource. "Joint Resolution of June 5, 1933".
5. ^ James Stuart Olson. Historical Dictionary of the Great Depression, 1929-1940. p. 131.

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15 March 1918 – Finnish Civil War: The battle of Tampere begins

Battle of Tampere

Major battle of the Finnish Civil War

Fallen Red Guard fighters

The Battle of Tampere was a 1918 Finnish Civil War battle, fought in Tampere, Finland from 15 March to 6 April between the Whites and the Reds. It is the most famous and the heaviest of all the Finnish Civil War battles.^[2][3] Today it is particularly remembered for its bloody aftermath as the Whites executed hundreds of capitulated Reds and took 11,000 prisoners placed in the Kalevankangas camp.^[4]

1. ^ ^{a b} Jaques, Tony (2007). Dictionary of Battles and Sieges: P-Z. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 993. ISBN 978-0-313-33539-6.
2. ^ YLE: Suomalaiset kuvaavat sotien jälkiä kaupungeissa – katso kuvat ja tarinat tutuilta kulmilta (in Finnish)
3. ^ Cite error: The named reference pesonen was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
4. ^ Jalonen, Jussi (8 October 2014). "Battle of Tampere". International Encyclopedia of the First World War. Retrieved 17 December 2016.

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16 March 1898 – In Melbourne, the representatives of five colonies adopt a constitution, which would become the basis of the Commonwealth of Australia.

Constitution of Australia

Federal constitution of 1900

The Constitution of Australia (or Australian Constitution) is a constitutional document that is supreme law in Australia. It establishes Australia as a federation under a constitutional monarchy and outlines the structure and powers of the Australian government's three constituent parts, the executive, legislature, and judiciary.

The constitution was drafted between 1891 and 1898 through a series of conventions conducted by representatives of the six self-governing British colonies in Australia. The final draft was then approved in a set of referendums from 1898 to 1900. The British government objected to some elements of the final draft, but a slightly modified form was enacted as section 9 of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900, an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The act was given royal assent on 9 July 1900, was proclaimed on 17 September 1900, and entered into force on 1 January 1901.^[1][2] The constitution gave the six colonies the status of states within the new federation.

Australian constitutional law has developed through the interpretation of the constitution by the High Court. As well as its textual provisions, the constitution is understood to incorporate various unwritten constitutional conventions and ideas derived from the Westminster system, one of which is responsible government. Although the 1900 act initially derived its legal authority from the UK Parliament, the present understanding of the High Court and some academics is that it now derives its legal authority from the Australian people.^[3] Other documents of constitutional significance to Australia include the Statute of Westminster and the Australia Act 1986.

The document may only be amended by referendum, through the procedure set out in section 128. Amendments require a "double majority" – a nationwide majority as well as a majority of voters in a majority of states. This has contributed to the low number of successful amendments; forty-four referendums have been held but only eight amendments have been passed, most recently in 1977. Ongoing debates exist regarding further proposals for amendment, notably including the inclusion of a preamble, the replacement of the monarchy with a republic, and the addition of an Indigenous voice to government.

1. ^ "Constitution of Australia Act 1900". legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 11 July 2020. The original text, as of 1900—still official in the UK.
2. ^ "Constitution of Australia Act 1900". Federal Register of Legislation. Retrieved 11 July 2020. The current text.
3. ^ Lindell, G. J. (1986). "Why is Australia's Constitution Binding? - The Reason in 1900 and Now, and the Effect of Independence". Federal Law Review. 16: 29. doi:10.1177/0067205X8601600102. S2CID 159157171.

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17 March 1969 – Golda Meir becomes the first female Prime Minister of Israel.

Golda Meir

Prime Minister of Israel from 1969 to 1974

Golda Meir^{[nb 1]} (born Golda Mabovitch; 3 May 1898 – 8 December 1978) was an Israeli politician, teacher, and kibbutznikit who served as the fourth Prime Minister of Israel from 1969 to 1974. She was Israel's first and only female head of government, the first female head of government in the Middle East, and the fourth elected female head of government in the world.^[5] Meir also served as labor minister and foreign minister.^[6]

She has been described as the "Iron Lady" of Israeli politics.^[7] She had a reputation for being down-to-earth and a persuasive speaker. Her oratory skills and command of English made her an extremely successful fundraiser during the critical early years of the new Israeli state.

Born in Kyiv in the Russian Empire, Meir immigrated to Wisconsin, United States as a child with her family in 1906. She was educated there and eventually became a teacher. After getting married, she and her husband emigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1921, settling on a kibbutz.

During her tenure as prime minister, Israel was caught off guard in the Yom Kippur War of 1973 and suffered severe losses in the first days of the war, before recovering and defeating the invading armies. Meir resigned the following year in response to public anger.^[8][9]

She died in 1978 of lymphoma.^[10]

1. ^ "Meir". Collins English Dictionary. HarperCollins. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
2. ^ "Meir, Golda". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on February 25, 2021.
3. ^ "Meir". Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
4. ^ "Golda Meir: An Outline of a Unique Life: A Chronological Survey of Gola Meir's Life and Legacy". The Golda Meir Center for Political Leadership (Metropolitan State University of Denver). Retrieved February 20, 2014. Reference on name pronunciation (see "1956").
5. ^ Kort, Michael (2002). The Handbook of the Middle East. Lerner Publishing Group. p. 76. ISBN 9781315170688.
6. ^ Golda Meir becomes Israeli Prime Minister, History Today
7. ^ Golda Meir, a BBC News profile.
8. ^ Colin Shindler, A history of modern Israel (Cambridge UP, 2013) p. 144.
9. ^ Francine Klagsbrun, Lioness: Golda Meir and the Nation of Israel (2017) pp 639–661.
10. ^ Yitzhak Shargil and Gil Sedan. "State Funeral Will Be Held Tuesday for Golda Meir Who Died Friday at the Age of 80." Jewish Telegraphic Agency December 11, 1978.

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12 March 1913 – King George I of Greece is assassinated in the recently liberated city of Thessaloniki.

George I of Greece

King of Greece from 1863 to 1913

George I (Greek: Γεώργιος Α΄, Geórgios I; 24 December 1845 – 18 March 1913) was King of Greece from 30 March 1863 until his assassination in 1913.

Originally a Danish prince, he was born in Copenhagen, and seemed destined for a career in the Royal Danish Navy. He was only 17 years old when he was elected king by the Greek National Assembly, which had deposed the unpopular Otto. His nomination was both suggested and supported by the Great Powers: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Second French Empire and the Russian Empire. He married Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia in 1867, and became the first monarch of a new Greek dynasty. Two of his sisters, Alexandra and Dagmar, married into the British and Russian royal families. Edward VII of the United Kingdom and Alexander III of Russia were his brothers-in-law, and George V of the United Kingdom, Christian X of Denmark, Haakon VII of Norway, and Nicholas II of Russia were his nephews.

George's reign of almost 50 years (the longest in modern Greek history) was characterized by territorial gains as Greece established its place in pre–World War I Europe. Britain ceded the Ionian Islands peacefully in 1864, while Thessaly was annexed from the Ottoman Empire after the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878). Greece was not always successful in its territorial ambitions; it was defeated in the Greco-Turkish War (1897). During the First Balkan War, after Greek troops had captured much of Greek Macedonia, George was assassinated in Thessaloniki. Compared with his own long tenure, the reigns of his successors Constantine I, Alexander, and George II proved short and insecure.
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19 March 1861 – The First Taranaki War ends in New Zealand.

First Taranaki War

1860s war between Māori and the New Zealand government

The First Taranaki War (also known as the North Taranaki War) was an armed conflict over land ownership and sovereignty that took place between Māori and the New Zealand government in the Taranaki district of New Zealand's North Island from March 1860 to March 1861.

The war was sparked by a dispute between the government and Māori landowners over the sale of a property at Waitara, but spread throughout the region. It was fought by more than 3,500 imperial troops brought in from Australia, as well as volunteer soldiers and militia, against Māori forces that fluctuated between a few hundred and about 1,500.^[1] Total losses among the imperial, volunteer and militia troops are estimated to have been 238, while Māori casualties totalled about 200, although the proportion of Māori casualties was higher.

The war ended in a ceasefire, with neither side explicitly accepting the peace terms of the other. Although there were claims by the British that they had won the war, there were widely held views at the time they had suffered an unfavourable and humiliating result. Historians have also been divided on the result.^[2] Historian James Belich has claimed that the Māori succeeded in thwarting the British bid to impose sovereignty over them, and had therefore been victorious. But he said the Māori victory was a hollow one, leading to the invasion of the Waikato.

In its 1996 report to the Government on Taranaki land claims, the Waitangi Tribunal observed that the war was begun by the Government, which had been the aggressor and unlawful in its actions in launching an attack by its armed forces. An opinion sought by the tribunal from a senior constitutional lawyer stated that the Governor, Thomas Gore Browne, and certain officers were liable for criminal and civil charges for their actions.^[3] The term "First Taranaki War" is opposed by some historians, who refer only to the Taranaki Wars, rejecting suggestions that post-1861 conflict was a second war.^[4] The 1927 Royal Commission on Confiscated Land also referred to the hostilities between 1864 and 1866 as a continuation of the initial Taranaki war.^[5]

1. ^ Michael King (2003). The Penguin History of New Zealand. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-301867-1.
2. ^ Belich, James (1986). The New Zealand Wars and the Victorian Interpretation of Racial Conflict (1st ed.). Auckland: Penguin. pp. 115–116. ISBN 0-14-011162-X.
3. ^ "The Taranaki Report: Kaupapa Tuatahi by the Waitangi Tribunal, chapter 3" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 27 September 2007.
4. ^ James Belich, in "The New Zealand Wars" (1986) dismisses as "inappropriate" the description of later conflict as a second Taranaki war (pp. 120).
5. ^ "The Taranaki Report: Kaupapa Tuatahi by the Waitangi Tribunal, chapter 4" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 27 September 2007.

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20 March 1852 – Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin is published.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

1852 novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe

This article is about the mid-19th-century novel. For other uses, see Uncle Tom's Cabin (disambiguation).

Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in two volumes in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U.S., and is said to have "helped lay the groundwork for the [American] Civil War".^[1][2][3]

Stowe, a Connecticut-born woman of English descent, was part of the religious Beecher family and an active abolitionist. She wrote the sentimental novel to depict the reality of slavery while also asserting that Christian love could overcome slavery.^[4][5][6] The novel focuses on the character of Uncle Tom, a long-suffering black slave around whom the stories of the other characters revolve.

In the United States, Uncle Tom's Cabin was the best-selling novel and the second best-selling book of the 19th century, following the Bible.^[7][8] It is credited with helping fuel the abolitionist cause in the 1850s.^[9] The influence attributed to the book was so great that a likely apocryphal story arose of Abraham Lincoln meeting Stowe at the start of the Civil War and declaring, "So this is the little lady who started this great war."^[10][11]

The book and the plays it inspired helped popularize a number of negative stereotypes about black people,^[12][13][3] including that of the namesake character "Uncle Tom". The term came to be associated with an excessively subservient person.^[14] These later associations with Uncle Tom's Cabin have, to an extent, overshadowed the historical effects of the book as a "vital antislavery tool".^[15] Nonetheless, the novel remains a "landmark" in protest literature,^[16] with later books such as The Jungle by Upton Sinclair and Silent Spring by Rachel Carson owing a large debt to it.^[17]

1. ^ Kaufman 2006, p. 18.
2. ^ Painter 2000, p. 245.
3. ^ ^{a b} DeLombard 2012.
4. ^ Kurian 2010, p. 580.
5. ^ de Rosa 2003, On p. 122, de Rosa quotes Tompkins 1985, p. 145 that Stowe's strategy was to destroy slavery through the "saving power of Christian love"..
6. ^ Tompkins 1985, On p. 141, Tompkins writes "Stowe conceived her book as an instrument for bringing about the day when the world would be ruled not by force, but by Christian love.".
7. ^ DiMaggio 2014, p. 15.
8. ^ Smith 2001, p. 221.
9. ^ Goldner 2001, p. 82.
10. ^ Stowe 1911, p. 203.
11. ^ Vollaro 2009.
12. ^ Hulser 2003.
13. ^ Jamieson 2018, p. ??.
14. ^ Jones 2019, pp. 1465–1467.
15. ^ Appiah & Gates 2005, p. 544.
16. ^ Smith 2008, p. 161.
17. ^ Weinstein 2004, p. 13.

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21 March 1918 – World War I: The first phase of the German Spring Offensive, Operation Michael, begins.

Operation Michael

1918 German offensive during World War I

Operation Michael (German: Unternehmen Michael) was a major German military offensive during the First World War that began the German Spring Offensive on 21 March 1918. It was launched from the Hindenburg Line, in the vicinity of Saint-Quentin, France. Its goal was to break through the Allied (Entente) lines and advance in a north-westerly direction to seize the Channel Ports, which supplied the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and to drive the BEF into the sea. Two days later General Erich Ludendorff, the chief of the German General Staff, adjusted his plan and pushed for an offensive due west, along the whole of the British front north of the River Somme. This was designed to first separate the French and British Armies before continuing with the original concept of pushing the BEF into the sea. The offensive ended at Villers-Bretonneux, to the east of the Allied communications centre at Amiens, where the Allies managed to halt the German advance; the German Army had suffered many casualties and was unable to maintain supplies to the advancing troops.

Much of the ground fought over was the wilderness left by the Battle of the Somme in 1916. The action was therefore officially named by the British Battles Nomenclature Committee as The First Battles of the Somme, 1918, whilst the French call it the Second Battle of Picardy (2ème Bataille de Picardie). The failure of the offensive marked the beginning of the end of the First World War for Germany. The arrival in France of large reinforcements from the United States replaced Entente casualties but the German Army was unable to recover from its losses before these reinforcements took the field. Operation Michael failed to achieve its objectives and the German advance was reversed during the Second Battle of the Somme, 1918 (21 August – 3 September) in the Allied Hundred Days Offensive.^[a]

1. ^ James 1924, pp. 26–31.

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22 March 1945 – The Arab League is founded when a charter is adopted in Cairo, Egypt.

Arab League

Regional organization

The Arab League (Arabic: الجامعة العربية, al-Jāmiʿa al-ʻArabiyya Arabic pronunciation: [al.d͡ʒaː.mi.ʕa al.ʕa.ra.bij.ja] (listen)), formally the League of Arab States (Arabic: جامعة الدول العربية, Jāmiʿat ad-Duwal al-ʿArabiyya), is a regional organization in the Arab world, which is located in Northern Africa, Western Africa, Eastern Africa, and Western Asia. The Arab League was formed in Cairo on 22 March 1945, initially with six members: Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan (renamed Jordan in 1949), Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Syria.^[4] Yemen joined as a member on 5 May 1945. Currently, the League has 22 members, but Syria's participation has been suspended since November 2011.^[5]

The League's main goal is to "draw closer the relations between member states and co-ordinate collaboration between them, to safeguard their independence and sovereignty, and to consider in a general way the affairs and interests of the Arab countries".^[6] The organization has received a relatively low level of cooperation throughout its history.^[7]

Through institutions, notably the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO) and the Economic and Social Council of its Council of Arab Economic Unity (CAEU), the League facilitates political, economic, cultural, scientific, and social programmes designed to promote the interests of the Arab world.^[8][9] It has served as a forum for the member states to coordinate policy, arrange studies of and committees as to matters of common concern, settle inter-state disputes and limit conflicts such as the 1958 Lebanon crisis. The League has served as a platform for the drafting and conclusion of many landmark documents promoting economic integration. One example is the Joint Arab Economic Action Charter, which outlines the principles for economic activities in the region.

Arab League of states establishment memorial stamp. Showing flags of the 8 establishing countries: Kingdom of Egypt, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen (North Yemen), Syrian Republic, Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Lebanese Republic and Palestine

Each member state has one vote in the Council of the Arab League, and decisions are binding only for those states that have voted for them. The aims of the league in 1945 were to strengthen and coordinate the political, cultural, economic and social programs of its members and to mediate disputes among them or between them and third parties. Furthermore, the signing of an agreement on Joint Defence and Economic Cooperation on 13 April 1950 committed the signatories to coordination of military defence measures. In March 2015, the Arab League General Secretary announced the establishment of a Joint Arab Force with the aim of counteracting extremism and other threats to the Arab States. The decision was reached while Operation Decisive Storm was intensifying in Yemen. Participation in the project is voluntary, and the army intervenes only at the request of one of the member states. Heightened military arsenal in many member states and, in a small minority, civil wars as well as terrorist movements were the impetuts for the JAF, financed by the rich Gulf countries.^[10]

In the early 1970s, the Economic Council put forward a proposal to create the Joint Arab Chambers of Commerce across European states. That led, under its decree K1175/D52/G to the setting up of the Arab British Chamber of Commerce, mandated to promote, encourage and facilitate bilateral trade between the Arab world and significant trading partner, the United Kingdom.

1. ^ Batty, David; Shenker, Jack (12 November 2011). "Syria suspended from Arab League". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 February 2023.
2. ^ "World Population Prospects - Population Division - United Nations". population.un.org.
3. ^ "Report for Selected Countries and Subjects". IMF.
4. ^ "Arab League". The Columbia Encyclopedia. 2013.
5. ^ Sly, Liz (12 November 2011). "Syria suspended from Arab League". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 17 December 2013. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
6. ^ "Pact of the League of Arab States, 22 March 1945". The Avalon Project. Yale Law School. 1998. Archived from the original on 25 July 2008. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
7. ^ Barnett, Michael; Solingen, Etel (2007), Johnston, Alastair Iain; Acharya, Amitav (eds.), "Designed to fail or failure of design? The origins and legacy of the Arab League", Crafting Cooperation: Regional International Institutions in Comparative Perspective, Cambridge University Press, pp. 180–220, doi:10.1017/cbo9780511491436.006, ISBN 978-0-521-69942-6
8. ^ "The Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALESCO)".
9. ^ Ashish K. Vaidya, Globalization (ABC-CLIO: 2006), p. 525.
10. ^ Fanack. "The Joint Arab Force—Will It Ever Work?". Fanack.com. Archived from the original on 13 July 2015. Retrieved 13 July 2015.

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23 March 2021 – A container ship runs aground and obstructs the Suez Canal for six days.

2021 Suez Canal obstruction

Maritime incident caused by grounded vessel

In March 2021, the Suez Canal was blocked for six days by the Ever Given, a container ship that had run aground in the canal.^[4] The 400-metre-long (1,300 ft), 20,000 TEU vessel was buffeted by strong winds on the morning of 23 March, and ended up wedged across the waterway with its bow and stern stuck in the canal banks, blocking all traffic until it could be freed.^[5] Egyptian authorities said that "technical or human errors" may have also been involved. The obstruction occurred south of the section of the canal that had two channels, so there was no way for other ships to bypass Ever Given. The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) engaged Boskalis through its subsidiary Smit International to manage marine salvage operations.^[6][7] As one of the world's busiest trade routes,^[8] the canal obstruction had a significant negative impact on trade between Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

On 28 March, at least 369 ships were queuing to pass through the canal. This prevented an estimated US$9.6 billion worth of trade.^[9][10][11] On 29 March, Ever Given was partially re-floated and moved by about 80 percent in the correct direction,^[12] although the bow remained stuck^[13] until the ship was finally freed by Egyptian, Dutch, and Italian tugs at 15:05 EGY (13:05 UTC)^[6][14] and started moving, under tow, towards the Great Bitter Lake, for technical inspection.^[15][16][17] The canal was checked for damage, and after being found to be sound,^[14] the SCA allowed shipping to resume from 19:00 EGY (17:00 UTC) on 29 March.^[18] The vessel was subsequently impounded by the Egyptian government on 13 April 2021 for refusing to pay compensations demanded by the government, a claim deemed to be unjustified by the ship's insurers. After the incident, the Egyptian government announced that they will be widening the narrower parts of the canal.^[19]

A formal settlement between the owners and insurers of the ship, and the canal authority, was finally reached in July. The ship set sail again on 7 July 2021 after having been legally stuck in the canal since it had been dislodged, stopping for inspections at Port Said before continuing on its journey to the port of Rotterdam.

1. ^ "Ever Given: Container Ship, IMO 9811000". Vessel Finder. Archived 25 March 2021.
2. ^ Cite error: The named reference BBC was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
3. ^ Ankel, Sophia. "One person reportedly died while helping free the Ever Given ship, the Suez Canal Authority says". Business Insider. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
4. ^ Cite error: The named reference :4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
5. ^ "Container ship facts: Egypt's Suez Canal blocked by massive boat". Newsround. BBC. 25 March 2021. Archived from the original on 26 March 2021. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
6. ^ ^{a b} "Suez Canal unblocked: "We pulled it off!"". Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. 29 March 2021. Archived from the original on 30 March 2021. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
7. ^ Henley, Jon (30 March 2021). "How a full moon and a 'huge lever' helped free Ever Given from Suez canal". the Guardian. Archived from the original on 31 March 2021. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
8. ^ "Suez Canal blockage: 4 of the biggest trade chokepoints | DW | 27.03.2021". Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on 30 March 2021. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
9. ^ Harper, Justin (26 March 2021). "Suez blockage is holding up $9.6bn of goods a day". BBC News. Archived from the original on 26 March 2021. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
10. ^ "The cost of the Suez Canal blockage". BBC News. 29 March 2021. Archived from the original on 29 March 2021. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
11. ^ Michael, Safi; Farrer, Martin (29 March 2021). "Suez canal: Ever Given ship partially refloated but bow still stuck". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 29 March 2021. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
12. ^ "Suez Canal: Ever Given container ship shifted from shoreline". BBC World News. 29 March 2021. Archived from the original on 29 March 2021. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
13. ^ "'Challenge still ahead' to free ship in Suez Canal". Al jazeera (live news). 29 March 2021. Archived from the original on 29 March 2021. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
14. ^ ^{a b} Safi, Michael (29 March 2021). "Suez canal: Ever Given container ship freed after a week". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 29 March 2021. Retrieved 29 March 2021. [Boskalis] announce that our team of experts, working in close collaboration with the Suez Canal Authority, successfully refloated the Ever Given on 29 March at 15:05 hrs local time, thereby making free passage through the Suez canal possible again
15. ^ Stevens, Pippa (29 March 2021). "Suez Canal traffic resumes after cargo ship Ever Given is moving again". CNBC. Archived from the original on 29 March 2021. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
16. ^ Debre, Isabel; Magdy, Samy (29 March 2021). "Canal service provider says container ship in Suez set free". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 29 March 2021. Retrieved 29 March 2021. unclear when traffic through the canal would return to normal
17. ^ "Canal service provider says container ship in Suez set free". AP News. 29 March 2021. Archived from the original on 29 March 2021. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
18. ^ "Traffic in Suez Canal resumes after stranded ship refloated - Business and Economy News". Al Jazeera. 29 March 2021. Archived from the original on 29 March 2021. Retrieved 29 March 2021. The ship came out intact and it has no problems. We've just searched the bottom and soil of the Suez Canal and thankfully it is sound and has no issues, and ships will pass through it today
19. ^ "Plans for Suez Canal to be widened after Ever Given cargo ship drama". ABC News. 12 May 2021. Archived from the original on 14 May 2021. Retrieved 22 May 2021.

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24 March 1921 – The 1921 Women's Olympiad began in Monte Carlo, becoming the first international women's sports event.

1921 Women's Olympiad

First international women's sports event

Mary Lines

Lucie Bréard

Germaine Delapierre

Frédérique Kussel

Violette Morris

The 1921 Women's Olympiad Olympiades Féminines and Jeux Olympiques Féminins^[2] was the first international women's sports event, a 5-day multi-sport event organised by Alice Milliat and held on 24–31 March^[3] 1921 in Monte Carlo^[4] at the International Sporting Club of Monaco.^[5] The tournament was formally called 1er Meeting International d'Education Physique Féminine de Sports Athlétiques.^[6] It was the first of three Women's Olympiads or "Monte Carlo Games" held annually at the venue, and the forerunner of the quadrennial Women's World Games, organised in 1922–34 by the International Women's Sports Federation founded by Milliat later in 1921.^[7]

1. ^ "Athletics in the First Half of the 20th Century" (PDF). IAAF. 2018. p. 27. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
2. ^ Cite error: The named reference iaaf2008 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
3. ^ Sources:
   • "Les Olympiades Féminines de Monte Carlo" (in French). L'Éclaireur de Nice, 31 March 1921, page 3. Archived from the original on 13 February 2017. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
   • "Les Olympiades Féminines de Monte Carlo" (in French). Le Petit Niçois, 31 March 1921, page 3. Archived from the original on 13 February 2017. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
   • "Jeux Mondiaux Féminins" (in French). Commission Documentation et Histoire, cdm.athle.com, chapter 7. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
4. ^ Sources:
   • "The Women's Olympic Games". Comité Olympique Monégasque.
   • "Le parcours d'obstacles de l'athlétisme féminin". Granville Athletic Club.
5. ^ Sources:
   • Pfister, Gertrude; IOC Medical Commission; International Federation of Sports Medicine (15 April 2008). "Women and the Olympic Games". In Barbara L. Drinkwater (ed.). Women in Sport. The Encyclopaedia of Sports Medicine. Vol. VIII. Blackwell Science. pp. 5–6. ISBN 9780470756850. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
   • Bernett, Hajo (1988). "Die ersten olympischen Wettbewerbe in internationalen Frauensport (1988)". Sozial- und Zeitgeschichte des Sports (in German). Sozial- und Zeitgeschichte des Sports, Heft 2/1988 (Jg 2). 2 (2): 66–86. ISSN 0931-7031. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
6. ^ Sources:
   • Martin, Paul (10 May 2011). "Hace 90 años: los inicios del atletismo femenino". Atletismo e Historia (Athletics in History) (in Spanish). Retrieved 24 November 2016.
   • "Beatrice Look Papers". University of Greenwich. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
7. ^ Sources:
   • "Plaque commemorating first Women's Olympics unveiled in Monte Carlo" (Press release). IAAF. 23 November 2008. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
   • Prudhomme-Poncet, Laurence (1 June 2003). "3-3 Les Olympiades féminines". Histoire du football féminin au XXème siècle (in French). Editions L'Harmattan. pp. 96–100. ISBN 9782296327481. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
   • Miragaya, Ana; DaCosta, Lamartine. "Olympic entrepreneurs – Alice Milliat: the 1st woman Olympic entrepreneur" (PDF) (in Portuguese). Autonomous University of Barcelona Centre for Olympic Studies: 105. Retrieved 24 November 2016. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)^{[permanent dead link]}
   • Watman, Mel (January 2013). "Women athletes between the world wars (act. 1919–1939)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/103699. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
   • Charlet, Sylvain (3 November 2008). "L'athlétisme féminin". Féchain Athlétique Club (in French). Nordnet. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
   • "Women and sports at The Polytechnic". University of Westminster. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
   • Charlet, Sylvain. "Rétrospective de l'athlétisme féminin" (PDF). Amicale des Entraineurs d'Ile de France d'Athlétisme. p. 10. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 December 2013. Retrieved 24 November 2016.

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25 March 1655 – Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is discovered by Christiaan Huygens.

Titan (moon)

Largest moon of Saturn

Not to be confused with Titania (moon) or Triton (moon).

Titan is the largest moon of Saturn and the second-largest natural satellite in the Solar System. It is the only moon known to have a dense atmosphere, and is the only known object in space other than Earth on which clear evidence of stable bodies of surface liquid has been found.^[15]

Titan is one of the seven gravitationally rounded moons in orbit around Saturn, and the second most distant from Saturn of those seven. Frequently described as a planet-like moon, Titan is 50% larger (in diameter) than Earth's Moon and 80% more massive. It is the second-largest moon in the Solar System after Jupiter's moon Ganymede, and is larger than the planet Mercury, but only 40% as massive.

Discovered in 1655 by the Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens, Titan was the first known moon of Saturn, and the sixth known planetary satellite (after Earth's moon and the four Galilean moons of Jupiter). Titan orbits Saturn at 20 Saturn radii. From Titan's surface, Saturn subtends an arc of 5.09 degrees, and if it were visible through the moon's thick atmosphere, it would appear 11.4 times larger in the sky, in diameter, than the Moon from Earth, which subtends 0.48° of arc.

Titan is primarily composed of ice and rocky material, which is likely differentiated into a rocky core surrounded by various layers of ice, including a crust of ice I_h and a subsurface layer of ammonia-rich liquid water.^[16] Much as with Venus before the Space Age, the dense opaque atmosphere prevented understanding of Titan's surface until the Cassini–Huygens mission in 2004 provided new information, including the discovery of liquid hydrocarbon lakes in Titan's polar regions. The geologically young surface is generally smooth, with few impact craters, although mountains and several possible cryovolcanoes have been found.

The atmosphere of Titan is largely nitrogen; minor components lead to the formation of methane and ethane clouds and heavy organonitrogen haze. The climate—including wind and rain—creates surface features similar to those of Earth, such as dunes, rivers, lakes, seas (probably of liquid methane and ethane), and deltas, and is dominated by seasonal weather patterns as on Earth. With its liquids (both surface and subsurface) and robust nitrogen atmosphere, Titan's methane cycle bears a striking similarity to Earth's water cycle, albeit at the much lower temperature of about 94 K (−179 °C; −290 °F).

1. ^ "Titan". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
2. ^ "Cassini Equinox Mission: Huygens Landed with a Splat". JPL. January 18, 2005. Archived from the original on June 20, 2010. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
3. ^ Luz; et al. (2003). "Latitudinal transport by barotropic waves in Titan's stratosphere". Icarus. 166 (2): 343–358. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2003.08.014.
4. ^ "Titanian". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
5. ^ "Titanian" is the written adjectival form of both Titan and Uranus's moon Titania. However, Uranus's moon has a Shakespearean pronunciation with a short "i" vowel and the "a" of spa: /tɪˈtɑːniən/, while either spelling for Titan is pronounced with those two vowels long: /taɪˈteɪniən/.
6. ^ Cite error: The named reference horizons was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
7. ^ Zebker, Howard A.; Stiles, Bryan; Hensley, Scott; Lorenz, Ralph; Kirk, Randolph L.; Lunine, Jonathan I. (May 15, 2009). "Size and Shape of Saturn's Moon Titan" (PDF). Science. 324 (5929): 921–923. Bibcode:2009Sci...324..921Z. doi:10.1126/science.1168905. PMID 19342551. S2CID 23911201. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 12, 2020.
8. ^ ^{a b} Jacobson, R. A.; Antreasian, P. G.; Bordi, J. J.; Criddle, K. E.; Ionasescu, R.; Jones, J. B.; Mackenzie, R. A.; Meek, M. C.; Parcher, D.; Pelletier, F. J.; Owen, Jr., W. M.; Roth, D. C.; Roundhill, I. M.; Stauch, J. R. (December 2006). "The Gravity Field of the Saturnian System from Satellite Observations and Spacecraft Tracking Data". The Astronomical Journal. 132 (6): 2520–2526. Bibcode:2006AJ....132.2520J. doi:10.1086/508812.
9. ^ Iess, L.; Rappaport, N. J.; Jacobson, R. A.; Racioppa, P.; Stevenson, D. J.; Tortora, P.; Armstrong, J. W.; Asmar, S. W. (March 12, 2010). "Gravity Field, Shape, and Moment of Inertia of Titan". Science. 327 (5971): 1367–1369. Bibcode:2010Sci...327.1367I. doi:10.1126/science.1182583. PMID 20223984. S2CID 44496742. Archived from the original on February 12, 2021. Retrieved December 7, 2019.
10. ^ Williams, D. R. (February 22, 2011). "Saturnian Satellite Fact Sheet". NASA. Archived from the original on April 30, 2010. Retrieved April 22, 2015.
11. ^ Mitri, G.; Showman, Adam P.; Lunine, Jonathan I.; Lorenz, Ralph D. (2007). "Hydrocarbon Lakes on Titan" (PDF). Icarus. 186 (2): 385–394. Bibcode:2007Icar..186..385M. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2006.09.004. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 27, 2008.
12. ^ Cite error: The named reference arval was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
13. ^ Cite error: The named reference Niemann was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
14. ^ Coustenis & Taylor (2008), pp. 154–155.
15. ^ Overbye, Dennis (December 3, 2019). "Go Ahead, Take a Spin on Titan – Saturn's biggest moon has gasoline for rain, soot for snow, and a subsurface ocean of ammonia. Now there's a map to help guide the search for possible life there". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 5, 2019. Retrieved December 5, 2019.
16. ^ Robert Brown; Jean Pierre Lebreton; Hunter Waite, eds. (2009). Titan from Cassini-Huygens. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 69. ISBN 978-1-4020-9215-2.

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26 March 1997 – Thirty-nine bodies are found in the Heaven's Gate mass suicides.

Heaven's Gate (religious group)

American UFO religion (1974–1997)

For the 1980 film, see Heaven's Gate (film).

Heaven's Gate was an American new religious movement (often described as a cult), founded in 1974 and led by Bonnie Nettles (1927–1985) and Marshall Applewhite (1931–1997), known within the movement as Ti and Do, respectively.^[2] Ti and Do first met in 1972 and went on a journey of spiritual discovery, identifying themselves as the two witnesses of Revelation, attracting a following of several hundred people in the mid-1970s. In 1976, the group stopped recruiting and instituted a monastic lifestyle.

Scholars have described the theology of Heaven's Gate as a mixture of Christian millenarianism, New Age, and ufology, and as such it has been characterized as a UFO religion.^[1] The central belief of the group was that followers could transform themselves into immortal extraterrestrial beings by rejecting their human nature, and they would ascend to heaven, referred to as the "Next Level" or "The Evolutionary Level Above Human". The death of Nettles from cancer in 1985 challenged the group's views on ascension; where they originally believed that they would ascend to heaven while alive aboard a UFO, they later came to believe that the body was merely a "container" or "vehicle" for the soul, and that their consciousness would be transferred to new "Next Level bodies" upon death.

On March 26, 1997, deputies of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department discovered the bodies of the 39 active members of the group, including that of Applewhite, in a house in the San Diego suburb of Rancho Santa Fe. They had participated in a mass suicide, a coordinated series of ritual suicides, coinciding with the closest approach of Comet Hale–Bopp.^[3][4] Just before the mass suicide, the group's website was updated with the message: "Hale–Bopp brings closure to Heaven's Gate ...our 22 years of classroom here on planet Earth is finally coming to conclusion—'graduation' from the Human Evolutionary Level. We are happily prepared to leave 'this world' and go with Ti's crew."^[5]

The name "Heaven's Gate" was only used for the final few years of the group's existence, and they had previously been known under the names Human Individual Metamorphosis and Total Overcomers Anonymous.

1. ^ ^{a b c} Chryssides 2021, pp. 369–374.
2. ^ Hexham, Irving; Poewe, Karla (7 May 1997). "UFO Religion—Making Sense of the Heaven's Gate Suicides". Christian Century. pp. 439–440. Retrieved 2007-10-06.
3. ^ "Mass suicide involved sedatives, vodka and careful planning". CNN. Retrieved 2010-05-04.
4. ^ Ayres, B. Drummond Jr. (March 29, 1997). "Families Learning of 39 Cultists Who Died Willingly". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-11-09. According to material the group posted on its Internet site, the timing of the suicides were probably related to the arrival of the Hale–Bopp comet, which members seemed to regard as a cosmic emissary beckoning them to another world.
5. ^ "Heaven's Gate". Retrieved 2018-07-31.

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27 March 1871 – The first international rugby football match, when Scotland defeats England in Edinburgh at Raeburn Place.

Rugby football

Rugby union and rugby league team sports

Football match on the 1846 Shrove Tuesday in Kingston upon Thames, England

Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union and rugby league.

Canadian football and, to a lesser extent, American football were once considered forms of rugby football, but are seldom now referred to as such. The governing body of Canadian football, Football Canada, was known as the Canadian Rugby Union as late as 1967, more than fifty years after the sport parted ways with rugby rules.^[1][2][3]

Rugby football started about 1845 at Rugby School in Rugby, Warwickshire, England, although forms of football in which the ball was carried and tossed date to the Middle Ages (see medieval football).^[4] Rugby football spread to other English public schools in the 19th century and across the British Empire as former pupils continued to play it.

Rugby football split into two codes in 1895, when twenty-one clubs from the North of England left the Rugby Football Union to form the Northern Rugby Football Union (renamed the Rugby Football League in 1922) at the George Hotel, Huddersfield, over payments to players who took time off work to play ("broken-time payments"), thus making rugby league the first code to turn professional and pay players.^[5] Rugby union turned professional one hundred years later, following the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa.^[6][7] The respective world governing bodies are World Rugby (rugby union) and the Rugby League International Federation (rugby league).^[8]

1. ^ "The Rugby World Cup: Second Only to the Soccer World Cup in Attendance [Infographic]". Forbes. 18 September 2015. Archived from the original on 14 April 2019. Retrieved 14 April 2019.
2. ^ "Rugby League World Cup:Will World Cup joy finally come for Sam Burgess?". BBC Sport. 30 November 2017. Archived from the original on 14 April 2019. Retrieved 14 April 2019.
3. ^ "The Other (and Less Popular) Rugby World Cup Gets Underway". The New York Times. 27 October 2017. Archived from the original on 14 April 2019. Retrieved 14 April 2019.
4. ^ "Rugby Football History". www.rugbyfootballhistory.com. Archived from the original on 15 April 2020. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
5. ^ "Rugby Football History". www.rugbyfootballhistory.com. Archived from the original on 1 December 2014. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
6. ^ "Broken Time -review". The Guardian. 2 October 2011. Archived from the original on 14 April 2019. Retrieved 14 April 2019.
7. ^ "27 August 1995:Rugby Union turns professional". MoneyWeek. 27 August 2015. Archived from the original on 14 April 2019. Retrieved 14 April 2019.
8. ^ Williams, Richard (15 January 2019). "Jonathan Davies: 30 years on from the day he switched to Rugby league". BBC Sport.

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28 March 1965 – An Mw  7.4 earthquake in Chile sets off a series of tailings dam failures, burying the town of El Cobre and killing at least 500 people.

1965 Valparaíso earthquake and the El Cobre dam failures

M7.4 earthquake and mining disaster in Chile

The 1965 Valparaíso earthquake (also known as the La Ligua earthquake) struck near the city of La Ligua in the Valparaíso Region, Chile, about 140 kilometers (87 miles) from the capital Santiago on Sunday, March 28 at 12:33 p.m. (UTC−03:00). The moment magnitude M_w  7.4–7.6 temblor killed an approximate 500 people and caused damage amounting to US$1 billion (adjusted for inflation).^[1][2] Many deaths were from El Cobre, a mining location that was wiped out after a series of dam failures caused by the earthquake spilled mineral waste onto the area, burying hundreds of residents. The shock was throughout the country and along the Atlantic coast of Argentina.^[3]

1. ^ "Significant Earthquake CHILE: CENTRAL". NGCD. Retrieved 6 Dec 2020.
2. ^ Reuters Staff (28 Feb 2010). "Factbox: Chile has history of big earthquakes". Reuters. Retrieved 6 Dec 2020. {{cite news}}: |last= has generic name (help)
3. ^ "Earthquake Toll Heavy in Chile; Village Buried". The Desert Sun. Vol. 38, no. 202. 29 March 1965. Retrieved 5 Dec 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

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29 March 1871 – Royal Albert Hall is opened by Queen Victoria.

Royal Albert Hall

Concert hall in South Kensington, London

This article is about the London concert hall. For other uses, see Albert Hall (disambiguation).

The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no government funding.^[2] It has a seating capacity of 5,272 people.^[1]

Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres have appeared on its stage. It is the venue for the BBC Proms concerts, which have been held there every summer since 1941. It is host to more than 390 shows in the main auditorium annually, including classical, rock and pop concerts, ballet, opera, film screenings with live orchestral accompaniment, sports, awards ceremonies, school and community events, and charity performances and banquets. A further 400 events are held each year in the non-auditorium spaces. Over its 151 year history the hall has hosted people from various fields, including meetings by Suffragettes, speeches from Winston Churchill and Albert Einstein, fights by Lennox Lewis, exhibition bouts by Muhammad Ali, and concerts from regular performers at the venue such as Eric Clapton and Shirley Bassey.^[3][4][5]

The hall was originally supposed to have been called the Central Hall of Arts and Sciences, but the name was changed to the Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences by Queen Victoria upon laying the Hall's foundation stone in 1867, in memory of her husband, Prince Albert, who had died six years earlier. It forms the practical part of a memorial to the Prince Consort; the decorative part is the Albert Memorial directly to the north in Kensington Gardens, now separated from the Hall by Kensington Gore.

1. ^ ^{a b} Colson, Thomas. "A 12-seat Grand Tier box at the Royal Albert Hall is on sale for £2.5 million". Business Insider. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
2. ^ Hope, Jasper (18 June 2013). "It's Hall to do with the experience". Metro.
3. ^ Cite error: The named reference History was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
4. ^ "Exclusive photos: boxing makes historic return to the Royal Albert Hall". Royal Albert Hall. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
5. ^ "Shirley Bassey". Royal Albert Hall. Retrieved 20 June 2022.

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30 March 1856 – The Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Crimean War.

Treaty of Paris (1856)

1856 treaty which made the Black Sea neutral territory, thereby ending the Crimean War

For other treaties of Paris, see Treaty of Paris (disambiguation).

The Treaty of Paris of 1856 brought an end to the Crimean War between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the United Kingdom, the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Sardinia.^[1][2]

The treaty, signed on 30 March 1856 at the Congress of Paris, made the Black Sea neutral territory, closing it to all warships and prohibiting fortifications and the presence of armaments on its shores.

The treaty diminished Russian influence in the region. Conditions for the return of Sevastopol and other towns and cities in the south of Crimea to Russia were severe since no naval or military arsenal could be established by Russia on the coast of the Black Sea.

1. ^ ^{a b} Hertslet, Edward (1875). "General treaty between Great Britain, Austria, France, Prussia, Russia, Sardinia and Turkey, signed at Paris on 30th March 1856". The Map of Europe by Treaty showing the various political and territorial changes which have taken place since the general peace of 1814, with numerous maps and notes. Vol. 2. London: Butterworth. pp. 1250–1265.
2. ^ ^{a b} Albin, Pierre (1912). "Acte General Du Congres de Paris, 30 Mars 1856". Les Grands Traités Politiques: Recueil des Principaux Textes Diplomatiques Depuis 1815 Jusqu'à nos Jours avec des Notices Historiques et des Notes. Paris: Librairie Félix Alcan. pp. 170–180.

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