1454 – Thirteen Years’ War: Delegates of the Prussian Confederation pledge allegiance to Casimir IV of Poland, and the Polish king agrees to help in their struggle for independence from the Teutonic Knights (The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem).
1475 – Michelangelo, Italian painter and sculptor (d. 1564) was born.
1619 – Cyrano de Bergerac, French playwright (Voyage to the Moon), known for his large nose, Born
1775 – 1st Negro Mason in north America initiated, Boston
1806 – Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Coxhoe Hall England, poet (“Sonnets from the Portuguese”) Born
1810 – Illinois passes 1st state vaccination legislation in US
1816 – Jews are expelled from Free city of Lubeck Germany
1820 – The Missouri Compromise is signed into law by President James Monroe. The compromise allows Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state, brings Maine into the Union as a free state, and makes the rest of the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase territory slavery-free.
1831 – Edgar Allen Poe removed from West Point military academy
1834 – York, Upper Canada is incorporated as Toronto.
1836 – Battle of the Alamo: after 13 days of fighting during Texas Revolution between 1,500 and 3,000 Mexicans overwhelmed the Texians at the Alamo. Between 182 and 257 Texians died, including William Travis, Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett.
1857 – Dred Scott Decision: US Supreme Court rules Africans cannot be US citizens
1861 – Provisionary Confederate Congress establishes Confederate Army
1869 – Dmitri Mendeleev presents the first periodic table to the Russian Chemical Society.
1886 – 1st US alternating current power plant starts, Great Barrington, MA
1888 – Louisa May Alcott, American author (Little Women), dies of a stroke at 55
1893 – [Walter] Furry Lewis, father of the blues – Born
1896 – 1st auto in Detroit, Charles B King rides his “Horseless Carriage”
1899 – Bayer registers “Aspirin” as a trademark.
1900 – After a meeting in Indianapolis, USA, a group forms the Social Democratic Party and nominates Eugene Debs as its candidate for President in the forthcoming election (becomes the Socialist Party in 1901)
1901 – In Bremen an assassin attempts to kill Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.
1902 – US Census Bureau forms
1912 – Italian forces became the first to use airships in war, as two dirigibles dropped bombs on Turkish troops encamped at Janzur, from an altitude of 6,000 feet.
1921 – Police in Sunbury, Penn, issue an edict requiring Women to wear skirts at least 4 inches below the knee
1923 – Ed McMahon, American comedian, game show host, and announcer (d. 2009) was born.
1924 – William H. Webster, American lawyer and jurist, 14th Director of Central Intelligence was birthed.
1926 – Alan Greenspan, American economist was birthed.
1930 – International Unemployment Day demonstrations globally initiated by the Comintern
1932 – John Philip Sousa, US composer (Stars & Stripes Forever), dies at 77
1933 – FDR declares a nationwide bank holiday (Closes banks so people cannot withdraw savings)
1936 – Marion Barry, American politician, 2nd Mayor of the District of Columbia (d. 2014) was birthed.
1936 – The sleek new prototype (K5054) for what would become the Spitfire Fighter Aircraft takes off on its maiden flight from Eastleigh now called Southampton Airport. The aircraft started life as the Supermarine Type 300 fighter featuring undercarriage retraction, an enclosed cockpit, oxygen breathing-apparatus and the newly-developed Rolls-Royce PV-XII engine ( later named the Merlin ).
1943 – Norman Rockwell published Freedom from Want in the The Saturday Evening Post with a matching essay by Carlos Bulosan as part of the Four Freedoms series.
1944 – Mary Wilson, American singer (The Supremes) was born.
1945 – World War II: Cologne is captured by American Troops.
1945 – Hugh Grundy, Winchester England, drummer (Zombies-She’s Not There) Born
1945 – 117 SD-prisoners executed at Savage Farm
1946 – David Jon Gilmour, Grantchester Cambridgeshire, English rock guitarist (Pink Floyd-Brick in the Wall) Born
1951 – The trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg begins.
1964 – Nation of Islam’s Elijah Muhammad officially gives boxing champion Cassius Clay the name Muhammad Ali.
1964 – Paul Bostaph, American drummer (Forbidden, Slayer, Testament, and Systematic) was born.
1964 – Madonna Wayne Gacy, American musician (keyboard player for Marilyn Manson, 1989-2007) Born
1967 – Joseph Stalin’s daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva defects to the United States.
1967 – Nelson Eddy, US baritone/actor (Phantom of the Opera), dies at 65
1967 – Muhammad Ali is ordered by selective service to be inducted
1968 – The first of the East L.A. walkouts take place at several high schools.
1970 – Chris Broderick, American guitarist and songwriter (Megadeth and Jag Panzer) was born.
1970 – An explosion at the Weather Underground safe house in Greenwich Village kills three.
1972 – Shaquille O’Neal, American basketball player, actor, and rapper was born.
1975 – Algiers Accord: Iran and Iraq announce a settlement of their border dispute.
1978 – Hustler publisher Larry Flynt shot & crippled by a sniper in Georgia
1979 – Ryan Nyquist, American BMX rider, born
1981 – After 19 years of presenting the CBS Evening News, Walter Cronkite signs off for the last time.
1981 – Klaus Grabowski, child molester, shot by parent
1982 – Ayn Rand, Russian-born American author-philosopher (Atlas Shrugged), dies of heart failure at 77
1982 – NBA highest scoring game: San Antonio beat Milwaukee 171-166 (3 OT)
1984 – Twelve-month-long strike in British coal industry begins.
1986 – USSR’s Vega 1 flies by Halley’s Comet at 8,889 km
1986 – Georgia O’Keefe, US painter (Flowers), dies at 98
1988 – Three Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers are killed by Special Air Service on the territory of Gibraltar in the conclusion of Operation Flavius.
1991 – Following Iraq’s capitulation in the Persian Gulf conflict, President Bush told Congress that “aggression is defeated. The war is over”
1992 – The Michelangelo computer virus begins to affect computers.
1995 – US 4.5 cents equals 156.30 Dutch guilder (record)
1997 – Picasso’s painting Tête de Femme is stolen from a London gallery, and is recovered a week later.
1998 – First time the British Union Flag is flown over Buckingham Palace (following the controversy after Princess Diana’s death; formerly the only flag flown was the Sovereign’s standard indicating the monarch’s presence.)
1998 – Matt Beck, an angry lottery accountant kills 4 at Connecticut state lottery
2001 – US Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham establishes the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve to be used in emergency circumstances
2006 – South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds signs a bill into legislation that would ban most abortions in the state.
2006 – Anne Braden, American civil rights activist (b. 1924) Dies
2006 – King Floyd, American musician (b. 1945) Dies
2006 – Kirby Puckett, American baseball player, dies of a stroke at 45
2006 – Dana Reeve, American actress, wife of Christopher Reeve (b. 1961) Dies
2007 – Former White House aide I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, Jr. is found guilty on four of five counts of perjury and obstruction of justice trial. (1st PNAC conviction, Sentence commuted by Bush Jr)
2007 – Ernest Gallo, American winemaker (b. 1909) Dies
2013 – Stompin’ Tom Connors, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1936) died.
2013 – Microsoft is fined €561 (about $500.00) by the Euro Commission for not providing alternative web browsers
2013 – Alvin Lee, English rocker, dies from complications from surgery at 68
2014 – Members of Crimea’s parliament asked the Russian government if they could join Russia. They also said that they would hold a referendum on March 16 to find out the views of Crimean citizens on the matter. Crimea is a region in southern Ukraine that is home to many ethnic Russians and had been recently occupied by Russian forces.