March 19: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

March 19 is the 78th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (79th in leap years). There are 287 days remaining.

Events

• 1279 - A Mongolian victory in the Battle of Yamen ends the Song Dynasty in China.
• 1687 - Explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle, searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, is murdered by his own men.
• 1831 - The City Bank of New York becomes the site of the first bank robbery in United States history ($245,000 taken).
• 1861 - The First Taranaki War ends in New Zealand.
• 1865 - American Civil War: The Battle of Bentonville begins. By the end of the battle two days later the Confederate forces have retreated from Greenville, North Carolina.
• 1915 - Pluto is photographed for the first time but was not recognized as a planet.
• 1916 - Eight American planes take off in pursuit of Pancho Villa, the first United States air-combat mission in history.
• 1918 - The U.S. Congress establishes time zones and approves daylight saving time.
• 1920 - The United States Senate rejects the Treaty of Versailles for the second time (first time was on November 19, 1919).
• 1932 - Sydney Harbour Bridge opens.
• 1931 - Gambling is legalized in Nevada.
• 1931 - The Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra played its first concert in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
• 1942 - The Thoroughbred Racing Association is established in Chicago, Illinois.
• 1944 - World War II: Nazi forces occupy Hungary.
• 1945 - World War II: Off the coast of Japan, a dive bomber hits the aircraft carrier USS Franklin, killing 800 of her crew and crippling the ship.
• 1945 - World War II: Adolf Hitler issues his "Nero Decree" ordering all industries, military installations, shops, transportation facilities and communications facilities in Germany be destroyed.
• 1946 - French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion become overseas départements of France.
• 1953 - Academy Awards are first televised.
• 1954 - Joey Giardello knocks out Willie Tory in round seven at Madison Square Garden in the first televised prize boxing fight shown in color.
• 1956 - At age 48, Dutch boxer Bep van Klaveren contests his last match in Rotterdam.
• 1958 - A fire in a loft building in New York, New York kills 24 people.
• 1962 - Algerian War of Independence: A ceasefire takes effect.
• 1963 - Saxophonist Stan Getz records Getz/Gilberto, including The Girl from Ipanema, sung by Astrud and João Gilberto.
• 1972 - India and Bangladesh sign a friendship treaty.
• 1978 - UN Security Council Resolution 425 and 426 were passed, calling upon Israel immediately to cease its military action and withdraw its forces from all Lebanese territory (Operation Litani), and established the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
• 1979 - The United States House of Representatives begins broadcasting its day-to-day business via the cable television network C-SPAN.
• 1981 - Three workers are killed and five injured during a test of the Space Shuttle Columbia.
• 1982 - Falklands War: Argentines land on South Georgia Island, precipitating war.
• 1982 - Randy Rhoads is killed in a tragic plane accident. The brilliant guitarist was just 25.
• 1987 - Following a scandal involving Jessica Hahn, televangelist Jim Bakker resigns from the PTL.
• 2002 - U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda ends (started on March 2) after killing 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters with 11 allied troop fatalities.
• 2003 - The invasion of Iraq begins (with the time difference, it actually begins on March 20 at 0100 UTC)
• 2004 - Äänekoski bus disaster - A long-distance lorry and a bus crash head-on in Äänekoski, Finland. 24 people are killed and 13 injured.
• 2004 - A Swedish DC-3 shot down by a Russian Mig-15 in the 1950s is finally recovered after years of work. The remains of the crew are left in place, pending further investigations.
• 2004 - Taiwanese president Chen Shui-ban is shot just before the country's presidential election on March 20. See 3-19 Shooting Incident.

• 1434 - Ashikaga Yoshikatsu, Japanese shogun (b. 1443)
• 1488 - Johannes Magnus, last Catholic Archbishop of Sweden (d. 1544)
• 1684 - Jean Astruc, French physician and scholar (d. 1766)
• 1721 - Tobias Smollett, Scottish novelist (d. 1771)
• 1734 - Thomas McKean, American lawyer and signer of the Declaration of Independence (d. 1817)
• 1778 - Edward Pakenham, British general (d. 1815)
• 1813 - David Livingstone, Scottish missionary and explorer (d. 1873)
• 1824 or 1828 - William Allingham, Irish author (d. 1889)
• 1829 - Carl Frederik Tietgen, Danish financier and industrialist (d. 1901)
• 1848 - Wyatt Earp, American policeman and gunfighter (d. 1929)
• 1849 - Alfred von Tirpitz, German sailor (d. 1930)
• 1851 - William Henry Stark, Business leader (d. 1936)
• 1864 - Charles Marion Russell, American artist (d. 1926)
• 1865 - William Morton Wheeler, American entomologist, myrmecologist, pioneer in ethology (d. 1937)
• 1871 - Schofield Haigh, English cricketer (d. 1921)
• 1872 - Sergei Diaghilev, Russian ballet impresario (d. 1929)
• 1873 - Max Reger, German composer (d. 1916)
• 1883 - Walter Haworth, British chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1950)
• 1883 - Joseph Stilwell, U.S. general (d. 1946)
• 1888 - Josef Albers, German artist (d. 1976)
• 1891 - Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1974)
• 1892 - James Van Fleet, American general (d. 1992)
• 1894 - Moms Mabley, American comedienne (d. 1975)
• 1894 - Joe Venuti, American musician (d. 1978)
• 1900 - Frédéric Joliot, French physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (d. 1958)
• 1904 - John Sirica, American judge (d. 1992)
• 1905 - Albert Speer, Nazi official (d. 1981)
• 1906 - Adolf Eichmann, Nazi official (d. 1962)
• 1909 - Louis Hayward, British actor (d. 1985)
• 1909 - Attilio Demaria, Argentinian footballer
• 1914 - Jay Berwanger, American football player (d. 2002)
• 1916 - Eric Christmas, British actor (d. 2000)
• 1916 - Irving Wallace, American novelist (d. 1990)
• 1917 - Dinu Lipatti, Romanian pianist (d. 1950)
• 1917 - Laszlo Szabo, Hungarian chess player (d. 1998)
• 1920 - Kjell Aukrust, Norwegian author (d. 2002)
• 1921 - Tommy Cooper, Welsh comedy magician (d. 1984)
• 1923 - Pamela Britton, American actress (d. 1974)
• 1924 - Mary Wimbush, English actress (d. 2005)
• 1927 - Richie Ashburn, American baseball player (d. 1997)
• 1925 - Brent Scowcroft, United States National Security Advisor
• 1928 - Hans Küng, Swiss theologian
• 1928 - Patrick McGoohan, American-born actor
• 1930 - Ornette Coleman, American musician
• 1933 - Philip Roth, American author
• 1936 - Ursula Andress, Swiss actress
• 1937 - Clarence "Frogman" Henry, American musician
• 1937 - Egon Krenz, President of East Germany
• 1939 - Joe Kapp, American football player
• 1943 - Mario J. Molina, Mexican chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1943 - Mario Monti, Italian politician
• 1944 - Said Musa, Prime Minister of Belize
• 1944 - Sirhan Sirhan, Palestinian-born assassin
• 1947 - Glenn Close, American actress
• 1947 - Marinho Peres, Brazilian football player
• 1953 - Ricky Wilson, American musician (The B-52's) (d. 1985)
• 1955 - Bruce Willis, American actor
• 1962 - Ivan Calderon, Puerto Rican baseball player (d. 2003)
• 1964 - Yoko Kanno, Japanese composer
• 1969 - Connor Trinneer, American actor
• 1981 - Kolo Toure, Ivory Coast footballer

• 1238 - Duke Henry I of Poland (b. 1163)
• 1263 - Hugh of St Cher, French cardinal
• 1279 - Emperor Bing of Song China (b. 1271)
• 1286 - King Alexander III of Scotland (b. 1241)
• 1330 - Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, English politician (executed) (b. 1301)
• 1406 - Ibn Khaldun, Tunisian historian (b. 1332)
• 1623 - Uesugi Kagekatsu, Japanese samurai and warlord (b. 1556)
• 1637 - Péter Pázmány, Hungarian cardinal and statesman (b. 1570)
• 1649 - Gerhard Johann Vossius, German classical scholar and theologian (b. 1577)
• 1683 - Thomas Killigrew, English dramatist (b. 1612)
• 1687 - Robert Cavelier de La Salle, French explorer (b. 1643)
• 1697 - Nicolaus Bruhns, German organist and composer (b. 1665)
• 1711 - Thomas Ken, English bishop and hymn-writer (b. 1637)
• 1717 - John Campbell, 1st Earl of Breadalbane and Holland, Scottish royalist
• 1721 - Pope Clement XI (b. 1649)
• 1796 - Hugh Palliser, British naval officer and administrator (b. 1722)
• 1871 - Wilhelm Karl Ritter von Haidinger, Austrian mineralogist (b. 1795)
• 1914 - Giuseppe Mercalli, Italian volcanologist (b. 1850)
• 1930 - Arthur Balfour, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1848)
• 1939 - Lloyd L. Gaines, American civil rights activist
• 1942 - Clinton Hart Merriam, American zoologist (b. 1855)
• 1943 - Frank Nitti, American gangster (b. 1883)
• 1944 - William Hale Thompson, American mayor of Chicago (b. 1869)
• 1945 - Friedrich Fromm, German Nazi official (b. 1888)
• 1950 - Edgar Rice Burroughs, American author (b. 1875)
• 1950 - Walter Haworth, British chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1883)
• 1974 - Edward Platt, American actor (b. 1916)
• 1976 - Albert Dieudonné, French actor, screenwriter and novelist (b. 1889)
• 1976 - Paul Kossoff, British guitarist (Free) (b. 1950)
• 1978 - Gaston Julia, French mathematician (b. 1893)
• 1980 - Tamara de Lempicka, Polish painter (b. 1898)
• 1982 - Randy Rhoads, American guitarist (Quiet Riot) (b. 1956)
• 1987 - Louis, 7th duc de Broglie, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1892)
• 1989 - Alan Civil, English French horn player (b. 1929)
• 1990 - Andrew Wood, American musician (Mother Love Bone) (b. 1966)
• 1997 - Willem de Kooning, Dutch artist (b. 1904)
• 1999 - Jaime Sabines, Mexican poet (b. 1926)
• 2003 - Michael Mathias Prechtl, German illustrator (b. 1926)
• 2004 - Mitchell Sharp, Canadian politician (b. 1911)
• 2005 - John De Lorean, American automobile engineer (b. 1925)

• Roman Catholicism and Church of England - Saint Joseph's Day for Saint Joseph of Nazareth, spouse of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
  • Father's Day in Spain, Portugal, Belgium.
  • Las Fallas in Valencia, Spain.
• The first day of Quinquatria in ancient Rome, held in honor of Minerva.
• The swallows return to Mission San Juan Capistrano in California.
• Mojoday in Discordianism

March 18 - March 20 - February 19 - April 19 -- listing of all days