March 15 in History

Historical Events on March 15

474 BC

Roman consul Gnaeus Manlius Vulso celebrates an ovation for concluding the war against Veii and securing a forty years' truce.
44 BC

Julius Caesar, Dictator of the Roman Republic, is stabbed to death by Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus, Decimus Junius Brutus, and several other Roman senators on the Ides of March.
220

Cao Cao, Chinese warlord and penultimate Chancellor of the Han dynasty passes away.
280

Sun Hao of Eastern Wu surrenders to Sima Yan which began the Jin dynasty.
351

Constantius II elevates his cousin Gallus to Caesar, and puts him in charge of the Eastern part of the Roman Empire.
493

Odoacer, the first barbarian King of Italy after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, is slain by Theoderic the Great, king of the Ostrogoths, while the two kings were feasting together.
856

Michael III, emperor of the Byzantine Empire, overthrows the regency of his mother, empress Theodora (wife of Theophilos) with support of the Byzantine nobility.
933

After a ten-year truce, German King Henry the Fowler defeats a Hungarian army at the Battle of Riade near the Unstrut river.
1147

Conquest of Santarém: The forces of Afonso I of Portugal capture Santarém.
1311

Battle of Halmyros: The Catalan Company defeats Walter V, Count 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.
1564

Mughal Emperor Akbar abolishes "jizya" (per capita tax).
1672

Charles II of England issues the Royal Declaration of Indulgence.
1781

American Revolutionary War: Battle of Guilford Court House: Near present-day Greensboro, North Carolina, 1,900 British troops under General Charles Cornwallis defeat a mixed American force numbering 4,400 in a Pyrrhic victory.
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'état never takes place.
1819

French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel wins a contest at the Académie des Sciences in Paris by proving that light behaves like a wave. The Fresnel integrals, still used to calculate wave patterns, silence skeptics who had backed the particle theory of Isaac Newton.
1820

Maine becomes the 23rd U.S. state.
1848

A revolution breaks out in Hungary. The Habsburg rulers are compelled to meet the demands of the Reform party.
1864

American Civil War: The Red River Campaign: U.S. Navy fleet arrives at Alexandria, Louisiana.
1874

France and Viet Nam sign the Second Treaty of Saigon, further recognizing the full sovereignty of France over Cochinchina.
1875

Archbishop of New York John McCloskey is named the first cardinal in the United States.
1877

First ever official cricket test match is played: Australia vs England at the MCG Stadium, in Melbourne, Australia.
1888

Start of the Anglo-Tibetan War of 1888.
1892

Liverpool F.C. is founded.
1906

Rolls-Royce Limited is incorporated.
1916

United States President Woodrow Wilson sends 4,800 United States troops over the U.S.-Mexico border to pursue Pancho Villa.
1917

Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates the Russian throne ending the 304-year Romanov dynasty.
1921

Talaat Pasha, former Grand Vizir of the Ottoman Empire and chief architect of the Armenian Genocide is assassinated in Berlin by a 23-year-old Armenian, Soghomon Tehlirian.
1922

After Egypt gains nominal independence from the United Kingdom, Fuad I becomes King of Egypt.
1926

The dictator Theodoros Pangalos is elected President of Greece without opposition.
1927

The first Women's Boat Race between the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge takes place on The Isis in Oxford.
1931

SS Viking explodes off Newfoundland, killing 27 of the 147 on board.
1933

Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss keeps members of the National Council from convening, starting the Austrofascist dictatorship.
1939

Carpatho-Ukraine declares itself an independent republic, but is annexed by Hungary the next day.
1941

Philippine Airlines, the flag carrier of the Philippines takes its first flight between Manila (from Nielson Field) to Baguio City with a Beechcraft Model 18 making the airline the first and oldest commercial airline in Asia operating under its original name.
1943

World War II: Third Battle of Kharkov: The Germans retake the city of Kharkov from the Soviet armies in bitter street fighting.
1945

World War II: Soviet forces begin an offensive to push Germans from Upper Silesia.
1952

In Cilaos, Réunion, 1870 mm (73 inches) of rain falls in a 24-hour period, setting a new world record (March 15 through March 16).
1961

At the 1961 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference, South Africa announces that it will withdraw from the Commonwealth when the South African Constitution of 1961 comes into effect.
1965

President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to the Selma crisis, tells U.S. Congress "We shall overcome" while advocating the Voting Rights Act.
1978

Somalia and Ethiopia signed a truce to end the Ethio-Somali War.
1985

The first Internet domain name is registered (symbolics.com).
1986

Collapse of Hotel New World: Thirty-three people die when the Hotel New World in Singapore collapses.
1990

Mikhail Gorbachev is elected as the first President of the Soviet Union.
1991

The Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany comes into effect, granting full sovereignty to the Federal Republic of Germany.
2011

Beginning of the Syrian Civil War.

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