March 15
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.https://on-this-day.com
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.
1902 - In Boston, MA, 10,000 freight handlers went back to work after a weeklong strike.
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.
1909 - Italy proposed a European conference on the Balkans.
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.
1934 - Henry Ford restored the $5 a day wage.
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 - The U.S. Air Force unveiled a self-guided missile.
1956 - The musical "My Fair Lady" opened on Broadway.
1960 - Ten nations met in Geneva to discuss disarmament.
1960 - The first underwater park was established as Key Largo Coral Reef Preserve.
1964 - In Montreal, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were married.
1968 - The U.S. mint halted the practice of buying and selling gold.
1970 - The musical "Purlie" opened on Broadway in New York City.
1971 - CBS television announced it was going to drop "The Ed Sullivan Show."
1977 - The first episode of "Eight is Enough" was aired on ABC-TV.
1977 - The U.S. House of Representatives began a 90-day test to determine the feasibility of showing its sessions on television.
1979 - Pope John Paul II published his first encyclical "Redemptor Hominis." In the work he warned of the growing gap between the rich and poor.
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. Food and Drug administration decided to impound all fruit imported from Chili after two cyanide-tainted grapes were found in Philadelphia, PA.
1989 - The U.S. Department of Veteran's Affairs became the 14th Department in the President's Cabinet.
1990 - In Iraq, British journalist Farzad Bazoft was hanged for spying.
1990 - Mikhail Gorbachev was elected the first executive president of the Soviet Union.
1990 - The Ford Explorer was introduced to the public.
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)
1991 - Yugoslav President Borisav Jovic resigned after about a week of anit-communist protests.
1994 - U.S. President Clinton extended the moratorium on nuclear testing until September of 1995.
1996 - The aviation firm Fokker NV collapsed.
1998 - More than 15,000 ethnic Albanians marched in Yugoslavia to demand independence for Kosovo.
1998 - CBS' "60 Minutes" aired an interview with former White House employee Kathleen Willey. Wiley said U.S. President Clinton made unwelcome sexual advances toward her in the Oval Office in 1993.
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 - In the U.S., Burger King began selling a veggie burger. The event was billed as the first veggie burger to be sold nationally by a fast food chain.
2002 - In Texas, Andrea Yates received a life sentence for drowning her five children on June 20, 2001.
2002 - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told the Associated Press that the U.S. would stand by a 24-year pledge not to use nuclear arms against states that don't have them.
2004 - Clive Woodall's novel "One for Sorrow: Two for Joy" was published. Two days later Woodall sold the film rights to Walt Disney Co. for $1 million.
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