• 597 BC - Babylonians capture Jerusalem, replace Jehoiachin with Zedekiah as king.
• 1190 - Crusaders start to massacre the Jews of York; many Jews commit suicide rather than submit to baptism.
• 1249 - The Servite Order is officially approved by Cardinal Raniero Capocci, papal legate in Tuscany.
• 1322 - The Battle of Boroughbridge takes place in the First War of Scottish Independence.
• 1521 - Ferdinand Magellan reaches the Philippines.
• 1621 - Samoset, a Mohegan, visits the settlers of Plymouth Colony and greets them, "Welcome, Englishmen! My name is Samoset."
• 1660 - The Long Parliament disbands.
• 1689 - The 23rd Regiment of Foot or Royal Welch Fusiliers is founded.
• 1792 - King Gustav III of Sweden is shot; he dies on March 29.
• 1802 - The United States Military Academy at West Point is established.
• 1812 - Battle of Badajoz (March 16 - April 6) - British and Portuguese forces besiege and defeat French garrison during Peninsular War.
• 1815 - Prince Willem of the House of Orange-Nassau proclaims himself King of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, the first constitutional monarch in The Netherlands.
• 1818 - Battle of Cancha Rayada - Spanish forces defeat Chileans under José de San Martín.
• 1861 - Edward Clark became Governor of Texas, replacing Sam Houston, who was evicted from the office for refusing to take an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy.
• 1865 - American Civil War: The Battle of Averasborough begins as Confederate forces suffer irreplaceable casualties in the final months of the war.
• 1867 - First publication of an article by Joseph Lister outlining the discovery of antiseptic surgery, in The Lancet.
• 1872 - The Wanderers F.C. won the first FA Cup, the oldest football competition in the world, beating Royal Engineers A.F.C. 1-0 at The Oval in Kennington, London.
• 1900 - Sir Arthur Evans purchases the land around the ruins of Knossos, the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete.
• 1912 - Lawrence Oates, ill member of Scott's South Pole expedition leaves the tent saying, "I am just going outside and may be some time."
• 1916 - The 7th and 10th US cavalry regiments under John J. Pershing cross the US-Mexico border to join the hunt for Pancho Villa.
• 1924 - The free port of Fiume is formally annexed by Mussolini's fascist regime.
• 1926 - History of Rocketry: Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.
• 1935 - Adolf Hitler orders Germany to rearm herself in violation of the Versailles Treaty. Conscription was reintroduced to form the Wehrmacht.
• 1939 - From Prague Castle, Hitler proclaims Bohemia and Moravia a German protectorate.
• 1939 - Marriage of Princess Fawzia of Egypt to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran.
• 1942 - History of Rocketry: The first V-2 rocket test launch (exploded at liftoff).
• 1943 - The Royal Navy Isles Class Trawler HMS Campobello Sinks in the Atlantic.
• 1945 - World War II: The Battle of Iwo Jima ends but small pockets of Japanese resistance persist.
• 1945 - Würzburg, Germany is 90% destroyed, with 5,000 dead, in only 20 minutes by British bombers.
• 1950 - Communist Czechoslovakia's ministry of foreign affairs asked nuncios of Vatican to leave the country.
• 1952 - In Cilaos, Réunion, 1,870mm (73 inches) of rain falls in one day, setting a new world record.
• 1958 - The Ford Motor Company produces its 50 millionth automobile, the Thunderbird, averaging almost a million cars a year since the company's founding.
• 1962 - A Flying Tiger Line Super Constellation disappears in the western Pacific Ocean, with 107 people missing.
• 1963 - Mount Agung erupts on Bali, as 11,000 die.
• 1966 - Launch of Gemini 8, the 12th manned American space flight and first space docking with the Agena Target Vehicle.
• 1968 - Vietnam War: In the My Lai massacre, between 350 and 500 Vietnamese villagers: men, women, and children are killed by American troops.
• 1968 - General Motors produces its 100 millionth automobile, the Oldsmobile Toronado.
• 1971 - Government of Trygve Bratteli in Norway.
• 1976 - British Prime Minister Harold Wilson resigns, citing personal reasons.
• 1978 - Former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro is kidnapped by left-wing terrorists and is later killed by his captors.
• 1978 - Supertanker Amoco Cadiz splits in two after running aground on the Portsall Rocks, three miles off the coast of Brittany, resulting in the 5th-largest oil spill in history.
• 1983 - Demolition of the radio tower Ismaning, the last radio tower in Germany built of wood.
• 1984 - William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, Lebanon, is kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists and later dies in captivity.
• 1985 - Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson is taken hostage in Beirut. He is released on December 4, 1991.
• 1988 - Iran-Contra Affair: Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter are indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
• 1988 - Halabja poison gas attack: The Kurdish town of Halabjah in Iraq was attacked with a mix of poison gas and nerve agents, killing 5000 people and injured about 10000 people.
• 1995 - Mississippi formally ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was officially ratified in 1865.
• 1997 - Sandline affair: On Bougainville Island, soldiers of commander Jerry Singirok arrest Tim Spicer and his mercenaries of the Sandline International.
• 1998 - Pope John Paul II apologises for the inactivity and silence of some Roman Catholics during the Holocaust.
• 2003 - The largest coordinated worldwide vigil takes place, as part of the global protests against Iraq war.
• 2005 - Israel officially hands over Jericho to Palestinian control.
• 2006 - The United Nations General Assembly votes overwhelmingly to establish the UN Human Rights Council.

Births