/year

March 26 in history

212 sourced entries recorded on March 26, from 590 CE to 2024 CE. Every line is quoted from the revision it came from.

Events

  • 590Theodosius, eldest son of Maurice, is proclaimed as co-emperor. He becomes his father's heir to the Byzantine throne.source
  • 752Pope Stephen II (sometimes referred to as Stephen III) succeeds Zachary as the 92nd pope of the Catholic Church. He marks the end of the Byzantine Papacy.source
  • 908Emperor Taizu (Zhu Wen) of Later Liang has the 15-year-old Li Zhu, the last Tang Dynasty emperor, poisoned. Li Zhu receives the posthumous name of Ai ("lamentable").source
  • 922Mansur al-Hallaj, a Persian mystic writer, is sentenced to death for heresy after a long trial at Baghdad. Having supported reform in the Abbasid Caliphate, he has been seen as a rabble-rouser, and is flogged, mutilated and executed (by beheading).source
  • 1027Pope John XIX crowns Conrad II ("the Elder") and his wife Gisela of Swabia as Holy Roman Emperor and Empress, respectively, in Old St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Cnut the Great, King of Denmark and England, attends the coronation, proving his position as sole ruler of the Danish North Sea Empire.source
  • 1124Henry I of England's forces defeated the Norman rebels at the Battle of Bourgthéroulde.source
  • 1129Gao Zong abdicates the throne after a mutiny of the palace guard. His 2-year-old son Zhao Fu succeeds him, but Empress Meng becomes regent and the sole ruler.source
  • 1130Magnus IV and his uncle Harald Gille become joint kings of Norway, starting the civil war era in Norway.source
  • 1199Richard I besieges the unarmed castle of Châlus-Chabrol, and is shot in the left shoulder with a crossbow, by the French boy Pierre Basile. The war between the kingdoms of England and France has become so brutal, that Hugh of Lincoln is warned that "nothing now is safe, neither the city to dwell in nor the highway for travel".source
  • 1226Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor issues the Golden Bull of Rimini, in which he grants Teutonic Knights the right to all of the lands they will get during the mission in Prussia; he also declares himself a senior of the Teutonic Order and Poland, as well as the universal ruler of Christian Europe.source
  • 1244Treaty of Almizra: King James I (the Conqueror) and King Ferdinand III (the Saint) agree on the distribution of Muslim lands yet to be conquered. All lands south of a line, from the cities of Biar to Villajoyosa through Busot, are reserved for the Crown of Castile. This ends further Aragonese expansion on the Iberian Peninsula.source
  • 1344Reconquista: The Siege of Algeciras (1342–44), one of the first European military engagements where gunpowder is used, ends with the Muslim city of Algeciras surrendering and being incorporated into the Kingdom of Castile.source
  • 1351War of the Breton Succession: Combat of the Thirty – Thirty chosen knights each, from the Kingdoms of France and England, fight to determine who will rule the Duchy of Brittany; a Franco-Breton victory is assured by the squire Guillaume de Montauban.source
  • 1351The Combat of the Thirty (part of Breton War of Succession) is fought to determine who would rule the Duchy of Brittany. It was an arranged fight of thirty chosen knights each, from the Kingdoms of France and England, that fought at a site midway between the Breton castles of Josselin and Ploërmel. The challenge was issued by Jean de Beaumanoir, a captain of Charles of Blois supported by King Philip VI of France, to Robert Bemborough, a captain of Jean de Montfort supported by Edward III of England.source
  • 1371The coronation of Robert II as King of Scotland takes place at Scone Abbey.source
  • 1420Frederick I, Elector of Brandenburg leads a decisive defeat of the Pomeranian Alliance in the battle of Angermünde.source
  • 1437In Scotland, Walter Stewart, Earl of Atholl, at one time the heir presumptive to the Scottish throne until the birth of James II, is brutally executed for the assassination of King James I. A red hot iron crown placed upon his head, after which he is cut into pieces while still alive and his heart was taken out, after which his body is thrown into a fire.source
  • 1447Dmitry Shemyaka flees Moscow from the supporters of Vasily II.source
  • 1463By order of Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire, David Komnenos, the last Emperor of Trebizond, is arrested at Adrianople and put in jail along with his sons Basil, Manuel and Georgios and his nephew Alexios, on charges of conspiracy to overthrow the Ottoman imperial government.source
  • 1477Two months after the death in battle of the Duke of Burgundy, an uprising and rioting take place in Bruges, and 15 local officials, including former mayor Anselm Adornes, are arrested by Burgundian troops, though they are later released without being charged.source
  • 1479Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, concludes a treaty with the Swiss Confederacy hindering the recruitment of Swiss mercenaries by the Emperor.source
  • 1484William Caxton, the first printer of books in English, prints his translation of Aesop's Fables in London.source
  • 1489The Treaty of Medina del Campo is signed between England and the Spanish kingdom of Castile and Aragon, and includes provision for a marriage of King Henry's son and heir apparent Arthur, Prince of Wales, and Isabella's daughter Catherine of Aragon.source
  • 1495The inaugural session of the Diet of Worms (Wormser Reichstag), a gathering of the electors and princes of the Holy Roman Empire to discuss reforms of the government, is opened at Worms, Germany, by Maximilian I, the acting Holy Roman Emperor.source
  • 1502The first recorded earthquake in what is now Croatia strikes at Medvednica with a Mercalli scale intensity estimated at VIII. (2000).source
  • 1511A 6.9 magnitude earthquake strikes Slovenia and Italy and kills more than 10,000 people, striking with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). The epicenter is around the town of Idrija in present-day Slovenia, although some place it some 15-20 kilometers to the west, between Gemona and Pulfero in Friulian Slovenia. The earthquake affects a large territory between Carinthia, Friuli, present-day Slovenia and Croatia.source
  • 1513On Easter Sunday, Afonso de Albuquerque, Governor of Portuguese India, makes an unsuccessful attempt to capture the port city of Aden, on the Arabian Peninsula, from the Mamluk Sultanate, using 20 ships and 2,500 soldiers. The 1,700 Portuguese, along with 800 mercenaries from Malabar, lose at least 100 killed during the attack and retreat.source
  • 1517More than two months after fleeing Cairo and attempting a counterattack against the Ottomans, Tuman Bay II is captured alive with many of his Mamluk officers. Selim initially plans to exile Tuman Bey and other former Mamluk nobles to Constantinople, but changes his mind.source
  • 1523Frederick I is provisionally declared as King of Denmark by Danish nobles at Viborg, although loyalists at Copenhagen refuse to recognize his claim to the throne.source
  • 1552Guru Amar Das becomes the Third Sikh Guru.source
  • 1555Amboise ordinance punishing with a 1,000 pounds fine usurpers of nobility in France.source
  • 1566250 Swedes die in an attempt to capture Bohus Fortress.source
  • 1595Thado Dhamma Yaza III, who has served since 1589 for the Kingdom of Pegu as the Burmese Viceroy of Prome (now in the Bago Region of Myanmar), declares himself to be the King of Prome during the invasion by the Kingdom of Siam and breaks relations with his father King Nanda Bayin of Pegu.source
  • 1616August 30 – English explorer William Baffin, as pilot to Robert Bylot on the Discovery, makes a detailed exploration of Baffin Bay, whilst searching for the Northwest Passage. The expedition also discovers Smith Sound, Lancaster Sound and Devon Island, and reaches latitude 77° 45' North, a record which holds for 236 years.source
  • 1634Giorgio Bolognetti is appointed Apostolic Nuncio to France.source
  • 1635Philipp Christoph von Sötern, the Archbishop-Elector of Trier, is taken prisoner in a surprise attack by Spanish Habsburg troops, leading to a declaration of war against Spain by France and the beginning of the Franco-Spanish War.source
  • 1635Ferdinand seizes Trier and has Archbishop-Elector Philipp Christoph von Sötern imprisoned.source
  • 1636Utrecht University is founded in the Dutch Republic.source
  • 1669a royal charter is granted to the trust established by Erasmus Smith for the provision of grammar schools in Ireland, under whichsource
  • 1674Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, re-opens, having been rebuilt after a fire in 1672.source
  • 1695John Hungerford is expelled from the English House of Commons when members vote to find him guilty of accepting a bribe in return for using his committee chairmanship to promote the pending Orphans Bill.source
  • 1697Safavid occupation of Basra: Safavid government troops take control of Basra.source
  • 1699The first performance of Amadis de Grèce, an opera by French composer André Cardinal Destouches, takes place at the Académie Royale de Musique, Paris.source
  • 1719March 26 Old Style (1720 New Style) – the Dependency of Ireland on Great Britain Act 1719 is passed by the Parliament of Great Britain.source
  • 1720the Parliament of Great Britain passes the Dependency of Ireland on Great Britain Act 1719 [that is, 1719 Old Style, meaning 1720 in New Style dating], also known as the Declaratory Act 1720, declaring the right of the Parliament of Great Britain to legislate for Ireland and denying the appellate jurisdiction of the Irish House of Lords.source
  • 1729Charles Powlett, 3rd Duke of Bolton is sworn in as Lord Lieutenant of Glamorgan, the post having been vacant since 1715. After 1729, all Lords Lieutenant were also Custos Rotulorum of Glamorgan.source
  • 1746King George II of Great Britain grants the Dublin Society £500 pa from the Privy Purse.source
  • 1755General Edward Braddock and 1,600 British sailors and soldiers arrive at Alexandria, Virginia on transport ships that have sailed up the Potomac River. Braddock, sent to take command of the British forces against the French in North America, commandeers taverns and private homes to feed and house the troops.source
  • 1770First voyage of James Cook: English explorer Captain James Cook and his crew aboard HMS Endeavour complete the circumnavigation of New Zealand.source
  • 1770It is reported that it is possible to walk across the ice from Helsingør to Scania.source
  • 1780The British Gazette and Sunday Monitor, the first Sunday newspaper in Britain, begins publication.source
  • 1786Columbia, South Carolina is chartered as the first planned city in the United States.source
  • 1796Napoleon Bonaparte arrives at Nice to take command of the Army of Italy (37,000 men and 60 guns), which is scattered in detachments as far as Genoa.source
  • 1800British Royal Navy officer Henry Waterhouse first charts the Antipodes Islands.source
  • 1802March 25–27 – The Treaty of Amiens between the French Republic and the United Kingdom ends the War of the Second Coalition. The treaty also ends the French Revolutionary Wars.source
  • 1812In the United States, the Boston Gazette prints a political cartoon coining the term Gerrymander, after former Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry's approval (on February 11) of legislation creating oddly shaped electoral districts, designed to help incumbents win re-election.source
  • 1812The Boston Gazette prints a political cartoon coining the term "Gerrymander" after former Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry's approval (on February 11) of legislation creating oddly shaped electoral districts designed to help incumbents win re-election.source
  • 1812The 1812 Caracas earthquake destroys Caracas, capital of Venezuela.source
  • 1820Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, receives his First Vision in Palmyra, New York.source
  • 1823The packet ship Alert sinks off The Skerries, Isle of Anglesey, with the loss of a hundred lives.source
  • 1830The Book of Mormon, subtitled "An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon, Upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi", is first published, with E. B. Grandin printing the original edition in Palmyra, New York.source
  • 1830Joseph Smith's religious text "Book of Mormon" is published in Palmyra, New York.source
  • 1839The first Henley Royal Regatta is held on the River Thames in England.source
  • 1845Sisterhood of the Holy Cross ('Park Village Community') established as the first Anglican sisterhood, to minister to the poor of St Pancras, London.source
  • 1859French amateur astronomer Edmond Modeste Lescarbault claims to have noticed a planet closer to the Sun than Mercury (later named Vulcan).source
  • 1859Attempting to explain Mercury's solar orbit, mathematician Urbain Le Verrier has proposed the existence of a hypothetical planet, Vulcan, inside its orbit and amateur astronomer Edmond Modeste Lescarbault claims to have observed it on this date.source
  • 1871The Paris Commune is formally established in France.source
  • 1874March 25–27 – Third Carlist War: Second Battle of Somorrostro – In a renewed attempt to raise the siege of Bilbao by Don Carlos VII, Republican commander Marshal Francisco Serrano himself arrives with 27,000 men and 70 cannons. However, in three days of fierce fighting, the Carlist General Joaquín Elío, with just 17,000 men, once again drives off the attack at nearby Somorrostro, and it is another six weeks before Serrano manages to relieve Bilbao.source
  • 1881March 26 (March 14 Old Style) – The Principality of Romania is proclaimed the Kingdom of Romania.source
  • 1885Prussian deportations: The Prussian government, motivated by Otto von Bismarck, expels all ethnic Poles and Jews without German citizenship from Prussia.source
  • 1885The North-West Rebellion in Canada by the Métis people, led by Louis Riel, begins with the Battle of Duck Lake.source
  • 1885Louis Riel and the Métis battle the North-West Mounted Police at Duck Lakesource
  • 1885Prussian deportations: the Prussian government orders the expulsion of all ethnic Poles and Jews holding Russian citizenship, later extended to include Polish Austrian citizens. More than 30,000 people are forced across the border.source
  • 1885First legal cremation in England: widowed painter Jeanette Pickersgill of London, "well known in literary and scientific circles", is cremated by the Cremation Society at Woking, Surrey.source
  • 1895March 23–26 - Pescadores Campaign (1895)source
  • 1896Brunner Mine disaster; 65 miners killed in explosionsource
  • 1898The Sabie Game Reserve in South Africa is created, as the first officially designated game reserve.source
  • 189826 March Ireland 0–3 Scotland (in Belfast)source
  • 1898The Sabie Game Reserve, renamed to Kruger National Park in 1926, is proclaimed in the Official Gazette of the South African Republic, the first officially designated game reserve.source
  • 1902The Prinetti Decree is approved by the Italian General Commissariat of Emigration suspending emigration to Brazil of all Italians not paying their own passage. The decree was named after the then Italian foreign affairs minister, Giulio Prinetti, and approved based on a report denouncing the terrible living conditions experienced by Italian immigrants who had become virtual serfs on the coffee plantations in the state of São Paulo, with no medical care, no school for their children, small houses, no minimum hygiene conditions, and physical violence, even the use of whips.source
  • 1902The Prinetti Decree is approved by the General Commissariat of Emigration suspending emigration to Brazil of all Italians not paying their own passage. The decree was named after the then Italian foreign affairs minister, Giulio Prinetti, and approved based on a report denouncing the poor living conditions experienced by Italian immigrants who had become virtual serfs on coffee plantations, with no medical care, no school for their children, small houses, no minimum hygiene conditions, and physical violence, even the use of whips.source
  • 1908The US Thomas Flyer car sails for Alaska at the head of a motor race from New York to Paris.source
  • 1913Mexican Revolution: Venustiano Carranza announces his Plan of Guadalupe, and begins his rebellion against Victoriano Huerta's government, as head of the Constitutionals.source
  • 1913Balkan Wars: The Siege of Adrianople ends, when Bulgarian forces take Adrianople from the Ottomans.source
  • 1917WWI: First Battle of Gaza – British Egyptian Expeditionary Force troops virtually encircle the Gaza garrison, but are then ordered to withdraw, leaving the city to the Ottoman defenders.source
  • 1918Marie Stopes publishes her influential book Married Love in the U.K.source
  • 1919Queen of the South F.C. is formed in Dumfries, Scotland.source
  • 1920American fiction writer F. Scott Fitzgerald makes his name with publication of This Side of Paradise.source
  • 1926In Bucharest, Romania and Poland sign a Treaty on Mutual Assistance against Aggression and on Military Aid, building the Polish–Romanian alliance.source
  • 1928The South Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League's Regina Pats win their second Memorial Cup by defeating the Ottawa City Junior Hockey League's Ottawa Gunners 2 game to 1. The deciding Game 3 was played Arenas Garden in Torontosource
  • 1931International measurements were legalizedsource
  • 1932The Iron Guard is declared illegal.source
  • 1947A magnitude 7.1 earthquake strikes east of Gisborne, causing a tsunami with a maximum run-up height of 10 metres.source
  • 1949March 25–28 — Operation Priboisource
  • 1949The first half of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida, conducted by legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini, and performed in concert (i.e. no scenery or costumes), is telecast by NBC, live from Studio 8H at Rockefeller Center. The second half is telecast a week later. This is the only complete opera that Toscanini ever conducts on television.source
  • 1953March 25–26 – Lari Massacre in Kenya: Mau Mau rebels kill up to 150 Kikuyu natives.source
  • 1953Jonas Salk announces his polio vaccine.source
  • 1958The 30th Academy Awards Ceremony takes place in Hollywood; The Bridge on the River Kwai wins 7 awards, including Academy Award for Best Picture.source
  • 1967Jim Thompson, co-founder of the Thai Silk Company, disappears from the Cameron Highlands.source
  • 1969The Sentosa Satellite Earth Station is announced, which will take a year to set up.source
  • 1971Nihat Erim (a former CHP member) forms the new government of Turkey (33rd government, composed mostly of technocrats).source
  • 1971President Yahya Khan banned political activities in Pakistan.source
  • 1971Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is arrested by the Pakistan army.source
  • 1971Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the president of the All-Pakistan Awami League, is arrested by the Pakistan army.source
  • 1972March 23–April 2 – A 47-member expedition conducted by Presidential Assistant for National Minorities (Panamin) which has been headed by Manuel Elizalde Jr., mostly scientists and later joined by one of the agency's directors—American Charles Lindbergh, makes a first visit to the caves inhabited by 25 "surviving" Tasadays, a group of Stone Age-style people discovered in June 1971, in an isolated mountain rainforest in South Cotabato—the "first discovery of cavemen in modern times." The expedition ends as explorers are rescued by the United States Armed Forces.source
  • 1972Regulations passed allowing large scale nationalization of various industries including banks, manufacturing and trading enterprises.source
  • 1972An avalanche on Mount Fuji in Japan kills 19 climbers.source
  • 1974A group of peasant women in Chamoli district, Uttarakhand, India, use their bodies to surround trees to prevent loggers from felling them, giving rise to the Chipko movement.source
  • 1976The Body Shop, the retail chain for skin care products and cosmetics founded by Anita Roddick, opens its first branch in Brighton, England.source
  • 1978The control tower and some other facilities of New Tokyo International Airport, which were scheduled to open on March 31, are illegally occupied and damaged in a terrorist attack by New Left activists, forcing a rescheduling of its opening date to May 20.source
  • 1979In a ceremony at the White House, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel sign an Egypt–Israel peace treaty.source
  • 1979In a ceremony at the White House, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel sign a peace treaty. Egypt thus becomes the first Arab country to officially recognize Israel.source
  • 1979Michigan State University, led by Earvin "Magic" Johnson, defeats Larry Bird-led Indiana State 75–64 in the NCAA tournament championship game at Salt Lake City.source
  • 197926 March–1 April – The 1979 World Curling Championships take place in Bern.source
  • 1980A mine lift cage at the Vaal Reefs gold mine in South Africa falls 1.9 km, killing 23 workers.source
  • 1982Mikel Arteta, football player and managersource
  • 1986An article in The New York Times charges that Kurt Waldheim, former United Nations Secretary-General and candidate for president of Austria, may have been involved in Nazi war crimes during World War II.source
  • 1990The 62nd Academy Awards, hosted by Billy Crystal, are held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California, with Driving Miss Daisy winning Best Picture.source
  • 1991Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay sign the Treaty of Asunción, establishing Mercosur.source
  • 1991Four Pakistanis hijack Singapore Airlines Flight 117 and demand the release of Pakistan Peoples Party members from Pakistani jails.source
  • 1992The Ghatak-Dalal Nirmul Committee set up mock trials known as Gono Adalat (People's Court) led by Jahanara Imam in Dhaka and 'sentenced' persons they accused of being war criminals.source
  • 1994The 1994 Mackellar by-election is won by Bronwyn Bishop whose leadership ambitions stalled when she suffered a 5% swing.source
  • 1995The Schengen Agreement, easing cross-border travel, goes into effect in several European countries.source
  • 1995Walt Disney Television's Satellite Facility officially opened, marking Disney's first international centre. The facility broadcast Disney programmes to Southeast Asia.source
  • 1996The International Monetary Fund approves a $10.2 billion loan to Russia for economic reform.source
  • 1997March 24–26 – In San Diego, 39 Heaven's Gate cultists commit mass suicide at their compound.source
  • 1999The Melissa virus attacks the Internet.source
  • 20002000 Russian presidential election: Vladimir Putin is elected President of Russia.source
  • 2000March 12–26 – Pope John Paul II visits Israel, and thus becomes the second pope to visit Israel. During his stay, the Pope visits Yad Vashem (the Israeli national Holocaust memorial) and the Western Wall placing a letter inside it in which he prayed for forgiveness for the actions against Jews in the past.source
  • 2000A 22-year-old man opens fire from his apartment in Chur, killing a police dog and wounding two officers as they respond to the attack. In the only such case in Swiss police history, officers authorize a sniper to shoot the suspect to death.source
  • 2001The establishment of Cross-Straits Common Market Foundation in Taipei.source
  • 2001World Championship Wrestling goes out of business and is purchased by its chief competitor, the World Wrestling Federation, bringing an end to the Monday Night Wars.source
  • 2007A massive storm system brings heavy rain to the center and south of Santa Fe. The rain falls almost continuously for more than one week. Large sections of Santa Fe City and peripheral neighbourhoods of Rosario, as well as many smaller towns and large sections of Argentina's most productive agricultural land, are flooded. The storm moves east, affecting the south of Entre Ríos and eventually reaching Uruguay. See March 2007 floods in the Argentine littoral.source
  • 2010The ROKS Cheonan, a South Korean Navy ship carrying 104 personnel, sinks off the country's west coast, killing 46. In May, an independent investigation blames North Korea, which denies the allegations.source
  • 2010Ahmed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, chief of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and one of the most powerful men in the world, goes missing after his glider crashes into a lake in Morocco.source
  • 2015The order of succession to the British throne is changed to absolute primogeniture, in accordance with the 2011 Perth Agreement and the UK Succession to the Crown Act 2013. The change also applies in the Commonwealth realms. Marrying a Roman Catholic no longer disqualifies a person from succeeding to the Crown.source
  • 2018More than 100 Russian diplomats are expelled by more than 20 countries in the wake of the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal.source
  • 2019The European Parliament votes by 348 to 278 in favour of the EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, which expands legal liability for websites and includes the controversial Article 13.source
  • 2020Militants in the Philippines, Syria, Yemen, and Libya agree to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres' call for a ceasefire; some accept medical aid for themselves and civilians in their communities. Colombia and Venezuela discuss a common response to the global pandemic, and the UAE airlifts aid to Iran.source
  • 2020Global COVID-19 cases reach 500,000, with nearly 23,000 deaths confirmed. The U.S. surpasses China and Italy in the total number of known COVID-19 cases, with at least 81,321 cases and more than 1,000 deaths.source
  • 2020President Tallis Obed Moses declared a state of emergency in the country after a tourist on a cruise ship visiting the island of Aneityum had tested positive for the virus.source
  • 2023Honduras switches its formal diplomatic recognition of "China" from the Republic of China to the People's Republic of China.source
  • 20232023 Israeli judicial reform protests: Large-scale spontaneous protests erupt across Israel in the wake of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu firing his defense minister who criticized the government's judicial overhaul plan.source
  • 2023March 24–27 – A tornado outbreak kills at least 26 people in Mississippi and Alabama. This includes a violent tornado which devastated the city of Rolling Fork and the town of Silver City in Mississippi, killing 16 people and injuring 165 others.source

Births

  • 1031Malcolm III (Canmore), king of Scotland (died 1093)source
  • 1277Christina Ebner, German mystic (died 1356)source
  • 1516Conrad Gessner, Swiss naturalist (died 1565)source
  • 1554Charles of Lorraine, Duke of Mayenne, French military leader (died 1611)source
  • 1633Mary Beale, British artist (died 1699)source
  • 1659William Wollaston, English philosopher (died 1724)source
  • 1659William Wollaston, philosophical writer (died 1724)source
  • 1692Jean II Restout, French painter (died 1768)source
  • 1753Benjamin Thompson, American physicist and inventor (died 1814)source
  • 1773Nathaniel Bowditch, American mathematician (died 1838)source
  • 1875Syngman Rhee, President of South Korea (died 1965)source
  • 1893Palmiro Togliatti, Italian communist leader (died 1964)source
  • 1940Nancy Pelosi, American politician; Speaker and Minority Leader (alternately) of the United States House of Representativessource
  • 1959K. Shanmugam, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law.source

Deaths

  • 752Stephen, pope of the Catholic Churchsource
  • 809Ludger, Frisian missionarysource
  • 903Sugawara no Michizane, Japanese politician and poet (born 845)source
  • 908Ai, emperor of the Tang Dynasty (born 892)source
  • 922Mansur al-Hallaj, Persian mystic writersource
  • 929Wang Du, Chinese warlord and governor (jiedushi)source
  • 973Guntram (the Rich), Frankish noblemansource
  • 983'Adud al-Dawla, ruler (emir) of the Buyid Dynasty, dies after a 34-year reign. He is succeeded by his 20-year-old son Samsam al-Dawla, who is recognised by the Abbasid Caliphate. During al-Dawla's rule his dominions are divided through civil war and revolts (until 987).source
  • 983'Adud al-Dawla, ruler of the Buyid Dynasty (born 936)source
  • 1021On the feast of Eid al-Adha, the death of al-Hakim, kept secret for six weeks, is announced, along with the succession of his son, al-Zahir li-i'zaz Din Allah. On the same day, al-Hakim's designated heir, Abd al-Rahim ibn Ilyas, is arrested in Damascus and brought to Egypt.source
  • 1066Ibn Sidah, Moorish linguist and lexicographer (born 1007)source
  • 1091Wallada bint al-Mustakfi, Andalusian female poet (born 994)source
  • 1130King Sigurd I of Norway (born c. 1090)source
  • 1132Geoffrey of Vendôme, French abbot (born 1070)source
  • 1211Sancho I ("the Populator"), king of Portugal (born 1154)source
  • 1211King Sancho I of Portugal ("the Populator") dies after a 25-year reign at Coimbra. He is succeeded by his son Afonso II ("the Fat") as ruler of Portugal. During his reign, he designs the first set of Portuguese written laws.source
  • 1242William de Forz, English nobleman (born 1190)source
  • 1276Margaret of Holland, Countess of Henneberg, Dutch noblewoman (born 1234)source
  • 1324Marie of Luxembourg, queen of France (born 1304)source
  • 1324Marie of Luxembourg, Queen of France, dies of injuries after falling from a carriage while she and King Charles IV are riding from Paris to Avignon. After her fall, she went into labor and gave birth prematurely to a child, who died shortly afterward.source
  • 1326Alessandra Giliani, Italian anatomist and scientist (born 1307)source
  • 1350March 26 or 27 March – Alfonso XI of Castile (born 1311)source
  • 1402David Stewart, Duke of Rothesay, heir to the throne of Scotland, dies while being held captive by his uncle, Robert Stewart, 1st Duke of Albany.source
  • 1402David Stewart, Duke of Rothesay, heir to the throne of Scotland (born 1378)source
  • 1437Walter Stewart, Earl of Atholl, Scottish nobleman and regicide (executed)source
  • 1517Heinrich Isaac, Flemish composer (born c. 1450)source
  • 1566Antonio de Cabezón, Spanish composer and organist (born 1510)source
  • 1625Giambattista Marino, Italian poet (born 1569)source
  • 1634Jens Hermansson Juel, Danish nobleman who served as Governor-general of Norway (born 1580).source
  • 1634Jens Hermansson Juel, nobleman, Governor-general of Norway (born 1580).source
  • 1649John Winthrop, first Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony (born c. 1587)source
  • 1651The Spanish ship San José, loaded with silver, is pushed south by strong winds; it wrecks on the coast of southern Chile, and its surviving crew is killed by indigenous Cuncos.source
  • 1686Charlotte, Landgravine of Hesse-Kassel, German noble (born 1627)source
  • 1689Gabriel Milan, Governor of the Danish West Indies (born 1631)source
  • 1689Gabriel Milan, governor (born c. 1631)source
  • 1713Paul I, Prince Esterházy, Palatine of Hungary and Prince of Holy Roman Empire (born 1635)source
  • 1726John Vanbrugh, English architect and dramatist (born 1664)source
  • 1726John Vanbrugh, architect and dramatist (born 1664)source
  • 1737Vakhtang VI, king of the Kingdom of Kartli under the Bagrationi dynasty (born 1675)source
  • 1776Samuel Ward, American politician (born 1725)source
  • 1797James Hutton, Scottish geologist (born 1726)source
  • 1827Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer (born 1770)source
  • 1827Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer (born 1770)source
  • 1872The 7.4–7.9 Mw Lone Pine earthquake shakes eastern California, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme); 27 people are killed and 56 injured.source
  • 1892Walt Whitman, American poet (born 1819)source
  • 1899In the first major action in the Malolos Campaign in the Philippine–American War, 90 Filipino soldiers are killed in the Battle of the Meycauayan bridge.source
  • 1902Cecil Rhodes, British imperialist (born 1853)source
  • 1923Sarah Bernhardt, French actress (born 1844)source
  • 1945David Lloyd George, British politician and statesman, 51st Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1863)source
  • 1996Edmund Muskie, 81, American statesman, political leader, and U.S. Secretary of State, heart failure.source
  • 2003Platon Nguyễn Văn Thành, soldier (born 1922)source
  • 2005James Callaghan, 92, British politician, Prime Minister (1976–1979), MP (1945–1987), pneumonia.source
  • 2011Geraldine Ferraro, 75, American politician, U.S. Representative from New York (1979–1985) and 1984 vice presidential nominee, multiple myeloma.source
  • 2024A container ship collides with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, causing a total collapse of the bridge and the deaths of six people.source