March 10

2024 Calendar

March 10 is the 69th day of the year (70th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 296 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1900

241 BC – First Punic War: Battle of the Aegates Islands – The Romans sinks the Carthaginian fleet; end of First Punic War.
298 - Roman Emperor Maximian completes his campaign in North Africa against the Berbers, and makes a triumphant entry to Carthage in present-day Tunisia.
1496 – Christopher Columbus leaves Hispaniola for Spain, ending his second visit to the Western Hemisphere.
1535 – Tomas de Berlanga reaches the Galapagos Islands after sailing off course in a storm.
1607 - Susenyos defeats combined armies of Yaqob and Abuna Petros II at the Battle of Gol in Gojjam, making him Emperor of Ethiopia.
1629 – Charles I of England dissolves Parliament, starting the Eleven Years Tyranny in which there was no parliament.
1661 - Louis XIV of France takes absolute government powers.
1792 - Huguenot Jean Calas, wrongly convicted for killing his son, dies after being tortured by authorities. This inspires Voltaire to begin a campaign for religious tolerance and legal reform.
1801 – The United Kingdom's first national census is carried out.
1804 – Louisiana Purchase: In St. Louis, a formal ceremony is conducted to transfer ownership of Louisiana Territory from France to the United States.
1814 – Napoleon I of France is defeated at the Battle of Laon in France.
1831 – The French Foreign Legion is established by King Louis-Philippe to support his war in Algeria.
1848 – The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is ratified by the United States Senate, ending the Mexican-American War.
1861 – El Hadj Umar Tall seizes the city of Segou, destroying the Bambara Empire of Mali.
1864 – Montana vigilantes hang Jack Slade.
1864 – American Civil War: The Red River Campaign begins as Union troops reach Alexandria, Louisiana.
1876 – Alexander Graham Bell makes the first successful telephone call by saying "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you."
1880 – Members of the Salvation Army land in the United States and begin operations.
1891 – Almon Strowger, an undertaker in Topeka Kansas, patents the strowger switch, a device which led to the automation of telephone circuit switching.
1893 – Côte d'Ivoire becomes a French colony.

1901 – 2000

1902 – Second Boer War: South African Boers win their last battle over British forces, with the capture of a British general and 200 of his men.
1902 – A United States court of appeals rules that Thomas Edison did not invent the movie camera.
1902 – Tochangri, Turkey, is completely destroyed by an earthquake.
1906 – Europe's worst mining disaster occurs at Courrieres, northern France, as 1,099 miners are killed.
1909 - The Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909 is signed.
1912 – Yuan Shikai is sworn in as the second Provisional President of the Republic of China.
1922 - Mahatma Gandhi is arrested for sedition by British colonial authorities.
1923 – The Spanish football club Villarreal is founded.
1926 – The first Book-of-the-Month-Club selection is produced
1933 – An earthquake in Long Beach, California kills 120 people.
1945 – The U.S. Army Air Force firebombs Tokyo, and the resulting firestorm kills more than 100,000 people, mostly civilians.
1948 – The Indian Union Muslim League is founded, by remnants of the old Muslim League.
1951 – Henri Queuille becomes Prime Minister of France.
1952 – Fulgencio Batista leads a successful coup in Cuba.
1959 - Tibetan Uprising: Fearing an abduction attempt by the Government of the People's Republic of China, 300,000 Tibetans surround Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama's palace to prevent his removal.
1964 – The Ford Mustang is first produced by the Ford Motor Company.
1966 – Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands marries Claus von Amsberg.
1969 – In Memphis, Tennessee, James Earl Ray pleads guilty to assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. Ray would later retract his guilty plea.
1970 – Vietnam War: Capt. Ernest Medina is charged with My Lai war crimes.
1971 – William McMahon becomes Prime Minister of Australia.
1975 – Vietnam War: North Vietnamese troops attack Ban Me Thout, South Vietnam, on their way to capturing Saigon.
1977 – Rings of Uranus: Astronomers discover rings around Uranus.
1982 – The United States places an embargo on Libyan petroleum imports because of their support of terrorist groups.
1982 – Syzygy: all 9 planets align on the same side of the Sun.
1987 – Reproductive rights: The Holy See condemns the practice of surrogate motherhood, along with test-tube babies and artificial insemination.
1987 - A magnitude 7 earthquake hits Colombia and Ecuador, killing 1,000 people.
1990 – In Haiti, Prosper Avril is ousted 18 months after seizing power in a coup.
1991 – Gulf War: Operation Phase Echo – 540,000 American troops begin to leave the Persian Gulf.
1996 – The "Summit of Peacemakers" takes place in Egypt.
1998 – American troops stationed in the Persian Gulf begin to receive the first vaccinations against anthrax.
1998 - Suharto claims a sixth election victory as President of Indonesia, sparking protests that eventually lead to his resignation in May of the same year, ending over 32 years of authoritarian rule.
2000 – The NASDAQ stock market index peaks at 5048.62, signaling the beginning of the end of the dot-com boom.

From 2001

2004 – Six Flags sells 8 of its theme parks to private investors.
2004 – Kostas Karamanlis becomes Prime Minister of Greece.
2005 – In Edmonton, Alberta, the largest memorial (of its kind) in Canadian history was held for four RCMP constables who were gunned down March 3, 2005.
2006 – The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter arrives at the planet Mars.
2006 - The 2006 Winter Paralympics in Turin begin.
2008 – The New York Times reveals that New York Governor Eliot Spitzer patronised a prostitution service, and he resigns shortly after.
2014 - President of Bayern Munich football club Uli Hoeness goes on trial on charges of tax fraud.
2015 - A court rules that the tune from Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams' track Blurred Lines was copied from a song by Marvin Gaye.
2017 - South Korean President Park Geun-hye is officially removed from office by the country's constitutional court over a corruption scandal, following her impeachment three months earlier.
2017 - The United Nations warns that up to 20 million people could be affected by a famine affecting parts of Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.
2019 - Ethiopian Airlines Flight 103, a Boeing 737 MAX, crashes shortly after take-off from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on a flight due to go to Nairobi, Kenya, killing all 157 people on board.

Births

Up to 1900

1415 – Vasili II of Russia (d. 1462)
1452 – Ferdinand II of Aragon (d. 1516)
1503 – Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1564)
1536 - Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, English politician (d. 1572)
1628 – Marcello Malpighi, Italian physician (d. 1694)
1709 - Georg Wilhelm Steller, German botanist, zoologist, physician and explorer (d. 1746)
1748 - John Playfair, Scottish scientist and mathematician (d. 1819)
1749 - Lorenzo da Ponte, Italian opera librettist and poet (d. 1838)
1760 - Leandro Fernandez de Moratin, Spanish poet and writer (d. 1829)
1772 – Karl Friedrich Wilhelm von Schlegel, German poet, critic and scholar (d. 1829)
1776 – Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen Consort of Prussia (d. 1810)
1779 – Frances Trollope, English writer (d. 1863)
1786 - José Maria Vargas, President of Venezuela (d. 1854)
1787 – Francisco de Paula Martinez de la Rosa, Spanish statesman and dramatist (d. 1862)
1787 – William Etty, English painter (d. 1849)
1788 - Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff, German polymath (d. 1857)
1789 – Manuel de la Peña y Peña, President of Mexico (d. 1850)
1810 - Samuel Ferguson, Irish poet (d. 1886)
1833 - Pedro Antonio de Alarcon, Spanish writer (d. 1891)
1839 - Dudley Buck, American composer, organist and writer (d. 1909)
1842 - Mykola Lysenko, Ukrainian composer (d. 1912)
1844 - Pablo de Sarasate, Spanish violinist (d. 1908)
1845 – Tsar Alexander III of Russia (d. 1894)
1845 - Hallie Quinn Brown, African-American educator and activist (d. 1949)
1847 - Kate Sheppard, New Zealand suffragist (d. 1934)
1850 - Spencer Gore, British tennis player and cricketer (d. 1906)
1853 - Thomas Mackenzie, Scottish-born 18th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1930)
1854 - Arnost Muka, Sorbian writer (d. 1932)
1867 - Hector Guimard, French architect and designer (d. 1942)
1867 - Lillian Wald, American nurse, humanitarian and writer (d. 1940)
1873 - Jakob Wassermann, German writer (d. 1934)
1875 - Alexander Goldenweiser, Russian pianist, composer and educator (d. 1961)
1876 - Edvard Eriksen, Danish sculptor (d. 1959)
1876 – Ernst Tandefelt, Finnish nobleman and assassin (d. 1948)
1877 - Emile Sarrade, French rugby player (d. 1953)
1879 - Hans Luther, Chancellor of Germany in the Weimar Republic (d. 1962)
1885 - Tamara Karsavina, Russian ballerina (d. 1978)
1887 – Toshitsugu Takamatsu, Grandmaster of Ninjutsu (d. 1972)
1891 - Sam Jaffe, American actor, teacher, musician and engineer (d. 1984)
1892 – Arthur Honegger, Swiss-French composer (d. 1955)
1892 - Gregory La Cava, American movie director and cartoonist (d. 1952)
1897 – Robert Meier, German World War I veteran (d. 2007)
1900 – Pandelis Pouliopoulos, Secretary of the Greek Communist Party (d. 1943)

1901 – 1950

1903 – Bix Beiderbecke, American musician (d. 1931)
1905 - Richard Haydn, British actor (d. 1985)
1907 - Christopher Del Sesto, Governor of Rhode Island (d. 1973)
1909 - LeRoy Collins, Governor of Florida (d. 1991)
1915 - Charles Groves, English conductor (d. 1992)
1915 - Harry Bertoia, Italian artist (d. 1978)
1918 – Günther Rall, German fighter pilot (d. 2009)
1923 – Val Logsdon Fitch, American nuclear physicist (d. 2015)
1923 - Hans Riegel, German entrepreneur (Haribo) (d. 2013)
1925 - Bob Lanier, American politician, 58th Mayor of Houston, Texas (d. 2014)
1926 - Marques Haynes, American basketball player (d. 2015)
1926 - Oscar Quitak, British actor
1927 – Jupp Derwall, German footballer and manager (d. 2007)
1928 - Sara Montiel, Spanish singer and actress (d. 2013)
1928 – James Earl Ray, convicted assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr. (d. 1998)
1929 - Arthur Barnard, American hurdler
1930 - Jimmie Macgregor, Scottish folk music singer and broadcaster
1932 - Marcia Falkender, English politician
1933 - Elizabeth Azcona Cranwell, Argentine poet and translator (d. 2004)
1933 - Ralph Emery, American television host
1936 - Alfredo Zitarrosa, Uruguayan singer, poet and composer (d. 1989)
1936 – Sepp Blatter, Swiss President of FIFA
1938 – Ieronymus II, Archbishop of Athens
1938 - Norman Blake, American musician
1939 - Ashgar Ali Engineer, Indian writer and activist (d. 2013)
1940 – Chuck Norris, American actor and martial artist
1946 - Peter Temple, Australian writer (d. 2018)
1947 – Kim Campbell, 19th Prime Minister of Canada
1947 - Piers Corbyn, brother of Jeremy Corbyn
1947 – Tom Scholz, American songwriter and guitarist
1948 - Austin Carr, American basketball player
1948 - Pat Gallagher, Irish politician
1949 - Bill Buxton, Canadian computer scientist and designer
1950 – Colin McGinn, British philosopher

1951 – 1975

1951 - Brad Fiedel, American movie score composer
1951 - Gloria Diaz, Filipino model and actress
1952 - Mike O'Donnell, English musician and composer
1952 – Morgan Tsvangirai, former Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (d. 2018)
1953 – Paul Haggis, Canadian screenwriter, producer and movie director
1954 - Luc Dardenne, Belgian movie director, producer and screenwriter
1955 - Yousra, Egyptian actress and singer
1956 - Robert Llewellyn, British writer, actor and presenter
1956 - Henry Smith, Scottish footballer
1957 – Osama bin Laden, Saudi-born Islamic extremist (al-Qaeda) (d. 2011)
1957 - Hilary Devey, English businesswoman
1957 – Hans-Peter Friedrich, German politician
1957 - Terry Holmes, Welsh rugby player
1957 – Shannon Tweed, Canadian actress and model
1958 – Sharon Stone, American actress
1958 - Garth Crooks, English footballer and pundit
1958 - Frankie Ruiz, American singer (d. 1998)
1960 - Antonio Corgos, Spanish long jumper
1961 – Laurel Clark, American physician and astronaut (d. 2003)
1961 - Mitch Gaylord, American gymnast, actor and stuntman
1962 - Jasmine Guy, American actress
1962 - Seiko Matsuda, Japanese pop singer
1963 – Jeff Ament, American musician
1964 - Dave Bowman, Scottish footballer
1964 – Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex
1964 – Neneh Cherry, Swedish singer
1966 - Edie Brickell, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1968 - Pavel Srnicek, Czech footballer (d. 2015)
1969 - Paget Brewster, American actress
1971 – Jon Hamm, American actor
1971 - Steve Arnold, British racing driver
1972 - Timbaland, American rapper
1973 – Eva Herzigova, Czech model
1973 – Chris Sutton, English footballer
1973 - Mauricio Taricco, Argentine footballer
1974 – Keren Ann, Israeli-Dutch singer
1974 - Biz Stone, American businessman, co-founder of Twitter
1975 - Jerry Horton, American guitarist

From 1976

1976 – Haifa Wehbe, Lebanese singer
1976 - Kisaki, Japanese bass player, singer and songwriter
1976 - Ane Brune, Norwegian singer
1977 – Peter Enckelman, Finnish footballer
1977 - Shannon Miller, American gymnast
1977 – Colin Murray, Northern Irish radio and television presenter
1977 - Robin Thicke, American singer (Blurred Lines)
1977 - Bree Turner, American actress
1978 – Neil Alexander, Scottish footballer
1978 - Benjamin Burnley, American musician
1978 - Camille, French singer
1979 - Danny Pudi, American actor and comedian
1981 – Samuel Eto'o, Cameroonian footballer
1981 – Kokkai Futoshi, Georgian-Japanese sumo wrestler
1981 - Steven Reid, Irish footballer
1982 – Kwame Brown, American basketball player
1983 - Rafe Spall, English actor
1983 - Janet Mock, American writer, television host and activist
1983 – Carrie Underwood, American singer
1984 - Carol Castro, Brazilian actress
1984 – Olivia Wilde, American actress
1985 – Lassana Diarra, French footballer
1985 - Pastor Maldonado, Venezuelan racing driver
1987 - Emeli Sandé, Scottish singer
1987 - Ebba Jungmark, Swedish athlete
1987 - Tuukka Rask, Finnish ice hockey player
1987 - Liu Shishi, Chinese actress and ballerina
1988 – Ivan Rakitic, Croatian footballer
1990 - Inna Deriglazova, Russian foil fencer
1991 - Kadeena Cox, English Paralympic athlete
1992 – Emily Osment, American actress and singer
1993 - Jack Butland, English footballer
1993 - Nooa Takooa, Kiribati athlete
1994 - JoJo Offerman, American wrestler and singer
1995 - Sergey Mozgov, Russian ice dancer
1997 - Belinda Bencic, Swiss tennis player

Deaths

Up to 1900

483 - Pope Simplicius
1291 - Arghun, Persian ruler
1315 - Agnes Blannbekin, Austrian mystic and saint (b. 1244)
1391 - Tvrtko I, King of Bosnia (b. 1338)
1588 – Theodor Zwinger, Swiss scholar (b. 1533)
1607 - Yaqob, Emperor of Ethiopia (b. 1590)
1792 – John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1713)
1826 – King John VI of Portugal (b. 1767)
1832 - Muzio Clementi, Italian composer (b. 1752)
1861 – Taras Shevchenko, Ukrainian poet (b. 1814)
1864 – Maximilian II of Bavaria (b. 1811)
1864 – Jack Slade, American frontier figure (b. 1831)
1872 – Giuseppe Mazzini, Italian politician (b. 1805)
1889 - Yohannes IV, Emperor of Ethiopia (b. 1831)
1889 - Antonio de Trueba, Spanish writer (b. 1819)
1895 - Charles Frederick Worth, English-French fashion designer (b. 1826)
1897 - Savitribai Phule, Indian poet and activist (b. 1831)
1898 - Marie-Eugenie de Jesus, French Catholic nun (b. 1817)

1901 – 2000

1910 – Carl Reinecke, German pianist, conductor and composer (b. 1824)
1910 – Karl Lueger, Mayor of Vienna (b. 1844)
1913 – Harriet Tubman, American abolitionist (b. 1820)
1924 - Chester Hardy Aldrich, American politician, 17th Governor of Nebraska (b. 1862)
1937 – Yevgeny Zamyatin, Russian writer (b. 1884)
1940 – Mikhail Bulgakov, Russian writer (b. 1891)
1942 – William Henry Bragg, English physicist (b. 1862)
1948 – Jan Masaryk, Czechoslovakian politician (b. 1886)
1948 – Zelda Fitzgerald, American writer (b. 1900)
1950 - Marguerite Da La Motte, American actress (b. 1902)
1951 – Kijuro Shidehara, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1872)
1966 – Frits Zernike, Dutch physicist (b. 1888)
1982 - Minoru Shirota, inventor of Yakult (b. 1899)
1984 - June Marlowe, American actress (b. 1903)
1985 – Konstantin Chernenko, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (b. 1911)
1985 – C. B. van Niel, Dutch microbiologist (b. 1897)
1986 - Ray Milland, Welsh-American actor (b. 1907)
1988 – Andy Gibb, English-born singer (b. 1958)
1992 - Giorgos Zampetas, Greek composer and musician (b. 1925)
1997 - LaVern Baker, American actor (b. 1913)
1998 – Lloyd Bridges, American actor (b. 1913)

From 2001

2001 – Massimo Morsello, Italian musician and activist (b. 1958)
2006 – John Profumo, British politician (b. 1915)
2007 - Richard Jeni, American actor (b. 1957)
2010 – Corey Haim, Canadian actor (b. 1971)
2010 – Dorothy Janis, American actress (b. 1910)
2010 – Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy, Egyptian Muslim cleric (b. 1928)
2012 – Jean Giraud, French comic book artist (b. 1938)
2012 – Nick Zoricic, Canadian skier (b. 1983)
2012 - Frank Sherwood Rowland, American chemist and physicist (b. 1927)
2013 - Princess Lilian, Duchess of Halland, British-born Swedish royal (b. 1915)
2014 - Cynthia Lynn, Latvian-American actress (b. 1937)
2014 - Joe McGinniss, American journalist and writer (b. 1942)
2015 - Stuart Wagstaff, British-Australian entertainer (b. 1925)
2015 - Claude Sitton, American newspaper reporter (b. 1925)
2016 - Ken Adam, German-English production designer (b. 1921)
2016 - Ernestine Anderson, American jazz and blues singer (b. 1928)
2016 - Anita Brookner, English writer (b. 1928)
2016 - Keith Emerson, English keyboardist and songwriter (b. 1944)
2016 - Claude Estier, French politician (b. 1925)
2016 - Bill Gadsby, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1927)
2016 - Gogi Grant, American singer (b. 1924)
2016 - Roberto Perfumo, Argentine footballer (b. 1942)
2016 - Jovito Salonga, Filipino lawyer and politician (b. 1920)
2017 - Gido Kokars, Latvian choir conductor (b. 1921)
2017 - Bill Leak, Australian cartoonist (b. 1956)
2017 - John Surtees, English racing driver and motorcycle racer (b. 1934)
2017 - John Forgeham, English actor (b. 1941)
2017 - Tony Haygarth, English actor (b. 1945)
2017 - Joni Sledge, American singer and songwriter (b. 1956)
2017 - Anna Tramontano, Italian biologist (b. 1957)
2017 - Richard Wagamese, Canadian writer and journalist (b. 1955)
2017 - Robert James Waller, American writer (b. 1939)
2018 - Garech Browne, Irish arts patron (b. 1939)
2018 - Hubert de Givenchy, French fashion designer (b. 1927)
2018 - Wally Gould, English footballer (b. 1938)
2018 - Ralf Waldmann, German motorcycle racer (b. 1966)
2018 - Michel Raynaud, French mathematician (b. 1938)
2019 - William Powers Jr., American educator (b. 1946)

Observances

Mar.10 Day: Mario Day of Nintendo
Tibetan Uprising Day (Tibetan Independence Supporters)