March 14

2024 Calendar

March 14 is the 73rd day of the year (74th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 292 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1900

44 BC - Casca and Cassius decide, on the night before Julius Caesar's killing, that Mark Antony should stay alive.
1489 - Queen of Cyprus Catherine Cornaro sells her kingdom to Venice.
1590 - Battle of Ivry: Henry of Navarre and a force of Huguenots defeat forces of the Catholic League under the Duc de Mayenne during the French Wars of Religion.
1647 – Thirty Years' War: Bavaria, Cologne, France and Sweden sign the Truce of Ulm.
1743 – The first town meeting was held in Boston, Massachusetts, at Faneuil Hall.
1780 - American Revolutionary War: Spanish forces capture Fort Charlotte in Mobile, Alabama, the last British frontier post capable of threatening New Orleans in then-Spanish Louisiana.
1794 – Eli Whitney is granted a patent for cotton gin.
1800 - Giorgio Barnaba Luigi Chiaramonti is elected to become Pope Pius VII.
1879 - Albert Einstein is born in Ulm, Southern Germany.
1883 - Communist thinker Karl Marx dies aged 64.
1885 - The Mikado, a light opera by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, receives its first public performance in London.
1888 – A three-day snowstorm in the Eastern US leaves 400 people dead.
1898 – Young Boys Berne Football Club is founded.
1899 - The Belgica expedition in Antarctica can continue again after just over a year of being stuck in pack-ice.
1900 - The Gold Standard Act is ratified, placing United States Currency on the gold standard.

1901 – 2000

1903 - The Hay-Herran Treaty is ratified by the United States Senate, giving the United States the right to build the Panama Canal. It is later rejected by the Senate of Colombia, which at the time still included present-day Panama.
1903 - The Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge is created by Theodore Roosevelt.
1905 – Chelsea FC is founded.
1910 - Blow-out of the Lakeview Number One oil gusher in California.
1915 - World War I: German light cruiser SMS Dresden is abandoned by her crew, after being cornered by the Royal Navy off Chile.
1926 - A train crash between Heredia and Tibas in Costa Rica kills 248 people.
1931 - Aram Ara, India's first talking movie, is released.
1939 – Slovakia declares independence under German pressure.
1942 - Orvan Hess and John Bumstead become the first doctors in the US to treat a patient, Anne Miller, using penicillin.
1943 - Holocaust: The Krakow Ghetto is "liquidated".
1945 - World War II: Royal Air Force's first operational use of a "Grand Slam" bomb in Bielefeld.
1950 - The FBI publishes its Ten Most Wanted list for the first time.
1951 – Korean War: For the second time, UN troops recapture Seoul.
1964 – Jack Ruby is convicted of killing Lee Harvey Oswald.
1967 - The body of John F. Kennedy is moved to a permanent resting place in Arlington National Cemetery.
1972 - Italian publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli is killed in an explosion in Segrate.
1978 - The Israeli Defense Force invades and occupies southern Lebanon.
1979 - In China, a Hawker Siddeley Trident aircraft crashes into a factory near Beijing, killing at least 200 people.
1980 – A plane crash in Poland kills 87 people, including a 14-man American boxing team.
1988 - China defeats Vietnam in a naval battle. This is after China attempted to create oceanographic posts on the disputed Spratly Islands.
1993 - In a referendum, most voters in Andorra decide to adopt a democratic constitution.
1995 – Norman Thagard becomes the first American astronaut on board a Russian launch vehicle.
1997 - Chongqing is placed under rule from the Government of the People's Republic of China.

From 2001

2004 – Russian President Vladimir Putin wins a second term in office. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe deems the election only partially democratic.
2004 – Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is elected Prime Minister of Spain, succeeding Jose Maria Aznar, whose response to the Madrid bombings is seen as a deciding factor in the outcome of the election.
2006 – Members of the Chadian military stage a coup attempt.
2008 - Widespread protests begin in Lhasa and across Tibet.
2012 – The International Criminal Court finds the leader of the Union of Congolese patriots Thomas Lubanga guilty of war crimes.
2012 – United Kingdom: Perth (Scotland), Chelmsford (Essex, England) and Saint Asaph (Wales) become cities.
2015 - Cyclone Pam: A tropical cyclone sweeps across the Pacific island country of Vanuatu, with an unknown number of casualties, and extensive damage.
2016 - The European Space Agency and Roscosmos launch the joint Exomars Trace Gas Orbiter on a mission to Mars.
2018 - Angela Merkel starts her fourth term as Chancellor of Germany after over five months of coalition negotiations.
2018 - The United Kingdom expels 23 Russian diplomats during an ongoing political row between the two countries over the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury.
2019 - The House of Commons of the United Kingdom votes by a majority to extend Brexit.
2019 - Cyclone Idai makes landfall in Mozambique, leading to hundreds of deaths and a humanitarian crisis across the Southeast African region.

Births

Up to 1900

1271 - Stephen I, Duke of Bavaria (d. 1310)
1638 - Johann Georg Gichtel, German mystic (d. 1710)
1681 – Georg Philipp Telemann, German composer (d. 1767)
1782 - Thomas Hunt Benton, American politician (d. 1858)
1790 – Ludwig Emil Grimm, German painter and engraver (d. 1863)
1801 – Kristjan Jaak Peterson, Estonian poet (d. 1822)
1804 – Johann Strauß, Sr., Austrian composer (d. 1849)
1807 – Josephine of Leuchtenberg, Queen of Sweden and Norway (d. 1876)
1820 – Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy, 1st King of Italy (d. 1878)
1821 – Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae, Danish archaeologist (d. 1885)
1822 - Teresa Cristina of the Two Sicilies, Empress of Brazil (d. 1889)
1824 - John Robson, Premier of British Columbia (d. 1892)
1833 – Lucy Hobbs Taylor, first female dentist in the United States (d. 1910)
1835 – Giovanni Schiaparelli, Italian astronomer (d. 1910)
1836 - Isabella Mary Beeton, English cookery writer (d. 1865)
1844 – King Umberto I of Italy (d. 1900)
1848 - Albert Robida, French writer, artist and caricaturist (d. 1926)
1851 - John Sebastian Little, 21st Governor of Arkansas (d. 1916)
1853 - Ferdinand Hodler, Swiss painter (d. 1918)
1854 – Paul Ehrlich, German doctor, won the 1908 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1915)
1854 – Thomas R. Marshall, 28th Vice President of the United States (d. 1925)
1854 - Alexandru Macedonski, Romanian writer (d. 1929)
1862 – Vilhelm Bjerknes, Norwegian physicist (d. 1951)
1864 - Alfred Redl, Austro-Hungarian army chief and Russian spy (d. 1913)
1866 - Alexei Troitsky, Russian chess problemist (d. 1942)
1868 - Emily Murphy, Canadian women's rights activist (d. 1933)
1869 - Algernon Blackwood, British writer (d. 1951)
1874 - Anton Philips, Dutch electronics businessman (d. 1951)
1879 – Albert Einstein, German-born theoretical physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1955)
1880 – Princess Thyra, daughter of Frederick VIII of Denmark (d. 1945)
1882 – Waclaw Sierpinski, Polish mathematician (d. 1969)
1887 - Charles Reisner, American actor and director (d. 1962)
1894 - Osa Johnson, American director and explorer (d. 1953)
1899 - Ricardo Adolfo de Guardia Arango, 21st President of Panama (d. 1969)

1901 – 1950

1901 - Francisco Gamborena, Spanish footballer (d. 1982)
1903 - Mustafa Barzani, Kurdish politician (d. 1979)
1904 - Doris Eaton Travis, American actress (d. 2010)
1905 - Raymond Aron, French journalist, sociologist and philosopher (d. 1983)
1908 – Maurice Merleau-Ponty, French philosopher (d. 1961)
1911 – Akira Yoshizawa, Japanese origamist (d. 2005)
1912 - Les Brown, American bandleader (d. 2001)
1920 - Hank Ketcham, American cartoonist (d. 2001)
1920 - Dorothy Tyler-Odam, British high jumper (d. 2014)
1921 - S. Truett Cathy, American entrepreneur (d. 2014)
1922 - China Zorrilla, Uruguayan actress (d. 2014)
1922 - Les Baxter, American orchestra leader and arranger (d. 1996)
1923 – Diane Arbus, American photographer (d. 1971)
1925 - William Clay Ford, Sr., American businessman (d. 2014)
1926 - François Morel, Canadian pianist, conductor and music educator
1927 - Philippe Lemaire, French actor (d. 2004)
1928 – Frank Borman, American astronaut
1928 - Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente, Spanish environmentalist (d. 1980)
1929 - Kirill Kovaldzhi, Russian writer, poet and critic (d. 2017)
1931 – Lisbet Palme, wife of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme (d. 2018)
1932 – Naina Yeltsina, wife of Russian President Boris Yeltsin
1932 - Mark Murphy, American jazz singer (d. 2015)
1933 - René Felber, Swiss politician
1933 - Ian Pieris, Sri Lankan cricketer (d. 2016)
1933 – Michael Caine, British actor and director
1933 – Quincy Jones, American musician and bandleader (d. 2024)
1934 – Eugene Cernan, American astronaut (d. 2017)
1934 - Paul Rader, 15th General of the Salvation Army
1934 - Dionigi Tettamanzi, Italian cardinal (d. 2017)
1936 - Bob Charles, New Zealand golfer
1938 - Jan Crouch, American televangelist (d. 2016)
1939 – Pilar Bardem, Spanish actress
1939 - Bertrand Blier, French movie director and screenwriter
1939 - Yves Boisset, French movie director and screenwriter
1939 - Raymond J. Barry, American television, movie and stage actor
1940 - Masahiro Hamazaki, Japanese footballer
1940 - Julian Hunte, Saint Lucian diplomat
1941 - Gordon Neate, English footballer (d. 2019)
1941 – Wolfgang Petersen, German director
1942 - Rita Tushingham, British actress
1944 - Vaclav Nedomansky, Czech ice hockey player
1945 – Jasper Carrott, British comedian
1945 – Pakalitha Mosisili, Prime Minister of Lesotho
1945 - Walter Parazaider, American jazz saxophonist
1946 - Zygmunt Anczok, Polish footballer
1946 - Gianni Bella, Italian singer
1946 - Steve Kanaly, American actor
1946 - Wes Unseld, American basketball player
1947 – Pam Ayres, British poet
1947 - William J. Jefferson, American politician
1947 - Peter Skellern, English singer and composer (d. 2017)
1948 – Billy Crystal, American actor and comedian
1948 - Tom Coburn, American politician (d. 2020)
1948 - Theo Jansen, Dutch artist
1949 - Helle Meri, former First Lady of Estonia

1951 – 1975

1951 - Jerry Greenfield, American businessman, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's ice cream
1955 - Daniel Bertoni, Argentine footballer
1956 – Tessa Sanderson, British athlete
1956 - Sean Mathias, Welsh theatre and movie director, actor and writer
1957 - Franco Frattini, Italian politician
1957 - Tad Williams, American writer
1958 – Albert II, Prince of Monaco
1958 - Leonhard Stock, Austrian skier
1958 - Francine Stock, British broadcaster
1959 - Steve Byrnes, American producer (d. 2015)
1959 - Laila Robins, American actress
1959 - Tamara Tunie, American actress
1960 - Kirby Puckett, American baseball player (d. 2006)
1961 - Mike Lazaridis, Turkish-Canadian businessman
1962 - Narumi Tsunoda, Japanese voice actress
1963 - Pedro Duque, Spanish astronaut
1963 - Mahiro Maeda, Japanese animator, anime director and character designer
1964 - Dario Bisso, Italian conductor and composer
1965 – Aamir Khan, Indian actor
1965 - Kevin Williamson, American screenwriter, producer, director and actor
1965 - Kiana Tom, American actress, television host and writer
1966 - Johan Elmer, Danish movie director, screenwriter and actor
1966 - Elise Neal, American actress
1966 - Gary Anthony Williams, American actor
1967 - Michael Fincke, American astronaut
1967 - Osvaldo Moles, Brazilian journalist
1968 - Megan Follows, American actress
1970 - Junior Baiano, Brazilian footballer
1970 - Chris Hondros, American photographer (d. 2011)
1972 - Irom Sharmila, Indian Manipuri activist
1973 - Rohit Shetty, Indian movie director
1974 - Patrick Traverse, Canadian ice hockey player
1975 – Fredrik Ericsson, Swedish climber (d. 2010)
1975 - Steve Harper, English footballer
1975 - Rushanara Ali, Bangladeshi-English politician

From 1976

1976 – Phil Vickery, English rugby player
1976 - Daniel Gillies, Canadian-New Zealand actor
1977 - Kim Nam-Il, South Korean footballer
1977 – Matthew Booth, South African footballer
1977 – Naoki Matsuda, Japanese footballer (d. 2011)
1977 – Vadims Fjodorovs, Latvian footballer
1977 - Ida Corr, Danish singer and composer
1978 – Carlo Giuliani, Italian anarchist (d. 2001)
1978 – Pieter van den Hoogenband, Dutch swimmer
1979 – Gao Ling, Chinese badminton player
1979 – Nicolas Anelka, French footballer
1980 - Matteo Grassotto, Italian racing driver
1981 - Jan Polak, Czech footballer
1982 – François Sterchele, Belgian footballer (d. 2008)
1982 – Carlos Marinelli, Argentine footballer
1982 - Kate Maberly, English actress and musician
1983 - Bakhtiyar Artayev, Kazakhstani boxer
1983 – Taylor Hanson, American musician
1983 - Anas Sarwar, Scottish politician
1984 - Liesel Pritzker Simmons, American actress
1985 – Idaira, Spanish singer
1985 - Ian Black, Scottish footballer
1985 - Eva Angelina, American pornographic actress and model
1985 - Brianna Love, American pornographic actress
1986 – Jamie Bell, English actor
1988 - Lautaro Acosta, Argentine footballer
1988 – Stephen Curry, American basketball player
1988 - Sasha Grey, American pornographic actress and musician
1989 - Colby O'Donis, American singer
1990 - Joe Allen, Welsh footballer
1990 - Kolbeinn Sigthorsson, Icelandic footballer
1990 - Triin Ojaste, Estonian skier
1991 - Gotoku Sakai, Japanese footballer
1992 - Jasmine Murray, American singer
1994 - Ansel Elgort, American actor
1997 - Simone Biles, American gymnast

Deaths

Up to 1900

313 – Jin Huidi, Chinese Emperor (b. 284)
840 - Einhard, French writer and historian (b. 770)
968 – Matilda of Ringelheim, German Queen (b. 895)
1457 – Jingtai Emperor of China (b. 1428)
1632 – Tokugawa Hidetada, Japanese shogun (b. 1579)
1647 – Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange (b. 1584)
1757 - John Byng, English admiral (b. 1704)
1765 - Ayagawa Gorogi, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1703)
1803 – Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, German writer (b. 1774)
1805 - Stanislaw Szczesny Potocki, Russian general (b. 1753)
1811 – Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, British Prime Minister (b. 1735)
1860 - Carl Ritter von Ghega, Italian engineer (b. 1802)
1877 – Juan Manuel de Rosas, Argentine military leader (b. 1793)
1883 – Karl Marx, German political theorist (b. 1818)
1884 – Quintino Sella, Italian statesman (b. 1827)

1901 – 2000

1921 - Larry McLean, Canadian-American baseball player (b. 1881)
1932 – George Eastman, American inventor (b. 1854)
1933 - Balto, famous Siberian husky (b. 1919)
1946 - Werner von Blomberg, German field marshal (b. 1878)
1949 - John Callan O'Laughlin, American journalist and politician (b. 1873)
1953 - Klement Gottwald, Czechoslovakian politician (b. 1896)
1957 - Evagoras Pallikarides, Greek-Cypriot freedom fighter (b. 1938)
1965 - Marion Jones Farquhar, American tennis player (b. 1879)
1972 - Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, Italian publisher and political activist (b. 1926)
1973 – Howard Aiken, American engineer (b. 1900)
1973 - Chic Young, American cartoonist (b. 1901)
1973 - Rafael Godoy, Colombian composer (b. 1907)
1975 - Susan Hayward, American actress (b. 1917)
1975 - Günther Reindorff, Estonian graphic designer (b. 1899)
1976 - Busby Berkeley, American choreographer and director (b. 1895)
1977 – Fannie Lou Hamer, American Civil Rights activist (b. 1917)
1980 – Mohammad Hatta, Indonesian politician (b. 1902)
1980 - Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente, Spanish environmentalist (b. 1928)
1983 - Maurice Ronet, French movie actor (b. 1927)
1984 - Hovhannes Shiraz, Armenian poet (b. 1915)
1989 – Zita of Bourbon-Parma, last Empress of Austria (b. 1892)
1989 – Edward Abbey, American writer and environmental activist (b. 1927)
1991 – Howard Ashman, American lyricist and playwright (b. 1950)
1991 - Doc Pomus, American singer-songwriter (b. 1925)
1992 – Jean Noiret, French actor, director and screenwriter (b. 1926)
1995 – William Alfred Fowler, American physicist (b. 1911)
1997 - Fred Zinnemann, Austrian-American director (b. 1907)

From 2001

2005 – Akira Yoshizawa, Japanese origamist (b. 1911)
2006 – Lennart Meri, President of Estonia (b. 1929)
2007 - Lucie Aubrac, French Resistance activist (b. 1912)
2008 – Chiara Lubich, Italian Catholic activist and founder of the Focolare (b. 1920)
2009 – Alain Bashung, French singer and actor (b. 1947)
2010 – Peter Graves, American actor (b. 1926)
2012 – Censu Tabone, 4th President of Malta (b. 1913)
2013 - Mirja Hietamies, Finnish skier (b. 1931)
2013 - Ieng Sary, Vietnamese-Cambodian Khmer Rouge politician (b. 1925)
2014 - Tony Benn, British politician (b. 1925)
2014 - Glenn McDuffie, American World War II sailor (b. 1927)
2014 - Otakar Brousek, Sr., Czech actor (b. 1924)
2014 - Meir Har-Zion, Israeli military commando (b. 1934)
2014 - Ken Utsui, Japanese actor (b. 1931)
2014 - Werner Rackwitz, German opera director (b. 1929)
2014 - Sam Lacey, American basketball player (b. 1948)
2015 - Valentin Rasputin, Russian writer (b. 1937)
2016 - Peter Maxwell Davies, British composer (b. 1934)
2016 - Riccardo Garrone, Italian actor (b. 1926)
2016 - Suranimala Rajapaksha, Sri Lankan politician (b. 1949)
2016 - John W. Cahn, American metallurgist (b. 1928)
2016 - Davy Walsh, Irish footballer (b. 1923)
2017 - Jack H. Harris, American film producer (b. 1918)
2017 - Jim McAnearney, Scottish footballer (b. 1935)
2017 - Royal Robbins, American rock climber and writer (b. 1935)
2017 - Rodrigo Valdéz, Colombian boxer (b. 1946)
2017 - John Van de Kamp, American politician and attorney (b. 1936)
2017 - André Tosel, French philosopher (b. 1941)
2018 - Stephen Hawking, British physicist, cosmologist and mathematician (b. 1942)
2018 - Jim Bowen, British comedian and television presenter (b. 1937)
2018 - Emilio Disi, Argentine actor and humourist (b. 1943)
2018 - Marielle Franco, Brazilian politician (b. 1979)
2018 - Narendra Jha, Indian actor (b. 1962)
2018 - Adrian Lamo, Colombian-American computer hacker and political activist (b. 1981)
2018 - Liam O'Flynn, Irish uilleann piper (b. 1945)
2019 - Birch Bayh, American politician and United States Senator (b. 1928)
2019 - Godfried Danneels, Belgian cardinal (b. 1933)
2019 - Ralph Metzner, American psychologist (b. 1936)
2019 - William Stanley Peart, British physician and clinical researcher (b. 1922)
2019 - Charlie Whiting, British motorsports director (b. 1952)

Observances

Pi Day
National Mother Tongue Day (Estonia) celebrating the birthday of the poet Kristjan Jaak Peterson
White Day (Japan and Korea)
Spring Day (Albania)
Heroes' Day (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines)
Nanakshahi New Year (Sikhism)