Today in History

March 4 (Reuters) – Following are some of the major events to have occurred on March 4:

1913 – Woodrow Wilson was sworn in as 28th U.S. president, only the second Democrat to hold the office since the Civil War.

1922 – Inauguration of U.S. President Warren G. Harding.

2001 – Cows and sheep destroyed in Scotland after foot-and-mouth outbreak.

2002 – Veteran ethnic Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova was elected president of Kosovo in a vote that marked a major step towards self-rule in the province.

2004 – Horst Koehler resigned as head of the International Monetary Fund to seek the German presidency.

2005 – Italian secret service agent Nicola Calipari was mistakenly shot dead by U.S. soldiers in Baghdad while trying to shield a journalist whose release from kidnappers he had just secured.

2007 – Henri Troyat, one of the great figures of modern French literature and one of France’s most popular biographers, died aged 95.

2011 – Fire rips through Mumbai shanty town.

2012 – Train crash in Poland, killing at least 14 people.

2012 – Several explosions in DRC kill more than 200 people.

2015 – Commemorative 150th anniversary banknote unveiled in Hong Kong.

Image credit: Picryl

March 3 (Reuters) – Following are some of the major events to have occurred on March 3:

1918 – Germany and its allies signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Russia, ending hostilities between them in World War One.

1931 – “The Star-Spangled Banner” was adopted as the U.S. national anthem.

1959 – Lou Costello, U.S. actor who with Bud Abbott made up the comedy duo Abbott and Costello, died.

1991 – Amateur video captures LA police officers beating Rodney King.

1996 – French writer Marguerite Duras died. Among her best-known works was the screenplay for “Hiroshima Mon Amour”.

2002 – Swiss voters abandoned centuries of political isolationism and narrowly agreed that their staunchly neutral country should join the United Nations.

2003 – Greece started the trial of 19 suspected Nov. 17 guerrillas in an Athens prison in one of the most sensational cases in the country’s history. Fifteen of the defendants were later found guilty of some 2,500 crimes. The four others were acquitted.

2007 – George W. Bush tours tornado damage at Alabama high school.

2009 – A dozen gunmen attacked Sri Lanka’s cricket team with rifles, grenades and rockets, wounding six players and a British coach and killing at least eight Pakistanis in Lahore.

2013 – Berliners protest against demolition of remaining Berlin Wall section.

2017 – Nintendo launches Switch games console.

March 2 (Reuters) – Following are some of the events to have occurred on March 2:

1917 – Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicated.

1962 – The Burmese army, led by Ne Win, seized power in a coup.

1998 – The film “Titanic” became the first to earn $1 billion.

2002 – Pope John Paul II paid Moscow a “virtual visit”, joining his flock through a live satellite broadcast, despite opposition from the Orthodox Church.

2002 – Martha Catalina Daniels, a Colombian senator from the opposition Liberal Party, was shot dead near Zipacon, 25 miles (40 km) west of Bogota, in a killing blamed on FARC rebels.

2003 – Alinghi, the yacht representing landlocked Switzerland, became the first European team to win the Americas Cup, world sport’s oldest trophy.

2003 – Half a million Algerians gave French President Jacques Chirac a rousing welcome at the start of the first full state visit by a French president since Algeria won independence in 1962.

2008 – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Baghdad, the first visit by an Iranian president since Saddam Hussein launched an eight-year war on Iran in 1980, in which 1 million people died.

2014 – Dozens dead in China’s Kunming train station stabbing.

2015 – Volkswagen Passat named car of the year at 85th Geneva Auto Show.

2015 – Royal Mint unveils new portrait of Queen for coins.

March 1 (Reuters) – Following are some of the major events to have occurred on March 1:

1932 – The 20-month-old son of the American aviator Charles Lindbergh was kidnapped; he was found dead in May.

1999 – General Olusegun Obasanjo was declared Nigeria’s president-elect.

2001 – The Fiji Court of Appeal ruled that Fiji’s military-backed ethnic-Fijian-dominated interim government was illegal, and said the multi-racial 1997 constitution remained the law of the land.

2001 – Fatal train crash in Yorkshire, Northern England.

2003 – Roy Jones Jr. beat John Ruiz and claimed the WBA heavyweight title, becoming the first fighter in 106 years to capture middleweight, light-heavyweight and heavyweight crowns.

2004 – Iraq’s Governing Council agreed on an interim constitution, marking a crucial step forward in the United States’ plan to hand sovereignty back to Iraqis.

2005 – 75th Geneva International Auto Show opens.

2008 – The blind Canadian jazz guitarist Jeff Healey, known for his blues-based rock and his distinctive playing style, with the instrument across his lap, died aged 41.

2010 – Peru and China reach historic trade deal.

2012 – In and Out Club, one of London’s oldest private members clubs, celebrates its 150th anniversary.

2017 – Airstrike against Islamic State militants in Mosul, Iraq.

Feb 29 (Reuters) – Following are some of the major events to have occurred on February 29:

1922 – Britain formally declared Egypt’s independence, but retained control of the Suez Canal and the country’s defence.

1994 – South Korean, 73, breaks record with 612 chin-ups

1996 – British luxury ship Sajafjord under tow in South China Sea after losing power.

1996 – In the worst accident in Peru’s history, a Faucett airline Boeing 737 crashed in the Andes killing all 117 passengers and six crew. The plane, on a flight from Lima, crashed at the city of Arequipa, 625 miles south of Lima.

2004 – Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigns.

2004 – “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” won a record-tying 11 Oscar awards, including best film.

2011 – Protesters, police clash in front of Interior Ministry in Cairo.

2012 – Russia’s Yelena Isinbayeva breaks indoor pole vault world record.

2012 – Lady Gaga launches Born This Way Foundation at Harvard University.

2012 – Construction on Tokyo Sky Tree building is completed.

2012 – Vatican opens secret archives.

Feb 25 (Reuters) – Following are some of the major events to have occurred on February 25:

1921 – Russian soldiers capture Tbilisi and declare the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic.

1948 – In Czechoslovakia, President Edvard Benes accepted the resignations of non-Communist ministers. Communists took control of the government in the “February Coup”.

1964 – Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) became world heavyweight boxing champion, defeating Sonny Liston in Miami.

1993 – Kim Young-sam was sworn in as South Korea’s first civilian president for 32 years.

1996 – Haing Ngor, whose Academy Award-winning performance in the film “The Killing Fields” mirrored his own ordeal at the hands of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge, was murdered in Los Angeles.

2001 – Sir Donald Bradman, the greatest batsman in test cricket history and Australia’s most revered sporting figure, died, aged 92. He averaged 99.94 runs in 52 test matches.

2005 – Peter Benenson, founder of the Nobel Prize-winning human rights group Amnesty International, died at 83.

2009 – Turkish Airlines flight 1951 crashes in Amsterdam.

2013 – Buddhist monks pray on Makha Bucha Day.

2015 – Dozens dead in Afghanistan avalanches.

2016 – High seas leave Carolina Queen III fishing vessel capsizes near New York.

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Feb 24 (Reuters) – Following are some of the major events to have occurred on February 24:

1935 – Grand Prix in Pau.

1946 – Juan Peron elected as president in Argentina.

2000 – Philippines Mayon Volcano erupts, causing thousands to flee their homes in towns around Legazpi.

2002 – For the first time in 74 years of the Oscars, two black film stars won the awards for Best Actor and Best Actress: Denzel Washington for “Training Day” and Halle Berry for “Monster’s Ball”.

2002 – Closing ceremony of Salt Lake Winter Olympics in United States.

2004 – Earthquake hits Morocco kills at least 220 people.

2006 – Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declares state of emergency.

2007 – Virgin train high-speed crash in northern Britain.

2008 – Raul Castro was named president of Cuba, ending his brother Fidel’s 49-year rule but keeping the country on a communist path. ($1=.7283 Euro)

2010 – Anti-government protests in Athens.

2015 – Metrolink train derails in California after hitting a tractor trailer stopped on its tracks during morning rush hour.

Image credit: Flickr

Feb 23 (Reuters) – Following are some major events which have occurred on February 23:

1934 – Edward Elgar, English composer, died.

1965 – Stan Laurel, British-born half of the Laurel and Hardy comedy duo, died.

1981 – Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Tejero and a group of Civil Guards burst into the Spanish parliament, firing shots in an unsuccessful coup attempt.

1991 – Thailand’s armed forces seized power in a bloodless coup and arrested Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan.

1997 – World’s first clone of an adult animal “Dolly the Sheep”.

2000 – German soccer player Lothar Matthaeus sets world record for playing 144th international match.

2003 – Howie Epstein, guitarist and songwriter with the rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, died aged 47.

2003 – Singer Norah Jones wins five Grammy Awards.

2007 – Lothar-Guenther Buchheim, author of the German World War Two novel “Das Boot”, died aged 89.

2008 – Former Slovenian President Janez Drnovsek, an architect of the country’s independence from former Yugoslavia, died.

2012 – Series of fatal bombings across Iraq.

Feb 17 (Reuters) – Following are some of the major events to have occurred on February 17:

1904 – Madama Butterfly premiere in Milan.

1919 – Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Canadian Liberal prime minister from 1896-1911, died. He was the first French Canadian to be prime minister of Canada.

1933 – U.S. Senate passes act ending prohibition.

1982 – Zimbabwean Prime Minister Robert Mugabe sacked Joshua Nkomo from the government for allegedly plotting against the ruling ZANU-PF Party.

1997 – Pakistani President Farooq Leghari, who had sacked Benazir Bhutto’s government, swore in Nawaz Sharif as new prime minister.

2002 – France bid an unemotional farewell to its 641-year-old currency as the franc lived its last day as legal tender after a swift changeover to the euro.

2004 – Former Mexican President Jose Lopez Portillo, famous for swearing to defend the peso “like a dog” shortly before devaluing, died. He was 83.

2006 – Mudslides triggered by heavy rains entombed nearly 1,000 people in the Philippine province of Southern Leyte.

2007 – Maurice Papon, the only French Nazi official to be convicted for his role in the deportation of Jews during World War Two, died aged 96.

2009 – U.S. President Barack Obama signed a $787 billion economic stimulus bill – described as part of a broad plan to solve U.S. economic ills – into law.

2016 – Explosion in Ankara targets military personnel.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

Feb 16 (Reuters) – Following are some of the events to have occurred on February 16:

1899 – French President Felix Francois Faure died.

1936 – Winter Olympics closing ceremony in Germany.

1944 – Allied aircraft bombed the Japanese naval base at Truk, Caroline Islands, destroying 201 planes.

1960 – The U.S. nuclear submarine Triton began its underwater round-the-world trip.

1998 – A China Airlines Airbus crashed at Taipei’s international airport, killing 203 people.

1999 – Turkish special forces flew Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan to Turkey after spiriting him out of Kenya; his capture ignited a Europe-wide wave of Kurdish demonstrations.

2002 – Sir Walter Winterbottom, the England football team’s first and longest-serving manager, died. He was 89. He took charge in 1947 and presided over the England team at four World Cups before being replaced by Alf Ramsey in 1962.

2002 – Dutch speed skater Gerard van Velde sets new world record in 1000 m event at Olympic Games in Salt Lake City.

2005 – The Kyoto Protocol on curbing human emissions of heat-trapping gases by 2012 came into force, but was rejected as an economic straitjacket by the United States, the world’s top polluter.

2006 – Islamist group Hamas chose Ismail Haniyeh to be the next Palestinian prime minister.

2009 – South Korean Roman Catholic Cardinal Stephen Kim, also known as Kim Sou-hwan, who used his pulpit as a platform to help bring down the country’s authoritarian leaders and instil democracy, died.