24 March

Events

Pre-1600

*1199 – King Richard I of England is wounded by a crossbow bolt while fighting in France, leading to his death on April 6.
*1387 – English victory over a Franco- Castilian-Flemish fleet in the Battle of Margate off the coast of Margate.
*1401 – Turco-Mongol emperor Timur sacks Damascus.

1601–1900

*1603 – James VI of Scotland is proclaimed King James I of England and Ireland, upon the death of Elizabeth I.
* 1603 – Tokugawa Ieyasu is granted the title of ''shōgun'' from Emperor Go-Yōzei, and establishes the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo, Japan.
*1663 – The Province of Carolina is granted by charter to eight Lords Proprietor in reward for their assistance in restoring Charles II of England to the throne.
*1720 – Count Frederick of Hesse-Kassel is elected King of Sweden by the Riksdag of the Estates, after his consort Ulrika Eleonora abdicated the throne on 29 February.
*1721 – Johann Sebastian Bach dedicated six concertos to Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg-Schwedt, now commonly called the Brandenburg Concertos, BWV 1046–1051.
*1765 – Great Britain passes the Quartering Act, which requires the Thirteen Colonies to house British troops.
*1794 – In Kraków, Tadeusz Kościuszko announces a general uprising against Imperial Russia and the Kingdom of Prussia, and assumes the powers of the Commander in Chief of all of the Polish forces.
*1829 – The Parliament of the United Kingdom passes the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829, allowing Catholics to serve in Parliament.
*1832 – In Hiram, Ohio, a group of men beat and tar and feather Mormon leader Joseph Smith.
*1854 – President José Gregorio Monagas abolishes slavery in Venezuela.
*1860 – Sakuradamon Incident: Japanese Chief Minister ( Tairō) Ii Naosuke is assassinated by ''rōnin'' ''samurai'' outside the Sakurada Gate of Edo Castle.
*1869 – The last of Titokowaru's forces surrendered to the New Zealand government, ending his uprising.
*1878 – The British frigate sinks, killing more than 300.
*1882 – Robert Koch announces the discovery of ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'', the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis.
*1900 – Mayor of New York City Robert Anderson Van Wyck breaks ground for a new underground " Rapid Transit Railroad" that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn.
*1900 – Carnegie Steel Company is formed in New Jersey; its capitalization of $160 mil. is the largest to date.

1901–present

*1921 – The 1921 Women's Olympiad began in Monte Carlo, becoming the first international women's sports event.
*1927 – Nanking Incident: Foreign warships bombard Nanjing, China, in defense of the foreign citizens within the city.
*1934 – The Tydings–McDuffie Act is passed by the United States Congress, allowing the Philippines to become a self-governing commonwealth.
*1944 – German troops massacre 335 Italian civilians in Rome.
* 1944 – World War II: In an event later dramatized in the movie '' The Great Escape'', 76 Allied prisoners of war begin breaking out of the German camp Stalag Luft III.
*1946 – A British Cabinet Mission arrives in India to discuss and plan for the transfer of power from the British Raj to Indian leadership.
*1949 – Hanns Albin Rauter, a chief SS and Police Leader, in the Netherlands, is convicted and executed for crimes against humanity.
*1961 – The Quebec Board of the French Language is established.
*1972 – Direct rule is imposed on Northern Ireland by the Government of the United Kingdom under Edward Heath.
*1976 – In Argentina, the armed forces overthrow the constitutional government of President Isabel Perón and start a 7-year dictatorial period self-styled the ''National Reorganization Process''.
*1977 – Morarji Desai became the Prime Minister of India, the first Prime Minister not to belong to Indian National Congress.
*1980 – El Salvadorian Archbishop Óscar Romero is assassinated while celebrating Mass in San Salvador.
*1982 – Bangladeshi President Abdus Sattar is deposed in a bloodless coup led by Army Chief Lieutenant general Hussain Muhammad Ershad, who suspends the Constitution and imposes martial law.
*1986 – The Loscoe gas explosion leads to new UK laws on landfill gas migration and gas protection on landfill sites.
*1989 – In Prince William Sound in Alaska, the '' Exxon Valdez'' spills of crude oil after running aground.
*1990 – Indian intervention in the Sri Lankan Civil War ends with last ship of Indian Peace Keeping Force leaving Sri Lanka.
*1993 – Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 is discovered by Carolyn and Eugene Shoemaker, and David Levy at the Palomar Observatory in California.
*1998 – Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden, aged 11 and 13 respectively, fire upon teachers and students at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas; five people are killed and ten are wounded.
* 1998 – A tornado sweeps through Dantan in India, killing 250 people and injuring 3,000 others.
* 1998 – Dr. Rüdiger Marmulla performed the first computer-assisted Bone Segment Navigation at the University of Regensburg, Germany.
*1999 – Kosovo War: NATO began attacks on Yugoslavia without United Nations Security Council (UNSC) approval, marking the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign country.
* 1999 – A lorry carrying margarine and flour catches fire inside the Mont Blanc Tunnel, creating an inferno that kills 38 people.
*2003 – The Arab League votes 21–1 in favor of a resolution demanding an end to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
*2008 – Bhutan officially becomes a democracy, with its first ever general election.
*2015 – Germanwings Flight 9525 crashes in the French Alps in an apparent pilot mass murder-suicide, killing all 150 people on board.
*2018 – Syrian civil war: The Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) and Syrian National Army (SNA) take full control of Afrin District, marking the end of the Afrin offensive.
* 2018 – Students across the United States stage the March for Our Lives demanding gun control in response to the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.
*2019 – Jakarta MRT, a rapid transit system in Jakarta, began operation.

Births

Pre-1600

*1103 – Yue Fei, Chinese military general (d. 1142)
*1441 – Ernest, Elector of Saxony, German ruler of Saxony (d. 1486)
*1494 – Georgius Agricola, German mineralogist and scholar (d. 1555)
*1577 – Francis, Duke of Pomerania-Stettin, Bishop of Cammin (d. 1620)

1601–1900

*1607 – Michiel de Ruyter, Dutch admiral (d. 1667)
*1628 – Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg (d. 1685)
*1657 – Arai Hakuseki, Japanese academic and politician (d. 1725)
*1693 – John Harrison, English carpenter and clock-maker, invented the Marine chronometer (d. 1776)
*1725 – Samuel Ashe, American lawyer and politician, 9th Governor of North Carolina (d. 1813)
* 1725 – Thomas Cushing, American lawyer and politician, 1st Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1788)
* 1755 – Rufus King, American lawyer and politician, United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom (d. 1827)
*1762 – Marcos Portugal, Portuguese organist and composer (d. 1830)
*1775 – Muthuswami Dikshitar, Indian poet and composer (d. 1835)
*1782 – Orest Kiprensky, Russian-Italian painter (d. 1836)
*1796 – Zulma Carraud, French author (d. 1889)
* 1796 – John Corry Wilson Daly, Canadian businessman and politician (d. 1878)
*1803 – Egerton Ryerson, Canadian minister, educator, and politician (d. 1882)
*1808 – Maria Malibran, Spanish-French soprano (d. 1836)
*1809 – Mariano José de Larra, Spanish journalist and author (d. 1837)
* 1809 – Joseph Liouville, French mathematician and academic (d. 1882)
*1816 – Pelagio Antonio de Labastida y Dávalos, Mexican politician and Roman Catholic archbishop, regent during the Second Mexican Empire (d. 1891)
*1820 – Edmond Becquerel, French physicist and academic (d. 1891)
* 1820 – Fanny Crosby, American poet and composer (d. 1915)
*1823 – Thomas Spencer Baynes, English philosopher and critic (d. 1887)
*1826 – Matilda Joslyn Gage, American activist and author (d. 1898)
*1828 – Horace Gray, American lawyer and jurist (d. 1902)
*1829 – George Francis Train, American businessman (d. 1904)
* 1829 – Ignacio Zaragoza, Mexican general (d. 1862)
*1830 – Robert Hamerling, Austrian poet and playwright (d. 1889)
*1834 – William Morris, English textile designer, poet, and author (d. 1896)
* 1834 – John Wesley Powell, American soldier, geologist, and explorer (d. 1902)
*1835 – Joseph Stefan, Austrian physicist, mathematician, and poet (d. 1893)
*1848 – Honoré Beaugrand, Canadian journalist and politician, 18th Mayor of Montreal (d. 1906)
*1850 – Silas Hocking, English minister and author (d. 1935)
*1854 – Henry Lefroy, Australian politician, 11th Premier of Western Australia (d. 1930)
*1855 – Andrew W. Mellon, American banker, financier, and diplomat, 49th United States Secretary of the Treasury (d. 1937)
* 1855 – Olive Schreiner, South African author and activist (d. 1920)
*1862 – Frank Weston Benson, American painter and educator (d. 1951)
*1869 – Émile Fabre, French author and playwright (d. 1955)
*1871 – Alec Hurley, English music hall singer (d. 1913)
*1874 – Luigi Einaudi, Italian economist and politician, 2nd President of the Italian Republic (d. 1961)
* 1874 – Harry Houdini, Hungarian-Jewish American magician and actor (d. 1926)
*1875 – William Burns, Canadian lacrosse player (d. 1953)
*1879 – Neyzen Tevfik, Turkish philosopher, poet, and composer (d. 1953)
*1882 – Marcel Lalu, French gymnast (d. 1951)
* 1882 – George Monckton-Arundell, 8th Viscount Galway, English politician, 5th Governor-General of New Zealand (d. 1943)
*1883 – Dorothy Campbell, Scottish-American golfer (d. 1945)
*1884 – Peter Debye, Dutch-American physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1966)
* 1884 – Chika Kuroda, Japanese chemist (d. 1968)
* 1884 – Eugène Tisserant, French cardinal (d. 1972)
*1885 – Charles Daniels, American swimmer (d. 1973)
* 1885 – Dimitrie Cuclin, Romanian violinist and composer (d. 1978)
*1886 – Edward Weston, American photographer (d. 1958)
* 1886 – Robert Mallet-Stevens, French architect and designer (d. 1945)
*1887 – Roscoe Arbuckle, American actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 1933)
*1888 – Viktor Kingissepp, Estonian politician (d. 1922)
*1889 – Albert Hill, English-Canadian runner (d. 1969)
*1890 – Agnes Macphail, Canadian educator and politician (d. 1954)
*1891 – Sergey Ivanovich Vavilov, Russian physicist and academic (d. 1951)
*1892 – Marston Morse, American mathematician and academic (d. 1977)
*1893 – Walter Baade, German astronomer and author (d. 1960)
* 1893 – George Sisler, American baseball player and scout (d. 1973)
*1897 – Wilhelm Reich, Austrian-American psychotherapist and academic (d. 1957)

1901–present

*1901 – Ub Iwerks, American animator, director, and producer, co-created Mickey Mouse (d. 1971)
*1902 – Thomas E. Dewey, American lawyer and politician, 47th Governor of New York (d. 1971)
*1903 – Adolf Butenandt, German biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)
* 1903 – Malcolm Muggeridge, English journalist, author, and scholar (d. 1990)
*1905 – Pura Santillan-Castrence, Filipino author and diplomat (d. 2007)
*1907 – Paul Sauvé, Canadian lawyer and politician, 17th Premier of Quebec (d. 1960)
*1909 – Clyde Barrow, American criminal (d. 1934)
*1909 – Richard Wurmbrand, Romanian pastor and evangelist (d. 2001)
*1910 – Richard Conte, American actor, singer, and director (d. 1975)
*1911 – Joseph Barbera, American animator, director, and producer, co-founded Hanna-Barbera (d. 2006)
*1912 – Dorothy Height, African-American educator and activist (d. 2010)
*1915 – Eugène Martin, French racing driver (d. 2006)
*1916 – Donald Hamilton, Swedish-American soldier and author (d. 2006)
* 1916 – Harry B. Whittington, English palaeontologist and academic (d. 2010)
*1917 – Constantine Andreou, Greek painter and sculptor (d. 2007)
* 1917 – John Kendrew, English biochemist and crystallographer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1997)
*1919 – Lawrence Ferlinghetti, American poet and publisher, co-founded City Lights Bookstore (d. 2021)
* 1919 – Robert Heilbroner, American economist and historian (d. 2005)
*1920 – Gene Nelson, American actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 1996)
* 1920 – Mary Stolz, American author (d. 2006)
*1921 – Franciszek Blachnicki, Polish priest (d. 1987)
* 1921 – Vasily Smyslov, Russian chess player (d. 2010)
*1922 – Onna White, Canadian dancer and choreographer (d. 2005)
*1923 – Murray Hamilton, American actor (d. 1986)
* 1923 – Michael Legat, English author and publisher (d. 2011)
*1924 – Norman Fell, American actor (d. 1998)
*1925 – Puig Aubert, German-French rugby league player and coach (d. 1994)
*1926 – Desmond Connell, Irish cardinal (d. 2017)
* 1926 – Dario Fo, Italian playwright, actor, director, and composer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2016)
* 1926 – William Porter, American hurdler (d. 2000)
*1927 – John Woodland Hastings, American biochemist and academic (d. 2014)
* 1927 – Martin Walser, German author and playwright
*1928 – Byron Janis, American pianist and composer
*1929 – Pat Renella, Italian-American actor (d. 2012)
*1930 – David Dacko, Central African politician, 1st President of the Central African Republic (d. 2003)
* 1930 – Steve McQueen, American actor and producer (d. 1980)
*1931 – Hanno Drechsler, German educator and politician, Mayor of Marburg (d. 2003)
*1933 – Stephen De Staebler, American sculptor and educator (d. 2011)
* 1933 – Lee Mendelson, American television producer (d. 2019)
*1936 – Don Covay, American singer-songwriter (d. 2015)
* 1936 – Alex Olmedo, Peruvian-American tennis player (d. 2020)
*1937 – Billy Stewart, American singer and pianist (d. 1970)
*1938 – David Irving, English historian and author
*1940 – Bob Mackie, American fashion designer
*1941 – Michael Masser, American songwriter, composer and producer (d. 2015)
*1944 – R. Lee Ermey, American sergeant and actor (d. 2018)
* 1944 – Vojislav Koštunica, Serbian academic and politician, 8th Prime Minister of Serbia
*1945 – Robert T. Bakker, American paleontologist and academic
* 1945 – Curtis Hanson, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2016)
* 1945 – Patrick Malahide, English actor and screenwriter
*1946 – Klaus Dinger, German guitarist and songwriter (d. 2008)
* 1946 – Kitty O'Neil, American stuntwoman (d. 2018)
*1947 – Dennis Erickson, American football player and coach
* 1947 – Christine Gregoire, American lawyer and politician, 22nd Governor of Washington
* 1947 – Mick Jones, English footballer and coach
* 1947 – Alan Sugar, English businessman
*1948 – Javier Diez Canseco, Peruvian sociologist and politician (d. 2013)
* 1948 – Jerzy Kukuczka, Polish mountaineer (d. 1989)
* 1948 – Lee Oskar, Jewish-Danish musician
*1949 – Tabitha King, American author and poet
* 1949 – Ruud Krol, Dutch footballer and coach
* 1949 – Steve Lang, Canadian bass player (d. 2017)
* 1949 – Nick Lowe

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