March 12


March 12 is the 71st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (72nd in Leap
years). There are 294 days remaining.

Events

   * 515 BC - Construction is completed on the Temple in Jerusalem.
   * 1664 - New Jersey becomes a colony of Britain.
   * 1894 - For the first time Coca-Cola is sold in bottles.
   * 1912 - The Girl Guides (later renamed the Girl Scouts) are founded.
   * 1913 - Canberra becomes the capital of Australia
   * 1928 - In California, the St. Francis Dam fails killing 400.
   * 1930 - Mahatma Gandhi leads a 200-mile march protest march to the sea
     in defiance of British opposition, to protest the British monopoly on
     salt
   * 1933 - Great Depression: Franklin Delano Roosevelt addresses the nation
     for the first time as President of the United States. This was also the
     first of his "Fireside Chats."
   * 1938 - Anschluss: German troops occupy Austria; annexation declared the
     following day.
   * 1940 - Winter War: Finland signs a harsh peace treaty with the Soviet
     Union, ceeding almost all of Karelia. Finnish troops and remaining
     population were immediately evacuated.
   * 1947 - The Truman Doctrine is proclaimed to help stem the spread of
     Communism.
   * 1951 - The Dennis the Menace comic strip appears in newspapers across
     the country for the first time.
   * 1968 - Mauritius achieves independence
   * 1987 - Les Miserables opens on Broadway.
   * 1992 - Mauritius becomes a republic while remaining a member of the
     British Commonwealth.
   * 1993 - Several bombs explode in Bombay, India killing about 300 and
     injuring hundreds more.
   * 1993 - North Korea nuclear weapons program: North Korea says that it
     plans to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and refuses
     to allow inspectors access to nuclear sites.
   * 1994 - A photo by Marmaduke Wetherell, previously touted as 'proof' of
     the Loch Ness monster, is confirmed to be a hoax.
   * 1994 - The Church of England ordains its first female priests
   * 1997 - Mikail Markhasev is arrested in Los Angeles, California and
     charged with shooting Bill Cosby's 27-year-old son, Ennis Cosby.
   * 1999 - former Warsaw Pact members the Czech Republic, Hungary and
     Poland joined NATO.
   * 2002 - In Texas, Andrea Yates is found guilty of drowning her five
     children on June 20, 2001. She is later sentenced to life in prison.
   * 2003 - Zoran Djindjic, Prime Minister of Serbia assassinated in
     Belgrade.

Births

   * 1607 - Paul Gerhardt, hymnist (+ 1676)
   * 1806 - Jane Pierce, First Lady
   * 1831 - Clement Studebaker, automobile pioneer
   * 1896 - Sir John Abbott, third Prime Minister of Canada
   * 1824 - Gustav Kirchhoff, physicist, lends his name to Kirchhoff's Laws
     (+ 1887)
   * 1863 - Gabriele D'Annunzio, poet (+ 1938)
   * 1881 - Kemal AtatŸrk, founder and first president of the Turkish
     Republic (+ 1938)
   * 1888 - Vaslav Nijinsky, ballet dancer (+ 1950)
   * 1912 - Irving Layton, poet
   * 1921 - Giovanni Agnelli, manager of Fiat
   * 1921 - Gordon MacRae, singer, actor (+ 1986)
   * 1922 - Jack Kerouac, writer (+ 1969)
   * 1923 - Wally Schirra, astronaut
   * 1928 - Edward Albee, dramatist
   * 1932 - Andrew Young, civil rights activist, politician, ambassador to
     the United Nations
   * 1940 - Al Jarreau, singer
   * 1946 - Liza Minnelli, singer and actress
   * 1947 - Kalervo Palsa, Finnish artist
   * 1948 - James Taylor, musician
   * 1953 - Ron Jeremy, pornographic film actor
   * 1953 - Carl Hiaasen, author
   * 1957 - Steve Harris, musician ("Iron Maiden")
   * 1969 - Graham Coxon, musician

Deaths

   * 1507 - Cardinal Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI
   * 1889 - Emperor Johannes IV of Ethiopia
   * 1925 - Sun Yat Sen, Chinese revolutionary, politician
   * 1935 - Michel Pupin, telephone pioneer
   * 1937 - Charles-Marie Widor, organist and composer
   * 1944 - Werner Drechsler, of U-118
   * 1945 - Anne Frank, diarist
   * 1955 - Charlie Parker, jazz saxophonist
   * 1998 - Beatrice Wood, artist/ceramist
   * 1999 - Sir Yehudi Menuhin, violinist
   * 2001 - Morton Downey, Jr., television personality
   * 2001 - Robert Ludlum, author of spy novels
   * 2003 - Ronnie Burk, surrealist and AIDS activist
   * 2003 - Zoran Djindjic, Prime Minister of Serbia

Holidays and observances

   * Ancient Latvia - Gregoru Diena observed
   * Mauritius - National Day