March 15 – Some Important Events on this day
44 BC 👉🏼 Julius Caesar is stabbed to death by Brutus, Cassius and several other Roman senators on the Ides of March in Rome.
By the time of his assassination on this day, Julius Caesar was at the height of his power, having recently been declared dictator perpetuo by the Roman Senate. This kind of power made many senators nervous that Caesar would overthrow the senate and establish one-man tyranny. Thus they planned to murder him and restore the authority of the Roman Republic.
Despite being warned of the plot in the days before, Caesar went to the Senate on the 15th. There, a group of about 30 Senators, including Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius, attacked him with knives, stabbing him numerous times. Records of his last words are different. Some mentioned that he said nothing, or said “You too, child?” in Greek. The most famous supposed phrase, “Et tu, Brute?” comes from William Shakespeare’s 1599 play “Julius Caesar” and has no basis in fact.
In any case the goals of the assassination failed. It led to civil war and the eventual assumption to power of Augustus, who became the first Roman Emperor.
221 👉🏼 Liu Bei, a Chinese warlord and member of the Han royal house, declares himself Emperor of Shu-Han, claiming legitimate succession to the Han Dynasty 🇨🇳
1493 👉🏼 Christopher Columbus returns to Spain after his first voyage to the New World 🌍
1580 👉🏼 Spanish King Philip II puts 25,000 gold coins on head of Prince William of Orange
1778 👉🏼 Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island discovered by Captain James Cook
1783 👉🏼 In an emotional speech in Newburgh, New York, George Washington asks his officers not to support the Newburgh Conspiracy. The plea is successful and the threatened coup d’etat never takes place.
1869 👉🏼 Cincinnati Red Stockings become the 1st professional baseball team ⚾️
1889 👉🏼 gunboat diplomacy was at its height in 1889 and on this day, tension was high with an act of war seemingly imminent. But, eventually, nature intervened.
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1917 👉🏼 Nicholas II, the last Russian Tsar abdicates and nominates his brother Grand Duke Michael to succeed him
1928 👉🏼 Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini modifies Italy electoral system (abolishes right to choose) 🇮🇹
1939 👉🏼 Adolf Hitler summons Czech President Emil Hácha to a meeting in Berlin and informs him of the impending attack by Germany.
One year earlier, In September 1938, Britain, France, Italy and Germany reached an agreement that allowed Nazi Germany to annex the Sudetenland, an area of Czechoslovakia inhabited by ethnic Germans. This was the ‘appeasement’ that was vilified after the war and viewed as a betrayal by the Czechs, especially as they had not even been invited to the Munich conference where the agreement about their country was made.
The deal, of course, did not stop Hitler’s ambitions. With Czechoslovakia now severely weakened and forced to make concessions to its enemies, Adolf Hitler took his chance and broke the Munich Agreement by seizing the rest of the country.
He summoned the Czech President Emil Hácha to the Reich Chancellery in Berlin on this day, March 15, 1939. Here he threatened the President with an air raid on Prague and convinced him to order the capitulation of the Czech army. Hácha suffered a heart attack during the meeting, and was later forced to sign an oath of allegiance to Hitler. Germany occupied Czechoslovakia hours later, setting the stage for World War II.
1962 👉🏼 Five research groups announce the discovery of anti-matter
1968 👉🏼 LIFE mag calls Jimi Hendrix “most spectacular guitarist in the world” 🎸
1972 👉🏼 “The Godfather”, based on the book by Mario Puzo, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, premieres in NYC (Academy Awards Best Picture 1973) 🎥
1985 👉🏼 The first Internet domain name, symbolics.com is registered 💻
1940 👉🏼 Nazi Politician Hermann Goering, WW1 fighter ace, winner of the Pour le Merit and an early member of the Nazi party and head of the Luftwaffe, says 100-200 church bells enough for Germany, smelt the rest. 🇩🇪
2019 👉🏼 Climate change strikes held by school children take place around the world inspired by Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, who became heavily involved in this activism at age 15, when she gained fame by making speeches outside the Swedish parliament. An estimated 1.4 million students around the world joined her call. 🌳