March 15
44 - On the "Ides of March", Julius Caesar was stabbed to death in the senate by a group of conspirators led by Cimber, Casca, Cassius and Marcus Junius Brutus.
1493 - Christopher Columbus returned to Spain after his first visit to the Western Hemisphere.
1820 - Maine became the 23rd state.
1913 - President Woodrow Wilson met with about 100 reporters for the first formal presidential press conference.
1917 - Nicholas II, the last czar of Russia, was forced to abdicate his throne.
1919 - The American Legion was founded in Paris.
1937 - The first hospital blood bank in the United States was established at Cook County Hospital in Chicago.
1964 - Actor Elizabeth Taylor married actor Richard Burton in Montreal; it was her fifth marriage, his second. (They divorced in 1974, remarried in 1975, then divorced again in 1976.)
1965 - President Lyndon B. Johnson asked Congress for legislation guaranteeing every American the right to vote.
1972 - "The Godfather," Francis Ford Coppola's epic gangster movie based on the Mario Puzo novel and starring Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, premiered in New York.
1975 - Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, the husband of former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, died at age 69.
1985 - The first Internet domain name, symbolics.com, was registered by the Symbolics Computer Corp. of Massachusetts.
1998 - Dr. Benjamin Spock, whose child care guidance spanned half a century, died in San Diego at 94.
2003 - Hu Jinato was chosen to replace Jiang Zemin as president of China.
2003 - The World Health Organization issued a worldwide health alert for the respiratory illness SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome).
2004 - Scientists announced the discovery of the planetoid Sedna, the most distant object ever detected in our solar system.
2005 - Former WorldCom chief Bernard Ebbers was convicted in New York of engineering the largest corporate fraud in U.S. history. (He was later sentenced to 25 years in prison.)
2008 - A construction crane toppled in New York City, killing seven people.
2011 - The Syrian civil war had its beginnings with Arab Spring protests across the region that turned into an armed insurgency and eventually became a full-blown conflict.
2016 - In a major reversal, the Obama administration barred offshore drilling off the Atlantic Coast.
2019 - A gunman killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, streaming the massacre live on Facebook. (Brenton Tarrant, an Australian white supremacist, was sentenced to life in prison without parole after pleading guilty to 51 counts of murder and other charges.)
2020 - The Federal Reserve took massive emergency action to help the economy withstand the coronavirus by slashing its benchmark interest rate to near zero and saying it would buy $700 billion in treasury and mortgage bonds.
2020 - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that gatherings of at least 50 people be canceled or postponed for the next eight weeks.
Birthdays
28 - Alia Bhatt (actress)
32 - Caitlin Wachs (actress)
34 - Eric Decker (football player)
36 - Kellan Lutz (actor)
36 - Kristen Scott (reality star)
38 - Sean Biggerstaff (actor)
40 - Young Buck (rapper)
46 - will.i.am (rapper)
46 - Eva Longoria (actress)
53 - Mark McGrath (singer)
54 - Kim Raver (actress)
55 - Chris Bruno (actor)
58 - Bret Michaels (singer)
60 - Fabio (model)
64 - Park Overall (actor)
66 - Dee Snider (singer)
67 - Craig Wasson (actor)
68 - Frances Conroy (actress)
80 - Mike Love (singer)
86 - Judd Hirsch (actor)
====================================
Today in Sports History - March 15
1869 - The Cincinnati Red Stockings played their first game. They were the first professional baseball team.
1912 - Pitcher Cy Young retired from baseball with 511 career wins.
1962 - Wilt Chamberlain finished the NBA regular season with a record 4,029 points in 80 games.
1962 - Canadian figure skater Donald Jackson became the first man to land a triple lutz jump in competition.
1991 - Sergei Bubka of the Soviet Union became the first pole vaulter to clear 20-feet (20', 1.75").
44 - On the "Ides of March", Julius Caesar was stabbed to death in the senate by a group of conspirators led by Cimber, Casca, Cassius and Marcus Junius Brutus.
1493 - Christopher Columbus returned to Spain after his first visit to the Western Hemisphere.
1820 - Maine became the 23rd state.
1913 - President Woodrow Wilson met with about 100 reporters for the first formal presidential press conference.
1917 - Nicholas II, the last czar of Russia, was forced to abdicate his throne.
1919 - The American Legion was founded in Paris.
1937 - The first hospital blood bank in the United States was established at Cook County Hospital in Chicago.
1964 - Actor Elizabeth Taylor married actor Richard Burton in Montreal; it was her fifth marriage, his second. (They divorced in 1974, remarried in 1975, then divorced again in 1976.)
1965 - President Lyndon B. Johnson asked Congress for legislation guaranteeing every American the right to vote.
1972 - "The Godfather," Francis Ford Coppola's epic gangster movie based on the Mario Puzo novel and starring Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, premiered in New York.
1975 - Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, the husband of former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, died at age 69.
1985 - The first Internet domain name, symbolics.com, was registered by the Symbolics Computer Corp. of Massachusetts.
1998 - Dr. Benjamin Spock, whose child care guidance spanned half a century, died in San Diego at 94.
2003 - Hu Jinato was chosen to replace Jiang Zemin as president of China.
2003 - The World Health Organization issued a worldwide health alert for the respiratory illness SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome).
2004 - Scientists announced the discovery of the planetoid Sedna, the most distant object ever detected in our solar system.
2005 - Former WorldCom chief Bernard Ebbers was convicted in New York of engineering the largest corporate fraud in U.S. history. (He was later sentenced to 25 years in prison.)
2008 - A construction crane toppled in New York City, killing seven people.
2011 - The Syrian civil war had its beginnings with Arab Spring protests across the region that turned into an armed insurgency and eventually became a full-blown conflict.
2016 - In a major reversal, the Obama administration barred offshore drilling off the Atlantic Coast.
2019 - A gunman killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, streaming the massacre live on Facebook. (Brenton Tarrant, an Australian white supremacist, was sentenced to life in prison without parole after pleading guilty to 51 counts of murder and other charges.)
2020 - The Federal Reserve took massive emergency action to help the economy withstand the coronavirus by slashing its benchmark interest rate to near zero and saying it would buy $700 billion in treasury and mortgage bonds.
2020 - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that gatherings of at least 50 people be canceled or postponed for the next eight weeks.
Birthdays
28 - Alia Bhatt (actress)
32 - Caitlin Wachs (actress)
34 - Eric Decker (football player)
36 - Kellan Lutz (actor)
36 - Kristen Scott (reality star)
38 - Sean Biggerstaff (actor)
40 - Young Buck (rapper)
46 - will.i.am (rapper)
46 - Eva Longoria (actress)
53 - Mark McGrath (singer)
54 - Kim Raver (actress)
55 - Chris Bruno (actor)
58 - Bret Michaels (singer)
60 - Fabio (model)
64 - Park Overall (actor)
66 - Dee Snider (singer)
67 - Craig Wasson (actor)
68 - Frances Conroy (actress)
80 - Mike Love (singer)
86 - Judd Hirsch (actor)
====================================
Today in Sports History - March 15
1869 - The Cincinnati Red Stockings played their first game. They were the first professional baseball team.
1912 - Pitcher Cy Young retired from baseball with 511 career wins.
1962 - Wilt Chamberlain finished the NBA regular season with a record 4,029 points in 80 games.
1962 - Canadian figure skater Donald Jackson became the first man to land a triple lutz jump in competition.
1991 - Sergei Bubka of the Soviet Union became the first pole vaulter to clear 20-feet (20', 1.75").