March 20 is usually the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and the first day of autumn in the Southern Hemisphere.

Events

Up to 1800 
 325 – The First Council of Nicaea – the first Ecumenical Council of the Christian Church – is held.
 526 – An earthquake kills about 300,000 people in Syria and Antiochia.
 685 – The Battle of Nechtansmere is fought between a Pictish army under King Bridei III and the invading Northumbrians under King Ecgfrith, who are decisively defeated.
 1217 – The Second Battle of Lincoln is fought near Lincoln, England, resulting in the defeat of Prince Louis of France by William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke.
 1293 – King Sancho IV of Castile creates the Study of General Schools of Alcalá.
 1413 - Henry V of England becomes King.
 1497 – John Cabot sets sail from Bristol, England, on his ship The Mathew looking for a route to the west (other documents give a May 2 date).
 1498 – Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrives at Kozhikode (previously known as Calicut), India.
 1521 – Battle of Pampeluna.
 1570 – Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issues the first modern atlas.
 1600 - Linkoping bloodbath in Sweden.
 1602 - The Dutch East India Company is founded.
 1631 – The city of Magdeburg in Germany is seized by forces of the Holy Roman Empire and most of its inhabitants massacred, in one of the bloodiest incidents of the Thirty Years War.
 1690 – England passes the Act of Grace, forgiving followers of Catholic James II.
 1713 - An earthquake destroys most of the city of Foggia, Italy, and kills  around 2,000 people.
 1760 - One tenth of Boston, Massachusetts is destroyed by fire.

1801  1900 
 1813 – Napoleon Bonaparte leads his French troops into the Battle of Bautzen in Saxony, Germany, against the combined armies of Russia and Prussia. The battle ends the next day with a French victory.
 1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte, after his escape from the Italian island of Elba, enters Paris with a regular army of 140,000 and a volunteer force of over 200,000.
 1845 – HMS Erebus and HMS Terror with 134 men under John Franklin sail from the River Thames in England, beginning a disastrous expedition to find the Northwest Passage. All crew members die on the expedition.
 1848 - King Ludwig I of Bavaria gives up the throne, through his affair with Lola Montez.
 1852 – The novel Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe is published for the first time.
 1854 - The US Republican Party is founded in Ripon, Wisconsin.
 1861 – American Civil War: The state of Kentucky proclaims its neutrality, which will last until September 3 when Confederate forces enter the state.
 1861 – Mendoza, Argentina, is completely destroyed by an earthquake in which around 6,000 people are killed.
 1862 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act into law.
 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Ware Bottom Church – In the Virginia Bermuda Hundred Campaign, 10,000 troops fight in this Confederate victory.
 1873 – Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a United States patent for blue jeans with copper rivets.
 1882 – The Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy is formed.
 1888 - The premiere (first showing) of the very first Romani language operetta is staged in Moscow.
 1890 - Leo von Caprivi replaces Otto von Bismarck as Chancellor of Germany.
 1891 – History of cinema: First public display of Thomas Alva Edison's prototype kinetoscope (shown at Edison's Laboratory for a convention of the National Federation of Women's Clubs).

1901  1950 
 1902 – Cuba gains independence from the United States.
 1913 - Chinese politician Sung Chiao-jen is targeted in a assassination attempt, dying two days later.
 1913 - Passenger steamer Koombana sinks in a cyclone off Western Australia, killing 138 people.
 1916 – The Saturday Evening Post publishes its first cover with a Norman Rockwell painting ("Boy with Baby Carriage").
 1916 – The U.S. town of Codell, Kansas, is struck by an F2 tornado.
 1917 – The U.S. town of Codell, Kansas, is struck by an F3 tornado.
 1918 – For the third consecutive year on this date, the U.S. town of Codell, Kansas, is struck by a tornado.
 1920 – The Weimarer Nationalversammlung, the national assembly of Germany's Weimar Republic, is permanently dissolved.
 1920 – Montreal Quebec station XWA broadcasts the first regularly scheduled radio programming in North America.
 1927 – By the Treaty of Jedda, the United Kingdom recognizes the sovereignty of King Ibn Saud in the Kingdoms of Hejaz and Nejd, which later merged to become the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
 1932 – Amelia Earhart takes off from Newfoundland to begin the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean by a female pilot, landing in Ireland the next day.
 1940 – Holocaust: The first prisoners arrive at a new concentration camp at Auschwitz.
 1941 – World War II: Battle of Crete – German paratroops invade Crete.
 1949 – In the United States, the AFSA (the predecessor of the NSA) is established.

1951  2000 
 1951 - Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi Prefecture is founded in central Honshu, Japan.
 1952 - The United States Senate supports  a peace treaty with Japan.
 1954 – Chiang Kai-shek is selected for another term as President of the Republic of China by the National Assembly.
 1956 – Tunisia becomes independent from France.
 1964 - The European Space Research Organization is founded, as a precursor to the European Space Agency.
 1965 – A Pakistani Airlines Boeing 720-B crashes on landing at Cairo airport, killing 121 people.
 1966 – The original FIFA World Cup trophy is stolen in England. It is found a week later.
 1969 – The Battle of Hamburger Hill in Vietnam ends.
 1972 - The Troubles: The Provisional IRA carry out a car bomb attack in Belfast, killing 7 people, and injuring 148.
 1974 - Near Buckingham Palace, Ian Ball attempts to kidnap Anne, Princess Royal and her then-husband Mark Phillips. They both escape unhurt.
 1980 – In a Referendum in Quebec, the population rejects by a 60% vote the proposal from its government to move towards independence from Canada.
 1985 – Radio Martí, part of the Voice of America service, begins broadcasting to Cuba.
 1985 – Libby Riddles becomes the first woman to win the Iditarod Sled Dog Race in Alaska.
 1988 - Eritrean War of Independence: The Eritrean People's Liberation Front enters the town of Afabet.
 1989 – The Chinese authorities declare martial law in the face of pro-democracy demonstrations, setting the scene for the Tiananmen Square massacre.
 1990 – The first post-Communist presidential and parliamentary elections are held in Romania.
 1993 – The television sitcom, Cheers ends an 11-year run on NBC.
 1993 - An IRA bomb explodes in Warrington, England, killing two boys.
 1995 – The Japanese cult, Aum Shinrikyo, under leadership of Shoko Asahara carries out a deadly sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway.
 1996 – Gay rights: The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Romer v. Evans against a law that would have prevented any city, town or county in the state of Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of homosexuals.
 1999 - LEGOLAND California opens in Carlsbad, California.

From 2001 
 2003 – The US-led invasion of Iraq begins.
 2005 – A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits Fukuoka, Japan, killing one person, and leading to hundreds being injured or evacuated.
 2006 -  Over 150 Chadian soldiers are killed in Eastern Chad by members of the rebel United Front for Democratic Change. The rebel group had the intention of removing President Idriss Déby from office.
 2006 - Cyclone Larry hits Queensland, Australia.
 2008 - Emirates becomes the first airline to offer a mobile phone service during flights.
 2013 - President of Bangladesh Zillur Rahman dies aged 84. Abdul Hamid takes over as caretaker President.
 2015 - A train crash in Uttar Pradesh, India, kills at least 30 people.
 2015 - A solar eclipse coincides with the Spring Equinox in Europe, Greenland, and parts of North Africa and Northern and West-Central Asia. Totality occurs over the Faroe Islands and Svalbard.
 2015 - A series of bombings in Yemen kills over 100 people.
 2016 - US President Barack Obama starts a historic visit to Cuba - the first by a serving US President since Calvin Coolidge in 1928.
 2017 - An accident at the Kintampo waterfalls in Ghana kills at least 18 people.

Births

Up to 1900 
 43 BC – Publius Ovidius Naso, Roman poet (d. 17)
 1142 – King Malcolm IV of Scotland (d. 1165)
 1469 - Princess Cecily of York (d. 1507)
 1477 - Jerome Emser, German theologian (d. 1527)
 1502 - Pierino Belli, Italian soldier and jurist (d. 1575)
 1634 – Balthasar Bekker, Dutch philosopher (d. 1698)
 1639 - Ivan Mazepa, Head of State of Ukraine (d. 1709)
 1664 - Johann Baptist Homann, German cartographer and publisher (d. 1724)
 1725 – Abdul Hamid I, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1789)
 1735 - Tobern Bergman, Swedish chemist and mineralogist (d. 1784)
 1737 – Rama I of Siam (d. 1809)
 1741 – Jean-Antoine Loudon, French sculptor (d. 1828)
 1770 – Friedrich Hoelderlin, German writer (d. 1843)
 1794 - René Primevere Lesson, French physician (d. 1849)
 1799 – Karl August Nicander, Swedish poet (d. 1839)
 1800 – Braulio Carrillo Colina, Costa Rican Head of State (d. 1845)
 1811 – Napoleon II of France (d. 1832)
 1820 - Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Prince of Romania (d. 1873)
 1828 – Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian writer and playwright (d. 1906)
 1836 – Edward Poynter, British painter (d. 1919)
 1845 - William Gowers, British neurologist (d. 1915)
 1846 - Giulio Bizzozero, Italian physician and medical researcher (d. 1901)
 1852 - John Franklin Fort, Governor of New Jersey (d. 1920)
 1856 – Frederick Winslow Taylor, American inventor (d. 1915)
 1870 - Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, German general (d. 1964)
 1882 – René Coty, President of France (d. 1962)
 1882 - Harold Weber, American golfer (d. 1933)
 1888 - Amanda Clement, American baseball umpire (d. 1971)
 1890 – Beniamino Gigli, Italian operatic tenor and actor (d. 1957)
 1891 - Edmund Goulding, British-American movie director and screenwriter (d. 1959)
 1894 – Ky Ebright, American Olympic rowing coach (d. 1979)

1901  1950 
 1903 - Edgar Buchanan, American actor (d. 1979)
 1904 – B. F. Skinner, American psychologist (d. 1990)
 1905 - Jean Galia, French rugby player (d. 1949)
 1906 – Abraham Beame, Mayor of New York City (d. 2001)
 1907 - Ellis Arnall, Governor of Georgia (d. 1992)
 1908 – Michael Redgrave, English actor (d. 1985)
 1911 – Alfonso Garcia Robles, Mexican diplomat and politician (d. 1991)
 1912 - Ralph Hauenstein, American philanthropist and businessman (d. 2016)
 1915 – Rudolf Kirchschlaeger, President of Austria (d. 2000)
 1915 – Sviatoslav Richter, Soviet pianist (d. 1997)
 1916 – Pierre Messmer, Prime Minister of France (d. 2007)
 1917 – Dame Vera Lynn, British singer
 1917 - Yigael Yadin, Israeli archaeologist, politician and general (d. 1984)
 1918 - Jack Barry, American game show host and producer (d. 1984)
 1918 - Marian McPartland, English-American pianist and composer (d. 2013)
 1920 - Pamela Harriman, British-American diplomat (d. 1997)
 1922 – Carl Reiner, American movie director and actor
 1923 - Shaukat Siddiqui, Pakistani writer, journalist and activist (d. 2006)
 1925 – John Ehrlichman, American political figure (d. 1999)
 1927 - Jean Joubert, South African-born British composer
 1928 – Fred Rogers, American TV host (d. 2003)
 1929 - German Robles, Spanish actor
 1930 - Thomas Stafford Williams, New Zealand cardinal
 1931 - Hal Linden, American actor
 1933 - Alexander Gorodnitsky, Russian geologist and poet
 1933 - Azeglio Vicini, Italian footballer
 1933 - Renato Salvatori, Italian actor (d. 1988)
 1934 - Willie Brown, former Mayor of San Francisco
 1935 - Jim McAnearney, Scottish footballer (d. 2017)
 1936 - Lee "Scratch" Perry, Jamaican reggae producer
 1936 - Lina Morgan, Spanish actress (d. 2015)
 1937 - Lois Lowry, American writer
 1937 – Jerry Reed, American singer and actor (d. 2008)
 1939 – Brian Mulroney, 18th Prime Minister of Canada
 1939 - Don Edwards, American singer and guitarist
 1939 - Walter Jakob Gehring, Swiss developmental biologist (d. 2014)
 1939 - Robert Swindells, English author
 1940 - Mary Ellen Mark, American photographer (d. 2015)
 1941 - Kenji Kimihara, Japanese long-distance runner
 1943 - Douglas Tompkins, American philanthropist and businessman
 1944 - Erwin Neher, German biophysicist
 1945 – Pat Riley, American basketball player and coach
 1945 - Tim Yeo, British politician
 1946 - Malcolm Simmons, British speedway rider (d. 2014)
 1947 - John Boswell, American historian
 1948 - John de Lancie, American actor, comedian, director, producer and singer
 1948 – Bobby Orr, Canadian ice hockey player
 1950 – William Hurt, American actor
 1950 - Carl Palmer, English drummer (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)

1951  1975 
 1951 – Jimmie Vaughan, American guitarist
 1954 - Yamina Bachir, Algerian director and screenwriter
 1954 - Mike Francesa, American talk show host
 1956 – Catherine Ashton, British politician
 1957 - David Foster, Australian world champion wood chopper
 1957 - Chris Wedge, American animator, screenwriter, producer and voice actor
 1957 – Spike Lee, American movie director
 1957 - Theresa Russell, American actress
 1958 – Holly Hunter, American actress
 1960 – Norbert Pohlmann, German computer scientist
 1960 - Yuri Shargin, Russian cosmonaut
 1961 – Jesper Olsen, Danish footballer
 1961 - Sara Wheeler, English author and journalist
 1963 - Paul Annacone, American tennis player
 1963 - Andrei Sokolov, Russian-French chess player
 1963 – David Thewlis, British actor
 1963 – Kathy Ireland, American model and actress
 1965 - William Dalrymple, Scottish writer and historian
 1967 - Xavier Beauvoir, French actor, director and screenwriter
 1968 – Paul Merson, English footballer
 1969 - Yvette Cooper, Scottish-English politician
 1970 - Edoardo Ballerini, American actor, writer, director and producer
 1970 - Michael Rapaport, American actor and director
 1972 - Chilly Gonzales, Canadian musician
 1972 – Alexander Kapranos, Greek-British musician, Franz Ferdinand
 1973 - Chris Stephens, Scottish politician
 1974 - Paula Garcés, American-Colombian actress
 1974 – Carsten Ramelow, German footballer

From 1976 
 1976 – Chester Bennington, American musician (Linkin Park)
 1979 – Freema Agyeman, British actress
 1979 – Bianca Lawson, American actress
 1979 - Keven Meleanu, New Zealand rugby player
 1979 - Valdas Trakys, Lithuanian footballer
 1980 - Jamal Crawford, American basketball player
 1981 - Ian Murray, Scottish footballer
 1982 – Rory Fallon, New Zealand footballer
 1982 – Tomasz Kuszczak, Polish footballer
 1983 – Eiji Kawashima, Japanese footballer
 1983 – Thomas Kahlenberg, Danish footballer
 1984 – Fernando Torres, Spanish footballer
 1984 - Christy Carlson Romano, American actress and singer
 1984 - iJustine, American YouTube personality
 1984 - Marcus Vick, American football player
 1985 - Morgan Amalfitano, French footballer
 1986 – Julian Magallanes, Argentine footballer
 1986 - Kirsty Blackman, Scottish politician
 1987 – Sergei Kostitsyn, Belarusian ice hockey player
 1987 – Jo, Brazilian footballer
 1988 – Louie Vito, American snowboarder
 1989 - Xavier Dolan, Canadian actor, director and screenwriter
 1990 - Marcos Rojo, Argentine footballer
 1991 - Lucie Jones, Welsh singer
 1991 - Alexis Pinturault, French skier
 1993 - Sloane Stephens, American tennis player
 2006 - Barron Trump, son of Donald and Melania Trump

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 687 – Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, patron saint of Northumbria (b. 634)
 1390 - Alexios III, Emperor of Trebizond (b. 1338)
 1413 – King Henry IV of England (b. 1367)
 1568 - Duke Albert of Prussia (b. 1490)
 1586 - Richard Maitland, Scottish statesman and historian (b. 1496)
 1619 – Mathias, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1557)
 1668 – Nicolas Mignard, French painter (b. 1606)
 1730 - Adrienne Lecouvreur, French actress  (b. 1692)
 1865 – Keisuke Yamanami, Japanese samurai (b. 1833)
 1874 – Hans Christian Lumbye, Danish composer (b. 1810)
 1878 - Julius Robert von Mayer, German physician and physicist (b. 1814)
 1894 – Lajos Kossuth, National hero of Hungary (b. 1802)
 1897 - Apollon Maykov, Russian poet (b. 1821)
 1899 - Franz Ritter von Hauer, Austrian geologist (b. 1822)

1901  2000 
 1916 - Ota Benga, Congolese Pygmy (b. 1884)
 1918 - Lewis A. Grant, American Civil War general (b. 1828)
 1925 - George Nathaniel Curzon, British Viceroy of India (b. 1859)
 1931 – Hermann Müller, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1876)
 1933 - Giuseppe Zangara, Italian-American assassin (b. 1900)
 1934 – Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont, Regent of the Netherlands (b. 1858)
 1935 - Jon Thorlaksson, Prime Minister of Iceland (b. 1877)
 1947 – Sigurd Wallén, Swedish actor and movie director (b. 1884)
 1958 - Adegoke Adelabu, Nigerian politician (b. 1915)
 1964 – Brendan Behan, Irish playwright and writer (b. 1923)
 1965 - Daniel Frank, American long jumper (b. 1882)
 1968 - Carl Theodor Dreyer, Danish movie director (b. 1889)
 1977 - Terukuni Manzo, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1919)
 1983 – Ivan Matveyevich Vinogradov, Russian mathematician (b. 1891)
 1990 – Lev Yashin, Soviet footballer (b. 1929)
 1990 - Maurice Cloche, French director, producer and screenwriter (b. 1907)
 1992 - Georges Delerue, French movie composer (b. 1925)
 1993 – Polykarp Kusch, German physicist (b. 1911)
 1995 – Werner Liebrich, German footballer (b. 1927)
 1998 – Catherine Sauvage, French singer and actress (b. 1929)

From 2001 
 2004 – Queen Juliana of the Netherlands (b. 1909)
 2007 - Taha Yassin Ramadan, Vice President of Iraq (b. 1938)
 2008 - Klaus Dinger, German musician (b. 1946)
 2009 - Abdellatif Filali, Prime Minister of Morocco (b. 1928)
 2010 – Girija Prasad Koirala, Nepalese politician (b. 1925)
 2010 – Harry Carpenter, British sports commentator (b. 1925)
 2010 – Stewart Udall, American politician (b. 1920)
 2013 - Zillur Rahman, President of Bangladesh (b. 1929)
 2013 - James Herbert, English writer (b. 1943)
 2013 - George Lowe, New Zealand mountaineer (b. 1924)
 2014 - Khushwant Singh, Indian journalist and novelist (b. 1915)
 2014 - Hilderaldo Bellini, Brazilian footballer (b. 1930)
 2014 - Tonie Nathan, American politician (b. 1923)
 2015 - Malcolm Fraser, 22nd Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1930)
 2015 - A. J. Pero, American drummer (b. 1959)
 2015 - Walter Grauman, American director and producer (b. 1922)
 2015 - Gregory Walcott, American actor (b. 1928)
 2015 - Eva Burrows, Australian Salvation Army General (b. 1929)
 2015 - Robert Kastenmeier, American politician (b. 1924)
 2016 - Anker Jorgensen, Prime Minister of Denmark (b. 1922)
 2017 - Leticia Ramos-Shahani, Filipino politician (b. 1929)
 2017 - Chandler Robbins, American ornithologist and writer (b. 1918)
 2017 - David Rockefeller, American banker, businessman and philanthropist (b. 1915)
 2017 - Robert B. Silvers, American editor and essayist (b. 1929)
 2017 - Bagrat de Bagration y de Baviera, Spanish royal (b. 1949)
 2017 - Edward Joseph McManus, American politician and jurist (b. 1920)
 2017 - Tony Terran, American trumpeter and session musician (b. 1926)
 2018 - Katie Boyle, Italian-born British actress and television presenter (b. 1926)
 2018 - Peter George Peterson, American financier and politician (b. 1926)

Observances 
 Independence Day in Tunisia
 Spring Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere
 Autumn Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere
 Norouz/Nowruz, Iranian New Year
 Francophone Day (Organisation internationale de la Francophonie and French-speaking countries)
 UN French language Day
 World Sparrow Day
 International Day of Happiness

Days of the year