Events

Up to 1900 
 141 BC - Liu Che, known after his death as Emperor Wu of Han, assumes the throne of the Han Dynasty in China.
 1009 – Lithuania is mentioned in the annals of Quedlinburg.
 1230 - Ivar Asen II of Bulgaria defeats Theodore Epirus in the Battle of Klokonitsa. 
 1276 – Augsburg becomes an Imperial Free City.
 1500 – The fleet of Pedro Alvares Cabral leaves Lisbon. It intends to reach Calicut, India, but gets to present-day Brazil instead.
 1566 – David Rizzio, private secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots, is murdered in the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh.
 1741 - War of Jenkins' Ear: British forces lay siege to Cartagena in present-day Colombia.
 1781 - American War of Independence: The Spanish Infanteria de Marina under command of Bernardo de Galvez y Madrid occupy Pensacola, Florida. The Battle of Pensacola lasts until May 8.
 1796 – Napoleon Bonaparte marries Josephine de Beauharnais.
 1811 – Paraguayan forces defeat Manuel Belgrano at the Battle of Taguari.
 1842 – Gold is discovered at Rancho San Francisco, California.
 1842 – The opera Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi has its first performance in Milan.
 1847 - Mexican-American War: The first large amphibious (in-water) assault  in US history begins in Veracruz, Mexico.
 1848 - The Bundestag in Frankfurt declares black, red and gold as the official German national colours.
 1862 - American Civil War: The USS Monitor and CSS Virginia fight to a draw in the Battle of Hampton Roads in the first battle between two iron-clad warships.
 1888 - Wilhelm I of Germany dies. Friedrich III of Germany becomes Kaiser, but dies only 99 days later due to laryngeal cancer.
 1896 – Italian Prime Minister Francesco Crispi resigns.

1901  2000 
 1902 – The Italian football club Vicenza Calcio is founded.
 1908 – In Italy, Inter Milan football club is founded by angry members of the Milan Cricket and Football Club, which only allows Italian nationals to participate.
 1908 – A five-man team reaches the top of Mount Erebus in Antarctica.
 1916 – Pancho Villa leads nearly 500 Mexican raiders in an attack on Columbus, New Mexico.
 1933 - Great Depression: Franklin D. Roosevelt submits the Emergency Banking Act to the United States Congress, the first of his New Deal policies. 
 1944 – World War II: Soviet Air Forces conduct a heavy bombing of Tallinn, Estonia, killing up to 800 people, mostly civilians.
 1945 – World War II: The bombing of Tokyo by US forces begins.
 1946 - Bolton Wanderers stadium disaster in Burnden Park, Bolton, northwest England, kills 33 people.
 1954 - CBS programme See It Now, reporting on Senator Joseph McCarthy, is broadcast, contributing to the end of the McCarthy Era.
 1956 – The Soviet military suppresses mass demonstrations in Georgia, which was part of the Soviet Union at the time.
 1957 – A magnitude 8.3 earthquake strikes the Andreanof Islands off Alaska, and triggers a Pacific-wide tsunami.
 1959 – The first Barbie dolls are sold.
 1960 - Dr. Belding Hibbard Scribner first implants a shunt he invented, into a patient.
 1961 – Sputnik 9 successfully launches.
 1967 - Trans World Airlines Flight 553, a Douglas DC-9-15 aircraft, crashes into Concord Township, Ohio, following a collision with a Beechcraft Baron aircraft, killing 26 people.
 1976 – 42 people die in the Cavalese cable car disaster.
 1977 - Hanafi Siege: In a 39-hour stand-off, armed Hanafi Muslims seize three Washington, DC buildings, killing 2 people and taking 149 hostage. 
 1984 - Tim Witherspoon wins the Heavyweight Boxing Title, defeating Greg Page in Las Vegas, on points.
 1987 - U2 album The Joshua Tree is released.
 1989 – Eastern Air Lines files for bankruptcy.
 1990 - Antonia Novello becomes the first female, and first Hispanic American, to become Surgeon General of the United States.
 1991 – A massive demonstration against Slobodan Milosevic is held in Belgrade.
 1997 – Comet Hale-Bopp is seen during the day in China, Mongolia and Siberia, as an eclipse also occurs.

From 2001 
 2004 – John Allen Muhammad is sentenced to death for the Beltway sniper attacks.
 2006 – NASA announces the possibility of water existing on Saturn's moon Enceladus.
 2010 – The first same-sex marriages in Washington, DC are held.
 2011 – The Space Shuttle Discovery is launched for the last time.
 2011 – Enda Kenny becomes Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland, succeeding Brian Cowen.
 2015 - Villa Castelli helicopter crash: Two helicopters involved in a French Reality TV programme collide over western Argentina, killing 10 people, including 3 of France's most famous sportspeople.
 2016 - A solar eclipse is seen over Eastern Asia and the Pacific Ocean. Totality is mainly seen over Indonesia and parts of the Western Pacific.
 2018 - The 2018 Winter Paralympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, begin.

Births

Up to 1900 
 1213 - Hugh II, Duke of Burgundy (d. 1271)
 1285 – Emperor Go-Nijo of Japan (d. 1318)
 1454 – Amerigo Vespucci, Italian explorer and cartographer (d. 1512)
 1564 – David Fabricius, German astronomer (d. 1617)
 1568 – Aloysius Gonzaga, Italian saint (d. 1591)
 1629 – Tsar Alexis I of Russia (d. 1676)
 1695 – Martin Sarmiento, Spanish writer and scholar (d. 1772)
 1697 - Friederike Caroline Neuber, German actress (d. 1760)
 1727 - Johann Gottlieb Preller, German cantor, composer and land surveyor (d. 1786)
 1737 - Josef Muslivecek, Czech composer (d. 1781)
 1749 - Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, French writer and politician (d. 1791)
 1753 – Jean-Baptiste Kléber, French general (d. 1800)
 1758 - Franz Joseph Gall, German neuroscientist (d. 1828)
 1763 - William Cobbett, English writer (d. 1835)
 1814 – Taras Shevchenko, Ukrainian poet (d. 1861)
 1824 - Amasa Leland Stanford, American businessman and politician (d. 1893)
 1847 - Martin Pierre Marsick, Belgian violinist (d. 1924)
 1856 – Eddie Foy, American singer and actor (d. 1928)
 1856 - Tom Roberts, Australian artist (d. 1931)
 1856 - Edward Goodrich Acheson, American chemist and technician (d. 1931)
 1877 - Stuart Stickney, American golfer (d. 1932)
 1881 - Ernest Bevin, British politician and trade unionist (d. 1951)
 1882 - Arthur Beecher Carles, American painter (d. 1952)
 1883 - Umberto Saba, Italian poet and writer (d. 1957)
 1884 - Johan Salonen, Finnish wrestler (d. 1938)
 1886 - Kenneth Edwards, American golfer (d. 1952)
 1887 - Fritz Lenz, German geneticist and eugenicist (d. 1976)
 1890 – Vyacheslav Molotov, Russian politician (d. 1986)
 1891 – José P. Laurel, 3rd President of the Philippines (d. 1959)
 1892 - Vita Sackville-West, British writer (d. 1962)
 1894 - Frank Arnau, German author (d. 1976)
 1900 - Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta, Italian aristocrat (d. 1948)

1901  1950 
 1902 – Will Geer, American actor (d. 1978)
 1903 - Albert Gregory Meyer, American cardinal (d. 1965)
 1905 – Gerardus Philippus Helders, Dutch politician (d. 2013)
 1911 - Clara Rockmore, Lithuanian-American theremin performer (d. 1998)
 1916 – Puey Ungpakorn, Thai bureaucrat (d. 1999)
 1918 – Mickey Spillane, American writer (d. 2006)
 1918 – George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party (d. 1967)
 1920 - Franjo Mihalic, Croatian-Serbian runner and coach (d. 2015)
 1923 – James L. Buckley, American politician
 1923 – Walter Kohn, Austrian-born physicist (d. 2016)
 1923 - André Courrèges, French fashion designer (d. 2016)
 1924 - Peter Scholl-Latour, German journalist and writer (d. 2014)
 1925 - Ernest Braun, Austrian-British academic and author (d. 2015)  
 1925 - C. William Miller, American politician (d. 2006)
 1926 - Joe Franklin, American radio and television host (d. 2015)
 1929 – Zillur Rahman, 15th President of Bangladesh (d. 2013)
 1929 – Desmond Hoyte, President of Guyana (d. 2002)
 1930 - Stephen Fumio Hamao, Japanese cardinal (d. 2007)
 1930 - Taina Elg, Finnish-American actress and dancer
 1930 - Ota Filip, Czech novelist and journalist (d. 2018)
 1930 - Ornette Coleman, American jazz saxophonist, trumpeter and composer (d. 2015)
 1931 - Billy Frank, Jr., American environmental activist (d. 2014)
 1931 - Jackie Healy-Rae, Irish politician (d. 2014)
 1931 - Leon Febres Cordero, President of Ecuador (d. 2008)
 1931 - Gilles Perrault, French author and journalist
 1932 - Rodolfo Quezada Toruño, Guatemalan cardinal (d. 2012)
 1932 - Qayyum Chowdhury, Bangladeshi painter (d. 2014)
 1932 - Walter Mercado, Puerto Rican astrologer and critic
 1933 - Mel Lastman, Canadian politician, 62nd Mayor of Toronto
 1933 – Lloyd Price, American musician
 1933 - David Weatherall, English physician and geneticist
 1934 – Yuri Gagarin, Soviet pilot and cosmonaut, first person to travel into space (d. 1968)
 1934 - Joyce Van Patten, American actress
 1935 - Andrew Viterbi, Italian-American electronic engineer and businessman
 1936 – Mickey Gilley, American musician and singer
 1936 - Marty Ingels, American actor (d. 2015)
 1937 – Bernard Landry, Quebec politician
 1937 - Harry Neale, Canadian ice hockey player
 1937 - Brian Redman, English racing driver
 1938 - Tom Adams, English actor (d. 2014)
 1938 - Lill-Babs, Swedish singer (d. 2018)
 1942 - John Cale, Welsh musician (The Velvet Underground)
 1942 - Mark Lindsay, American musician of Paul Revere and the Raiders
 1943 – Bobby Fischer, American-Icelandic chess player (d. 2008)
 1944 - Lee Irvine, South African cricketer
 1945 - Katja Ebstein, German singer
 1945 - Robin Trower, English musician
 1945 - Dennis Rader, American serial killer
 1946 - Alexandra Bastedo, English actress (d. 2014)
 1946 – Bernd Hölzenbein, German footballer
 1947 - Emiliano Mondonico, Italian footballer (d. 2018)
 1947 - Keri Hulme, New Zealand writer
 1948 - Emma Bonino, Italian politician
 1948 - Chris Thompson, English singer and guitarist
 1948 - Eric Fischl, American painter, sculptor and printmaker
 1949 - Neil Hamilton, Welsh politician (Conservative Party and UKIP)

1951  1975 
 1951 – Zakir Hussain, Indian tabla player
 1951 – Helen Zille, South African politician
 1952 - Bill Beaumont, English rugby player
 1952 - Uliana Semenova, Latvian basketball player
 1954 – Bobby Sands, Northern Irish political activist, IRA member and hunger striker (d. 1981)
 1955 - Teo Fabi, Italian racing driver
 1955 - Ornella Muti, Italian actress
 1955 - Pat Murphy, American science fiction writer
 1956 – Shashi Tharoor, Indian politician
 1956 – David Willetts, British politician
 1957 – Mona Sahlin, Swedish politician
 1958 – Linda Fiorentino, American actress
 1958 - Martin Fry, English singer
 1958 - Jack Kenny, American television producer and writer
 1959 - Takaaki Kajita, Japanese physicist
 1959 - Lonny Price, American actor and director
 1960 - Elsa Cayat, French psychoanalyst and writer (d. 2015)
 1962 - Pete Wishart, Scottish musician and politician (Scottish National Party) 
 1963 - Jean-Marc Vallée, Canadian movie director and screenwriter
 1964 – Juliette Binoche, French actress
 1964 - Valérie Lemercier, French actress, singer and director 
 1964 – Herbert Fandel, German football referee
 1965 – Antonio Saca, former President of El Salvador
 1965 - Mike Pollock, American actor
 1968 – Youri Djorkaeff, French footballer
 1968 - Maggie Aderin-Pocock, English space scientist
 1968 – Johnny Kelly, American drummer
 1969 – Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, American basketball player
 1970 – Martin Johnson, English rugby player and coach
 1970 – Shannon Leto, American musician and actor
 1970 - David Guido Pietroni, Italian movie director and producer
 1971 - Diego Torres, Argentine singer
 1972 - Jean Louisa Kelly, American actress and singer
 1973 - Matteo Salvini, Italian politician
 1975 – Roy Makaay, Dutch footballer
 1975 – Juan Sebastian Veron, Argentine footballer

From 1976 
 1976 - Ben Mulroney, Canadian television host
 1978 – Lucas Neill, Australian footballer
 1980 - Chingy, American rapper and author
 1980 - Matthew Gray Gubler, American actor
 1983 – Luke Charteris, Welsh rugby player
 1983 – Clint Dempsey, American footballer
 1983 - Maite Perroni, Mexican singer-songwriter and actress
 1984 – Julia Mancuso, American skier
 1986 – Brittany Snow, American actress
 1987 – Bow Wow, American rapper
 1987 - Stacey Dooley, English television presenter
 1988 - Alodia Gosiengfiao, Filipino model, actress and singer
 1989 – Taeyeon, South Korean singer (Girls' Generation)
 1989 - Artem Borodulin, Russian figure skater
 1989 - Klariza Clayton, English actress
 1990 - Daley Blind, Dutch footballer
 1990 - Bilel Ifa, Tunisian footballer
 1990 - Tatsuki Machida, Japanese figure skater
 1991 - Jade Etherington, English skier
 1993 - Suga, South Korean rapper, singer and actress
 1994 - Morgan Rielly, Canadian ice hockey player
 2018 - Princess Adrienne, Duchess of Blekinge, Swedish royal

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 1202 – Sverre of Norway
 1440 - Saint Frances of Rome, Italian nun (b. 1384)
 1566 – David Rizzio, Italian secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots (b. 1533)
 1649 - James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton, Scottish statesman (b. 1606)
 1649 - Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland, English soldier (b. 1590)
 1661 – Cardinal Mazarin, French cardinal and statesman (b. 1602)
 1808 - Joseph Bonomi the Elder, Italian architect (b. 1739)
 1825 - Anna Laetitia Barbauld, English poet, essayist and writer (b. 1743)
 1831 - Friedrich Maximilian Klinger, German writer (b. 1752)
 1847 - Mary Anning, English paleontologist (b. 1799) 
 1851 – Hans Christian Orsted, Danish physicist (b. 1777)
 1888 – Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany (b. 1797)
 1895 - Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Austrian writer (b. 1836)
 1897 – Jamal-al-Din Afghani, Afghan politician and activist (b. 1838)
 1897 – Sondre Norheim, Norwegian skier (b. 1825)

1901  2000 
 1918 – Frank Wedekind, German writer (b. 1864)
 1926 – Usui Mikao, Japanese founder of Reiki healing (b. 1865)
 1936 – Sri Yukteswar Giri, Indian guru and swami (b. 1855)
 1936 - Sidney Johnston Catts, Governor of Florida (b. 1863)
 1945 – Margot Frank, sister of Anne Frank (b. 1926)
 1952 – Alexandra Kollontai, Russian revolutionary, diplomat and writer (b. 1872)
 1954 - Eva Ahnert-Rohlfs, German astronomer (b. 1912)
 1955 - Miroslava, Czech-Mexican actress (b. 1925)
 1962 – Zdenek Nejedly, Czech historian, literary critic and musicologist (b. 1878)
 1971 – Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria, Patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church (b. 1902)
 1974 – Earl Wilbur Sutherland, Jr., American physiologist (b. 1915)
 1981 - Max Delbrück, German-American physicist and geneticist (b. 1906) 
 1983 – Ulf von Euler, Swedish physiologist (b. 1905)
 1983 - Faye Emerson, American actress (b. 1917)
 1988 – Kurt Georg Kiesinger, Chancellor of West Germany (b. 1904)
 1992 – Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel (b. 1913)
 1993 - C. Northcote Parkinson, English historian (b. 1909)
 1994 - Fernando Rey, Spanish actor (b. 1917)
 1996 – George Burns, American actor and singer (b. 1896)
 1997 - Terry Nation, Welsh author and screenwriter (b. 1930)
 1997 – The Notorious B. I. G., American rapper (b. 1972)

From 2001 
 2003 – Bernard Dowiyogo, President of Nauru (b. 1946)
 2004 - Albert Mol, Dutch actor (b. 1917)
 2006 – Geir Ivarsøy, Norwegian programmer, co-founder of Opera Software ASA (b. 1957)
 2006 – Anna Moffo, American operatic soprano (b. 1932)
 2007 – Brad Delp, American singer and musician (b. 1951)
 2010 – Granny D, American political activist (b. 1910)
 2012 - Jose Tomas Sanchez, Filipino cardinal (b. 1920)
 2013 - Viren J. Shah, Indian politician, 21st Governor of West Bengal (b. 1926)
 2014 - Carlos Moreno, Argentine actor (b. 1938)
 2014 - Gerard Mortier, Belgian opera director and administrator (b. 1943)
 2014 - Glenn McDuffie, American World War II sailor (b. 1927)
 2014 - Mohammed Fahim, Vice President of Afghanistan (b. 1957)
 2014 - William Clay Ford, Sr., American businessman (b. 1925)
 2015 - Jack Harte, Irish politician (b. 1920)
 2015 - James Molyneaux, Baron Molyneaux of Killead, Northern Irish politician (b. 1920)
 2015 - David B. Frohnmayer, American attorney (b. 1940)
 2015 - Windell Middlebrooks, American actor (b. 1979)
 2015 - Juanita Morrow Nelson, American activist (b. 1923)
 2015 - Frei Otto, German architect (b. 1925)
 2015 - French sportspeople killed in the Villa Castelli helicopter crash in Argentina:
Florence Arthaud, French sailor (b. 1957)
Camille Muffat, French swimmer (b. 1989)
Alexis Vastine, French boxer (b. 1986)
 2016 - Clyde Lovellette, American basketball player (b. 1929)
 2016 - Nana Vasconcelos, Brazilian jazz musician (b. 1944)
 2016 - Sergio Arellano Stark, Chilean military officer (b. 1921)
 2016 - Jon English, English-Australian musician and actor (b. 1949)
 2016 - Ray Griff, Canadian singer-songwriter (b. 1940)
 2016 - Robert Horton, American actor (b. 1924)
 2016 - Bill Wade, American football player (b. 1930)
 2017 - Anthony Delhalle, French motorcycle racer (b. 1982)
 2017 - Hla Myint, Burmese economist (b. 1920)
 2017 - Kasugafuji Akihiro, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1966)
 2017 - Barbara Helsingius, Finnish singer, poet and fencer (b. 1937)
 2018 - Chris Gedney, American football player (b. 1970)
 2018 - Jo Min-ki, South Korean actor and professor (b. 1965)
 2018 - Jung Jae-sung, South Korean badminton player (b. 1982)
 2018 - George A. Sinner, American politician, Governor of North Dakota (b. 1928)
 2018 - Ion Voinescu, Romanian footballer (b. 1929)
 2018 - Oskar Gröning, German war criminal (b. 1921)
 2018 - Ali Asghar Khodadoust, Iranian surgeon (b. 1935)
 2018 - Millie Dunn Veasey, American activist (b. 1918) 
 2019 - Jed Allan, American actor (b. 1935)
 2019 - Alberto Bucci, Italian basketball coach (b. 1948)
 2019 - Bernard Binlin Dadié, Ivorian novelist, playwright and poet (b. 1916)
 2019 - Vladimir Etush, Russian actor (b. 1922)
 2019 - Harry Howell, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1932)

Observances 
 Teacher's Day (Lebanon)

March 09