It is the traditional date of the March equinox, although it often falls on March 20.

Events

Up to 1900 
 537 - Siege of Rome: King Vitiges attempts to assault the northern and eastern city walls, but is prevented from doing so at the Praenestine Gate, known as Vivarium, by the defenders under Byzantine generals Bessas and Peranius.
 1152 - The marriage of King Louis VII of France and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine is annulled, meaning that their marriage is no longer recognized.
 1188 - Emperor Antoku comes to the throne of Japan.
 1556 – In Oxford, Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer is burned at the stake.
 1684 – Giovanni Domenico Cassini discovers Saturn's moons Tethys and Dione.
 1784 – William Herschel discovers the NGC 4379 and NGC 3370 Galaxies.
 1788 – A fire destroys 856 buildings in New Orleans and leaves most of the town in ruins.
 1800 – With the church leadership driven out of the Vatican during an armed conflict, Pius VII was crowned Pope in Venice with a temporary papal tiara made of papier-mâché.
 1800 - The Republic of the Ionian Islands is founded. Currently, the islands are part of Greece.
 1801 – The Battle of Alexandria was fought between British and French forces near the ruins of Nicopolis in Egypt.
 1804 – Code Napoléon was adopted as French civil law.
 1814 - Napoleonic Wars: Austrian forces repel French troops in the Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube.
 1844 – The Baha'i calendar begins.
 1846 – Adolphe Sax receives a patent for the Saxophone.
 1857 – Earthquake in Tokyo, Japan kills over 100,000.
 1865 - American Civil War: The Battle of Bentonville ends in a Union victory.
 1871 - Otto von Bismarck is appointed Chancellor of the German Empire.
 1871 – Journalist Henry Morton Stanley began his trek to find the missionary and explorer David Livingstone.

1901  2000 
 1913 - Over 360 people are killed and 20,000 homes are destroyed by a flood in Dayton, Ohio.
 1918 – World War I: Second Battle of the Somme begins.
 1919 - The Chinese High School is established in Singapore by Tan Kah Kee.
 1921 - A new economic policy is implemented by the Bolsheviks in response to the economic failure as a result of war communism.
 1925 - Syngman Rhee is removed from office as President of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea.
 1925 - The Butler Act bans the teaching of human evolution in Tennessee.
 1928 – Charles Lindbergh is presented the Congressional Medal of Honor for his first trans-Atlantic flight.
 1933 - Holocaust: Dachau Concentration Camp is completed. Its first prisoners arrive the next day.
 1935 – Shah Reza Pahlavi formally asked the international community to call Persia by its native name, Iran, which means 'Land of the Aryans'.
 1937 - Ponce Massacre: 19 people, including a 7-year-old girl, are killed in Ponce, Puerto Rico, being gunned down by police guard acting under orders of US-appointed Governor Blanton C. Winship.
 1940 – Paul Reynaud becomes Prime Minister of France.
 1943 - Wehrmacht officer Rudolf von Gersdorffplots to assassinate Nazi leader Adolf Hitler by using a suicide bomb, though the plan does not go ahead.
 1945 – World War II: British troops liberate Mandalay, Burma.
 1945 - World War II: Operation Carthage - British planes bomb Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen, though a school is also hit, killing 125 people.
 1945 - World War II: Bulgaria and the Soviet Union successfully complete their defense of the north bank of the Drava River as the Battle of the Transdanubian Hills concludes.
 1946 - The Los Angeles Rams sign Kenny Washington, making him the first African American player in American football since 1933.
 1952 – Alan Freed presents the Moondog Coronation Ball, the first rock and roll concert, in Cleveland, Ohio.
 1960 – Apartheid: Massacre in Sharpeville, South Africa: Police open fire on a group of unarmed black South African demonstrators, killing 69 and wounding 180.
 1963 – Alcatraz, a federal penitentiary on an island in San Francisco Bay, closes.
 1964 – In Copenhagen, Denmark, Gigliola Cinquetti wins the ninth Eurovision Song Contest for Italy singing "Non ho l'età" (I'm not old enough).
 1965 – Ranger program: NASA launches Ranger 9 which is the last in a series of unmanned lunar space probes.
 1965 – Martin Luther King Jr leads 3,200 people on the start of the 3rd and finally successful Civil Rights March from Selma to Montgomery Alabama.
 1968 - Battle of Karameh in Jordan between Israel's Defense Forces and Fatah.
 1970 – The first Earth Day proclamation was issued by San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto.
 1970 – Vinko Bogataj crashes during a ski-jumping championship in Germany; his image becomes that of the "agony of defeat guy" in the opening credits of ABC's Wide World of Sports.
 1970 – In Amsterdam, Netherlands, Dana wins the fifteenth Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland singing "All Kinds of Everything".
 1975 – The Ethiopian military declares an end to Ethiopia's monarchy.
 1980 – President Jimmy Carter announces a United States boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan.
 1980 – On the season finale of the soap opera Dallas, the infamous character J.R. Ewing is shot by an unseen assailant, leading to the catchphrase "Who Shot JR?"
 1985 – Canadian paraplegic athlete and humanitarian Rick Hansen begins his circumnavigation in a wheelchair in the name of spinal cord injury medical research.
 1989 – Sports Illustrated reports allegations that tie baseball player Pete Rose to baseball gambling.
 1990 – Namibia becomes independent after 75 years of South African rule.
 1994 - United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change enters into force.
 1999 – Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones become the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon.
 2000 - Pope John Paul II visits Israel.

From 2001 
 2002 – In Pakistan, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh along with three other suspects are charged with murder for their part in the kidnapping and killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
 2004 – In Malaysia, the 11th Federal and State elections are held, returning the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional to power with an increased majority.
 2005 – In Red Lake, Minnesota, 10 are killed in a school shooting, the worst since the Columbine High School massacre.
 2006 – The Social networking site Twitter is founded by Jack Dorsey in San Francisco, California.
 2010 - The 2010 Winter Paralympics in Vancouver end.
 2013 - Justin Welby is officially enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury.
 2014 - Vladimir Putin signs a decree making Crimea part of Russia.
 2016 - Congolese politician Jean-Pierre Bemba is convicted of rape, murder and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
 2018 - Pedro Pablo Kuczynski resigns as President of Peru as a result of a corruption scandal.
 2019 - A river ferry capsizes near Mosul, Iraq, killing 70 people.

Births

Up to 1900 
 927 - Emperor Taizu of Song of China (d. 976)
 1474 - Angela Merici, Italian religious leader and saint (d. 1540)
 1521 - Maurice, Elector of Saxony (d. 1553)
 1522 - Mihrimah Sultan, daughter of Suleiman the Magnificent (d. 1578)
 1527 - Hermann Finck, German composer (d. 1558)
 1626 - Peter of Saint Joseph Betancur, Canary Islands-born Christian missionary (d. 1667)
 1672 - Stefano Benedetto Pallavicino, Italian poet and opera librettist (d. 1742)
 1685 – Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer (d. 1750)
 1713 - Francis Lewis, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (d. 1803)
 1716 - Josef Seger, Bohemian composer (d. 1782)
 1763 – Jean Paul, German writer (d. 1825)
 1768 – Joseph Fourier, French engineer and mathematician (d. 1830)
 1775 – Lucien Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon Bonaparte (d. 1840)
 1786 - Joseph Vance, 13th Governor of Ohio (d. 1852)
 1797 - Johann Andreas Wagner, German zoologist (d. 1861)
 1801 – Maria Theresa of Tuscany, Queen of Sardinia (d. 1855)
 1806 – Benito Juarez, President of Mexico (d. 1872)
 1817 - Joseph Poelaert, Belgian architect (d. 1879)
 1825 – Alexander Mizhayskiy, Russian aviation pioneer (d. 1890)
 1827 - Andrew Leith Adams, Scottish doctor, naturalist and geologist (d. 1882)
 1839 – Modest Mussorgsky, Russian composer (d. 1881)
 1857 - Alice Henry, Australian activist, journalist and trade unionist (d. 1943)
 1859 - Dania Pratt, American golfer (d. 1938)
 1865 - George Owen Squier, American inventor (d. 1934)
 1867 – Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., American theater producer (d. 1932)
 1869 - David Robertson, Scottish golfer (d. 1937)
 1874 - Alfred Tysoe, British athlete (d. 1901)
 1876 – Walter Tewksbury, American athlete (d. 1968)
 1877 - Maurice Farman, French motor racing champion and aircraft manufacturer (d. 1964)
 1880 - Broncho Billy Anderson, American actor, director, producer and screenwriter (d. 1971)
 1882 - Aleksander Keskula, Estonian politician (d. 1963)
 1882 - Bascom Lamar Lunsford, American singer and lawyer (d. 1973)
 1883 - Vladimir Antonov-Ovseyenko, Soviet-Russian politician and diplomat (d. 1938)
 1885 – Pierre Renoir, French actor and director (d. 1952)
 1886 - Walter Dray, American pole vaulter (d. 1973)
 1887 - Erich Mendelsohn, German-American architect (d. 1953)
 1887 - M. N. Roy, Indian philosopher and politician (d. 1954)
 1889 - Alexander Vertinsky, Soviet-Russian artist, singer and movie actor (d. 1957)
 1890 - C. Douglass Buck, Governor of Delaware (d. 1965)
 1891 - Jonathan Hale, Canadian-American actor (d. 1966)
 1893 - Sidney Franklin, American director and movie producer (d. 1972)
 1895 - Leonid Utsoyov, Russian jazz singer, bandleader and actor (d. 1982)
 1896 - Friedrich Waismann, Austrian mathematician, physicist and philosopher (d. 1959)
 1897 - Salvador Lutteroth, Mexican wrestling promoter (d. 1987)

1901  1950 
 1901 – Karl Arnold, German politician (d. 1958)
 1904 - Nikos Skalkottas, Greek composer (d. 1949)
 1906 - John D. Rockefeller III, American philanthropist (d. 1978)
 1910 – Mohammad Siddiq S Khan, Bangladeshi intellectual (d. 1978)
 1913 – George Abecassis, British racing driver (d. 1991)
 1914 - Paul Tortelier, French cellist (d. 1990)
 1916 - Bismillah Khan, Indian musician (d. 2006)
 1917 - Yigael Yadin, Israeli archaeologist, general and politician (d. 1984)
 1918 - Patrick Lucey, 38th Governor of Wisconsin (d. 2014)
 1919 - R. M. Hare, British philosopher (d. 2002)
 1920 - Georg Ots, Estonian opera singer (d. 1975)
 1920 – Eric Rohmer, French director (d. 2010)
 1921 - Antony Hopkins, English composer, conductor and pianist (d. 2014)
 1922 - Russ Meyer, American actor, director, producer and screenwriter (d. 2004)
 1923 – Nirmala Srivastava, Indian religious figure (d. 2011)
 1925 - Harold Ashby, American saxophonist (d. 2003)
 1925 - Peter Brook, English theatre and movie director
 1927 – Hans-Dietrich Genscher, German politician and diplomat (d. 2016)
 1927 - Halton Arp, American astronomer (d. 2013)
 1928 - Surya Bahadur Thapa, Prime Minister of Nepal (d. 2015)
 1929 - Jimmy Wardhaugh, Scottish footballer (d. 1978)
 1931 - Alda Merini, Italian poet (d. 2009)
 1931 – Richard Ratsimandrava, President of Madagascar (d. 1975)
 1932 – Walter Gilbert, American chemist
 1932 - Joseph Silverstein, American violinist and conductor (d. 2015)
 1933 – Michael Heseltine, British politician
 1933 - Antonio Pica, Spanish footballer (d. 2014)
 1934 - Al Freeman, Jr., American actor (d. 2012)
 1935 – Brian Clough, English footballer and manager (d. 2004)
 1935 - Erich Kunzel, American conductor (d. 2009)
 1937 - Ann Clwyd, Welsh politician
 1938 - Luigi Tenco, Italian singer (d. 1967)
 1940 – Solomon Burke, American singer-songwriter (d. 2010)
 1942 – Fradique de Menezes, former President of São Tomé and Príncipe
 1942 – Ali Abdullah Saleh, former President of Yemen (d. 2017)
 1942 - Kostas Politis, Greek basketball player and coach
 1943 – Vivian Stanshall, English musician (d. 1995)
 1944 - Marie-Christine Barrault, French actress
 1944 - Hideki Ishima, Japanese guitarist
 1944 - Cox Habbema, Dutch actress (d. 2016)
 1944 - Mike Jackson, British general
 1946 – Timothy Dalton, British actor
 1946 - Joseph Mitsuaki Takami, 9th Archbishop of Nagasaki
 1946 - Ray Dorset, British musician
 1947 - Michael Dibdin, British writer (d. 2007)
 1949 - Eddie Money, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2019)
 1949 – Slavoj Zizek, Slovenian sociologist and cultural critic
 1950 – Roger Hodgson, English musician
 1950 - Sergey Lavrov, Russian politician and diplomat

1951  1975 
 1954 - Mike Dunleavy, American basketball coach
 1955 - Jair Bolsonaro, President of Brazil
 1956 – Ingrid Kristiansen, Norwegian athlete
 1957 – Youssef Rzouga, Tunisian poet
 1958 - Marlies Göhr, German athlete
 1958 – Gary Oldman, British actor
 1959 – Nobuo Uematsu, Japanese composer
 1959 - Sarah Jane Morris, English singer-songwriter
 1960 – Ayrton Senna, Brazilian Formula 1 driver (d. 1994)
 1960 - Jim Matheson, American politician
 1961 – Lothar Matthaus, German footballer
 1961 - Kassie DePaiva, American actress
 1962 – Rosie O'Donnell, American comedienne, actress, talk show host, and publisher
 1962 – Matthew Broderick, American actor
 1963 - Ronald Koeman, Dutch footballer
 1963 – Shawn Lane, American musician
 1964 - Ieuan Evans, Welsh rugby player
 1964 - Jesper Skibby, Danish cyclist
 1965 - Xavier Bertrand, French politician
 1966 - Benito Archundia, Mexican football referee
 1966 - DJ Premier, American DJ and producer
 1967 – Jonas Berggren, Swedish musician (Ace of Base)
 1967 – Carwyn Jones, Welsh politician and former First Minister of Wales
 1967 – Adrian Chiles, English television presenter
 1968 - Scott Williams, American basketball player and sportscaster
 1969 – Ali Daei, Iranian footballer
 1972 - Chris Candido, American professional wrestler (d. 2005)
 1974 - Laura Allen, American actress
 1975 – Mark Williams, Welsh snooker player
 1975 - Yacoub Al-Mohana, Kuwaiti producer and director

From 1976 
 1976 - Rachael MacFarlane, American voice actress
 1978 – Nick Baines, English musician (Kaiser Chiefs)
 1978 – Kevin Federline, American dancer
 1978 – Rani Mukerji, Indian actress and model
 1980 – Marit Bjorgen, Norwegian cross-country skier
 1980 – Ronaldinho, Brazilian footballer
 1980 - Deryck Whibley, Canadian singer and guitarist (Sum 41)
 1980 - Lee Jin, South Korean actress
 1982 – Antar Yahia, Algerian footballer
 1982 – Aaron Hill, American baseball player
 1982 - Ejegayehu Dibaba, Ethiopian long-distance runner
 1982 - Colin Turkington, Northern Irish racing driver
 1983 - Gonzalo Fierro, Chilean footballer
 1984 - Guillermo Daniel Rodriguez, Uruguayan footballer
 1986 - Michu, Spanish footballer
 1988 – Lee Cattermole, English footballer
 1989 - Jordi Alba, Spanish footballer
 1989 – Rochelle Humes, English singer (The Saturdays)
 1989 – Nicolas Lodeiro, Uruguayan footballer
 1990 - Mandy Capristo, German singer-songwriter and producer
 1991 - Luke Chapman, English footballer
 1991 - Antoine Griezmann, French footballer
 1993 - Jade Jones, Welsh taekwondoin
 1993 - Jade Bidwell, English footballer
 1993 - Suraj Sharma, Indian actor
 1997 - Martina Stoessel, Argentine actress, singer, dancer and model
 2004 - Count Claus-Casimir of Orange-Nassau, Jonkheer van Amsberg, Dutch royal

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 547 – Benedict of Nursia, Italian monk (b. 480)
 1063 - Richeza Lotharingia, Queen of Poland
 1076 – Robert I, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1011)
 1181 - Taira Kiromori, Japanese general (b. 1118)
 1306 – Robert II, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1248)
 1487 - Nicholas of Flue, Swiss patron saint (b. 1417)
 1556 – Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1489)
 1617 – Pocahontas, Native American, daughter of Powhatan (b. 1595)
 1653 - Tarhoncu Ahmed Pasha, Albanian statesman and Grand Vizier
 1729 - John Law, Scottish economist (b. 1671)
 1734 - Robert Wodrow, Scottish historian (b. 1679)
 1762 – Nicholas Louis de Lacaille, French astronomer (b. 1713)
 1772 - Jacques-Nicolas Bellin, French cartographer (b. 1703)
 1795 - Giovanni Arduino, Italian geologist (b. 1714)
 1801 – Andrea Luchesi, Italian composer (b. 1741)
 1843 – Guadalupe Victoria, 1st President of Mexico (b. 1786)
 1843 - Robert Southey, English poet (b. 1774)
 1857 – William Scoresby, British explorer (b. 1789)
 1884 - Ezra Abbot, American scholar (b. 1819)

1901  2000 
 1910 – Nadar, French photographer (b. 1820)
 1915 – Frederick Winslow Taylor, American inventor (b. 1856)
 1920 - Federigo Tozzi, Italian writer (b. 1883)
 1932 - Frantz Reichel, French athlete and rugby player (b. 1871)
 1936 – Alexander Glazunov, Russian composer (b. 1865)
 1943 - Cornelia Fort, American pilot (b. 1919)
 1957 – C. K. Ogden, English writer (b. 1889)
 1961 - Morgan Foster Larson, Governor of New Jersey (b. 1882)
 1980 - Peter Stoner, American mathematician, astronomer and Christian apologist (b. 1888)
 1985 – Michael Redgrave, British actor (b. 1908)
 1987 - Dean Paul Martin, American tennis player, singer, actor and military pilot (b. 1951)
 1987 - Robert Preston, American actor (b. 1918)
 1991 – Leo Fender, American guitar maker (b. 1909)
 1992 – John Ireland, Canadian movie actor and director (b. 1914)
 1993 - Sebastiano Baggio, Italian cardinal (b. 1913)
 1997 - Wilbert Awdry, English writer (Thomas the Tank Engine) (b. 1911)
 1998 – Galina Ulanova, Russian ballerina (b. 1910)
 1999 - Jean Guitton, French philosopher, writer and theologian (b. 1905)
 1999 – Ernie Wise, British comedian (b. 1925)

From 2001 
 2001 – Anthony Steel, British actor (b. 1920)
 2001 - Chung Ju-young, South Korean entrepreneur and businessman, founder of Hyundai (b. 1915)
 2002 - Herman Talmadge, American politician (b. 1913)
 2002 - Milly Dowler, British teenager (murdered) (b. 1988)
 2003 - Umar Wirahadikusumah, 4th Vice President of Indonesia (b. 1924)
 2004 - Ludmila Tchérina, French actress, dancer and choreographer (b. 1924)
 2009 - Walt Poddubny, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1960)
 2010 – Wolfgang Wagner, German opera director and festival organiser (b. 1919)
 2011 – Nikolai Andrianov, Soviet-Russian gymnast (b. 1952)
 2011 – Pinetop Perkins, American musician (b. 1913)
 2012 – Tonino Guerra, Italian poet, writer and screenwriter (b. 1920)
 2013 - Pietro Mennea, Italian sprinter and politician (b. 1952)
 2013 - Chinua Achebe, Nigerian novelist, poet and academic (b. 1930)
 2013 - Elsie Thompson, American supercentenarian (b. 1899)
 2014 - Jack Fleck, American golfer (b. 1921)
 2014 - Ignatius Zakka I Iwas, Iraqi patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church (b. 1933)
 2014 - James Rebhorn, American actor (b. 1948)
 2015 - Perro Aguayo Jr., Mexican professional wrestler (b. 1979)
 2015 - Chuck Bednarik, American football player (b. 1925)
 2015 - Hans Erni, Swiss painter, designer and sculptor (b. 1909)
 2015 - James C. Binnicker, American air force officer (b. 1938)
 2015 - Alberta Watson, Canadian actress (b. 1955)
 2016 - Joseph Mercieca, Maltese archbishop (b. 1928)
 2016 - Andrew Grove, Hungarian-born American businessman, engineer and author (b. 1926)
 2017 - Martin McGuinness, Northern Irish politician (b. 1950)
 2017 - Colin Dexter, English writer (b. 1930)
 2017 - Henri Emmanuelli, French politician (b. 1945)
 2017 - Chuck Barris, American television host, producer and game show creator (b. 1929)
 2017 - August Englas, Estonian wrestler (b. 1925)
 2017 - Roy Fisher, British poet and jazz pianist (b. 1930)
 2018 - Anna-Lisa, Norwegian-American actress (b. 1933)
 2018 - Tom Higgins, American rock climber (b. 1944)
 2018 - Rolf Leeser, German-Dutch footballer (b. 1929)
 2018 - James C. Irwin, American military officer (b. 1929)
 2018 - John W. Vogt, American engineer and politician (b. 1936)
 2018 - Leo C. Zeferetti, American politician (b. 1927)

Observances 
 Independence Day (Namibia)
 Human Rights Day (South Africa)
 Benito Juarez' birthday (Mexico)
 Spring Equinox – Northern Hemisphere
 Autumn Equinox – Southern Hemisphere
 International Day against racial discrimination (after Sharpeville massacre)
 World Poetry Day
 Youth Day (Tunisia)
 Harmony Day (Australia)
 World Down syndrome Day
 Mother's Day (Most of the Arab World)
 World Puppetry Day
 International Colour Day
 International Day of Forests

Days of the year