Events

Up to 1900 
 241 BC – First Punic War: Battle of the Aegates Islands – The Romans sinks the Carthaginian fleet; end of First Punic War.
 298 - Roman Emperor Maximian completes his campaign in North Africa against the Berbers, and makes a triumphant entry to Carthage in present-day Tunisia.
 1496 – Christopher Columbus leaves Hispaniola for Spain, ending his second visit to the Western Hemisphere.
 1535 – Tomas de Berlanga reaches the Galapagos Islands after sailing off course in a storm.
 1607 - Susenyos defeats combined armies of Yaqob and Abuna Petros II at the Battle of Gol in Gojjam, making him Emperor of Ethiopia.
 1629 – Charles I of England dissolves Parliament, starting the Eleven Years Tyranny in which there was no parliament.
 1661 - Louis XIV of France takes absolute government powers.
 1792 - Huguenot Jean Calas, wrongly convicted for killing his son, dies after being tortured by authorities. This inspires Voltaire to begin a campaign for religious tolerance and legal reform.
 1801 – The United Kingdom's first national census is carried out.
 1804 – Louisiana Purchase: In St. Louis, a formal ceremony is conducted to transfer ownership of Louisiana Territory from France to the United States.
 1814 – Napoleon I of France is defeated at the Battle of Laon in France.
 1831 – The French Foreign Legion is established by King Louis-Philippe to support his war in Algeria.
 1848 – The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is ratified by the United States Senate, ending the Mexican-American War.
 1861 – El Hadj Umar Tall seizes the city of Segou, destroying the Bambara Empire of Mali.
 1864 – Montana vigilantes hang Jack Slade.
 1864 – American Civil War: The Red River Campaign begins as Union troops reach Alexandria, Louisiana.
 1876 – Alexander Graham Bell makes the first successful telephone call by saying "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you."
 1880 – Members of the Salvation Army land in the United States and begin operations.
 1891 – Almon Strowger, an undertaker in Topeka Kansas, patents the strowger switch, a device which led to the automation of telephone circuit switching.
 1893 – Côte d'Ivoire becomes a French colony.

1901  2000 
 1902 – Second Boer War: South African Boers win their last battle over British forces, with the capture of a British general and 200 of his men.
 1902 – A United States court of appeals rules that Thomas Edison did not invent the movie camera.
 1902 – Tochangri, Turkey, is completely destroyed by an earthquake.
 1906 – Europe's worst mining disaster occurs at Courrieres, northern France, as 1,099 miners are killed.
 1909 - The Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909 is signed.
 1912 – Yuan Shikai is sworn in as the second Provisional President of the Republic of China.
 1922 - Mahatma Gandhi is arrested for sedition by British colonial authorities.
 1923 – The Spanish football club Villarreal is founded.
 1926 – The first Book-of-the-Month-Club selection is produced
 1933 – An earthquake in Long Beach, California kills 120 people.
 1945 – The U.S. Army Air Force firebombs Tokyo, and the resulting firestorm kills more than 100,000 people, mostly civilians.
 1948 – The Indian Union Muslim League is founded, by remnants of the old Muslim League.
 1951 – Henri Queuille becomes Prime Minister of France.
 1952 – Fulgencio Batista leads a successful coup in Cuba.
 1959 - Tibetan Uprising: Fearing an abduction attempt by the Government of the People's Republic of China, 300,000 Tibetans surround Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama's palace to prevent his removal.
 1964 – The Ford Mustang is first produced by the Ford Motor Company.
 1966 – Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands marries Claus von Amsberg.
 1969 – In Memphis, Tennessee, James Earl Ray pleads guilty to assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. Ray would later retract his guilty plea.
 1970 – Vietnam War: Capt. Ernest Medina is charged with My Lai war crimes.
 1971 – William McMahon becomes Prime Minister of Australia.
 1975 – Vietnam War: North Vietnamese troops attack Ban Me Thout, South Vietnam, on their way to capturing Saigon.
 1977 – Rings of Uranus: Astronomers discover rings around Uranus.
 1982 – The United States places an embargo on Libyan petroleum imports because of their support of terrorist groups.
 1982 – Syzygy: all 9 planets align on the same side of the Sun.
 1987 – Reproductive rights: The Holy See condemns the practice of surrogate motherhood, along with test-tube babies and artificial insemination.
 1987 - A magnitude 7 earthquake hits Colombia and Ecuador, killing 1,000 people.
 1990 – In Haiti, Prosper Avril is ousted 18 months after seizing power in a coup.
 1991 – Gulf War: Operation Phase Echo – 540,000 American troops begin to leave the Persian Gulf.
 1996 – The "Summit of Peacemakers" takes place in Egypt.
 1998 – American troops stationed in the Persian Gulf begin to receive the first vaccinations against anthrax.
 1998 - Suharto claims a sixth election victory as President of Indonesia. This leads to protests which eventually lead to his resignation in May of the same year, after over 32 years in power.
 2000 – The NASDAQ stock market index peaks at 5048.62, signaling the beginning of the end of the dot-com boom.

From 2001 
 2004 – Six Flags sells 8 of its theme parks to private investors.
 2004 – Kostas Karamanlis becomes Prime Minister of Greece.
 2005 – In Edmonton, Alberta, the largest memorial (of its kind) in Canadian history was held for four RCMP constables who were gunned down March 3, 2005.
 2006 – The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter arrives at the planet Mars.
 2006 - The 2006 Winter Paralympics in Turin begin.
 2008 – The New York Times reveals that New York Governor Eliot Spitzer patronised a prostitution service, and he resigns shortly after.
 2014 - President of Bayern Munich football club Uli Hoeness goes on trial on charges of tax fraud.
 2015 - A court rules that the tune from Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams' track Blurred Lines was copied from a song by Marvin Gaye.
 2017 - South Korean President Park Geun-hye is officially removed from office by the country's constitutional court over a corruption scandal, following her impeachment three months earlier.
 2017 - The United Nations warns that up to 20 million people could be affected by a famine affecting parts of Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.
 2019 - Ethiopian Airlines Flight 103, a Boeing 737 MAX, crashes shortly after take-off from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on a flight due to go to Nairobi, Kenya, killing all 157 people on board.

Births

Up to 1900 
 1415 – Vasili II of Russia (d. 1462)
 1452 – Ferdinand II of Aragon (d. 1516)
 1503 – Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1564)
 1536 - Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, English politician (d. 1572)
 1628 – Marcello Malpighi, Italian physician (d. 1694)
 1709 - Georg Wilhelm Steller, German botanist, zoologist, physician and explorer (d. 1746)
 1748 - John Playfair, Scottish scientist and mathematician (d. 1819)
 1749 - Lorenzo da Ponte, Italian opera librettist and poet (d. 1838)
 1760 - Leandro Fernandez de Moratin, Spanish poet and writer (d. 1829)
 1772 – Karl Friedrich Wilhelm von Schlegel, German poet, critic and scholar (d. 1829)
 1776 – Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen Consort of Prussia (d. 1810)
 1779 – Frances Trollope, English writer (d. 1863)
 1786 - José Maria Vargas, President of Venezuela (d. 1854) 
 1787 – Francisco de Paula Martinez de la Rosa, Spanish statesman and dramatist (d. 1862)
 1787 – William Etty, English painter (d. 1849)
 1788 - Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff, German polymath (d. 1857)
 1789 – Manuel de la Peña y Peña, President of Mexico (d. 1850)
 1810 - Samuel Ferguson, Irish poet (d. 1886)
 1833 - Pedro Antonio de Alarcon, Spanish writer (d. 1891)
 1839 - Dudley Buck, American composer, organist and writer (d. 1909)
 1842 - Mykola Lysenko, Ukrainian composer (d. 1912)
 1844 - Pablo de Sarasate, Spanish violinist (d. 1908)
 1845 – Tsar Alexander III of Russia (d. 1894)
 1845 - Hallie Quinn Brown, African-American educator and activist (d. 1949)
 1847 - Kate Sheppard, New Zealand suffragist (d. 1934)
 1850 - Spencer Gore, British tennis player and cricketer (d. 1906)
 1853 - Thomas Mackenzie, Scottish-born 18th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1930)
 1854 - Arnost Muka, Sorbian writer (d. 1932)
 1867 - Hector Guimard, French architect and designer (d. 1942)
 1867 - Lillian Wald, American nurse, humanitarian and author (d. 1940)
 1873 - Jakob Wassermann, German writer (d. 1934)
 1875 - Alexander Goldenweiser, Russian pianist, composer and educator (d. 1961)
 1876 - Edvard Eriksen, Danish sculptor (d. 1959)
 1876 – Ernst Tandefelt, Finnish nobleman and assassin (d. 1948)
 1877 - Emile Sarrade, French rugby player (d. 1953)
 1879 - Hans Luther, Chancellor of Germany in the Weimar Republic (d. 1962)
 1885 - Tamara Karsavina, Russian ballerina (d. 1978)
 1887 – Toshitsugu Takamatsu, Grandmaster of Ninjutsu (d. 1972)
 1891 - Sam Jaffe, American actor, teacher, musician and engineer (d. 1984)
 1892 – Arthur Honegger, Swiss-French composer (d. 1955)
 1892 - Gregory La Cava, American movie director and cartoonist (d. 1952)
 1897 – Robert Meier, German World War I veteran (d. 2007)
 1900 – Pandelis Pouliopoulos, Secretary of the Greek Communist Party (d. 1943)

1901  1950 
 1903 – Bix Beiderbecke, American musician (d. 1931)
 1905 - Richard Haydn, British actor (d. 1985)
 1907 - Christopher Del Sesto, Governor of Rhode Island (d. 1973)
 1909 - LeRoy Collins, Governor of Florida (d. 1991)
 1915 - Charles Groves, English conductor (d. 1992)
 1915 - Harry Bertoia, Italian artist (d. 1978)
 1918 – Günther Rall, German fighter pilot (d. 2009)
 1923 – Val Logsdon Fitch, American nuclear physicist (d. 2015)
 1923 - Hans Riegel, German entrepreneur (Haribo) (d. 2013)
 1925 - Bob Lanier, American politician, 58th Mayor of Houston, Texas (d. 2014)
 1926 - Marques Haynes, American basketball player (d. 2015)
 1927 – Jupp Derwall, German footballer and manager (d. 2007)
 1928 - Sara Montiel, Spanish singer and actress (d. 2013)
 1928 – James Earl Ray, convicted assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr. (d. 1998)
 1929 - Arthur Barnard, American hurdler
 1930 - Jimmie Macgregor, Scottish folk music singer and broadcaster
 1932 - Marcia Falkender, English politician
 1933 - Elizabeth Azcona Cranwell, Argentine poet and translator (d. 2004)
 1933 - Ralph Emery, American television host
 1936 - Alfredo Zitarrosa, Uruguayan singer, poet and composer (d. 1989)
 1936 – Sepp Blatter, Swiss President of FIFA
 1938 – Ieronymus II, Archbishop of Athens
 1938 - Norman Blake, American musician
 1939 - Ashgar Ali Engineer, Indian writer and activist (d. 2013)
 1940 – Chuck Norris, American actor and martial artist
 1946 - Peter Temple, Australian writer (d. 2018)
 1947 – Kim Campbell, 19th Prime Minister of Canada
 1947 - Piers Corbyn, brother of Jeremy Corbyn
 1947 – Tom Scholz, American songwriter and guitarist
 1948 - Austin Carr, American basketball player
 1948 - Pat Gallagher, Irish politician
 1949 - Bill Buxton, Canadian computer scientist and designer
 1950 – Colin McGinn, British philosopher

1951  1975 
 1951 - Brad Fiedel, American movie score composer
 1951 - Gloria Diaz, Filipino model and actress
 1952 - Mike O'Donnell, English musician and composer
 1952 – Morgan Tsvangirai, former Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (d. 2018)
 1953 – Paul Haggis, Canadian screenwriter, producer and movie director
 1954 - Luc Dardenne, Belgian movie director, producer and screenwriter
 1955 - Yousra, Egyptian actress and singer
 1956 - Robert Llewellyn, British writer, actor and presenter
 1956 - Henry Smith, Scottish footballer
 1957 – Osama bin Laden, Saudi-born Islamic extremist (al-Qaeda) (d. 2011)
 1957 - Hilary Devey, English businesswoman
 1957 – Hans-Peter Friedrich, German politician
 1957 - Terry Holmes, Welsh rugby player
 1957 – Shannon Tweed, Canadian actress and model
 1958 – Sharon Stone, American actress
 1958 - Garth Crooks, English footballer and pundit
 1958 - Frankie Ruiz, American singer (d. 1998)
 1960 - Antonio Corgos, Spanish long jumper
 1961 – Laurel Clark, American physician and astronaut (d. 2003)
 1961 - Mitch Gaylord, American gymnast, actor and stuntman
 1962 - Jasmine Guy, American actress
 1962 - Seiko Matsuda, Japanese pop singer
 1963 – Jeff Ament, American musician
 1964 - Dave Bowman, Scottish footballer
 1964 – Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex
 1964 – Neneh Cherry, Swedish singer
 1966 - Edie Brickell, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
 1968 - Pavel Srnicek, Czech footballer (d. 2015)
 1969 - Paget Brewster, American actress
 1971 – Jon Hamm, American actor
 1971 - Steve Arnold, British racing driver
 1972 - Timbaland, American rapper
 1973 – Eva Herzigova, Czech model
 1973 – Chris Sutton, English footballer
 1973 - Mauricio Taricco, Argentine footballer
 1974 – Keren Ann, Israeli-Dutch singer
 1974 - Biz Stone, American businessman, co-founder of Twitter
 1975 - Jerry Horton, American guitarist

From 1976 
 1976 – Haifa Wehbe, Lebanese singer
 1976 - Kisaki, Japanese bass player, singer and songwriter
 1976 - Ane Brune, Norwegian singer
 1977 – Peter Enckelman, Finnish footballer
 1977 - Shannon Miller, American gymnast
 1977 – Colin Murray, Northern Irish radio and television presenter
 1977 - Robin Thicke, American singer (Blurred Lines)
 1977 - Bree Turner, American actress
 1978 – Neil Alexander, Scottish footballer
 1978 - Benjamin Burnley, American musician
 1978 - Camille, French singer
 1979 - Danny Pudi, American actor and comedian
 1981 – Samuel Eto'o, Cameroonian footballer
 1981 – Kokkai Futoshi, Georgian-Japanese sumo wrestler
 1981 - Steven Reid, Irish footballer
 1982 – Kwame Brown, American basketball player
 1983 - Rafe Spall, English actor
 1983 - Janet Mock, American writer, television host and activist
 1983 – Carrie Underwood, American singer
 1984 - Carol Castro, Brazilian actress
 1984 – Olivia Wilde, American actress
 1985 – Lassana Diarra, French footballer
 1985 - Pastor Maldonado, Venezuelan racing driver
 1987 - Emeli Sandé, Scottish singer
 1987 - Ebba Jungmark, Swedish athlete
 1987 - Tuukka Rask, Finnish ice hockey player
 1987 - Liu Shishi, Chinese actress and ballerina
 1988 – Ivan Rakitic, Croatian footballer
 1990 - Inna Deriglazova, Russian foil fencer
 1991 - Kadeena Cox, English Paralympic athlete
 1992 – Emily Osment, American actress and singer
 1993 - Jack Butland, English footballer
 1993 - Nooa Takooa, Kiribati athlete
 1994 - JoJo Offerman, American wrestler and singer
 1995 - Sergey Mozgov, Russian ice dancer
 1997 - Belinda Bencic, Swiss tennis player

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 483 - Pope Simplicius
 1291 - Arghun, Persian ruler
 1315 - Agnes Blannbekin, Austrian mystic and saint (b. 1244)
 1391 - Tvrtko I, King of Bosnia (b. 1338)
 1588 – Theodor Zwinger, Swiss scholar (b. 1533)
 1607 - Yaqob, Emperor of Ethiopia (b. 1590)
 1792 – John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1713)
 1826 – King John VI of Portugal (b. 1767)
 1832 - Muzio Clementi, Italian composer (b. 1752)
 1861 – Taras Shevchenko, Ukrainian poet (b. 1814)
 1864 – Maximilian II of Bavaria (b. 1811)
 1864 – Jack Slade, American frontier figure (b. 1831)
 1872 – Giuseppe Mazzini, Italian politician (b. 1805)
 1889 - Yohannes IV, Emperor of Ethiopia (b. 1831)
 1889 - Antonio de Trueba, Spanish writer (b. 1819)
 1895 - Charles Frederick Worth, English-French fashion designer (b. 1826)
 1897 - Savitribai Phule, Indian poet and activist (b. 1831)
 1898 - Marie-Eugenie de Jesus, French Catholic nun (b. 1817)

1901  2000 
 1910 – Carl Reinecke, German pianist, conductor and composer (b. 1824)
 1910 – Karl Lueger, Mayor of Vienna (b. 1844)
 1913 – Harriet Tubman, American abolitionist (b. 1820)
 1924 - Chester Hardy Aldrich, American politician, 17th Governor of Nebraska (b. 1862)
 1937 – Yevgeny Zamyatin, Russian writer (b. 1884)
 1940 – Mikhail Bulgakov, Russian writer (b. 1891)
 1942 – William Henry Bragg, English physicist (b. 1862)
 1948 – Jan Masaryk, Czechoslovakian politician (b. 1886)
 1948 – Zelda Fitzgerald, American writer (b. 1900)
 1950 - Marguerite Da La Motte, American actress (b. 1902)
 1951 – Kijuro Shidehara, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1872)
 1966 – Frits Zernike, Dutch physicist (b. 1888)
 1982 - Minoru Shirota, inventor of Yakult (b. 1899)
 1984 - June Marlowe, American actress (b. 1903)
 1985 – Konstantin Chernenko, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (b. 1911)
 1985 – C. B. van Niel, Dutch microbiologist (b. 1897)
 1986 - Ray Milland, Welsh-American actor (b. 1907)
 1988 – Andy Gibb, English-born singer (b. 1958)
 1992 - Giorgos Zampetas, Greek composer and musician (b. 1925)
 1997 - LaVern Baker, American actor (b. 1913)
 1998 – Lloyd Bridges, American actor (b. 1913)

From 2001 
 2001 – Massimo Morsello, Italian musician and activist (b. 1958)
 2006 – John Profumo, British politician (b. 1915)
 2007 - Richard Jeni, American actor (b. 1957)
 2010 – Corey Haim, Canadian actor (b. 1971)
 2010 – Dorothy Janis, American actress (b. 1910)
 2010 – Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy, Egyptian Muslim cleric (b. 1928)
 2012 – Jean Giraud, French comic book artist (b. 1938)
 2012 – Nick Zoricic, Canadian skier (b. 1983)
 2012 - Frank Sherwood Rowland, American chemist and physicist (b. 1927)
 2013 - Princess Lilian, Duchess of Halland, British-born Swedish royal (b. 1915)
 2014 - Cynthia Lynn, Latvian-American actress (b. 1937)
 2014 - Joe McGinniss, American journalist and author (b. 1942)
 2015 - Stuart Wagstaff, British-Australian entertainer (b. 1925)
 2015 - Claude Sitton, American newspaper reporter (b. 1925)
 2016 - Ken Adam, German-English production designer (b. 1921)
 2016 - Ernestine Anderson, American jazz and blues singer (b. 1928)
 2016 - Anita Brookner, English writer (b. 1928)
 2016 - Keith Emerson, English keyboardist and songwriter (b. 1944)
 2016 - Claude Estier, French politician (b. 1925)
 2016 - Bill Gadsby, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1927)
 2016 - Gogi Grant, American singer (b. 1924)
 2016 - Roberto Perfumo, Argentine footballer (b. 1942)
 2016 - Jovito Salonga, Filipino lawyer and politician (b. 1920)
 2017 - Gido Kokars, Latvian choir conductor (b. 1921)
 2017 - Bill Leak, Australian cartoonist (b. 1956)
 2017 - John Surtees, English racing driver and motorcycle racer (b. 1934)
 2017 - John Forgeham, English actor (b. 1941)
 2017 - Tony Haygarth, English actor (b. 1945)
 2017 - Joni Sledge, American singer and songwriter (b. 1956)
 2017 - Anna Tramontano, Italian biologist (b. 1957)
 2017 - Richard Wagamese, Canadian author and journalist (b. 1955)
 2017 - Robert James Waller, American writer (b. 1939)
 2018 - Garech Browne, Irish arts patron (b. 1939)
 2018 - Hubert de Givenchy, French fashion designer (b. 1927)
 2018 - Wally Gould, English footballer (b. 1938)
 2018 - Ralf Waldmann, German motorcycle racer (b. 1966)
 2018 - Michel Raynaud, French mathematician (b. 1938)
 2019 - William Powers Jr., American educator (b. 1946)

Observances 
 Mar.10 Day: Mario Day of Nintendo
 Tibetan Uprising Day (Tibetan Independence Supporters)

Days of the year