March 10

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 - Cote 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 - Jose 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 Pena y Pena, 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 - Gunther 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)
1926 - Oscar Quitak, British actor
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 Sande, 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