The March 19 reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

March 19

March 19 is the 78th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (79th in leap years). There are 287 days remaining.

Feb - March - Apr
Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	31
2004 day arrangement All days

Table of contents

1 Events 2 Births 3 Deaths 4 Holidays and observances

Events

• 1279 - Mongolian victory in the Battle of Yamen ends the Song Dynasty in China.
• 1687 - The men under explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle murder him while searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River.
• 1831 - The City Bank of New York is the site of the first bank robbery in United States history ($245,000 taken).
• 1861 - The First Taranaki War ends in New Zealand.
• 1865 - American Civil War: The Battle of Bentonville begins. By the end of the battle on the 21st the Confederate forces had retreated from Greenville, North Carolina.
• 1915 - Pluto is photographed for the first time but was not recognized as a planet.
• 1916 - First United States air combat mission in history as eight American planes take off in pursuit of Pancho Villa.
• 1918 - The United States Congress establishes time zones and approves daylight saving time.
• 1920 - The United States Senate rejects the Treaty of Versailles for the second time (first time was on November 19, 1919).
• 1932 - Sydney Harbour Bridge opens.
• 1942 - The Thoroughbred Racing Association is established in Chicago, Illinois.
• 1944 - World War II: Nazi forces occupy Hungary.
• 1945 - World War II: Off the coast of Japan, a dive bomber hits the aircraft carrier USS Franklin, killing 800 of her crew and crippling the ship.
• 1945 - World War II: Adolf Hitler issues his "Nero Decree" ordering all industries, military installations, shops, transportation facilities and communications facilities in Germany be destroyed.
• 1946 - French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion become overseas départements of France.
• 1954 - Joey Giardello knocks out Willie Tory in round seven at Madison Square Garden in the first televised prize boxing fight shown in color.
• 1962 - Algerian War of Independence: A cease fire takes effect.
• 1972 - India and Bangladesh sign a friendship treaty.
• 1979 - The United States House of Representatives begins broadcasting its day-to-day business via the cable television network C-SPAN.
• 1981 - Three workers are killed and five injured during a test of the Space Shuttle Columbia.
• 1982 - Falklands War: Argentines land on South Georgia Island, precipitating war.
• 1987 - Following a scandal involving Jessica Hahn, televangelist Jim Bakker resigns from the PTL.
• 2002 - U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda ends (started on March 2) after killing 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters with 11 allied troop fatalities.
• 2003 - The invasion of Iraq begins (with the time difference, it actually begins on March 20 at 0100 UTC)
• 2004 - Äänekoski bus disaster - A long-distance lorry and a bus crashed head-on in Äänekoski, Finland. Heavy paper rolls, carried by the lorry from Stora Enso, came loose and totally destroyed the bus. 24 people were killed and 13 injured, four of them seriously. Besides the bus driver, the victims were youths headed for a skiing weekend in the mountains.
• 2004 - The Swedish DC-3, shot down by a Russian Mig-15 in the 1950s, is finally rescued after years of recovery work. The remains of the crew were left in place, pending further investigations.
• 2004 - An attempt on the life of Taiwanese president Chen Shui-ban takes place just days before the country's elections take place.

Births

• 1684 - Jean Astruc, French physician and scholar, (d. 1766)
• 1721 - Tobias Smollett, Scottish novelist (d. 1771)
• 1813 - David Livingstone, missionary and explorer, (d. 1873)
• 1848 - Wyatt Earp, policeman, gunfighter, (d. 1929)
• 1849 - Alfred von Tirpitz, German soldier, (d. 1930)
• 1864 - Charles Marion Russell, artist, (d. 1926)
• 1865 - William Morton Wheeler, US entomologist, myrmecologist, pioneer in ethology, (d. 1937)
• 1873 - Max Reger, composer, (d. 1916)
• 1883 - Joseph Stilwell, US general, (d. 1946)
• 1888 - Josef Albers, artist (d. 1976)
• 1891 - Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the United States, (d. 1974)
• 1894 - Joe Venuti, jazz musician and violinist, (d. 1978)
• 1894 - Moms Mabley, comedienne, (d. 1975)
• 1900 - Frédéric Joliot, physicist and winner of 1935 Nobel Prize in chemistry, (d. 1958)
• 1905 - Albert Speer, Nazi official, (d. 1981)
• 1906 - Adolf Eichmann, Nazi official, (d. 1962)
• 1909 - Louis Hayward, actor, (d. 1985)
• 1914 - Jay Berwanger, American football star, winner of the first Heisman Trophy, (d. 2002)
• 1916 - Irving Wallace, novelist, (d. 1990)
• 1917 - Dinu Lipatti, pianist, (d. 1950)
• 1928 - Hans Küng, theologian
• 1928 - Patrick McGoohan, actor
• 1930 - Ornette Coleman, musician
• 1933 - Philip Roth, author
• 1936 - Ursula Andress, actress
• 1939 - Joe Kapp, US football star
• 1943 - Mario Monti, aka "Super Mario"
• 1944 - Sirhan Sirhan, assassin
• 1944 - Said Musa, Prime Minister of Belize
• 1944 - Dan Riordan, college educator with above-average height and mental agility
• 1947 - Glenn Close, actress
• 1955 - Bruce Willis, actor

Deaths

• 1286 - King Alexander III of Scotland, (b. 1241)
• 1721 - Pope Clement XI, (b. 1649)
• 1939 - Lloyd L. Gaines, civil rights activist, (b. c. 1913)
• 1945 - Friedrich Fromm, Nazi official
• 1950 - Edgar Rice Burroughs, author, (b. 1875)
• 1980 - Tamara de Lempicka, art deco painter, (b. 1898)
• 1982 - Randy Rhoads, guitarist of Quiet Riot (b. 1956)
• 1987 - Louis-Victor de Broglie, physicist and winner 1929 of the Nobel Prize in Physics, (b. 1892)
• 1997 - Willem de Kooning, artist, (b. 1904)
• 2003 - Michael Mathias Prechtl, illustrator
• 2004 - Mitchell Sharp, former Canadian Liberal cabinet minister (b. 1911)

Holidays and observances

• Roman Catholicism and Church of England - Saint Joseph's Day for St. Joseph of Nazareth, spouse of Mary, the mother of Jesus
• Las Fallas in Valencia, Spain
• The first day of Quinquatria in ancient Rome, held in honor of Minerva.
• The swallows return to Mission San Juan Capistrano in California

---

See Also:

March 18 - March 20 - February 19 - April 19 -- listing of all days

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

This is the "March 19" reference article from the English Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.