Explore fascinating moments from history that shaped our world
A series of four explosions at a military barracks in Bata, Equatorial Guinea caused at least 107 deaths.
The Kepler space telescope (depicted), designed to discover Earth-like planets orbiting other stars, was launched.
Dissident Irish republican campaign: Two off-duty British Army soldiers were shot dead by Real IRA paramilitaries outside Massereene Barracks in Antrim, Northern Ireland.
The charity single "We Are the World" by the supergroup USA for Africa was released, and went on to sell more than 20 million copies.
Vietnam War: The United States and South Vietnam began Operation Truong Cong Dinh to sweep the area surrounding the Mekong Delta town of Mỹ Tho to root out Viet Cong forces in the area.
Unarmed civil rights activists marching from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, were attacked by police (pictured) on "Bloody Sunday".
World War II: At the beginning of the Battle of Remagen, Allied forces unexpectedly captured the Ludendorff Bridge, which possibly hastened the war's conclusion.
The German submarine U-47, one of the most successful U-boats of World War II, disappeared with 45 men on board.
Nazi German forces re-occupied the demilitarized Rhineland, violating both the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Treaties that were signed after World War I.
The German ocean liner SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse became the first ship to send a wireless telegraph message to an onshore receiver.
José Paranhos, Viscount of Rio Branco, began a four-year premiership as Prime Minister of the Empire of Brazil, the longest in the state's history.
United States senator Daniel Webster delivered a speech advocating compromise on slavery, which proved to be unpopular with abolitionists in his home state.
War of the Sixth Coalition: Napoleon's army forced Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov's Russian troops to withdraw from the Chemin des Dames, but French casualties exceeded Russian losses.
A peace treaty brought the Ottoman–Venetian War to an end, ceding Cyprus from the Republic of Venice to the Ottoman Empire.
Bishop Étienne Tempier promulgated a condemnation of 219 heretical propositions that were being discussed at the University of Paris.
Emperor Constantine I decreed that Sunday, the day honoring the sun god Sol Invictus (disc pictured), would be the Roman day of rest.
Sweden officially joins NATO, becoming its 32nd member.
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed is found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Halyna Hutchins on the set of the movie Rust, the first time someone has been found guilty for causing a death on a movie set.
At least 108 die and 615 are injured in the 2021 Bata explosions in Bata, Equatorial Guinea.
Massereene Barracks shooting: The Real Irish Republican Army kills two British soldiers and injures two other soldiers and two civilians at Massereene Barracks, the first British military deaths in Northern Ireland since the end of The Troubles.
Reform of the House of Lords: The British House of Commons votes to make the upper chamber, the House of Lords, 100% elected.
Garuda Indonesia Flight 200 crashes at Adisutjipto International Airport in the Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia, killing 21 people.
The terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba coordinates a series of bombings in Varanasi, India.
Iran and the United Kingdom break diplomatic relations after a fight over Salman Rushdie and his controversial novel, The Satanic Verses.
Challenger Disaster: Divers from the USS Preserver locate the crew cabin of Challenger on the ocean floor.
Bloody Sunday: A group of 600 civil rights marchers are brutally attacked by state and local police in Selma, Alabama.
Aeroflot Flight 542 crashes in the Yermakovsky District, killing all 31 aboard.
Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 307 crashes in Lynnhurst, Minneapolis, killing 15 people.
Korean War: Operation Ripper: United Nations troops led by General Matthew Ridgway begin an assault against Chinese forces.
Iranian prime minister Ali Razmara is assassinated by Khalil Tahmasebi, a member of the Islamic fundamentalist Fada'iyan-e Islam, outside a mosque in Tehran.
Günther Prien and the crew of German submarine U-47, one of the most successful U-boats of World War II, disappear without a trace.
The Parliament House of Finland is officially inaugurated in Helsinki, Finland.
The short-lived socialist Labin Republic is proclaimed.
Second Boer War: Boers, led by Koos de la Rey, defeat the British at the Battle of Tweebosch.
Alexander Graham Bell is granted a patent for an invention he calls the "telephone".
Senator Daniel Webster gives his "Seventh of March" speech endorsing the Compromise of 1850 in order to prevent a possible civil war.
Shrigley abduction: 15-year old Ellen Turner is abducted by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, a future figure in the establishment of colonies in South Australia and New Zealand.
Emperor Napoleon I of France wins the Battle of Craonne.
Napoleon Bonaparte captures Jaffa in Palestine and his troops proceed to kill more than 2,000 Albanian captives.
A peace treaty is signed between the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Venice, ending the Ottoman–Venetian War and leaving Cyprus in Ottoman hands.
The University of Paris issues the last in a series of condemnations of various philosophical and theological theses.
Konrad III von Hohenstaufen was elected king of Germany at Coblenz in the presence of the papal legate Theodwin.
Marcus Aurelius and L. Commodus (who changes his name to Lucius Verus) become joint emperors of Rome on the death of Antoninus Pius.
Kiyan Anthony, American basketball player
Rasmus Sandin, Swedish ice hockey player
Sebastian Schwaighofer, Austrian politician
Amanda Gorman, American poet and activist
Taher Mohamed, Egyptian footballer
Dylan Strome, Canadian ice hockey player
Liam Donnelly, Northern Irish footballer
Pablo López, Venezuelan baseball player
Jerome Binnom-Williams, English footballer
Aboubakar Kamara, French footballer
Haley Lu Richardson, American actress
Chase Kalisz, American swimmer
Jake Layman, American basketball player
Jordan Pickford, English footballer
Bel Powley, English actress
Ian Clark, American basketball player
Jeff Withey, American basketball player
Niclas Bergfors, Swedish ice hockey player
Ryan Ciminelli, American bowler
Cameron Prosser, Australian swimmer
Steve Burtt Jr., American-Ukrainian basketball player
Mathieu Flamini, French footballer
Jacob Lillyman, Australian rugby league player
Brandon T. Jackson, American actor and comedian
Manucho, Angolan footballer
Eric Godard, Canadian ice hockey player
Laura Prepon, American actress
Rodrigo Braña, Argentine footballer
Paul Cattermole, English singer and actor (died 2023)
Ronan O'Gara, Irish rugby player and coach
Audrey Marie Anderson, American actress and model
T. J. Thyne, American actor
Jenna Fischer, American actress
Tobias Menzies, English actor
Facundo Sava, Argentine footballer and manager
Jason Bright, Australian race car driver
Jay Duplass, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
Sébastien Izambard, French tenor and producer
Craig Polla-Mounter, Australian rugby league player
Tal Banin, Israeli footballer and manager
Peter Sarsgaard, American actor
Matthew Vaughn, English director and producer
Rachel Weisz, English actress
Jeff Kent, American baseball player
Zheng Haixia, Chinese basketball player and coach
Ruthie Henshall, English actress, singer, and dancer
Terry Carkner, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
Jeff Feagles, American football player
Jesper Parnevik, Swedish golfer
Bret Easton Ellis, American author and screenwriter
Wanda Sykes, American comedian, actress, and screenwriter
Mike Eagles, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
E. L. James, English author
Taylor Dayne, American singer-songwriter and actress
Mary Beth Evans, American actress
Joe Carter, American baseball player
Ivan Lendl, Czech tennis player and coach
Jim Spivey, American runner and coach
Tom Lehman, American golfer
Donna Murphy, American actress and singer
Nick Searcy, American actor

Rick Bass, American author and environmentalist

Rik Mayall, English comedian, actor, and screenwriter (died 2014)
Merv Neagle, Australian footballer and coach (died 2012)
Robert Harris, English journalist and author
Mark Richards, Australian surfer
Bryan Cranston, American actor, director, and producer
Andrea Levy, English author (died 2019)
Eva Brunne, Swedish bishop
William Boyd, British author and screenwriter
Ernie Isley, American guitarist and songwriter

Viv Richards, Antiguan cricketer
Lynn Swann, American football player, sportscaster, and politician

Billy Joe DuPree, American football player
Franco Harris, American football player and businessman (died 2022)

J. R. Richard, American baseball player and minister (died 2021)

Helen Eadie, Scottish politician (died 2013)

Matthew Fisher, English musician, songwriter, and producer
John Heard, American actor and producer (died 2017)
Peter Wolf, American singer-songwriter and musician
Bob Herbert, American journalist

Arthur Lee, American singer-songwriter and musician (died 2006)
Elizabeth Moon, American author
Ranulph Fiennes, English soldier and explorer

Townes Van Zandt, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1997)
Billy MacMillan, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (died 2023)
Chris White, English singer-songwriter and bass player
Michael Eisner, American businessman
Tammy Faye Messner, American evangelist, television personality, and talk show host (died 2007)
Daniel J. Travanti, American actor
David Baltimore, American biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
Janet Guthrie, American race car driver

Georges Perec, French author (died 1982)

Gray Morrow, American illustrator and comic book artist (died 2002)
Willard Scott, American television personality and actor (died 2021)
Jackie Blanchflower, Northern Irish footballer and accountant (died 1998)

Ed Bouchee, American baseball player (died 2013)
Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon, English photographer and politician (died 2017)
Robert Trotter, Scottish actor and photographer (died 2013)
Dan Jacobson, South African-English author and critic (died 2014)
James Broderick, American actor and director (died 1982)

Richard Vernon, British actor (died 1997)
Olga Ladyzhenskaya, Russian mathematician and academic (died 2004)
Peter Murphy, English footballer (died 1975)

Andy Phillip, American basketball player and coach (died 2001)
Janet Collins, American ballerina and choreographer (died 2003)
Betty Holberton, American engineer and programmer (died 2001)
Jacques Chaban-Delmas, French general and politician, Prime Minister of France (died 2000)
Anna Magnani, Italian actress (died 1973)
Ivar Ballangrud, Norwegian speed skater (died 1969)
Reinhard Heydrich, German SS officer and a principle architect of the Holocaust (died 1942)
Kurt Weitzmann, German-American historian and author (died 1993)
Maud Lewis, Canadian folk artist (died 1970)
Heinz Rühmann, German actor (died 1994)
Dorothy de Rothschild, English philanthropist and activist (died 1988)

William L. Laurence, Lithuanian-American journalist (died 1977)
Virginia Pearson, American actress (died 1958)

G. I. Taylor, English mathematician and physicist (died 1975)
Wilson Dallam Wallis, American anthropologist (died 1970)
Milton Avery, American painter (died 1965)
John Tovey, 1st Baron Tovey, English admiral (died 1971)
Maurice Ravel, French pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1937)
Piet Mondrian, Dutch-American painter (died 1944)

Cecilie Thoresen Krog, Norwegian women's rights pioneer (died 1911)
Julius Wagner-Jauregg, Austrian physician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1940)
Champ Clark, American lawyer and politician, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (died 1921)
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, Austrian-Czech politician, 1st President of Czechoslovakia (died 1937)
Luther Burbank, American botanist (died 1926)
Marriott Henry Brosius, American senator (died 1901)
William Rockhill Nelson, American businessman and publisher, founded The Kansas City Star (died 1915)
Ludwig Mond, German-born chemist and British industrialist who discovered the metal carbonyls (died 1909)
Henry Draper, American physician and astronomer (died 1882)
Increase A. Lapham, American scientist (died 1875)
John Herschel, English mathematician and astronomer (died 1871)
Alessandro Manzoni, Italian author and poet (died 1873)
Nicéphore Niépce, French inventor, invented photography (died 1833)
Louis Auguste Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, French soldier and politician (died 1807)
Ewald Christian von Kleist, German soldier and poet (died 1759)
Clement XIII, pope of the Catholic Church (died 1769)
Filippo Juvarra, Italian architect, designed the Basilica of Superga (died 1736)
Rob Roy MacGregor, Scottish outlaw (died 1734)
Guillaume du Vair, French lawyer and author (died 1621)
Publius Septimius Geta, Roman emperor (died 211)
D'Wayne Wiggins, American musical artist (born 1961)
Steve Lawrence, American actor and singer (born 1935)
Lynne Stewart, American attorney and activist (born 1939)
Adrian Hardiman, Irish lawyer and judge (born 1951)
Leonard Berney, Bergen-Belsen concentration camp liberator (born 1920)
G. Karthikeyan, Indian lawyer and politician (born 1949)

F. Ray Keyser, Jr., American lawyer and politician, Governor of Vermont (born 1927)
Yoshihiro Tatsumi, Japanese author and illustrator (born 1935)
Ned O'Gorman, American poet and educator (born 1929)
Peter Banks, English guitarist and songwriter (born 1947)
Damiano Damiani, Italian director and screenwriter (born 1922)
Claude King, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1923)

Gordon Parks, American photographer, director, and composer (born 1912)
John Box, English production designer and art director (born 1920)
Debra Hill, American screenwriter and producer (born 1950)
Pee Wee King, American singer-songwriter (born 1914)
Sidney Gottlieb, American chemist and theorist (born 1918)
Stanley Kubrick, American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1928)

Edward Mills Purcell, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1912)
Tony Harris, South African cricketer (born 1916)
J. Merrill Knapp, American musicologist (born 1914)
Martti Larni, Finnish writer (born 1909)

Eleanor Sanger, American television producer (born 1929)
Josef Steindl, Austrian economist (born 1912)

Cool Papa Bell, American baseball player (born 1903)

Divine, American drag queen and film actor (born 1945)
Ülo Õun, Estonian sculptor (born 1940)
Karl Leichter, Estonian musicologist and academic (born 1902)
Jacob K. Javits, American colonel and politician, New York State Attorney General (born 1904)
Igor Markevitch, Ukrainian conductor and composer (born 1912)

Ida Barney, American astronomer (born 1886)
Muhammad Zaki Abd al-Qadir, Egyptian journalist and writer (born 1906)

Wright Patman, American politician (born 1893)
Mikhail Bakhtin, Russian philosopher and critic (born 1895)
Lalo Ríos, Mexican actor (born 1927)

Richard Montague, American mathematician and philosopher (born 1930)
Alice B. Toklas, American writer (born 1877)
Wyndham Lewis, English painter and critic (born 1882)

Otto Diels, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1876)

Bradbury Robinson, American football player, physician, and politician (born 1884)
Aristide Briand, French journalist and politician, Prime Minister of France, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1862)
Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Finnish artist (born 1865)
Robert Abbe, American surgeon and radiologist (born 1851)
Jaan Poska, Estonian lawyer and politician, Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1866)
Pauline Johnson, Canadian poet and author (born 1861)
Harriet Ann Jacobs, African American Abolitionist and author (born 1813)

Robert Townsend, American spy (born 1753)
Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood, English admiral (born 1748)
Jean-Pierre Blanchard, French inventor, best known as a pioneer in balloon flight (born 1753)
Charles De Geer, Swedish entomologist and archaeologist (born 1720)
Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, Canadian politician, Colonial Governor of Louisiana (born 1680)
Pope Innocent XIII (born 1655)
Johann Bayer, German lawyer and cartographer (born 1572)
Margaret Douglas, English noblewoman, daughter of Margaret Tudor and Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus (born 1515)
Francesco I Gonzaga, ruler of Mantua
Saint Thomas Aquinas, Italian priest and philosopher (born 1225)

William Longespée, 3rd Earl of Salisbury, English commander
Nominoe, Duke of Brittany
Heraclianus, Roman politician and failed usurper
Antoninus Pius, Roman emperor (born 86)
Christian feast day: Blessed Leonid Feodorov (Russian Greek Catholic Church)
Christian feast day: María Antonia de Paz y Figueroa
Christian feast day: Perpetua and Felicity
Christian feast day: Siméon-François Berneux (part of The Korean Martyrs)
Christian feast day: March 7 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Maritime Day in Slovenia