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, Lady Day, was New Years' Day in many European implementations of the Julian calendar, preceding by exactly nine months Christmas Day.^[1]

Contents

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

Liturgical feasts

External links

Events

★ 708 - Constantine is consecrated Pope.

★ 1199 - Richard I is wounded by a crossbow bolt while fighting France which leads to his death on April 6.

★ 1300 - Dante descends to the Inferno in ''The Divine Comedy'' (fictional).

★ 1306 - Robert the Bruce becomes King of Scotland.

★ 1409 - The Council of Pisa opens.

★ 1584 - Sir Walter Raleigh is granted a patent to exploit Virginia.

★ 1634 - The first settlers arrive in Maryland.

★ 1655 - Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is discovered by Christian Huygens.

★ 1655 - Protestants take control of Maryland at the Battle of the Severn.

★ 1802 - The Treaty of Amiens is signed as a "Definitive Treaty of Peace" between France and United Kingdom.

★ 1807 - The Slave Trade Act becomes law, abolishing the slave trade in the British Empire.

★ 1807 - The Swansea and Mumbles Railway, then known as the Oystermouth Railway, became the first passenger carrying railway in the world.

★ 1811 - Percy Bysshe Shelley is expelled from the University of Oxford for his publication of the pamphlet ''The Necessity of Atheism''.

★ 1821 - (Julian Calendar) Greeks revolt against the Ottoman Empire, beginning the Greek War of Independence.

★ 1857 - Phonautograph patented.

★ 1865 - The "Claywater Meteorite" explodes just before reaching ground level in Vernon County, Wisconsin. Fragments having a combined mass of 1.5 kg are recovered.

★ 1865 - American Civil War: In Virginia, Confederate forces capture Fort Stedman from the Union in a bloody battle.

★ 1894 - Coxey's Army, the first significant American protest march, departs Massillon, Ohio for Washington D.C..

★ 1901 - At the five-day "Week of Nice" race in Nice, France, Mercedes wins its first racing victory.

★ 1903 - Racing Club de Avellaneda, one of the big five of Argentina, was founded.

★ 1908 - Clube Atletico Mineiro, Founded in Belo Horizonte,Brazil.

★ 1911 - In New York City the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire kills 146 garment workers.

★ 1914 - Greek Sports Club, Aris Thessaloniki is founded.

★ 1918 - The Belarusian People's Republic was established.

★ 1931 - The Scottsboro Boys are arrested in Alabama and charged with rape.

★ 1939 - Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli becomes Pope Pius XII.

★ 1941 - Kingdom of Yugoslavia joins the Axis powers with the signing of the Tripartite Pact.

★ 1947 - An explosion in a coalmine in Centralia, Illinois kills 111.

★ 1949 - The extensive deportation campaign known as March deportation was conducted in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to force collectivisation by way of terror. The Soviet authorities deported more than 92,000 people from Baltics to remote areas of the Soviet Union.

★ 1955 - United States Customs seizes copies of Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl" as obscene.

★ 1957 - The European Economic Community is established (West Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg).

★ 1958 - Canada's Avro Arrow makes it debut flight.

★ 1965 - Civil rights activists led by Martin Luther King, Jr. successfully complete their 4-day 50-mile march from Selma to the capitol in Montgomery.

★ 1969 - During their honeymoon, John Lennon and Yoko Ono hold their first Bed-In for Peace in the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel (until March 31).

★ 1971 - Bangladesh Liberation War: Beginning of Operation Searchlight of Pakistan Army against East Pakistani civilians.

★ 1975 - Faisal of Saudi Arabia is shot and killed by a mentally ill nephew.

★ 1979 - The first fully functional space shuttle orbiter, ''Columbia,'' is delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center to be prepared for its first launch.

★ 1988 - The Candle demonstration in Bratislava was the first mass demonstration of the 1980s against the communist regime in Czechoslovakia.

★ 1990 - In the Bronx, New York City, a fire at an illegal social club called "Happy Land" kills 87 people.

★ 1992 - Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returns to Earth after a 10-month stay aboard the Mir space station.

★ 1995 - Ward Cunningham opens the first wiki, the WikiWikiWeb.

★ 1996 - An 81-day-long standoff between the anti-government group Montana Freemen and law enforcement near Jordan, Montana, begins.

★ 1996 - The Labour Party is founded in Turkey.

★ 1996 - The EU's Veterinarian Committee bans the export of British beef and its by-products as a result of mad cow disease (BSE).

★ 1997 - Rapper Notorious B.I.G. releases his first posthumous album ''Life After Death'' sixteen days after he is killed from gunshots. The double cd is certified ten million copies and debuts at number one.

★ 1999 - Enron energy traders allegedly route 2,900 megawatts of electricity destined to California to Silver Peak, Nevada, population 200.

★ 2004 - Air Holland files for bankruptcy in response to unproven allegations of cannabis abuse by their pilots.

★ 2006 - The Capitol Hill massacre occurs: a gunman kills six people before taking his own life at a party in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood; it is one of the largest crime scenes the city has ever had.

★ 2006 - Protesters demanding a re-election in Belarus following the rigged Belarusian presidential election, 2006 clash with riot police. Opposition leader Aleksander Kozulin was among several protesters arrested.

Births

★ 1252 - Conradin, Duke of Swabia (d. 1268)

★ 1297 - Andronicus III Palaeologus, Eastern Roman Emperor (d. 1341)

★ 1297 - Arnost of Pardubice, Archbishop of Prague (d. 1364)

★ 1345 - Blanche of Lancaster, wife of John of Gaunt (d. 1369)

★ 1347 - Catherine of Siena, Italian saint (d. 1380)

★ 1404 (baptism) - John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, English military leader (d. 1444)

★ 1479 - Vasili III, Grand Prince of Moscow (d. 1533)

★ 1539 - Christopher Clavius, German mathematician (d. 1612)

★ 1541 - Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1587)

★ 1593 - Jean de Brébeuf, French Jesuit missionary (d. 1649)

★ 1643 - Louis Moréri, French encylopedist (d. 1680)

★ 1661 - Paul de Rapin, French historian (d. 1725)

★ 1699 - Johann Adolph Hasse, German composer (d. 1783)

★ 1767 - Joachim Murat, King of Naples (d. 1815)

★ 1800 - Heinrich von Dechsen, German geologist (d. 1889)

★ 1824 - Clinton L. Merriam, American politician (d. 1900)

★ 1840 - Myles Keogh, U.S. Soldier in U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment & Irish Soldier of Fortune (d. 1876)

★ 1863 - Simon Flexner, American pathologist (d. 1946)

★ 1867 - Arturo Toscanini, Italian conductor, (d. 1957)

★ 1868 - William Lockwood, English cricketer (d. 1932)

★ 1873 - Rudolf Rocker, German anarchist (d. 1958)

★ 1877 - Walter Little, Canadian politician (d. 1961)

★ 1881 - Béla Bartók, Hungarian composer (d. 1945)

★ 1881 - Mary Gladys Webb, English writer (d. 1927)

★ 1884 - Georges Imbert, Alsatian chemist (d. 1950)

★ 1886 - Athenagoras, Patriarch of Constantinople (d. 1972)

★ 1892 - Andy Clyde, American actor (d. 1967)

★ 1895 - Siegfried Handloser, German physician (d. 1954)

★ 1899 - Burt Munro, New Zealand motorcycle racer (d. 1978)

★ 1901 - Ed Begley, American actor (d. 1970)

★ 1903 - Nahum Norbert Glatzer, Jewish-American scholar (d. 1990)

★ 1903 - Frankie Carle, American pianist and bandleader (d. 2001)

★ 1906 - A.J.P. Taylor, British historian (d. 1990)

★ 1906 - Jean Sablon, French singer (d. 1994)

★ 1908 - Helmut Käutner, German actor and director (d. 1980)

★ 1908 - David Lean, English film director (d. 1991)

★ 1911 - Jack Ruby, killer of Lee Harvey Oswald (d. 1967)

★ 1912 - Jean Vilar, French stage and film actor (d. 1971)

★ 1913 - Sir Reo Stakis, Anglo-Cypriot hotel magnate, head of Stakis Hotels (d. 2001)

★ 1914 - Norman Borlaug, American agricultural scientist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

★ 1918 - Howard Cosell, American sports reporter (d. 1995)

★ 1920 - Patrick Troughton, English actor (d. 1987)

★ 1920 - Arthur Wint, Jamaican runner (d. 1992)

★ 1921 - Nancy Kelly, American actress (d. 1995)

★ 1921 - Simone Signoret, French actress (d. 1985)

★ 1922 - Eileen Ford, American model agency executive

★ 1925 - Flannery O'Connor, American author (d. 1964)

★ 1926 - László Papp, Hungarian boxer (d. 2003)

★ 1926 - Jaime Sabines, Mexican poet (d. 1999)

★ 1928 - Jim Lovell, American astronaut

★ 1929 - Wim van Est, Dutch cyclist (d. 2003)

★ 1932 - Gene Shalit, American film critic

★ 1934 - Gloria Steinem, American feminist and publisher

★ 1935 - Flash Elorde, Filipino boxer

★ 1938 - Hoyt Axton, American musician and actor (d. 1999)

★ 1938 - Fritz d'Orey, Brazilian racing driver

★ 1939 - Toni Cade Bambara, American author (d. 1995)

★ 1940 - Anita Bryant, American singer

★ 1941 - Gudmund Hernes, Norwegian politician

★ 1942 - Aretha Franklin, American singer

★ 1942 - Richard O'Brien, English actor and writer, host of The Crystal Maze

★ 1943 - Paul Michael Glaser, American actor

★ 1946 - Cliff Balsam, English footballer

★ 1946 - Maurice Krafft, French vulcanologist (d. 1991)

★ 1946 - Gerard John Schaefer, American serial killer (d. 1995)

★ 1947 - Elton John, English singer and songwriter

★ 1948 - Bonnie Bedelia, American actress

★ 1952 - Antanas Mockus, Colombian mathematician

★ 1955 - Daniel Boulud, French chef and restaurateur

★ 1955 - Lee Mazzilli, American baseball player

★ 1956 - Matthew Garber, English actor (d. 1977)

★ 1958 - Ray Tanner, American college baseball coach

★ 1958 - Sisy Chen, Taiwanese politician and television commentator

★ 1958 - Åsa Torstensson, Swedish politician

★ 1960 - Idy Chan Yuk-Lin, Hong Kong actress

★ 1960 - Steve Norman, British saxophonist (Spandau Ballet)

★ 1960 - Peter O'Brien, Australian actor

★ 1960 - Haywood Nelson, American actor

★ 1962 - Marcia Cross, American actress

★ 1964 - Lisa Gay Hamilton, American actress

★ 1964 - Ken Wregget, Canadian ice hockey player

★ 1964 - Alex Solis, Panamanian jockey

★ 1965 - Sarah Jessica Parker, American actress

★ 1965 - Avery Johnson, American basketball player and coach

★ 1965 - Stefka Kostadinova, Bulgarian high jumper

★ 1966 - Tom Glavine, American baseball player

★ 1966 - Jeff Healey, Canadian guitarist

★ 1966 - Tatjana Patitz, German supermodel

★ 1966 - Anton Rogan, Irish footballer

★ 1967 - Matthew Barney, American media artist

★ 1967 - Debi Thomas, American figure skater

★ 1967 - Doug Stanhope, American Comedian

★ 1969 - Dale Davis, American basketball player

★ 1969 - Cathy Dennis, English singer, songwriter, and actress

★ 1970 - Kari Matchett, Canadian actress

★ 1971 - Cammi Granato, American ice hockey player

★ 1973 - Anthony Barness, English footballer

★ 1974 - Lark Voorhies, American actress

★ 1975 - Ladislav Benysek, Czech ice hockey player

★ 1975 - Melanie Blatt, British singer

★ 1976 - Francis Bellew, Irish Gaelic footballer

★ 1976 - Cha Tae-hyun, South Korean actor, TV personality, and singer

★ 1976 - Juvenile, American rapper

★ 1976 - Wladimir Klitschko, Ukrainian boxer

★ 1976 - Gigi Leung, Hong Kong singer/actress

★ 1978 - Baek Ji Young, South Korean singer

★ 1979 - Natasha Yi, American supermodel

★ 1980 - Carrie Lam, Hong Kong actress, Miss Hong Kong 2005 2nd runner-up

★ 1982 - Danica Patrick, American race car driver

★ 1982 - Sean Faris, American actor and model

★ 1982 - Sergey Yakovlev, russian musical artist and painter

★ 1982 - Álvaro Saborío, Costa Rican footballer

★ 1984 - Katharine McPhee, ''American Idol'' contestant

★ 1987 - Nobunari Oda, Japanese figure skater

★ 1989 - Alyson Michalka, American actress/singer

Deaths

★ 752 - Pope-elect Stephen (died before taking office)

★ 1223 - Afonso II of Portugal (b. 1185)

★ 1345 - Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster, English politician (b. 1281)

★ 1458 - Marqués de Santillana, Spanish poet (b. 1398)

★ 1558 - Marcos de Niza, French Franciscan explorer

★ 1561 - Conrad Lycosthenes, humanist and encyclopedist (b. 1518)

★ 1603 - Ikoma Chikamasa, Japanese warlord (b. 1526)

★ 1609 - Olaus Martini, Swedish Archbishop of Uppsala (b. 1557)

★ 1620 - Johannes Nucius, German composer

★ 1625 - Giambattista Marini, Italian poet (b. 1569)

★ 1712 - Nehemiah Grew, English naturalist (b. 1641)

★ 1736 - Nicholas Hawksmoor, British architect

★ 1738 - Turlough O'Carolan, Irish harper and composer (b. 1670)

★ 1751 - Frederick I of Sweden (b. 1676)

★ 1801 - Novalis, German poet (b. 1772)

★ 1818 - Caspar Wessel, Danish mathematician (b. 1745)

★ 1860 - James Braid, Scottish surgeon (b. 1795)

★ 1914 - Frédéric Mistral, French poet, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1830)

★ 1918 - Claude Debussy, French composer (b. 1862)

★ 1951 - Eddie Collins, baseball player (b. 1887)

★ 1957 - Max Ophüls, German-born director and writer (b. 1902)

★ 1958 - Tom Brown, American musician (b. 1888)

★ 1969 - Max Eastman, American writer (b. 1883)

★ 1969 - Billy Cotton, British bandleader & entertainer (b. 1889)

★ 1975 - King Faisal of Saudi Arabia (b. 1906)

★ 1975 - Juan Gaudino, Argentine racing driver (b. 1893)

★ 1980 - Roland Barthes, French literary critic and writer (b. 1915)

★ 1980 - Milton H. Erickson, American psychiatrist (b. 1901)

★ 1980 - Walter Susskind, Czech conductor (b. 1913)

★ 1980 - James Wright, American poet (b. 1927)

★ 1988 - Robert Joffrey, American dancer, teacher, and choreographer (b. 1930)

★ 1991 - Marcel Lefebvre, French Catholic prelate (b. 1905)

★ 1992 - Nancy Walker, American actress (b. 1922)

★ 1994 - Max Petitpierre, member of the Swiss Federal Council (b. 1899)

★ 1995 - James Coleman, American sociologist (b. 1926)

★ 1995 - Krešimir Ćosić, Croatian basketball player (b. 1948)

★ 1995 - John Hugenholtz, Dutch race track designer (b. 1914)

★ 1996 - John Snagge, British radio personality (b. 1904)

★ 1998 - Max Green, Australian lawyer (b. 1952)

★ 1999 - Cal Ripken, Sr., American baseball manager (b. 1936)

★ 2000 - Helen Martin, American actress (b. 1909)

★ 2002 - Kenneth Wolstenholme, English football commentator (b. 1920)

★ 2006 - Rocío Dúrcal, Spanish singer and actress (b. 1944)

★ 2006 - Richard Fleischer, American film director (b. 1916)

★ 2006 - Buck Owens, American singer and television personality (b. 1929)

★ 2007 - Andranik Margaryan, 14th Prime Minister of Armenia (b. 1951)

★ 2007 - Robert Woolmer, international cricketer, professional cricket coach and professional commentator (b. 1948)

Holidays and observances

★ In Christianity, March 25 is typically celebrated as the day of the Annunciation so long as it does not fall on a Sunday or during Holy Week or Easter Week.

★ Eastern (Byzantine) Catholic Church: Annunciation of the Theotokos (Mother of God)

★
★ This Feast is always celebrated on March 25 in the Eastern Church, as it is the beginning of God's plan of salvation through Christ being announced to the world.

★ Traditional date of the death (circa 33), of Jesus (b. circa 1 BC in traditional dating).

★ Historic start of the new year (''Lady Day'') in England, Wales, Ireland, and the future United States until the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar in 1752. (The year 1751 began on 25 March; the year 1752 began on 1 January.)

★ As the day falls close to the vernal equinox, similar to the way Christmas falls near the December solstice, both days are regarded as one of the Quarter Days to Christians in the British Isles.

★ Maryland Day;

★ Greek Independence Day;

★ Freedom Day in Belarus;

★ International Waffle Day in Sweden;

★ Mother's Day in Slovenia.

Liturgical feasts

★ The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Lady Day) - this date is nine months before Christmas Day, and is based on the traditional date in Catholicism of a 1 BC - Annunciation of the Virgin Mary and conception of Jesus.

★ One of the four Irish Quarter days in the Irish calendar.

★ Saint Dysmas, the 'Good Thief'

★ Saint Humbert

External links

★ BBC: On This Day

★

★ On This Day in Canada
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