March 1, 2024
March 15 & March 17
By Eloise Graham
March 15 is the Ides of March. Julius Caesar was warned about doom and gloom on the Ides of March. I think most of us know a little about the story.
It was not a good day for Caesar. He was assassinated! Beware the Ides of March. But what other events in history have happened on this day?
Julius Caesar
In 1614 Francicus Sylvius, whose studies helped shift medical emphasis from mystical speculation to rational application, was born in Germany. Andrew Jackson, the seventh President of the United States was born on this day in 1767. American revolutionaries won a strategic victory at the Battle of Guilford House, North Carolina in 1781. John Snow, a renowned British physician, was born March 15, 1813. In 1875 Pope Pius IX appointed John McCloskey the first American Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. 1878 Reza Shah Pahlavi, shah of Iran, was born. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, member of the United States Supreme Court, was born in 1933. After a highly publicized affair, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were married in Montreal 1964. From the movies, The Godfather, an epic drama about organized crime premiered in 1972. In 1990 the Congress of the People’s Deputies of the U.S.S.R. elected Mikhail Gorbachev to the newly created post of president of the Soviet Union.
We know March 17 as Saint Patrick’s Day. Saint Patrick’s Day, also known as the Feast of Saint Patrick, is a religious and cultural holiday held on March 17. This date is the traditional death date of Saint Patrick, the saint of the Emerald Isle. He introduced Christianity to the Irish. It is said he rid the isle of snakes, but that is probably a metaphor for converting pagans. Other events in history on this date?
Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who became a symbol of the Gold Age of the Roman Empire, died at age 58. The year was 180 AD. In 1776 British General William Howe evacuated Boston after a successful siege by the American revolutionaries led by General Washington. American golfer, Bobby Jones was born in 1902. He was the first player to achieve a Grand Slam. Eleanor Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt were married in 1905. In 1919 Nat King Cole was born. He was a musician who first came to prominence as a jazz pianist, but gained great popularity with his singing of ballads. In 1958 the first solar-powered satellite, Vanguard I, was launched from Cape Canaveral. It weighed less than 4 pounds. Golda Meir became the fourth prime minister of Israel in 1969.
