March in History

Battle of Adwa: An Ethiopian army defeats an outnumbered Italian force, ending the First Italo-Ethiopian War.

The two-day Great Slave Auction, once thought to be the largest such auction in United States history, begins.

American Revolutionary War: The first amphibious landing of the United States Marine Corps begins the Battle of Nassau.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) issues an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. Al-Bashir is the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the ICC since its establishment in 2002.

Boston Massacre: Five Americans, including Crispus Attucks, are fatally shot by British troops in an event that would contribute to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War (also known as the American War of Independence) five years later.

World War II: Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel launches the Battle of Medenine in an attempt to slow down the British Eighth Army. It fails, and he leaves Africa three days later.

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.

Cold War: While addressing a convention of Evangelicals, U.S. President Ronald Reagan labels the Soviet Union an "evil empire".

The first documented discovery of gold in California occurs at Rancho San Francisco, six years before the California Gold Rush.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter arrives at Mars.

A U.S. soldier kills 16 civilians in the Panjwayi District of Afghanistan near Kandahar.

Winter War: Finland signs the Moscow Peace Treaty with the Soviet Union, ceding almost all of Finnish Karelia.

The 2013 papal conclave elects Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio taking the name Pope Francis as the 266th Pope of the Catholic Church.

Escondida in Chile's Atacama Desert – which was to become the worlds most productive copper mine – is officially inaugurated.

In an emotional speech in Newburgh, New York, George Washington asks his officers not to support the Newburgh Conspiracy. The plea is successful, and the threatened coup d'état never takes place.

Adolf Hitler orders Germany to rearm itself in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Conscription is reintroduced to form the Wehrmacht.

American Revolutionary War: The British Army evacuates Boston, ending the Siege of Boston, after George Washington and Henry Knox place artillery in positions overlooking the city.

Susenyos is formally crowned Emperor of Ethiopia.

The Byzantine–Venetian treaty of 1277 is concluded, stipulating a two-year truce and renewing Venetian commercial privileges in the Byzantine Empire.

The Arts Club of Chicago hosts the opening of Pablo Picasso's first United States showing, entitled Original Drawings by Pablo Picasso, becoming an early proponent of modern art in the United States.

The first cases of the 1983 West Bank fainting epidemic begin; Israelis and Palestinians accuse each other of poison gas, but the cause is later determined mostly to be psychosomatic.

World War II: The entire village of Khatyn (in present-day Republic of Belarus) is burnt alive by Schutzmannschaft Battalion 118.

Taiwan holds its first direct elections and chooses Lee Teng-hui as President.

Bhutan officially becomes a democracy, with its first ever general election.

Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is discovered by Christiaan Huygens.

The Métis people of the District of Saskatchewan under Louis Riel begin the North-West Rebellion against Canada.

The dam forming Situ Gintung, an artificial lake in Indonesia, fails, killing at least 99 people.

General John J. Pershing, during World War I, cancels 42nd 'Rainbow' Division's orders to Rolampont for further training and diverted it to the occupy the Baccarat sector. Rainbow Division becomes "the first American division to take over an entire sector on its own, which it held longer than any other American division-occupied sector alone for a period of three months".

Prime Minister Theresa May invokes Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, formally beginning the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union.

Donald Trump becomes the first former United States president to be indicted by a grand jury.

Selena is murdered by her fan club president Yolanda Saldívar at a Days Inn in Corpus Christi, Texas.