Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index March 10 is the 69th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (70th in Leap years). There are 296 days remaining. Table of contents 1 Events 2 Births 3 Deaths 4 Holidays and observances Events 241 BC - First Punic War: Battle of Aegusa - The Roman fleet sinks 50 Carthaginian ships. 1496 - Christopher Columbus leaves Hispaniola for Spain, ending his second visit to the Western Hemisphere. 1629 - Charles I of England dissolves Parliament starting the Eleven Years Tyranny in which there was no parliament. 1804 - Louisiana Purchase: In St. Louis, a formal ceremony is conducted to transfer ownership of Louisiana Territory from France to the United States. 1814 - Napoleon I of France is defeated at the Battle of Laon in France. 1848 - The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is ratified by the United States Senate, ending the Mexican-American War. 1864 - American Civil War: The Red River Campaign begins as Union troops reach Alexandria, Louisiana. 1876 - Alexander Graham Bell makes the first successful telephone call by saying "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you." 1880 - Members of the Salvation Army land in the United States and begin operations. 1893 - Ivory Coast becomes a French colony. 1902 - Boer War: South African Boers win their last battle over British forces, with the capture of a British general and 200 of his men. 1902 - A United States court of appeals rules that Thomas Edison did not invent the movie camera (see Edison v. American Mutoscope) 1912 - China becomes a republic following the overthrow of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. 1933 - Earthquake in Long Beach, California kills 120 people. 1945 - World War II: In Japan, American B-29 bombers fire-bomb Tokyo killing 100,000. 1951 - Henri Queuille becomes Prime Minister of France 1952 - Fulgencio Batista leads a successful coup in Cuba 1966 - Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands marries Claus von Amsberg. 1969 - In Memphis, Tennessee, James Earl Ray pleads guilty to assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. Ray would later retract his guilty plea. 1975 - Vietnam War: North Vietnamese troops attack Ban Me Thout, South Vietnam, on their way to capturing Saigon. 1982 - The United States places an embargo on Libyan oil imports because of their support of terrorist groups. 1982 - Syzygy: all 9 planets align on the same side of the Sun 1987 - Reproductive rights: The Vatican condemns the practice of surrogate motherhood along with test-tube babies and artificial insemination. 1990 - 18 months after seizing power in a coup, Prosper Avril is ousted in Haiti. 1991 - Gulf War: Operation Phase Echo - 540,000 American troops begin to leave the Persian Gulf. 1998 - American troops stationed in the Persian Gulf begin to receive the first vaccinations against anthrax. 2000 - The Nasdaq stock market index peaks at 5048.62, signaling the beginning of the end of the dot-com boom. Births 1606 - Edmund Waller, English poet (+ 1687) 1709 - Georg Steller, German naturalist († 1746) 1772 - Friedrich von Schlegel, aesthetician, poet, and publicist (+ 1829) 1776 - Louise, queen of Prussia (+ 1810) 1788 - Joseph von Eichendorff, lyricist and narrator (+ 1857) 1844 - Pablo de Sarasate, violinist (+ 1908) 1848 - Albert Fraenkel, physician (+ 1916) 1880 - Broncho Billy Anderson, actor (+ 1971) 1888 - Barry Fitzgerald, actor (+ 1966) 1891 - Sam Jaffe, actor (+ 1984) 1892 - Arthur Honegger, composer (+ 1955) 1892 - Gregory La Cava, director, producer, writer (+ 1952) 1903 - Bix Beiderbecke, jazz musician (+ 1931) 1903 - Clare Boothe Luce, publisher, writer (+ 1987) 1918 - Heywood Hale Broun, sports journalist, commentator (+ 2001) 1927 - Paul Wunderlich, painter, graphic artist, sculptor 1927 - Jupp Derwall, football coach 1928 - James Earl Ray, assassin (+ 1998) 1940 - Dean Torrence, musician ("Jan and Dean") 1940 - Chuck Norris, actor, martial arts practitioner 1947 - Kim Campbell, nineteenth Prime Minister of Canada and first woman to hold that office 1957 - Osama Bin Laden, terrorist; Marlon Jackson, singer 1958 - Sharon Stone, actress 1963 - Neneh Cherry, musician 1964 - Edward, Earl of Wessex 1966 - Edie Brickell, singer Deaths 1895 - Charles Frederick Worth, couturier 1913 - Harriet Tubman, Underground Railroad conductor, anti-slavery activist 1940 - Mikhaïl Boulgakov, Russian writer 1948 - Zelda Fitzgerald (Mrs. F. Scott Fitzgerald) 1948 - Jan Masaryk, Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia 1973 - Eugene 'Bull' Connor, segregationist 1985 - Konstantin Chernenko, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union 1986 - Ray Milland, British actor 1988 - Andy Gibb, singer 1996 - Ross Hunter, producer 1997 - La Vern Baker, singer 1998 - Lloyd Bridges, actor 2003 - Barry Sheene, motorbike racer Holidays and observances Girl Scout Sunday See Also: March 9 - March 11 - February 10 - April 10 -- listing of all days January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.