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History of Today 15 March – Important Events in World History

Updated on 16 Mar 2026

History of Today in India – 15 March

Explore the history of today 15 March in India, including important events, famous personalities, and milestones for UPSC SSC,Banking & PSC exams.

Last updated on 15 March 2026, 04:21 AM

📜 Important Events on 15 March in World History

  • 15 Mar 2022: The 2022 Sri Lankan protests begins amidst Sri Lanka's economic collapse. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2019: Fifty-one people are killed in the Christchurch mosque shootings. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2019: Beginning of the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2019: Approximately 1.4 million young people in 123 countries go on strike to protest climate change. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2011: Beginning of the Syrian revolution. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2008: Stockpiles of obsolete ammunition explode at an ex-military ammunition depot in the village of Gërdec, Albania, killing 26 people. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1991: Cold War: The Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany comes into effect, granting full sovereignty to the Federal Republic of Germany. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1990: Mikhail Gorbachev is elected as the first and only President of the Soviet Union. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1986: Collapse of Hotel New World: Thirty-three people die when the Hotel New World in Singapore collapses. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1978: Somalia and Ethiopia sign a truce to end the Ethio-Somali War. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1974: Fifteen people are killed when Sterling Airways Flight 901, a Sud Aviation Caravelle, catches fire following a landing gear collapse at Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran, Iran. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1965: President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to the Selma crisis, tells the U.S. Congress "We shall overcome" while advocating the Voting Rights Act. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1961: At the 1961 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference, South Africa announces that it will withdraw from the Commonwealth when the South African Constitution of 1961 comes into effect. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1951: The Iranian oil industry is nationalized. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1943: World War II: Third Battle of Kharkiv: The Germans retake the city of Kharkiv from the Soviet armies. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1939: Germany occupies Czechoslovakia. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1939: Carpatho-Ukraine declares itself an independent republic, but is annexed by Hungary the next day. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1927: The first Women's Boat Race between the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge takes place on The Isis in Oxford. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1922: After Egypt gains nominal independence from the United Kingdom, Fuad I becomes King of Egypt. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1921: Talaat Pasha, former Grand Vizir of the Ottoman Empire and chief architect of the Armenian genocide, is assassinated in Berlin by a 23-year-old Armenian, Soghomon Tehlirian. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1919: Ukrainian War of Independence: The Kontrrazvedka is established as the counterintelligence division of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1919: The American Legion is founded. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1918: Finnish Civil War: The battle of Tampere begins. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1917: Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates the Russian throne, ending the 304-year Romanov dynasty. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1907: The first parliamentary elections of Finland (at the time the Grand Duchy of Finland) are held. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1894: Madeleine bombing by Désiré Pauwels during the Ère des attentats. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1892: The Lobau bombing is one of the first attacks of the Ère des attentats (1892-1894). Read more
  • 15 Mar 1888: Start of the Anglo-Tibetan War of 1888. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1877: First ever official cricket test match is played: Australia vs England at the MCG Stadium, in Melbourne, Australia. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1875: Archbishop of New York John McCloskey is named the first cardinal in the United States. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1874: France and Vietnam sign the Second Treaty of Saigon, further recognizing the full sovereignty of France over Cochinchina. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1848: A revolution breaks out in Hungary, and the Habsburg rulers are compelled to meet the demands of the reform party. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1823: Sailor Benjamin Morrell erroneously reports the existence of the island of New South Greenland near Antarctica. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1820: Maine is admitted as the twenty-third U.S. state. Read more

🎂 Important Births on 15 March in World History

  • 15 Mar 2005: Rodri Mendoza, Spanish footballer Rodrigo Mendoza Martínez-Moyá, sometimes known as Rodri, is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for La Liga club Atlético Madrid. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2004: Isaiah Bond, American football player Isaiah Bond is an American professional football wide receiver for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Texas Longhorns and Alabama Crimson Tide. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2003: Quinn Ewers, American football player Quinn Tucker Ewers is an American professional football quarterback for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Ohio State Buckeyes and Texas Longhorns. Ewers was selected by the Dolphins in the seventh round of the 2025 NFL draft. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2001: Ellie Leach, English actress Ellie Louise Leach is an English actress, known for portraying the role of Faye Windass on the ITV soap opera Coronation Street between 2011 and 2023. Following her exit from the soap, she won the twenty-first series of the BBC contest Strictly Come Dancing. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2000: Kristian Kostov, Russian-Bulgarian singer-songwriter Kristian Konstantinov Kostov is a Bulgarian-Russian singer. He was a finalist in season one of The Voice Kids Russia and a runner-up in the fourth season of X Factor Bulgaria. He represented Bulgaria in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with the song "Beautiful Mess", finishing in second place. In January 2018, Kostov won the EBBA Public Choice award. In January 2019, he was one of seven singers who performed in the seventh season of Singer. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1996: Maxwell Jacob Friedman, American professional wrestler Maxwell Tyler Friedman, better known by the ring name Maxwell Jacob Friedman or simply MJF, is an American professional wrestler and actor. He has been signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) since it was founded in January 2019, where he is the current AEW World Champion in his second reign, with his first reign being the longest in the title's history. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1996: Seonaid McIntosh, Scottish sports shooter Seonaid McIntosh is a British sports shooter who became the World Champion at the 2018 ISSF World Shooting Championships in the 50m Prone Rifle event. In 2019 she became Britain's most successful female rifle shooter of all time, winning five World Cup medals. She also became the first British Woman to rank World #1 for the 50m Rifle Three Position event and became European Champion in the 300m Rifle Prone event with an equal World Record score. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1996: Jinjin, South Korean singer and actor Park Jin-woo, known professionally as Jinjin (진진), is a South Korean rapper, singer, songwriter and dancer. He is the leader of South Korean boy group Astro and former member of its sub unit Jinjin & Rocky with ex-member Rocky under the label Fantagio. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1995: Jabari Parker, American basketball player Jabari Ali Parker is an American professional basketball player for Joventut Badalona of the Spanish Liga ACB and the FIBA Champions League, on loan from Partizan Mozzart Bet. He was selected by the Milwaukee Bucks with the second overall pick in the 2014 NBA draft, after one season of playing for Duke University. He played four seasons for the Bucks before spending time with 5 different teams over the course of four more NBA seasons. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1994: Matt Gay, American football player Matt Gay is an American professional football placekicker for the Las Vegas Raiders of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Utah Utes and was selected by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the fifth round of the 2019 NFL draft. Gay has also played for the Los Angeles Rams, Indianapolis Colts, Washington Commanders, and San Francisco 49ers. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1994: Scott Seiss, American comedian Scott Matthew Seiss is an American stand-up comedian, actor, author, and TikToker. He is best known for his repeated portrayal on TikTok of an angry retail worker, popularly referred to as the Angry IKEA Guy, or Angry Retail Guy. The videos are partly based on his experience as a customer service employee at IKEA. Seiss was also cast in the 2023 comedy film Cocaine Bear, as well as in Shortcomings. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1993: Alia Bhatt, British actress Alia Bhatt is a British actress of Indian descent who predominantly works in Hindi films. Known for her portrayals of women in challenging circumstances, she has received several accolades, including a National Film Award and seven Filmfare Awards. She is one of India's highest-paid actresses. Time awarded her with the Time100 Impact Award in 2022 and named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2024. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1993: Michael Fulmer, American baseball player Michael Joseph Fulmer is an American professional baseball pitcher in the San Francisco Giants organization. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Detroit Tigers, Minnesota Twins, Chicago Cubs, and Boston Red Sox. Fulmer won the American League Rookie of the Year Award in 2016, and was an All-Star in 2017. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1993: Taylor Heinicke, American football player Taylor Heinicke is an American professional football quarterback. He played college football for the Old Dominion Monarchs and signed with the Minnesota Vikings as an undrafted free agent in 2015. Heinicke has also been a member of the New England Patriots, Houston Texans, Carolina Panthers, Washington Football Team / Commanders, Atlanta Falcons, and Los Angeles Chargers of the NFL. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1993: Aleksandra Krunić, Serbian tennis player Aleksandra Krunić is a Serbian professional tennis player. She is a doubles finalist at the 2025 French Open and at the 2026 Australian Open, partnering Anna Danilina. She has a career-high doubles rankings of world No. 8, achieved in February 2026. Her best singles ranking is No. 39, reached in June 2018. Krunić has won ten WTA Tour titles combined, one in singles and nine in doubles, along with one WTA 125 singles title. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1993: Paul Pogba, French footballer Paul Labile Pogba is a French professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for Ligue 1 club Monaco. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1993: Mark Scheifele, Canadian ice hockey player Mark Scheifele is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a centre and alternate captain for the Winnipeg Jets of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected by the Jets in the first round, seventh overall, of the 2011 NHL entry draft, becoming the Jets' first-ever draft pick after relocating from Atlanta. He holds the Winnipeg Jets franchise record for both goals and points. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1992: Devonta Freeman, American football player Devonta Cornellius Freeman is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Florida State Seminoles and was selected by the Atlanta Falcons in the fourth round of the 2014 NFL draft. Freeman was also a member of the New York Giants, Buffalo Bills, New Orleans Saints, and Baltimore Ravens. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1991: Xavier Henry, American basketball player Xavier Henry is an American former professional basketball player. He played one year of college basketball with the Kansas Jayhawks before he was drafted in the 2010 NBA draft by the Memphis Grizzlies. He played four and a half seasons in the NBA between 2010 and 2014. He finished his career in 2017 after two seasons in the NBA G League. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1991: Trayce Thompson, American baseball player Trayce Nikolas Thompson is an American professional baseball outfielder who is a free agent. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, Oakland Athletics, Chicago Cubs, and San Diego Padres. Thompson also played for the Great Britain National Team in the 2023 World Baseball Classic and the 2026 World Baseball Classic. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1990: Nick Ahmed, American baseball player Nicholas Mark Ahmed is an American former professional baseball shortstop. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Arizona Diamondbacks, San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, and Texas Rangers. He won the Gold Glove Award twice, in 2018 and 2019. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1990: Tavon Austin, American football player Tavon Wesley Austin is an American former professional football wide receiver who played nine seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the West Virginia Mountaineers, receiving first-team All-American honors twice and was selected by the St. Louis Rams in the first round of the 2013 NFL draft. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1990: JD McDonagh, Irish professional wrestler Jordan Devlin is an Irish professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand under the ring name JD McDonagh. He is a member of The Judgment Day, and a former two-time World Tag Team Champions with Finn Bálor. He is a former one-time NXT Cruiserweight Champion, where his 439-day reign stands as the longest in the title's history. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1989: Sam Baldock, English footballer Samuel Edward Thomas Baldock is an English former professional footballer who last played as a striker for Oxford United. He also played for Milton Keynes Dons, West Ham United, Bristol City, Brighton & Hove Albion, Reading, Derby County and made two appearances for England U20. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1989: Gil Roberts, American sprinter Gil Roberts is an American athlete who specializes in the 200 m and 400 m. He is an Olympic gold medallist and World Championship silver medallist in the men's 4 × 400 metres relay. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1989: Sandro, Brazilian footballer Sandro Raniere Guimarães Cordeiro, or simply Sandro, is a Brazilian footballer who most recently played as a midfielder for Southern League Premier Division Central club Harborough Town. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1989: Adrien Silva, Portuguese footballer Adrien Sébastien Perruchet da Silva is a former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1989: Caitlin Wachs, American actress Caitlin Elizabeth Wachs is an American production coordinator and actress. She appeared alongside Ally Walker and Robert Davi on the NBC television series Profiler in the role of Chloe Waters. She went on to star as part of the ensemble cast of Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Wachs played the president's daughter, Rebecca Calloway, on the ABC television series Commander in Chief. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1988: Lil Dicky, American rapper, comedian, and actor David Andrew Burd, better known by his stage name Lil Dicky, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, comedian, and actor. He first received recognition after the music video for his 2013 song, "Ex-Boyfriend" became a viral hit—earning over one million views on YouTube in 24 hours. His 2014 single, "Save Dat Money", marked his first entry on the Billboard Hot 100, received double platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and preceded his platinum-certified debut studio album, Professional Rapper (2015). Read more
  • 15 Mar 1988: Éver Guzmán, Mexican footballer Éver Arsenio Guzmán Zavala is a Mexican former footballer who last played as a forward for Guatemalan team Antigua. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1988: James Reimer, Canadian ice hockey player James Reimer is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a goaltender for the Ottawa Senators of the National Hockey League (NHL). Reimer has previously played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Florida Panthers, San Jose Sharks, Carolina Hurricanes, Detroit Red Wings, Buffalo Sabres and Anaheim Ducks. He was selected by the Maple Leafs in the fourth round of the 2006 NHL entry draft. He started playing minor hockey in his hometown when he was 12. He played junior hockey with the Red Deer Rebels of the Western Hockey League (WHL), after being selected in the fifth round of the 2003 WHL bantam draft. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1987: Eric Decker, American football player Eric Thomas Decker is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver for eight seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football and college baseball for the Minnesota Golden Gophers, and was selected by the Denver Broncos in the third round of the 2010 NFL draft. After four seasons with the Broncos, Decker played for the New York Jets for three years, then the Tennessee Titans for one season. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1986: Jai Courtney, Australian actor Jai Stephen Courtney is an Australian actor. Courtney started his career as a teenager with small roles in film and television, and studied acting at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. After early supporting roles in Hollywood projects, he gained recognition for playing Dauntless leader Eric Coulter in The Divergent Series (2014–2015), Kyle Reese in Terminator Genisys (2015), and supervillain Captain Boomerang in the DC Extended Universe films Suicide Squad (2016), and The Suicide Squad (2021). He received praise for his performance as a corrupt debt collector and the main antagonist in the independent film Buffaloed (2019). Read more
  • 15 Mar 1986: Jannik Hansen, Danish ice hockey player Jannik Hansen is a Danish former professional ice hockey player. A right winger, Hansen began playing professionally at the age of 16 with both the Rødovre Mighty Bulls of the Danish league and the Malmö Redhawks of the Swedish J20 SuperElit and HockeyAllsvenskan leagues. He played three seasons with Rødovre, during which time he was selected 287th overall by the Canucks in the 2004 NHL entry draft. A year after his selection, he moved to North America to play major junior hockey with the Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League (WHL) for one season. In 2006–07, Hansen began playing with the Canucks' minor league affiliate, the Manitoba Moose of the American Hockey League (AHL). That season, he was called up by the Vancouver Canucks and became the first Danish citizen to play and register a point in an NHL playoff game. After another campaign spent primarily with Manitoba, Hansen earned a full-time roster spot with the Canucks. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1985: Eva Amurri, American actress Eva Amurri is an American actress. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1985: Jon Jay, American baseball player and coach Jonathan Henry Jay is an American professional baseball coach and former outfielder who is the outfield, base running, and quality control coach for the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played in MLB for the St. Louis Cardinals, San Diego Padres, Chicago Cubs, Kansas City Royals, Arizona Diamondbacks, Chicago White Sox, and Los Angeles Angels. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1985: Kellan Lutz, American actor and model Kellan Christopher Lutz is an American actor, martial artist and model. He made his film debut in Stick It (2006), and is best known for playing Emmett Cullen in The Twilight Saga film series (2008–2012). He has since played Poseidon in the 2011 film Immortals, voiced the title character in the 2013 animated film Tarzan, also played John Smilee in The Expendables 3 (2014), and Hercules in The Legend of Hercules (2014). He co-starred in the CBS action thriller series FBI: Most Wanted (2020–2021). Read more
  • 15 Mar 1984: Badradine Belloumou, French-Algerian footballer Badradine Belloumou is a French former footballer who played as a defender. He previously played for FC Martigues, CS Sedan, Roye, SO Cassis Carnoux, and Marignane. He also had a spell in Algeria with ASO Chlef. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1984: Olivier Jean, Canadian speed skater Olivier Jean is a Canadian speed skater. A three-time Olympian in both short and long track speed skating, he won a gold medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics in the men's 5000 m relay. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1984: Kostas Vasileiadis, Greek basketball player Konstantinos "Kostas" Vasileiadis is a Greek former professional basketball player who last played for Cáceres Ciudad del Baloncesto of LEB Oro. He is a 2.01 m tall swingman. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1983: Umut Bulut, Turkish footballer Umut Bulut is a Turkish former professional footballer. Between 2007 and 2018, he made 39 appearances and scored ten goals for the Turkey national team. On 24th June 2024, Umut Bulut ended his football career at the age of 41. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1983: Ben Hilfenhaus, Australian cricketer Benjamin William Hilfenhaus is an Australian former professional cricketer who played for Tasmania in Australian domestic cricket and for the Australia national cricket team. He is right-arm fast-medium bowler known for his ability to swing the ball. Hilfenhaus plays club cricket for Tasmania University Cricket Club. He made his first-class cricket debut in the 2005/06 season and his haul of 39 wickets was a record for someone playing their first season for Tasmania. Before he was given a full-time contract for 2006/07, he worked as a bricklayer as well as playing cricket. He has best bowling figures of 7/58 in first-class cricket, achieved in his first season for Tasmania. During his time with Australia, Hilfenhaus won the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1983: Kostas Kaimakoglou, Greek basketball player Konstantinos "Kostas" Kaimakoglou is a Greek former professional basketball player who last played for UNICS Kazan of the VTB United League and the EuroCup. He is 2.05 m tall, and his main position is power forward, but he can also play as a small ball center if needed. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1983: Golda Marcus, Salvadoran swimmer Golda Lee Marcus is a two-time Olympic swimmer from El Salvador. She swam at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. As of June 2009, she holds the Salvadoran records in the 400, 800, and 1500 meter freestyles. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1983: Daryl Murphy, Irish footballer Daryl Michael Murphy is an Irish former professional footballer who played as a striker. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1983: Yo Yo Honey Singh, Indian rapper, producer, and actor Hirdesh Singh, known professionally as Yo Yo Honey Singh, is an Indian singer, music producer and actor. He commenced his career as a hip-hop music producer in 2003, working as a session and recording artist within the underground music scene until the release of his debut studio album, International Villager. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1982: Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich, Kenyan runner Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich is a Kenyan long-distance runner who competes primarily in the marathon. He won the bronze medal in the event at the 2012 Summer Olympics and held the world record from 2013 to 2014. In 2020, the Athletics Integrity Unit banned Kipsang for four years due to missed doping tests and tampering with an investigation. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1981: Young Buck, American rapper David Darnell Brown, better known by his stage name Young Buck, is an American rapper. He was affiliated with Birdman's Cash Money Records in 1997, formed the hip hop collective UTP with Juvenile and Soulja Slim in 2000, and joined 50 Cent's group, G-Unit by 2003. In 2003, he signed with 50 Cent's G-Unit Records, an imprint of Interscope Records to release his debut studio album Straight Outta Cashville (2004) and its follow-up Buck the World (2007), both of which peaked at number three on the Billboard 200 and were met with critical praise. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1981: Mikael Forssell, German-Finnish footballer Mikael Kaj Forssell is a Finnish former professional footballer who played as a striker. He is currently working as an assistant coach of HJK Helsinki, having previously worked as a youth coach for the club. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1981: Jens Salumäe, Estonian skier Jens Salumäe is an Estonian former ski jumper and nordic combined skier who has been competing since 2002. He finished 23rd in the individual large hill event at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1980: Freddie Bynum, American baseball player Freddie Lee Bynum Jr. is an American former professional baseball shortstop and outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago Cubs, Oakland Athletics, and Baltimore Orioles. Bynum also played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for Orix Buffaloes. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1979: Kyle Mills, New Zealand cricketer Kyle David Mills is a New Zealand cricket coach and former international cricketer who is the former bowling coach of the Kolkata Knight Riders. He was also a former captain of the New Zealand cricket team in limited-overs matches. Mills played top-class cricket between 1998 and 2015 as a bowler. He featured in three World Cup tournaments for New Zealand in 2003, 2011 and 2015. He was a member of New Zealand's first ever T20I team. He also topped the ICC ODI bowling rankings in 2009 and also occupied in the top ten bowling rankings among bowlers in ODI cricket for a considerable period of time. He was also a part of the New Zealand squad to finish as runners-up at the 2015 Cricket World Cup. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1979: Kevin Youkilis, American baseball player Kevin Edmund Youkilis, nicknamed "Youk", is an American former professional baseball first baseman and third baseman, who primarily played for the Boston Red Sox. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, he was drafted by the Red Sox in 2001, after playing college baseball at the University of Cincinnati. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, and New York Yankees. He later served as a special assistant to Theo Epstein of the Chicago Cubs. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1978: Takeru Kobayashi, Japanese competitive eater Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi is a Japanese former competitive eater. Described as "the godfather of competitive eating", he is a six-time Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest champion and widely credited with popularizing the sport. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1977: Joe Hahn, American musician, DJ, director, and visual artist Joseph Hahn is an American musician, DJ, director, and visual artist best known as the DJ and creative director of the rock band Linkin Park, doing the scratching, turntables, sampling, and programming for all eight of Linkin Park's albums. Hahn and bandmate Mike Shinoda are responsible for most of Linkin Park's album artwork. Hahn also directed many of the band's music videos. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1977: Brian Tee, Japanese-American actor Jae-Beom Takata , known professionally as Brian Tee, is an Japanese-born American actor. Born in Okinawa, Tee immigrated with his family to California when he was 2 years old. He attended the University of California and began pursuing his television career. His first appearance on the small screen came in 2000 when he had a small role on the television series The Pretender. He went on to appear in the television series Entourage, Grey's Anatomy, and had a recurring role on Zoey 101. From 2015 to 2022, Tee starred in the first eight seasons of NBC medical drama Chicago Med as Dr. Ethan Choi. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1977: Sandeep Unnikrishnan, Indian military officer (died 2008) Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, AC was an Indian Army officer, who was serving in the 51 Special Action Group of the National Security Guard on deputation. He was killed in action during the 2008 Mumbai attacks and was posthumously awarded the Ashoka Chakra, India's highest peacetime gallantry award, on 26 January 2009. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1976: Cara Pifko, Canadian actress Cara Pifko is a Canadian actress known primarily for her work on television shows produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1975: Eva Longoria, American actress Eva Jacqueline Longoria Bastón is an American actress, producer, director, and businesswoman. After several guest roles on television, she gained popularity for her portrayal of Isabella Braña on the CBS daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless (2001–2003). Her breakthrough role as Gabrielle Solis on the ABC television series Desperate Housewives (2004–2012) earned her two Screen Actors Guild Awards and a Golden Globe nomination. She has appeared in the films The Sentinel (2006), Over Her Dead Body (2008), For Greater Glory (2012), Frontera (2014), Lowriders (2016), and Overboard (2018), winning an Imagen Award for the latter. She guest-starred on the Hulu mystery comedy-drama series Only Murders in the Building (2024), earning her a third Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1975: Darcy Tucker, Canadian ice hockey player Darcy Tucker is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He played most of his National Hockey League (NHL) career with the Toronto Maple Leafs. A sixth round draft choice, Tucker began his NHL career with the Montreal Canadiens. Throughout his NHL career he also played for the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Colorado Avalanche. Tucker was born in Castor, Alberta, but grew up in Endiang, Alberta. Tucker is of Métis descent. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1975: will.i.am, American rapper, producer, and actor William James Adams Jr., known professionally as will.i.am, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is the frontman of the musical group Black Eyed Peas — which he formed with fellow rappers apl.de.ap and Taboo in 1995. The group has released nine studio albums, and saw their highest success with the pop rap albums Elephunk (2003), Monkey Business (2005), The E.N.D. (2009), and The Beginning (2010), during which he shared lead vocals with fellow singer Fergie. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1974: Robert Fick, American baseball player Robert Charles Fick is an American former Major League Baseball first baseman. In 2002, he was named to the American League All-Star Team. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1972: Mark Hoppus, American singer-songwriter and musician Mark Allan Hoppus is an American musician and record producer. He is the co-lead vocalist, co-founder, and bassist for the rock band Blink-182 and the only member to appear on every album. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1972: Holger Stromberg, German chef Holger Stromberg, is a German celebrity chef. At the age of 23 in 1994, he gained his first Michelin star whilst head chef at the restaurant Goldschmieding in Castrop-Rauxel, making him Germany's youngest Michelin starred chef. He is the owner and chef patron of Restaurant G in Munich, and the chef of the Germany national football team. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1972: Mike Tomlin, American football player and coach Michael Pettaway Tomlin is an American professional football coach who most recently served as the head coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL) from 2007 to 2025. During his 19 seasons as head coach, Tomlin never finished with a losing record, the longest streak in NFL history. At the time of his resignation, Tomlin was the longest-tenured head coach in the four major North American sports leagues. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1971: Joanne Wise, English long jumper Joanne Wise is a female former British track and field athlete who competed in the long jump. In 1998, she won the Commonwealth Games gold medal in Kuala Lumpur. She also competed at the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992 and the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1970: Derek Parra, American speed skater Derek Parra is an American inline skater and speed skater from San Bernardino, California, who graduated from Eisenhower High School in Rialto, California, in 1988. Parra won two medals at the 2002 Winter Olympics, held in Salt Lake City, Utah. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1969: Gianluca Festa, Italian footballer Gianluca Festa is an Italian professional football manager and former player. Festa played as a defender for clubs such as Internazionale and Roma, and is best known playing for Middlesbrough and Cagliari. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1969: Kim Raver, American actress Kimberly Jayne Raver is an American actress. She is known for television roles such as Dr. Teddy Altman on ABC's medical drama Grey's Anatomy, Kim Zambrano on Third Watch, and Audrey Raines on 24. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1969: Yutaka Take, Japanese jockey Yutaka Take is a Japanese jockey. Take made his riding debut in 1987 and currently holds seven all-time records in Japan. He has won at least one Grade 1 race for 23 straight years until 2010, and a graded stakes race for 39 consecutive years. Take has 114 wins to his credit in eight countries, including Australia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Korea, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and the United States. His international victories include Group 1 wins in the Prix d'Ispahan (France) and Hong Kong Cup, the July Cup (England) and Dubai Duty Free Stakes (UAE). Read more
  • 15 Mar 1969: Timo Kotipelto, Finnish musician and lead singer of the power metal band Stratovarius Timo Antero Kotipelto is a Finnish musician best known as the lead singer of the power metal band Stratovarius, whom he joined in 1994, as well as fronting his own band Kotipelto. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1968: Kahimi Karie, Japanese singer Mari Hiki , better known by her stage name Kahimi Karie , is a Japanese retired singer, songwriter and photographer. Her music is closely associated with the Shibuya-kei aesthetic. Karie sings in English, French and Japanese, among other languages. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1968: Mark McGrath, American singer-songwriter Mark Sayers McGrath is an American singer who is the lead vocalist of the rock band Sugar Ray. McGrath is also known for his work as a co-host of Extra, and he was the host of Don't Forget the Lyrics! in 2010. McGrath hosted the second season of the TV show Killer Karaoke, taking the place of Jackass star Steve-O. He also works, and occasionally tours with The Beach Boys. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1968: Sabrina Salerno, Italian singer-songwriter Sabrina Debora Salerno, known mononymously as Sabrina, is an Italian singer, songwriter, model, actress and television presenter. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1967: Naoko Takeuchi, Japanese manga artist and creator of Sailor Moon Naoko Takeuchi is a Japanese manga artist. She is best known as the author of Sailor Moon, one of the most popular manga series of all time. She has won several awards, including the 1993 Kodansha Manga Award for Sailor Moon. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1966: Chris Bruno, American actor Chris Bruno is an American film and television actor, director, and producer, as well as a former Pro-MMA fighter and a commercial helicopter pilot. He is best known for his role as Sheriff Walt Bannerman on the television series The Dead Zone. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1965: Sunetra Gupta, Indian epidemiologist, author, and academic Sunetra Gupta is an Indian-born British infectious disease epidemiologist and a professor of theoretical epidemiology at the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford. She has performed research on the transmission dynamics of various infectious diseases, including malaria, influenza and COVID-19, and has received the Scientific Medal of the Zoological Society of London and the Rosalind Franklin Award of the Royal Society. She is a member of the scientific advisory board of Collateral Global, an organisation which examines the global impact of COVID-19 restrictions. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1964: Rockwell, American singer-songwriter and musician Kennedy William Gordy, known professionally as Rockwell, is an American singer and songwriter. He is best known for his hit single "Somebody's Watching Me", which features an uncredited Michael Jackson on chorus vocals. Gordy is the son of Motown founder Berry Gordy. Other relatives include half-siblings Redfoo, Rhonda Ross Kendrick and half-nephew Sky Blu. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1964: Marco Van Hees, Belgian politician Marco G. Van Hees is a Belgian tax specialist, politician and former member of the Chamber of Representatives. A member of the Workers' Party of Belgium, he represented Hainaut from June 2014 to May 2024. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1963: Bret Michaels, American singer-songwriter, musician, and television personality Bret Michael Sychak, known professionally as Bret Michaels, is an American rock musician. He is the frontman of Poison, which has sold over 65 million albums worldwide and 30 million records in the United States. The band has also charted 10 singles to the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, including six Top 10 singles and a number-one single, "Every Rose Has Its Thorn". Read more
  • 15 Mar 1962: Terence Trent D'Arby, American singer-songwriter Sananda Francesco Maitreya, who started his career with the stage name Terence Trent D'Arby, is an American singer and songwriter who came to fame with his debut studio album, Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D'Arby (1987). The album includes the singles "If You Let Me Stay", "Sign Your Name", "Dance Little Sister", and "Wishing Well". Maitreya is a multi-instrumentalist and noted for his soulful voice and flamboyant, charismatic and androgynous persona. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1961: Terry Cummings, American basketball player Robert Terrell “Terry” Cummings is an American former professional basketball player who played 18 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Cummings was voted Rookie of the Year and was a two-time All-Star, a two-time All-NBA selection and was a lead player on several postseason teams while in Milwaukee and San Antonio. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1960: Mike Pagliarulo, American baseball player Michael Timothy Pagliarulo, a.k.a. "Pags", is an American former professional baseball third baseman and later the hitting coach of the Miami Marlins. He played in Major League Baseball for the New York Yankees, San Diego Padres, Minnesota Twins, Baltimore Orioles, and Texas Rangers, and in Nippon Professional Baseball for the Seibu Lions. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1959: Harold Baines, American baseball player Harold Douglas Baines is an American former designated hitter and right fielder in Major League Baseball who played for five American League (AL) teams from 1980 to 2001, and is best known for his three stints with the Chicago White Sox. A Maryland native, he also played seven years with his hometown team, the Baltimore Orioles, over three separate periods. The first overall selection in the 1977 Major League Baseball draft and a six-time All-Star, Baines led the AL in slugging percentage in 1984. He held the White Sox team record for career home runs from 1987 until Carlton Fisk passed him in 1990; his total of 221 remains the club record for left-handed hitters, as do his 981 runs batted in (RBI) and 585 extra base hits with the team. His 1,688 hits and 1,643 games as a DH stood as major-league records until David Ortiz broke them in 2013 and 2014. He also held the mark for career home runs as a DH (236) until Edgar Martínez passed him in 2004. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1959: Renny Harlin, Finnish director and producer Renny Harlin is a Finnish filmmaker who has worked in America, Europe, and Asia. He is known for directing films such as Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger, Deep Blue Sea and Cutthroat Island, the latter of has the distinction of being one of the biggest box office bombs of all time. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1959: Fabio Lanzoni, Italian-American model and actor Fabio Lanzoni, known mononymously as Fabio, is an Italian-American actor, fashion model, and spokesman. Lanzoni is known for his wide-ranging career including work as a romance novel cover model throughout the late 1980s into the 1990s, roles in film and television including multiple cameo appearances as himself, and music and books. He has been a spokesman for I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! and the American Cancer Society. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1959: Ben Okri, Nigerian poet and author Sir Ben Golden Emuobowho Okri is a Nigerian-born British poet and novelist. Considered one of the foremost African authors in the postmodern and post-colonial traditions, Okri has been compared to authors such as Salman Rushdie and Gabriel García Márquez. In 1991, his novel The Famished Road won the Booker Prize. Okri was knighted at the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to literature. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1959: Eliot Teltscher, American tennis player Eliot Teltscher is a retired professional American tennis player. He won the 1983 French Open Mixed Doubles. His highest ranking in singles was No. 6 in the world and in doubles was No. 38 in the world. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1957: Joaquim de Almeida, Portuguese-American actor Joaquim António Portugal Baptista de Almeida is a Portuguese actor. He began his film career playing a role in the 1982 action film The Soldier, and later achieved recognition for playing Andrea Bonanno in the 1987 Italian film Good Morning, Babylon. He achieved international fame with his portrayals of Félix Cortez in the 1994 thriller Clear and Present Danger and Bucho in the 1995 action thriller Desperado. Several years later, he became popular for playing Ramon Salazar on the Fox thriller drama series 24, between 2003 and 2004, and Hernan Reyes in the 2011 film Fast Five, a role he reprised in 2023's Fast X. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1957: Park Overall, American actress and activist Park Overall is an American actress, political activist, and former U.S. Senate candidate, known for her trademark heavy Southern accent. Her best-known role was as nurse Laverne Todd in the sitcom Empty Nest, though she has appeared in the TV show Reba and a number of feature films, including Biloxi Blues, Mississippi Burning, Talk Radio, and In the Family. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1957: Steve Witkoff, American real estate investor, former lawyer, and diplomat Steven Charles Witkoff is an American real estate developer, investor, and founder of the Witkoff Group. Since 2025, Witkoff has served as the United States special envoy to the Middle East and special envoy for peace missions. He has also acted as a de facto envoy to Russian president Vladimir Putin. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1955: Mickey Hatcher, American baseball player and coach Michael Vaughn Hatcher is an American former professional baseball player and coach. He played in Major League Baseball as an outfielder, third baseman and first baseman from 1979 through 1990, most notably as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers when he replaced an injured Kirk Gibson in the 1988 World Series and hit .368 (7/19) with two home runs and five RBI to help the Dodgers win the world championship. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1955: Mohsin Khan, Pakistani cricketer Mohsin Hasan Khan is a Pakistani cricket coach, former actor and former cricketer who played in 48 Test matches and 75 One Day Internationals between 1977 and 1986 mainly as an opening batsman. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1955: Dee Snider, American singer-songwriter Daniel "Dee" Snider is an American singer, songwriter, actor, and media personality. He is best known as the former lead singer and songwriter of the heavy metal band Twisted Sister. The band's 1984 song "We're Not Gonna Take It" reached No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and was ranked No. 47 on 100 Greatest 80's Songs. Snider later formed and was the lead singer in the heavy metal bands Desperado, Widowmaker, and SMFs. He also released several solo albums. Snider was ranked #83 in the Hit Parader's Top 100 Metal Vocalists of All Time. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1954: Isobel Buchanan, Scottish soprano and actress

    Isobel Buchanan is a Scottish operatic soprano. Read more

  • 15 Mar 1954: Henry Marsh, American runner and businessman Henry Dinwoodey Marsh is a retired runner from the United States, who made four U.S. Olympic teams and represented his native country in the men's 3,000 meter Steeplechase in three Summer Olympics, from 1976 through 1988. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1954: Craig Wasson, American actor Craig Wasson is an American actor. He made his film debut in Rollercoaster (1977). He is best known for his roles as Jake Scully in Brian DePalma's Body Double (1984), and Neil Gordon in Chuck Russell's A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987). For his role as Danilo Prozor in Arthur Penn's Four Friends (1981), he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1953: Frances Conroy, American actress Frances Hardman Conroy is an American former actress. She is best known for playing Ruth Fisher on the television series Six Feet Under (2001–2005), for which she won a Golden Globe and three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and received four Primetime Emmy Awards nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. She is also known for playing the older version of Moira O'Hara in season one of the television anthology series American Horror Story, which garnered Conroy her first Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress on Television nomination, and as well a Primetime Emmy Awards nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie. Conroy subsequently portrayed The Angel of Death, Myrtle Snow, Gloria Mott, Mama Polk, Bebe Babbitt, and Belle Noir on seven further seasons of the show: Asylum, Coven, Freak Show, Roanoke, Cult, Apocalypse, and Double Feature, respectively; this makes Conroy, along with Denis O'Hare, fourth among the actors who have appeared in most seasons of the show. For her performance in Coven, she was nominated again for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1951: David Alton, Baron Alton of Liverpool, English politician David Patrick Paul Alton, Baron Alton of Liverpool, KCSG, KCMCO is a British-Irish politician, formerly a Member of Parliament for the Liberal Party and later Liberal Democrat who has sat as a crossbench member of the House of Lords since 1997 when he was made a life peer. Alton is also known for his human rights work including the co-founding of Jubilee Action, the children's charity, and serves as chair, patron or trustee of several charities and voluntary organisations. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1948: Kate Bornstein, American author and activist Katherine Vandam Bornstein is an American author, playwright, performance artist, actor, and gender theorist. As a transgender pioneer since the 1980s, Bornstein's reflections on sex and gender nonconformity have influenced various spheres of queer culture. She has stated "I don't call myself a woman, and I know I'm not a man". Bornstein now identifies as non-binary, and has also written personal accounts of having anorexia, surviving PTSD, and being diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1948: Sérgio Vieira de Mello, Brazilian diplomat (died 2003) Sérgio Vieira de Mello was a Brazilian United Nations diplomat who worked on several UN humanitarian and political programs for over 34 years. The Government of Brazil posthumously awarded the Sergio Vieira de Mello Medal to honor his legacy in promoting sustainable peace, international security and better living conditions for individuals in situations of armed conflict, challenges to which Sérgio Vieira de Mello had dedicated his life and career. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1947: Ry Cooder, American singer-songwriter and guitarist Ryland Peter Cooder is an American musician, songwriter, film score composer, record producer, and writer. He is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known for his slide guitar work, his interest in traditional music, and his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1946: Bobby Bonds, American baseball player and coach (died 2003) Bobby Lee Bonds was an American right fielder in Major League Baseball from 1968 to 1981. He played for the San Francisco Giants, New York Yankees, California Angels, Chicago White Sox, Texas Rangers, Cleveland Indians, St. Louis Cardinals, and Chicago Cubs. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1946: John Dempsey, English-Irish footballer and manager (died 2024) John Dempsey was a professional footballer who played as a centre back. He played for Fulham and Chelsea in the 1960s and 1970s before moving to the United States to join Philadelphia Fury. He ended his career after a stint in Ireland with Dundalk. Born in England, he represented the Republic of Ireland national team at international level. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1944: Chi Cheng, Taiwanese runner Chi Cheng is a Taiwanese politician and athlete in track and field. She was an Olympic medalist in 1968 and was named the Associated Press Athlete of the Year for 1970. She was a former pentathlete turned sprinter. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1944: Jacques Doillon, French director and screenwriter Jacques Doillon is a French film director and screenwriter. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1944: Francis Mankiewicz, Canadian director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1993) Francis Mankiewicz was a Canadian film director, screenwriter and producer. In 1945, his family moved to Montreal, where Francis spent all his childhood. His father was a second cousin to the famous Hollywood brothers, Joseph L. Mankiewicz and Herman J. Mankiewicz. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1943: David Cronenberg, Canadian actor, director, and screenwriter David Paul Cronenberg is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He is a principal originator of the body horror genre, with his films exploring visceral bodily transformation, infectious diseases, and the intertwining of the psychological, physical, and technological. Cronenberg is best known for exploring these themes through sci-fi horror films such as Shivers (1975), Scanners (1981), Videodrome (1983) and The Fly (1986), though he has also directed dramas, psychological thrillers and gangster films. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1943: Lynda La Plante, English actress, screenwriter, and author Lynda Joy La Plante, CBE is an English author, screenwriter and former actress. She created and wrote the police procedural television series Prime Suspect. In 2024 she was honoured with the Crime Writers' Association of Britain's Diamond Dagger award for her outstanding lifetime's contribution to the crime and mystery fiction genre. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1943: Michael Scott-Joynt, English bishop (died 2014) Michael Charles Scott-Joynt was an English bishop and a Prelate of the Order of the Garter. He was appointed Bishop of Winchester, one of the five senior bishoprics in the Church of England, in 1995. He had previously served as Bishop of Stafford in the Diocese of Lichfield from 1987 and before that as a canon residentiary at St Albans Cathedral. On 10 October 2010, it was announced that Scott-Joynt intended to retire, which he did in May 2011. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1943: Sly Stone, American musician and record producer (died 2025) Sylvester Stewart, better known by his stage name Sly Stone, was an American musician, songwriter and record producer. He was the frontman of Sly and the Family Stone, playing a critical role in the development of psychedelic soul and funk with his pioneering fusion of soul, rock, psychedelia, and gospel in the 1960s and 1970s. AllMusic stated that "James Brown may have invented funk, but Sly Stone perfected it," and credited him with "creating a series of euphoric yet politically charged records that proved a massive influence on artists of all musical and cultural backgrounds". Crawdaddy! has credited him as the founder of the "progressive soul" movement. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1941: Mike Love, American singer-songwriter and musician Michael Edward Love is an American singer and songwriter who co-founded the Beach Boys alongside his cousins Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson and their friend Al Jardine. Characterized by his nasal and sometimes baritone singing, he has consistently contributed to their studio albums while serving as their front man on stage since 1961. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1941: Song Zhenzhong, child internee and revolutionary martyr (died 1949) Song Zhenzhong, popularly known as Little Radish Head, was the son of Chinese Communist Party members Song Qiyun and Xu Linxia. Held by the Kuomintang for the majority of his life, he was killed together with his parents as part of a mass killing of detainees. He has been identified as "China's youngest martyr", and featured extensively in film and literature, including in Chinese state propaganda. He has also been commemorated with multiple monuments. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1940: Frank Dobson, English politician, Secretary of State for Health (died 2019) Frank Gordon Dobson was a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St. Pancras from 1979 to 2015. A member of the Labour Party he served in the First Blair ministry as Secretary of State for Health from 1997 to 1999, and was the Labour Party nominee for Mayor of London in 2000, finishing third in the election behind Conservative Steven Norris and the winner, Labour-turned-Independent Ken Livingstone. Dobson stood down from his Parliament seat at the 2015 general election. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1940: Phil Lesh, American bassist (died 2024) Philip Chapman Lesh was an American musician and a founding member of the Grateful Dead, with whom he developed a unique style of improvised six-string bass guitar. He was their bassist throughout their 30-year career. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1939: Ted Kaufman, American politician Edward Emmett Kaufman is a retired American politician and businessman who served as a United States senator from Delaware from 2009 to 2010. He chaired the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Oversight of the Troubled Asset Relief Program; he was the second and final person to hold the position, succeeding Elizabeth Warren. Kaufman is a member of the Democratic Party and a key ally of former president Joe Biden. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1939: Robert Nye, English author, poet, and playwright (died 2016) Robert Nye FRSL was an English poet and author. His bestselling novel Falstaff, published in 1976, was described by Michael Ratcliffe as "one of the most ambitious and seductive novels of the decade", and went on to win both The Hawthornden Prize and Guardian Fiction Prize. The novel was also included in Anthony Burgess's 99 Novels: The Best in English Since 1939 (1984). Read more
  • 15 Mar 1939: Julie Tullis, English mountaineer (died 1986)
    Julie Tullis was a British climber and filmmaker who died while descending from K2's summit during a storm, along with four other climbers from several expeditions, in what was later termed the 1986 K2 disaster or the "Black Summer" of 1986. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1937: Valentin Rasputin, Russian environmentalist and author (died 2015) Valentin Grigoryevich Rasputin was a Soviet and Russian writer. He was born and lived much of his life in the Irkutsk Oblast in Eastern Siberia. Rasputin's works depict rootless urban characters and the fight for survival of centuries-old traditional rural ways of life, addressing complex questions of ethics and spiritual revival. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1936: Howard Greenfield, American songwriter (died 1986) Howard Greenfield was an American lyricist and songwriter, who for several years in the 1960s worked out of the famous Brill Building. He is best known for his successful songwriting collaborations, including one with Neil Sedaka from the late 1950s to the mid-1970s, and near-simultaneous songwriting partnerships with Jack Keller and Helen Miller throughout most of the 1960s. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1935: Judd Hirsch, American actor Judd Seymore Hirsch is an American actor. He is known for playing Alex Rieger on the television comedy series Taxi (1978–1983), John Lacey on the NBC series Dear John USA (1988–1992), and Alan Eppes on the CBS series Numb3rs (2005–2010). He is also well known for his career in theatre and for his roles in films such as Without a Trace (1983), Teachers (1984), Independence Day (1996) and its sequel Independence Day: Resurgence (2016), A Beautiful Mind (2001), Tower Heist (2011), Altered Minds (2013), The Meyerowitz Stories (2017), and Hollywood Stargirl (2022). Read more
  • 15 Mar 1935: Jimmy Swaggart, American pastor and television host (died 2025) Jimmy Lee Swaggart was an American Pentecostal televangelist, pastor, media mogul, author and gospel music artist. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1934: Kanshi Ram, Indian politician (died 2006) Kanshi Ram, also known as Bahujan Nayak or Manyavar, Sahab Kanshiram was an Indian politician and social reformer who worked for the upliftment and political mobilisation of the Bahujans, the backward or lower caste people including untouchable groups at the bottom of the caste system in India. Towards this end, Kanshi Ram founded Dalit Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti (DS-4), the All India Backwards (SC/ST/OBC) and Minorities Communities Employees' Federation (BAMCEF) in 1971 and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 1984. In 2001, he ceded leadership of the BSP to his protégé Mayawati who has served four terms as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1933: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, American lawyer and judge (died 2020) Joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in 2020. She was nominated by President Bill Clinton to replace retiring justice Byron White, and at the time was viewed as a moderate consensus-builder. Ginsburg was the first Jewish woman and the second woman to serve on the Court, after Sandra Day O'Connor. During her tenure, Ginsburg authored the majority opinions in cases such as United States v. Virginia (1996), Olmstead v. L.C. (1999), Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services, Inc. (2000), and City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York (2005). Later in her tenure, Ginsburg received attention for passionate dissents that reflected liberal views of the law. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1933: Philippe de Broca, French actor, director, and screenwriter (died 2004) Philippe Claude Alex de Broca de Ferrussac was a French film director. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1932: Alan Bean, American astronaut and pilot (died 2018) Alan LaVern Bean was an American naval officer and aviator, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, NASA astronaut and painter. He was selected to become an astronaut by NASA in 1963 as part of Astronaut Group 3, and was the fourth person to walk on the Moon. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1932: Arif Mardin, Turkish-American record producer (died 2006) Arif Mardin was a Turkish-American music producer, who worked with hundreds of artists across many different styles of music, including jazz, rock, soul, disco and country. He worked at Atlantic Records for over 30 years, as producer, arranger, studio manager, and vice president, before moving to EMI and serving as vice president and general manager of Manhattan Records. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1930: Zhores Alferov, Belarusian-Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2019) Zhores Ivanovich Alferov was a Russian applied physicist who contributed significantly to the creation of modern heterostructure physics and electronics. In 2000, Alferov shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for the development of the semiconductor heterojunction for optoelectronics. He also became a politician in his later life, serving in the State Duma as a member of the Communist Party from 1999. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1928: Bob Wilber, American clarinetist and saxophonist (died 2019) Robert Sage Wilber was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, and band leader. Although his scope covers a wide range of jazz, Wilber was a dedicated advocate of classic styles, working throughout his career to present traditional jazz pieces in a contemporary manner. He played with many distinguished jazz leaders in the 1950s and 1960s, including Bobby Hackett, Benny Goodman, Sidney Bechet, Jack Teagarden and Eddie Condon. In the late 1960s, he was an original member of the World's Greatest Jazz Band, and in the early '70s of Soprano Summit, a band which gained wide attention. In the late 1970s, he formed the Bechet Legacy Band. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1927: Christian Marquand, French actor, director, and screenwriter (died 2000) Christian Henri Marquand was a French actor. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1927: Carl Smith, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2010) Carl Milton Smith was an American country singer. Known as "Mister Country", he was one of the genre's most successful male artists during the 1950s, scoring 30 top-10 Billboard hits. Smith's success continued well into the 1970s, when he had a charting single every year but one. In 1952, Smith married June Carter, with whom he had daughter Carlene; the couple divorced in 1956. His eldest daughter Carlene was the stepdaughter of fellow country singer Johnny Cash, who was subsequently married to his ex-wife June Carter. He later married Goldie Hill, and they had three children together. In 2003, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. According to the Hollywood Walk of Fame website, he was a "drinking companion" to Johnny Cash, his daughter's stepfather. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1926: Ben Johnston, American composer and academic (died 2019)
    Benjamin Burwell Johnston Jr. was an American contemporary music composer, known for his use of just intonation. He was called "one of the foremost composers of microtonal music" by Philip Bush and "one of the best non-famous composers this country has to offer" by John Rockwell. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1926: Norm Van Brocklin, American football player and coach (died 1983) Norman Mack Van Brocklin, was an American professional football quarterback and coach who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons. Nicknamed "the Dutchman", he spent his first nine seasons with the Los Angeles Rams and his final three with the Philadelphia Eagles. Following his playing career, he was the inaugural head coach of the Minnesota Vikings from 1961 to 1966 and the second head coach of the Atlanta Falcons from 1968 to 1974. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1924: Khyber Khan, Pakistani pilot and former Deputy Chief of Air Staff of the PAF (died 2007) Mohammad Khyber Khan was a Pakistani former two-star rank air officer and among the pioneer officers of the Pakistan Air Force, a fighter pilot, aerobatic pilot and diplomat. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1921: Madelyn Pugh, American television writer and producer (died 2011) Madelyn Pugh, sometimes credited as Madelyn Pugh Davis, Madelyn Davis, or Madelyn Martin, was an American television writer who became known in the 1950s for her work on the I Love Lucy television series. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1920: E. Donnall Thomas, American physician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2012) Edward Donnall "Don" Thomas was an American physician, professor emeritus at the University of Washington, and director emeritus of the clinical research division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. In 1990 he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Joseph E. Murray for the development of cell and organ transplantation. Thomas and his wife and research partner Dottie Thomas developed bone marrow transplantation as a treatment for leukemia. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1919: Lawrence Tierney, American actor (died 2002) Lawrence James Tierney was an American film and television actor who is best known for his many screen portrayals of mobsters and "tough guys" in a career that spanned over fifty years. His roles mirrored his own frequent brushes with the law. In 2005, film critic David Kehr of The New York Times described "the hulking Tierney" as "not so much an actor as a frightening force of nature". Read more
  • 15 Mar 1918: Richard Ellmann, American author and critic (died 1987) Richard David Ellmann, FBA, was an American literary critic and biographer of the Irish writers James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, and William Butler Yeats. He won the U.S. National Book Award for Nonfiction for James Joyce (1959), one of the most acclaimed literary biographies of the 20th century. Its 1982 revised edition won James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Ellmann was a liberal humanist, and his academic work focuses on the major modernist writers of the 20th century. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1918: Punch Imlach, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and manager (died 1987) George "Punch" Imlach was a Canadian ice hockey coach and general manager best known for his association with the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Buffalo Sabres. He is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, and the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame (2004). Read more
  • 15 Mar 1916: Frank Coghlan, Jr., American actor and pilot (died 2009) Frank Coghlan Jr., also known as Junior Coghlan, was an American actor who later became a career officer in the United States Navy and a naval aviator. He appeared in approximately 129 films and television programs between 1920 and 1974. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1916: Fadil Hoxha, Kosovar commander and politician, President of Kosovo (died 2001) Fadil Hoxha was a Yugoslavian ethnic-Albanian communist revolutionary and politician from Kosovo. He was a member of the Communist Party and fought in the Yugoslav Partisans during World War II. After the war, he was the first President of the Executive Council of the Autonomous Region of Kosovo and Metohija (1945–1963) and later member of the Presidency of Yugoslavia (1974–1984). Read more
  • 15 Mar 1916: Harry James, American trumpet player, bandleader, and actor (died 1983) Harry Haag James was an American musician who is best known as a trumpet-playing band leader who led a big band to great commercial success from 1939 to 1946. He broke up his band for a short period in 1947, but shortly after he reorganized and was active again with his band from then until his death in 1983. He was especially known among musicians for his technical proficiency as well as his tone, and was influential on new trumpet players from the late 1930s into the 1940s. He was also an actor in a number of films that usually featured his band. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1913: Macdonald Carey, American actor (died 1994) Edward Macdonald Carey was an American actor. He first made his career starring in various B-movies from the 1940s through the 1960s,, and was known in many Hollywood circles as "King of the Bs". Beginning in 1965, he portrayed patriarch Dr. Tom Horton on NBC's soap opera Days of Our Lives. For almost three decades, he was the show's central cast member, winning two Daytime Emmy Awards. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1913: Jack Fairman, English race car driver (died 2002) John Eric George "Jack" Fairman was a British racing driver from England. He participated in 13 Formula One Grands Prix, making his debut on 18 July 1953. He scored a total of five championship points, all of which came in the 1956 season. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1912: Louis Paul Boon, Flemish journalist and author (died 1979) Lodewijk Paul Aalbrecht Boon was a Belgian writer of novels, poetry, pornography, columns and art criticism in Flemish. He was also a painter. He is best known for the novels My Little War (1947), the diptych Chapel Road (1953) / Summer in Termuren (1956), Menuet (1955) and Pieter Daens (1971). Read more
  • 15 Mar 1912: Lightnin' Hopkins, American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1982) Samuel John "Lightnin'" Hopkins was an American country blues singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional pianist from Centerville, Texas. In 2010, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him No. 71 on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1907: Zarah Leander, Swedish actress and singer (died 1981) Zarah Leander was a Swedish singer and actress whose greatest success was in Nazi Germany between 1936 and 1943, when she was contracted to work for the state-owned Universum Film AG (UFA). Although no exact record sales numbers exist, she was probably among Europe's best-selling recording artists in the years prior to 1945. Her involvement with UFA caused some of her films and lyrics to be identified as Nazi propaganda. Though she had taken no public political position and was dubbed an "Enemy of Germany" by Joseph Goebbels, she remained a controversial figure for the rest of her life. As a singer, Leander was known for her confident style and her deep contralto voice, and was also known as a "female baritone". Read more
  • 15 Mar 1905: Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, German lawyer and judge (died 1944) Berthold Alfred Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg was a German aristocrat and lawyer who was a key conspirator in the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler on 20 July 1944, alongside his younger brother, Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. After the plot failed, Berthold was tried and executed by the Nazi regime. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1904: George Brent, Irish-American actor (died 1979) George Brent was an Irish-American stage, film, and television actor. He is best remembered for the eleven films he made with Bette Davis, which included Jezebel and Dark Victory. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1904: J. Pat O'Malley, English-American actor (died 1985) James Rudolph O'Malley was an English actor and singer who appeared in many American films and television programmes from the 1940s to 1982, using the stage name J. Pat O'Malley. He also appeared on the Broadway stage in Ten Little Indians (1944) and Dial M for Murder (1954). Read more
  • 15 Mar 1900: Gilberto Freyre, Brazilian sociologist, anthropologist, historian and writer (died 1987) Gilberto de Mello Freyre was a Brazilian sociologist, anthropologist, historian, writer, painter, journalist and congressman born in Recife. Considered one of the most important sociologists of the 20th century, his best-known work is a sociological treatise named Casa-Grande & Senzala. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1897: Jackson Scholz, American runner (died 1986) Jackson Volney Scholz was an American sprint runner. In the 1920s, he became the first person to appear in an Olympic sprint final in three different Olympic Games. After his athletic career, he also gained fame as a writer. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1886: Gerda Wegener, Danish artist (died 1940) Gerda Marie Fredrikke Wegener was a Danish illustrator and painter. Wegener is known for her fashion illustrations and later her paintings that pushed the boundaries of her time concerning gender and love. These works were classified as lesbian erotica at times and many were inspired by her partner, transgender painter Lili Elbe. Wegener employed these works in the styles of Art Nouveau and later Art Deco. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1879: Benjamin R. Jacobs, American biochemist (died 1963) Benjamin Ricardo Jacobs was born at the American Consulate in Lima, Peru, to Rosa Mulet Jacobs of Valparaíso, Chile, a French-Chilean, and Washington Michael Jacobs of South Carolina in the United States. Originally christened on April 5, 1879 as Ricardo Benjamin Jacobs, he later changed his name, once by reversing the order of his first and middle name, and then in some records by anglicizing the name Ricardo to Richard. His mother was the accomplished and well-educated daughter of a noted French merchant in Valparaíso. At the time of his birth, his father was the American vice-consul to Peru. A businessman with many interests in the United States, including mining, his father also was engaged in mining in several countries in South America and he published the Imprenta Americana and a semi-weekly newspaper, El Tumbes. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1878: Reza Shah, Iranian Shah (died 1944) Reza Shah Pahlavi was Shah of Iran from 1925 to 1941 and founder of the Pahlavi dynasty. Originally an army officer, he became a politician, serving as minister of war and prime minister of Iran, and was elected shah following the deposition of Ahmad Shah, the last monarch of the Qajar dynasty. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1874: Harold L. Ickes, American journalist and politician, United States Secretary of the Interior (died 1952) Harold LeClair Ickes was an American administrator, politician and lawyer. He served as United States Secretary of the Interior for nearly 13 years from 1933 to 1946, the longest tenure of anyone to hold the office, and the second longest-serving Cabinet member in U.S. history after James Wilson. Ickes and Labor Secretary Frances Perkins were the only original members of the Roosevelt Cabinet who remained in office for his entire presidency. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1869: Stanisław Wojciechowski, Polish scholar and politician, President of the Republic of Poland (died 1953) Stanisław Wojciechowski was a Polish politician and scholar who served as President of Poland between 1922 and 1926, during the Second Polish Republic. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1868: Grace Chisholm Young, English mathematician (died 1944)

    Grace Chisholm Young was an English mathematician. She was educated at Girton College, Cambridge, England and continued her studies at Göttingen University in Germany, where in 1895 she received a doctorate.
    Her early writings were published under the name of her husband, William Henry Young, and they collaborated on mathematical work throughout their lives. She was awarded the Gamble Prize for Mathematics by Girton College in 1915 for her work on calculus. Read more

  • 15 Mar 1866: Matthew Charlton, Australian miner and politician (died 1948) Matthew Charlton was an Australian politician who served as leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and Leader of the Opposition from 1922 to 1928. He led the party to defeat at the 1922 and 1925 federal elections. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1858: Liberty Hyde Bailey, American botanist and academic, co-founded the American Society for Horticultural Science (died 1954) Liberty Hyde Bailey was an American horticulturist and advocate for rural reform in the United States. He was cofounder of the American Society for Horticultural Science. During the Progressive Era, Bailey was instrumental in establishing the Cooperative Extension System, 4-H youth development programs, the nature study movement, parcel post, and rural electrification.:44 In 1903, Bailey founded the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University and served as its first dean until 1913. Bailey’s work was influential in defining rural sociology as a distinct and valuable field of study in the United States. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1857: Christian Michelsen, Norwegian businessman and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Norway (died 1925) Peter Christian Hersleb Kjerschow Michelsen, better known as Christian Michelsen, was a Norwegian shipping magnate and statesman. He was the first prime minister of independent Norway from 1905 to 1907. Michelsen is most known for his central role in the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden in 1905, and was one of Norway's most influential politicians of his time. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1854: Emil von Behring, German physiologist and physician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1917) Emil von Behring, was a German physiologist. In 1901, he received the first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for his work on serum therapy, especially its application against diphtheria, by which he has opened a new road in the domain of medical science and thereby placed in the hands of the physician a victorious weapon against illness and deaths". He was widely known as a "saviour of children", as diphtheria used to be a major cause of child death. His work with the disease, as well as tetanus, has come to bring him most of his fame and acknowledgment. He was honoured with Prussian nobility in 1901, henceforth being known by the surname "von Behring". Read more
  • 15 Mar 1852: Augusta, Lady Gregory, Anglo-Irish landowner, playwright, and translator (died 1932) Isabella Augusta, Lady Gregory was an Anglo-Irish dramatist, folklorist and theatre manager. With William Butler Yeats and Edward Martyn, she co-founded the Irish Literary Theatre and the Abbey Theatre, and wrote numerous short works for both companies. Lady Gregory produced a number of books of retellings of stories taken from Irish mythology. Born into a class that identified closely with British rule, she turned against it. Her conversion to cultural nationalism, as evidenced by her writings, was emblematic of many of the political struggles that occurred in Ireland during her lifetime. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1851: John Sebastian Little, American lawyer and politician, Governor of Arkansas (died 1916) John Sebastian Little was an American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives and briefly as the 21st governor of Arkansas, before having a nervous breakdown and resigning. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1851: William Mitchell Ramsay, Scottish archaeologist and scholar (died 1939) Sir William Mitchell Ramsay was a British archaeologist and New Testament scholar. He was the foremost authority of his day on the history of Asia Minor, and a leading scholar in the study of the New Testament. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1845: Hallie Quinn Brown, African-American educator, writer and activist (died 1949) Hallie Quinn Brown was an African-American educator and activist. She moved with her parents while relatively young to a farm near Chatham, Ontario, Canada, in 1864 and then to Ohio in 1870. In 1868, she began a course of study in Wilberforce University, Ohio, from which she graduated in 1873 with the degree of Bachelor of Science. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1838: Karl Davydov, Russian cellist, composer, and conductor (died 1889) Karl Yulievich Davydov was a Russian cellist, described by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky as the "czar of cellists". He was also a composer, mainly for the cello. His name also appears in various different spellings: Davydov, Davidoff, Davidov, and more, with his first name sometimes written as Charles or Carl. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1835: Eduard Strauss, Austrian composer and conductor (died 1916) Eduard "Edi" Strauss was an Austrian composer who, together with his brothers Johann Strauss II and Josef Strauss made up the Strauss musical dynasty. He was the son of Johann Strauss I and Maria Anna Streim. The family dominated the Viennese light music world for decades, creating many waltzes and polkas for many Austrian nobility as well as dance-music enthusiasts around Europe. He was affectionately known in his family as 'Edi'. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1831: Saint Daniele Comboni, Italian missionary and saint (died 1881) Daniele Comboni, MCCJ was an Italian Catholic prelate who served as Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa from 1877 until his death in 1881. He worked in the missions in Africa and was the founder of both the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus and the Comboni Missionary Sisters. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1830: Paul Heyse, German author, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1914) Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse was a German writer and translator. A member of two important literary societies, the Tunnel über der Spree in Berlin and Die Krokodile in Munich, he wrote novels, poetry, 177 short stories, and about sixty dramas. The sum of Heyse's many and varied productions made him a dominant figure among German men of letters. He was awarded the 1910 Nobel Prize in Literature "as a tribute to the consummate artistry, permeated with idealism, which he has demonstrated during his long productive career as a lyric poet, dramatist, novelist and writer of world-renowned short stories." Wirsen, one of the Nobel judges, said that "Germany has not had a greater literary genius since Goethe." Heyse is the fifth oldest laureate in literature, after Alice Munro, Jaroslav Seifert, Theodor Mommsen and Doris Lessing. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1830: Élisée Reclus, French geographer and anarchist (died 1905) Jacques Élisée Reclus was a French geographer, writer, and anarchist. He produced his 19-volume masterwork, La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, la terre et les hommes , over a period of nearly 20 years (1875–1894). In 1892 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Paris Geographical Society for this work, despite having been banished from France because of his political activism. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1824: Jules Chevalier, French priest, founded the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (died 1907) Jules Chevalier, MSC was a French Catholic priest and founder of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, along with their lay associates, known collectively as the Chevalier Family. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1821: Johann Josef Loschmidt, Austrian physicist and chemist (died 1895) Johann Josef Loschmidt, better known as Josef Loschmidt, was an Austrian scientist who performed ground-breaking work in chemistry, physics, and crystal forms. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1821: William Milligan, Scottish theologian and author (died 1892) William Milligan was a renowned Scottish theologian. He studied at the University of Halle in Germany, and eventually became a professor at the University of Aberdeen. He is best known for his commentary on the Revelation of St. John. He also wrote two other well-known books that are classics: The Resurrection of our Lord and The Ascension of our Lord. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1813: John Snow, English physician and epidemiologist (died 1858) John Snow was an English physician and a leader in the development of anaesthesia and medical hygiene. He is considered one of the founders of modern epidemiology and early germ theory, in part because of his work in tracing the source of a cholera outbreak in London's Soho, which he identified as a particular public water pump. Snow's findings inspired fundamental changes in the water and waste systems of London, which led to similar changes in other cities, and a significant improvement in general public health around the world. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1809: Joseph Jenkins Roberts, American-Liberian historian and politician, 1st President of Liberia (died 1876) Joseph Jenkins Roberts was an African American merchant who emigrated to Liberia in 1829, where he became a politician. Elected as the first (1848–1856) and seventh (1872–1876) president of Liberia after independence, he was the first man of African descent to govern the country, serving previously as governor from 1841 to 1848. He later returned to office in the 1871 general election following the 1871 Liberian coup d'état. Born free in Norfolk, Virginia, Roberts emigrated as a young man with his mother, siblings, wife, and child to the young West African colony. He opened a trading firm in Monrovia and later engaged in politics. Read more

🕊️ Important Deaths on 15 March in World History

  • 15 Mar 2025: Wings Hauser, American actor (born 1947) Gerald Dwight "Wings" Hauser was an American actor, screenwriter, film director and musician. A prolific character actor, he appeared in over 100 film and television productions since 1967, and was once called "the biggest star you've never heard of". He received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Male for his role in Tough Guys Don't Dance (1987). He is the father of actor Cole Hauser. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2025: Nita Lowey, American politician (born 1937) Nita Sue Lowey was an American politician who served as a U.S. representative from New York from 1989 until 2021. She was a member of the Democratic Party. Lowey also served as co-dean of the New York congressional delegation, along with former U.S. Representative Eliot Engel. Lowey's district was numbered as the 20th from 1989 to 1993, as the 18th from 1993 to 2013, and as the 17th beginning in 2013. The district included many of New York City's inner northern suburbs, such as White Plains, Purchase, Tarrytown, Mount Kisco, and Armonk. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2025: Rajnikumar Pandya, Indian writer (born 1938) Rajnikumar Pandya was an Indian Gujarati language writer and journalist from Gujarat. He was known for his short stories, novels, biographical essays, and columns. He had a significant contribution to Gujarati literature and journalism, particularly in the field of rural journalism. He was honored with numerous awards throughout his career, including the Kumar Suvarna Chandrak and awards from the Gujarat Sahitya Akademi and Gujarati Sahitya Parishad. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2022: Barbara Maier Gustern, American vocal coach and singer (born 1935) Barbara Joan Gustern was an American vocal coach and singer. She had many noted students, including Blondie singer Debbie Harry, Taylor Mac, Justin Vivian Bond, Diamanda Galás, and Kathleen Hanna. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2020: Vittorio Gregotti, Italian architect (born 1927) Vittorio Gregotti was an Italian architect, born in Novara. He was seen as both a member of the Neo-Avant Garde and a key figure in 1970s Postmodernism. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2019: Larry DiTillio, American film and TV series writer (born 1948) Lawrence G. DiTillio was an American film, TV series, and tabletop role-playing game writer. His creations include He-Man and She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword and the award-winning Masks of Nyarlathotep. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2016: Sylvia Anderson, English voice actress and television and film producer (born 1927) Sylvia Beatrice Anderson was an English television and film producer, writer, voice actress and costume designer, best known for her collaborations with Gerry Anderson, her husband between 1960 and 1981. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2016: Asa Briggs, English historian and academic (born 1921) Asa Briggs, Baron Briggs was an English historian. He was a leading specialist on the Victorian era, and the foremost historian of broadcasting in Britain. Briggs achieved international recognition during his long and prolific career for examining various aspects of modern British history. He became a life peer in 1976. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2016: Seru Rabeni, Fijian rugby player (born 1978) Ratu Seru Rabeni was a Fijian rugby union player. He played as a centre or wing. At both club and international level, his physicality and heavy tackles earned him the nickname "Rambo". Read more
  • 15 Mar 2015: Collins Chabane, South African politician (born 1960) Ohm Collins Chabane was a South African Minister of Public Service and Administration. At the age of 17, he went into exile and joined the African National Congress (ANC) underground military wing Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK). Chabane also went to Angola for military training in 1980, and began work underground in 1981. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2015: Robert Clatworthy, English sculptor and educator (born 1928) Robert Ernest Clatworthy RA was a British sculptor and teacher of art. He was head of the fine art department at the Central School of Art and Design in London from 1971 to 1975, and was elected a fellow of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1973. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2015: Sally Forrest, American actress and dancer (born 1928) Sally Forrest was an American film, stage and TV actress of the 1940s and 1950s. She studied dance from a young age and shortly out of high school was signed to a contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2015: Curtis Gans, American political scientist and author (born 1937) Curtis Bernard Gans was an American activist, writer, and expert on American voting patterns. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2015: Mike Porcaro, American bass player (born 1955) Michael Joseph Porcaro was an American bass player known for his work with the rock band Toto. He retired from touring in 2007 as a result of being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Read more
  • 15 Mar 2014: Scott Asheton, American drummer (born 1949) Scott Randolph Asheton was an American musician, best known as the drummer for the rock band the Stooges. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2014: David Brenner, American comedian, actor, and author (born 1936) David Norris Brenner was an American stand-up comedian, actor and author. The most frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in the 1970s and 1980s, Brenner "was a pioneer of observational comedy." His friend, comedian Richard Lewis, described Brenner as "the king of hip, observational comedy." Read more
  • 15 Mar 2014: Bo Callaway, American soldier and politician, United States Secretary of the Army (born 1927) Howard Hollis "Bo" Callaway was an American businessman and politician. A member of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, he served in the United States House of Representatives from 1965 to 1967 and as the United States secretary of the Army from 1973 to 1975. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2014: Clarissa Dickson Wright, English chef, author, and television personality (born 1947) Clarissa Theresa Philomena Aileen Mary Josephine Agnes Elsie Trilby Louise Esmerelda Johnston Dickson Wright was an English celebrity cook, television personality, writer, businesswoman, and barrister. She was best known as one of the Two Fat Ladies, with Jennifer Paterson, in the television cooking programme from 1996 to 1999. She was an accredited cricket umpire and one of only two women to become a Guild Butcher. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2013: Booth Gardner, American businessman and politician, Governor of Washington (born 1936) William Booth Gardner was an American politician who served as the 19th governor of Washington, from 1985 to 1993. He also served as the ambassador of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, or GATT. A member of the Democratic Party, Gardner served as a state senator from 1971 to 1973, and was the Pierce County Executive prior to his tenure as governor. His service was notable for advancing standards-based education and environmental protection. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2013: Terry Lightfoot, English clarinet player (born 1935) Terence John Lightfoot was a British jazz clarinettist and bandleader, and together with Chris Barber, Acker Bilk and Kenny Ball was one of the leading members of the trad jazz generation of British jazzmen. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2013: Leverne McDonnell, Australian actress (born 1963) Leverne Ann McDonnell was an Australian actress. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2013: Peter Worsley, English sociologist (born 1924)

    Peter Maurice Worsley was a noted British sociologist and social anthropologist. He was a major figure in both anthropology and sociology, and is noted for introducing the term Third World into English. He not only made theoretical and ethnographic contributions, but also was regarded as a key founding member of the New Left. Read more

  • 15 Mar 2012: Mervyn Davies, Welsh rugby player (born 1946) Thomas Mervyn Davies, often known as "Merv the Swerve", was a Welsh rugby union player who won 38 caps for Wales as a No. 8. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2012: Dave Philley, American baseball player and manager (born 1920) David Earl Philley was an American professional baseball outfielder who played in Major League Baseball. A switch hitter who threw right-handed, he debuted on September 6, 1941 and played his final game on August 6, 1962. He was born in Paris, Texas and attended East Texas State University prior to his MLB career. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2011: Nate Dogg, American rapper (born 1969) Nathaniel Dwayne Hale, known professionally as Nate Dogg, was an American singer, rapper, and songwriter. He gained recognition for providing soulful choruses and other guest vocals on several notable hip-hop songs between 1992 and 2007, earning him the honorific title "King of Hooks". Read more
  • 15 Mar 2011: Smiley Culture, English singer and DJ (born 1963) David Victor Emmanuel, better known as Smiley Culture, was a British reggae singer and DJ known for his "fast chat" style. During a relatively brief period of fame and success, he produced two of the most critically acclaimed reggae singles of the 1980s. He died on 15 March 2011, aged 48, during a police raid on his home. An inquest found that his death was a suicide. Campaigners and his family have expressed scepticism about the official verdict and the police version of events. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2010: Kazim al-Samawi, Iraqi poet (born 1925) Kazim Jasir Faraj, better known as Kazim al-Samawi, was an Iraqi poet and journalist known for his humanist worldview. From the 1950s, he spent more than half of his life in exile as a political refuge and was known by title "The Elder of the Iraqi exiles" or "The Shaykh of Exiles". He moved between many countries, such as Lebanon, Hungary, Germany, China, Syria and Cyprus until he finally settled in Sweden. Al-Samawi published his first poetry collection in 1950 and was as a result was persecuted by the Nuri al-Said government. Later, he and his family faced persecution in Ba'athist Iraq, and he experienced the death of almost all his family members, often in quick succession. Through his poetry in various forms, genres and metres, he was very involved in general human affairs. His family name is derived from his hometown demonym, Samawah. He studied in Baghdad and graduated from the Rural Teachers’ House in 1940, continued his higher studies in Hungary and graduated from the Faculty of Arts in 1956. He worked for a while in journalism in Baghdad with a progressive tendency, founded The Humanity in 1956, a twice-weekly leftist newspaper. He left about seven poetry collections that have been translated into several languages. Al-Samawi died at the age of 85 in Stockholm and was buried in Sulaymaniyah. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2009: Ron Silver, American actor, director, and producer (born 1946) Ronald Arthur Silver was an American actor, director, producer, radio host, and activist. As an actor, he portrayed Henry Kissinger, Alan Dershowitz and Angelo Dundee. He was awarded a Tony in 1988 for Best Actor for Speed-the-Plow, a satirical dissection of the American movie business, and was nominated for an Emmy for his recurring role as political strategist Bruno Gianelli in The West Wing. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2008: Mikey Dread, Jamaican singer-songwriter and producer (born 1954) Michael George Campbell, better known as Mikey Dread, was a Jamaican singer, producer, and broadcaster. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2008: G. David Low, American astronaut and engineer (born 1956) George David Low was an American aerospace executive and a NASA astronaut. With undergraduate degrees in physics and mechanical engineering and a master's degree in aeronautics and astronautics, he worked in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at the California Institute of Technology in the early 80's, before being picked as an astronaut candidate by NASA in 1984. In addition to holding some technical assignments, he logged more than 700 hours in space, before he left NASA in 1996 to pursue a career in the private sector. He was the son of George M. Low, the manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office, and later, the 14th president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2008: Sarla Thakral, First Indian woman to earn a pilot's license. (born 1914) Sarla Thukral was among the first Indian women to fly aircraft. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2007: Charles Harrelson, American murderer (born 1938) Charles Voyde Harrelson was an American contract killer and organized crime figure who was convicted of assassinating federal judge John H. Wood Jr., the first federal judge assassinated in the 20th century. Charles Harrelson was the father of actors Woody and Brett Harrelson. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2007: Stuart Rosenberg, American director and producer (born 1927) Stuart Rosenberg was an American film and television director. He was most noted for his collaborations with actor Paul Newman, whom he directed in Cool Hand Luke (1967), WUSA (1970), Pocket Money (1972), and The Drowning Pool (1975). He was a five-time Directors Guild of America Award nominee, and a Primetime Emmy Award winner. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2006: Georgios Rallis, Greek lieutenant and politician, Prime Minister of Greece (born 1918) Georgios Ioannou Rallis, anglicised to George Rallis, was a Greek conservative politician and Prime Minister of Greece from 1980 to 1981. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2006: Red Storey, Canadian football player and referee (born 1918) Roy Alvin "Red" Storey, was a Canadian athlete, referee and broadcaster. He played football, lacrosse and ice hockey. While active as an athlete, he turned to officiating in all three sports, and continued as an official after the end of his playing career. While he was a member of the Toronto Argonauts, the team won the Grey Cup championship twice. He refereed in the National Hockey League, and later became a radio and television commentator for Canadian television. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2005: Otar Korkia, Georgian basketball player (born 1923) Otar Korkia was a Georgian professional basketball player and coach. He was named one of FIBA's 50 Greatest Players, in 1991. He was also named the Best Georgian Basketball Player of the 20th Century, and the Best Georgian Sportsman of the 20th Century. He was born in Kutaisi. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2004: Philippe Lemaire, French actor (born 1927) Philippe Lemaire was a French actor. He appeared in more than 90 films from 1946 to 2004. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2004: Bill Pickering, New Zealand-American scientist and engineer (born 1910) William Hayward Pickering was a New Zealand-born aerospace engineer who headed Pasadena, California's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for 22 years, retiring in 1976. He was a senior NASA luminary and pioneered the exploration of space. Pickering was also a founding member of the United States National Academy of Engineering. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2004: John Pople, English-American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1925) Sir John Anthony Pople was a British theoretical chemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Walter Kohn in 1998 for his development of computational methods in quantum chemistry. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2003: Thora Hird, English actress (born 1911) Dame Thora Hird was an English actress. In a career spanning over 70 years, she appeared in more than 100 films, as well as many television roles, becoming a household name and a British institution. Read more
  • 15 Mar 2003: Paul Stojanovich, American television producer, created World's Wildest Police Videos (born 1955) Paul John Stojanovich was an American television producer who created reality television police shows. His notable creations include Cops (1989–2009), American Detective (1991–1993) and World's Wildest Police Videos (1998–2001). Read more
  • 15 Mar 2001: Ann Sothern, American actress and singer (born 1909) Ann Sothern was an American actress who worked on stage, radio, film, and television, in a career that spanned nearly six decades. Sothern began her career in the late 1920s in bit parts in films. In 1930, she made her Broadway stage debut and soon worked her way up to starring roles. In 1939, MGM cast her as Maisie Ravier, a brash yet lovable Brooklyn showgirl. The character proved to be popular and spawned a successful film series and a network radio series. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1998: Benjamin Spock, American pediatrician and author (born 1903) Benjamin McLane Spock, widely known as Dr. Spock, was an American pediatrician, Olympic athlete, and left-wing political activist. His book Baby and Child Care (1946) is one of the best-selling books of the 20th century, selling 500,000 copies in the six months after its initial publication and 50 million by the time of Spock's death in 1998. The book's premise told mothers, "You know more than you think you do." Spock was widely regarded as a trusted source for parenting advice in his generation. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1997: Gail Davis, American actress (born 1925) Gail Davis was an American actress and singer, best known for her starring role as Annie Oakley in the 1950s television series Annie Oakley. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1997: Victor Vasarely, Hungarian-French painter (born 1906) Victor Vasarely was a Hungarian-French artist, who is widely accepted as a "grandfather" and leader of the Op art movement. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1991: Bud Freeman, American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader (born 1906) Lawrence "Bud" Freeman was an American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer, known mainly for playing tenor saxophone, but also the clarinet. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1990: Farzad Bazoft, Iranian-English journalist (born 1958) Farzad Bazoft was an Iranian journalist who settled in the United Kingdom in the mid-1970s. He worked as a freelance reporter for The Observer. He was arrested by Iraqi authorities and executed in 1990 after being convicted of spying for Israel while working in Iraq. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1990: Tom Harmon, American football player and sportscaster (born 1919) Thomas Dudley Harmon, nicknamed "Old 98", was an American football player, military pilot, actor, and sports broadcaster. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1988: Dmitri Polyakov, Ukrainian general and spy (born 1921) Dmitri Fyodorovich Polyakov was a major general in the Soviet GRU during the Cold War. According to former high-level KGB officer Sergey Kondrashev, Polyakov acted as a KGB disinformation agent at the FBI's New York City field office when he was posted at United Nations headquarters in 1962. Kondrashev's post-Cold War friend and former high-level CIA counterintelligence officer Tennent H. Bagley says Polyakov "flipped" and started spying for the CIA when he was reposted to Rangoon, Moscow, and New Delhi. Polyakov was suddenly recalled to Moscow in 1980, arrested in 1986, tried, and finally executed in 1988. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1985: Alan A. Freeman, English record producer (born 1920) Alan Albert Freeman, known professionally as Alan A. Freeman was an English record producer who worked with Petula Clark, Max Miller, Tony Hancock, Nöel Coward, Morecambe and Wise, Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra, and Lonnie Donegan, producing UK singles chart number 1 hits by Donegan. Freeman founded the independent Polygon label, which ran from 1950 to 1955, and continued to work for its successor companies, Pye Nixa and Pye, in the 1960s and 70s. He achieved fame as a panellist on the ITV talent show New Faces in the 1970s, and his production career on various other labels lasted into the 1980s. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1983: Rebecca West, English author and critic (born 1892) Dame Cecily Isabel Fairfield, known as Rebecca West, or Dame Rebecca West, was a British author, journalist, literary critic and travel writer. An author who wrote in many genres, West reviewed books for The Times, the New York Herald Tribune, The Sunday Telegraph and The New Republic, and she was a correspondent for The Bookman. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1981: René Clair, French director and screenwriter (born 1898) René Clair, born René-Lucien Chomette, was a French filmmaker and writer. He first established his reputation in the 1920s as a director of silent films in which comedy was often mingled with fantasy. He went on to make some of the most innovative early sound films in France, before going abroad to work in the UK and USA for more than a decade. Returning to France after World War II, he continued to make films that were characterised by their elegance and wit, often presenting a nostalgic view of French life in earlier years. He was elected to the Académie Française in 1960. Clair's best known films include Un chapeau de paille d'Italie, Sous les toits de Paris, Le Million (1931), À nous la liberté (1931), I Married a Witch (1942), and And Then There Were None (1945). Read more
  • 15 Mar 1977: Hubert Aquin, Canadian author and activist (born 1929) Hubert Aquin was a Quebec writer, filmmaker and intellectual. He is particularly known for his novel Next Episode. He is also an important figure in the history of the Quebec independence movement, to which he contributed both as an activist and as an essayist. Tempted by suicide for a great part of his existence, he ended his life in 1977 in the gardens of Villa Maria College. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1977: Antonino Rocca, Italian-American wrestler and referee (born 1921) Antonino Biasetton was an Italian-Argentine professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Antonino Rocca. He innovated the "high-flying" style of wrestling in the United States, and was best known for his work with Capitol Wrestling Corporation (CWC), later known as the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWF), both as a singles wrestler and in a tag team with Miguel Pérez. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1975: Aristotle Onassis, Greek-Argentinian businessman (born 1906) Aristotle Socrates Onassis was a Greek and Argentine business magnate. He amassed the world's largest privately owned shipping fleet and was one of the world's richest and most famous men. He was married to Athina Mary Livanos, had a long-standing affair with opera singer Maria Callas, and in his final years was married to American former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1970: Tarjei Vesaas, Norwegian author and poet (born 1897) Tarjei Vesaas was a Norwegian poet and novelist. Vesaas is widely considered to be one of Norway's greatest writers of the twentieth century and perhaps its most important since World War II. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1969: Miles Malleson, English actor and screenwriter (born 1888) William Miles Malleson was an English actor and dramatist, best remembered for his appearances in British comedy films of the 1930s to 1960s. Toward the end of his career, he also appeared in cameo roles in several Hammer horror films, with a fairly large role in The Brides of Dracula as the hypochondriac and fee-hungry local doctor. Additionally, Malleson worked as a screenwriter on many films, including some in which he had small parts, such as Nell Gwyn (1934) and The Thief of Bagdad (1940). He also translated and adapted several of Molière's plays. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1966: Abe Saperstein, American basketball player and coach (born 1902) Abraham Michael Saperstein was the founder, owner and earliest coach of the Harlem Globetrotters. Saperstein was a leading figure in black basketball and baseball from the 1920s through the 1950s, primarily before those sports were racially integrated. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1962: Arthur Compton, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1892) Arthur Holly Compton was an American physicist who shared the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physics with C. T. R. Wilson for his discovery of the Compton effect, which demonstrated the particle nature of electromagnetic radiation. It was a sensational discovery at the time; the wave nature of light had been well-demonstrated, but the idea that light had both wave and particle properties was not easily accepted. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1959: Lester Young, American saxophonist and clarinet player (born 1909) Lester Willis Young, nicknamed "Pres" or "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and occasional clarinetist. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1948: Imanuel Lauster, German engineer (born 1873) Imanuel Lauster was a German engineer and businessman, who worked for Rudolf Diesel and drew up Diesel’s design for the first Diesel engine, Motor 250/400. He also served as the head of M.A.N.'s board of directors from 1932 to 1934. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1942: Rachel Field, American author and poet (born 1894) Rachel Lyman Field was an American novelist, poet, and children's fiction writer. She is best known for her work Hitty, Her First Hundred Years. Field also won a National Book Award, a Newbery Honor award and two of her books are on the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award list. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1941: Alexej von Jawlensky, Russian-German painter (born 1864) Alexej Georgewitsch von Jawlensky, surname also spelt as Yavlensky, was a Russian expressionist painter active in Germany. He was a key member of the New Munich Artist's Association, Der Blaue Reiter group, and later Die Blaue Vier. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1937: H. P. Lovecraft, American short story writer, editor, and novelist (born 1890) Howard Phillips Lovecraft was an American writer of weird, horror, fantasy, and science fiction. He is best known for his creation of the Cthulhu Mythos, but his legacy is also apparent in terms like "Lovecraftian horror" and an enduring fandom. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1927: Hector Rason, English-Australian politician, 7th Premier of Western Australia (born 1858) Sir Cornthwaite Hector William James Rason, better known as Hector Rason, was the seventh Premier of Western Australia. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1925: Sam Dreben, American soldier and mercenary (born 1878) Samuel Dreben, sometimes misspelled "Drebben" or "Drebin", and known as "The Fighting Jew", was a highly decorated soldier in the US Army and a mercenary who fought in a variety of wars and revolutions. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1921: Talaat Pasha, Ottoman politician, Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire (born 1874) Mehmed Talât Pasha, commonly known as Talaat Pasha or Talat Pasha, was a Turkish activist, revolutionary, politician, and convicted war criminal who served as the de facto leader of the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1918. He was chairman of the Union and Progress Party, which operated a one-party dictatorship in the Empire; during World War I he became Grand Vizier. He has been called the architect of the Armenian genocide, and was responsible for other ethnic cleansings during his time as Minister of Interior Affairs. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1898: Henry Bessemer, English engineer and businessman (born 1813) Sir Henry Bessemer was an English inventor, whose steel-making process was the most important technique for making steel in the nineteenth century for almost one hundred years. He played a significant role in establishing the town of Sheffield, nicknamed ‘Steel City’, as a major industrial centre. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1897: James Joseph Sylvester, English mathematician and academic (born 1814) James Joseph Sylvester was an English mathematician. He made fundamental contributions to matrix theory, invariant theory, number theory, partition theory, and combinatorics. He played a leadership role in American mathematics in the later half of the 19th century as a professor at the Johns Hopkins University and as founder of the American Journal of Mathematics. At his death, he was a professor at Oxford University. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1891: Joseph Bazalgette, English engineer and academic (born 1819) Sir Joseph William Bazalgette CB was a British civil engineer. As Chief Engineer of London's Metropolitan Board of Works, his major achievement was the creation of the London Main Drainage, the sewerage system for central London, in response to the Great Stink of 1858, which was instrumental in relieving the city of cholera epidemics, while beginning to clean the River Thames. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1848: Johan Jakob Nervander, Finnish poet, physicist and meteorologist (born 1805) Johan Jakob Nervander was a Finnish poet, physicist, and meteorologist. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1842: Luigi Cherubini, Italian composer and theorist (born 1760) Maria Luigi Carlo Zenobio Salvatore Cherubini was an Italian Classical and Romantic composer. His most significant compositions are operas and sacred music. Beethoven regarded Cherubini as the greatest living composer of his era. Cherubini's operas were heavily praised and interpreted by Rossini. Read more
  • 15 Mar 1820: Clement Mary Hofbauer, Austrian priest and saint (born 1751) Clement Mary Hofbauer was a Moravian hermit and later a priest of the Redemptorist congregation. He established his congregation, founded in Italy, north of the Alps. For this he is considered a co-founder of the congregation. He was widely known for his lifelong dedication to care of the poor during a tumultuous period in Europe, that had left thousands destitute. He laboured in the care of the Polish people until expelled, when he moved to Austria. Read more

Why is 15 March Important in World History?

Several significant political, cultural, educational, and sporting events took place on 15 March, making it an important topic for general knowledge and competitive examinations.

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What happened on 15 March in World history?

On 15 March, several important historical events, notable births, and major milestones occurred in World history.

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