History of Today in India – 19 March

Explore the history of today 19 March in India, including important events, famous personalities, and milestones for UPSC SSC,Banking & PSC exams.

Last updated on 19 March 2026, 04:20 AM

📜 Important Events on 19 March in World History

19 Mar 2023: The Swiss Government brokers a deal for UBS to buy out rival Credit Suisse in an attempt to calm the 2023 banking crisis. Read more
19 Mar 2019: The first President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, resigns from office after nearly three decades, leaving Senate Chairman Kassym-Jomart Tokayev as the acting President and successor. Read more
19 Mar 2016: Flydubai Flight 981 crashes while attempting to land at Rostov-on-Don international airport, killing all 62 on board. Read more
19 Mar 2016: An explosion occurs in Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey, killing five people and injuring 36. Read more
19 Mar 2013: A series of bombings and shootings kills at least 98 people and injures 240 others across Iraq. Read more
19 Mar 2011: Libyan Civil War: After the failure of Muammar Gaddafi's forces to take Benghazi, the French Air Force launches Opération Harmattan, beginning foreign military intervention in Libya. Read more
19 Mar 2008: GRB 080319B: A cosmic burst that is the farthest object visible to the naked eye is briefly observed. Read more
19 Mar 2004: Catalina affair: A Swedish DC-3 shot down by a Soviet MiG-15 in 1952 over the Baltic Sea is finally recovered after years of work. Read more
19 Mar 2004: March 19 Shooting Incident: The Republic of China (Taiwan) president Chen Shui-bian is shot just before the country's presidential election on March 20. Read more
19 Mar 2004: The Konginkangas bus disaster kills 23 and injures 14 people in Äänekoski, Finland. Read more
19 Mar 2003: United States President George W. Bush addresses the nation, announcing the invasion of Iraq. Read more
19 Mar 1998: An Ariana Afghan Airlines Boeing 727 crashes on approach to Kabul International Airport, killing all 45 on board. Read more
19 Mar 1990: The ethnic clashes of Târgu Mureș begin four days after the anniversary of the Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire. Read more
19 Mar 1989: The Egyptian flag is raised at Taba, marking the end of Israeli occupation since the Six Days War in 1967 and the Egypt–Israel peace treaty in 1979. Read more
19 Mar 1982: Falklands War: Argentinian forces land on South Georgia Island, precipitating war with the United Kingdom. Read more
19 Mar 1979: The United States House of Representatives begins broadcasting its day-to-day business via the cable television network C-SPAN. Read more
19 Mar 1969: The 385-metre-tall (1,263 ft) TV-mast at Emley Moor transmitting station, United Kingdom, collapses due to ice build-up. Read more
19 Mar 1965: The wreck of the SS Georgiana, valued at over $50,000,000 and said to have been the most powerful Confederate cruiser, is discovered by teenage diver and pioneer underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence, exactly 102 years after its destruction. Read more
19 Mar 1964: Over 500,000 Brazilians attend the March of the Family with God for Liberty, in protest against the government of João Goulart and against communism. Read more
19 Mar 1962: The Algerian War of Independence ends. Read more
19 Mar 1958: The Monarch Underwear Company fire leaves 24 dead and 15 injured. Read more
19 Mar 1946: French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Réunion become overseas départements of France. Read more
19 Mar 1945: World War II: Off the coast of Japan, a dive bomber hits the aircraft carrier USS Franklin, killing 724 of her crew. Badly damaged, the ship is able to return to the US under her own power. Read more
19 Mar 1945: World War II: Adolf Hitler issues his "Nero Decree" ordering all industries, military installations, shops, transportation facilities, and communications facilities in Germany to be destroyed. Read more
19 Mar 1944: World War II: The German army occupies Hungary. Read more
19 Mar 1943: Frank Nitti, the Chicago Outfit Boss after Al Capone, commits suicide at the Chicago Central Railyard. Read more
19 Mar 1932: The Sydney Harbour Bridge is opened. Read more
19 Mar 1931: Governor Fred B. Balzar signs a bill legalizing gambling in Nevada. Read more
19 Mar 1921: Irish War of Independence: One of the biggest engagements of the war takes place at Crossbarry, County Cork. About 100 Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteers escape an attempt by over 1,300 British forces to encircle them. Read more
19 Mar 1920: The United States Senate rejects the Treaty of Versailles for the second time (the first time was on November 19, 1919). Read more
19 Mar 1918: The US Congress establishes time zones and approves daylight saving time. Read more
19 Mar 1885: Louis Riel declares a provisional government in Saskatchewan, beginning the North-West Rebellion. Read more
19 Mar 1865: American Civil War: The Battle of Bentonville begins. By the end of the battle two days later, Confederate forces had retreated from Four Oaks, North Carolina. Read more
19 Mar 1831: First documented bank heist in U.S. history, when burglars steal $245,000 (1831 values) from the City Bank (now Citibank) on Wall Street. Most of the money was recovered. Read more
19 Mar 1824: American explorer Benjamin Morrell departs Antarctica after a voyage later plagued by claims of fraud. Read more
19 Mar 1812: The Cortes of Cádiz promulgates the Spanish Constitution of 1812. Read more
19 Mar 1808: Charles IV, king of Spain, abdicates after riots and a popular revolt at the winter palace Aranjuez. His son, Ferdinand VII, takes the throne. Read more

🎂 Important Births on 19 March in World History

19 Mar 1999: Nico Collins, American football player Dominique Stephon "Nico" Collins is an American professional football wide receiver for the Houston Texans of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Michigan Wolverines and was selected by the Texans in the third round of the 2021 NFL draft. Read more
19 Mar 1998: Caylee Cowan, American actress Catherine Caylee Cowan is an American actress. She is best known for her roles in Sunrise in Heaven (2019), Willy's Wonderland (2021), Spinning Gold (2022), and Frank and Penelope (2022). Read more
19 Mar 1998: Julian Love, American football player Julian Love is an American professional football safety for the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Read more
19 Mar 1998: Sakura Miyawaki, Japanese singer Sakura Miyawaki, also known mononymously as Sakura, is a Japanese singer and actress based in South Korea. She is a member of the South Korean girl group Le Sserafim, and a former member of South Korean-Japanese girl group Iz*One and Japanese girl groups AKB48 and its sister group HKT48. Read more
19 Mar 1996: Yung Gravy, American rapper Matthew Raymond Hauri, known professionally as Yung Gravy, is an American rapper. Read more
19 Mar 1996: Barbara Haas, Austrian tennis player Barbara Haas is an inactive Austrian tennis player.
She has won 16 singles titles and three doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. On 24 February 2020, she reached her best singles ranking by the WTA of 133. On 27 September 2021, she peaked at No. 164 in the doubles rankings. Read more
19 Mar 1996: Quenton Nelson, American football player Quenton Emerson Nelson is an American professional football guard for the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Notre Dame, earning unanimous All-American honors in 2017. Nelson was selected by the Colts sixth overall in the 2018 NFL draft. Considered among the NFL's best guards, he has received Pro Bowl selections in all eight of his seasons and three first-team All-Pros. Read more
19 Mar 1995: Héctor Bellerín, Spanish footballer Héctor Bellerín Moruno is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a right-back or wing-back for La Liga club Real Betis. Read more
19 Mar 1995: Philip Daniel Bolden, American actor Philip Daniel Bolden is an American actor. In 2005, Bolden played Kevin in the film Are We There Yet?, with Ice Cube and Nia Long, and again in 2007, in its sequel film Are We Done Yet? as well as Kirby on The King of Queens (1999–2000). Read more
19 Mar 1995: Julia Montes, Filipino actress Mara Hautea Schnittka, known professionally as Julia Montes, is a Filipino actress. Known for playing strong female characters and romantic leads in a range of genres across film and television, she has received various accolades, including a FAMAS Award, two Gawad Tanglaw Awards, a PMPC Star Awards for Movies and a Box Office Entertainment Award. Yes! magazine named her one of the most influential celebrities in Philippine entertainment. Read more
19 Mar 1993: Hakim Ziyech, Moroccan footballer Hakim Ziyech is a professional footballer who plays as a right winger or an attacking midfielder for Botola Pro club Wydad AC. Born in the Netherlands, he plays for the Morocco national team. He is nicknamed "The Wizard", a title given to him by the supporters of his former club Ajax. Read more
19 Mar 1991: Garrett Clayton, American actor and singer Gary Michael "Garrett" Clayton is an American actor and singer. He is known for portraying Tanner in the 2013 Disney Channel movie Teen Beach Movie and its 2015 sequel Teen Beach 2, and other film, television, and stage roles. Read more
19 Mar 1991: Aleksandr Kokorin, Russian footballer Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Kokorin is a Russian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Cypriot First Division club Aris Limassol. Read more
19 Mar 1990: EJ Manuel, American football player Erik Rodriguez "EJ" Manuel Jr. is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Florida State Seminoles, leading them to an Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) championship and Orange Bowl win as a senior. Manuel was selected by the Buffalo Bills in the first round of the 2013 NFL draft. Read more
19 Mar 1990: Anders Nilsson, Swedish ice hockey player Bengt Per Anders Nilsson is a Swedish former professional ice hockey goaltender. Nilsson was drafted 62nd overall in the 2009 NHL entry draft by the New York Islanders and played in the NHL with the Islanders, Edmonton Oilers, St. Louis Blues, Buffalo Sabres, Vancouver Canucks, and Ottawa Senators. Internationally, Nilsson led Sweden to a gold medal at the 2018 World Championships. Read more
19 Mar 1988: Clayton Kershaw, American baseball player Clayton Edward Kershaw is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played 18 seasons for the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB). A left-handed starting pitcher, Kershaw was an 11-time National League (NL) All-Star, three-time Cy Young Award winner, and 2014 NL Most Valuable Player. He is one of 20 pitchers and four left-handers to be members of the 3,000 strikeout club. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history. Read more
19 Mar 1988: Ben Uzoh, Nigerian-American basketball player Benjamin Chukwukelo Uzoh is a Nigerian-American former basketball player. He played in international competitions for Nigeria. Standing at 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) and playing at the point guard, Uzoh played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the New Jersey Nets and Toronto Raptors. He also played for several teams across North America, Europe, South America and Africa. Read more
19 Mar 1987: AJ Lee, American wrestler and author April Jeanette Mendez is an American professional wrestler and author. As of February 2026, she is signed to WWE, where she performs on the Raw brand under the ring name AJ Lee and is the WWE Women's Intercontinental Champion in her first reign. Read more
19 Mar 1987: Michal Švec, Czech footballer Michal Švec is a Czech footballer who plays for Slavia Prague U20. He is a central midfielder. He made his debut for the Czech Republic national team in 2009. Read more
19 Mar 1987: Miloš Teodosić, Serbian basketball player Miloš Teodosić is a Serbian former professional basketball player. He also represented the National Basketball Team of Serbia internationally. He primarily played the point guard and shooting guard positions. He is a six time All-EuroLeague selection, and was voted EuroLeague MVP in 2010. Read more
19 Mar 1986: Tyler Bozak, Canadian ice hockey player Tyler Bozak is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre. He played for the Toronto Maple Leafs and the St. Louis Blues in the National Hockey League (NHL). Prior to being signed by the Maple Leafs as a free agent, Bozak had played two seasons at the University of Denver in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). In 2018, after nine seasons with the Maple Leafs, Bozak signed with the Blues in free agency. In his first season with the Blues, Bozak won the Stanley Cup, defeating the Boston Bruins in 2019. Read more
19 Mar 1986: Ahmad Bradshaw, American football player Ahmad Bradshaw is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Marshall Thundering Herd. Bradshaw was selected in the seventh round of the 2007 NFL draft by the New York Giants. He is a two-time Super Bowl champion, winning Super Bowls XLII and XLVI as a member of the Giants, defeating the New England Patriots each time. He was the leading rusher in each game, becoming one of eight running backs in NFL history to be the leading rusher in two Super Bowls. Read more
19 Mar 1985: Inesa Jurevičiūtė, Lithuanian figure skater Inesa Jurevičiūtė is a Lithuanian retired figure skater. She is the 2000 Lithuanian national champion. She withdrew from the 2001 World Figure Skating Championships just before the event. She also competed in ice dancing on the national level with Marius Janeliauskas, with whom she is the 1998 Lithuanian silver medalist. Read more
19 Mar 1982: Jonathan Fanene, American football player Jonathan David Fanene is a Samoan former professional American football defensive end in the National Football League (NFL). He was selected by the Cincinnati Bengals in the seventh round of the 2005 NFL draft. He played college football at College of the Canyons and Utah. Read more
19 Mar 1982: Brad Jones, Australian footballer Bradley Scott Jones is an Australian former professional soccer player who played as a goalkeeper. Read more
19 Mar 1982: Hana Kobayashi, Venezuelan singer Hana Kobayashi is a Venezuelan singer of Japanese descent. Read more
19 Mar 1982: Landon Powell, American baseball player and manager Landon Reed Powell is an American former professional baseball player and current coach. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher from 2009 to 2011 for the Oakland Athletics. Powell is the current head baseball coach of the North Greenville Trailblazers. He played college baseball at South Carolina from 2001 to 2004. He was the Athletics' catcher on May 9, 2010, when pitcher Dallas Braden threw a perfect game. Read more
19 Mar 1982: Eduardo Saverin, Brazilian-Singaporean businessman Eduardo Luiz Saverin is a Brazilian entrepreneur, angel investor, and philanthropist, known for co-founding Facebook. Based in Singapore, he is the co-founder and co-CEO of the venture capital firm B Capital. Read more
19 Mar 1981: Steve Cummings, English cyclist Stephen Philip Cummings is an English former racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 2005 and 2019 for the Landbouwkrediet–Colnago, Discovery Channel, Barloworld, Team Sky, BMC Racing Team and Team Dimension Data squads, and rode for Great Britain at the Summer Olympic Games, the UCI Road World Championships, and the UCI Track Cycling World Championships. Read more
19 Mar 1981: Casey Jacobsen, American basketball player and sportscaster Casey Gardner Jacobsen is an American retired professional basketball player who played four seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He also had an extensive European basketball career, mostly while playing with Brose Baskets Bamberg, in Germany. With Brose, he won the Bundesliga championship in 2007 and 2010, while also receiving the German League Finals MVP award. He won Bundesliga championships in 2011, 2012, and 2013. He also won the German Cup with Bamberg, in 2010, 2011, and 2012, and the German Supercup four times. Following his retirement in 2014, Brose Baskets retired his jersey number 23. Read more
19 Mar 1981: Kolo Touré, Ivorian footballer Kolo Abib Touré is an Ivorian professional football manager and former player who is currently an assistant manager at Premier League club Manchester City. Read more
19 Mar 1980: Luca Ferri, Italian footballer Luca Ferri is an Italian former footballer who played as a defender. Read more
19 Mar 1980: Taichi Ishikari, Japanese wrestler Taichiro Maki is a Japanese professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Taichi , shortened from his previous ring name Taichi Ishikari . He is signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he is a former two-time NEVER Openweight Champion, a former two-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion, former four-time IWGP Tag Team Champions, and a former KOPW Champion. Read more
19 Mar 1980: Mikuni Shimokawa, Japanese singer-songwriter Mikuni Shimokawa is a Japanese pop singer and songwriter. She is best known for her songs used for anime theme music, particularly the opening and ending themes of the Full Metal Panic! series. In addition to her vocal talents, Shimokawa can also play the piano. She is a former member of the girl group Checkicco. Read more
19 Mar 1980: Theo Von, American stand-up comedian Theodor Capitani von Kurnatowski III, known professionally as Theo Von, is an American stand-up comedian and podcaster. He hosts the This Past Weekend podcast. He has appeared on MTV and Comedy Central shows. Read more
19 Mar 1979: Abby Brammell, American actress Abby Brammell is an American television and stage actress. Read more
19 Mar 1979: Sheldon Brown, American football player Sheldon Dion Brown is an American former professional football player who was a cornerback in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the South Carolina Gamecocks. Brown was selected by the Philadelphia Eagles in the second round of the 2002 NFL draft and also played for the Cleveland Browns. Read more
19 Mar 1979: Ivan Ljubičić, Croatian tennis player Ivan Ljubičić is a Croatian former professional tennis player, coach and Tennis TV commentator. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world No. 3 singles ranking on 1 May 2006. His career highlights include reaching a major semifinal at the 2006 French Open, and a Masters title at the Indian Wells Masters in 2010. He also contested three other Masters finals, two in 2005 at Madrid and Paris, and the other at the 2006 Miami Open. Read more
19 Mar 1979: Christos Patsatzoglou, Greek footballer Christos Patsatzoglou is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a right-back or defensive midfielder. Read more
19 Mar 1979: Hedo Türkoğlu, Turkish basketball player Hidayet "Hedo" Türkoğlu is a Turkish basketball executive and former professional player. A 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) forward, Türkoğlu played for six teams in his 15-season career in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He won the NBA's Most Improved Player for the 2007–08 NBA season and played in the NBA Finals for the Magic in 2009. He also played for Turkey's national team in international competition. Türkoğlu has served as president of the Turkish Basketball Federation since October 2016. Read more
19 Mar 1978: Cydonie Mothersille, Jamaican-Caymanian sprinter Cydonie Camille Mothersille is a female former track and field sprinter from the Cayman Islands. Her speciality at the beginning of her career was the 100 metres, while the 200 metres gradually became her main event. She represented her country at four Olympic Games from 1996 to 2008, six World Championships in Athletics, and three Commonwealth Games. Her greatest achievements were in the 200 m, including a bronze at the 2001 World Championships in Athletics), Commonwealth gold in 2010 and a silver at the 2003 Pan American Games. Her World Championship medal was the first ever for her nation. It was achieved several years after the event, following doping disqualifications of Marion Jones and Kelli White of the United States. Read more
19 Mar 1978: Virginia Williams, American actress Virginia Williams is an American actress known for playing C.J Hargenberger in the Netflix sitcom Fuller House. Read more
19 Mar 1977: David Ross, American baseball player and manager David Wade Ross is an American former professional baseball catcher and manager. He managed the Chicago Cubs of Major League Baseball (MLB) from 2020 to 2023. He played in MLB for 15 seasons. Read more
19 Mar 1976: Rachel Blanchard, Canadian actress Rachel Louise Blanchard is a Canadian actress. Her television roles include Nancy in the British sitcom Peep Show, Emma in the American comedy-drama series You Me Her and Susannah in the American romantic drama series The Summer I Turned Pretty. Read more
19 Mar 1976: Derek Chauvin, American criminal and former police officer Derek Michael Chauvin is an American former police officer who murdered George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Read more
19 Mar 1976: Andre Miller, American basketball player Andre Lloyd Miller is an American former professional basketball player who most recently served as the head coach for the Grand Rapids Gold of the NBA G League. Miller has played professional basketball for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Los Angeles Clippers, Philadelphia 76ers, Portland Trail Blazers, Denver Nuggets, Washington Wizards, Sacramento Kings, Minnesota Timberwolves, and San Antonio Spurs. Currently, he ranks eleventh all-time in NBA career assists and only missed three games to injury in his 17-year career. Read more
19 Mar 1976: Alessandro Nesta, Italian footballer and manager Alessandro Nesta is an Italian professional football coach and former player who played as a centre-back. He was most recently the head coach of Serie A club Monza. Nesta is widely considered as one of the greatest defenders of all time, and was known for his pace, artistic tackles, elegance on the ball, distribution and tight marking of opponents. Read more
19 Mar 1975: Antonio Daniels, American basketball player Antonio Robert Daniels is an American former professional basketball player who played 13 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is currently the television color analyst for the New Orleans Pelicans on Bally Sports New Orleans and co-host/analyst on SiriusXM NBA Radio. Read more
19 Mar 1973: Bun B, American rapper and songwriter Bernard James Freeman, known professionally as Bun B, is an American rapper. He is best known as one half of the Southern rap duo UGK, which he formed in 1987 alongside Pimp C. Aside from his work with UGK, Bun B has released five solo albums, including 2010's Trill OG, which received the rare 5-mic rating from The Source. Read more
19 Mar 1973: Ashley Giles, English cricketer and coach Ashley Fraser Giles is a former English first-class cricketer, who played 54 Test matches and 62 One Day Internationals for England before being forced to retire due to a recurring hip injury. Giles played the entirety of his 14-year first-class career at Warwickshire County Cricket Club. Read more
19 Mar 1970: Harald Johnsen, Norwegian bassist and composer (died 2011) Harald Gill Johnsen was a Norwegian jazz double bassist, known for his contributions in bands like Køhn/Johansen Sextet and Tord Gustavsen Trio, and a series of recordings with such as Sonny Simmons, Sigurd Køhn, Nils-Olav Johansen, Jan Erik Kongshaug, Frode Barth, Per Oddvar Johansen and Ditlef Eckhoff. Read more
19 Mar 1970: Michael Krumm, German race car driver Michael Krumm is a German former professional racing driver and current team manager at TOM'S in Super GT. Krumm is best-known for his successes in the All-Japan GT Championship, where he triumphed in the GT500 class in 1997 and 2003 for TOM'S and Nismo, respectively. He also won the FIA GT1 World Championship in 2011. Read more
19 Mar 1970: Janne Laukkanen, Finnish ice hockey player Janne Laukkanen is a Finnish former professional ice hockey player. He played in the National Hockey League for the Quebec Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche franchise, the Ottawa Senators, Pittsburgh Penguins, and the Tampa Bay Lightning. He played a total 407 regular season games scoring 22 goals and 121 points with 335 penalty minutes. He also played 59 playoff games, scoring 7 goals and 16 points. Read more
19 Mar 1969: Connor Trinneer, American actor Connor Wyatt Trinneer is an American film, stage, and television actor. He is best known for his roles as Charles "Trip" Tucker III on Star Trek: Enterprise, Michael on the series Stargate Atlantis, and Professor Moynihan on the web series Guilty Party. Read more
19 Mar 1968: Tyrone Hill, American basketball player and coach Tyrone Hill is an American former professional basketball player and former assistant coach for the National Basketball Association's Atlanta Hawks. Hill spent four years playing collegiately at Xavier University, in his last season averaging 20.2 points and 12.6 rebounds per game, while shooting 58.1% from the field. The Golden State Warriors selected him with the eleventh pick of the 1990 NBA draft. Read more
19 Mar 1967: Sandra Dombrowski, Swiss ice hockey player and referee Sandra Frey is a Swiss retired ice hockey player and referee. After playing for the Swiss national team, she became the first female referee to work in the men's Swiss League. She later became the first woman to referee a gold-medal game at the IIHF Women's World Championship, doing so in 1992, 1994, and 1997. She retired from on-ice officiating after the 1998 Winter Olympics women's ice hockey tournament, then worked as a referee supervisor for the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). Read more
19 Mar 1967: Vladimir Konstantinov, Russian-American ice hockey player Vladimir Nikolaevich Konstantinov is a Russian former professional ice hockey player who played his entire National Hockey League (NHL) career, from 1991 to 1997 with the Detroit Red Wings. Previously, he had played for Soviet club CSKA Moscow. His career was ended in a limousine crash six days after the Red Wings' 1997 Stanley Cup victory. Read more
19 Mar 1966: Michael Crockart, Scottish police officer and politician Michael Bruce Crockart is a Scottish Liberal Democrat politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Edinburgh West from 2010 to 2015. Read more
19 Mar 1966: Olaf Marschall, German footballer and manager Olaf Marschall is a German former professional footballer who played as a forward. Read more
19 Mar 1966: Andy Sinton, English footballer and manager Andrew Sinton is an English football manager and former professional footballer, who is club ambassador for Queens Park Rangers. Read more
19 Mar 1964: Yoko Kanno, Japanese pianist and composer Yoko Kanno is a Japanese composer, arranger and music producer of soundtracks for anime series, video games, television dramas and movies. She has written scores for Cowboy Bebop, Terror in Resonance, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Wolf's Rain, Turn A Gundam and Darker than Black. Kanno is a keyboardist and the frontwoman for Seatbelts, who perform many of her compositions. Read more
19 Mar 1963: Neil LaBute, American director and screenwriter Neil N. LaBute is an American playwright, film director, and screenwriter. He is best known for a play which he wrote and later adapted for film, In the Company of Men (1997) winning awards from the Sundance Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Awards, and the New York Film Critics Circle. He wrote and directed the films Your Friends & Neighbors (1998), Possession (2002), The Shape of Things (2003), The Wicker Man (2006), Some Velvet Morning (2013), and Dirty Weekend (2015). Read more
19 Mar 1963: Mary Scheer, American actress and comedian Mary Scheer is an American actress, comedian, screenwriter, and producer, best known for her work in television. She had recurring roles as Marissa Benson on the Nickelodeon sitcom iCarly and as Gladys on the Disney Channel series Bunk'd. She voiced Alice the Zookeeper on DreamWorks animated series The Penguins of Madagascar, was part of the original cast on the sketch comedy show Mad TV, voiced every female character on Most Extreme Elimination Challenge and appeared in GEICO commercials. Read more
19 Mar 1960: Eliane Elias, Brazilian singer-songwriter and pianist Eliane Elias is a Brazilian jazz pianist, singer, composer and arranger. Read more
19 Mar 1958: Andy Reid, American football player and coach Andrew Walter Reid is an American professional football coach who is the head coach for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). He was previously the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles from 1999 to 2012. From 2001 to 2012, Reid was also the Eagles' executive vice president of football operations. He is the longest tenured coach in the league, and the only NFL coach to win 100 games with two different franchises and also the only coach to appear in four consecutive conference championships with two different franchises. Reid is considered one of the greatest NFL coaches of all time. Read more
19 Mar 1957: Dudley Bradley, American basketball player Dudley Leroy Bradley is an American former professional basketball player who played nine seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Read more
19 Mar 1956: Yegor Gaidar, Russian economist and politician, First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia (died 2009) Yegor Timurovich Gaidar was a Soviet and Russian economist, politician, and author who was the acting Prime Minister of Russia in 1992 and simultaneously held several other cabinet roles. Gaidar was also in the State Duma from 1993 to 1996 and from 1999 to 2003 as a member of Democratic Choice of Russia and the Union of Right Forces. Read more
19 Mar 1955: Bruce Willis, German-American actor and producer Walter Bruce Willis is a retired American actor. Widely recognised as a Hollywood icon of the action genre, he first achieved fame with a leading role on the comedy-drama series Moonlighting (1985–1989) and has appeared in over one hundred films, gaining widespread recognition as an action hero for his portrayal of John McClane in the Die Hard franchise (1988–2013). Read more
19 Mar 1954: Cho Kwang-rae, South Korean footballer, coach, and manager Cho Kwang-rae is a former South Korean football midfielder and manager. He is the current director of Daegu FC. Read more
19 Mar 1954: Scott May, American basketball player Scott Glenn May is an American former professional basketball player. As a college player at Indiana University, May led the Hoosiers to an undefeated record and national championship in the 1975–76 season. He was a two-time first-team All-American and was named the national player of the year in his senior season. May also won a gold medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics. Read more
19 Mar 1953: Ian Blair, English police officer (died 2025) Ian Warwick Blair, Baron Blair of Boughton, was a British police officer who held the position of Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis from 2005 to 2008. Read more
19 Mar 1953: Peter Hendy, English businessman, Minister of State for Rail Peter Gerard Hendy, Baron Hendy of Richmond Hill,, is a British transport executive and politician who has served as Minister of State for Rail since July 2024. Read more
19 Mar 1953: Ricky Wilson, American singer-songwriter and musician (died 1985) Ricky Helton Wilson was an American musician best known as the original guitarist and founding member of rock band the B-52s. Born in Athens, Georgia, Wilson was the brother of fellow member Cindy Wilson. The B-52s were founded in 1976, when Ricky, Cindy, Kate Pierson, Keith Strickland and Fred Schneider shared a tropical flaming volcano drink at a Chinese restaurant and, after an impromptu music session at the home of their friend Owen Scott III, played for the first time at a Valentine's Day party for friends. Wilson's unusual guitar tunings were a large contribution to the band's quirky sound. Read more
19 Mar 1952: Warren Lees, New Zealand cricketer and coach Warren Kenneth Lees is a New Zealand cricketer and coach. He played 21 Test matches and 31 One Day Internationals (ODIs) between 1976 and 1983 as a wicket-keeper batsman. He was coach of the New Zealand national cricket team between 1990 and 1993. Read more
19 Mar 1952: Martin Ravallion, Australian economist and academic (died 2022) Martin Ravallion was an Australian economist. He was the inaugural Edmond D. Villani Professor of Economics at Georgetown University, and had previously been director of the research department at the World Bank. He held a PhD in economics from the London School of Economics. Read more
19 Mar 1952: Harvey Weinstein, American film producer and sex offender Harvey Weinstein is an American former film producer and convicted sex offender. In 1979, Weinstein and his brother, Bob Weinstein, co-founded the entertainment company Miramax, which produced several successful independent films including Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989); The Crying Game (1992); Pulp Fiction (1994); Heavenly Creatures (1994); Flirting with Disaster (1996); and Shakespeare in Love (1998). Weinstein won an Academy Award for producing Shakespeare in Love and also won seven Tony Awards for plays and musicals including The Producers, Billy Elliot the Musical, and August: Osage County. After leaving Miramax, Weinstein and his brother Bob founded the Weinstein Company (TWC), a mini-major film studio. He was co-chairman, alongside Bob, from 2005 to 2017. Read more
19 Mar 1950: José S. Palma, Filipino archbishop José Serofia Palma is a Filipino prelate who served as Metropolitan Archbishop of Cebu from 2011 to 2025. He had previously served as Metropolitan Archbishop of Palo in Leyte from 2006 to 2010, and as president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines from 2011 to 2013. Read more
19 Mar 1949: Blase J. Cupich, American theologian and cardinal Blase Joseph Cupich is an American Catholic prelate who has served as Archbishop of Chicago since 2014. He was made a cardinal in 2016. Read more
19 Mar 1948: David Schnitter, American saxophonist and educator David Schnitter is an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Read more
19 Mar 1947: Glenn Close, American actress, singer, and producer Glenn Close is an American actress. In a career spanning five decades on screen and stage, she has received numerous accolades, including three Primetime Emmy Awards, three Tony Awards and three Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for eight Academy Awards, three Grammy Awards, and two British Academy Film Awards. She was named by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2019. Read more
19 Mar 1947: Marinho Peres, Brazilian footballer and coach (died 2023) Mário Peres Ulibarri, known as Marinho Peres, was a Brazilian footballer who played as a centre-back, in particular with Sport Club Internacional and the Brazil national team. He captained the Brazil team to fourth place at the World Cup 1974. He became a coach after retiring. Read more
19 Mar 1946: Ruth Pointer, American musician Ruth Esther Pointer is an American singer best known as the eldest member of the family vocal group the Pointer Sisters. Pointer joined her sisters in 1972 to make the group a quartet. Read more
19 Mar 1945: John Holder, English cricketer and umpire John Wakefield Holder is a Barbadian-born English former first-class cricketer and international cricket umpire. Holder was born in Saint George, Barbados. After completing his education, he emigrated to England in search of work with London Transport. After impressing in club cricket in London, Holder began playing county cricket for Hampshire as a fast-medium bowler, in a first-class county career that lasted from 1968 to 1972. Injury forced Holder to retire from professional cricket, though he later returned to play professionally in the Lancashire League and for Western Province in South Africa. After the conclusion of his playing career, Holder became an umpire at the domestic and international levels. He would stand as an umpire in both Test and One Day International cricket from 1988 to 2001. Holder retired from umpiring in 2009, having stood in over 400 first-class and List A one-day matches apiece. As of 2021, he remained the only non-white English umpire in nearly 150 years of Test cricket. Read more
19 Mar 1945: Modestas Paulauskas, Lithuanian basketball player and coach Modestas "Iron Modė" Paulauskas is a Lithuanian former professional basketball player and coach. Read more
19 Mar 1944: Said Musa, Belizean lawyer and politician, 5th Prime Minister of Belize Said Wilbert Musa is a Belizean lawyer and politician. He was the third prime minister of Belize from 28 August 1998 to 8 February 2008. Read more
19 Mar 1944: Sirhan Sirhan, Palestinian-Jordanian assassin of Robert F. Kennedy Sirhan Bishara Sirhan is a Palestinian-Jordanian man who assassinated U.S. senator Robert F. Kennedy, the younger brother of U.S. president John F. Kennedy and a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 1968 United States presidential election on June 5, 1968. Sirhan was 24 years old at the time. On April 17, 1969, he was convicted of first-degree murder, among other charges. He was subsequently sentenced to death by gas chamber. In 1972, this was commuted to a life sentence in the aftermath of People v. Anderson. The circumstances surrounding the attack, which took place five years after President Kennedy's assassination, have led to numerous conspiracy theories. Read more
19 Mar 1943: Nate Bowman, American basketball player (died 1984) Nathan "Nate the Snake" Bowman was an American basketball player born in Fort Worth, Texas. Read more
19 Mar 1943: Mario J. Molina, Mexican chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2020) Mario José Molina-Pasquel Henríquez was a Mexican physical chemist. He played a pivotal role in the discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole, and was a co-recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his role in discovering the threat to the Earth's ozone layer from chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) gases. He was the first Mexican-born scientist to receive a Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the third Mexican-born person to receive a Nobel prize. Read more
19 Mar 1943: Mario Monti, Italian economist and politician, Prime Minister of Italy Mario Monti is an Italian politician, economist and academic who served as the prime minister of Italy from 2011 to 2013, leading a technocratic government in the wake of the Italian debt crisis. Read more
19 Mar 1943: Vern Schuppan, Australian race car driver Vernon John Schuppan is an Australian former motor racing driver. Schuppan drove in various categories, participating in Formula One, the Indianapolis 500 and most successfully in sports car racing. Read more
19 Mar 1942: Heather Robertson, Canadian journalist and author (died 2014) Heather Margaret Robertson was a Canadian journalist, novelist and non-fiction writer. She published her first book, Reservations are for Indians, in 1970, and her last book, Walking into Wilderness, in 2010. She was a founding member of the Writers' Union of Canada and the Professional Writers Association of Canada, and launched the Robertson v Thomson Corp class action suit regarding freelancers' retention of electronic rights to their work. Read more
19 Mar 1938: Joe Kapp, American football player, coach, and actor (died 2023) Joseph Robert Garcia Kapp was an American football player, coach, and executive. He played college football as a quarterback for the California Golden Bears. Kapp played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL) with the Calgary Stampeders and the BC Lions and then in the National Football League (NFL) with the Minnesota Vikings and the Boston Patriots. Kapp led the BC Lions to their first Grey Cup Championship victory in 1964. With the Vikings, he led them to victory in the 1969 NFL Championship Game, the only league championship in team history. Kapp returned to his alma mater as head coach of the Golden Bears from 1982 to 1986. He was the general manager and president of the BC Lions in 1990. Read more
19 Mar 1937: Clarence "Frogman" Henry, American singer-songwriter and pianist (died 2024) Clarence Henry II, known as Clarence "Frogman" Henry, was an American rhythm and blues singer and pianist, best known for his hits "Ain't Got No Home" (1956) and "(I Don't Know Why) But I Do" (1961). Read more
19 Mar 1937: Egon Krenz, German politician, briefly leader of East Germany Egon Rudi Ernst Krenz is a German former politician who was the last Communist leader of the German Democratic Republic during the Revolutions of 1989. He succeeded Erich Honecker as the General Secretary of the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) but was forced to resign only weeks later when the Berlin Wall fell. Read more
19 Mar 1936: Ursula Andress, Swiss model and actress Ursula Andress is a Swiss actress and former model who has appeared in American, British, and Italian films. Her breakthrough role was as Bond girl Honey Ryder in the first James Bond film, Dr. No (1962). She later starred as Vesper Lynd in the 1967 Bond parody Casino Royale. Other credits include Fun in Acapulco (1963), 4 for Texas (1963), She (1965), The 10th Victim (1965), The Blue Max (1966), The Southern Star (1969), Perfect Friday (1970), Red Sun (1971), The Sensuous Nurse (1975), Slave of the Cannibal God (1978), The Fifth Musketeer (1979), Clash of the Titans (1981), and Peter the Great (1986). Read more
19 Mar 1936: Ben Lexcen, Australian sailor and architect (died 1988) Benjamin Lexcen AM was an Australian yachtsman and marine architect. He is famous for the winged keel design applied to Australia II which, in 1983, became the first non-American challenger to win the prestigious America's Cup in the competition's 132-year history. Read more
19 Mar 1935: Nancy Malone, American actress, director, and producer (died 2014) Nancy Malone was an American television actress from the 1950s to 1970s, who later moved into producing and directing in the 1980s and 1990s. Read more
19 Mar 1933: Phyllis Newman, American actress and singer (died 2019) Phyllis Newman was an American actress and singer. She won the 1962 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her role as Martha Vail in the musical Subways Are for Sleeping on Broadway, received the Isabelle Stevenson Award in 2009 and was nominated for another Tony for Broadway Bound (1987), as well as two nominations for Drama Desk Awards. Read more
19 Mar 1933: Philip Roth, American novelist (died 2018) Philip Milton Roth was an American novelist and short-story writer. Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophically and formally blurring the distinction between reality and fiction, for its "sensual, ingenious style" and for its provocative explorations of Jewish and American identity. He first gained attention with the 1959 short story collection Goodbye, Columbus, which won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction. Ten years later, he published the bestseller Portnoy's Complaint. Nathan Zuckerman, Roth's literary alter ego, narrates several of his books. A fictionalized Roth narrates some of his others, such as the alternate history The Plot Against America. Read more
19 Mar 1933: Renée Taylor, American actress, producer, and screenwriter Renée Adorée Taylor is an American actress, screenwriter, playwright, producer and director. Taylor was nominated for an Academy Award for co-writing the screenplay for the film Lovers and Other Strangers (1970). She also played Sylvia Fine on the television sitcom The Nanny (1993–1999). Read more
19 Mar 1933: Richard Williams, Canadian-English animator, director, and screenwriter (died 2019) Richard Edmund Williams was a Canadian and British animator, voice actor, and painter. A three-time Academy Award winner, he is best known as the animation director of Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)—for which he won two Academy Awards—and as the director of his unfinished feature film The Thief and the Cobbler (1993). Read more
19 Mar 1932: Gay Brewer, American golfer (died 2007) Gay Robert Brewer Jr. was an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and won the 1967 Masters Tournament. Read more
19 Mar 1932: Peter Hall, English geographer, author, and academic (died 2014) Sir Peter Geoffrey Hall was an English town planner, urbanist and geographer. He was the Bartlett Professor of Planning and Regeneration at The Bartlett, University College London and president of both the Town and Country Planning Association and the Regional Studies Association. Hall was one of the most prolific and influential urbanists of the twentieth century. Read more
19 Mar 1932: Gail Kobe, American actress and producer (died 2013) Gail Kobe was an American actress and television producer. Read more
19 Mar 1931: Emma Andijewska, Ukrainian poet, writer and painter Emma Andijewska is a Ukrainian modern poet, writer and painter living in Germany. Her works are marked with surreal style. Some of Andijewska's works have been translated to English and German. Andijewska lives and works in Munich. She is a member of the National union of writers of Ukraine, Ukrainian PEN Club, Free academy in Munich and Federal association of artists. Read more
19 Mar 1928: Hans Küng, Swiss theologian and author (died 2021) Hans Küng was a Swiss Catholic priest, theologian, and author. From 1995 he was president of the Foundation for a Global Ethic. Read more
19 Mar 1928: Patrick McGoohan, Irish-American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2009) Patrick Joseph McGoohan was an Irish-American actor, director and screenwriter of film, television, and theatre. Read more
19 Mar 1927: Richie Ashburn, American baseball player and sportscaster (died 1997) Don Richard Ashburn, also known by the nicknames "Putt-Putt", "the Tilden Flash", and "Whitey", was an American professional baseball player and television sports commentator. He played in Major League Baseball as a center fielder from 1948 to 1962, most prominently as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies, where he was a four-time All-Star player and member of the 1950 National League pennant winning team known as the Whiz Kids. Read more
19 Mar 1925: Brent Scowcroft, American general and diplomat, 9th United States National Security Advisor (died 2020) Brent Scowcroft was a United States Air Force officer, and a two-time United States National Security Advisor, first under U.S. President Gerald Ford and then under George H. W. Bush. He served as Military Assistant to President Richard Nixon and as Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs in the Nixon and Ford administrations. He served as Chairman of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005, and advised President Barack Obama on choosing his national security team. Read more
19 Mar 1924: Joe Gaetjens, Haitian footballer (died 1964) Joseph Edouard Gaetjens was a professional soccer player who played as a center forward. Born in Haiti, he represented its national team before and after playing for the United States team in the 1950 FIFA World Cup, in which he scored the winning goal in the 1–0 upset of England. Read more
19 Mar 1923: Pamela Britton, American actress (died 1974) Pamela Britton was an American actress, best known for appearing as Lorelei Brown in the television series My Favorite Martian (1963–1966) and for her female lead in the film noir classic D.O.A. (1950). Throughout her acting career, Britton appeared often on Broadway and in several Hollywood and television films. Read more
19 Mar 1923: Benito Jacovitti, Italian illustrator (died 1997) Benito Jacovitti was an Italian comics artist. Read more
19 Mar 1923: Henry Morgentaler, Polish-Canadian physician and activist (died 2013) Henekh "Henry" Morgentaler was a Polish-born Canadian physician and abortion rights advocate who fought numerous legal battles aimed at expanding abortion rights in Canada. As a Jewish youth during World War II, Morgentaler was imprisoned at the Łódź Ghetto and later at the Dachau concentration camp. Read more
19 Mar 1922: Guy Lewis, American basketball player and coach (died 2015) Guy Vernon Lewis II was an American basketball player and coach. He served as the head men's basketball coach at the University of Houston from 1956 to 1986. Lewis led his Houston Cougars to five appearances in the Final Four of the NCAA tournament, in 1967, 1968, 1982, 1983, and 1984. His 1980s teams, nicknamed Phi Slama Jama for their slam dunks, were runners-up for the national championship in back-to-back seasons in 1983 and 1984. He was inducted into National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007 and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013. Read more
19 Mar 1922: Hiroo Onoda, Japanese lieutenant (died 2014) Hiroo Onoda 19 March 1922 – 16 January 2014) was a Japanese soldier who served as a second lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. One of the last Japanese holdouts, Onoda continued fighting for nearly 29 years after the war's end in 1945, carrying out guerrilla warfare on Lubang Island in the Philippines until 1974. Read more
19 Mar 1921: Tommy Cooper, British magician and prop comedian (died 1984) Thomas Frederick Cooper was a Welsh prop comedian and magician. He was large and lumbering at 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) and habitually wore a red fez when performing. He served in the British Army for seven years before developing his conjuring skills and becoming a member of The Magic Circle. Although he spent time on tour performing his magical act, which specialised in magic tricks that appeared to fail, he rose to international prominence when his career moved into television, with programmes for London Weekend Television and Thames Television. Read more
19 Mar 1920: Kjell Aukrust, Norwegian author, poet, and painter (died 2002) Kjell Aukrust was a Norwegian author, poet, artist and humorist. Aukrust is principally known for his Flåklypa stories and Flåklypa drawings. Read more
19 Mar 1919: Lennie Tristano, American pianist, composer, and educator (died 1978) Leonard Joseph Tristano was an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and teacher of jazz improvisation. Read more
19 Mar 1917: Laszlo Szabo, Hungarian chess player (died 1998) László Szabó was a Hungarian chess player. He was awarded the title of International Grandmaster in 1950, when it was instituted by FIDE. Read more
19 Mar 1916: Eric Christmas, English-Canadian actor (died 2000) Eric Cuthbert Christmas was an English actor, with over 40 films and numerous television roles to his credit. He is probably best known for his role as Mr. Carter, the principal of Angel Beach High School, in the 1981 comedy films Porky's, the 1983 sequel Porky's II: The Next Day, and the 1985 sequel Porky's Revenge!. He was also known for his sporadic role as Reverend Diddymoe in the NBC sitcom, Amen. Read more
19 Mar 1916: Irving Wallace, American journalist, author, and screenwriter (died 1990) Irving Wallace was an American best-selling author and screenwriter. He was known for his heavily researched novels, many with a sexual theme. Read more
19 Mar 1915: Robert G. Cole, American colonel, Medal of Honor recipient (died 1944) Robert George Cole was an American soldier who received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Battle of Normandy in World War II. Cole, the commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, successfully led his outgunned unit in a daring bayonet charge against an entrenched German force. He was killed in action three months later during Operation Market Garden. Read more
19 Mar 1915: Patricia Morison, American actress and singer (died 2018) Eileen Patricia Augusta Fraser Morison was an American stage, television and film actress of the Golden Age of Hollywood and mezzo-soprano singer. She made her feature film debut in 1939 after several years on the stage, and amongst her most renowned were The Fallen Sparrow, Dressed to Kill opposite Basil Rathbone and the screen adaptation of The Song of Bernadette. She was lauded as a beauty with large blue eyes and extremely long, dark hair. During this period of her career, she was often cast as the femme fatale or "other woman". It was only when she returned to the Broadway stage that she achieved her greatest success as the lead in the original production of Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate and subsequently in The King and I. Read more
19 Mar 1914: Leonidas Alaoglu, Canadian-American mathematician and theorist (died 1981) Leonidas (Leon) Alaoglu was a Canadian-American mathematician and operations researcher. During his six-year stint as a mathematician from 1938 to 1944, Alaoglu studied several topics, including topology, number theory, and the geometry of polyhedra. His best known result, which he proved during this period, was Alaoglu's theorem on the weak-star compactness of the closed unit ball in the dual of a normed space. After 1944, he left academia for the world of operations research. Read more
19 Mar 1914: Jay Berwanger, American football player and coach (died 2002) John Jacob "Jay" Berwanger was an American college football player and referee. In 1935, Berwanger was the first recipient of the Downtown Athletic Club Trophy, renamed the Heisman Trophy the following year. At its inception, the award was given to "the most valuable player east of the Mississippi." In 1936, Berwanger became the first player drafted into the National Football League in its inaugural 1936 NFL draft, although he did not play professionally due to a salary dispute. Read more
19 Mar 1912: Hugh Watt, Australian-New Zealand engineer and politician, Prime Minister of New Zealand (died 1980) Hugh Watt was a New Zealand politician who was a Labour member of Parliament and the acting prime minister of New Zealand between 31 August and 6 September 1974, following the death of Prime Minister Norman Kirk. He had been the fifth deputy prime minister of New Zealand since 8 December 1972. Watt later served as high commissioner to the United Kingdom. Read more
19 Mar 1910: Joseph Carroll, American general (died 1991) Lieutenant General Joseph Francis Carroll was the founding director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the first commander of the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations. Read more
19 Mar 1909: Louis Hayward, South African-American actor (died 1985) Louis Charles Hayward was a South African-born, British-American actor. Read more
19 Mar 1909: Marjorie Linklater, Scottish campaigner for the arts and environment of Orkney (died 1997) Marjorie Linklater was a Scottish campaigner for the arts and environment on the island of Orkney. She gave up acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art to get involved in conservation, education, and health matters as a county councillor for Ross and Cromarty County Council. In 1975, Linklater was elected chairman of the Orkney Heritage Society, devoting herself to campaigning for the arts environment, local heritage, and politics. She successfully opposed the mining of uranium and the dumping of nuclear waste off Orkney's west coast and was a founding member of the St Magnus Festival. The Orkney Heritage Society named a senior school award in Linklater's honour following her death. Read more
19 Mar 1906: Clara Breed, American librarian and activist (died 1994) Clara Estelle Breed was an American librarian remembered chiefly for her support for Japanese American children during World War II. After the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, many residents of California who were of Japanese descent were moved to remote Japanese American internment camps where they stayed until the end of the war. Breed kept in communication with many of the children who were sent to the camps, sending reading materials and visiting them regularly. Read more
19 Mar 1906: Adolf Eichmann, German SS officer, one of the main organizers of the Holocaust (died 1962) Otto Adolf Eichmann was a German-Austrian official of the Nazi Party, an officer of the Schutzstaffel (SS), a convicted war criminal, and one of the major organisers of the Holocaust. He participated in the January 1942 Wannsee Conference, at which the implementation of the genocidal Final Solution to the Jewish Question was planned. Following this, he was tasked by SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich with facilitating and managing the logistics involved in the mass deportation of millions of Jews to Nazi ghettos and Nazi extermination camps across German-occupied Europe. He was captured and detained by the Allies in 1945, but escaped and eventually settled in Argentina. In May 1960, he was tracked down and apprehended by Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, and put on trial before the Supreme Court of Israel. The highly publicised Eichmann trial resulted in his conviction in Jerusalem, following which he was executed by hanging in 1962. Read more
19 Mar 1905: Joe Rollino, American weightlifter and boxer (died 2010) Joseph Rollino was an American decorated World War II veteran, weightlifter, and strongman. The son of Italian immigrants, Rollino dubbed himself the world's strongest man in the 1920s, moving 3,200 pounds (1,500 kg) with his back during the prime of his career. Read more
19 Mar 1905: Albert Speer, German architect and politician, convicted Nuremberg war criminal (died 1981) Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer was a German architect who served as Minister of Armaments and War Production in Nazi Germany during most of World War II. A close friend and ally of Adolf Hitler, he was convicted at the Nuremberg trials and served 20 years in prison. Read more
19 Mar 1904: John Sirica, American lawyer and judge (died 1992) John Joseph Sirica was an American lawyer and jurist who was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia from 1957 to 1992. Sirica became known in the early 1970s for presiding over the federal criminal trials relating to the origins of the Watergate scandal, which eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Read more
19 Mar 1901: Jo Mielziner, French-American set designer (died 1976) Joseph Mielziner was an American theatrical scenic, and lighting designer born in Paris, France. He was described as "the most successful set designer of the Golden era of Broadway", and worked on both stage plays and musicals. Read more
19 Mar 1900: Carmen Carbonell, Spanish stage and film actress (died 1988) Carmen Carbonell Nonell (1900–1988) was a Spanish stage and film actress. She received the National Theater Award twice, in 1950 and 1980. Read more
19 Mar 1900: Frédéric Joliot-Curie, French physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1958) Jean Frédéric Joliot-Curie was a French chemist and physicist who received the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with his wife, Irène Joliot-Curie, for their discovery of induced radioactivity. They were the second married couple, after his parents-in-law, to win the Nobel Prize, adding to the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes. Joliot-Curie and his wife also founded the Orsay Faculty of Sciences, part of the Paris-Saclay University. Read more
19 Mar 1894: Moms Mabley, American comedian and singer (died 1975) Loretta Mary Aiken, known by her stage name Jackie "Moms" Mabley, was an American stand-up comedian and actress. Mabley began her career on the theater stage in the 1920s and became a veteran entertainer of the Chitlin' Circuit of black vaudeville. Mabley later recorded comedy albums and appeared in films and on television programs including The Ed Sullivan Show and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Read more
19 Mar 1893: Gertrud Dorka, German archaeologist, prehistorian and museum director (died 1976) Gertrud Dorka was a German archaeologist, prehistorian, museum director and teacher. She was the museum director of the State Museum for Prehistory and Early History between 1947 and 1958. Read more
19 Mar 1892: Theodore Sizer, American professor of the history of art (died 1967) Theodore Sizer was an American professor of the history of art at Yale University and a director of the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut. He was named the first Pursuivant of Arms for Yale University in 1963. Read more
19 Mar 1892: Ado Vabbe, Estonian painter (died 1961) Ado Vabbe was an Estonian painter, printmaker, and teacher. Read more
19 Mar 1892: James Van Fleet, American general and diplomat (died 1992) General James Alward Van Fleet was a United States Army officer who served during World War I, World War II and the Korean War. Van Fleet was a native of New Jersey, who was raised in Florida and graduated from the United States Military Academy. He served as a regimental, divisional and corps commander during World War II and as the commanding general of United States Army and other United Nations forces during the Korean War. Read more
19 Mar 1891: Earl Warren, American lieutenant, jurist, and politician, 14th Chief Justice of the United States (died 1974) Earl Warren was an American attorney and politician who served as the 30th governor of California from 1943 to 1953, and as the 14th chief justice of the United States from 1953 to 1969. The Warren Court presided over a major shift in American constitutional jurisprudence, which has been recognized by many as a "constitutional revolution" in the liberal direction, with Warren writing the majority opinions in landmark cases such as Brown v. Board of Education (1954), Reynolds v. Sims (1964), Miranda v. Arizona (1966), and Loving v. Virginia (1967). Warren also led the Warren Commission, a presidential commission that investigated the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Warren is the last Chief Justice to have served in an elected office before nomination to the Supreme Court, and is generally considered to be one of the most influential Supreme Court justices and political leaders in the history of the United States. Read more
19 Mar 1888: Josef Albers, German-American painter and educator (died 1976) Josef Albers was a German-born American artist and educator who is considered one of the most influential 20th-century art teachers in the United States. Born in 1888 in Bottrop, Westphalia, Germany, into a Roman Catholic family with a background in craftsmanship, Albers received practical training in diverse skills like engraving glass, plumbing, and wiring during his childhood. He later worked as a schoolteacher from 1908 to 1913 and received his first public commission in 1918 and moved to Munich in 1919. Read more
19 Mar 1888: Léon Scieur, Belgian cyclist (died 1969) Léon Scieur was a Belgian cyclist who won the 1921 Tour de France, along with stages 3 and 10. His first great victory was the 1920 Liège–Bastogne–Liège; he won a stage and finished fourth in the 1919 and 1920 Tours de France. Read more
19 Mar 1885: Attik, Greek composer (died 1944) Attik was a significant Greek composer of the early 20th century. Read more
19 Mar 1883: Norman Haworth, English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1950) Sir Walter Norman Haworth FRS was a British chemist best known for his groundbreaking work on ascorbic acid while working at the University of Birmingham. He received the 1937 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his investigations on carbohydrates and vitamin C". The prize was shared with Swiss chemist Paul Karrer for his work on other vitamins. Read more
19 Mar 1883: Joseph Stilwell, American general (died 1946) Joseph Warren "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell was a United States Army general who served in the China Burma India theater during World War II. Stilwell served as commander of the US forces in the theater, and also as deputy for both Lord Louis Mountbatten, and Chiang Kai-shek, the Chinese Nationalist leader. Read more
19 Mar 1882: Gaston Lachaise, French-American sculptor (died 1935) Gaston Lachaise was a French-born sculptor, active in America in the early 20th century. A native of Paris, he is most noted for his robust female nudes such as his heroic Standing Woman. Gaston Lachaise was taught the fundamentals of European sculpture while living in France. While still a student, he met and fell in love with an older American woman, Isabel Dutaud Nagle, then followed her after she returned to America. There, he became profoundly impressed by the great vitality and promise of his adopted country. Those life-altering experiences clarified his artistic vision and inspired him to define the female nude in a new and powerful manner. His drawings, typically made as ends in themselves, also exemplify his remarkably new treatment of the female body. Read more
19 Mar 1881: Edith Nourse Rogers, American social worker and politician (died 1960) Edith Rogers was an American social welfare volunteer and politician who served as a Republican in the United States Congress. She was the first woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts. Until 2012, she was the longest serving congresswoman and was the longest serving female representative until 2018. In her 35 years in the House of Representatives she was a powerful voice for veterans and sponsored seminal legislation, including the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, which provided educational and financial benefits for veterans returning home from World War II, the 1942 bill that created the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), and the 1943 bill that created the Women's Army Corps (WAC). She was also instrumental in bringing federal appropriations to her constituency, Massachusetts's 5th congressional district. Read more
19 Mar 1880: Ernestine Rose, American librarian and advocate (died 1961) Ernestine Rose was a librarian at the New York Public Library responsible for the purchase and incorporation of the Arthur A. Schomburg collection. Read more
19 Mar 1876: Felix Jacoby, German philologist (died 1959) Felix Jacoby was a German classicist and philologist. He is best known among classicists for his highly important work Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, a collection of text fragments of ancient Greek historians. Read more
19 Mar 1875: Zhang Zuolin, Chinese warlord (died 1928) Zhang Zuolin was a Chinese warlord who ruled Manchuria from 1916 until his assassination in 1928. He led the Fengtian clique, one of the most powerful factions during the Warlord Era. In 1927, he became the leader of the Beiyang government and was declared Generalissimo of the Republic of China. Read more
19 Mar 1873: Max Reger, German pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1916) Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger was a German composer, pianist, organist, conductor, and academic teacher. He worked as a concert pianist, a musical director at the Leipzig University Church, a professor at the Royal Conservatory in Leipzig, and a music director at the court of George II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. Read more
19 Mar 1872: Anna Held, Polish singer (died 1918) Helene Anna Held was a Polish-born French stage performer of Jewish origin on Broadway. While appearing in London, she was spotted by impresario Florenz Ziegfeld, who brought her to America as his common-law wife. From 1896 through 1910, she was one of Broadway's most celebrated leading ladies, presented in a succession of musicals as a charming, coquettish Parisian singer and comedienne, with an hourglass figure and an off-stage reputation for exotic behavior, such as bathing in 40 gallons of milk a day to maintain her complexion. Detractors implied that her fame owed more to Ziegfeld's promotional flair than to any intrinsic talent, but her audience allure was undeniable for over a decade, with several of her shows setting house attendance records for their time. Her uninhibited style also inspired the long-running series of popular revues, the Ziegfeld Follies. Read more
19 Mar 1871: Schofield Haigh, English cricketer and coach (died 1921) Schofield Haigh was a Yorkshire and England cricketer. He played for nineteen seasons for Yorkshire County Cricket Club, sporadically for England from 1898–99 to 1912, and was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1901. Read more
19 Mar 1868: Senda Berenson Abbott, Lithuanian-American basketball player and educator (died 1954) Senda Berenson Abbott was a figure of women's basketball and the author of the first Basketball Guide for Women (1901–07). She was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor on July 1, 1985, the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1987, and the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999. Read more
19 Mar 1865: William Morton Wheeler, American entomologist, myrmecologist, and academic (died 1937) William Morton Wheeler was an American entomologist, myrmecologist and professor at Harvard University. Read more
19 Mar 1864: Charles Marion Russell, American painter and sculptor (died 1926) Charles Marion Russell, also known as C. M. Russell, Charlie Russell, and "Kid" Russell, was an American artist of the American Old West. He created more than 2,000 paintings of cowboys, Native Americans, and landscapes set in the western United States and in Alberta, Canada, in addition to bronze sculptures. He is known as "the cowboy artist" and was also a storyteller and author. He became an advocate for Native Americans in the west, supporting the bid by landless Chippewa to have a reservation established for them in Montana. In 1916, Congress passed legislation to create the Rocky Boy Reservation. Read more
19 Mar 1861: Lomer Gouin, Canadian lawyer and politician, Premier of Quebec (died 1929) Sir Jean Lomer Gouin was a Canadian politician. He served as 13th premier of Quebec, as a Cabinet minister in the federal government of Canada, and as the 15th lieutenant governor of Quebec. Read more
19 Mar 1860: William Jennings Bryan, American lawyer and politician, 41st United States Secretary of State (died 1925) William Jennings Bryan was an American lawyer, orator, and politician. He was a dominant force in the Democratic Party, running three times as the party's nominee for President of the United States in the 1896, 1900, and 1908 elections. He served in the House of Representatives from 1891 to 1895 and as the secretary of state under Woodrow Wilson from 1913 to 1915. Because of his faith in the wisdom of the common people, Bryan was often called "the Great Commoner", and because of his rhetorical power and early fame as the youngest presidential candidate, "the Boy Orator". Read more
19 Mar 1858: Kang Youwei, Chinese scholar and politician (died 1927) Kang Youwei was a Chinese political thinker and reformer in the late Qing dynasty. His increasing closeness to and influence over the young Guangxu Emperor sparked conflict between the emperor and his adoptive mother, the regent Empress Dowager Cixi. His ideas were influential in the abortive Hundred Days' Reform. Following the coup by Cixi that ended the reform, Kang was forced to flee. He continued to advocate for a Chinese constitutional monarchy after the founding of the Republic of China. Read more
19 Mar 1849: Alfred von Tirpitz, German admiral and politician (died 1930) Alfred Peter Friedrich von Tirpitz was a German grand admiral and State Secretary of the German Imperial Naval Office, the administrative branch of the German Imperial Navy from 1897 until 1916. Read more
19 Mar 1848: Wyatt Earp, American police officer (died 1929) Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp was an American lawman and an assistant marshal to his brother, Virgil Earp. Earp was involved in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, during which he and other lawmen killed three outlaws. While Earp is usually depicted as the key figure in the shootout, his brother Virgil was both the U.S. Marshal and the Tombstone city marshal and had decided to enforce a city ordinance prohibiting carrying weapons in public and to disarm the Cowboys. Read more
19 Mar 1847: Albert Pinkham Ryder, American painter (died 1917) Albert Pinkham Ryder was an American painter best known for his poetic and moody allegorical works and seascapes, as well as his eccentric personality. While his art shared an emphasis on subtle variations of color with tonalist works of the time, it was unique for accentuating form in a way that some art historians regard as a precursor to modernism. Read more
19 Mar 1844: Minna Canth, Finnish journalist, playwright, and activist (died 1897) Minna Canth was a Finnish writer and social activist. Canth began to write while managing her family draper's shop and living as a widow raising seven children. Her work addresses issues of women's rights, particularly in the context of a prevailing culture she considered antithetical to permitting expression and realization of women's aspirations. The Worker's Wife and The Pastor's Family are her best known plays, but the play Anna Liisa is the most adapted to films and operas. In her time, she became a controversial figure, due to the asynchrony between her ideas and those of her time, and in part due to her strong advocacy for her point of view. Read more
19 Mar 1829: Carl Frederik Tietgen, Danish businessman (died 1901) Carl Frederik Tietgen was a Danish financier and industrialist. He played an important role in the industrialisation of Denmark as the founder of numerous prominent Danish companies, many of which are still in operation today. Tietgen notably formed conglomerates, thus several of Tietgen's companies attained monopoly-like status, cementing their durability. Read more
19 Mar 1824: William Allingham, Irish poet, author, and scholar (died 1889) William Allingham was an Irish poet, diarist and editor. He wrote several volumes of lyric verse, and his poem "The Faeries" was much anthologised. But he is better known for his posthumously published Diary, in which he records his lively encounters with Tennyson, Carlyle and other writers and artists. His wife, Helen Allingham, was a well-known artist, watercolourist and illustrator. Read more
19 Mar 1823: Arthur Blyth, English-Australian politician, 9th Premier of South Australia (died 1891) Sir Arthur Blyth was Premier of South Australia three times; 1864–65, 1871–72 and 1873–75. Read more
19 Mar 1821: Richard Francis Burton, English soldier, geographer, and diplomat (died 1890) Sir Richard Francis Burton, KCMG, FRGS, was a British explorer, army officer, writer and scholar. He was famed for his travels and explorations in Asia, Africa and South America, as well as his extensive knowledge of languages and cultures, speaking up to 29 different languages. Read more
19 Mar 1816: Johannes Verhulst, Dutch composer and conductor (died 1891) Johannes Josephus Hermanus Verhulst was a Dutch composer and conductor. As a composer mainly of songs and as administrator of Dutch musical life, his influence during his lifetime was considerable. Read more
19 Mar 1813: David Livingstone, Scottish missionary and explorer (died 1873) David Livingstone was a Scottish doctor, Congregationalist, pioneer Christian missionary with the London Missionary Society, and an explorer in Africa. Livingstone was married to Mary Moffat Livingstone, from the prominent 18th-century Moffat missionary family. Livingstone came to have a mythic status as a Protestant missionary martyr, working-class "rags-to-riches" inspirational story, scientific investigator and explorer, imperial reformer, anti-slavery crusader, and advocate of British commercial and colonial expansion. As a result, he became one of the most popular British heroes of the late 19th-century Victorian era. Read more
19 Mar 1809: Fredrik Pacius, German composer and conductor (died 1891) Fredrik Pacius ; in German and in Estonian Friedrich Pacius; 19 March 1809 – 8 January 1891) was a German composer and conductor who lived most of his life in Finland. He has been called the "Father of Finnish music". Read more

🕊️ Important Deaths on 19 March in World History

19 Mar 2021: Glynn Lunney, American engineer (born 1936) Glynn Stephen Lunney was an American NASA engineer. Lunney was an employee of NASA since its creation in 1958, a flight director during the Gemini and Apollo programs. Lunney was on duty during historic events such as the Apollo 11 lunar ascent and the pivotal hours of the Apollo 13 crisis. At the end of the Apollo program, he became manager of the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project, the first collaboration in spaceflight between the United States and the Soviet Union. Later, he served as manager of the Space Shuttle program before leaving NASA in 1985 and later becoming a vice president of the United Space Alliance. Read more
19 Mar 2019: William Whitfield, British architect (born 1920) Sir William Whitfield was a British architect and town planner. Read more
19 Mar 2016: Roger Agnelli, Brazilian banker and businessman (born 1959) Roger Agnelli was a Brazilian investment banker and entrepreneur. He ran one of the largest mining companies in the world, Vale SA, and in 2013 was voted by Harvard Business Review as the world’s fourth best-performing chief executive officer behind Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com and Yun Jong-Yong of Samsung. His clashes with Brazil's ruling Workers Party leadership, that began with the 2008 financial crisis and his firing of 2,000 workers, led to his ouster from Vale SA at the government's request in 2011. On March 19, 2016, he was killed, along with his wife, son, and daughter when their plane crashed in São Paulo, Brazil. Read more
19 Mar 2016: Jack Mansell, English footballer and manager (born 1927) Jack Mansell was a professional football player and coach. He made 274 appearances in the Football League as a defender for Brighton & Hove Albion, Cardiff City and Portsmouth. After retiring as a player, he joined the coaching staff at Sheffield Wednesday. There, in early April 1964, he became interim manager after the sacking of Vic Buckingham. He coached many clubs with his longest spell being at Reading and had experience overseas with the likes of Blauw-Wit Amsterdam, Boston Beacons and the Israel national team. In 1982, Mansell was chosen to train Maccabi Haifa, after a year at the Israel national team.
Mansell died on 19 March 2016. Read more
19 Mar 2015: Gus Douglass, American farmer and politician (born 1927) Gus R. Douglass was an American politician and member of the Democratic Party, who served as Agriculture Commissioner of West Virginia for 44 years. First elected to that post in 1964, he served from 1965 to 1989, when he left office having run unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for Governor, and again from 1993 to 2013. He was the longest-serving Agriculture Commissioner in US history, having served for 44 years and under 8 different Governors. Read more
19 Mar 2015: Safet Plakalo, Bosnian author and playwright (born 1950) Safet Plakalo was a Bosnian playwright and poet, theatre critic, journalist, and founder of the Sarajevo War Theatre. He was a prominent figure in Bosnian drama, known for his poetic and modernist theatrical works and his significant role in sustaining cultural life during the Siege of Sarajevo. Read more
19 Mar 2015: Danny Schechter, American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1942) Daniel Isaac Schechter was an American television producer, independent filmmaker, blogger, and media critic. He wrote and spoke about many issues including apartheid, civil rights, economics, foreign policy, journalistic control and ethics, and medicine. While attending the London School of Economics in the 1960s, Schechter became an anti-apartheid activist and made trips to South Africa on behalf of the African National Congress (ANC). Later he would help musician Steven Van Zandt assemble other performers to form Artists United Against Apartheid, who released the album Sun City in 1985. Schechter produced and directed six nonfiction films about Nelson Mandela from the time Mandela was a political prisoner to his election and service as President of South Africa. Read more
19 Mar 2014: Patrick Joseph McGovern, American businessman, founded IDG (born 1937) Patrick Joseph McGovern Jr. was an American businessman, and chairman and founder of International Data Group (IDG), a company with subsidiaries in technology publishing, research, event management and venture capital. Read more
19 Mar 2014: Fred Phelps, American lawyer, pastor, and activist, founded the Westboro Baptist Church (born 1929) Fred Waldron Phelps Sr. was an American minister and disbarred lawyer who served as the pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church, worked as a civil rights attorney, and ran for statewide election in Kansas. A divisive and controversial figure, he gained national attention for his homophobic views and protests near the funerals of gay people, AIDS victims, military veterans, and disaster victims whom he believed were killed as a result of God punishing the U.S. for having "bankrupt values" and tolerating homosexuality. Phelps founded the Westboro Baptist Church, a Topeka, Kansas-based independent Primitive Baptist congregation, in 1955. It has been described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as "arguably the most obnoxious and rabid hate group in America". Its signature slogan, "God Hates Fags", remains the name of the group's principal website. Read more
19 Mar 2014: Heather Robertson, Canadian journalist and author (born 1942) Heather Margaret Robertson was a Canadian journalist, novelist and non-fiction writer. She published her first book, Reservations are for Indians, in 1970, and her last book, Walking into Wilderness, in 2010. She was a founding member of the Writers' Union of Canada and the Professional Writers Association of Canada, and launched the Robertson v Thomson Corp class action suit regarding freelancers' retention of electronic rights to their work. Read more
19 Mar 2014: Robert S. Strauss, American diplomat, United States Ambassador to Russia (born 1918) Robert Schwarz Strauss was an influential figure in American politics, diplomacy, and law whose service dated back to future President Lyndon Johnson's first congressional campaign in 1937. By the 1950s, he was associated in Texas politics with the faction of the Democratic Party that was led by Johnson and John Connally. He served as the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee between 1972 and 1977 and served under President Jimmy Carter as the U.S. Trade Representative and special envoy to the Middle East. He later served as the Ambassador to Russia under President George H. W. Bush. Strauss also served as the last United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union. Read more
19 Mar 2014: Lawrence Walsh, Canadian-American lawyer, judge, and politician, 4th United States Deputy Attorney General (born 1912) Lawrence Edward Walsh was an American lawyer and judge who was United States Deputy Attorney General from 1957 to 1961 and a judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He was appointed Independent Counsel in December 1986 to investigate the Iran–Contra affair during the Reagan Administration. Read more
19 Mar 2014: Joseph F. Weis, Jr., American lawyer and judge (born 1923) Joseph Francis Weis Jr. was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and previously was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Read more
19 Mar 2012: Jim Case, American director and producer (born 1927) James W. Case was a director and producer for American television and film. He worked for NBC, CBS and various other media organizations throughout his career. He is most notable for his involvement in The Ragtime Era, a 1959 television series which he directed during his time with KRMA-TV. Other educational works directed by Case include the Redman's America series, Our Neighbor: The Moon, The Naturalists, Artists in America: James Salter and many others. Read more
19 Mar 2012: Ulu Grosbard, Belgian-American director and producer (born 1929) Israel "Ulu" Grosbard was a Belgian-born, naturalized American theater and film director and film producer. Read more
19 Mar 2012: Hugo Munthe-Kaas, Norwegian intelligence agent (born 1922) Hugo Conrad Munthe-Kaas DSM was a Norwegian intelligence agent and resistance fighter during World War II. He received most decorations in Norway for his war service. From the 1970s he was active in the Progress Party, where he was a city council member in Oslo and deputy MP. He was an honorary party member. Read more
19 Mar 2011: Kym Bonython, Australian drummer and radio host (born 1920) Hugh Reskymer "Kym" Bonython, was an Australian politician, World War Two veteran, musician, gallery owner, and racing driver. Read more
19 Mar 2009: Maria Bergson, Austrian-American architect and interior designer (born 1914) Maria Bergson was an American interior designer, industrial designer, and architect best known for revolutionizing commercial office design. She specialized in the design of commercial interiors including offices, banks, hotels, hospitals, stores and the design of furniture and lighting fixtures. She was the first woman designer to be published in Who's Who in America (1956). In 1990, she was inducted in Interior Design magazine's Interior Design Hall of Fame and recognized as a pioneer in contract interiors and speaking out of the importance of professionalism. Read more
19 Mar 2008: Arthur C. Clarke, English science fiction writer (born 1917) Sir Arthur Charles Clarke was an English science fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. Read more
19 Mar 2008: Hugo Claus, Belgian author, poet, and playwright (born 1929) Hugo Maurice Julien Claus was a leading Belgian author who published under his own name as well as various pseudonyms. Claus' literary contributions spanned the genres of drama, novels, and poetry; he also left a legacy as a painter and film director. He wrote primarily in Dutch, although he also wrote some poetry in English. He won the 2000 International Nonino Prize in Italy. Read more
19 Mar 2008: Paul Scofield, English actor (born 1922) David Paul Scofield was an English actor. During a six-decade career, Scofield achieved the Triple Crown of Acting, winning an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Tony Award for his work. Scofield established a reputation as one of the greatest Shakespearean performers. He declined the honour of a knighthood, but was appointed CBE in 1956 and became a CH in 2001. Read more
19 Mar 2005: John DeLorean, American engineer and businessman, founded the DeLorean Motor Company (born 1925) John Zachary DeLorean was an American engineer, inventor, and executive in the U.S. automobile industry. He is widely known as founder of the DeLorean Motor Company, as well as for his work at General Motors. Read more
19 Mar 2004: Mitchell Sharp, Canadian economist and politician, 23rd Canadian Minister of Finance (born 1911) Mitchell William Sharp was a Canadian civil servant and politician, most noted for his service as a Liberal Cabinet minister. He served in both the private and public sectors during his long career. Read more
19 Mar 2003: Michael Mathias Prechtl, German soldier and illustrator (born 1926) Michael Mathias Prechtl was a German artist, illustrator and cartoonist. Read more
19 Mar 2000: Joanne Weaver, American baseball player (born 1935) Joanne "Joltin' Jo" Weaver was a right fielder who played from 1951 through 1954 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). Listed at 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m), 142 lb., she batted and threw right-handed. Read more
19 Mar 2000: Shafiq-ur-Rahman, Pakistani physician and author (born 1920) Shafiq-ur-Rahman was a Pakistani humorist and short-story writer of Urdu language. Read more
19 Mar 1999: Tofilau Eti Alesana, Samoan politician, 5th Prime Minister of Samoa (born 1924) Tofilau Eti Alesana was a Samoan politician who served as the fifth prime minister of Samoa from 1982 to 1985, and again from 1988 until his resignation in 1998. Read more
19 Mar 1998: E. M. S. Namboodiripad, Indian theorist and politician, 1st Chief Minister of Kerala (born 1909) Elamkulam Manakkal Sankaran Namboodiripad was an Indian communist politician, theorist, author and statesman who served as the first Chief Minister of Kerala in 1957–1959 and then again in 1967–1969. As a member of the Communist Party of India (CPI), he became the first Chief Minister in India not to be a member of the Indian National Congress. In 1964, he led a faction of the CPI that broke away to form the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Read more
19 Mar 1997: Willem de Kooning, Dutch-American painter and educator (born 1904) Willem de Kooning was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. Born in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, he moved to the United States in 1926, becoming a U.S. citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married painter Elaine Fried. Read more
19 Mar 1997: Eugène Guillevic, French poet and author (born 1907) Eugène Guillevic was a French poet. Professionally, he went by the single name Guillevic. Read more
19 Mar 1996: Lise Østergaard, Danish psychologist and politician (born 1924) Anna Elisabeth "Lise" Østergaard was a Danish psychologist and a politician for the Social Democrats. Under Anker Jørgensen's leadership, she was Minister without Portfolio (1977–80) and Minister of Culture (1980–82). As a psychologist, she was head of psychology in Copenhagen's Rigshospitalet (1958) as well as the first woman to become professor of clinical psychology at the University of Copenhagen (1963), a position she resumed after her political career ended in the mid-1980s. Read more
19 Mar 1996: Alan Ridout, English composer and teacher. (born 1934) Alan Ridout was a British composer and teacher. Read more
19 Mar 1996: Virginia Henderson, American nurse, researcher, theorist and author (born 1897) Virginia Avenel Henderson was an American nurse, researcher, theorist, and writer. Read more
19 Mar 1993: Henrik Sandberg, Danish production manager and producer (born 1915) Henrik Sandberg was a Danish film producer. He produced 39 films between 1955 and 1979. He was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. His father was the Danish film director A. W. Sandberg. Read more
19 Mar 1990: Andrew Wood, American singer-songwriter (born 1966) Andrew Patrick Wood was an American musician who was the lead singer and lyricist for the alternative rock bands Malfunkshun and Mother Love Bone. He formed Malfunkshun in 1980 with his older brother Kevin Wood on guitar and Regan Hagar on drums. The band used alter ego personas onstage; Wood performed as Landrew the Love Child. Though the band only released two songs before going on an extended hiatus, "With Yo' Heart " and "Stars-n-You", on the Deep Six compilation album, they are often cited as being among the originators of the Seattle grunge movement. While in Malfunkshun, Wood started using drugs, entering rehab in 1985. Read more
19 Mar 1988: Bun Cook, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (born 1904) Frederick Joseph "Bun" Cook was a Canadian professional ice hockey coach and forward. He was an Allan Cup champion with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in 1924 before embarking on a 13-year professional career. He played for the Saskatoon Crescents in the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL) and the New York Rangers and Boston Bruins in the National Hockey League (NHL). Cook was a member of two Stanley Cup championship teams with the Rangers, in 1928 and 1933, playing on the "Bread Line" with his brother Bill and Frank Boucher. Read more
19 Mar 1987: Louis de Broglie, French physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1892) Louis Victor Pierre Raymond, 7th Duc de Broglie was a French theoretical physicist and aristocrat known for his contributions to quantum theory. In his 1924 Ph.D. thesis, he postulated the wave nature of electrons and suggested that all matter has wave properties. This concept is known as the de Broglie hypothesis, an example of wave–particle duality, and forms a central part of the theory of quantum mechanics. In 1929, de Broglie won the Nobel Prize in Physics, after the wave-like behaviour of matter was experimentally confirmed in 1927. This confirmation earned George Paget Thomson and Clinton Davisson the Nobel in 1937. Read more
19 Mar 1986: Sabino Barinaga, Spanish footballer and manager (born 1922) Sabino Barinaga Alberdi was a Spanish football forward and manager. Read more
19 Mar 1984: Garry Winogrand, American photographer (born 1928) Garry Winogrand was an American street photographer, who portrayed U.S. life and its social issues in the mid-20th century. Photography curator, historian, and critic John Szarkowski called Winogrand the central photographer of his generation. Read more
19 Mar 1982: J. B. Kripalani, Indian lawyer and politician (born 1888) Jivatram Bhagwandas Kripalani, popularly known as Acharya Kripalani, was an Indian politician, noted particularly for holding the presidency of the Indian National Congress during the transfer of power in 1947 and the husband of Sucheta Kripalani.
Kripalani was an environmentalist, mystic and independence activist who was long a Gandhian socialist. He himself founded the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party in 1951, that merged with the Socialist Party to form the Praja Socialist Party the following year. He joined the economically right wing Swatantra Party later in life. Read more
19 Mar 1982: Randy Rhoads, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer (born 1956) Randall William Rhoads was an American guitarist. He was the co-founder and original guitarist of the heavy metal band Quiet Riot, and the guitarist and co-songwriter for Ozzy Osbourne's first two solo albums Blizzard of Ozz (1980) and Diary of a Madman (1981). Rhoads was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021. Read more
19 Mar 1978: M. A. Ayyangar, Indian lawyer and politician, 2nd Speaker of the Lok Sabha (born 1891) Madabhushi Ananthasayanam Ayyangar was the first Deputy Speaker and then Speaker of the Lok Sabha in the Indian Parliament. He also served as the 5th Governor of Bihar. Read more
19 Mar 1977: William L. Laurence, Lithuanian-born American journalist and author (born 1888) William Leonard Laurence was a Jewish American science journalist best known for his work at The New York Times. Born in the Russian Empire, he won two Pulitzer Prizes. As the official historian of the Manhattan Project, he was the only journalist to witness the Trinity test and the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. He is credited with coining the iconic term "Atomic Age," which became popular in the 1950s. Infamously, he dismissed the destructive effects of radiation sickness as Japanese propaganda in The New York Times. Even though he had seen the effects first-hand, he moonlighted for the War Department's press office, and United States military officials instructed him to do so in order to discredit earlier reports by independent journalist Wilfred Burchett, the first Western reporter on-site after the bombings. Read more
19 Mar 1976: Albert Dieudonné, French actor and author (born 1889) Albert Dieudonné was a French actor, screenwriter, film director and novelist. Read more
19 Mar 1976: Paul Kossoff, English guitarist and songwriter (born 1950) Paul Francis Kossoff was an English guitarist, best known as the co-founder and guitarist of the rock band Free. In 2010, he was ranked number 51 in Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". Read more
19 Mar 1951: Dmytro Doroshenko, Ukrainian historian and politician, Prime Minister of Ukraine (born 1882) Dmytro Ivanovych Doroshenko was a prominent Ukrainian political figure during the revolution of 1917–1918 and a leading Ukrainian emigre historian during the inter-war period. Doroshenko was a supporter of federal ties with the Russian Republic and a member of the Ukrainian Party of Socialist Federalists. Read more
19 Mar 1950: Edgar Rice Burroughs, American soldier and author (born 1875) Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American writer, recognized for his prolific output in the adventure, science fiction, and fantasy genres. Best known for creating the characters Tarzan and John Carter, he also wrote the Pellucidar series, the Amtor series, and the Caspak trilogy. Read more
19 Mar 1950: Norman Haworth, English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1883) Sir Walter Norman Haworth FRS was a British chemist best known for his groundbreaking work on ascorbic acid while working at the University of Birmingham. He received the 1937 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his investigations on carbohydrates and vitamin C". The prize was shared with Swiss chemist Paul Karrer for his work on other vitamins. Read more
19 Mar 1949: James Somerville, English admiral and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Somerset (born 1882) Admiral of the Fleet Sir James Fownes Somerville, was a Royal Navy admiral. He served in the First World War as fleet wireless officer for the Mediterranean Fleet where he was involved in providing naval support for the Gallipoli Campaign. He also served in the Second World War as commander of the newly formed Force H: after the French armistice with Germany, Winston Churchill gave Somerville and Force H the task of neutralizing the main element of the French battle fleet, then at Mers El Kébir in Algeria. After he had destroyed the French Battle fleet, Somerville played an important role in the pursuit and sinking of the German battleship Bismarck. Read more
19 Mar 1949: James Newland, Australian soldier and policeman (born 1881) James Ernest Newland, VC was an Australian soldier, policeman and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest decoration for gallantry "in the face of the enemy" that can be awarded to members of the British and Commonwealth armed forces. Newland was awarded the Victoria Cross following three separate actions in April 1917, during attacks against German forces retreating to the Hindenburg Line. While in command of a company, Newland successfully led his men in several assaults on German positions and repulsed subsequent counter-attacks. Read more
19 Mar 1948: Maud Howe Elliott, American novelist (born 1854) Maud Howe Elliott was an American novelist, most notable for her Pulitzer Prize-winning collaboration with her sisters, Laura E. Richards and Florence Hall, on their mother's biography The Life of Julia Ward Howe (1916). Her other works included A Newport Aquarelle (1883); Phillida (1891); Kasper Craig (1892); Mammon, later published as Honor: A Novel (1893); Roma Beata, Letters from the Eternal City (1903); Sun and Shadow in Spain (1908);The Eleventh Hour in the Life of Julia Ward Howe (1911); Three Generations (1923); Lord Byron's Helmet (1927); John Elliott, The Story of an Artist (1930); My Cousin, F. Marion Crawford (1934); and This Was My Newport (1944). Read more
19 Mar 1947: James A. Gilmore, American businessman and baseball executive (born 1887) James Alexander Gilmore was an American businessman who served as president of baseball's Federal League when it attempted to become a third major league, alongside the American League and National League, in 1914 and 1915. Read more
19 Mar 1944: William Hale Thompson, American rancher and politician, 41st Mayor of Chicago (born 1869) William Hale Thompson was an American politician who served as mayor of Chicago from 1915 to 1923 and again from 1927 to 1931. Known as "Big Bill", he is the most recent Republican to have served as mayor of Chicago. Historians rank him among the most unethical mayors in American history, mainly for his open alliance with Al Capone. However, others recognize the effectiveness of his political methods and publicity-oriented campaigning, acknowledging him as a "Political Chameleon" and the leader of an effective political machine. Read more
19 Mar 1942: Clinton Hart Merriam, American zoologist, ornithologist, and entomologist (born 1855) Clinton Hart Merriam was an American zoologist, mammalogist, ornithologist, entomologist, ecologist, ethnographer, geographer, naturalist and physician. He was commonly known as the "father of mammalogy," a branch of zoology referring to the study of mammals. Read more
19 Mar 1930: Arthur Balfour, Scottish-English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1848) Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, was a British statesman and Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905. As foreign secretary in the Lloyd George ministry, he issued the Balfour Declaration of 1917 on behalf of the cabinet, which supported a "home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, and later issued the Balfour Declaration of 1926 as Lord of the Privy Council, which announced a co-equal relationship between the United Kingdom and its Dominions, laying the groundwork for the Statute of Westminster 1931 which granted full independence to the former colonies. Read more
19 Mar 1930: Henry Lefroy, Australian politician, 11th Premier of Western Australia (born 1854) Sir Henry Bruce Lefroy was the eleventh Premier of Western Australia. Read more
19 Mar 1919: Emma Bell Miles, American writer, poet, and artist of Appalachia (born 1879) Emma Bell Miles was a writer, poet, and artist. Her works capture the essence of the natural world and the culture of southern Appalachia. Read more
19 Mar 1914: Giuseppe Mercalli, Italian priest, geologist, and volcanologist (born 1850) Giuseppe Mercalli was an Italian volcanologist and Catholic priest. He is known best for the Mercalli intensity scale for measuring earthquake intensity. Read more
19 Mar 1900: John Bingham, American lawyer and politician, 7th United States Ambassador to Japan (born 1815) John Armor Bingham was an American politician who served as a Republican representative from Ohio and as the United States ambassador to Japan. In his time as a congressman, Bingham served as both assistant Judge Advocate General in the trial of the Abraham Lincoln assassination and a House manager (prosecutor) in the impeachment trial of U.S. President Andrew Johnson. He was also the principal framer of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Read more
19 Mar 1900: Charles-Louis Hanon, French pianist and composer (born 1819) Charles-Louis Hanon was a French piano pedagogue and composer. He is best known for his work The Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises, which is still used today for modern piano teaching, but over the years the method has also faced criticisms. Read more
19 Mar 1897: Antoine Thomson d'Abbadie, Irish-French geographer, ethnologist, linguist, and astronomer (born 1810) Antoine Thomson d'Abbadie d'Arrast was a Basque-Irish explorer, geographer, ethnologist, linguist and astronomer, renowned for his expeditions in Ethiopia during the early 19th century. He was the elder brother of Arnaud-Michel d'Abbadie, who accompanied him on his travels. Read more
19 Mar 1884: Elias Lönnrot, Finnish physician and philologist (born 1802) Elias Lönnrot was a Finnish polymath, physician, philosopher, poet, musician, linguist, journalist, philologist and collector of traditional Finnish oral poetry. He is best known for synthesizing the Finnish national epic, Kalevala from short ballads and lyric poems he gathered from Finnish oral tradition during several field expeditions in Finland, Russian Karelia, the Kola Peninsula and Baltic countries. In botany, he is remembered as the author of the 1860 Flora Fennica, the first scientific text written in Finnish rather than in Latin. Read more
19 Mar 1871: Wilhelm Karl Ritter von Haidinger, Austrian mineralogist, geologist, and physicist (born 1795) Wilhelm Karl Haidinger, ennobled as Wilhelm Ritter von Haidinger in 1864, was an Austrian mineralogist. Read more
19 Mar 1816: Filippo Mazzei, Italian-American physician and philosopher (born 1730) Philip Mazzei, originally Filippo Mazzei, and sometimes erroneously cited as Philip Mazzie, was an Italian physician, philosopher, diplomat, winemaker, merchant, and author. A neighbor of Thomas Jefferson, he was a supporter of the American Revolution and the American colonies' war for independence from Britain. Read more

Why is 19 March Important in World History?

Several significant political, cultural, educational, and sporting events took place on 19 March, making it an important topic for general knowledge and competitive examinations.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What happened on 19 March in World history?

On 19 March, several important historical events, notable births, and major milestones occurred in World history.

Is History of Today important for competitive exams?

Yes, History of Today is frequently asked in UPSC, SSC, Banking, Railway, and State PSC exams as part of static GK and current awareness sections.