Anniversaries and commemorations come and go daily. Most of us, even the best historians, miss most occasions. If we think of history as events then we are faced with a continually showering in the grains of sand. Nevertheless, we do pick out certain patterns in the remembrance of historical dates. The blog here reminds us of some dates where the local, state, national, and global perspectives entwine.
On 20, Wednesday March 1844, Claude Pierre Pajol, French military leader, died (b. 1772)
On 20, Saturday March 1869, John Pascoe Grenfell, British admiral of the Brazilian Navy, died (b. 1800)
On 20, Tuesday March 1894, Hans Langsdorff, German naval officer, born (d. 1939)
On 20, Tuesday March 1894, Amalie Sara Colquhoun, Australian landscape and portrait painter, born (d. 1974
On 20, Tuesday March 1894, Lajos Kossuth, Hungarian politician, died (b. 1802)
On 20, Thursday March 1919, Pat Norton, backstroke swimmer, born (died 2007)
On 20, Thursday March 1919, Sir Edward Charles Stirling, died (born 1848), anthropologist
On 20, Thursday March 1919, Gerhard Barkhorn, German World War II fighter ace, born (d. 1983)
On 20, Monday March 1944, WWII: Landing on Emirau: 4,000 United States Marines land on Emirau Island in the Bismarck Archipelago to develop an airbase as part of Operation Cartwheel.
On 20, Monday March 1944, British Royal Air Force Flight Sergeant Nicholas Alkemade’s bomber is hit over Germany and he has to bail out without a parachute from a height of over 4,000 meters (13,123 ft). Tree branches interrupt his fall and he lands safely on deep snow.
On 20, Friday March 1959, Steve Borden, American wrestler, born
On 20, Friday March 1959, Richard Drummie, English guitarist and composer (Go West), born
On 20, Friday March 1959, Steve McFadden, British actor, born
On 20, Thursday March 1969, One hundred of the 105 passengers and crew on a United Arab Airlines flight, most of them Muslim pilgrims returning to Aswan from Mecca, are killed when the Ilyushin-18 turboprop crashes during a sandstorm.
On 20, Thursday March 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono are married at Gibraltar, and proceed to their honeymoon “Bed-In” for peace in Amsterdam.
On 20, Tuesday March 1979, Freema Agyeman, British actress, born
On 20, Tuesday March 1979, Molly Jenson, American musician, born
On 20, Tuesday March 1979, Bianca Lawson, American actress, born
On 20, Monday March 1989, Prime Minister Bob Hawke weeps on national television, as he admits marital infidelity.
On 20, Monday March 1989, Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke weeps on national television as he admits marital infidelity.
On 20, Monday March 1989, Fei Fei Sun, Chinese model, born
On 20, Sunday March 1994, Italian journalist Ilaria Alpi and TV cameraman Miran Hrovatin are assassinated in Somalia.
On 20, Sunday March 1994, Lewis Grizzard, American writer and humorist, died (b. 1946)
On 20, Friday March 2009, Marcus Einfeld (former Superior Court judge) is sentenced to 3 years in jail for lying relative to a speeding ticket.
On 20, Friday March 2009, Emirates Flight 407 was taking off from Melbourne Airport for a flight to Dubai and failed to become airborne in the normal distance. When the aircraft was approaching the end of the runway, the crew commanded nose-up sharply causing the tail to scrape along the runway as it became airborne.
On 20, Friday March 2009, Abdellatif Filali, 13th Prime Minister of Morocco, died (b. 1928)
On 20, Thursday March 2014, Hilderaldo Bellini, Brazilian footballer, died (b. 1930)
Other On This Day days in history
Neville Buch
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