Events

Pre-1600

• 161 Marcus Aurelius and L. Commodus (who changes his name to Lucius Verus) become joint emperors of Rome on the death of Antoninus Pius.

• 681 The Third Council of Constantinople deposes patriarch Macarius I of Antioch.

• 1138 Konrad III von Hohenstaufen is elected king of Germany at Coblenz in the presence of the papal legate Theodwin.

• 1277 The University of Paris issues the last in a series of condemnations of various philosophical and theological theses.

• 1573 A peace treaty is signed between the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Venice, ending the Ottoman–Venetian War and leaving Cyprus in Ottoman hands.

1601–1900

• 1799 Napoleon Bonaparte captures Jaffa in Palestine and his troops proceed to kill more than 2,000 Albanian captives.

• 1814 Emperor Napoleon I of France wins the Battle of Craonne.

• 1826 Shrigley abduction: 15-year old Ellen Turner is abducted by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, a future figure in the establishment of colonies in South Australia and New Zealand.

• 1850 Senator Daniel Webster gives his "Seventh of March" speech endorsing the Compromise of 1850 in order to prevent a possible civil war.

• 1876 Alexander Graham Bell is granted a patent for an invention he calls the "telephone".

1901–present

• 1902 Second Boer War: Boers, led by Koos de la Rey, defeat the British at the Battle of Tweebosch.

• 1921 The short-lived socialist Labin Republic is proclaimed.

• 1931 The Parliament House of Finland is officially inaugurated in Helsinki, Finland.

• 1941 World War II: Günther Prien and the crew of German submarine U-47, one of the most successful U-boats of World War II, disappear without a trace.

• 1945 – World War II: The American 9th Armored Division unexpectedly captures an intact bridge over the Rhine.

• 1951 Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 307 crashes in Lynnhurst, Minneapolis, killing 15 people.

• 1951 Korean War: Operation Ripper: United Nations troops led by General Matthew Ridgway begin an assault against Chinese forces.

• 1951 Iranian prime minister Ali Razmara is assassinated by Khalil Tahmasebi, a member of the Islamic fundamentalist Fada'iyan-e Islam, outside a mosque in Tehran.

• 1965 Bloody Sunday: A group of 600 civil rights marchers are brutally attacked by state and local police in Selma, Alabama.

• 1965 Aeroflot Flight 542 crashes in the Yermakovsky District, killing all 31 aboard.

• 1971 Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, political leader of then East Pakistan (present day-Bangladesh), delivers his historic 7th March speech in the Racecourse Field (Now Suhrawardy Udyan) in Dhaka.

• 1986 Challenger Disaster: Divers from the locate the crew cabin of Challenger on the ocean floor.

• 1989 Iran and the United Kingdom break diplomatic relations after a fight over Salman Rushdie and his controversial novel, The Satanic Verses.

• 2006 The terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba coordinates a series of bombings in Varanasi, India.

• 2007 Reform of the House of Lords: The British House of Commons votes to make the upper chamber, the House of Lords, 100% elected.

• 2007 Garuda Indonesia Flight 200 crashes at Adisutjipto International Airport in the Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia, killing 21 people.

• 2009 Massereene Barracks shooting: The Real Irish Republican Army kills two British soldiers and injures two other soldiers and two civilians at Massereene Barracks, the first British military deaths in Northern Ireland since the end of The Troubles.

• 2021 At least 108 die and 615 are injured in the 2021 Bata explosions in Bata, Equatorial Guinea.

• 2024 Sweden officially joins NATO, becoming its 32nd member.

• 2024 Hannah Gutierrez-Reed is found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Halyna Hutchins on the set of the movie Rust, the first time someone has been found guilty for causing a death on a movie set.

Births

Pre-1600

• 189 Publius Septimius Geta, Roman emperor (died 211)

• 1556 Guillaume du Vair, French lawyer and author (died 1621)

1601–1900

• 1671 Rob Roy MacGregor, Scottish outlaw (died 1734)

• 1678 Filippo Juvarra, Italian architect, designed the Basilica of Superga (died 1736)

• 1693 Clement XIII, pope of the Catholic Church (died 1769)

• 1715 Ewald Christian von Kleist, German soldier and poet (died 1759)

• 1730 Louis Auguste Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, French soldier and politician (died 1807)

• 1765 Nicéphore Niépce, French inventor, invented photography (died 1833)

• 1785 Alessandro Manzoni, Italian author and poet (died 1873)

• 1792 John Herschel, English mathematician and astronomer (died 1871)

• 1811 Increase A. Lapham, American scientist (died 1875)

• 1837 Henry Draper, American physician and astronomer (died 1882)

• 1839 Ludwig Mond, German-born chemist and British industrialist who discovered the metal carbonyls (died 1909)

• 1841 William Rockhill Nelson, American businessman and publisher, founded The Kansas City Star (died 1915)

• 1843 Marriott Henry Brosius, American senator (died 1901)

• 1849 Luther Burbank, American botanist (died 1926)

• 1850 Champ Clark, American lawyer and politician, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (died 1921)

• 1850 Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, Austrian-Czech politician, 1st President of Czechoslovakia (died 1937)

• 1857 Julius Wagner-Jauregg, Austrian physician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1940)

• 1858 Cecilie Thoresen Krog, Norwegian women's rights pioneer (died 1911)

• 1872 Piet Mondrian, Dutch-American painter (died 1944)

• 1875 Maurice Ravel, French pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1937)

• 1885 Milton Avery, American painter (died 1965)

• 1885 John Tovey, 1st Baron Tovey, English admiral (died 1971)

• 1886 Virginia Pearson, American actress (died 1958)

• 1886 G. I. Taylor, English mathematician and physicist (died 1975)

• 1886 Wilson Dallam Wallis, American anthropologist (died 1970)

• 1888 William L. Laurence, Lithuanian-American journalist (died 1977)

• 1895 Dorothy de Rothschild, English philanthropist and activist (died 1988)

1901–present

• 1902 Heinz Rühmann, German actor (died 1994)

• 1903 Maud Lewis, Canadian folk artist (died 1970)

• 1904 Ivar Ballangrud, Norwegian speed skater (died 1969)

• 1904 Reinhard Heydrich, German SS officer and a principle architect of the Holocaust (died 1942)

• 1904 Kurt Weitzmann, German-American historian and author (died 1993)

• 1908 Anna Magnani, Italian actress (died 1973)

• 1915 Jacques Chaban-Delmas, French general and politician, Prime Minister of France (died 2000)

• 1917 Janet Collins, American ballerina and choreographer (died 2003)

• 1917 Betty Holberton, American engineer and programmer (died 2001)

• 1922 Olga Ladyzhenskaya, Russian mathematician and academic (died 2004)

• 1922 Peter Murphy, English footballer (died 1975)

• 1922 Andy Phillip, American basketball player and coach (died 2001)

• 1925 Richard Vernon, British actor (died 1997)

• 1927 James Broderick, American actor and director (died 1982)

• 1929 Dan Jacobson, South African-English author and critic (died 2014)

• 1930 Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon, English photographer and politician (died 2017)

• 1930 Robert Trotter, Scottish actor and photographer (died 2013)

• 1933 Jackie Blanchflower, Northern Irish footballer and accountant (died 1998)

• 1933 Ed Bouchee, American baseball player (died 2013)

• 1934 Nari Contractor, Indian cricketer

• 1934 Gray Morrow, American illustrator and comic book artist (died 2002)

• 1934 Willard Scott, American television personality and actor (died 2021)

• 1936 Georges Perec, French author (died 1982)

• 1938 David Baltimore, American biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2025)

• 1938 Janet Guthrie, American race car driver

• 1940 Daniel J. Travanti, American actor

• 1942 Michael Eisner, American businessman

• 1942 Tammy Faye Messner, American evangelist, television personality, and talk show host (died 2007)

• 1943 Billy MacMillan, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (died 2023)

• 1943 Chris White, English singer-songwriter and bass player

• 1944 Ranulph Fiennes, English soldier and explorer

• 1944 Townes Van Zandt, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1997)

• 1945 Bob Herbert, American journalist

• 1945 Arthur Lee, American singer-songwriter and musician (died 2006)

• 1945 Elizabeth Moon, American author

• 1946 Matthew Fisher, English musician, songwriter, and producer

• 1946 John Heard, American actor and producer (died 2017)

• 1946 Peter Wolf, American singer-songwriter and musician

• 1947 Helen Eadie, Scottish politician (died 2013)

• 1950 Billy Joe DuPree, American football player

• 1950 Franco Harris, American football player and businessman (died 2022)

• 1950 J. R. Richard, American baseball player and minister (died 2021)

• 1952 William Boyd, British author and screenwriter

• 1952 Ernie Isley, American guitarist and songwriter

• 1952 Viv Richards, Antiguan cricketer

• 1952 Lynn Swann, American football player, sportscaster, and politician

• 1954 Eva Brunne, Swedish bishop

• 1956 Bryan Cranston, American actor, director, and producer

• 1956 Andrea Levy, English author (died 2019)

• 1957 Robert Harris, English journalist and author

• 1957 Mark Richards, Australian surfer

• 1958 Rick Bass, American author and environmentalist

• 1958 Rik Mayall, English comedian, actor, and screenwriter (died 2014)

• 1958 Merv Neagle, Australian footballer and coach (died 2012)

• 1959 Tom Lehman, American golfer

• 1959 Donna Murphy, American actress and singer

• 1959 Nick Searcy, American actor

• 1960 Joe Carter, American baseball player

• 1960 Ivan Lendl, Czech tennis player and coach

• 1960 Jim Spivey, American runner and coach

• 1961 Mary Beth Evans, American actress

• 1962 Taylor Dayne, American singer-songwriter and actress

• 1963 Mike Eagles, Canadian ice hockey player and coach

• 1963 E. L. James, English author

• 1964 Bret Easton Ellis, American author and screenwriter

• 1964 Wanda Sykes, American comedian, actress, and screenwriter

• 1965 Jesper Parnevik, Swedish golfer

• 1966 Terry Carkner, Canadian ice hockey player and coach

• 1966 Jeff Feagles, American football player

• 1967 Zheng Haixia, Chinese basketball player and coach

• 1967 Ruthie Henshall, English actress, singer, and dancer

• 1968 Jeff Kent, American baseball player

• 1969 Brian Jamieson

• 1970 Rachel Weisz, English actress

• 1971 Tal Banin, Israeli footballer and manager

• 1971 Peter Sarsgaard, American actor

• 1971 Matthew Vaughn, English director and producer

• 1972 Craig Polla-Mounter, Australian rugby league player

• 1973 Jason Bright, Australian race car driver

• 1973 Jay Duplass, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter

• 1973 Sébastien Izambard, French tenor and producer

• 1974 Jenna Fischer, American actress

• 1974 Tobias Menzies, English actor

• 1974 Facundo Sava, Argentine footballer and manager

• 1975 Audrey Marie Anderson, American actress and model

• 1975 T. J. Thyne, American actor

• 1977 Paul Cattermole, English singer and actor (died 2023)

• 1977 Ronan O'Gara, Irish rugby player and coach

• 1979 Rodrigo Braña, Argentine footballer

• 1980 Eric Godard, Canadian ice hockey player

• 1980 Laura Prepon, American actress

• 1983 Manucho, Angolan footballer

• 1984 Steve Burtt Jr., American-Ukrainian basketball player

• 1984 Mathieu Flamini, French footballer

• 1984 Jacob Lillyman, Australian rugby league player

• 1984 Brandon T. Jackson, American actor and comedian

• 1985 Cameron Prosser, Australian swimmer

• 1986 Ryan Ciminelli, American bowler

• 1987 Niclas Bergfors, Swedish ice hockey player

• 1990 Jeff Withey, American basketball player

• 1991 Ian Clark, American basketball player

• 1992 Bel Powley, English actress

• 1994 Chase Kalisz, American swimmer

• 1994 Jake Layman, American basketball player

• 1994 Jordan Pickford, English footballer

• 1995 Jerome Binnom-Williams, English footballer

• 1995 Aboubakar Kamara, French footballer

• 1995 Haley Lu Richardson, American actress

• 1996 Liam Donnelly, Northern Irish footballer

• 1996 Pablo López, Venezuelan baseball player

• 1997 Taher Mohamed, Egyptian footballer

• 1997 Dylan Strome, Canadian ice hockey player

• 1998 Amanda Gorman, American poet and activist

• 2000 Rasmus Sandin, Swedish ice hockey player

• 2000 Sebastian Schwaighofer, Austrian politician

• 2007 Kiyan Anthony, American basketball player

Deaths

Pre-1600

• 161 Antoninus Pius, Roman emperor (born 86)

• 413 Heraclianus, Roman politician and failed usurper

• 851 Nominoe, Duke of Brittany

• 1226 William Longespée, 3rd Earl of Salisbury, English commander

• 1274 Saint Thomas Aquinas, Italian priest and philosopher (born 1225)

• 1407 Francesco I Gonzaga, ruler of Mantua

• 1578 Margaret Douglas, English noblewoman, daughter of Margaret Tudor and Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus (born 1515)

1601–1900

• 1625 Johann Bayer, German lawyer and cartographer (born 1572)

• 1724 Pope Innocent XIII (born 1655)

• 1767 Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, Canadian politician, Colonial Governor of Louisiana (born 1680)

• 1778 Charles De Geer, Swedish entomologist and archaeologist (born 1720)

• 1809 Jean-Pierre Blanchard, French inventor, best known as a pioneer in balloon flight (born 1753)

• 1810 Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood, English admiral (born 1748)

• 1838 Robert Townsend, American spy (born 1753)

• 1897 Harriet Ann Jacobs, African American Abolitionist and author (born 1813)

1901–present

• 1913 Pauline Johnson, Canadian poet and author (born 1861)

• 1920 Jaan Poska, Estonian lawyer and politician, Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1866)

• 1928 Robert Abbe, American surgeon and radiologist (born 1851)

• 1931 Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Finnish artist (born 1865)

• 1932 Aristide Briand, French journalist and politician, Prime Minister of France, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1862)

• 1935 Baby Doe Tabor, American pioneer (born 1854)

• 1949 Bradbury Robinson, American football player, physician, and politician (born 1884)

• 1954 Otto Diels, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1876)

• 1957 Wyndham Lewis, English painter and critic (born 1882)

• 1967 Alice B. Toklas, American writer (born 1877)

• 1971 Richard Montague, American mathematician and philosopher (born 1930)

• 1971 Stevie Smith, English poet and novelist (born 1902)

• 1973 Lalo Ríos, Mexican actor (born 1927)

• 1975 Mikhail Bakhtin, Russian philosopher and critic (born 1895)

• 1976 Wright Patman, American politician (born 1893)

• 1981 Muhammad Zaki Abd al-Qadir, Egyptian journalist and writer (born 1906)

• 1982 Ida Barney, American astronomer (born 1886)

• 1983 Igor Markevitch, Ukrainian conductor and composer (born 1912)

• 1986 Jacob K. Javits, American colonel and politician, New York State Attorney General (born 1904)

• 1987 Karl Leichter, Estonian musicologist and academic (born 1902)

• 1988 Divine, American drag queen and film actor (born 1945)

• 1988 Ülo Õun, Estonian sculptor (born 1940)

• 1991 Cool Papa Bell, American baseball player (born 1903)

• 1993 Tony Harris, South African cricketer (born 1916)

• 1993 J. Merrill Knapp, American musicologist (born 1914)

• 1993 Martti Larni, Finnish writer (born 1909)

• 1993 Eleanor Sanger, American television producer (born 1929)

• 1993 Josef Steindl, Austrian economist (born 1912)

• 1997 Edward Mills Purcell, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1912)

• 1999 Sidney Gottlieb, American chemist and theorist (born 1918)

• 1999 Stanley Kubrick, American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1928)

• 2000 Pee Wee King, American singer-songwriter (born 1914)

• 2005 John Box, English production designer and art director (born 1920)

• 2005 Debra Hill, American screenwriter and producer (born 1950)

• 2006 Gordon Parks, American photographer, director, and composer (born 1912)

• 2013 Peter Banks, English guitarist and songwriter (born 1947)

• 2013 Damiano Damiani, Italian director and screenwriter (born 1922)

• 2013 Claude King, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1923)

• 2014 Ned O'Gorman, American poet and educator (born 1929)

• 2015 G. Karthikeyan, Indian lawyer and politician (born 1949)

• 2015 F. Ray Keyser, Jr., American lawyer and politician, Governor of Vermont (born 1927)

• 2015 Yoshihiro Tatsumi, Japanese author and illustrator (born 1935)

• 2016 Adrian Hardiman, Irish lawyer and judge (born 1951)

• 2016 Leonard Berney, Bergen-Belsen concentration camp liberator (born 1920)

• 2017 Lynne Stewart, American attorney and activist (born 1939)

• 2019 Dick Beyer, American professional wrestler (born 1930)

• 2024 Steve Lawrence, American actor and singer (born 1935)

• 2025 D'Wayne Wiggins, American musical artist (born 1961)

• 2026 Jamie Dunn, Australian actor, radio and television host (born 1950)

Holidays and observances

Christian feast day:

• Blessed Leonid Feodorov (Russian Greek Catholic Church)

• María Antonia de Paz y Figueroa

• Perpetua and Felicity

• Siméon-François Berneux (part of The Korean Martyrs)

• Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart

• March 7 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

• Maritime Day in Slovenia

References

External links

• BBC: On This Day

• Historical Events on March 7