Today:
321 – Roman Emperor Constantine I decreed that Sunday would be a day of rest throughout the Roman Empire.
1274 – The Second Council of Lyon convened under Pope Gregory X to discuss church reunification and other matters.
1799 – Napoleon Bonaparte captured the city of Jaffa during his campaign in Egypt and Syria, leading to the massacre of thousands of Ottoman prisoners.
1850 – U.S. Senator Daniel Webster delivered his famous “Seventh of March” speech, supporting the Compromise of 1850 in an effort to prevent civil war.
1876 – Alexander Graham Bell received a patent for his invention of the telephone.
1912 – Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen publicly announced that his team had reached the South Pole on December 14, 1911.
1936 – Nazi Germany reoccupied the Rhineland in violation of the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Pact, escalating tensions leading to World War II.
1965 – Bloody Sunday occurred in Selma, Alabama, when civil rights marchers were brutally attacked by law enforcement while attempting to march to Montgomery.
1971 – A speech by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in Dhaka, East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), called for independence, fueling the Bangladesh Liberation War.
2007 – The British House of Commons voted in favor of replacing the House of Lords with a fully elected chamber.