Today:
44 BC – Julius Caesar is assassinated by a group of Roman senators, including Brutus and Cassius, on the Ides of March in Rome.
221 – Liu Bei, a warlord in China, declares himself Emperor of Shu Han, marking the start of the Three Kingdoms period.
1493 – Christopher Columbus returns to Spain from his first voyage to the New World.
1783 – George Washington delivers his famous Newburgh Address to quell a potential military rebellion among his officers in the Continental Army.
1820 – Maine is admitted as the 23rd U.S. state as part of the Missouri Compromise.
1892 – The first escalator, called the “inclined elevator,” is patented by Jesse W. Reno.
1917 – Czar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates the throne, ending centuries of Romanov rule and leading to the establishment of a provisional government.
1939 – Nazi Germany occupies Czechoslovakia, violating the Munich Agreement and effectively ending Czechoslovak independence.
1972 – The film “The Godfather,” directed by Francis Ford Coppola, premieres in New York City.
2019 – A mass shooting at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, kills 51 people and injures dozens more.