Today:
44 BC: Julius Caesar is assassinated by a group of rebellious Roman senators on the Ides of March.
1493: Christopher Columbus returns to Spain after his first voyage to the Americas, arriving in Palos de la Frontera.
1820: Maine is admitted as the 23rd U.S. state as part of the Missouri Compromise.
1892: The first escalator is patented by Jesse W. Reno in New York City.
1906: Rolls-Royce Limited is officially registered as a company.
1917: Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates the throne during the February Revolution, ending centuries of Romanov rule.
1965: President Lyndon B. Johnson addresses a joint session of Congress to urge the passage of the Voting Rights Act.
1972: The Godfather, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Marlon Brando, premieres in New York.
1985: The first Internet domain name, symbolics.com, is registered by a computer manufacturer in Massachusetts.
2011: Protests break out in Damascus and Aleppo, marking the beginning of the Syrian Civil War.