March 7

March 7 is the 66th day of the year (67th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 299 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1900

• 161 – Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius dies.
• 238 – Roman subjects in North Africa revolt against Maximus Thrax and elect Gordian I as Roman Emperor.
• 321 – Constantine announces that Sunday is a rest day in Europe.
• 1277 – Stephen Tempier, Bishop of Paris, condemns 219 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 under Ottoman control.
• 1799 – Napoleon Bonaparte captures Jaffa in Palestine and his troops kill over 2,000 Albanian captives.
• 1850 – US Senator Daniel Webster gives his "Seventh of March" speech in support of the Compromise of 1850.
• 1862 – American Civil War: Union forces defeat Confederate troops at Pea Ridge, Arkansas.
• 1871 – Jose Paranhos, Viscount of Rio Branco becomes Prime Minister of the Empire of Brazil. With four years in office, he becomes its longest–serving Prime Minister.
• 1876 – Alexander Graham Bell is granted a patent for the telephone.
• 1897 – Cornflakes are first served at a sanatorium in Michigan, having been invented by John Harvey Kellogg and Will Keith Kellogg.
• 1900 – German liner SS Wilhelm der Grosse becomes the first ship to send wireless signals to shore.

1901 – 2000

• 1902 – Second Boer War: Battle of Tweebosch – A Boer commando led by Koos de la Rey inflicts a heavy defeat on British forces.
• 1912 – Roald Amundsen announces that his Norwegian expedition reached the South Pole on December 14, 1911.
• 1914 – Prince William of Wied arrives in Albania to begin his reign.
• 1927 – A magnitude 7.6 earthquake its Tango Province, Japan, killing 3,000 people.
• 1936 – Germany re–occupies the Rhineland, in violation of the Treaty of Versailles and Locarno Pact.
• 1945 – World War II: American troops seize the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine at Remagen.
• 1950 – The Soviet Union issues a statement denying that Klaus Fuchs served as a Soviet spy.
• 1951 – Korean War: Operation Ripper – UN troops led by General Matthew Ridgeway begin an assault against Chinese forces.
• 1965 – A Civil rights march by 600 people in Selma, Alabama, is forcefully broken.
• 1968 – Vietnam War: US and South Vietnamese military forces begin Operation Truong Cong Dinh to root out Viet Cong forces from the area surrounding My Tho.
• 1971 – Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, founding leader of Bangladesh, delivers a historic speech at Suhrawardy Udyan.
• 1980 – Oil tanker "Tanio" breaks in two off Brittany.
• 1985 – The song "We are the World" receives its international release.
• 1986 – Divers from the USS Preserver discover the crew cabin of the Space Shuttle Challenger on the ocean floor.
• 1989 – Iran and the United Kingdom break off diplomatic relations after a row over Salman Rushdie's book "The Satanic Verses".
• 1992 – Eduard Shevardnadze becomes Head of State in Georgia.

From 2001

• 2002 – The 2002 Winter Paralympics begin in Salt Lake City.
• 2004 – Kostas Karamanlis is elected Prime Minister of Greece.
• 2004 – The Samson ferry sinks in a cyclone between Madagascar and the Comoros.
• 2006 – Terror organization Lashkar–e–Taiba co–ordinates a series of bombings in Varanasi, India.
• 2007 – The UK House of Commons supports by a majority to have an elected House of Lords.
• 2009 – The Kepler space observatory is launched to find Earth–like planets orbiting around other stars.
• 2009 – The Real Irish Republican Army kills two British soldiers and two civilians outside a barracks in Northern Ireland.
• 2010 – Kathryn Bigelow becomes the first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Director, for her movie The Hurt Locker.
• 2014 – The 2014 Winter Paralympics begin in Sochi, Southern Russia.
• 2015 – An attack by Boko Haram in Maiduguri, northern Nigeria, leaves an estimated 50 people dead.
• 2017 – North Korea and Malaysia ban each other's citizens from leaving their countries in a continued diplomatic row over the murder of Kim Jong-nam (half–brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un).

Births

Up to 1900

• 189 – Publius Septimius Geta, Roman Emperor (d. 211)
• 1481 – Baldassare Peruzzi, Italian architect and painter (d. 1537)
• 1556 – Guillaume du Vair, French writer (d. 1621)
• 1663 – Tomaso Antonio Vitali, Italian composer and violinist (d. 1745)
• 1671 – Rob Roy MacGregor, Scottish folk hero (d. 1734)
• 1671 – Ellis Wynne, Welsh clergyman and writer (d. 1734)
• 1678 – Filippo Juvarra, Italian architect (d. 1736)
• 1693 – Pope Clement XIII (d. 1769)
• 1715 – Ewald Christian von Kleist, German poet (d. 1759)
• 1715 – Ephraim Williams, American philanthropist (d. 1755)
• 1730 – Baron de Breteuil, French statesman (d. 1807)
• 1765 – Nicéphore Niépce, French inventor of photography (d. 1833)
• 1785 – Alessandro Manzoni, Italian writer (d. 1873)
• 1788 – Antoine César Becquerel, French physicist (d. 1878)
• 1792 – John Herschel, English mathematician and astronomer (d. 1871)
• 1802 – Edwin Henry Landseer, English painter (d. 1873)
• 1835 – Daniel Giraud Elliot, American zoologist (d. 1915)
• 1837 – Henry Draper, American physician and astronomer (d. 1882)
• 1849 – Luther Burbank, American botanist, horticulturist and agricultural scientist (d. 1926)
• 1850 – Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, 1st President of Czechoslovakia (d. 1937)
• 1850 – Champ Clark, 41st Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (d. 1921)
• 1857 – Julius Wagner-Jauregg, Austrian doctor, won the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1940)
• 1866 – Hans Fruhstorfer, German explorer and entomologist (d. 1922)
• 1868 – Giovanni Giacometti, Swiss painter (d. 1933)
• 1872 – Piet Mondrian, Dutch artist (d. 1944)
• 1875 – Maurice Ravel, French composer (d. 1937)
• 1878 – Boris Kustodiev, Russian painter (d. 1927)
• 1886 – Virginia Pearson, American silent movie actress (d. 1958)
• 1888 – Alidius Warmoldus Lambertus Tjarda van Starkenbourgh Stachouwer, Dutch lawyer and politician (d. 1978)

1901 – 1950

• 1901 – Beatrice Roberts, American actress (d. 1970)
• 1902 – Heinz Rühmann, German actor (d. 1994)
• 1904 – Ivar Ballangrud, Norwegian speed skater (d. 1969)
• 1904 – Reinhard Heydrich, German SS officer (d. 1942)
• 1908 – Anna Magnani, Italian actress (d. 1973)
• 1911 – Nikolai Baibakov, Soviet politician (d. 2008)
• 1914 – John Rodney, American actor (d. 1996)
• 1914 – Lee Young, American jazz drummer and singer (d. 2008)
• 1915 – Jacques Chaban-Delmas, Prime Minister of France (d. 2000)
• 1917 – Betty Holberton, American engineer and programmer (d. 2004)
• 1922 – Olga Aleksandrovna Ladyzhenskaya, Russian mathematician (d. 2004)
• 1922 – Umberto Betti, Italian cardinal (d. 2009)
• 1924 – Eduardo Paolozzi, Scottish sculptor and artist (d. 2005)
• 1924 – Kobo Abe, Japanese writer, playwright, photographer and inventor (d. 1993)
• 1925 – René Gagnon, American navy officer (d. 1979)
• 1927 – James Broderick, American actor (d. 1982)
• 1927 – Philippe Clay, French singer and actor (d. 2007)
• 1930 – Robert D. Cardona, American model–maker
• 1930 – Stanley Miller, American biologist and chemist (d. 2007)
• 1930 – Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon, British photographer and husband of Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon (d. 2017)
• 1933 – Hannelore Kohl, wife of Chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl (d. 2001)
• 1933 – Gordon Walgren, American politician and convicted fraudster (d. 2018)
• 1933 – Jackie Blanchflower, Northern Irish footballer (d. 1998)
• 1934 – Douglas Cardinal, Canadian architect
• 1935 – Antonios Naguib, Coptic Catholic Church Patriarch and cardinal
• 1936 – Julio Terrazas Sandoval, Bolivian archbishop and cardinal (d. 2015)
• 1938 – Albert Fert, French physicist
• 1938 – David Baltimore, American biologist
• 1938 – Petr Skoumal, Czech musician and composer (d. 2014)
• 1939 – Panajot Pano, Albanian footballer (d. 2010)
• 1940 – Rudi Dutschke, German student leader (d. 1979)
• 1940 – Daniel J. Travanti, American actor
• 1942 – Michael Eisner, American movie studio executive
• 1942 – Tammy Faye Messner, American televangelist (d. 2007)
• 1943 – Chris White, English bass player and songwriter (The Zombies)
• 1944 – Ranulph Fiennes, British explorer
• 1944 – Michael Rosbash, American biologist and Nobel laureate
• 1944 – Townes Van Zandt, American musician and songwriter (d. 1997)
• 1945 – John Heard, American actor
• 1945 – Bob Herbert, American journalist
• 1945 – Nicholas Kraemer, English harpsichord player and conductor
• 1947 – Richard Lawson, American actor
• 1947 – Walter Röhrl, German rally driver
• 1949 – Ghulam Nabi Azad, Indian politician
• 1949 – Genyo Takeda, Japanese video game developer
• 1950 – Iris Chacon, Puerto Rican singer and dancer

1951 – 1975

• 1952 – William Boyd, Scottish writer, screenwriter and producer
• 1952 – Viv Richards, Antiguan West Indies cricketer
• 1952 – Ernie Isley, American guitarist and songwriter (The Isley Brothers)
• 1953 – Bernard Voyer, Canadian explorer and mountaineer
• 1954 – Eva Brunne, Swedish clergywoman and first openly lesbian bishop
• 1955 – Anupam Kher, Indian actor
• 1956 – Bryan Cranston, American actor
• 1956 – Andrea Levy, British writer (d. 2019)
• 1958 – Alan Hale, American astronomer
• 1958 – Rik Mayall, British actor and comedian (d. 2014)
• 1959 – Tom Lehman, American golfer
• 1959 – Donna Murphy, American actress and singer
• 1960 – Ivan Lendl, Czech–American tennis player and coach of Andy Murray
• 1960 – Kazuo Ozaki, Japanese footballer
• 1961 – Mary Beth Evans, American actress
• 1962 – Taylor Dayne, American singer
• 1963 – Mike Eagles, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1963 – E. L. James, English writer (Fifty Shades of Grey)
• 1964 – Bret Easton Ellis, American writer and screenwriter
• 1964 – Wanda Sykes, American actress and comedienne
• 1964 – Tommy Sheridan, Scottish politician
• 1965 – Jesper Parnevik, Swedish golfer
• 1966 – Terry Carkner, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1967 – Ruthie Henshall, British theatre actress and singer
• 1967 – Ai Yazawa, Japanese manga artist
• 1969 – Massimo Lotti, Italian footballer
• 1970 – Petra Mede, Swedish comedienne, dancer and television host
• 1970 – Rachel Weisz, British actress
• 1971 – Peter Sarsgaard, American actor
• 1971 – Matthew Vaughn, British movie producer and director
• 1972 – Jang Dong-Gun, South Korean actor and musician
• 1972 – Simon Pryce, Australian musician (The Wiggles)
• 1973 – Sébastien Izambard, Swiss operatic singer (Il Divo)
• 1973 – Ray Parlour, English footballer
• 1974 – Jenna Fischer, American actress
• 1974 – Darryl Stephens, American actor
• 1975 – Audrey Marie Anderson, American actress and model

From 1976

• 1977 – Paul Cattermole, English singer and actor
• 1977 – Gianluca Grava, Italian footballer
• 1977 – Ronan O'Gara, Irish rugby player
• 1977 – Jerome Fernandez, French handball player
• 1980 – Murat Boz, Turkish singer-songwriter and actor
• 1980 – Eric Godard, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1980 – Laura Prepon, American actress
• 1982 – Marc Planus, French footballer
• 1983 – Manucho, Angolan footballer
• 1984 – Mathieu Flamini, French footballer
• 1986 – Ben Griffin, Australian footballer
• 1987 – Hatem Ben Arfa, French footballer
• 1987 – Niclas Bergfors, Swedish ice hockey player
• 1987 – Eleni Foureira, Albanian–Greek singer
• 1988 – Larry Asante, American football player
• 1989 – Gerald Anderson, Filipino–American actor and model
• 1990 – Abigail and Brittany Hensel, American conjoined twins
• 1990 – Lefteris Matsoukas, Greek footballer
• 1991 – Quenten Martinus, Curaçaoan footballer
• 1991 – Michele Rigione, Italian footballer
• 1992 – Bel Powley, English actress
• 1994 – An-Sophie Mestach, Belgian tennis player
• 1994 – Jordan Pickford, English footballer
• 2009 – Prince Umberto of Savoy

Deaths

Up to 1900

• 322 BC – Aristotle, Greek philosopher (b. 384 BC)
• 161 – Antoninus Pius, Roman Emperor (b. 86)
• 203 – Felicity and Perpetua, early Christian martyrs
• 413 – Heraclianus, Roman politician
• 851 – Nominoe, Duke of Brittany
• 1274 – Saint Thomas Aquinas, Italian philosopher (b. 1225)
• 1550 – William IV, Duke of Bavaria (b. 1493)
• 1625 – Johann Bayer, German astronomer (b. 1572)
• 1724 – Pope Innocent XIII (b. 1655)
• 1778 – Charles De Geer, Swedish industrialist (b. 1720)
• 1786 – Franz Benda, Bohemian composer (b. 1709)
• 1809 – Jean-Pierre Blanchard, French balloonist (b. 1753)
• 1875 – John Edward Gray, British zoologist (b. 1800)

1901 – 2000

• 1920 – Jaan Poska, Estonian lawyer, diplomat and politician (b. 1866)
• 1932 – Aristide Briand, French politician and diplomat (b. 1862)
• 1938 – Andreas Michalakopoulos, Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1876)
• 1942 – Lucy Parsons, American anarchist, Communist and labor organizer (b. 1853)
• 1952 – Paramahansa Yogananda, Indian Guru (b. 1893)
• 1954 – Otto Diels, German chemist (b. 1876)
• 1957 – Wyndham Lewis, British writer (b. 1882)
• 1961 – Govind Ballabh Pant, Indian politician, 2nd Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh (b. 1887)
• 1965 – Louise Mountbatten, Queen of Sweden (b. 1889)
• 1967 – Alice B. Toklas, American companion to Gertrude Stein (b. 1877)
• 1969 – Sampurnanand, Indian politician (b. 1910)
• 1974 – Alberto Rabagliati, Italian singer and actor (b. 1906)
• 1975 – Mikhail Bakhtin, Russian philosopher (b. 1895)
• 1981 – Kiril Kondrashin, Russian conductor (b. 1914)
• 1983 – Igor Markevitch, Ukrainian conductor and composer (b. 1912)
• 1986 – Jacob J. Javits, American politician (b. 1904)
• 1988 – Robert Livingston, American actor (b. 1914)
• 1988 – Divine, American actor and singer (b. 1945)
• 1991 – Cool Papa Bell, American baseball player (b. 1903)
• 1997 – Edward Mills Purcell, American physicist (b. 1912)
• 1999 – Stanley Kubrick, American movie director (b. 1928)
• 1999 – Sidney Gottlieb, American CIA official (b. 1918)
• 2000 – Pee Wee King, American country musician, songwriter and producer (b. 1914)
• 2000 – Hirokazu Ninomiya, Japanese footballer (b. 1917)

From 2001

• 2001 – Frankie Carle, American pianist and bandleader (b. 1903)
• 2004 – Paul Winfield, American actor (b. 1941)
• 2005 – John Box, British movie production designer and art director (b. 1920)
• 2005 – Debra Hill, American screenwriter and movie producer (b. 1950)
• 2006 – John Junkin, British performer (b. 1930)
• 2006 – Gordon Parks, American actor, director and photographer (b. 1912)
• 2006 – Ali Farka Touré, Malian musician (b. 1939)
• 2010 – Kenneth Dover, British classicist (b. 1920)
• 2012 – Wlodzimierz Smolarek, Polish footballer (b. 1957)
• 2012 – Felicien Marceau, French novelist, playwright and essayist (b. 1913)
• 2013 – Peter Banks, English musician (b. 1947)
• 2013 – Damiano Damiani, Italian director and screenwriter (b. 1922)
• 2013 – Frederick B. Karl, American politician (b. 1924)
• 2014 – Heiko Bellmann, German biologist, writer and photographer (b. 1950)
• 2014 – Uwe Timm, German writer and anarchist (b. 1932)
• 2014 – Hal Douglas, American voice actor and announcer (b. 1924)
• 2014 – Ned O'Gorman, American poet (b. 1929)
• 2015 – Gregorio Bundio, Argentine footballer and manager (El Salvador national football team) (b. 1928)
• 2015 – Edmond Malinvaud, French economist (b. 1923)
• 2015 – F. Ray Keyser, Jr., American politician, 72nd Governor of Vermont (b. 1927)
• 2016 – Adrian Hardiman, Irish judge (b. 1950)
• 2016 – Jean-Bernard Raimond, French politician (b. 1926)
• 2016 – Michael White, Scottish theatre and film producer (b. 1936)
• 2017 – Ron Bass, American professional wrestler (b. 1948)
• 2017 – Syed Sajjad Ali Shah, Chief Justice of Pakistan (b. 1933)
• 2017 – Helen Sommers, American politician (b. 1932)
• 2017 – Lynne Stewart, American attorney (b. 1939)
• 2017 – Hans Georg Dehmelt, German–American physicist (b. 1922)
• 2017 – Ronald Drever, Scottish physicist (b. 1931)
• 2017 – Peter M. Gruber, Austrian mathematician (b. 1941)
• 2017 – Juan Carlos Touriño, Spanish footballer (b. 1944)
• 2018 – Reynaldo Bignone, President of Argentina (b. 1928)
• 2018 – Woody Durham, American basketball radio announcer (b. 1941)
• 2018 – Charles Thone, American politician, 34th Governor of Nebraska (b. 1924)
• 2018 – Antonia La Negra, Spanish singer and dancer (b. 1936)
• 2019 – Dick Beyer, American professional wrestler (b. 1930)
• 2019 – Joseph M. Boardman, American railroad executive (b. 1948)
• 2019 – Robert Braithwaite, British marine engineer and entrepreneur (b. 1943)
• 2019 – Guillaume Faye, French journalist and writer (b. 1941)
• 2019 – Ralph Hall, American politician (b. 1923)
• 2019 – Dick Nichols, American banker and politician (b. 1926)
• 2019 – Sid Sheinberg, American lawyer and studio executive (b. 1935)

Festivals

• Felicity and Perpetua (Roman Catholicism)
• Teacher's Day (Albania)