In 1657, the Second Protectorate Parliament—part of what had once been the Long Parliament—made Oliver Cromwell a surprising and controversial offer: the crown of England. This proposal, known as the Humble Petition and Advice, was formally presented to Cromwell on March 31. It represented…
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On March 30, 1842, in Jefferson, Georgia, American surgeon Dr. Crawford Williamson Long made medical history. He became the first known physician to use inhaled ether as an anesthetic during surgery. His patient, James Venable, underwent the removal of a neck tumor. Remarkably, Venable…
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On March 29, 1971, Lieutenant William L. Calley Jr. was convicted of premeditated murder for his leading role in the My Lai massacre—one of the most horrific and consequential atrocities of the Vietnam War. The conviction marked a rare instance of individual accountability in…
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On March 29, 1867, Queen Victoria gave Royal Assent to the British North America Act, a defining moment that paved the way for the birth of Canada as a self-governing dominion within the British Empire. The Act—formally titled An Act for the Union of…
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On March 28, 1939, General Francisco Franco’s Nationalist forces entered Madrid, ending nearly three years of siege and signifying the final collapse of the Second Spanish Republic. This moment marked the end of the Spanish Civil War, a deeply polarizing conflict that had drawn…
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Mary Mallon—better known to history as Typhoid Mary—was placed into quarantine for the second and final time. She would remain isolated for the rest of her life, becoming an infamous figure and a lasting symbol of asymptomatic disease transmission in the United States. An…
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On March 26, 1830, a little-known print shop in Palmyra, New York, released what would become one of the most influential—and controversial—religious texts in American history: The Book of Mormon. Purporting to be a translation of ancient records inscribed on golden plates by prophets…
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On March 25, 1957, U.S. Customs officials confiscated over 500 copies of Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg as they arrived in San Francisco from a British printer. What began as a government seizure quickly became one of American literary history’s most important…
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In the final months of World War II in Europe—when Nazi forces, though weakening, still held dangerous power—March 24, 1944, marked a bold act of resistance. On that night, seventy-six Allied prisoners escaped from Stalag Luft III, a German-run prisoner-of-war camp in Sagan, Lower…
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On March 23, 1933, the German Reichstag passed the Enabling Act (Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich), granting Adolf Hitler the authority to enact laws without parliamentary approval. Voted into law under immense political pressure and threats of violence, this moment…
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