The first recorded bank heist in U.S. history took place in 1831 when burglars infiltrated the City Bank of New York (now Citibank) on Wall Street, escaping with an astounding $245,000—an enormous sum in early 19th-century America. This audacious crime, carried out in the…
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On March 19, 1965, an underwater archaeologist by the name of E. Lee Spence found the wreckage of the CSS Georgiana, a Confederate blockade runner that was sunk by the Union on the same date 102 years before. Ofren called the “mystery ship of the…
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On March 18, 1766, the British Parliament retreated—reluctantly, strategically—from one of the most consequential miscalculations of its imperial administration: the Stamp Act. Barely a year after its passage, the law had ignited a colonial resistance that revealed, with startling clarity, the limits of parliamentary…
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At 1:24 a.m. on March 18, 1990, two men dressed as police officers walked into Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and said four words that rocked the art world: “Gentlemen, this is a robbery.” The Smithsonian Magazine writes, “The pair proceeded to remove 13 treasured…
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On March 18, 1959, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Hawaii Admission Act into law, paving the way for Hawaii to become the 50th state of the United States later that year. This landmark legislation was the culmination of decades of political struggle, economic…
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On the morning of March 17, 1776, the people of Boston watched a sight that would have seemed impossible only months earlier: the most powerful army in the world quietly abandoning the city it had occupied since the opening shots of rebellion. Red-coated soldiers…
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On March 17, 1992, a huge majority of White South African voters backed a referendum to dismantle apartheid, the South Africa’s severe system of racial segregation. The results of the vote gave President F.W. de Klerk a mandate to end apartheid and share power…
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Golda Meir’s appointment as Israel’s Prime Minister on March 17, 1969, was a groundbreaking moment in both Israeli and global politics. She became the first woman to hold the office in Israel and only the third woman in history to lead a national government,…
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On March 16, 597 B.C., the city of Jerusalem opened its gates to the armies of Nebuchadnezzar II. The Babylonian king had surrounded the hilltop capital of Judah after months of political rebellion and imperial retaliation. When the siege ended, the city was not…
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On March 16, 1935, Adolf Hitler, the Chancellor of Germany, initiated a significant step in his aggressive military agenda by rearming Germany, violating the Treaty of Versailles and other post-World War I agreements. This decision had profound consequences for Europe and ultimately played a…
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