The Republican Party of the United States was officially founded on March 20, 1854, in Ripon, Wisconsin, as a direct response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act—a divisive law that threatened to extend slavery into new territories. The party’s formation reflected the increasing sectional tensions of…
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Napoleon Bonaparte’s “100 Days” began on March 20, 1815, when he triumphantly marched into Paris with hundreds of thousands of supporters, causing Louis XVIII to flee in terror at the return of the former emperor. His return to the seat of power gained the…
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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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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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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 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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In 1916, tensions between the United States and Mexican revolutionary forces escalated dramatically, culminating in an unprecedented American military incursion into Mexico to pursue Francisco “Pancho” Villa. This operation, known as the Mexican Expedition or the Punitive Expedition, was led by General John J.…
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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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