History Trivia

March 20, 43 BC, Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso), the most versatile of the Roman poets, was born. 141 Sixth recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet. 235 Maximinus Thrax was proclaimed emperor. He was the first foreigner to hold the Roman throne. 687 Saint Cuthbert, a shepherd and hermit who achieved fame as a holy man, healer, and bishop, died. 851 Ebbo of Reims, Bishop in the Carolingian empire and evangelist to Denmark, died. 1345 Saturn/Jupiter/Mars-conjunction was thought to have caused the plague epidemic. 1413 King Henry IV of England died and was succeed by his son Henry V. 1549 Thomas Seymour was executed. Seymour had married Henry VIII's widow Katherine Parr and pursued the young princess Elizabeth without success. When his piratical activities were discovered he was arrested, tried, and executed.

History Trivia

March 19, 235 Maximinus Thrax was proclaimed Emperor of Rome. 1179 The Third Lateran Council of the Catholic Church called a crusade against Cathar heretics in Toulouse. 1307 The Douglas Larder raid - Sir James Douglas was a Scot who returned home from school in Paris to find his estates had been claimed and occupied by an Englishman, Robert de Clifford. Joining with Robert the Bruce for a time, he returned in an attempt to take back his land, attacking his own castle three times. After his final assault, known as the Douglas Larder, he razed the castle to the ground. 1330 King Edward II of England's younger brother, Edmund Plantagenet, Earl of Kent died.

History Trivia

March 18, 37 The Roman Senate annulled Tiberius's will and proclaimed Caligula emperor. 235 Emperor Alexander Severus and his mother Julia Mamaea were murdered by legionaries near Moguntiacum (modern Mainz), ending the Severan dynasty. 1190 Crusaders killed 57 Jews in Bury St Edmonds England. 1227 Pope Honorius III Died. His pontificate concentrated on church reform and the crusades. 1229 Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor declared himself King of Jerusalem during the Sixth Crusade. 1314 Jacques de Molay, the 23rd and the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, was burned at the stake. 1438 Albert II of Habsburg became Holy Roman Emperor.

History Trivia

March 17, 45 BC In his last victory, Julius Caesar defeated the Pompeian forces of Titus Labienus and Pompey the Younger in the Battle of Munda. 44 BC, the conspirators in Julius Caesar's murder were granted amnesty in a short-lived reprieve before Mark Antony stirred the people to take revenge on them. 180 AD, Marcus Aurelius died in his camp-bed during a campaign along the Danube frontier, and Commodus became the sole emperor of the Roman Empire. 461 St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, died in Ireland at an approximate age of 72. 1337 Edward, the Black Prince was made Duke of Cornwall, the first Duchy made in England. 1473 King James IV of Scotland was born. His marriage to Margaret Tudor, daughter of King Henry VII, helped stabilize relations between the two countries.

History Trivia

March 16, 597 BC Babylonians captured Jerusalem, replaced Jehoiachin with Zedekiah as king. 37 AD the emperor Tiberius died at the age of 78 and was succeeded by Caligula. 1072 Adalbert, archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen and guardian and tutor to Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV, died. 1190 Massacre of the Jews at York, England.

History Trivia

March 15, 351 Constantius II elevated his cousin Gallus to Caesar, and put him in charge of the Eastern part of the Roman Empire. 493 Theodorik the Great defeated Odoaker of Italy. 933 Battle at Riade: German King Henry I defeated Magyaren. 1311 Battle of Halmyros: The Catalans defeated Walter V of Brienne to take control of the Duchy of Athens, a Crusader state in Greece. 1360 France invasion army landed on England's southern coast, conquering Winchel.

Beware the Ides of March

March 15, 44 BC – Julius Caesar, Dictator of the Roman Republic, was stabbed to death by Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus, Decimus Junius Brutus and several other Roman senators on the Ides of March. He had appointed his great-nephew, Octavian, as his heir. Civil war broke out between Caesar's assassins and his successors (Mark Antony and Octavian).