Events

• 1199 – King Richard I of England is wounded by a crossbow bolt while fighting in France, leading to his death on 06 April.
• 1387 – English victory over a Franco-Castilian-Flemish fleet in the Battle of Margate off the coast of Margate.
• 1401 – Turco-Mongol emperor Timur sacks Damascus.
• 1603 – James VI of Scotland is proclaimed King James I of England and Ireland, upon the death of Elizabeth I.
• 1603 – Tokugawa Ieyasu is granted the title of shōgun from Emperor Go-Yōzei, and establishes the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo, Japan.
• 1663 – The Province of Carolina is granted by charter to eight Lords Proprietor in reward for their assistance in restoring Charles II of England to the throne.
• 1720 – Count Frederick of Hesse-Kassel is elected King of Sweden by the Riksdag of the Estates, after his consort Ulrika Eleonora abdicated the throne on 29 February.
• 1765 – Great Britain passes the Quartering Act, which requires the Thirteen Colonies to house British troops.
• 1794 – In Kraków, Tadeusz Kościuszko announces a general uprising against Imperial Russia and the Kingdom of Prussia, and assumes the powers of the Commander in Chief of all of the Polish forces.
• 1869 – The last of Titokowaru’s forces surrendered to the New Zealand government, ending his uprising.
• 1878 – The British frigate HMS Eurydice sinks, killing more than 300.
• 1882 – Robert Koch announces the discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis.
• 1885 – Sino-French War: Chinese victory in the Battle of Bang Bo on the Tonkin-Guangxi border.
• 1927 – Nanking Incident: Foreign warships bombard Nanjing, China, in defense of the foreign citizens within the city.
• 1934 – United States Congress passes the Tydings-McDuffie Act, allowing the Philippines to become a self-governing commonwealth.
• 1944 – Ardeatine massacre: German troops murder 335 Italian civilians in Rome.
• 1944 – World War II: In an event later dramatized in the movie The Great Escape, 76 Allied prisoners of war begin breaking out of the German camp Stalag Luft III.
• 1946 – A British Cabinet Mission arrives in India to discuss and plan for the transfer of power from the British Raj to Indian leadership.
• 1958 – Rock ‘n’ roll teen idol Elvis Presley is drafted in the US Army.
• 1973 – Kenyan athlete Kip Keino defeats Jim Ryun at the first-ever professional track meet in Los Angeles.
• 1976 – In Argentina, the armed forces overthrow the constitutional government of President Isabel Perón and start a 7-year dictatorial period self-styled the National Reorganisation Process.
• 1999 – Kosovo war: NATO began attacks on Yugoslavia without United Nations Security Council (UNSC) approval, marking the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign country.
• 2003 – The Arab League votes 21-1 in favour of a resolution demanding the immediate and unconditional removal of US and British soldiers from Iraq.

People (Births)

• 1103 – Yue Fei, Chinese military general (d. 1142).
• 1829 – Ignacio Zaragoza, Mexican general (d. 1862).
• 1834 – John Wesley Powell, American soldier, geologist, and explorer (d. 1902).
• 1882 – Marcel Lalu, French gymnast (d. 1951).
• 1885 – Charles Daniels, American swimmer (d. 1973).
• 1889 – Albert Hill, English-Canadian runner (d. 1969).
• 1916 – Donald Hamilton, Swedish-American soldier and author (d. 2006).
• 1944 – R. Lee Ermey, American sergeant and actor (d. 2018).
• 1957 – Pierre Harvey, Canadian cyclist and skier.
• 1959 – Emmit King, American sprinter.
• 1959 – Renaldo Nehemiah, American hurdler and football player.
• 1963 – Torsten Voss, German decathlete and bobsledder.
• 1966 – Floyd Heard, American sprinter and coach.
• 1970 – Judith Draxler, Austrian swimmer.
• 1973 – Mette Jacobsen, Danish swimmer.
• 1979 – Periklis Iakovakis, Greek hurdler.
• 1984 – Lucy Wangui Kabuu, Kenyan runner.
• 1988 – Aiga Grabuste, Latvian heptathlete.
• 1988 – Kardo Ploomipuu, Estonian swimmer.

People (Deaths)

• 1296 – Odon de Pins, Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller.
• 1563 – Hosokawa Harumoto, Japanese daimyō (b. 1514).
• 1773 – Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, English politician, Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard (b. 1694).
• 1869 – Antoine-Henri Jomini, French-Russian general (b. 1779).
• 1944 – Orde Wingate, Indian-English general (b. 1903).
• 1976 – Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, English field marshal (b. 1887).