This is what was happening on this day all those years ago ...and quite recently. (note to self: I should open that database and put a few of my own entries in there... ;) )

• 0417 - Zosimus becomes bishop of Rome
• 0537 - Goths lay siege to Rome
• 0843 - Icon worship officially re-instated in Aya Sofia Constantinople
• 1302 - Romeo & Juliet's wedding day, according to Shakespeare
• 1502 - Tebriz] shah Ismail I of Persia crowned
• 1513 - Giovanni de' Medici chosen Pope Leo X
• 1563 - League of High Nobles routes 2nd protest against King Philip II
• 1567 - Geuzen army leaves Walcheren to return to Oosterweel
• 1597 - Land guardian Albrecht occupies Amiens on France
• 1598 - Countess Charlotte of Nassau marries duke Claude de la Tremoille
• 1649 - Treaty of Rueil destroys 1st Fronde-uprising
• 1665 - NY approves new code guaranteeing Protestants religious rights
• 1669 - Volcano Etna in Italy erupts killing 15,000
• 1702 - 1st English daily newspaper "Daily Courant," publishes
• 1779 - US army Corps of Engineers established (1st time)
• 1789 - Benjamin Banneker with L'Enfant begin to lay out Washington DC
• 1791 - Samuel Mulliken, Phila, is 1st to obtain more than 1 US patent
• 1794 - Royal Theatre in London's Dury Lane opens
• 1795 - Battle at Kurdla India: Mahratten beat Mogols
• 1810 - Emperor Napoleon married by proxy to Archduchess Marie Louise
• 1812 - Citizenship granted to Prussian Jews
• 1823 - 1st normal school in US opens, Concord Academy, Concord, Vt
• 1824 - US War Dept creates the Bureau of Indian Affair
• 1835 - HMS Beagle anchors off Valparaiso, Chile
• 1850 - Woman's Medical College of Penn (1st female medical school)
• 1851 - Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Rigoletto," premieres in Venice
• 1861 - Confederate convention in Montgomery, adopts constitution
• 1862 - Lincoln removes McClellen as general-in-chief & makes him head of
• 1862 - 12] Gen Stonewall Jackson evacuates Winchester Virginia Army of the Potomac. Gen Henry Halleck is named general-in-chief
• 1864 - Skirmish at Calfkiller Creek (Sparta), Tennessee
• 1865 - Gen Sherman's Union forces occupies Fayetteville, NC
• 1867 - Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Don Carlos," premieres in Paris
• 1867 - Great Mauna Loa eruption (Hawaiian volcano)
• 1882 - Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association organized in Princeton NJ
• 1888 - Great blizzard of '88 strikes NE US
• 1892 - 1st public basketball game (Springfield, Mass)
• 1895 - Spanish cruiser Reina Regenta sinks at Gibraltar, 400 killed
• 1901 - Cincinnati Enquirer reports Balt mgr John McGraw signed Cherokee Indian Tokohoma, who is really black 2nd baseman Charlie Grant
• 1904 - Stanley Cup: Ottawa Silver 7 sweep Brandon Wheat Kings in 2 games
• 1905 - Stanley Cup: Ottawa Silver 7 beat Rat Portage Thisles, 2 games to 1
• 1910 - Jack Hobbs 1st Test ton (187 v SAfr), his only Test hit wicket
• 1912 - 1st Stanley Cup game to be played in 3 20-min periods, formerly played in 30-min halfs, Quebec beats Moncton 9-3 on way to sweep
• 1917 - British troops occupy Baghdad
• 1917 - 1st NHL championship game ever played, Toronto Arenas beats Montreal Canadiens 7-3 in 1st of 2 game set (second game on March 13)
• 1918 - Moscow becomes capital of revolutionary Russia
• 1918 - Save the Redwoods League founded
• 1919 - General strike in Germany, crushed
• 1922 - Western Hockey Championship: Vancouver Millionaires (PCHA) sweep Regina Capitals, in 2 games
• 1924 - 3rd term of Belgium Theunis govt begins
• 1924 - Eden Phillpotts' "Farmer's Wife," premieres in London
• 1924 - NHL Championship: Montreal Canadiens sweeps Ottawa Senators in 2 games
• 1926 - Eamon da Valera ends leadership of Sinn Fein
• 1927 - 1st armored commercial car hold-up in US, Pittsburgh
• 1927 - 1st golden gloves tournament
• 1927 - Samuel Roxy Rothafel opens famous Roxy Theater (NYC)
• 1928 - Netherlands & Belgium tie 1-1 (soccer match in Amsterdam)
• 1930 - Pres & Chief Justice William Taft buried in Arlington
• 1934 - Netherlands beats Belgium 9-3, in soccer
• 1935 - Bank of Canada opens
• 1935 - Hermann Goering officially creates German Air Force, the Luftwaffe
• 1938 - Artur Seyss-Inquart replaces Kurt von Schuschnigg as Chancellor of Austria; German troops also entered the country
• 1941 - Bronko Nagurski beats Ray Steele in Minn, to become wrestling champ
• 1941 - FDR signs Lend-Lease Bill (lend money to Britain)
• 1942 - 1st deportation train leaves Paris for Auschewitz Concentration Camp
• 1942 - Gen MacArthur leaves Corregidor (Bataan) for Australia
• 1942 - Japanese troop land on North-Sumatra
• 1943 - Nazi Militia forms in Netherlands
• 1944 - Dutch resistance fighter Joop Westerweel arrested
• 1945 - 1,000 allied bombers harass Essen, 4,662 ton bombs
• 1945 - Flemish nazi collaborator Maria Huygens sentenced to death
• 1948 - 1st black in the US Tennis Open (Reginald Weir)
• 1948 - Jewish Agency of Jerusalem bombed
• 1948 - Reginald Weit became the 1st black to play in the US Tennis Open
• 1948 - WBAL TV channel 11 in Baltimore, MD (CBS) begins broadcasting
• 1953 - 1st woman army doctor commissioned (FM Adams)
• 1953 - American B-47 accidentally drops a nuclear bomb on South Carolina, the bomb doesn't go off due to 6 safety catches
• 1954 - US Army charges Senator Joseph McCarthy used undue pressure tactics
• 1956 - Louise Suggs wins LPGA Titleholders Golf Championship
• 1958 - Charles Van Doren finally loses on TV game show "21"
• 1958 - Starting this season, AL batters are required to wear batting helmets
• 1959 - "Raisin in the Sun," 1st Broadway play by a black woman, opens
• 1959 - Teddy Scholten wins Eurovision Song festival with "A Little Bit"
• 1960 - Pioneer 5 launched into solar orbit between Earth & Venus
• 1961 - Then NHL record 40 penalties, Black Hawks & Maple Leafs (20 each)
• 1963 - Somalia drops diplomatic relations with Great Britain
• 1965 - Indonesia President Sukarno accepts qualifications of Suharto
• 1966 - Military coup led by Indonesian Gen Suharto breaks out
• 1967 - Pink Floyd releases their 1st song (Arnold Layne)
• 1968 - Anti-Zionist Clandestine Radio Voice of El Assifa starts transmitting
• 1968 - Dmitri Shostakovitch completes his 12nd string quartet
• 1968 - Otis Redding posthumously receives gold record for " Dock of the Bay"
• 1970 - 12th Grammy Awards: Aquarius, Crosby Stills & Nash, Peggy Lee win
• 1970 - Iraq Ba'th Party recognizes Kurd nation
• 1972 - "Inner City" closes at Barrymore Theater NYC after 97 performances
• 1973 - Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA S&H Green Stamp Golf Classic
• 1974 - Mount Etna in Sicily erupted
• 1974 - Rhino Store gives people 5› to take home Danny Bonaduce's Album
• 1975 - Portugal military coup under general Spinola fails
• 1975 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
• 1977 - Moslems hold 130 hostages in Wash DC
• 1978 - Terrorists attack mail truck at Tel Aviv, 45 killed
• 1978 - USF-led Bill Cartwright scores 23 points as the Dons oust NC
• 1979 - Nancy Lopez wins LPGA Sunstar Golf Classic
• 1979 - Randy Hold receives 67 min in penalties in a 60 min NHL hockey game
• 1980 - Rod Marsh bowls 10 overs for 51 runs in dull Aust v Pak cricket draw
• 1981 - Chile constitution takes effect, Augusto Pinochet 2nd term begins
• 1981 - Johnny Mize & Rube Foster elected to baseball Hall of Fame
• 1982 - Failed military coup under Rambocus/Hawker in Suriname
• 1982 - Harrison Williams (Sen-D-NJ) resigned rather than face expulsion
• 1982 - Menachem Begin & Anwar Sadat sign peace treaty in Wash DC
• 1983 - Ice Dance Championship at Helsinki Finland won by Torvill & Dean (GRB)
• 1983 - Ice Pairs Championship at Helsinki won by Valova & Vasiliev (URS)
• 1983 - Ladies Figure Skating Champ in Helsinki won by Rosalynn Sumners (USA)
• 1983 - Men's Fig Skating Championship in Helsinki won by Scott Hamilton (USA)
• 1984 - Chris Johnson wins LPGA Samaritan Turquoise Golf Classic
• 1985 - Mikhail S Gorbachev replaces Konstantin Chernenko as Soviet leader
• 1986 - 1 million days since traditional foundation of Rome, 4/21/753 BC
• 1986 - 12th People's Choice Awards
• 1986 - 187.27 million shares traded in NY Stock Exchange
• 1986 - Islander Mike Bossy, 1st NHLer to score 50 goals in 9 straight seasons
• 1986 - Japanese probe Sakigake flies by Halley's Comet at 6.8 million km
• 1986 - NFL adopts instant replay rule
• 1987 - Wayne Gretzky scores 1,500th NHL point
• 1988 - Utrecht conservatory destroyed by fire
• 1988 - œ note ceases to be legal tender, replaced by œ coin
• 1990 - 16th People's Choice Awards
• 1990 - Lithuania declares it's Independence
• 1990 - Maggie Will wins Desert Inn LPGA Golf International
• 1991 - Janet Jackson signs $40M 3 album deal with Virgin records
• 1991 - John Smith, amateur wrestler, wins James E Sullivan Award
• 1991 - Monica Seles ends Steffi Graf's streak of 186 weeks ranked as #1
• 1993 - Men's Figure Skating Championship in Prague won by Kurt Browning CAN
• 1994 - Eduardo Frei succeeds Patricio Aylwin as president of Chile
• 1995 - -36.8øF (-38.2øC) in Chosedachar, Komi-district, on 67øN
• 1995 - Pres Nazarbajev disbands Kazachstan parliament
• 1995 - Sinn Fein party leader, Gerry Adams, arrives in US
• 1995 - Yolanda Chen hop-skip-jumps world indoor record 15.03m
• 1996 - Chris Harris scores 130 in losing NZ side v Australia, World Cup
• 1996 - Mark Waugh scores 110 v NZ for his third century of the World Cup
• 1997 - 3rd Blockbuster Entertainment Awards
• 1997 - Ashes of Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry are launched into space
• 1997 - Beatle McCartney knighted Sir Paul by Queen
• 1997 - SF Giant J T Snow suffers a fractured eye socket when hit by a pitch