History Events on March 19

Zimbabwe is suspended from the Commonwealth on charges of human rights abuses and of electoral fraud, following a turbulent presidential election.

#Zimbabwe

The Sydney Harbour Bridge is opened.

#Sydney_Harbour_Bridge

Libyan Civil War: After the failure of Muammar Gaddafi's forces to take Benghazi, French Air Force launches Opération Harmattan, beginning foreign military intervention in Libya.

#Libyan_Civil_War_(2011)

World War II: Adolf Hitler issues his "Nero Decree" ordering all industries, military installations, shops, transportation facilities and communications facilities in Germany to be destroyed.

#Adolf_Hitler

French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion become overseas départements of France.

#French_Guiana

An explosion occurs in Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey, killing five people and injuring 36.

#March_2016_Istanbul_bombing

The House of Commons of England passes an act abolishing the House of Lords, declaring it "useless and dangerous to the people of England".

#House_of_Commons_of_England

American Civil War: The Battle of Bentonville begins. By the end of the battle two days later, Confederate forces had retreated from Four Oaks, North Carolina.

#American_Civil_War

The Edict of Amboise is signed, ending the first phase of the French Wars of Religion and granting certain freedoms to the Huguenots.

#Edict_of_Amboise

A Mongol victory at the Battle of Yamen ends the Song dynasty in China.

#Mongols

Televangelist Jim Bakker resigns as head of the PTL Club due to a brewing sex scandal; he hands over control to Jerry Falwell.

#Jim_Bakker

The 385 metres (1,263 ft) tall TV-mast at Emley Moor transmitting station, United Kingdom, collapses due to ice build-up.

#Emley_Moor_transmitting_station

The U.S. Congress establishes time zones and approves daylight saving time.

#United_States_Congress

The Egyptian flag is raised at Taba marking the end of Israeli occupation since the Six Days War in 1967 and the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty in 1979.

#Egypt

The United States Senate rejects the Treaty of Versailles for the second time (the first time was on November 19, 1919).

#United_States_Senate

Irish War of Independence: One of the biggest engagements of the war takes place at Crossbarry, County Cork. About 100 Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteers escape an attempt by over 1,300 British forces to encircle them.

#Irish_War_of_Independence

The last male northern white rhinoceros, Sudan, dies, ensuring a chance of extinction for the species.

#Northern_white_rhinoceros

The Statute of Rhuddlan incorporates the Principality of Wales into England.

#Statute_of_Rhuddlan

Highly influential artist Bob Dylan releases his first album, Bob Dylan, for Columbia Records.

#Bob_Dylan

Falklands War: Argentinian forces land on South Georgia Island, precipitating war with the United Kingdom.

#Falklands_War

Catalina affair: A Swedish DC-3 shot down by a Soviet MiG-15 in 1952 over the Baltic Sea is finally recovered after years of work.

#Catalina_affair

Gambling is legalized in Nevada.

#Gambling

Auguste and Louis Lumière record their first footage using their newly patented cinematograph.

#Auguste_and_Louis_Lumière

The Taiping reform movement occupies and makes Nanjing its capital until 1864.

#Taiping_Rebellion

World War II: The German army occupies Hungary.

#World_War_II

Joey Giardello knocks out Willie Tory in round seven at Madison Square Garden in the first televised prize boxing fight shown in colour.

#Joey_Giardello

GRB 080319B: A cosmic burst that is the farthest object visible to the naked eye is briefly observed.

#GRB_080319B

Louis Riel declares a provisional government in Saskatchewan, beginning the North-West Rebellion.

#Louis_Riel

The United States House of Representatives begins broadcasting its day-to-day business via the cable television network C-SPAN.

#United_States_House_of_Representatives

Flydubai Flight 981 crashes while attempting to land at Rostov-on-Don international airport, killing all 62 on board.

#Flydubai_Flight_981

A series of bombings and shootings kills at least 98 people and injures 240 others across Iraq.

March 19 Shooting Incident: the Republic of China(Taiwan) president Chen Shui-bian was shot just before the country's presidential election on March 20.

The ethnic clashes of Târgu Mure? begin four days after the anniversary of the Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire.

Texas Western becomes the first college basketball team to win the Final four with an all-black starting lineup.

The wreck of the SS Georgiana, valued at over $50,000,000 and said to have been the most powerful Confederate cruiser, is discovered by teenage diver and pioneer underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence, exactly 102 years after its destruction.

Over 500,000 Brazilians attend the March of the Family with God for Liberty, in protest against the government of João Goulart and against Communism.

Algerian War of Independence ends.

The Monarch Underwear Company fire leaves 24 dead and 15 injured.

Willie Mosconi sets a world record by running 526 consecutive balls without a miss during a straight pool exhibition at East High Billiard Club in Springfield, Ohio, setting a record which remains unbroken.

World War II: Off the coast of Japan, a dive bomber hits the aircraft carrier USS Franklin, killing 724 of her crew. Badly damaged, the ship is able to return to the U.S. under her own power.

#Dive_bomber

Frank Nitti, the Chicago Outfit Boss after Al Capone, commits suicide at the Chicago Central Railyard.

The SS Georgiana, said to have been the most powerful Confederate cruiser, is destroyed on her maiden voyage with a cargo of munitions, medicines and merchandise then valued at over $1,000,000.

The First Taranaki War ends in New Zealand.

The Cádiz Cortes promulgates the Spanish Constitution of 1812.

Explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle, searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, is murdered by his own men.