Things That Happened This Week in History

March
22nd

1622 – Jamestown massacre: Algonquians kill 347 English settlers around Jamestown, Virginia.

1943 – The entire village of Khatyn, present-day Republic of Belarus, is burnt alive by Schutzmannschaft Battalion 118. 

1972 – The United States Congress sends the Equal Rights Amendment to the states for ratification. 

1995 – Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returns to earth after setting a record of 438 days in space.

23rd

1775 – Patrick Henry delivers his speech – "Give me liberty, or give me death!" – at St. John's Episcopal Church, Richmond, Virginia.

1945 - Battle of Okinawa: US Navy ships bomb the Japanese island of Okinawa in preparation for the Allied invasion; it would become the largest battle of the Pacific War in World War II

1806 – After traveling through the Louisiana Purchase and reaching the Pacific Ocean, explorers Lewis and Clark and their "Corps of Discovery" begin their arduous journey home.

1983 – Strategic Defense Initiative: President Ronald Reagan makes his initial proposal to develop technology to intercept enemy missiles.


24th
1837 Canada gives its black citizens the right to vote

1882 German scientist Robert Koch discovers and describes the tubercle bacillus which causes tuberculosis ( Mycobacterium tuberculosis)

1944 – 76 Allied prisoners of war begin breaking out of the German camp Stalag Luft III.

1958 – Rock 'n' roll teen idol Elvis Presley is drafted in the U.S. Army.


25th
31 1st Easter, according to calendar-maker Dionysius Exiguus

1948 – The first successful tornado forecast predicts that a tornado will strike Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma. 

1960 1st guided missile launched from nuclear powered sub (Halibut)

1965 – Civil rights activists led by Martin Luther King Jr. successfully complete their 4-day 50-mile march from Selma to the capitol in Montgomery, Alabama.


26th
1812 Earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale destroys 90% of Caracas, Venezuela and kills an estimated 15,000–20,000 people

1942 First "Eichmann transport" to Auschwitz & Birkenau concentration camps

1953 Dr Jonas Salk announces vaccine to prevent polio 

1966 Large-scale anti-Vietnam War protests take place in the United States, including in New York, Washington D.C. and Chicago

27th
1866 – President of the United States of America Andrew Johnson vetoes the Civil Rights Act of 1866. His veto is overridden by Congress and the bill passes into law on April 9.

1914 1st successful non-direct blood transfusion is performed by Dr. Albert Hustin in Brussels 

1915 – Typhoid Mary, the first healthy carrier of disease ever identified in the United States is put in quarantine for the second time, where she would remain for the rest of her life.

1964 – The Good Friday earthquake, the most powerful earthquake recorded in North American history at a magnitude of 9.2 strikes Southcentral Alaska, killing 125 people and inflicting massive damage to the city of Anchorage.


28th
1939 Spanish Civil War ends, Madrid falls to Francisco Franco

1946 Cold War: The United States State Department releases the Acheson-Lilienthal Report, outlining a plan for the international control of nuclear power.