Mar. 15. 44 B.C.: Julius Caesar assassinated. 1917: US Supreme Court approves Eight-Hour Act under threat of railway strike.

Mar. 16. 1968: Hundreds of Vietnamese civilians massacred by US troops at My Lai, Vietnam. 2002: Between 300,000 and 500,000 people march in Barcelona, Spain, protesting a European Summit meeting. As per new tradition, the peaceful march was attacked by police with rubber bullets and tear gas.

Mar. 17. 1775: Richard Henderson, a North Carolina judge, buys a vast tract of Cherokee land for the Transylvania Land Co.; purchase is later declared invalid but land cession is not reversed. 1960: Pres. Eisenhower authorizes secret training of Cuban exiles for invasion of Cuba.

Mar. 18. 1887: Non-reservation Spokane Indians agree to give up their land claims and move to Coeur d'Alene and Flathead reservations. 1953: In response to an investigation by Sen. Joseph McCarthy, the State Department barred from its overseas information libraries the works of all authors whose loyalty to the US was "suspect."

Mar. 19. 1920: US Senate refuses to ratify League of Nations covenant. 1968: Presidential advisors advise getting out of Vietnam War.

Mar. 20. 1995: Scores die, thousands injured when an obscure religious cult releases nerve gas into the Tokyo, Japan subway system.

Mar. 21. 1960: Sharpeville Massacre: South African police kill 89 protesters in Sharpeville and other towns during protests of apartheid pass laws.

Mar. 22. 1765: Stamp Act imposed upon American colonies by Great Britain, illustrating the infamous "taxation without representation" with which North Americans have again become familiar of late. 1947: Pres. Truman issues an order calling for strict FBI check-ups into the loyalty of all prospective federal employees. The order results in the creation of the "Attorney General's List" of subversive organizations.

Mar. 23. 1871: France: Communes proclaimed in Lyon and Marseilles. 1933: Germany: Dachau opens for business--the first of many concentration camps in Germany for the destruction of Jews and the undesirables classified "unfit."

Mar. 24. 79 AD: Famous eruption of Mount Vesuvius buries the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum and some 20,000 inhabitants. Although some manage to flee, most inhabitants of these seaport towns were cut off by damage to docks, boat landings, and rough seas. 1919: League of Women Voters is founded.

Mar. 25. 1584: First American colonists set sail from England. Bad things follow. 1994: Last group of US soldiers leaves Somalia as civil war intensifies.

Mar. 26. 1871: Insurrectionary movement in Creusot, France, in sympathy with Saint Etienne and Paris Commune, is proclaimed. 1910: Immigration Act of 1907 amended by Congress to ban paupers, anarchists, criminals, and the [other] diseased from the US.

Mar. 27. 1951: Iran: Mossadeq nationalizes Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. 1964: An earthquake measuring 8.6 on the Richter scale, one of the largest ever recorded, flattens Anchorage, Alaska. The quake is felt as far away as Seattle.

Mar. 28. 1932: Madrid: Spanish anarchists begin burning monasteries. 1976: FBI discloses it burglarized the Socialist Party at least 92 times between 1960 and 1966.