Events on March 19 43
Year 1563
The Edict of Amboise is signed, ending the first phase of the French Wars of Religion and granting certain freedoms to the Huguenots.
Year 1649
The House of Commons of England passes an act abolishing the House of Lords, declaring it "useless and dangerous to the people of England".
Year 1687
Explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle, searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, is murdered by his own men.
Year 1863
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.
Year 1865
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.
Year 1885
Louis Riel declares a provisional government in Saskatchewan, beginning the North-West Rebellion.
Year 1895
Auguste and Louis Lumière record their first footage using their newly patented cinematograph.
Year 1920
The United States Senate rejects the Treaty of Versailles for the second time (the first time was on November 19, 1919).
Year 1921
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.
Year 1941
World War II: The 99th Pursuit Squadron also known as the Tuskegee Airmen, the first all-black unit of the US Army Air Corps, is activated.
Year 1943
Frank Nitti, the Chicago Outfit Boss after Al Capone, commits suicide at the Chicago Central Railyard.
Year 1945
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.
Year 1945
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.
Year 1946
French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion become overseas départements of France.
Year 1954
Joey Giardello knocks out Willie Tory in round seven at Madison Square Garden in the first televised prize boxing fight shown in colour.
Year 1954
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.
Year 1962
Highly influential artist, Bob Dylan releases his first album, Bob Dylan, for Columbia Records.
Year 1965
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.
Year 1966
Texas Western becomes the first college basketball team to win the Final four with an all-black starting lineup.
Year 1969
The 385 metres (1,263 ft) tall TV-mast at Emley Moor transmitting station, United Kingdom, collapses due to ice build-up.
Year 1979
The United States House of Representatives begins broadcasting its day-to-day business via the cable television network C-SPAN.
Year 1982
Falklands War: Argentinian forces land on South Georgia Island, precipitating war with the United Kingdom.
Year 1987
Televangelist Jim Bakker resigns as head of the PTL Club due to a brewing sex scandal; he hands over control to Jerry Falwell.
Year 1989
The Egyptian flag is raised at Taba marking the end of Israeli occupation since the Yom Kippur War in 1973 and the peace negotiations in 1979.
Year 1990
The ethnic clashes of Târgu Mureș begin four days after the anniversary of the Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire.
Year 2002
Zimbabwe is suspended from the Commonwealth on charges of human rights abuses and of electoral fraud, following a turbulent presidential election.
Year 2004
A Swedish DC-3 shot down by a Russian MiG-15 in 1952 over the Baltic Sea is finally recovered after years of work. The remains of the three crewmen are left in place, pending further investigations.
Year 2004
3-19 shooting incident: Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian is shot just before the country's presidential election on March 20.
Year 2008
GRB 080319B: A cosmic burst that is the farthest object visible to the naked eye is briefly observed.
Year 2011
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.
Year 2013
A series of bombings and shootings kills at least 98 people and injures 240 others across Iraq.
Year 2016
Flydubai Flight 981 crashes while attempting to land at Rostov-on-Don international airport, killing all 62 on board.
Year 2016
An explosion occurs in Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey, killing five people and injuring 36.