History Events on March 15

World War II: Third Battle of Kharkov: The Germans retake the city of Kharkov from the Soviet armies in bitter street fighting.

#Third_Battle_of_Kharkov

Constantius II elevates his cousin Gallus to Caesar, and puts him in charge of the Eastern part of the Roman Empire.

#Constantius_II

Collapse of Hotel New World: Thirty-three people die when the Hotel New World in Singapore collapses.

#Collapse_of_Hotel_New_World

Mikhail Gorbachev is elected as the first President of the Soviet Union.

#Mikhail_Gorbachev

Charles II of England issues the Royal Declaration of Indulgence.

#Charles_II_of_England

The dictator Theodoros Pangalos is elected President of Greece without opposition.

#Theodoros_Pangalos_(general)

Talaat Pasha, former Grand Vizir of the Ottoman Empire and chief architect of the Armenian Genocide is assassinated in Berlin by a 23-year-old Armenian, Soghomon Tehlirian.

#Talaat_Pasha

Stockpiles of obsolete ammunition explode at an ex-military ammunition depot in the village of Gërdec, Albania, killing 26 people. To date, no other tragedy has caused more deaths in post-World War II Albania.

#2008_Gërdec_explosions

Christopher Columbus returns to Spain after his first trip to the Americas.

#Christopher_Columbus

Iranian oil industry is nationalized.

#Nationalization_of_the_Iranian_oil_industry

American Revolutionary War: Battle of Guilford Court House: Near present-day Greensboro, North Carolina, 1,900 British troops under General Charles Cornwallis defeat a mixed American force numbering 4,400 in a Pyrrhic victory.

#American_Revolutionary_War

The first Women's Boat Race between the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge takes place on The Isis in Oxford.

#Women's_Boat_Race

A revolution breaks out in Hungary. The Habsburg rulers are compelled to meet the demands of the Reform party.

#Hungarian_Revolution_of_1848

Carpatho-Ukraine declares itself an independent republic, but is annexed by Hungary the next day.

#Carpatho-Ukraine

Mughal Emperor Akbar abolishes "jizya" (per capita tax).

#Akbar

United States President Woodrow Wilson sends 4,800 United States troops over the U.S.-Mexico border to pursue Pancho Villa.

#Woodrow_Wilson

Heian Shrine is founded.

#Heian_Shrine

In an emotional speech in Newburgh, New York, George Washington asks his officers not to support the Newburgh Conspiracy. The plea is successful and the threatened coup d'état never takes place.

#Newburgh,_New_York

Battle of Halmyros: The Catalan Company defeats Walter V, Count of Brienne to take control of the Duchy of Athens, a Crusader state in Greece.

#Battle_of_Halmyros

American Civil War: The Red River Campaign: U.S. Navy fleet arrives at Alexandria, Louisiana.

#American_Civil_War

French physicist Augustin Fresnel is adjudged the winner of the Grand Prix of the Académie des Sciences for his "Memoir on the Diffraction of Light", which verifies the Fresnel integrals, accounts for the limited extent to which light spreads into shadows, and thereby demolishes Newton's initial objection to the wave theory of light.

#Augustin-Jean_Fresnel

51 people are killed in the Christchurch mosque shootings.

#Christchurch_mosque_shootings

After a ten-year truce, German King Henry the Fowler defeats a Hungarian army at the Battle of Riade near the Unstrut river.

#Henry_the_Fowler

Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss keeps members of the National Council from convening, starting the Austrofascist dictatorship.

#Engelbert_Dollfuss

Roman consul Gnaeus Manlius Vulso celebrates an ovation for concluding the war against Veii and securing a forty years' truce.

#Roman_consul

Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates the Russian throne ending the 304-year Romanov dynasty.

#Tsar

Conquest of Santarém: The forces of Afonso I of Portugal capture Santarém.

#Conquest_of_Santarém

Somalia and Ethiopia signed a truce to end the Ethio-Somali War.

#Somalia

President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to the Selma crisis, tells U.S. Congress "We shall overcome" while advocating the Voting Rights Act.

#Lyndon_B._Johnson

Cold War: The Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany comes into effect, granting full sovereignty to the Federal Republic of Germany.

#Cold_War

Odoacer, the first barbarian King of Italy after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, is slain by Theoderic the Great, king of the Ostrogoths, while the two kings were feasting together.

#Odoacer

Maine becomes the 23rd U.S. state.

#Maine

Michael III, emperor of the Byzantine Empire, overthrows the regency of his mother, empress Theodora (wife of Theophilos) with support of the Byzantine nobility.

#Michael_III

Rolls-Royce Limited is incorporated.

#Rolls-Royce_Limited

In Cilaos, Réunion, 1870 mm (73 inches) of rain falls in a 24-hour period, setting a new world record (March 15 through March 16).

#Cilaos

France and Vietnam sign the Second Treaty of Saigon, further recognizing the full sovereignty of France over Cochinchina.

#French_Third_Republic

After Egypt gains nominal independence from the United Kingdom, Fuad I becomes King of Egypt.

#Egypt

1.4 million young people in 123 countries go on strike to protest climate change.

Beginning of the Syrian Civil War.

At the 1961 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference, South Africa announces that it will withdraw from the Commonwealth when the South African Constitution of 1961 comes into effect.

World War II: Soviet forces begin an offensive to push Germans from Upper Silesia.

Philippine Airlines, the flag carrier of the Philippines takes its first flight between Manila (from Nielson Field) to Baguio City with a Beechcraft Model 18 making the airline the first and oldest commercial airline in Asia operating under its original name.

SS Viking explodes off Newfoundland, killing 27 of the 147 on board.

Start of the Anglo-Tibetan War of 1888.

Restoration of the Scottish Catholic hierarchy, broken off back in 1603.

First ever official cricket test match is played: Australia vs England at the MCG Stadium, in Melbourne, Australia.

Archbishop of New York John McCloskey is named the first cardinal in the United States.

University of Toronto is founded.

Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger and his fellow conspirators, Gaius Cassius Longinus, Decimus Junius Brutus, and several other Roman senators, march to the Capitol following the assassination of Julius Caesar, but there is no response to their appeals to the population, who have left the streets in fear. Caesar's body remains in its place