10th March 1762: The execution of Jean Calas prompts debates on religious intolerance and judicial injustice in France
Jean Calas was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death by breaking on the wheel, but the case had been marred by inconsistencies and a lack of conclusive evidence that prompted Voltaire to argue Calas had been a victim of religious prejudice and a flawed judicial ...
10 Mars 0s
9th March 1841: US Supreme court rules on the Amistad slavery case and sets the captured Africans free
The long case eventually went before the Supreme Court who ruled that they had been unlawfully held and thus rebelled in a natural right to self-defence. The court set them ...
9 Mars 0s
8th March 1736: Nader Shah formally crowned as the ruler of Iran, marking the start of the Afsharid dynasty
Nader's coronation ended Safavid rule and established the Afsharid dynasty that dramatically expanded Persia’s borders, but at the expense of heavy taxation that funded the military ...
8 Mars 0s
7th March 1936: The remilitarisation of the Rhineland by the German Army under Adolf Hitler
Hitler chose to send three battalions, or approximately 22,000 German troops, into the Rhineland in violation of the terms of the Treaty of ...
7 Mars 0s
6th March 1933: Eleanor Roosevelt holds her first press conference as First Lady of the United States
Roosevelt's press conference was exclusively for women reporters. It was the first time a president’s wife had held a press briefing, marking a significant departure from previous ...
6 Mars 0s
5th March 1946: Winston Churchill describes the post-war division of Europe as an ‘Iron Curtain’ in his ‘Sinews of Peace’ address in Fulton, Missouri
Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech played a significant role in changing western perceptions of their former Soviet ...
5 Mars 0s
4th March 1890: The Forth Bridge in Scotland opened by the future King Edward VII
The Forth Railway Bridge stretches almost 2.5km across the Firth of Forth, a large estuary area to west of ...
4 Mars 0s
3rd March 1938: First commercial quantities of oil discovered in Saudi Arabia after engineers drill Dammam Well No. 7
Dammam Well No. 7 well produced 1,585 barrels in its first day, leading to further exploration that revealed vast oil fields in Saudi ...
3 Mars 0s
