Events which occured at some point during the month of March:

1097
After relations between Byzantine leaders and the European Crusaders deteriorates, Godfrey De Bouillon leads an attack on the Byzantine Imperial Palace at Blachernae.

1101
Milan archbishop Anselm of Buis and Count Albert of Biandrate arrive at Constantinople with a Lombard army in order to launch attacks on Muslims in the Holy Land.

1138
Conrad III (first German king of the Hohenstaufen dynasty and uncle of Frederick I Barbarossa, an early leader of the Third Crusade) is elected king of the Romans and ruler of Germany. Conrad would help lead the Second Crusade.

1148
French forces are left in Attalia by King Louis VII who purchases passage on ships for himself and a few nobles to Antioch. Muslims quickly descend upon Attalia and kill nearly every Frenchman there.

1180
Sibylla, sister of King Baldwin IV, marries Guy De Lusignan. King Baldwin also negotiates a peace treaty with Saladin, bringing hostilities to a temporary end. Reynald of Chatillon throws his support behind Guy for the throne of Jerusalem and against Raymond of Tripoli, regent of Jerusalem.

1185
King Baldwin IV dies of leprosy and King Baldwin V, still an infant, succeeds him as King of Jerusalem. Raymond of Tripoli is named regent.

1187
In response to his sister being taken prisoner and a caravan being captured by Reynald of Chantillon, Saladin begins his call for a holy war against the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem.

1189
Saladin returns to Damascus.

1191
A ship loaded with corn arrives for the Crusader forces outside of Acre, giving the Crusaders hope and allowing the siege to continue.

1210
Crusaders in southern France lay siege to Bram and, after capturing it, kill the Cathars living there.

1211
Crusaders return to the castle of Cabaret and this time Pierre-Roger de Cabarat surrenders.

1874
Friedrich Nietzsche began work on "Schopenhauer as Educator" (Untimely Meditations III). He would complete it in September of the same year.

1875
Friedrich Nietzsche wrote his essay "We Philologists".

1875
A court orders Mormon leader Brigham Young to continue paying support for one of his wives while she sues for divorce. Young would refuse to comply and the court would sentence him to house arrest.

1882
A draft of the fourth book of Friedrich Nietzsche's The Gay Science was completed.

1900
Sir Arthur Evans begins to uncover the forgotten civilization on Crete, later called Minoan after the mythical king Minos of Greek fables.

1970
The New York State Assembly passed a bill which allowed abortion without any restrictions at all.

1975
Cela Rorex, county clerk in Boulder County, Colorado, issues marriage licenses to six same-sex couples. District Attorney William C. Wise had told her that the state's gender-neutral language did not specifically forbid gay marriages. Both Rorex and Wise become the targets of extensive abuse and harassment and the state attorney general puts a halt to the activity. Some couples sue, but all lose in court.

1986
Father Charles E. Curran, a moral theologian at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., revealed that the Vatican had given him an ultimatum: retract his views on birth control, divorce, and other matters pertaining to sexuality, or lose the authority to teach Roman Catholic doctrine. Thousands protested this ultimatum and Curran refused to retract; eventually, the Vatican revoked his license to teach as a Catholic theologian and in 1987 he was suspended from Catholic University entirely.

1993
Despite an earlier promise to Jewish groups to stop referring to America as a "Christian" nation, Jerry Falwell delivered a sermon stating that "we must never allow our children to forget that this is a Christian nation. We must take back what is rightfully ours."

1994
Thirty-two women were ordained as priests in the Church of England, ending an Anglican tradition of a male-only priesthood that had lasted for 460 years. Two hundred male clergy announced their plans to resign in opposition to this move, forcing the Anglican Church to set aside more than USD $4 million in order to fund their pensions.

1994
Rev. Russell H. Dilday, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, was fired for what seminary trustees called serious "doctrinal and policy differences."

1997
Five members of the order of the Solar Temple die by fire when their house burns down in St. Casimir, Quebec.

1999
Religion in Public Schools: In New Hampshire, House Bill 398 was sponsored by 8 state legislators to allow individual school districts to have students recite the Christian Lord's Prayer in school. "194:15-a Lord's Prayer, Silent Individual Reflections and the Pledge of Allegiance in Public Elementary Schools. As a continuation of the policy of teaching our country's history and as an affirmation of the freedom of religion in this country, a school district may authorize the recitation of the traditional Lord's prayer and the pledge of allegiance to the flag in public elementary schools. In addition, a school district may authorize a period of time, after the recitation of the Lord's prayer and the pledge of allegiance to the flag, for silent reflections representative of a pupil's personal religious beliefs. Pupil participation in the recitation of the prayers and pledge of allegiance shall be voluntary. Pupils shall be reminded that the Lord's prayer is the prayer our pilgrim fathers recited when they came to this country in their search for freedom. Pupils shall be informed that these exercises are not meant to influence an individual's personal religious beliefs in any manner. The exercises shall be conducted so that pupils shall learn of our great freedoms, which freedoms include the freedom or religion and are symbolized by the recitation of the Lord's prayer and other silent religious reflections."

1999
A federal court upholds an IRS decision to revoke the tax-exempt status of a church in Pierce Creek, NY, after it ran ads specifically targeting Bill Clinton in the 1992 presidential election. This was the first time that any church in the United States had had its tax-exempt status revoked due to partisan political activity.

1999
Rev. Henry J. Lyons, president of the National Baptist Convention, resigns after he is convicted of grand theft and racketeering.

1999
Allan Boesak, former president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, receives a six year sentence in Cape Town, South Africa, for having taken several hundred thousand dollars earmarked for victims of apartheid.

1999
Canaan Banana, Methodist minister and former president of Zimbabwe, is defrocked by the Methodist Church of Zimbabwe after he is convicted of numerous sexual assaults on other men.

1999
Rev. Gregory Dell of Chicago is suspended from the United Methodist Church for presiding over a same-sex ceremony.

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