Related Resources • History: March • Religious Timelines

1285
Pope Martin IV died.

1515
St. Teresa of Avila was born.

1531
The Schmalkaldic League was formed as a defensive alliance of Lutheran nobility.

1911
British philosopher John Langshaw Austin was born in Lancaster, England.

1917
Turkish authorities expelled all Jews from Tel Aviv and Jaffa.

1956
At the Vatican, the first black, Japanese, and Filipino cardinals were named by Pope Pius XII, but their names were not immediately released. Instead, they were held "in pectore," or "in the breast" of the pope.

1959
In a violation of Tibetan political and religious autonomy, which they had pledged to uphold, the Chinese government dissolved the Tibetan government and replaced the Dalai Lama with the Panchen Lama. Chinese authorities sought to capture and imprison the Dalai Lama, but he successfully escaped to India and remained in exile ever since.

1973
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat announces that he has made himself military governor-general with the power to declare martial law.

2002
In Mississippi, the "George County Times" published a letter from George County Justice Court Judge Connie Wilkerson which read, in part, "In my opinion, gays and lesbians should be put in some type of mental institution." Because of the bias expressed in such a statement, an ethics violation complaint was filed against Wilkerson.

2004
According to Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, the recently chosen leader of Hamas, God has declared war on the United States.

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