Historical Events on Thursday, 19th March

19/03/2023

The Swiss Government brokers a deal for UBS to buy out rival Credit Suisse in an attempt to calm the 2023 banking crisis.

The Federal Council is the federal cabinet of the Swiss Confederation. Its seven members also serve as the collective head of state and government of Switzerland. Since World War II, the Federal Council is by convention a permanent grand coalition government composed of representatives of the country's major parties and language regions.

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19/03/2019

The first President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, resigns from office after nearly three decades, leaving Senate Chairman Kassym-Jomart Tokayev as the acting President and successor.

The president of Kazakhstan, officially the president of the Republic of Kazakhstan is the executive head of state of Kazakhstan and the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan. As the highest-ranking official in the country, the president also chairs the National Security Council with the powers and responsibilities of the office as outlined in a special section of the Constitution of Kazakhstan.

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19/03/2016

Flydubai Flight 981 crashes while attempting to land at Rostov-on-Don international airport, killing all 62 on board.

Flydubai Flight 981 (FZ981/FDB981) was a scheduled international passenger flight from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to Rostov-on-Don, Russia. On 19 March 2016, the Boeing 737-800 aircraft operating the flight crashed during a go-around, killing all 62 passengers and crew on board.

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An explosion occurs in Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey, killing five people and injuring 36.

On 19 March 2016, a suicide bombing took place in Istanbul's Beyoğlu district in front of the district governor's office. The attack occurred at 10:55 (EET) at the intersection of Balo Street with İstiklal Avenue, a central shopping street. The attack caused at least five deaths, including that of the perpetrator. Thirty-six people were injured, including seven whose injuries were severe. Among those injured were twelve foreign tourists. Among those killed, three were of Israeli nationality. On 22 March, the Turkish interior minister said that the bomber had links with ISIL.

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19/03/2013

A series of bombings and shootings kills at least 98 people and injures 240 others across Iraq.

The 19 March 2013 Iraq attacks were a series of coordinated bombings and shootings across the capital Baghdad and several major cities in the north and central parts of the country. At least 98 people were killed and more than 240 others injured in the wave of violence, which took place on the tenth anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq War.

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19/03/2011

Libyan Civil War: After the failure of Muammar Gaddafi's forces to take Benghazi, the French Air Force launches Opération Harmattan, beginning foreign military intervention in Libya.

The Libyan Civil War, also known as the First Libyan Civil War and Libyan Revolution, was an armed conflict fought in 2011 in the North African country of Libya between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and rebel groups attempting to oust his government. The war was preceded by protests in Zawiya on 8 August 2009 and finally ignited by protests in Benghazi beginning on 15 February 2011, which led to clashes with security forces who fired on the crowd. The protests escalated into a rebellion spreading across the country, with the forces opposing Gaddafi establishing an interim governing body, the National Transitional Council.

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19/03/2008

GRB 080319B: A cosmic burst that is the farthest object visible to the naked eye is briefly observed.

GRB 080319B was a gamma-ray burst (GRB) detected by the Swift satellite at 06:12 UTC on March 19, 2008. The burst set a new record for the farthest object that was observable with the naked eye: it had a peak visual apparent magnitude of 5.8 and remained visible to human eyes for approximately 30 seconds. The magnitude was brighter than 9.0 for approximately 60 seconds. If viewed from 1 AU away, it would have had a peak apparent magnitude of −67.57. It had an absolute magnitude of −38.6, beaten by GRB 220101A with −39.4 in 2023.

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19/03/2004

Catalina affair: A Swedish DC-3 shot down by a Soviet MiG-15 in 1952 over the Baltic Sea is finally recovered after years of work.

The Catalina affair was a military confrontation and Cold War-era diplomatic crisis in June 1952, in which Soviet Air Force fighter jets shot down two Swedish aircraft over international waters in the Baltic Sea.

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March 19 Shooting Incident: The Republic of China (Taiwan) president Chen Shui-bian is shot just before the country's presidential election on March 20.

The March 19 shooting incident, also known as the 319 incident, was an assassination attempt on President Chen Shui-bian and Vice President Annette Lu while they were campaigning in Tainan, Taiwan on 19 March 2004, the day before Taiwan's presidential election. Their injuries were not life-threatening, and both Chen and Lu were released from Chi-Mei Hospital on the same day without losing consciousness or undergoing surgery.

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The Konginkangas bus disaster kills 23 and injures 14 people in Äänekoski, Finland.

The Konginkangas bus disaster was a major road traffic crash on 19 March 2004, outside the village of Konginkangas in Äänekoski, Central Finland. At 02:08 local time, a bus transporting 38 passengers, most of them youths, to the Rukatunturi skiing center for an alpine ski trip crashed into a full-trailer truck carrying heavy paper rolls weighing about 61.5 tonnes total. The crash occurred on Finnish national road 4 (E75) 20 kilometres (12 mi) north of Äänekoski, and left the bus driver and 22 passengers dead; fourteen were injured. The executive director of the youth travel company was among those who perished in the crash. Most of the victims were killed immediately by the paper rolls ejected into the bus. The truck driver was uninjured.

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19/03/2003

United States President George W. Bush addresses the nation, announcing the invasion of Iraq.

The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.

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19/03/1998

An Ariana Afghan Airlines Boeing 727 crashes on approach to Kabul International Airport, killing all 45 on board.

Ariana Afghan Airlines Co. Ltd., also known simply as Ariana, is the flag carrier and largest airline of Afghanistan. Founded in 1955, Ariana is state owned and the oldest airline in the country. The company has its main base at Kabul International Airport, from which it operates domestic flights and international connections to destinations in China, India, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. The carrier is headquartered in Shāre Naw district, Kabul. Ariana Afghan Airlines has been on the list of air carriers banned in the European Union since October 2006 .

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19/03/1990

The ethnic clashes of Târgu Mureș begin four days after the anniversary of the Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire.

The ethnic clashes of Târgu Mureș refer to incidents between the Hungarians and Romanians in Târgu Mureș and surrounding settlements in Transylvania, Romania in March 1990. The clashes were the bloodiest inter-ethnic incidents of the post-communist era in Transylvania. Târgu Mureș is a Romanian town with an ethnically mixed population that was almost equally distributed between Romanians and Hungarians after the fall of the communist regime in December 1989. It has been a cultural and political center for the Hungarian minority in Transylvania.

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19/03/1989

The Egyptian flag is raised at Taba, marking the end of Israeli occupation since the Six Days War in 1967 and the Egypt–Israel peace treaty in 1979.

Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Palestine and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan and the Sahara to the south, and Libya to the west. The Gulf of Aqaba in the northeast separates Egypt from Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Cairo is the capital, largest city, and leading cultural centre, while Alexandria is the second-largest city and an important hub of industry and tourism. With over 107 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in the Arab world, third-most populous country in Africa, and 15th-most populated in the world.

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19/03/1982

Falklands War: Argentinian forces land on South Georgia Island, precipitating war with the United Kingdom.

The Falklands War was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial dependency, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The conflict began on 2 April 1982, when Argentina invaded and occupied the Falkland Islands, followed by the invasion of South Georgia the next day. On 5 April the British government dispatched a naval task force to engage the Argentine Navy and Air Force before making an amphibious assault on the islands. The conflict lasted 74 days and ended with an Argentine surrender on 14 June, returning the islands to British control. In total, 649 Argentine military personnel, 255 British military personnel and three Falkland Islanders were killed during the hostilities.

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19/03/1979

The United States House of Representatives begins broadcasting its day-to-day business via the cable television network C-SPAN.

The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of the U.S. Constitution in enumerated matters to pass or defeat federal legislation, known as bills. Those that are also passed by the Senate are sent to the president for signature or veto. The House's exclusive powers include initiating all revenue bills, impeaching federal officers, and electing the president if no candidate receives a majority of votes in the Electoral College.

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19/03/1969

The 385-metre-tall (1,263 ft) TV-mast at Emley Moor transmitting station, United Kingdom, collapses due to ice build-up.

The Emley Moor transmitting station is a telecommunications and broadcasting facility on Emley Moor, 1 mile (1.6 km) west of the village centre of Emley, in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England.

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19/03/1965

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.

The Georgiana was a brig-rigged, iron hulled, propeller steamer belonging to the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. Reputedly intended to become the "most powerful" cruiser in the Confederate fleet once her guns were mounted, she was never used in battle. On her maiden voyage from Scotland, where she was built, she encountered Union Navy ships engaged in a blockade of Charleston, South Carolina, and was heavily damaged before being scuttled by her captain. The wreck was discovered in 1965 and lies in the shallow waters of Charleston's harbor.

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19/03/1964

Over 500,000 Brazilians attend the March of the Family with God for Liberty, in protest against the government of João Goulart and against communism.

The March of the Family with God for Liberty was the common name for a series of public demonstrations that took place between March 19 and June 8, 1964, in Brazil in response to what was described, by the military and conservative sectors of society, a communist threat posed by the actions of radical groups and by the speech at a rally given by then-president João Goulart on March 13 of that same year.

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19/03/1962

The Algerian War of Independence ends.

The Algerian War, also known as the Algerian Revolution, the Franco-Algerian War, or the Algerian War of Independence, was an armed conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) from 1954 to 1962, which led to Algeria winning its independence from France. An important decolonization war, it was a complex conflict characterized by guerrilla warfare and war crimes. The conflict also became a civil war between the different communities and within the communities. The war took place mainly on the territory of French Algeria, with repercussions in metropolitan France.

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19/03/1958

The Monarch Underwear Company fire leaves 24 dead and 15 injured.

The Monarch Underwear Company fire occurred in Manhattan, New York City at 623 Broadway on March 19, 1958. Twenty-four people were killed in a loft fire, between Houston Street and Bleecker Street and fifteen more were injured. Six of the injured were hurt when they leaped from the building and missed fire nets. The conflagration began in the third floor textile printing plant of an edifice in which the workrooms of several businesses were located. Ten corpses were found underneath work benches of the Monarch Underwear Company, on the fourth floor. The fire started at 4:30 p.m. and lasted one and a half hours. It began in a processing oven of the S.T.S. Textile Company.

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19/03/1946

French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Réunion become overseas départements of France.

French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west and Brazil to the east and south, French Guiana covers a total area of 84,000 km2 (32,000 sq mi) and a land area of 83,534 km2 (32,253 sq mi). As of January 2026, it is home to 298,554 people.

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19/03/1945

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 US under her own power.

A dive bomber is a tactical bomber aircraft that attacks its target by performing fast dives in order to provide greater accuracy for the aerial bomb it drops. Diving directly towards the target before releasing gives the bomb a faster overall speed and a greater terminal momentum, straightens the bomb's free-fall trajectory, and allows the pilot to keep visual contact throughout the bomb run. This allows more focused attacks on point targets and ships, which were difficult to attack with conventional level bombers even en masse.

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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.

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Germany during the Nazi era, which lasted from 1933 until his suicide in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor of Germany in 1933 and then taking the title of Führer und Reichskanzler in 1934. Germany's invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 under his leadership marked the outbreak of the Second World War. Throughout the ensuing conflict, Hitler was closely involved in the direction of German military operations and was central to the perpetration of the Holocaust, the genocide of about six million Jews and millions of other victims.

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19/03/1944

World War II: The German army occupies Hungary.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

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19/03/1943

Frank Nitti, the Chicago Outfit Boss after Al Capone, commits suicide at the Chicago Central Railyard.

Frank Ralph Nitto, known as Frank Nitti, was an Italian-American organized crime figure based in Chicago. The bodyguard of Al Capone, Nitti was in charge of all money flowing through the operation. Nitti later succeeded Capone as acting boss of the Chicago Outfit.

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19/03/1932

The Sydney Harbour Bridge is opened.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge in Sydney, Australia, spanning Sydney Harbour from the central business district (CBD) to the North Shore. The view of the bridge, the harbour, and the nearby Sydney Opera House is widely regarded as an iconic image of Sydney, and of Australia itself. Nicknamed "the Coathanger" because of its arch-based design, the bridge carries rail, vehicular, bicycle and pedestrian traffic.

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19/03/1921

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.

The Irish War of Independence, also known as the Anglo-Irish War, was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army and British forces: the British Army, along with the quasi-military Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and its paramilitary forces the Auxiliaries and Ulster Special Constabulary (USC). It was part of the Irish revolutionary period.

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19/03/1920

The United States Senate rejects the Treaty of Versailles for the second time (the first time was on November 19, 1919).

The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, and the U.S. House of Representatives is the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the Constitution to make and pass or defeat federal legislation.

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19/03/1918

The US Congress establishes time zones and approves daylight saving time.

The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a bicameral legislature, including a lower body, the U.S. House of Representatives, and an upper body, the U.S. Senate. They both meet in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.

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19/03/1885

Louis Riel declares a provisional government in Saskatchewan, beginning the North-West Rebellion.

Louis Riel was a Canadian politician, a founder of the province of Manitoba, and a political leader of the Métis people. He led two resistance movements against the Government of Canada and its first prime minister John A. Macdonald. Riel fought to defend Métis rights and identity as the Northwest Territories came progressively under the Canadian sphere of influence.

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19/03/1865

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.

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States, which they saw as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war lasted a little over four years, ending with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.

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19/03/1831

First documented bank heist in U.S. history, when burglars steal $245,000 (1831 values) from the City Bank (now Citibank) on Wall Street. Most of the money was recovered.

The 1831 City Bank of New York theft took place on March 19, 1831, in New York City, New York, United States, when burglars stole $245,000 from the City Bank on Wall Street, using a set of copied keys. The theft is regarded as one of the first bank heists in U.S. history. The amount stolen would come to over $52 million in 2013 currency. Initial reports variously reported the names of the culprits as Edward Smith, Edward Jones, James Honeyman and James Murray. A modern source, drawing on period newspapers, identifies the thieves as James Honeyman and William J. Murray.

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19/03/1824

American explorer Benjamin Morrell departs Antarctica after a voyage later plagued by claims of fraud.

Benjamin Morrell was an American sea captain, explorer and trader who made a number of voyages, mainly to the Atlantic, the Southern Ocean and the Pacific Islands. In a ghost-written memoir, A Narrative of Four Voyages, which describes his sea-going life between 1823 and 1832, Morrell included numerous claims of discovery and achievement, many of which have been disputed by geographers and historians, and in some cases have been proven false. He ended his career as a fugitive, having wrecked his ship and misappropriated parts of the salvaged cargo.

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19/03/1812

The Cortes of Cádiz promulgates the Spanish Constitution of 1812.

The Cortes of Cádiz was a revival of the traditional cortes, which as an institution had not functioned for many years, but it met as a single body, rather than divided into estates as with previous ones.

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19/03/1808

Charles IV, king of Spain, abdicates after riots and a popular revolt at the winter palace Aranjuez. His son, Ferdinand VII, takes the throne.

Charles IV was King of Spain and ruler of the Spanish Empire from 1788 to 1808.

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19/03/1687

Explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle, searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, is murdered by his own men.

René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, was a French explorer and fur trader in North America. He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, and the Mississippi River. He is best known for an early 1682 expedition in which he canoed the lower Mississippi River from the mouth of the Illinois River to the Gulf of Mexico; there, on April 9, 1682, he claimed the Mississippi River basin for France after giving it the name La Louisiane, in honor of Saint Louis and Louis XIV. One source states that "he acquired for France the most fertile half of the North American continent". A later, ill-fated expedition in 1684 to the Gulf coast of Mexico gave the United States a putative claim to Texas in the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803; La Salle was assassinated during that expedition.

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19/03/1649

The House of Commons of England passes an act abolishing the House of Lords, declaring it "useless and dangerous to the people of England".

The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was replaced by the House of Commons of Great Britain after the 1707 Act of Union was passed in both the English and Scottish parliaments at the time. In 1801, with the union of Great Britain and Ireland, that house was in turn replaced by the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.

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19/03/1563

The Edict of Amboise is signed, ending the first phase of the French Wars of Religion and granting certain freedoms to the Huguenots.

The Edict of Amboise, also known as the Edict of Pacification, was signed at the Château of Amboise on 19 March 1563 by Catherine de' Medici, acting as regent for her son Charles IX of France. The Edict ended the first war of the French Wars of Religion, inaugurating a period of official peace in France by guaranteeing the Huguenots religious privileges and freedoms. However, it was gradually undermined by continuing religious violence at a regional level and hostilities renewed in 1567.

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19/03/1452

Frederick III of Habsburg is the last Holy Roman Emperor crowned by medieval tradition in Rome by Pope Nicholas V.

Frederick III was Holy Roman emperor from 1452 until his death in 1493. He was the penultimate emperor to be crowned by the pope, and the last to be crowned in Rome. He was the fourth king of the Romans and the first Holy Roman emperor from the House of Habsburg, which was to retain the title with one gap until it was declared at an end by Emperor Francis II, in 1806.

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19/03/1284

The Statute of Rhuddlan incorporates the Principality of Wales into England.

The Statute of Rhuddlan, also known as the Statutes of Wales or as the Statute of Wales, was a royal ordinance by Edward I of England, which gave the constitutional basis for the government of the Principality of Wales from 1284 until 1536.

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19/03/1279

A Mongol victory at the Battle of Yamen ends the Song dynasty in China.

Mongols are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia and China, as well as the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The Mongols are the principal member of the large family of Mongolic peoples. The Oirats and the Buryats are classified either as distinct ethno-linguistic groups or as subgroups of Mongols.

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19/03/1277

The Byzantine–Venetian treaty of 1277 is concluded, stipulating a two-year truce and renewing Venetian commercial privileges in the Byzantine Empire.

The Byzantine–Venetian treaty of 1277 was an agreement between the Byzantine Empire and the Republic of Venice that renegotiated and extended for two years the previous 1268 treaty between the two powers. The agreement was beneficial for both sides: Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos kept the Venetians and their fleet from participating in the attempts of Charles of Anjou to organize an anti-Byzantine crusade, while the Venetians were able to retain their access to the Byzantine market, and even augment their trading privileges by gaining direct access to the Black Sea and the right to their own quarters in Constantinople and Thessalonica. Furthermore, they were able to stop the Byzantine reconquest of Venetian-aligned territories in the Aegean, although the treaty explicitly allowed both sides to continue fighting for control of the island of Euboea (Negroponte). Nevertheless, the agreement's short duration made clear that for both parties, it was a temporary expedient. After the treaty expired, the Venetians allied with Charles of Anjou, but their plans were thwarted by the outbreak of the War of the Sicilian Vespers in 1282, forcing Venice once more to renew the peace with the Byzantines in 1285.

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19/03/1227

Election of Ugolino di Conti as Pope Gregory IX following the death of Pope Honorius III.

Pope Gregory IX was head of the Catholic Church and the ruler of the Papal States from 19 March 1227 until his death in 1241. He is known for issuing the Decretales and instituting the Papal Inquisition, in response to the failures of the episcopal inquisitions established during the time of Pope Lucius III, by means of the papal bull Ad abolendam, issued in 1184.

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19/03/1205

Latin forces under Henry of Flanders defeat a Nicaean army under Constantine Laskaris in the Battle of Adramyttion.

The Latin Empire, also referred to as the Latin Empire of Constantinople or the Constantinopolitan Empire, was a feudal Crusader state founded by the leaders of the Fourth Crusade on lands captured from the Byzantine Empire. The Latin Empire was intended to replace the Byzantine Empire as the Western-recognized Roman Empire in the east, with a Catholic emperor enthroned in place of the Eastern Orthodox Roman emperors. The main objective to form a Latin Empire was planned over the course of the Fourth Crusade, promoted by crusade leaders such as Boniface I of Montferrat, as well as the Republic of Venice.

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