Under Sunday, March 19, the book of history records, among other things:
1563: That of King Charles IX. The Edict of Amboise grants French Protestants limited freedom of religion and ends the first Huguenot War.
1803: Friedrich Schiller’s tragedy “The Bride of Messina” premieres in Weimar.
1808: After a popular uprising, the Spanish king Charles IV resigns in favor of his son Ferdinand VII of Bourbon. France’s Emperor Napoleon I, however, transfers the crown of Spain to his eldest brother Joseph Bonaparte.
1828: First fatal accident involving a train driver: John Gillespie dies in a boiler explosion not far from the British town of Simpasture.
1918: In an editorial, the leading London newspaper “Daily News” calls for an immediate peace agreement with the Central Powers.
1933: In Portugal, the authoritarian government issues a state constitution (“Estado Novo”), which gives Prime Minister António Salazar dictatorial powers and remains in force until the “Carnation Revolution” of 1974.
1948: The German premiere of “Dantons Tod” by Gottfried von Einem takes place in the Hamburg Opera.
1948: The German People’s Council formed in the Soviet occupation zone is constituted in East Berlin and elects the communist Wilhelm Pieck, later the first head of state of the GDR, as chairman.
1948: An explosion in a Yugoslav mine near Trieste kills 71 people.
1958: In Strasbourg, the joint assembly of the three European communities (Montanunion, Common Market and Euratom) meets for the first time as the European Parliament.
1968: After much resistance, King Olav V of Norway agrees to the marriage of his only son, Crown Prince Harald, to the commoner Sonja Haraldsen.
1978: The UN Security Council has unanimously called for Israel’s immediate and unconditional withdrawal from southern Lebanon.
1988: Iraqi airstrike on Iran’s oil-shipping island of Kharg kills 56 Norwegian sailors.
1993: In Slovakia, after the dismissal of Foreign Minister Kňažko, Prime Minister Mečiar’s ruling HZDS party split.
1993: Georgian air defense shoots down a Russian military plane.
1998: Atal Bihari Vajpayee, leader of the Hindu nationalist party Bharatiya Janata (BJP), is sworn in as India’s new prime minister.
2003: The White House is preparing the US public for the loss of life in the war against Iraq.
birthdays: David Livingstone, British explorer of Africa (1813-1873); Joseph Wopfner, Austria painter (1843-1927); Max Reger, German composer (1873-1916); Joseph Matthias Hauer, Austria composer (1873-1959); Sir Walter Norman Hawoth, British chemist; Nobel Prize 1937 (1883-1950); Hans Küng, Swiss theologian (1928-2021); Michel Sabbah, Palestine. theologian, Latin. Patriarch of Jerusalem 1987-2008 (1933); Philip Roth, US writer (1933-2018); Friedrich König, Austria politician and lawyer; ÖVP; 1986-90 club chairman of the VP Parliament Club (1933-2022); Mario Monti, Italian financial expert; Prime Minister 2011-2013 (1943).
days of death: Adam Kasimir Prince Czartoryski, Polish statesman, heir apparent 1764 (1734-1823); Odo Neustädter striker, Austria. politician (1885-1938); Jeanne Bourin, French author (1922-2003); Michael Mathias Prechtl, German graphic artist (1926-2003); Keith Michael Patrick O’Brien, British Catholic Theologian; Archbishop of Saint Andrews and Edinburgh (1938-2018); Peter Pikl, Austria Actor and director (1946-2018).
name days: Josef Nährvater, Friedeburg, Josefa, Josefine, Markus, Andreas, Amantius, Lucelius.