Under Monday, March 20, the book of history records, among other things:
1393: King Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia has the Vicar General of the Archdiocese, John of Nepomuk, tortured in Prague and drowned in the Vltava. (Canonized by Pope Benedict XIII in 1729).
1823: Emperor Agustín I Iturbide (1783-1824) of Mexico is forced to abdicate.
1848: After unrest in Munich, King Ludwig I of Bavaria, who was criticized for his affair with the dancer Lola Montez, abdicates in favor of his son Maximilian II. Lola Montez, made “Countess of Landsfeld” by Ludwig I, is expelled from Bavaria.
1903: In Budapest there are mass demonstrations for Hungary’s withdrawal from the joint state federation with Austria.
1918: American astronomer Harlow Shapley announces that his photometric measurements have shown that the Sun is about 50,000 light-years from the center of the Milky Way. (According to current knowledge there are around 30,000).
1933: The “Reichsfuhrer SS” Heinrich Himmler, acting chief of police in Munich since the Nazi seizure of power, announces the construction of the first concentration camp (KZ) near Dachau. The first prisoners are social democrats and communists.
1948: In protest against the efforts of the three Western powers to allow unified state authority in their zones of occupation in Germany, the Soviet military commander, Marshal Wassili Sokolowski, left the Allied Control Council, which then no longer met. This effectively ends the four-power administration; In 1949 two German states were founded: FRG and GDR.
1953: Samuel Beckett’s play “Waiting for Godot” premieres at the Théâtre Babylone in Paris.
1988: President of the National Council Leopold Gratz, the former mayor, renounced the Viennese state party chairmanship of the SPÖ. His successor is Vice Mayor Hans Mayr.
1993: To overcome the power crisis in Russia, President Boris Yeltsin has ordered a referendum linked to a vote of confidence for April 25. The Constitutional Court disapproves of his actions, but declares the referendum to be permissible.
1993: The Fifth World Winter Games of the “Special Olympics” will be held in Salzburg and Schladming. These are the world’s first “Special Olympics” winter competitions that are not held in North America. More than 2,000 athletes take part (until March 27th).
2008: On the flight from Dubai to Casablanca, Emirates Airlines puts the first commercial cell phone network into operation above the clouds.
2018: Because they had set fire to the Marx-Halle in Vienna-Landstrasse in the course of a – admittedly non-functioning – necromancy, a couple was sentenced to conditional prison terms by the Inner City District Court. In addition, the 20-year-old and his girlfriend (19) have to pay for the immense damage of around five million euros.
birthdays: Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian poet (1828-1906); Ulrich Baumgartner, Austria director (1918-1984); Hans Friedrich Kühnelt, Austria. writer (1918-1997); Bernd Alois Zimmermann, German composer (1918-1970); Ralph Giordano, German writer and journalist (1923-2014); Michael Pfleghar, German film and television director and producer (1933-1991); Holly Hunter, US actress (1958); John Kocinski, former US motorcycle racer (1968).
days of death: Jacques Brugnon, French tennis player (1885-1978); Carl Theodor Dreyer, Dan. film director (1889-1968); Graciliano Ramos, Brazilian writer (1892-1953); Arno Schellenberg, German baritone (1903-1983); Polykarp Kusch, German-US nuclear physicist; Nobel Prize 1955 (1911-1993); Gil Evans, US jazz musician (1912-1988); Gerard Sekoto, South Africa. painter (1912-1993); George Lowe, New Zealand. alpinist (1924-2013); Zillur Rahman, Bangl. President 2009-2013 (1929-2013); Raoul Gehringer, Austria Composer (1971-2018).
name days: Irmgard, Wolfram, Hubert, Nicetas, Eberhard, Ruprecht, Claudia, Deogratias.