Flooding in the town of Cedar Key, Florida

The 1896 Cedar Keys hurricane was a powerful tropical cyclone that devastated much of the East Coast of the United States, starting with Florida's Cedar Keys, near the end of September. The storm's rapid movement allowed it to maintain much of its intensity after landfall, becoming one of the costliest United States hurricanes at the time. The fourth tropical cyclone of the 1896 Atlantic hurricane season, it washed out the railroad connecting the Cedar Keys to the mainland with a 10.5 ft (3.2 m) storm surge, and submerged the smaller, outlying islands (mainland flooding pictured). The hurricane killed at least 70 people in mainland Florida, and razed 5,000 sq mi (13,000 km²) of dense pine forests in the northern part of the state. In Savannah, Georgia, fierce winds unroofed thousands of structures. In Washington, D.C., the White House grounds were left in disarray. Monuments at the Gettysburg Battlefield were damaged. Along the storm's path, it caused at least 202 deaths. (Full article...)

Attic vase-painting of a Scythian archer

• ... that the Scythian archers (pictured) may have functioned as a police force in ancient Athens?


• ... that Jonas Noreika is commemorated on plaques and street signs in Lithuania, despite his active participation in the Holocaust?


• ... that the 23-storey Dusit Thani Hotel, with its distinctive golden spire, was the tallest building in Bangkok when it opened in 1970?


• ... that the soprano and voice teacher Ria Ginster sang recitals at Wigmore Hall and Carnegie Hall, and recorded Rossini's Petite messe solennelle conducted by Sir John Barbirolli?


• ... that the special election in North Carolina's 9th congressional district is the first "do-over" of an election to the U.S. House of Representatives since 1974?


• ... that He Yousheng studied the high-speed hydrodynamics of torpedoes?


• ... that the marine worm Echiurus echiurus uses its spoon-shaped proboscis to feed but not to dig its burrow?


• ... that in 1878, Liverpool stamp dealer Thomas Ridpath bought a collection of British Guiana stamps for £120 that included the unique 1c magenta, which sold in 2014 for US$9,480,000?

Cyclone Idai

• A gunman kills three people and injures five others in a shooting in Utrecht, Netherlands.


• At least 89 people are killed by a flash flood and landslide in Jayapura Regency and Jayapura, Indonesia.


• Flash floods and winds caused by Cyclone Idai (satellite image shown) kill more than 400 people in Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.


• At least 50 people are killed in shootings at the Al Noor Mosque and the Linwood Islamic Centre, in Christchurch, New Zealand.

March 20: Fast of Esther (Judaism, 2019); Birth of Ali/Father's Day in Iran (2019)

Bust of Maximinus Thrax

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  235 – Maximinus Thrax (bust pictured) succeeded to the throne of the Roman Empire, a so-called barracks emperor who gained power by virtue of his command of the army.


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  1852 – Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe was first published, profoundly affecting attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the United States.


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  1923 – The Arts Club of Chicago hosted the opening of Pablo Picasso's first United States showing, entitled Original Drawings by Pablo Picasso, becoming an early proponent of modern art in the U.S.


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  1939 – Germany issued an ultimatum to Lithuania, demanding they return the Klaipėda Region under threat of invasion.


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  1993 – The Troubles: The second of two bomb attacks by the Provisional IRA in Warrington, England, killed two children.

Alexios III of Trebizond (d. 1390) · Elizabeth Rona (b. 1890) · Ai Ogawa (d. 2010)