March 12

Pre-1600 • 538 – Vitiges, king of the Ostrogoths, ends his siege of Rome and retreats to Ravenna, leaving the city to the victorious Byzantine general, Belisarius. • 1088 – Election of Urban II as the 159th Pope of the Catholic Church. He is best known for initiating the Crusades. • 1158 – German city Munich (München) is first mentioned as forum apud Munichen in the Augsburg arbitration by Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich I. • 1391 – Konrad von Wallenrode is elected the 24th Grand Master of the Teutonic Order (date is O.S.). • 1579 – Start of the Siege of Maastricht, part of the Eighty Years' War. 1601–1900 • 1622 – Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier, founders of the Society of Jesus, are canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. • 1689 – James II of England lands at Kinsale, starting the Williamite War in Ireland. • 1811 – Peninsular War: A day after a successful rearguard action, French Marshal Michel Ney once again successfully delays the pursuing Anglo-Portuguese force at the Battle of Redinha. • 1862 – Paddle steamer Brother Jonathan docks in Fort Victoria (now Victoria, British Columbia), carrying smallpox-infected passengers from San Francisco. The ensuing epidemic killed an estimated two-thirds of First Nations in the province of British Columbia. 1901–present • 1912 – The Girl Guides (later renamed the Girl Scouts of the USA) are founded in the United States. • 1918 – Moscow becomes the capital of Russia again after Saint Petersburg held this status for most of the period since 1713. • 1920 – The Kapp Putsch begins when the Marinebrigade Ehrhardt is ordered to march on Berlin. • 1928 – In California, the St. Francis Dam fails; the resulting floods kill 431 people. • 1930 – Mahatma Gandhi begins the Salt March, a march to the sea to protest the British monopoly on salt in India. • 1933 – Great Depression: Franklin D. Roosevelt addresses the nation for the first time as President of the United States. This is also the first of his "fireside chats". • 1940 – Winter War: Finland signs the Moscow Peace Treaty with the Soviet Union, ceding almost all of Finnish Karelia. • 1940 – The most destructive train accident in Finnish history kills 39 and injures 69 people in Turenki, Janakkala. • 1942 – The Battle of Java ends with the surrender of the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command to the Empire of Japan in Bandung, West Java, Dutch East Indies. • 1947 – Cold War: The Truman Doctrine is proclaimed to help stem the spread of Communism. • 1950 – The Llandow air disaster kills 80 people when the aircraft they are travelling in crashes near Sigingstone, Wales. At the time this was the world's deadliest air disaster. • 1967 – Suharto takes power from Sukarno when the Provisional People's Consultative Assembly inaugurate him as Acting President of Indonesia. • 1968 – Mauritius gains independence from the United Kingdom. • 1971 – The 1971 Turkish military memorandum is sent to the Süleyman Demirel government of Turkey and the government resigns. • 1989 – Tim Berners-Lee submits his proposal to CERN for an information management system, which subsequently develops into the World Wide Web. • 1992 – Mauritius becomes a republic while remaining a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. • 1993 – Several bombs explode in Mumbai, India, killing about 300 people and injuring hundreds more. • 1993 – North Korea announces that it will withdraw from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and refuses to allow inspectors access to its nuclear sites. • 1999 – Former Warsaw Pact members the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland join NATO. • 2003 – Zoran Đinđić, Prime Minister of Serbia, is assassinated in Belgrade. • 2003 – The World Health Organization officially release a global warning of outbreaks of Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). • 2004 – President of South Korea, Roh Moo-hyun, is impeached by its National Assembly, the first such impeachment in the nation's history. • 2006 – In Mahmoudiyah, Iraq, 14-year-old Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi is raped and murdered by five American soldiers of the 502nd Infantry Regiment, who also murder both of her parents and her sister. • 2009 – Financier Bernie Madoff pleads guilty to one of the largest frauds in Wall Street's history. • 2011 – A reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant explodes and releases radioactivity into the atmosphere a day after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. • 2014 – A gas explosion in the New York City neighborhood of East Harlem kills eight and injures 70 others. • 2018 – US-Bangla Airlines Flight 211 crashes at Tribhuvan International Airport in Katmandu, killing 51 and injuring 20. • 2019 – In the House of Commons, the revised EU Withdrawal Bill was rejected by a margin of 149 votes. • 2020 – The United States suspends travel from Europe due to the COVID-19 pandemic. ==Births==

Pre-1600 • 1270 – Charles, Count of Valois (died 1325) • 1515 – Caspar Othmayr, German Lutheran pastor and composer (died 1553) 1601–1900 • 1607 – Paul Gerhardt, German poet and composer (died 1676) • 1613 – André Le Nôtre, French gardener and architect (died 1700) • 1626 – John Aubrey, English historian and philosopher (died 1697) • 1637 – Anne Hyde, Duchess of York and Albany (died 1671) • 1672 – Richard Steele, Irish-Welsh journalist and politician (died 1729) • 1685 – George Berkeley, Irish bishop and philosopher (died 1753) • 1710 – Thomas Arne, English composer (died 1778) • 1735 – François-Emmanuel Guignard, comte de Saint-Priest, French politician and diplomat (died 1821) • 1753 – Jean Denis, French politician, lawyer, jurist, journalist, and historian (died 1827) • 1766 – Claudius Buchanan, Scottish theologian (died 1815) • 1781 – Frederica of Baden, Queen consort to Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden (died 1826) • 1784 – William Buckland, English geologist and paleontologist; Dean of Westminster (died 1856) • 1795 – William Lyon Mackenzie, Scottish-Canadian journalist and politician, 1st Mayor of Toronto (died 1861) • 1795 – George Tyler Wood, American military officer and politician (died 1858) • 1806 – Jane Pierce, American wife of Franklin Pierce, 15th First Lady of the United States (died 1863) • 1807 – James Abbott, Indian Army officer (died 1896) • 1815 – Louis-Jules Trochu, French military leader and politician (died 1896) • 1821 – John Abbott, Canadian lawyer and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Canada (died 1893) • 1821 – Medo Pucić, Croatian writer and politician (died 1882) • 1823 – Katsu Kaishū, Japanese statesman (died 1899) • 1824 – Gustav Kirchhoff, Russian-German physicist and academic (died 1887) • 1832 – Charles Boycott, English farmer and agent (died 1897) • 1834 – Hilary A. Herbert, American politician, Secretary of the Navy (died 1919) • 1835 – Simon Newcomb, Canadian-American astronomer and mathematician (died 1909) • 1837 – Alexandre Guilmant, French organist and composer (died 1911) • 1838 – William Henry Perkin, English chemist and academic (died 1907) • 1843 – Gabriel Tarde, French sociologist and criminologist (died 1904) • 1855 – Eduard Birnbaum, Polish-born German cantor (died 1920) • 1857 – William V. Ranous, American actor and director (died 1915) • 1858 – Adolph Ochs, American publisher (died 1935) • 1859 – Ernesto Cesàro, Italian mathematician (died 1906) • 1860 – Eric Stenbock, Estonian poet and author (died 1895) • 1863 – Gabriele D'Annunzio, Italian soldier, journalist, poet, and playwright (died 1938) • 1863 – Vladimir Vernadsky, Russian and Ukrainian mineralogist and chemist (died 1945) • 1864 – W. H. R. Rivers, English anthropologist, neurologist, ethnologist, and psychiatrist (died 1922) • 1864 – Alice Tegnér, Swedish organist, composer, and educator (died 1943) • 1868 – Mary Karadja, Swedish writer, spiritualist and princess (died 1943) • 1869 – George Forbes, New Zealand politician, 22nd Prime Minister of New Zealand (died 1947) • 1874 – Edmund Eysler, Austrian composer (died 1949) • 1877 – Wilhelm Frick, German lawyer and politician, German Federal Minister of the Interior (died 1946) • 1878 – Gemma Galgani, Italian mystic and saint (died 1903) • 1880 – Henry Drysdale Dakin, English-American chemist and academic (died 1952) • 1881 – Väinö Tanner, Finnish politician of Social Democratic Party of Finland; the Prime Minister of Finland (died 1966) • 1882 – Carlos Blanco Galindo, Bolivian politician (died 1943) • 1883 – Sándor Jávorka, Hungarian botanist (died 1961) • 1888 – Walter Hermann Bucher, German-American geologist and paleontologist (died 1965) • 1888 – Hans Knappertsbusch, German conductor (died 1965) • 1890 – Evert Taube, Swedish singer-songwriter and lute player (died 1976) • 1896 – Jesse Fuller, American singer-songwriter and musician (died 1976) • 1898 – Tian Han, Chinese playwright (died 1968) • 1898 – Luitpold Steidle, German army officer and politician (died 1984) • 1899 – Ramón Muttis, Argentine footballer (died 1955) • 1900 – Rinus van den Berge, Dutch athlete (died 1972) • 1900 – Sylvi Kekkonen, Finnish writer and wife of President of Finland Urho Kekkonen (died 1974) • 1900 – Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, 19th President of Colombia (died 1975) 1901–present • 1904 – Lyudmila Keldysh, Russian mathematician (died 1976) • 1905 – Takashi Shimura, Japanese actor (died 1982) • 1907 – Dorrit Hoffleit, American astronomer and academic (died 2007) • 1908 – Rita Angus, New Zealand painter (died 1970) • 1908 – David Marshall, Singaporean lawyer and politician, 1st Chief Minister of Singapore (died 1995) • 1909 – Petras Cvirka, Lithuanian author (died 1947) • 1910 – László Lékai, Archbishop of Esztergom and Cardinal (died 1986) • 1910 – Masayoshi Ōhira, Japanese politician, 68th Prime Minister of Japan (died 1980) • 1911 – Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, Mexican academic and politician, 49th President of Mexico (died 1979) • 1912 – Willie Hall, English footballer (died 1967) • 1912 – Irving Layton, Romanian-Canadian poet and academic (died 2006) • 1913 – Yashwantrao Chavan, Indian politician, 5th Deputy Prime Minister of India (died 1984) • 1913 – Agathe von Trapp, Hungarian-American singer and author (died 2010) • 1915 – Alberto Burri, Italian painter and sculptor (died 1995) • 1915 – Jiří Mucha, Czech journalist (died 1991) • 1917 – Leonard Chess, American record company executive, co-founder of Chess Records (died 1969) • 1917 – Millard Kaufman, American author and screenwriter (died 2009) • 1917 – Googie Withers, Indian-Australian actress (died 2011) • 1918 – Pádraig Faulkner, Irish Fianna Fáil politician (died 2012) • 1921 – Gianni Agnelli, Italian businessman (died 2001) • 1922 – Jack Kerouac, American author and poet (died 1969) • 1923 – Hjalmar Andersen, Norwegian speed skater and cyclist (died 2013) • 1923 – Norbert Brainin, Austrian violinist (died 2005) • 1925 – Leo Esaki, Japanese physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate • 1925 – Harry Harrison, American author and illustrator (died 2012) • 1926 – George Ariyoshi, American lawyer and politician, 3rd Governor of Hawaii (died 2026) • 1926 – Arthur A. Hartman, American career diplomat (died 2015) • 1926 – John Clellon Holmes, American author and professor (died 1988) • 1926 – David Nadien, American violinist (died 2014) • 1927 – Raúl Alfonsín, Argentine lawyer and politician, 46th President of Argentina (died 2009) • 1927 – Emmett Leith, American professor of electrical engineering and co-inventor of three-dimensional holography (died 2005) • 1927 – Sudharmono, Indonesian politician, 5th Vice President of Indonesia (died 2006) • 1928 – Edward Albee, American director and playwright (died 2016) • 1930 – Antony Acland, English former diplomat and Provost of Eton College (died 2021) • 1930 – Vern Law, American baseball player and manager • 1931 – Józef Tischner, Polish priest and philosopher (died 2000) • 1932 – Bob Houbregs, Canadian basketball player (died 2014) • 1932 – Andrew Young, American pastor, civil rights movement activist, politician, and 14th United States Ambassador to the United Nations • 1933 – Barbara Feldon, American actress • 1935 – Chiam See Tong, Singaporean lawyer and politician • 1936 – Virginia Hamilton, American children's books author (died 2002) • 1936 – Michał Heller, Polish professor of philosophy • 1936 – Eddie Sutton, American basketball player and coach (died 2020) • 1937 – Zoltán Horvath, Hungarian sabre fencer • 1937 – Zurab Sotkilava, Georgian operatic tenor (died 2017) • 1938 – Vladimir Msryan, Armenian actor (died 2010) • 1938 – Johnny Rutherford, American race car driver and sportscaster • 1938 – Ken Spears, American writer (died 2020) • 1938 – Juan Horacio Suárez, Argentine bishop • 1938 – Ron Tutt, American drummer (died 2021) • 1940 – Al Jarreau, American singer (died 2017) • 1941 – Josip Skoblar, former Croatian footballer • 1942 – Jimmy Wynn, American baseball player (died 2020) • 1943 – Ratko Mladić, Serbian general • 1944 – Erwin Mueller, former American basketball player (died 2018) • 1945 – Anne Summers, Australian feminist writer, editor, publisher and public servant • 1946 – Dean Cundey, American cinematographer and film director • 1946 – Liza Minnelli, American actress, singer and dancer • 1947 – Peter Harry Carstensen, German educator and politician • 1947 – Jan-Erik Enestam, Finland-Swedish politician • 1947 – David Rigert, Soviet Olympic weightlifter • 1947 – Mitt Romney, American businessman and politician, 70th Governor of Massachusetts • 1948 – Kent Conrad, American politician • 1948 – James Taylor, American singer-songwriter and guitarist • 1949 – David Mellor, British politician • 1952 – André Comte-Sponville, French philosopher • 1952 – John Mitchell, English footballer • 1952 – Yasuhiko Okudera, former Japanese footballer • 1953 – Pavel Pinigin, former Soviet wrestler and Olympic champion • 1954 – Anish Kapoor, Indian-English sculptor • 1956 – Ove Aunli, former Norwegian cross-country skier • 1956 – Stanisław Bobak, Polish ski jumper (died 2010) • 1956 – Steve Harris, English bass player and songwriter • 1957 – Patrick Battiston, French footballer and coach • 1957 – Marlon Jackson, American singer-songwriter and dancer • 1957 – Andrey Lopatov, Soviet basketball player (died 2022) • 1958 – Phil Anderson, English-Australian cyclist • 1959 – Milorad Dodik, Bosnian Serb politician and president of Republika Srpska • 1959 – Luenell, American comedian and actress • 1959 – Michael Walter, German luger (died 2016) • 1960 – Jason Beghe, American actor • 1962 – Chris Sanders, American illustrator and voice actor • 1962 – Darryl Strawberry, American baseball player and minister • 1963 – John Andretti, American race car driver (died 2020) • 1963 – Candy Costie, American swimmer • 1963 – Joaquim Cruz, Brazilian runner and coach • 1963 – Reiner Gies, German boxer • 1963 – Ian Holloway, English footballer and manager • 1963 – Paul Way, English golfer • 1963 – Jake Weber, English actor • 1964 – Dieter Eckstein, German footballer • 1964 – Umirzak Shukeyev, Kazakh chairman of Samruk-Kazyna • 1965 – Steve Finley, American baseball player • 1965 – Ivari Padar, former Minister of Finance and Minister of Agriculture of the Estonian Social Democratic Party • 1966 – David Daniels, American countertenor • 1967 – Julio Dely Valdés, Panamanian footballer and manager • 1968 – Tammy Duckworth, Thai-American colonel, pilot, and politician • 1968 – Aaron Eckhart, American actor and producer • 1969 – Jake Tapper, American journalist and author • 1970 – Karen Bradley, English politician • 1970 – Dave Eggers, American author and screenwriter • 1970 – Mathias Grönberg, Swedish golfer • 1970 – Rex Walters, American basketball player and coach • 1971 – Raúl Mondesí, Dominican baseball player and politician • 1971 – Isaiah Rider, American basketball player and rapper • 1971 – Dragutin Topić, Serbian high jumper • 1972 – Doron Sheffer, Israeli basketball player • 1974 – Charles Akonnor, Ghanaian footballer • 1974 – Walid Badir, Israeli footballer • 1975 – Nicolae Grigore, Romanian footballer • 1975 – Edgaras Jankauskas, Lithuanian footballer • 1975 – Valérie Nicolas, French handball player • 1975 – Srđan Pecelj, Bosnian footballer • 1976 – Deron Quint, American ice hockey player • 1976 – Zhao Wei, Chinese actress, film director, producer and pop singer • 1977 – Michelle Burgher, track and field athlete • 1977 – Ramiro Corrales, American soccer player • 1977 – Amdy Faye, Senegalese footballer • 1977 – Brent Johnson, American ice hockey player • 1978 – Marco Ferreira, Portuguese footballer • 1978 – Casey Mears, American race car driver • 1978 – Arina Tanemura, Japanese author and illustrator • 1979 – Charlie Bell, American basketball player and coach • 1979 – Rhys Coiro, American actor • 1979 – Jamie Dwyer, Australian field hockey player and coach • 1979 – Gerard López, Spanish footballer • 1979 – Ben Sandford, New Zealand skeleton racer • 1979 – Edwin Villafuerte, Ecuadorian footballer • 1979 – Tim Wieskötter, German sprint canoer • 1980 – Césinha, Brazilian footballer • 1980 – Becky Holliday, American pole vaulter • 1980 – Jens Mouris, Dutch cyclist • 1980 – Douglas Murray, Swedish ice hockey player • 1981 – Kenta Kobayashi, Japanese wrestler and kick-boxer • 1981 – Katarina Srebotnik, Slovenian tennis player • 1981 – Holly Williams, American singer-songwriter and guitarist • 1982 – Lili Bordán, Hungarian-American actress • 1982 – Samm Levine, American actor and comedian • 1982 – Ilya Nikulin, Russian ice hockey player • 1982 – Hisato Satō, Japanese footballer • 1982 – Yūto Satō, Japanese footballer • 1982 – Tobias Schweinsteiger, German footballer • 1983 – Atif Aslam, Pakistani singer and actor • 1983 – Mikko Koivu, Finnish ice hockey player • 1984 – Jaimie Alexander, American actress • 1984 – Shreya Ghoshal, Indian singer • 1985 – Marco Bonanomi, Italian racing driver • 1985 – Aleksandr Bukharov, Russian footballer • 1985 – Ed Clancy, English track and road cyclist • 1986 – Martynas Andriuškevičius, Lithuanian basketball player • 1986 – Oleh Dopilka, Ukrainian footballer • 1986 – Danny Jones, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor • 1986 – Ben Offereins, Australian runner • 1986 – František Rajtoral, Czech footballer (died 2017) • 1987 – Manuele Boaro, Italian cyclist • 1987 – Jessica Hardy, American swimmer • 1987 – Maxwell Holt, American volleyball player • 1987 – Teimour Radjabov, Azerbaijani chess player • 1987 – Chris Seitz, American soccer player • 1987 – Vadim Shipachyov, Russian ice hockey player • 1987 – Pablo Velázquez, Paraguayan footballer • 1988 – Sebastian Brendel, German canoe racer • 1988 – Kostas Mitroglou, Greek footballer • 1988 – Titi, Brazilian footballer • 1989 – Jordan Adéoti, French footballer • 1989 – Vytautas Černiauskas, Lithuanian footballer • 1989 – Tyler Clary, American swimmer • 1989 – Evgenii Dadonov, Russian ice hockey player • 1989 – Richard Eckersley, English footballer • 1989 – Chen Jianghua, Chinese basketball player • 1989 – Dmitry Korobov, Belarusian ice hockey player • 1989 – Siim Luts, Estonian footballer • 1990 – Dont'a Hightower, American football coach and former player • 1990 – Marvin Jones, American football player • 1990 – Alexander Kröckel, German skeleton racer • 1990 – Dawid Kubacki, Polish ski jumper • 1990 – Irakli Kvekveskiri, Georgian footballer • 1990 – Matias Myttynen, Finnish ice hockey player • 1990 – Ilija Nestorovski, Macedonian footballer • 1990 – Milena Raičević, Montenegrin handballer • 1990 – Mikko Sumusalo, Finnish footballer • 1991 – Leandro Fernandez, Argentine footballer • 1991 – Felix Kroos, German footballer • 1992 – Daniele Baselli, Italian footballer • 1992 – Jordan Ferri, French footballer • 1992 – Ciara Mageean, Irish middle-distance runner • 1992 – Jiří Skalák, Czech footballer • 1993 – Shehu Abdullahi, Nigerian footballer • 1993 – Amjad Attwan, Iraqi footballer • 1994 – Katie Archibald, Scottish track cyclist • 1994 – Jerami Grant, American basketball player • 1994 – Christina Grimmie, American singer-songwriter (died 2016) • 1994 – Tyler Patrick Jones, American actor • 1996 – Karim Hafez, Egyptian footballer • 1996 – Robert Murić, Croatian footballer • 1996 – Cene Prevc, Slovenian ski jumper • 1997 – Dean Henderson, English footballer • 1997 – Allan Saint-Maximin, French footballer • 1997 – Felipe Vizeu, Brazilian footballer • 1998 – Carsen Edwards, American basketball player • 1998 – Mecole Hardman, American football player • 1998 – Daniel Samohin, Israeli figure skater • 1998 – Elizaveta Ukolova, Czech figure skater • 2001 – Max Duggan, American football player • 2001 – Kim Min-kyu, South Korean singer and actor • 2003 – Andrea Brillantes, Filipino actress and model • 2003 – Malina Weissman, American actress and model • 2004 – DannyLux, American singer-songwriter • 2008 – Emma Kok, Dutch singer ==Deaths==

Pre-1600 • 417 – Innocent I, pope of the Catholic Church • 604 – Gregory I, pope of the Catholic Church (born 540) • 1022 – Symeon the New Theologian (born 949) • 1160 – Al-Muqtafi, caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate (born 1096) • 1316 – Stefan Dragutin (born c. 1244) • 1322 – Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford, English general and politician, Lord High Constable of England (born 1276) • 1539 – Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, English diplomat and politician (born 1477) 1601–1900 • 1699 – Peder Griffenfeld, Danish politician (born 1635) • 1898 – Zachris Topelius, Finnish-Swedish journalist, historian, and author (born 1818) 1901–present • 1916 – Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, Austrian author (born 1830) • 1925 – Sun Yat-sen, Chinese physician and politician, 1st President of the Republic of China (born 1866) • 1929 – Asa Griggs Candler, American businessman and politician, 44th Mayor of Atlanta (born 1851) • 1935 – Mihajlo Pupin, Serbian-American physicist and chemist (born 1858) • 1942 – William Henry Bragg, English physicist, chemist, and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1862) • 1943 – Gustav Vigeland, Norwegian sculptor (born 1869) • 1946 – Ferenc Szálasi, Hungarian soldier and politician, Head of State of Hungary (born 1897) • 1949 – Wilhelm Steinkopf, German chemist (born 1879) • 1954 – Marianne Weber, German sociologist and suffragist (born 1870) • 1955 – Charlie Parker, American saxophonist and composer (born 1920) • 1955 – Theodor Plievier, German author best known for his anti-war novel (born 1892) • 1957 – Josephine Hull, American actress (born 1877) • 1971 – Eugene Lindsay Opie, American physician and pathologist (born 1873) • 1973 – Frankie Frisch, American baseball player and manager (born 1898) • 1974 – George D. Sax, American banker and businessman (born 1904) • 1985 – Eugene Ormandy, Hungarian-American violinist and conductor (born 1899) • 1989 – Maurice Evans, English-American actor (born 1901) • 1991 – Ragnar Granit, Finnish-Swedish neuroscientist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1900) • 1991 – William Heinesen, Faroese author, poet, and author (born 1900) • 1992 – Lucy M. Lewis, American potter (born 1890) • 1998 – Beatrice Wood, American painter and potter (born 1893) • 1999 – Yehudi Menuhin, American-Swiss violinist and conductor (born 1916) • 1999 – Bidu Sayão, Brazilian-American soprano (born 1902) • 2000 – Aleksandar Nikolić, Yugoslav basketball coach (born 1924) • 2001 – Morton Downey Jr., American singer-songwriter, actor, and talk show host (born 1933) • 2001 – Robert Ludlum, American author (born 1927) • 2001 – Victor Westhoff, Dutch botanist and academic (born 1916) • 2002 – Spyros Kyprianou, Cypriot lawyer and politician, 2nd President of Cyprus (born 1932) • 2002 – Jean-Paul Riopelle, Canadian painter and sculptor (born 1923) • 2003 – Zoran Đinđić, Serbian philosopher and politician, 6th Prime Minister of Serbia (born 1952) • 2003 – Howard Fast, American novelist and screenwriter (born 1914) • 2003 – Lynne Thigpen, American actress and singer (born 1948) • 2004 – Milton Resnick, Russian-American painter (born 1917) • 2006 – Victor Sokolov, Russian-American priest and journalist (born 1947) • 2008 – Jorge Guinzburg, Argentinian journalist and producer (born 1949) • 2008 – Lazare Ponticelli, Italian-French soldier and supercentenarian (born 1897) • 2010 – Miguel Delibes, Spanish journalist and author (born 1920) • 2011 – Nilla Pizzi, Italian singer (born 1919) • 2012 – Dick Harter, American basketball player and coach (born 1930) • 2012 – Michael Hossack, American drummer (born 1946) • 2012 – Friedhelm Konietzka, German-Swiss footballer and manager (born 1938) • 2013 – Michael Grigsby, English director and producer (born 1936) • 2013 – Ganesh Pyne, Indian painter and illustrator (born 1937) • 2014 – Věra Chytilová, Czech actress, director, and screenwriter (born 1929) • 2014 – Paul C. Donnelly, American scientist and engineer (born 1923) • 2014 – José Policarpo, Portuguese cardinal (born 1936) • 2015 – Willie Barrow, American minister and activist (born 1924) • 2015 – Michael Graves, American architect and academic, designed the Portland Building and the Humana Building (born 1934) • 2015 – Ada Jafri, Pakistani poet and author (born 1924) • 2015 – Terry Pratchett, English journalist, author, and screenwriter (born 1948) • 2016 – Rafiq Azad, Bangladeshi poet and author (born 1942) • 2016 – Felix Ibru, Nigerian architect and politician, Governor of Delta State (born 1935) • 2016 – Lloyd Shapley, American mathematician and economist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1923) • 2021 – Ronald DeFeo Jr., American criminal (born 1951) ==Holidays and observances==

• Arbor Day (China) • Arbor Day (Taiwan) • Aztec New Year • Christian feast day: • Alphege • Angela Salawa • Bernard of Carinola (or of Capua) • Gorgonius, Peter Cubicularius and Dorotheus of Nicomedia • Mura (McFeredach) • Fina • Pope Gregory I (Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Catholic Church, and Anglican Communion) • Theophanes the Confessor • March 12 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) • National Day (Mauritius) • World Day Against Cyber Censorship • Youth Day (Zambia) ==References==