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In This Week in …

  • 241 BCE, the Romans sink the Carthaginian fleet in the Battle of the Aegates Islands and bring the First Punic War to an end (10 March 241 BCE).
  • 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev is selected as the new general secretary and leader of the Soviet Union (11 March 1985).
  • 1933, 8 days after inauguration, FDR gives his first “fireside chat” radio broadcast to the nation from the White House (12 March 1933)
  • 1881, Tzar Alexander II of Russia is assassinated in St. Petersburg by a bomb thrown by a member of the “People’s Will” group (13 March 1881).
  • 1964, Jack Ruby, Killer of Lee Harvey Oswald, is found guilty of the “murder with malice” and sentenced to die in the electric chair (14 March 1964).
  • 44 BCE, Julius Caesar is murdered by his own senators at a meeting in a hall next to Pompey’s Theatre (15 March 44 BCE).
  • 1968, the My Lai massacre takes place in Vietnam. Between 200 and 500 civilians are killed (16 March 1968).