Today in History: The US's First Aircraft Carrier USS Langley Entered Service

March 20 is the 79th day of the year (80st in leap years) according to the Gregorian calendar. The number of days left until the end of the year is 286.

Railways

• 20 March 1920 delegation decided to confiscate the Anatolian Railways. Anatolian Railways started to be operated by the Delegation. The Osmaniye bridge was destroyed.
• 1995 – 12 people were killed and 1300 injured in the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway.

Events

• 1602 – The Dutch East India Company is founded.
• 1792 - The French National Assembly approved the execution by guillotine. The guillotine, named after its inventor, the French doctor Joseph Ignace Guillotin, was used for the first time on April 25, 1792.
• 1815 - After escaping from the island of Elbe, Napoleon entered Paris, accompanied by a regular army of 140.000 and a volunteer force of 200.000.
• 1852 – Harriet Beecher Stowe's famous abolitionist novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, is first published in the United States.
• 1861 – The city of Mendoza, Argentina, was severely damaged by a severe earthquake.
• 1899 – Martha M. Place at Sing Sing Prison becomes the first woman to be executed in the electric chair.
• 1913 – Sung Chiao-jen, founder of the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang), was injured in an assassination attempt and died 2 days later.
• 1916 - Albert Einstein publishes his theory of relativity.
• 1922 - The US's first aircraft carrier, the USS Langley, was put into service.
• 1918 – Turkish Women's Classroom was opened. Foreign language, Turkish and music lessons and conferences were given in the classroom.
• 1933 – Heinrich Himmler, then Munich Police Chief, ordered the establishment of the Nazis' first concentration camp, Dachau Concentration Camp, and appointed Theodor Eicke as Camp Commander.
• 1942 – The Nazis take 100 Poles from a labor camp and kill them in Zgierz, Poland.
• 1942 – German Schutzstaffel His troops killed 600 Jews, including 3000 children, in Rohatin, western Ukraine, in one day.
• 1945 – 6 magnitude earthquake in Adana - Ceyhan; 39 lives were taken, 328 houses were destroyed.
• 1956 – Tunisia gained its independence from France. Habib Bourguiba became the first President of Tunisia.
• 1969 - John Lennon and Yoko Ono married.
• 1974 – In Konya, a person named Rıdvan Karaköse ambushed and killed a mother and her son out of a blood feud, together with his brothers Cavit, Süleyman and İsmail Karaköse. Rıdvan, Cavit and Süleyman Karaköse were executed during the 12 September period.
• 1977 – The passenger plane “Diyarbakır” was hijacked to Beirut by two 17-year-old students, İsmail Açan and Hanefi Güzel. Pilot Ethem Durak was slightly injured in the incident.
• 1981 - Former President of Argentina Isabel Peron is sentenced to 8 years in prison for bribery.
• 1986 - Jacques Chirac becomes Prime Minister of France.
• 1987 – The American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug AZT (azidothymidine), used in the treatment of AIDS. The drug, named Retrovir, became the first approved AIDS drug.
• 1990 – Imelda Marcos, widow of Ferdinand Marcos; He was brought before the court on charges of bribery, embezzlement and blackmail.
• 1996 – Alternatif Bank was acquired by Anadolu Group.
• 1996 – The Government of England announced that Mad Cow Disease (MCD) is also transmitted to humans.
• 1997 – Robert Kocharyan became Prime Minister of Armenia.
• 1997 – European Union Association Committee, 106th term meeting was held.
• 2003 – Iraq War: The US begins to invade Iraq. Baghdad was attacked by aerial bombardment (Shock and Awe Operation).
• 2005 – After the Nevruz celebrations held in the metropolitan rally area in Mersin, an attempt was made to throw the Turkish flag on the ground and burn it. The incident caused outrage in the country.
• 2005 – In the 6,6 magnitude earthquake that occurred in Fukuoka, Japan; 1 person died, hundreds are injured.
• 2006 – More than 150 Chad soldiers are killed by rebels in eastern Chad.
• 2015 - A total solar eclipse took place. The total eclipse could be observed from northwest Norway, south of Iceland and Svalbard.
• 2016 – Galatasaray – Fenerbahçe football match was canceled by the Istanbul Governorship for security reasons. First, it was decided to play the match without spectators. A short time later, the derby was canceled due to the 'bombed vehicle' intelligence. The Istanbul Terror Police were on alert around the TT Arena.

Births

• 43 BC – Publius Ovidius Naso, Roman poet (d. 17)
• 1606 Georg von Derfflinger, field marshal of the Brandenburg-Prussian army (d. 1695)
• 1612 – Anne Bradstreet, English-American feminist poet (first female poet in the American colonies) (d. 1672)
• 1725 – Abdulhamid I, 27th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (d. 1789)
• 1737 – Rama I, king of Thailand (d. 1809)
• 1765 – Karl Daub, German philosopher (d. 1836)
• 1770 – Friedrich Hölderlin, German poet (d. 1843)
• 1780 – José Joaquín de Olmedo, president of Ecuador, lawyer, politician, and author (d. 1847)
• 1794 – René Primevère Lesson, French surgeon, naturalist, ornithologist, and herpetologist (d. 1849)
• 1809 – Johann Philipp Becker, German revolutionary (d. 1886)
• 1811 – II. Napoleon, Emperor of France (d. 1832)
• 1823 – Nâsif Maluf, Lebanese lexicographer (d. 1865)
• Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian writer (d. 1906)
• Friedrich Karl, prince of Prussia (d. 1885)
• 1840 – Franz Mertens, Polish mathematician (d. 1927)
• 1851 – İsmail Gaspıralı, Crimean Tatar journalist (d. 1914)
• 1856 Frederick Winslow Taylor, American engineer (d. 1915)
• 1865 – Jeanne d'Alcy, French film actress (d. 1956)
• 1870 – Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, German general (d. 1964)
• 1879 – Hüseyngulu Sarabski, Azerbaijani opera singer, actor, director (d. 1945)
• 1882 – René Coty, last president of the Fourth Republic in France (d. 1962)
• 1884 – Philipp Frank, Austrian physicist, mathematician, and academic (d. 1966)
• 1887 – Hovsep Orbeli, Soviet orientalist and academic (d. 1961)
• 1891 – Edmund Goulding, English film director, playwright, and theater director (d. 1959)
• 1892 – Ludwig Crüwell, German general (d. 1958)
• 1894 – Hans Langsdorff, German naval officer (d. 1939)
• 1899 – Cafer Cabbarlı, Azerbaijani poet, writer, screenwriter and director (d. 1934)
• 1908 – Michael Redgrave, English actor, director and writer (d. 1985)
• 1911 – Alfonso García Robles, Mexican diplomat (d. 1991)
• 1915 – Sviatoslav Richter, Ukrainian pianist (d. 1997)
• 1917 – Yigael Yadin, Israeli soldier and archaeologist (d. 1984)
• 1919 – Gerhard Barkhorn, Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe ace pilot (d. 1983)
• 1922 – Suphi Konak, Turkish politician (d. 1964)
• 1926 – Marge Calhoun, American surfer (d. 2017)
• 1932 – Ryszard Kotys, Polish actor (d. 2021)
• 1937 - Lois Lowry, American writer
• 1939 – Brian Mulroney, Canadian politician
• 1940 – Paul Neville, Australian politician (d. 2019)
• 1943 – Cevdet Selvi, Turkish politician
• 1944 – Erwin Neher, German biologist
• 1945 - Pat Riley, American basketball player
• 1948 - Bobby Orr, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1948 – Nikos Papazoğlu, Greek singer, songwriter, musician and record producer (d. 2011)
• 1950 – William Hurt, American actor and winner of the Academy Award for Best Actor (d. 2022)
• 1952 – Sadettin Teksoy, Turkish presenter, journalist and program producer
• 1953 – Sait Genay, Turkish actor
• 1955 – Zerrin Güngör, Turkish lawyer and President of the Council of State
• 1956 – Ayşenil Şamlıoğlu, Turkish actor, director and writer
• 1956 Catherine Ashton, British politician
• 1957 – Elizabeth Bourgine, French actress, film and television actress
• 1957 – Oğuz Haksever, Turkish news anchor, reporter and editor
• 1957 – Spike Lee, American director and producer
• 1958 - Holly Hunter, American actress
• 1961 – Mustafa Karataş, Turkish academic and hadith scholar
• 1963 – David Thewlis, English actor
• 1964 – Natacha Atlas, Egyptian musician
• 1976 – Chester Bennington, American rock singer (d. 2017)
• 1982 – Fatma Kaplan Hürriyet, Turkish politician
• 1982 – Tomasz Kuszczak, Polish professional goalkeeper
• 1983 – Selin Demiratar, Turkish actress
• 1984 – Christy Carlson Romano, American actress and singer
• 1984 - Fernando Torres, Spanish football player
• 1986 – Ruby Rose, Australian actress, model and VJ
• 1987 – Jô, Brazilian football player
• 1989 – Xavier Dolan, Canadian actor and filmmaker
• 1993 – Sloane Stephens, American tennis player

Deaths

• 1239 – Hermann von Salza, head of the Teutonic Knights military order founded by the German Crusaders (1210-1239) (b. 1170)
• 1390 – III. Alexios, emperor of Trebizond (b. 1338)
• 1413 – IV. Henry or Henry Bolingbroke, king of England and Ireland from 1399 to 1413 (b. 1367)
• 1568 – Albrecht, grandmaster of the Teutonic Knights and first ruler of Prussia (b. 1490)
• 1619 – Matthias ruled as King of Bohemia 1611-1617 (b. 1557)
• 1673 – Augustyn Kordecki, Polish cleric (b. 1603)
• 1816 – Maria I was Queen of Portugal from 1777-1816 and Queen of Brazil from 1815-1816 (b. 1734)
• 1851 – Ali Pasha Rıdvanbegovic, politician from Herzegovina (b. 1783)
• 1878 – Julius Robert von Mayer, German physicist (b. 1814)
• 1894 – Lajos Kossuth, Hungarian politician (b. 1802)
• 1897 – Apollon Maykov, Russian poet (b. 1821)
• 1898 – Ivan Shishkin, Russian landscape painter, engraver, and technical illustrator (b. 1832)
• 1924 – Fernand Cormon, French painter (b. 1845)
• 1925 – George Curzon, British statesman (b. 1859)
• 1929 – Ferdinand Foch, French soldier (b. 1851)
• 1930 – Hoca Ali Rıza, Turkish painter (b. 1858)
• 1931 – Hermann Müller, German statesman and leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) (b. 1876)
• 1934 – Princess Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont was Queen of the Netherlands and Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (b. 1858)
• 1935 – Jón Þorláksson, former Prime Minister of Iceland (b. 1877)
• 1938 – Alexander Malinov, Bulgarian politician (b. 1867)
• 1941 – Oskar Baum, Czech music educator and writer (b. 1883)
• 1947 – Victor Goldschmidt, Norwegian mineralogist (b. 1888)
• 1954 – Mehmet Emin Kalmuk, Turkish Hendese (Geometry) teacher and telegraph and telephone professor (b. 1869)
• 1962 – C. Wright Mills, American sociologist (b. 1916)
• 1962 – Hüsrev Gerede, Turkish soldier and politician (b. 1884)
• 1971 – Falih Rıfkı Atay, Turkish journalist and writer (b. 1894)
• 1972 – Marvel Marilyn Maxwell, American actress and comedian (b. 1921)
• 1984 – Kerime Nadir, Turkish novelist (b. 1917)
• 1987 – Towser, Scottish cat (b. 1963)
• 1990 – Lev Yashin, Soviet football player (b. 1929)
• 1993 – Polykarp Kusch, American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate in Physics (b. 1911)
• 1998 – George Howard, American musician (b. 1956)
• 2004 – Juliana, queen of the Netherlands from 1948 until abdication in 1980 (b. 1909)
• 2007 – Taha Yasin Ramazan, Iraqi politician (b. 1938)
• 2009 – Abdullatif Filali, Moroccan politician and diplomat (b. 1928)
• 2015 – John Malcolm Fraser, Australian liberal politician, former prime minister (b. 1930)
• 2017 – David Rockefeller, American banker (b. 1915)
• 2018 – Dilbar Abdurahmanonova, Soviet-Uzbek violinist and conductor (b. 1936)
• 2020 – Amadeo Raúl Carrizo, Argentine national football player and manager (b. 1926)
• 2020 – Levent Ünsal, Turkish actor, presenter and voice actor (b. 1932)
• 2020 – Muhterem Nur, Turkish cinema and sound artist (b. 1932)
• 2020 – Kenny Rogers, American country and country pop singer, music writer, and actor (b. 1938)

Holidays and special occasions

• Autumnal Equinox (Southern Hemisphere) 
• Spring Equinox (Northern Hemisphere) 
• World Happiness Day
• World Children and Youth Theater Day
• World Sparrow Day