202 BC Coronation of Liu Bang as the Emperor Gaozu of China (202-195 BC), initiating the Han Dynasty

1246 Ferdinand III of Castile liberates Jaen from the Moors after a long siege

1653 Three day Naval Battle of Portland begins: Tromp's Dutch defeat Blake's English

1667 The Dutch capture Surinam from the English

1710 Battle of Helsingborg: The Swedes defeat a Danish invasion

1778 The Rhode Island General Assembly authorizes enlistment of black troops

1799 Jean-Etienne Championnet, commander of French troops in Naples, sacked as a looter

1836 The Battle of San Patricio: Mexicans defeat Texians in a surprise cavalry attack

1844 USS 'Princeton': 12-inch gun "Peacemaker" explodes with heavy casualties

1847 Battle of the Sacramento River: US forces under Alexander Doniphan defeat the Mexicans in Chihuahua

1864 Kilpatrick's Raid on Richmond begins (to 10 March)

1893 USS 'Indiana' (BB-1) launched, the first American first-class battleship

1900 Relief of Ladysmith: British troops break a 118 day Boer siege

1933 Hitler bans the German Communist Party

1942 Dutch East Indies: Japanese land on Java, last Allied bastion in the East Indies

1942 Battle of Sunda Strait: Japanese cruiser squadron engages Allied cruisers USS 'Houston' & HMAS 'Perth' c. 2350.

1943 8 Japanese transports with c. 7000 troops sail from Rabaul for Lae

1943 Burma: Japanese operations against Kachin guerrillas.

1944 Alamo Scouts are withdrawn from Los Negros, as Allied airstrikes continue

1944 Mounted 2nd Cav Div (Colored) ships out for North Africa.

1944 Marshal of the Soviet Union Nicholai Fyodorovich Vatutin, is mortally wounded in an ambush by Ukrainian partisans, dies Apr 15th

1945 Philippines: U.S. forces land on Palawan

1976 Spain withdraws from Western Sahara

1990 65th American manned space mission, Atlantis 6, begins

2013 Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger) resigns at 85 (r. 2005-2013) -- first papal resignation since 1415