Germany annexes Austria

On March 12, 1864, one of the biggest military fiascos of the Civil War begins as a combined Union force of infantry and riverboats starts moving up the Red River in Louisiana. The month-long campaign was poorly managed and achieved none of the objectives set forth by Union commanders. The campaign had several strategic goals. […]

On March 12, 1930, Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi begins a defiant march to the sea in protest of the British monopoly on salt, his boldest act of civil disobedience yet against British rule in India. Britain’s Salt Acts prohibited Indians from collecting or selling salt, a staple in the Indian diet. Citizens were forced […]

On this day, the commander of the German Home Army, Gen. Friedrich Fromm, is shot by a firing squad for his part in the July plot to assassinate the Fuhrer. The fact that Fromm’s participation was half-hearted did not save him. By 1944, many high-ranking German officials had made up their minds that Hitler must […]

On March 12, 1968, oil is discovered in Prudhoe Bay—a remote region along Alaska’s northernmost coast—profoundly transforming the state. When Alaska entered the Union in 1959, it was a poor, isolated territory, reliant on federal subsidies. Alaska’s Statehood Act specified that the state could claim 100 million acres to develop as it chose, independent of […]

On March 12, 1988, a sudden hail storm prompts fans at a soccer match in Kathmandu, Nepal, to flee. The resulting stampede killed at least 70 people and injured hundreds more. Approximately 30,000 people were watching the game between the Nepalese home team, Janakpur, and Muktijoddha, of Bangladesh, at the National Stadium. A storm approached quickly […]

In response to the critical comments made about him by singer Natalie Maines in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, President George W. Bush offered this response: “The Dixie Chicks are free to speak their mind. They can say what they want to say.” Of the backlash the Chicks (then known as the […]