Unix Timestamp: 1143244800
Saturday, March 25. 2006, 12:00:00 AM UTC

The Comoros army supported by African Union troops invade Anjouan. //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7312031.stm (BBC News)

UK says requests for access to 15 Royal Navy personnel held by Iran have been denied. //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6492489.stm (BBC)

The Republic of Ireland bans smoking in all enclosed work places, including restaurants, pubs and bars.

British prime minister Tony Blair visits Libyan leader Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi, in return for the dismantling of Libya's weapons of mass destruction programme in December 2003 (the first time a major western leader had visited the nation in several decades). ! Please correct details if known

The largest expansion of NATO to date takes place, allowing Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia into the organization.

The first ever reported South Atlantichurricane makes landfall in South Brazil in the state of Santa Catarina ndash the hurricane is dubbed Hurricane Catarina.

In France, the government of prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin suffers a stunning and unprecedented defeat in regional elections.

Enron energy traders allegedly route 2,900 megawatts of electricity destined for California to the town of Silver Peak, Nevada, population 200.

The Melissa worm attacks the Internet.

A Michigan jury finds Dr. Jack Kevorkian guilty of second-degree murder for administering a lethal injection to a terminally ill man.

The Candle Demonstration in Bratislava, Slovakia is the first mass demonstration of the 1980s against the communist regime in Czechoslovakia.

The 58th Academy Awards are held in Los Angeles, California, with "Out of Africa" winning Best Picture.

The 57th Academy Awards are held at in Los Angeles, California with "Amadeus" winning Best Picture.

Motown celebrates its 25th anniversary and has the television special "Motown 25" during which Michael Jackson performed Billie Jean and introduces to the world the moonwalk.

The first fully functional space shuttle orbiter, "Columbia", is delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center, to be prepared for its first launch.

The first fully functional space shuttle orbiter, ''Columbia'', is delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center, to be prepared for its first launch.

King Faisal of Saudi Arabia is shot and killed by his nephew the killer is beheaded on June 18. (King Khalid succeeds Faisal.)

The Pakistani army starts Operation Searchlight in East Pakistan from midnight, after President Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan, a military ruler, voids election results that gave the Awami League an overwhelming majority in the parliament.

East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) independence is declared by local Awami League leader Hannan Sarker on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, from Kalurghat Radio Station in Chittagong.

Nihat Erim (a former CHP member) forms the new government of Turkey (33rd government,composed mostly of technocrats)

Martin Luther King, Jr. and 25,000 civil rights activists successfully end the 4-day march from Selma, Alabama, to the capitol in Montgomery.

Second ODECA charter, signed on 12 December 1962, effective.

Funeral services are held for Detroit homemaker Viola Liuzzo, who was shot dead by 4 Klansmen as she drove marchers back to Selma at night after the civil rights march.

The 30th Academy Awards ceremony takes place "The Bridge on the River Kwai" wins seven awards, including Academy Award for Best Picture.

Canada's Avro Arrow makes its debut flight.

The United States Army launches Explorer 3.

The Treaty of Rome (patto di Roma) establishes the European Economic Community (EEC) (see European Union).

26 – "Lari Massacre" in Kenya: Mau Mau rebels kill up to 150 Kikuyu natives.

An extensive deportation caign is conducted in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The Soviet authorities deport more than 92,000 people from the Baltics to remote areas of the Soviet Union.

A coal mine explosion in Centralia, Illinois, kills 111 miners.

WWII: The Kingdom of Yugoslavia joins the Axis powers in Vienna.

The Scottsboro Boys are arrested in Alabama and charged with rape.

Greece proclaims itself a republic.

The Georgian Orthodox Church restores the autocephaly abolished by Imperial Russia in 1811.

The U.S. submarine F-4 sinks off Hawaii 21 are killed.

The Greek multisport clubAris Thessaloniki is founded.

A fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City kills 146.

Coxey's Army, the first significant American protest march, departs from Massillon, Ohio for Washington

Russia rejects a British proposal to lay the San Stefano treaty before a European congress.

April ndash Eta Carinae is temporarily the second-brightest star in the night sky.

Marc Isambard Brunel's Thames Tunnel, the first tunnel under the River Thames and the world's first bored underwater tunnel, is opened in London.ref name=Pocket On This Day

O.S.)/April 6 (N.S.) ndash Greece's traditional Independence Day (although more recent historical evidence suggests that the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire had started before this date).

De Nederlandsche Bank is established.

Great Comet discovered by Honoré Flaugergues.

March 27 ndash Napoleonic Wars: The Treaty of Amiens between France and the United Kingdom ends the War of the Second Coalition.

The Clandestine Marriages Act of 1753 comes into force in England and Wales, placing marriage in that jurisdiction on a statutory basis for the first time.

Within a few days of John Dryden's death (May 1 O.S.), his last written work ("The Secular Masque") is performed as part of Vanbrugh's version of "The Pilgrim".

April ndash Fire destroys many buildings in Gondar, the capital of Ethiopia, including two in the palace complex.

May ndash In Rhode Island (American colony), Walter Clarke, former governor 1679–1686, becomes governor again for fourteen more years.

Treaty of London signed between France, England and Holland.

William Penn begins monthly meetings for blacks advocating emancipation.

Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is discovered by Christian Huygens.

The first settlers arrive in St. Mary's City, Maryland (led by Lord Baltimore), the fourth permanent settlement in British North America.

Battle of Martqopi.

Iberian Union: Philip II of Spain crowned Philip I of Portugal.

Iberian Union: King Philip II of Spain becomes King of Portugal under the name Philip I, following the death without heirs of King Henry of Portugal, in a personal union of the crowns, thus maintaining Portuguese independence (in Europe and throughout the Portuguese Empire). The Portuguese House of Habsburg (also called the Philippine Dynasty) rule lasts until 1640.

Battle of Angol in Chile: SpanishConquistadorLorenzo Bernal del Mercado defeats and kills the toquiIllangulién.

Portuguese navigator João da Nova probably discovers Ascension Island.Albuquerque, Afonso de (2001). "//books.google.com/books?ei=C8O1TLy_GNTNjAeh-OS2Awct=resulthl=csid=WDAMAAAAIAAJdq=Joao+da+Nova+Nova+Conceptionq=Conception The commentaries of the great Afonso Dalboquerque, second viceroy of India", Adamant Media Corporation, ! Originaly printed for the Hakluyt Society with translation by Walter de Gray Birch, p.xx. Issue 55. ISBN 1-4021-9511-7. It is definitely sighted and named on May 20 1503 (Feast of the Ascension) by Afonso de Albuquerque.

July ndash Ismail I is enthroned as Shah of Azerbaijan, choosing Tabriz as his capital, founding the Safavid dynasty in northern Iran. He declares Shi'ism the official and compulsory religion under penalty of death.

In a ceremony in Holyrood Abbey, James II of Scotland is crowned at the age of six by Pope Eugene IV.

The Council of Pisa opens.

July ndash Martin I of Aragon succeeds his own son as King of Sicily.

May ndash Hugh the younger Despenser, favourite of King Edward II of England, is married to heiress Eleanor de Clare.

Robert the Bruce becomes King of the Scots only five weeks after the murder in Dumfries.

Sancho II is crowned King of Portugal

King Richard I of England is shot in the left shoulder with a crossbow by French boy Pierre Basile. The war between England France has become so brutal that Hugh of Lincoln is warned that nothing now is safe, neither the city to dwell in nor the highway for travel."King John" by Warren. Published by University of California Press in 1961. p. 63

Brian Boru makes a second expedition to the north to take hostages from the northern states: during this expeidion, he visited Armagh, making an offering of twenty ounces of gold to the church and confirming to the apostolic see of Saint Patrick, ecclesiastical supremacy over the whole of Ireland (as recorded in the Book of Armagh).ref name=Moody113

Ælfric of Abingdon leaves ships to the people of Wiltshire and Kent in his will, with his best one, equipped for sixty men, going to King Æthelred II.

Schaffhausen starts minting its own coins.

Malcolm II succeeds Cináed III as king of Scotland, killing him and his son Giric II of Scotland in the battle of Monzievard.

Continued Danish raids on southern England.ref name=CBH

Aeddan ap Blegywryd, prince of Gwynedd succeeds Cynan ap Hywel.

Pomerania revolts against the church.

Pisan offensive against the Muslim strongholds on the coast of Calabria.

Charlemagne finishes the conquest of Saxony.

The Inscription of Sukabumi from Eastern Java marks the beginning of the Javanese language.

Leo III the Isaurian usurps the throne of Byzantium.

Pope Constantine succeeds Pope Sisinnius as the 88th pope.ref name=Byz708/

Venice is founded at twelve o'clock noon (according to legend) with the dedication of the first church, San Giacomo, at the islet of Rialto (Italy).