Unix Timestamp: 1236988800
Saturday, March 14. 2009, 12:00:00 AM UTC

Seven are reported dead in Lhasa, Tibet as protests turn violent. Protests began Monday on the anniversary of the failed 1959 Tibetan uprising with calls for the release of detained Buddhist monks. Other protests followed calling for Tibetan independence and displaying the banned Tibetan national flag. //www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/03/14/tibet.unrest/index.html (CNN) //www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/5621545.html (AP via the "Houston Chronicle")

Demonstrations by Tibetan separatists turn violent as rioters target government and Han Chinese-owned buildings.

Iraq disarmament crisis: Key documents presented as evidence that the US should invade Iraq are revealed as forgeries. The documents stated that Niger was selling 500 tons of uranium to Iraq. One, dated 2000, was on stationery from the military government of the 1980s and referred to a foreign minister who had not been in power for 14 years another bore a signature of the president of Niger that was an obvious fake. Iraq's supposed acquisition of African uranium was a feature in Colin Powell's speech to the UN Security Council in February and in George W. Bush's State of the Union Address. //www.cnn.com/2003/US/03/14/sprj.irq.documents/index.html Senator John Rockefeller asked the FBI to investigate the origin of the documents. Rockefeller expressed concern that the forgeries may be part of a larger deception caign aimed at manipulating public opinion and foreign policy regarding Iraq.

Carlos Ortega, labor union leader and opponent of President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, is granted political asylum at the Costa Rican Embassy in Caracas. Ortega had eluded arrest for three weeks on charges of treason, civil rebellion and incitement.

An international peace summit is held in Egypt, in response to escalating terrorist attacks in the Middle East.

Astronaut Norman Thagard becomes the first American to ride into space aboard a Russian launch vehicle (the "Soyuz TM-21"), lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Apple Computer, Inc. releases the first Macintosh computers to use the new PowerPC Microprocessors. This is considered to be a major leap in personal computer, as well as Macintosh history.

Five lionesses at the Singapore Zoo are put on birth control after the lion population increases from two to sixteen.

Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams and 3 others are seriously injured in a gun attack by the UVF.

In Poland, a plane crashes during an emergency landing near Warsaw, killing a 14-man American boxing team and 73 others.

In China, a Hawker Siddeley Trident crashes into a factory near Beijing, killing at least 200.

Operation Litani: Israeli forces invade Lebanon.

After eight years on NBC, "The Wizard of Oz" returns to CBS, where it will remain for the next twenty-two years, setting what was likely then a record for the most telecasts of a Hollywood film on a commercial television network. That record will finally be broken by "The Ten Commandments", which began its annual network telecasts on ABC in 1973 and is still (2012) telecast by that network.

Nerve gas leaks from the U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground near Skull Valley, Utah.

A Dallas, Texas jury finds Jack Ruby guilty of killing John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.

President Sukarno declares martial law in Indonesia.

Nikita Khrushchev is selected First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.

The ship "Cygnet" hits a mine off the Dutch coast.

The River Thames overruns its banks.

WWII: British submarine HMS \'\'Thunderbolt\'\' sunk off Sicily by an Italian corvette, the second time this vessel has been lost with all hands.

The Slovak provincial assembly proclaims independence priest Jozef Tiso becomes the president of the independent Slovak government.

French Premier Léon Blum reassures the Czechoslovak government that France will honor its treaty obligations to aid Czechoslovakia in event of German invasion.

Chelsea FC is founded.

The Hay-Herran Treaty, granting the United States the right to build the Panama Canal, is ratified by the United States Senate. The Colombian Senate later rejects the treaty.

The botanist Hugo de Vries rediscovers Mendel's Laws of Heredity.

In New Orleans, a lynch mob storms the Old Parish Prison and lynches 11 Italians arrested but found innocent of the murder of Police Chief David Hennessy.

W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan's "The Mikado" opens at the Savoy Theatre.

March 14 ndash Albert Einstein ndash Theoretical physicist, philosopher and author who is widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists and intellectuals of all time was born.

The Dresden English Football Club is founded, first soccer club on European mainland.

March ndash The Young Men's Hebrew Association in Manhattan (which still operates today as the 92nd Street Y) is founded.

March 25–27 ndash Second Battle of Somorrostro (Third Carlist War): In a renewed attempt to raise the siege of Bilbao by Don Carlos VII, Republican commander Marshal Francisco Serrano himself arrived with 27,000 men and 70 cannon. However in three days of fierce fighting, the Carlist General Joaquín Elío, with just 17,000 men, once again drove off the attack at nearby Somorrostro, and it was another six weeks before Serrano managed to relieve Bilbao.

Battle of Castellfullit de la Roca (Third Carlist War): Appointed to command the Spanish Republican army in the north, General Ramón Nouvilas attempted to relieve the Carlist siege of Olot in Gerona. But at Castellfullit de la Roca, in one of the Government’s worst defeats, Nouvilas was routed by Carlist General Francisco Savalls, and captured along with about 2,000 of his men. Olot capitulated two days later.

Hawaii signs a treaty with the United States granting exclusive trading rights.

Verdi's "Macbeth" premieres at Teatro della Pergola in Florence, Italy.

John Herschel discovers the open cluster of stars now known as NGC 3603, observing from the Cape of Good Hope.ref name=Sher1965

Henry Addington becomes First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer effectively Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Cardinal Barnaba Chiaramonti succeeds Pius VI as Pius VII, the 251st pope.

Eli Whitney is granted a patent for the cotton gin.

The "Edinburgh Evening Courant" carries a notice of £200 reward for the capture of William Brodie, a town councilor doubling as a burglar.

Battle of Wuchale: Emperor Tekle Giyorgis pacifies a group of Oromo near Wuchale.

Seven Years\\' War: Admiral Sir John Byng is executed by firing squad aboard for breach of the Articles of War.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau leaves Geneva for the first time.

Charles II of England grants a land charter to William Penn for the area that will later become Pennsylvania.

April ndash Following the death of its last count, the Palatinate-Landsberg passes to the King of Sweden.

August ndash Robert Knox escapes prison in Ceylon, and details his adventures across Kandy and life in the kingdoms of the Tamil country Vanni in his book "An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon".

Battle of Leghorn: A Dutch fleet defeats the English the Dutch commander, Johan van Galen, later dies of his wounds.

Thirty Years\\\\' War: Bavaria, Cologne, France and Sweden sign the Truce of Ulm.

The largest correspondence between calendar dates and significant digits of pi since the introduction of the julian calendar.

Battle of Ivry: Henry IV of France again defeats the forces of the Catholic League under the Duc de Mayenne.

MayndashAugust ndash Henry IV of France unsuccessfully attempts to besiege Paris. Henry is forced to raise the siege when the Duke of Parma comes to its rescue with a Spanish army.

The Queen of Cyprus, Catherine Cornaro, sells her kingdom to Venice.

Chioggia concludes an alliance with Zadar and Trogir against Venice, which becomes changed in 1412 in Šibenik.

The Hongwu Emperor of the ChineseMing Dynasty issues a decree ordering every country magistrate in the empire to open a Confucian school of learning.

May ndash King Charles V of France renounces the Treaty of Brétigny and war is declared between France and England. The French recapture most of Aquitaine.

The Turks invade Bulgaria.

Duong Nhat Le succeeds Tran Hao as King of Vietnam.

Tamerlane names the city of Samarkand as the capital of his empire.

Pedro of Castile loses the Battle of Montiel to an alliance between the French and his half-brother Henry II.

Venice repels a Hungarian invasion.

The Thai Kingdom of Ayutthaya conquers Cambodia for a second time.

December ndash Financed by Charles V of France, Welshman Owain Lawgoch launches an invasion fleet against the English in an attempt to claim the throne of Wales. A storm causes Owain to abandon the invasion.

Hugues Aubriot founds the Bastille in Paris.

Košice becomes the first town in Europe to be granted its own coat of arms.

Princess Tōchi and Princess Abe of Japan proceed to Ise Jingu.

Emperor Jin Huidi is executed by Liu Cong, ruler of the Xiongnu state (Han Zhao). At the imperial new year he and a number of former Jin officials are poisoned.

Constantine I and Licinius accept Christianity, they agree on a policy of religious toleration. In their Edict they return property confiscated from Christians, and end 10 years of persecution.

Crown prince Jin Mindi, age 13, succeeds in Chang'an his uncle Jin Huidi and becomes the new emperor of the Jin Dynasty.

Crown prince Jin Mindi, age 13, succeeds in Chang'an his uncle Jin Huidi and becomes the new emperor of the Jin Dynasty.

Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine (Basilica Nova), Rome, is finished.

Nintoku, the fourth son of Ōjin, becomes the 16th emperor of Japan.