March 15
1493
Christopher Columbus returned to Spain after his first visit to the Western Hemisphere.
1820
Maine became the 23rd state.
1917
Nicholas II, the last czar of Russia, is forced to abdicate his throne (March 2, old style calendar).
1937
The first hospital blood bank in the United States was established, in Chicago, at Cook County Hospital.
1965
On the “Ides of March,” Julius Caesar was stabbed to death in the senate house by a group of conspirators led by Cimber, Casca, Cassius, and Marcus Junius Brutus.
2003
Hu Jintao was chosen to replace Jiang Zemin as the president of China.
2004
Scientists reported the discovery of Sedna, the most distant object in the solar system.
Birthdays
Andrew Jackson
1767–1845; born in what is now generally agreed to be Waxhaw, S.C.
Emil von Behring
physician (1854)
Liberty Hyde Bailey
botanist (1858)
Lawrence Sanders
novelist (1920)
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
associate justice (1933)