This Week in History: March 14th – 20th

Welcome to this week’s edition of the staff blog’s ‘This Week in History!’ You will find historical facts, happenings, and associated books; #1 box office movies; and #1 NY Times best sellers from years gone by, all with book recommendations included based on each topic. This will be a weekly feature, so make sure to check out each week’s posting! NOTE: Click on any of the below book/movie titles to be taken to them in our online Café catalog!
NY Times Fiction Bestsellers
- 1946 (75 years ago): The King’s General by Daphne du Maurier
- 1971 (50 years ago): QB VII by Leon Uris
- 1986 (35 years ago):The Bourne Supremacy by Robert Ludlum
- 1996 (25 years ago): Primary Colors by Anonymous (Joe Klein)
- 2011(10 years ago): The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
- 2016 (5 years ago): The Gangster by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott
#1 Box Office Movies
- 1971 (50 years ago): Love Story
- 1986 (35 years ago): Gung Ho
- 1996 (25 years ago): The Birdcage
- 2001 (20 years ago): Exit Wounds
- 2011 (10 years ago): Limitless
- 2016 (5 years ago): Zootopia
This Week in History
- March 14th
- 1879- Albert Einstein is born in Ulm, Germany. (World)
- 1950- The FBI debuts its “10 Most Wanted Fugitives” List. (United States)
- 1964- In the first courtroom verdict to be televised in the United States, Jack Ruby is found guilty of the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald. (United States)
- March 15th
- 44 BC- Julius Caesar is assassinated on the Ides of March. (World)
- 1917- Czar Nicholas II abdicates the Russian throne in the lead-up to the Russian Revolution. (World)
- 2019- A gunman opens fire on two different mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand during Friday Prayer, killing 51 and wounding 40, in the first act of mass gun violence in New Zealand history. (World)
- March 16th
- 1802- The U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY is established. (United States)
- 1945- The U.S. Marines finally capture the Japanese island of Iwo Jima during WWII after fierce multi-week fighting. (United States/World)
- 1968- Members of the U.S. Army massacre unarmed Vietnamese men, women, and children at My Lai, one of a cluster of small villages located near the northern coast of South Vietnam. (United States/World)
- March 17th
- 461- Saint Patrick, a Christian missionary, bishop, and apostle of Ireland, dies at Downpatrick, Ireland. (World)
- 1905- Eleanor Roosevelt, niece of President Theodore Roosevelt, marries her distant cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, later the U.S. president from 1933-1945. (United States)
- 1992- Nearly 69% of white South African voters voted to repeal racially discriminatory nationwide laws, effectively endorsing the dismantling of apartheid. (World)
- March 18th
- 1766- The British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act of 1765 after violent protests from American colonists. (United States/World)
- 1925- The deadliest tornado in U.S. history, named the Tri-State Tornado, kills 695 people as it sweeps across eastern Missouri, southern Illinois, and southern Indiana. (United States)
- 1953- The Boston Braves announce they are moving from Boston to Milwaukee. (Wisconsin/United States)
- March 19th
- 1931- Nevada legalizes gambling, paving the way for casinos in the state and the rise of Las Vegas in American popular culture. (United States)
- 1957- Elvis Presley puts his first down payment on the home that came to be known as Graceland, cementing the house’s place in American pop culture lore. (United States)
- 2003- U.S. President George W. Bush orders air strikes on Baghdad, thus beginning the Iraq War that would oust dictator Saddam Hussein while causing massive unrest throughout Iraq and much of the Middle East, leading to the rise of ISIS and other Islamic extremist terrorist organizations. (United States/World)
- March 20th
- 1854- The Republican Party is founded in Ripon, WI by Free Soilers and Whig party members outraged by passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. (Wisconsin/United States)
- 1958- An angry mob torches serial killer Ed Gein’s home in Plainfield in response to rumors that it would be purchased at auction and reopened for tourism. (Wisconsin)
- 1995- Top leaders of AUM Shinrikyo (‘Supreme Truth’ in Japanese), a fringe religious cult in Japan, release nerve gas into a Tokyo subway, killing 12 people and injuring thousands. (World)
Recommended Reading Related to Movies/Historical Happenings:
- Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson
- The FBI: A History by Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones
- The Jack Ruby Trial Revisited: The Diary of Jury Foreman Max Causey edited by John Mark Dempsey
- Julius Caesar: The Life and Times of the People’s Dictator by Luciano Canfora
- The Russian Civil War by Evan Mawdsley
- Absolutely American: Four Years at West Point by David Lipsky
- Iwo Jima: In Photos by Eric Hammel
- My Lai: Vietnam, 1968, and the Descent into Darkness by Howard Jones
- Patrick: Son of Ireland, A Novel by Stephen R. Lawhead
- Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage by Hazel Rowley
- Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth’s Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa by Mark Mathabane
- Events That Changed America in the Eighteenth Century edited by John E. Findling & Frank W. Thackeray
- The Forgotten Storm: The Great Tri-State Tornado of 1925 by Wallace Akin
- Home of the Braves: The Battle for Baseball in Milwaukee by Patrick W. Steele
- Bright Light City: Las Vegas in Popular Culture by Larry Gragg
- Graceland: Going Home with Elvis by Karal Ann Marling
- All of Which I Saw: With the U.S. Marine Corps in Iraq by Lucian Read
- Grand Old Party: A History of the Republicans by Lewis L. Gould
- Ed Gein–Pyscho! by Paul Anthony Woods
- Cult X by Fuminori Nakamura