TODAY in HISTORY

Today is Wednesday, March 22, the 81st day of 2017. There are 284 days left in the year.

1622 Jamestown massacre: Algonquians kill 347 English settlers around Jamestown, Virginia, a third of the colony’s population, during the Second Anglo-Powhatan War.

1638 Anne Hutchinson is expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony for religious dissent.

1713 The Tuscarora War comes to an end with the fall of Fort Neoheroka, effectively opening up the interior of North Carolina to European colonisation. 1739 Nader Shah occupies Delhi and sacks the city, stealing the jewels of the Peacock Throne. 1765 The British Parliament passes the Stamp Act that introduces a tax to be levied directly on its American colonies. 1829 In the London Protocol, the three protecting powers (United Kingdom, France and Russia) establish the borders of Greece.

1849 The Austrians defeat the Piedmontese at the Battle of Novara.

1871 In North Carolina, William Woods Holden becomes the first governor of a US state to be removed from office by impeachment.

1873 The Spanish National Assembly abolishes slavery in Puerto Rico. 1916 The last emperor of China, Yuan Shikai, abdicates the throne and the Republic of China is restored. 1942 WWII: In the Mediterranean Sea, the Royal Navy confronts Italy’s Regia Marina in the Second Battle of Sirte.

1945 The Arab League is founded when a charter is adopted in Cairo, Egypt.

1972 The United States Congress sends the Equal Rights Amendment to the states for ratification.

1992 Fall of communism in Albania: The Democratic Party of Albania wins a decisive majority in the parliamentary election. 1995 Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returns to earth after setting a record of 438 days in space.

1997 Tara Lipinski, aged 14 years and 10 months, becomes the youngest women’s World Figure Skating Champion.

2013 At least 37 people are killed and 200 injured after a fire destroys a camp containing Burmese refugees in Thailand. 2016 Three suicide bombers kill 32 people in Brussels bombings at the airport.