BACK IN THE DAY, MARCH 26
1169 Saladin becomes the emir of Egypt.
1344 The Siege of Algeciras, one of the first European battles in which gunpowder was used other than in China, comes to an end.
1484 William Caxton prints Aesop’s Fables, which is still popular today.
1812 A political cartoon in the Boston Gazette coins the term “gerrymander” to describe oddly shaped electoral districts designed to help incumbents win re-election. The practice is used widely around the world.
1898 The world’s first officially designated game reserve, the Sabi Game Reserve, opens after a proclamation in the Gazette of the ZAR (Zuid Afrikaanse Republiek), prohibits the hunting of game in the area between the Crocodile River in the south and the Sabie River in the north, and between the Lebombo Range in the east and the Drakensberg Range in the west. It is renamed the Kruger National Park in 1926.
1931 New Delhi replaces Calcutta as the capital of the British-Indies (today’s India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Ceylon).
1945 The Battle of Iwo Jima ends as the island is officially secured by American forces. Some 18 000 Japanese and 6 000 Americans died in the bloodbath on the island.
1971 East Pakistan (Bangladesh) declares independence from Pakistan.
1979 The historic Camp David peace treaty is signed between Israel and Egypt by Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and US President Jimmy Carter at the White House.
2010 A South Korean Navy ship is torpedoed, killing 46 sailors. The UN blames North Korea.
2012 Canadian filmmaker James Cameron becomes the first person to visit Challenger Deep, the deepest point on Earth, in 50 years.
2015 Richard III of England is reburied at Leicester Cathedral in England, after his longlost remains were discovered under a parking lot in 2012. He was the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. He died in battle in 1485, but unlike other English monarchs, his grave was lost.
2022 US President Joe Biden says of Russian President Vladimir Putin: ‘For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power’ in unscripted remarks in Poland.