On this day, March 15

44 B.C. Roman dictator Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of nobles that included Brutus and Cassius.

1493 Italian explorer Christopher Columbus arrived back in the Spanish harbor of Palos de la Frontera, two months after concluding his first voyage to the Western Hemisphere.

1894 Pittsburgh citizens contributed to a fund to be used to put 1,000 to 2,000 unemployed men to work on city projects.

1967 U.S. Steel broke ground for its new skyscraper headquarters, the world’s second largest high-rise office building.

1987 Paul Block Jr., co-publisher of the Post-Gazette, died in Monterey, Calif., at the age of 75.

2010 Michael David Barrett, an insurance executive who’d shot surreptitious hotel videos of ESPN reporter Erin Andrews, was sentenced in federal court in Los Angeles to 2½ years in prison. (He was released in July 2012.)

Some items are from Stefan Lorant’s “Pittsburgh: The Story of an American City” (digital.library.pitt.edu/chronology). — Compiled by Rick Nowlin

Today’s birthdays: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 87. Actor Judd Hirsch, 85. Jazz musician Charles Lloyd, 82. Rock musician Phil Lesh, 80. Singer Mike Love (The Beach Boys), 79. Rock singer-musician Sly Stone, 77. Rock singer Dee Snider (Twisted Sister), 65. Model Fabio, 59. Rock singer (and Butler, Pa., native) Bret Michaels (Poison), 57. Actress Eva Longoria, 45.

Thought for today: “There are no hopeless situations; there are only men who have grown helpless about them.”