ON THIS DAY MARCH 22

1349 The townspeople of Fulda, Germany massacre Jews, blaming them for the Black Death.

1858 After failed discussions between President Jacobus Boshoff of the Republic of the Orange Free State and Chief Moshesh and his sons, the Free State declares war, starting the first Basuto war.

1896 Charilaos Vasilakos of Greece wins the first modern marathon in 3:18 at the Panhellenic Games.

1907 The new Boer government in the Transvaal passes an Asiatic Registration Bill, that restricts immigration from India.

1914 The St Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line becomes the world’s first scheduled airline.

1916 The last Emperor of China, Yuan Shikai, abdicates.

1920 Azeri and Turkish army soldiers, with the participation of Kurdish gangs, attack the Armenian inhabitants of Shushi (Nagorno-Karabakh).

1942 The Royal Navy confronts Italy’s Regia Marina in the Second Battle of Sirte, in the Mediterranean.

1945 The Arab League is founded and adopted in Cairo, Egypt.

1992 With South Africa needing 22 runs off 13 balls, rain forces players off the field in the World Cup cricket semi-final against England. When they return, the target has been revised to 22 runs off one ball, all but robbing South Africa of a highly likely victory and gifting England a path through to the final, where they lose to Pakistan.

1995 Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returns to Earth after a record 438 days in space.

1997 South African mercenaries, hired by the Papua New Guinea government to help crush a separatist rebellion, arrive back in South Africa. Executive Outcomes say the men should not be seen as mercenaries, but as consultants.

2004 Ahmed Yassin, the co-founder and leader of the Palestinian Sunni Islamist group Hamas, two bodyguards and nine civilian bystanders are killed in the Gaza Strip when hit by Israeli Hellfire missiles.

2018 The “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” between Hawaii and California has

1.8 trillion pieces of plastic and increasing rapidly according to new research. | The Historian