On Thursday, March 18, the book of history records, among other things:
1776: In the American Revolutionary War, Boston is conquered by the troops of George Washington.
1891: The first telephone call is made between Paris and London via an English Channel cable.
1916: Russian troops occupy the Persian city of Isfahan.
1921: In Riga, Poland and Soviet Russia sign the peace treaty that officially ends the Polish-Russian war. The Polish border is determined around 250 km east of the so-called Curzon Line (drawn in 1920 by the British Foreign Minister George Curzon).
1921: Units of the Red Army move into Kronstadt and put down the sailors’ revolt of the Russian Baltic Fleet that broke out there on March 2.
1931: The US company Schick in Stamford, Connecticut, begins production of the first electric razor.
1931: A Central European economic conference begins in Vienna, in which Austria, Hungary and Germany also take part in the countries of the “Little Entente”, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia.
1941: The Italian offensive in northwestern Greece is halted.
1946: In Austria, food rations for normal consumers have to be reduced to 1,200 calories per day.
1946: The United Nations found the World Bank with headquarters in Washington.
1961: The German Defense Minister Franz Josef Strauss becomes head of the CSU, the Bavarian sister party of the CDU.
1966: In its decree of mixed marriage, the Holy See decrees that Catholics who are Protestant are no longer excommunicated. From now on a Catholic is not obliged to convert his non-Catholic spouse.
1991: Foreign Minister Alois Mock opens the CSCE Conflict Prevention Center in Vienna.
1991: The chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Yasser Arafat, declares his willingness to enter into a dialogue with Israel under international auspices.
1996: A nightclub fire in the Philippine capital Manila killed at least 150 visitors in the flames.
1996: Israel begins construction of the controversial Jewish settlement “Har Homa” in East Jerusalem.
2006: The Carinthian writer Peter Handke takes part in the last public mourning rally for the late Yugoslav ex-president Slobodan Milošević in the Serbian town of Požarevac. His controversial address has generated international criticism. At the end of May, violent debates broke out about the award of the Heine Prize to Handke, in which, among other things, Handke’s appearance at the funeral was brought up. At the beginning of June the author decides not to accept the award.
2006: The Austrian ski racer Michaela Dorfmeister announces her retirement from active skiing.
2011: The NASA space probe “Messenger”, which was launched on August 3, 2004, enters orbit around the planet Mercury. After “Mariner 10”, “Messenger” is the second space probe to visit Mercury and the first to orbit it as an orbiter.
2011: Several demonstrators are killed in clashes with police in Syria. Prime Minister Muhammad Naji al-Utri resigns on March 29, while President Bashar al-Assad remains in office despite violent protests.
2011: On “Day of Dignity” in Yemen, 53 people died and more than 126 were injured in an attack by government troops on protesters, after which President Ali Abdullah Saleh declared a state of emergency.
2011: Small medical sensation at Vienna General Hospital: A 26-year-old child educator from the Gänserndorf district gives birth to quintuplets.
2016: The controversial EU-Turkey refugee deal is ready: From now on, all migrants apprehended at the EU’s external border will be returned to Turkey. The EU undertakes to take in one Syrian war refugee from Turkey for every Syrian sent back. Turkey is to be supported by the EU with up to six billion euros for refugee care, and Ankara is also promised a visa liberalization. All of this against the background of an increasingly authoritarian Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has discontinued critical newspapers and insults opposition politicians, intellectuals and journalists as “terrorists”.
Birthdays: Tatjana Gsovsky, dt. Dance Educator (1901-1993); Gabriel Celaya, span. Writer (1911-1991); Frederik Willem de Klerk, ehem. südafr. Politician; President 1989-1994 (1936); Wolfgang Bauer, east. Playwright (1941-2005); Wilson Pickett, US Soul Singer (1941-2006); Ingemar Stenmark, Sweden. Ex-Skier (1956); Anne Will, dt. Television Moderator (1966); Fabian Cancellara, schwz. Ex-Cyclist (1981).
Days of Death: Gustaf Lundberg, Swedish rococo painter (1695-1786); Georg Gottfried Gervinus, German historian (1805-1871); Ferdinand Freiligrath, German poet (1810-1876); Karl Gölsdorf, east. Railway Technician (1861-1916); Eleftherios Venizelos, Greek statesman (1864-1936); Mizzi Günther, east. Singer (1879-1961); Louis Bromfield, US writer (1896-1956); Odysseas Elytis, Greek poet (1911-1996); Bernard Malamud, US storyteller (1914-1986); Wolfgang Spier, German actor (1920-2011); Warren Christopher, US Attorney / Polit. (1925-2011); Leopold Rosenmayr, east. Sociologist (1925-2016); John Phillips, US pop singer (The Mamas and the Papas) (1935-2001); Guido Westerwelle, German politician (1961-2016).
Name days: Eduard, Sibylle, Cyrill, Anselm, Otward, Salvator, Dietrich, Alexander, Felix, Narcissus.
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