On This Day (March 14)

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• 1471 - Sir Thomas Malory, English author died. (b. 1405) ("Le Morte d'Arthur")
• 1590 – French Wars of Religion: Henry of Navarre and the Huguenots defeated the forces of the Catholic League under the Duc de Mayenne at the Battle of Ivry in Ivry, France.
• 1681 - Georg Philipp Telemann, German composer born. (d. 1767) (Concert Suite in D major for Orchestra and Viola da Gamba - TWV55:D6 - 1. Overture - Listen)
• 1757 – British Royal Navy Admiral John Byng was court-martialled and executed by firing squad for breaching the Articles of War when he failed to "do his utmost" during the Battle of Minorca at the start of the Seven Years' War.
• 1794 – American inventor Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin (pictured).
  
  
  
  
• 1835 - Giovanni Schiaparelli, Italian astronomer born. (d. 1910) (He studied at the University of Turin and Berlin Observatory and worked for over forty years at Brera Observatory. He observed objects in the solar system, and after observing Mars he named the "seas" and "continents". Beginning in 1877 he also believed he had observed long straight features he called canali in Italian, meaning "channels" but mistranslated as "canals".)
• 1854 - Paul Ehrlich, German scientist, Nobel laureate born. (d. 1915) (He is noted for his work in hematology, immunology, and chemotherapy. Ehrlich predicted autoimmunity calling it "horror autotoxicus". He coined the term "chemotherapy" and popularized the concept of a "magic bullet". He is credited with the first empirical observation of the blood-brain barrier and the development of the first antibiotic drug in modern medicine.)
• 1863 - Casey Jones, American railroad engineer born. (d. 1900) (In 1900 he alone was killed when his passenger train collided with a stopped freight train at Vaughan, Mississippi on a foggy and rainy night. His dramatic death trying to stop his train and save lives made him a railroad icon who became immortalized in a popular ballad sung by his friend Wallace Saunders, an African American engine wiper for the IC. Due to the enduring popularity of this classic song, he has been the world's most famous railroad engineer for over a century.)
• 1879 - Albert Einstein, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate born. (d. 1955) (He is best known for his theory of relativity and specifically mass-energy equivalence, E = mc2.)
  
  
  Albert Einstein at 68
  
  
• 1932 - George Eastman, American inventor, and founder of Eastman Kodak died. (b. 1854) (Invented the roll film)
• 1973 - Chic Young, American cartoonist died. (b. 1901) ("Blondie")
• 1978 – Israeli-Lebanese conflict: The Israel Defense Forces began Operation Litani, invading and occupying southern Lebanon, and pushing Palestine Liberation Organization troops north up to the Litani River.
• 1991 – The "Birmingham Six", wrongly convicted of the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings in Birmingham, England, were released after sixteen years in prison.