"Beware the ides of March!"

This is the warning issued by the Soothsayer to Julius Caesar in Act I, Scene 2, of the Shakespeare play, Julius Caesar. Caesar just laughs it off. Of course, the Soothsayer’s words prove prophetic. Caesar is stabbed to death on the floor of the Senate on March 15—the ides of March.

In Roman times, "ides" was used to describe the middle day of any month. But leave it to Shakespeare to transform an innocuous phrase like "ides of March" into a term that today summons up great foreboding. Who’s afraid of the ides of February? Heck, who’s even heard of the ides of February?

The assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. is hardly the only memorable event to have taken place on March 15. Others include:

• 1493: Christopher Columbus returns to Spain after his first voyage to the New World;
• 1778: Captain Cook discovers Vancouver Island (George Vancouver didn’t discover the Island, he just mapped it out);
• 1820: Maine becomes the 20th state admitted to the Union;
• 1827: The University of Toronto is chartered;
• 1892: Jesse Reno patents the escalator;
• 1906: UK businessmen Rolls, Royce and Johnson form Rolls Royce Ltd.;
• 1917: Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates his throne;
• 1939: Hitler occupies Bohemia and Moravia (Czechoslovakia) after promising not to do so 6 months earlier at the Munich Conference;
• 1945: Billboard magazine publishes its first album chart (the #1 spot is occupied by the King Cole Trio);
• 1961: South Africa leaves British commonwealth;
• 1971: CBS takes the “Ed Sullivan Show” off the air.

Story Tools:  Email This Post  Print This Post Top