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On 21 March 1804, Napoleon signed the Code civil des Français into law. His empire lasted eleven years. The Code is still in force.

On 20 March 1602, the Dutch Republic chartered a trading company with the power to wage war, mint coins, and execute criminals. It became the wealthiest corporation in history, and spent the next two centuries proving what happens when you give private actors sovereign force.

Born on 19 March 1813 in a Scottish cotton mill tenement, David Livingstone spent thirty years in Africa making one confirmed convert, getting the Nile wrong, and depending on the slave traders he had dedicated his life to stopping. His servants carried him out.

On 18 March 1871, Adolphe Thiers sent soldiers before dawn to seize 170 cannons from Montmartre. By evening, the French government had abandoned Paris. The working class ran the city for seventy-two days, long enough to terrify every government in Europe.

On 17 March 45 BC, Caesar won the last battle of his civil war at Munda. He later said he had often fought for victory, but at Munda he fought for his life. He had a year left.

In 1836, a Qing official argued for legalising opium to save the empire. The emperor said no. Twenty-two years later, the empire was required by British treaty to permit it.

In July 1324, Mansa Musa — king of Mali and holder of more gold than anyone had ever seen in one place — arrived in Cairo with 12,000 servants, 80 camel-loads of gold dust, and no apparent intention of leaving with any of it.

On 15 March 1638, Fulin was born — the ninth son of the Qing ruler Hong Taiji, and a child no one expected to matter. He was crowned emperor at five, began ruling at thirteen, died at twenty-two, and left behind a dynasty that lasted another 251 years.

In 1096, a woman set out for Jerusalem from France with a goose from her farm. Peasant crusaders took it as divine guidance. The goose died in northeastern France and never got close to the Holy Land. The people who followed it left a different kind of trail.

On 14 March 1794, Eli Whitney received a patent for his cotton gin — a crude wooden machine he hoped would reduce slavery. It did the opposite.