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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.
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.
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.
On 13 March 624, Muhammad set out to intercept a merchant caravan. The caravan escaped. An army three times his size came out to meet him instead. He had 313 men, 2 horses, and 70 camels.
On 12 March 1088, a French monk named Odo was elected pope in a small gathering in Terracina — unable to enter his own city. Seven years later, he launched the First Crusade. He died before he knew it had succeeded.
On 10 March 1876, Alexander Graham Bell spoke six words into a device above a Boston theatre and Thomas Watson heard them from another room. The telephone had just worked for the first time.
On 9 March 1776, Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations — not the final word on economics, but the first coherent one. The discipline has been arguing with it ever since.
On 8 March 1963, a handful of young Ba'athist officers seized Damascus in a coup so bloodless and unremarkable that the population greeted it with indifference. Nobody noticed. That was the problem.
In 1826, a 30-year-old diplomat abducted a 15-year-old heiress with forged letters and a manufactured family crisis, married her at Gretna Green, and nearly got away with it. He served three years in prison. Then helped found New Zealand.