Today in history—March 15

44 B.C.: Julius Caesar is assassinated on the Ides of March.

1493: Christopher Columbus arrives back in Spain to tell everyone he’s reached the Far East.

1767: Andrew Jackson, who will give up law practice for soldiering and politics, is born in a backwoods hovel near Waxhaw, North Carolina.

1820: Maine joins the Union as the 23rd state.  It had previously been part of Massachusetts.

1827: King’s College at York receives its royal charter. It will become known as the University of Toronto in 1849.

1877: The first cricket “Test Match” takes place between England and Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Australia wins, though England takes the rematch.

1906: Two Britons, fiancier Henry Royce and engineer Charles Stuart Rolls, charter their new company, Rolls-Royce.

1909: One of the world’s great department stores, Selfridge’s, opens in London.

1933: Future law professor and U.S. Supreme Court Justice (Joan) Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Columbia Law 1959) is born in Brooklyn, New York.

1970: The “World’s Fair” craze continues with the opening of one in Osaka.