[Amnorix]

March 4.

1238. The Battle of Sit River. The Mongols under Batu Khan (Genghis' grandson) crush the Russians of Grand Prince Yuri II, ending organized resistance to the Mongols. The "Golden Horde" would go on to crush Polish and Hungarian troops as well, and then settle down to rule Rus and the Caucuses for about 250 years.

1461. War of the Roses ends for the moment with the deposing of Lancastrian King Henry VI, who is replaced by his cousin, York King Edward IV.

1629. Massachusetts Bay Colony is granted a royal charter.

1775. On this day, the British in Boston, Massachusetts awaken to find American heavy cannon emplaced on Dorchester Heights, opposite the city. With a commanding range of fire over the city and harbor, the British position is rendered immediately untenable. The victory is the result of American General Henry Knox having led teams of sleds bringing heavy cannon from Fort Ticonderoga (in New York) through the bitter cold New England winter to Boston. At first, the British plan to attack, but bad weather and the potential for a true disaster sink in, and the British abandon the city to the rebels.

1837. Chicago is incorporated as a city.

1861. Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as President. The newly formed Confederate States adopt their flag, the "stars and bars".

1917. Jeannette Rankin is elected to the US House of Representatives -- the first woman to be so elected. She becomes famous as a pacifist, voting against the United States' entry into World War I and II, being the only memeber of Congress to vote against the latter. Her stance being unpopular, she does not run for reelection.

1957. The S&P 500 is introduced, replacing the S&P 90.

1977. The first Cray 1 Supercomputer is delivered to Los Alamos laboratory. Weighing 5.5 tons (including the built-in freon unit), it was capable of performing at the astounding speed of 80 MFLOPS/second. By comparison, a Pentium 4 2.8 ghz computer can do 2.5 GFLOPS/second, about 31 times faster.

1980. In what is generally acknowledged now as a "really big mistake", Nationalist leader Robert Mugabe wins a sweeping election victory to become the first black Prime Minister of Zimbabwe.