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March 24.
1401. One of the most fascinating, controversial and complex conquerors in all of history -- Temur (sometimes Timur), better known in the west by the bastardized name of Tamerlane, conquers the ancient and extremely wealthy city of Damascus. After the city peacefully surrenders, all seems well, but a surprising and sudden uprising of local inhabitants leads to the complete sack, looting, raping and pillaging of the city. Tens of thousands of citizens are massacred, and as usual for Temur -- his "signature" if you will -- the decapitated heads are piled up in a pyramid shape. To this day the field where teh heads were piled, now in the northeast corner of the city, is called burj al-ru'us -- "the tower of heads".
Regrettably, during the sack the city goes up in flames, and one fo the oldest and most impressive mosques in Islamdom is lost, the original Umayyad Mosque.
As a result, Temur, who styled himself the Sword of Islam, is declared an enemy of Islam. Indeed, one of the more fascinating aspects of his career is that most of his conquests were of fellow Muslims, leaving him with a very mixed record in the eyes of Islamic historians. There is no questioning his prowess, however -- no one other than Genghis Khan had such success in Asian warfare, and Temur never lost a battle.
1944. 76 Allied prisoners begin breaking out of the German prisoner of war camp Stalag Luft III. The events are memorialized in the movie The Great Escape.
1989. The Exxon Valdez runs aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling 240,000 barrels (10.8 million gallons) of petroleum into the sensitive ecological habitat. The oil eventually covered 11,000 square miles of ocean. Despite its seemingly impressive size and the fame of the incident, it is only the 53rd largest spill on record. The ship's captain, Joseph Hazelwood, was accused of being drunk at the time of the accident. He ends up being exonerated of all felony charges against him, and is only convicted of the misdemeanor charge of negligent discharge of oil, fined $50,000, and sentenced to 1,000 hours of community service.
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