March 1st
1445: Birth of the Florentine painter Sandro Botticelli (d. 1510). 1643: Death, in Rome, of the organist and composer Girolamo Frescobaldi (b. 1583), who is buried in the church of Santi Apostoli. 1773: Death, in Caserta, of the Neapolitan architect Luigi Vanvitelli (b. 1700), who is most famous for designing the Reggia di Caserta (Royal Palace of Caserta). 1938: Death of the writer Gabriele d' Annunzio (b. 1863). |
March 5th
1534: Death of the painter Antonio Allegri (b. 1489), better known as il Correggio. 1696: Birth of the Venetian painter Giambattista Tiepolo (d. 1770). 1827: Death of Alessandro Volta, the scientist who is credited with inventing the electric battery. 1922: Birth, in Bologna, of the film director Pier Paolo Pasolini (d. 1975). |
March 6th
1447: Election of Pope Nicholas V (r. 1447-55). 1683: Death, in Milan, of the architect Guarino Guarini (b. 1624), who is, perhaps, most famous for his design of the Chapel of the Holy Shroud in Turin. 1853: Premiere at La Fenice, in Venice, of Verdi's opera La Traviata. |
March 7th
1274: Death of St Thomas Aquinas (b. 1225) at Fossanova Abbey. 1475: Birth of the sculptor, painter, architect and poet Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (d. 1564), better known simply as Michelangelo. 1678: Birth of the Sicilian architect Filippo Juvarra (d. 1736). |
March 10th
1749: Birth, in Ceneda (later renamed Vittorio Veneto), of the librettist Lorenzo da Ponte (d. 1838). Da Ponte wrote the libretti for three of Mozart's finest operas: Don Giovanni, Cosi fan Tutte & The Marriage of Figaro. 1872: Death, in Pisa, of Giuseppe Mazzini (b. 1805), politician and activist for Italian unification. |
March 14th
1800: Election, in Venice, of Pope Pius VII (r. 1800-23). 1820: Birth, in Milan, of Vittorio Emanuele II, who, on March 17th 1861, became the first king of Italy. 1972: Death of the publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli (b. 1926), who accidentally blew himself up while trying to ignite a terrorist bomb. Feltrinelli had become famous for his decision to translate and publish Boris Pasternak's novel Doctor Zhivago. |
March 15th
44 BCE: Assassination of Julius Caesar on the Ides of March. Caesar was killed by his fellow senators in the Curia Pompeia, part of the Roman Theatre of Pompey. |
March 16th
37 BCE: Death of the Emperor Tiberius (r. 14-37). 1940: Birth, in Parma, of the film director Bernardo Bertolucci (d. 2018). Two of his credits are Last Tango in Paris and The Last Emperor. 1978: Aldo Moro, a former Prime Minister, was kidnapped in Rome by the Red Brigades. |
March 17th
1861: Creation of the Kingdom of Italy, with Turin as its capital. Vittorio Emanuele II was the first king (r. 1861-78). 1976: Death, in Rome, of the film director Luchino Visconti (b. 1906), whose credits include The Leopard and Death in Venice. |
March 25th
1347: Birth of Caterina Benincasa (d. 1380), who would become St Catherine of Siena. 1436: Consecration of the Duomo in Florence by Pope Eugenius IV (r. 1431-47). 1541: Birth, in Florence, of Francesco de' Medici, second Grand Duke of Tuscany (r. 1574-87). 1867: Birth, in Parma, of the conductor Arturo Toscanini (d. 1957). |