by Jonnie Chastain

Created on: January 23, 2012   Last Updated: January 24, 2012

"Beware the Ides of March".  When those five foreboding words flowed from the mind of William Shakespeare, through his pen, and onto his "Julius Caesar" manuscript in the late 1500's I doubt he could see into the future and know that they would echo down through history.  Neither could he have foreseen history would validate the warning.

Idus Martias, the full moon of the Roman calendar in ancient history, was a festival day for the gods Mars and Jupiter, and the goddess Anna Perenna.  However, around the world and throughout the years this day has proven to be anything but festive. 

The Ides of March in History 

On this date in 1360, while King Edward III was busy pillaging France, the French launched a vicious attack in southern England to prove they could be just as vicious in England as Edward was in France. 

In 1889 warships from the United States and Germany were gathered in the harbor at Apia, Samoa to do battle for the right to annex the Samoan Islands.  Nature intervened in the form of a cyclone which wrecked the ships killing more than 200 sailors.

In 1917 Czar Nicholas II signed the papers abdicating his throne, giving way to Bolshevik rule.  Later a firing squad executed the royal family.

In 1939 Czechoslovakia dissolves when Nazi Germany invades the provinces of Bohemia and Moravia.

1941 is remembered for a killer blizzard that struck parts of Canada and the United States.  Wind speed of 60 miles-an -hour left at least 60 people dead in the provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and the states of North Dakota and Minnesota.

In 1918, following the passage of the 16th amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America in 1913, March 15 became the day for filing income tax returns.  It was changed to April 15 in 1955.

To be fair we need to mention a few of the good things that have taken place on the Ides of March.  Andrew Jackson was born on the date in 1767, in 1820 Maine entered the Union, and in 1965 President Johnson called for equal voting rights.

Because of the writing of William Shakespeare and regardless of what we learn from history, the Ides of March will probably always bring to mind the murder of Julius Caesar in 44 BC.  
 

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