March 10

241 BC – The Romans sink the Carthaginian fleet around the Aegates Islands, off the western coast of the island of Sicily, bringing the First Punic War to an end.

1496 – On the island of Hispaniola, the city of Santo Domingo, the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the Americas, is founded by Christopher Columbus before he departs for Spain, returning from his 2nd voyage of exploration

1535 – Tomás de Berlanga, the fourth Bishop of Panama, discovers the Galápagos Islands on a voyage to Peru.

1629 – Claiming he was entitled to do this under the Royal Prerogative, Charles I Stuart King of England dissolves Parliament, beginning the period known as the Personal Rule or as the Eleven Years’ Tyranny, the first step that led to the English Civil War, and the execution of the King under rule of Oliver Cromwell.

1831 – The French Foreign Legion is created by King Louis Philippe of France from the foreign regiments of the Kingdom.

1848 – The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is ratified by the United States Senate, ending the Mexican–American War.

1876 – Alexander Graham Bell makes the first successful test of a telephone, speaking; “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.” to his assistant Thomas Watson, in the next room

1891 – Almon Strowger patents the Strowger switch, the first telephone circuit switching device.

1922 – Mahatma Gandhi is arrested in India, tried for sedition, and sentenced to 6 years in prison, but serves only 2 years before being released.

1933 – A 6.4 magnitude earthquake on the Newport–Inglewood Fault, offshore southern California, hits the Greater Los Angeles Area, leaving 120 people dead and millions of dollars in property damage.

1959 – Fearing an abduction attempt by China, thousands of Tibetans begin a revolt against Chinese intervention and surround the Dalai Lama’s palace in Lhasa to prevent his arrest.

1969 – In Memphis, Tennessee, James Earl Ray pleads guilty to assassinating Martin Luther King Jr.

1970 – U.S. Army Captain Ernest Medina is charged by the U.S. military with committing war crimes at My Lai village in Vietnam.

1977 – Astronomers discover rings around Uranus.

2019 – Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, a Boeing 737 MAX, crashes near near the town of Bishoftu, Ethiopia, six minutes after takeoff, killing all 157 people aboard. This 2nd crash, determined to be due to a fault in the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, leads to all 737 MAX aircraft being grounded worldwide until the computer control system malfunctions are finally repaired and tests completed in December 2020

2020 – The World Health Organization officially announces the COVID-19 viral outbreak as a pandemic.