On This Day…

1349 – Between 100 and 3,000 Jews are killed in Black Death riots in Erfurt, Germany.
1804 – Napoleonic Code adopted in France, stresses clearly written and accessible law.
1871 – Journalist Henry Morton Stanley begins his famous expedition to Africa.
1952 – The Moondog Coronation Ball is history’s first rock concert.
1963 – The U.S. federal prison on San Francisco Bay’s Alcatraz Island, which had held some of the most dangerous civilian prisoners—including Al Capone and Robert Stroud, the “Birdman of Alcatraz”—was closed.
1965 – American civil rights activists led by Martin Luther King, Jr., began a protest march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
1975 – Ethiopia abolishes its monarchy after 3,000 years.
2014 – Russia formally annexes Crimea amid international condemnation. 

Film:
1940 – “Rebecca” based on the book by Daphne du Maurier, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine premieres in Miami, Florida (Best Picture 1941). 

Music:
1961 – The Beatles’ first appearance at the Cavern Club in Liverpool.

Sport:
1984 – NFL owners passed the infamous anti-celebrating rule.

Via Britannica / On This Day