Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Today is March 15. Beware of the Ides of March. It was on this date in 44 B.C. that Julius Caesar was assassinated by Brutus and other Roman nobles in Rome. Caesar had gotten a swelled head from his military and political victories, and when he didn't outright refuse the title of "king," the other senators decided to stick it to him. Literally. Ironically, the upheaval and civil war that followed in the wake of Caesar's assassination led to the end of the Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire, which was headed by Caesar's adopted son, Octavius, as the Emperor Augustus. Advertisement It was on this date in 1493 that Christopher Columbus returned to Spain after his first voyage to the New World. He brought back with him all sorts of neat stuff for King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Gen. John "Black Jack" Pershing marched into Mexico on this date in 1916 to capture Mexican revolutionary leader Pancho Villa, who had staged several cross-border raids. Villa turned out to be pretty good at eluding the American forces -- Pershing's two-year expedition was unsuccessful. On this date in 1991, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic declared Serbia's secession from the Yugoslav federation. Advertisement Congressman Dan Rostenkowski, D-Ill., chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, won a hard-fought battle for re-nomination on this date in 1994, despite his being the subject of a criminal investigation into his financial affairs. He'd lose the November general election. And Colonel Tom Parker became Elvis Presley's personal manager on this date in 1956. We now return you to the present, already in progress.
