On This Day

Today in History, March 15th

On March 15, 44 B.C., the Ides of March, Julius Caesar was assassinated in Rome. Plus Maine's statehood and the fall of Russia's last czar.

By Today in History Updated November 10, 2026 3 min read Sources checked

Published March 15, 2026 · Last updated November 10, 2026

March 15, the Ides of March, is best known for 44 B.C., when Julius Caesar was stabbed to death by a group of Roman senators. The date also saw Maine become the 23rd state in 1820 and Russia’s Czar Nicholas II give up his throne in 1917.

The big story: The Ides of March (44 B.C.)

In 45 B.C., Julius Caesar had been named dictator for life. To his enemies in the Senate, that title sounded like a king in everything but name. Around 60 conspirators, led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus, decided the only cure was to kill him. On March 15, the day Romans called the Ides, they surrounded Caesar at a meeting of the Senate and stabbed him to death. The plotters believed they were saving the Republic. It did not work out that way. Rome slid into a new round of civil wars, and Caesar’s grandnephew Octavian came out on top. As Augustus, he became Rome’s first emperor, and the Republic the assassins had hoped to rescue was gone for good.

More events on March 15

Year	What happened
1781	American forces won a strategic victory over the British at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in North Carolina.
1783	George Washington spoke to angry Continental Army officers at Newburgh, New York, and calmed their anger toward Congress, ending what became known as the Newburgh Conspiracy.
1820	Maine entered the Union as the 23rd state, as part of the Missouri Compromise.
1869	The Cincinnati Red Stockings became the first professional baseball team.
1917	Russia’s Czar Nicholas II abdicated during the February Revolution, and a provisional government took power.
1939	Hitler’s troops occupied Czechoslovakia, undermining the Munich agreement.
1965	President Lyndon Johnson addressed Congress, called for equal voting rights and introduced voting rights legislation, about a week after marchers were stopped at Selma, Alabama.
1972	The Godfather, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, opened in New York theaters.
2003	Hu Jintao succeeded Jiang Zemin as president of China.
2011	Antigovernment protests broke out in several Syrian cities, the start of what became the Syrian civil war.
2021	The Senate confirmed Deb Haaland as U.S. secretary of the interior, making her the first Indigenous person to serve as a U.S. cabinet secretary.

Born on March 15

1767: Andrew Jackson, soldier and U.S. president, born in the backcountry between North and South Carolina.
1809: Joseph Jenkins Roberts, Virginia-born first president of Liberia.
1933: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, U.S. Supreme Court justice from Brooklyn.
1959: Ben Okri, Nigerian novelist who won the Booker Prize for The Famished Road.