John C. Calhoun (March 18, 1782 – March 31, 1850) was a senator from South Carolina, a Cabinet member, and the seventh Vice President of the United States, from 1825 to 1832, under presidents John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. Calhoun began his political career in the House of Representatives as a prominent leader of the war hawk faction supporting the War of 1812. Early in his career, he was a modernizer and a proponent of a strong national government and protective tariffs. By the late 1820s, his views reversed and he became a leading proponent of states' rights, limited government, and opposition to high tariffs. His support for South Carolina's right to nullify federal tariff legislation put him into conflict with unionists such as Jackson, and in 1832 he resigned as vice president and entered the Senate. As Secretary of State under John Tyler from 1844 to 1845, he supported the annexation of Texas as a means to promote slavery, and helped settle the Oregon boundary dispute with Britain. (Full article...)

The frog

• ... that Josiah Wedgwood "was very unwilling to disfigure" his Frog Service with "this reptile" (pictured), but Catherine the Great insisted it appear on all 944 pieces?
• ... that the Dutch musicologist Leo Riemens and the German physician Karl-Josef Kutsch wrote Großes Sängerlexikon, a biographical dictionary of opera singers, with 18,760 entries in 2012?
• ... that Indo-Russia Rifles is a joint venture licensed to produce 750,000 AK-203 rifles, the latest and most advanced version of the AK-47 firearm?
• ... that in 1994, Karen became the first orangutan to have open heart surgery?
• ... that after Tu Jida experienced Japanese aerial bombing at the age of ten, he studied aircraft design and came to be known as the "father of the J-7 fighters"?
• ... that the entire town of Agats is elevated above ground level, including the roads?
• ... that Danielle Ponter is the first member of the Rioli–Long family – described as one of "footy's most famous dynasties" – to play top-level women's Australian rules football?
• ... that after the editor of an Alabama newspaper called for the return of the Ku Klux Klan, he was initially replaced by an African-American woman?

Cyclone Idai

• Flash floods and winds caused by Cyclone Idai (satellite image shown) kill more than 250 people in Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.
• At least 50 people are killed in shootings at the Al Noor Mosque and the Linwood Islamic Centre, in Christchurch, New Zealand.
• Following the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 with the loss of all 157 people on board, Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are grounded worldwide.
• Two gunmen attack a school in Suzano, São Paulo, Brazil, killing at least 8 people.

March 18

Traian Vuia's monoplane

• 1793 – War of the First Coalition: Habsburg Austrians together with Dutch Republic troops repulsed a series of French assaults after bitter fighting in Neerwinden, present-day Belgium.
• 1892 – Lord Stanley of Preston pledged to donate an award for Canada's top-ranked amateur ice hockey club, now known as the Stanley Cup, the oldest professional sports trophy in North America.
• 1906 – Romanian inventor Traian Vuia became the first person to fly a heavier-than-air monoplane (pictured) with an unassisted takeoff.
• 1969 – Vietnam War: The United States began secretly bombing the Sihanouk Trail in Cambodia, used by communist forces to infiltrate South Vietnam.
• 1996 – The deadliest fire in Philippine history burned a nightclub in Quezon City, leaving 162 dead.

Matthew III Csák (d. 1321) · Edgar Cayce (b. 1877) · Vanessa Williams (b. 1963)