The World Health Organization officially release a global warning of outbreaks of Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)

In 2003, the world was gripped by a global health crisis known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). SARS was caused by a coronavirus known as SARS-CoV, which is closely related to the virus responsible for COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2. The outbreak originated in the Guangdong province of southern China in late 2002 and quickly spread to other parts of the world.

The global warning about the outbreaks of SARS in 2003 was largely due to the rapid spread of the virus and the severity of the illness it caused. SARS was characterized by symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breath, and in severe cases, pneumonia. The disease had a relatively high mortality rate, particularly among older individuals and those with underlying health conditions.

One of the significant aspects of the 2003 SARS outbreak was the global response to contain the spread of the virus. International health organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), worked closely with governments around the world to implement measures such as travel restrictions, quarantine protocols, and public health campaigns to raise awareness about the disease.

The SARS outbreak eventually subsided by mid-2003, largely due to the implementation of rigorous public health measures and the development of effective diagnostic tools. However, the experience with SARS served as a wake-up call for the global community about the potential threat of emerging infectious diseases and the need for preparedness and collaboration to respond effectively to such outbreaks in the future. The lessons learned from the SARS outbreak have helped inform responses to subsequent outbreaks, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

King George I of Greece is assassinated in the recently liberated city of Thessaloniki.

King George I of Greece was assassinated on March 18, 1913, in Thessaloniki, Greece. He was shot by a lone gunman named Alexandros Schinas while taking a walk in the city. The assassination is believed to have been politically motivated, as there was considerable opposition to his reign and his policies. King George I had been on the throne since 1863 and was known for his efforts to modernize and reform Greece, but his reign was marked by political instability and conflict. The assassination of King George I was a significant event in Greek history and led to a period of political turmoil and uncertainty in the country.

In California, the St. Francis Dam fails; the resulting floods kill 431 people.

The St. Francis Dam was a concrete gravity-arch dam located in Los Angeles County, California, USA. It was designed and built by the renowned civil engineer William Mulholland and completed in 1926. However, on March 12, 1928, the dam catastrophically failed, resulting in one of the worst civil engineering disasters in American history.

The failure was caused by a combination of factors, including the design of the dam, the materials used in its construction, and the geological conditions of the site. The dam was built on a geologically unstable foundation of conglomerate rock, which was prone to cracking and movement. Over time, the movement of the rock caused the dam to develop cracks, which eventually led to its collapse.

On the night of March 12, 1928, the dam failed, releasing a wall of water that was up to 140 feet high and 2.5 miles wide. The floodwaters swept through the Santa Clara River Valley, destroying everything in their path. The disaster resulted in the deaths of at least 431 people, making it one of the deadliest engineering failures in US history.

The failure of the St. Francis Dam led to significant changes in the design and construction of dams, including the development of new materials and testing methods. The disaster also led to increased government oversight of dam construction and maintenance, as well as a greater awareness of the importance of safety in engineering.

The Truman Doctrine is proclaimed to help stem the spread of Communism

Several bombs explode in Mumbai, India, killing about 300 people and injuring hundreds more

The World Health Organization officially release a global warning of outbreaks of Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)

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The St Francis Dam fails in California, resulting in floods that kill 431 people.

Ask most Angelenos what they think of when they hear the name William Mulholland, and they’ll probably mention the curvy road in the Hollywood Hills that bears his name.

Mulholland Drive has one of the best 360-degree vistas of the tentacled metropolis: To the southwest, Hollywood, West L.A., and downtown. To the northeast, the San Fernando Valley, and further on, the Santa Clarita Valley—close to the terminus of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, the 233-mile pipeline that first brought water from the Owens Valley to the thirsty city back in 1913. The Aqueduct was Mulholland’s construction, and its payoff—the explosive growth and viability of Los Angeles—has grafted his name onto the prime arteries of the city.

Mulholland’s career as czar of the L.A. Department of Water and Power may have peaked with the opening of the aqueduct, but it fell with a tragedy. Mulholland was also the engineer of the St. Francis Dam, a 120-foot high concrete wall that held a reservoir of some 38,000 acre-feet of water. Built snugly into the San Francisquito Canyon, above a scattering of homes and businesses in the Santa Clarita Valley, the dam was completed in 1926 as a safeguard for aqueduct water.

On March 12, 1928, just before midnight and mere hours after Mulholland had done a routine walk-through, the dam burst, sending 12 billion gallons of water down the canyon in a 140-foot wave. Within five hours, the flood had traveled 54 miles to the sea, blotting out lives of at least 425 people: farmers, ranchers, water department workers, and their families.

It was the second-greatest natural catastrophe in the history of California, and one of the country’s biggest civil engineering disasters. The disaster was national news, with some papers printing partial lists of the names of the dead. At the coroner’s inquest, Mulholland stated that he wished he were among them. And though he was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing—there was no way he could have known the dam was on an ancient landslide, the jury determined—Mulholland retired into seclusion until his death in 1935.

But you’d never know all of this. 87 years later, on the anniversary of the tragedy, most Angelenos have never heard of the St. Francis Dam disaster. Until a couple of years ago, I hadn’t. My native Californian father hadn’t until he was an adult. We both grew up less than 20 miles from the site.

Over the years, there’s been curiously little done on the part of Los Angeles County, or the city, or the LADWP, to memorialize the victims. Except for some blocks of concrete and rebar and the scars of waterlines etched into the canyonside, there is no indication that the dam once massively stood there. There is a small, weathered plaque at a LADWP power station a little ways down the road, which designates the dam site as a California Historical Landmark, but you have to know where to look for it. There is no official memorial park. No major museum exhibits. No field trips for elementary schoolers. There have been songs about the disaster, but you’ve never heard them the way you’ve heard “Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow.” In one day, hundreds of people died for the water that gave the rest of the city life, yet they have no place in the collective memory of Los Angeles.

Looking north on the remains of the dam’s abutment, to where the reservoir used to be.
Why forget about the St. Francis Dam disaster? It could be a matter of convenience for the city, whose dealings with water acquisitions are already infamously controversial. Or, sort of like New York City’s 1904 General Slocum disaster, perhaps there was just too much else going on in the years immediately following the St. Francis Dam break for officials to put much energy behind it once the coroner’s inquest had wrapped up. And then, of course, there was the mythos of Mulholland to protect.

The first female priests are ordained by the Church of England.

Since the Church of England’s split with Rome in 1534, it’s always trodden a dainty path between the Catholicism of the High Church, and the Protestantism of the Reformation. That’s meant a fair few compromises. But one thing it didn’t compromise on for nearly 400 years was ordaining women as priests.

The idea was first tentatively floated in 1920. But it took until 1975 for the General Synod to pass a motion saying it had “no fundamental objections” to the ordination of women to the priesthood. But it didn’t actually do anything concrete about it.

In 1985 it passed laws allowing women to be deacons. But understandably, pressure continued to allow women into the priesthood.

That didn’t happen for a while. In 1988, the General Synod approved the draft legislation to allow women priests. It finally voted in favour of women priests in 1992, after a five-hour debate – and by just two votes.

And so, on 12 March 1994 in Bristol Cathedral, 32 women were ordained as priests.

But a lot of people weren’t happy. In fact, 400 vicars were so opposed to the idea of women priests that they flounced off en masse to the Roman Catholic Church.

And for those who stayed, but who couldn’t abide the idea of a woman in the pulpit, the rather bonkers plan of ‘flying bishops’ was devised – traditionalist bishops who could swoop down from on high, bringing manly ministrations to parishes who wanted their vicar to be a chap.

It took another 20 years for the even more outlandish idea of women bishops to be accepted, however. The Church only formally adopted legislation to allow that in November 2014. The Rt Rev Libby Lane, was ordained as the Bishop of Stockport in January 2015.

The St. Francis Dam in California fails. The floods kill over 600 people.

The Truman Doctrine is proclaimed to help stop the spread of Communism.