Trial of Soghomon Tehlirian

On 15 March 1921, Armenian student Soghomon Tehlirian assassinated Talaat Pasha, a leading Ottoman politician and the main architect of the Armenian genocide, in Berlin. About a million Armenians died in the genocide, including most of Tehlirian's family. He joined a clandestine assassination campaign seeking revenge. Tehlirian's trial (pictured) was held on 2 and 3 June 1921, and the defense strategy was to put Talaat on trial for the Armenian genocide. Several eyewitnesses to the genocide testified, resulting in "one of the most spectacular trials of the twentieth century". Tehlirian claimed he had acted alone, telling a dramatic, but untrue, story of witnessing the deaths of his family members. He argued: "I have killed a man, but I am not a murderer", and the jury acquitted him. International news coverage brought attention to the facts of the Armenian genocide. The coverage inspired Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin to coin the term genocide and help codify it as a crime in international law. (Full article...)

Gertrude Hart

• ... that Australian writer Gertrude Hart (pictured) was a co-founder of the Old Derelicts' Club, which later became the Society of Australian Authors?
• ... that efficient and professional torture is found only in fiction?
• ... that as chancellor of the University of Victoria, Ronald Lou-Poy conferred degrees in Iqaluit and the Great Hall of the People?
• ... that while playing a ghost in the mystery film Lekin..., Dimple Kapadia was forbidden to blink because director Gulzar believed it would make her feel surreal?
• ... that "Nahe wollt der Herr uns sein" (The Lord wanted to be close to us), first written in Dutch by Huub Oosterhuis in 1964, was included in the 1975 German hymnal Gotteslob?
• ... that Harvard Business School professor Lauren Cohen is a powerlifting champion?
• ... that the colour of the markings on Nesticus cellulanus can vary depending on the light level of the habitat, with darker habitats causing lighter markings?
• ... that a urinal at Rothesay's Victorian Toilets commemorates Prince Charles' personal patronage?

Jane Campion

• The Power of the Dog wins Best Film and Best Director (Jane Campion pictured) at the British Academy Film Awards.
• The wreck of the Endurance, sunk during Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, is discovered.
• Yoon Suk-yeol is elected president of South Korea.
• Australian cricketer Shane Warne dies at the age of 52.
• An attack at a mosque in Peshawar, Pakistan, kills at least 63 people and injures more than 190 others.

March 15: Ides of March

Michael III

• 856 – Byzantine emperor Michael III (pictured) overthrew his mother Theodora's regency to assume power for himself.
• 1147 – Reconquista: Portuguese troops under King Afonso I captured the city of Santarém from the Almoravids.
• 1875 – John McCloskey, Archbishop of New York, was created the first cardinal from the United States.
• 1972 – The Godfather, a gangster film directed by Francis Ford Coppola and based on the novel of the same name by Mario Puzo, was released.
• 1990 – Iraqi authorities hanged Iranian freelance reporter Farzad Bazoft on charges of spying for Israel.