6 hours Ago By Firstpost
March 15 is associated with misfortune and doom. “Beware the Ides of March ,” warned Shakespeare’s soothsayer to Julius Caesar. The Roman dictator was murdered at the hands of Brutus and members of his senate on March 15, 44 BC.
The day is also one of the darkest in New Zealand. The country witnessed a rare mass shooting at two mosques in Christchurch, where a gunman killed 51 people and live-streamed the massacre on Facebook If you are a history geek who loves to learn about important events from the past, Firstpost Explainers’ ongoing series, History Today , will be your one-stop destination to explore key events. In the ancient Roman calendar, March 15 was known as the Ides of March.
On this day in 44 BCE, a group of nobles assassinated Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator who was implementing a number of political and social reforms. In an attempt to save the Roman Republic and put an end to Caesar’s growingly autocratic rule, a group of about 60 conspirators, led by senators Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus, fatally stabbed Caesar in the Roman Senate. The civil war that followed his death eventually brought his great-nephew and adopted son, Octavian, to power.
In 27 BCE, Octavian became the first Roman emperor, Augustus Caesar. In his Lives of the Caesars, the Roman writer Seutonius describes how Octavian exacted revenge for the death of Julius Caesar by sacrificing 300 Perusine War prisoners at an altar presented to Caesar on the Ides of March. English playwright William Shakespeare’s tragedy Julius Caesar further immortalised Julius Caesar’s death.
When a soothsayer cautions Caesar to “beware the Ides of March” in Act I, Scene 2, of the famous drama, Caesar brushes him off, saying, “He is a dreamer; let us leave him: pass.” The conversation reveals Caesar’s arrogance, the fatal weakness that results in his betrayal and demise. Because Shakespeare’s play is still so popular, the phrase “Ides of March” is still used today.
A self-described “white nationalist” opened fire on worshippers at Christchurch’s Deans Avenue and Linwood mosques on March 15, 2019. There were 50 fatalities and 41 injuries, including one death six weeks later. The incident, which was livestreamed on Facebook, involved five firearms, including two semi-automatic assault rifles, and was carried out by the gunman, Brenton Tarrant.
He received the harshest punishment possible in New Zealand—life in jail without the chance of parole. Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described it as one of the country’s darkest days. Thousands of people attended memorial gatherings across the nation in the weeks that followed.
To aid the victims and their families, millions of money were also raised. The attacks prompted the country to quickly pass new laws which banned the deadliest types of semi-automatic weapons. In a subsequent buyback scheme, gun owners handed over more than 50,000 weapons to police.
The attacks also prompted global changes to social media, as tech companies sought to prevent or quickly stop future attacks from being livestreamed. Clothes rationing ends in Great Britain In Great Britain, clothing rationing came to an end on March 15, 1949, roughly four years after World War II formally ended on September 2, 1945. The goal of clothes rationing, which was implemented in June 1941, was to increase the availability of clothing in stores and guarantee a more equitable distribution of apparel.
The amount of men and women wearing uniforms during World War II was one of the first obvious changes in clothing in Britain. Around one-quarter of British citizens were eligible to wear uniforms as members of the military, women’s auxiliary forces, or any of the many organisations and services that required uniforms. Britain’s textile and apparel industries were under tremendous strain as a result of the rising demand for uniforms.
The British government had to cut back on civilian clothing manufacturing and consumption in order to protect raw materials and free up labour and industrial space for war manufacturing. Oliver Lyttleton, the President of the Board of Trade, decided to impose clothing rationing as a result. Food, petrol, and sugar were also rationed during the war and for a while after, in addition to clothing.
Even though the war ended in 1945, it took some time for the post-war economy to develop and for rationing to be lifted. Simple, functional fashions were the standard throughout the war as a result of the clothing rationing. New fashion trends that reflected the need for more intricate and diversified styles emerged after the war.
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