Beware the Ides of March

This is it - March 15th - the Ides. On this day several (thousand) years ago (44BC to be exact), Julius Ceasar was knifed by his gangsta pal Brutus. As William Shakespeare said, "Remember March, the Ides of March remember. Did not great Julius bleed for justice' sake? What villain touched his body, that did stab and not for justice?"

What else happened on this day in history?

• 1956, the play "My Fair Lady," starring Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins and Julie Andrews as Eliza Doolittle, opened on Broadway.
• 1493, Christopher Columbus returned to Spain, concluding his first voyage to the Western Hemisphere.
• HERE'S A BIG ONE: Five years ago: Federal authorities confirmed that remains found on a Texas ranch were those of missing atheist leader Madalyn Murray O'Hair and two of her relatives. (David Waters, the key suspect in the slayings, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on a federal extortion charge in connection with the case.) I can imagine there are a lot of people who celebrate this woman's passing. A. Lot. Of. People.