Laurence Sterne (seen above) died on this date in 1768. At the time of his death, he was one of the most famous writers in England, having written two comic novels, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, and A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy. His reputation flagged a bit after his death—Samuel Johnson complained about Shandy’s many storytelling tricks that, “Nothing odd will do long. Tristram Shandy did not last”—but by the 20th Century Sterne was once again a beloved novelist whose works were thought to be worth study.

His body was stolen soon after the funeral and sold to a medical school for dissection, which was a fairly common occurrence at the time, but in a Sternian bit of comedy, someone recognized the body on the anatomy class slab and did what he could to have the author of Tristram Shandy re-buried. In another Sternian bit of comedy, all the confusion this engendered meant that he was buried in an unmarked grave and each person who ought to have known where he had been buried pointed to different spots.
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Today is St. Patrick’s Day. It commemorates the date that is traditionally believed to be the death date of Pātricius, a Roman-British prelate who served as a Bishop of the Church in Ireland in the Fifth Century. March 17 has been celebrated as a feast day in his honor throughout the Christian world since the early 1600s.

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On this day in 1959, the 14th Dalai Lama fled Lhasa, Tibet, for India.
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Today is the Ides of March. Members of the Roman Senate assassinated Julius Caesar, the Dictator of the Roman Republic, on this date in 44 B.C.E.

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I discovered many islands inhabited by numerous people. I took possession of all of them for our most fortunate King by making public proclamation and unfurling his standard, no one making any resistance. The island called Juana, as well as the others in its neighborhood, is exceedingly fertile …
—Christopher Columbus’ Report on His First Voyage, March 15, 1493

From October 1492 to February 1493, Christopher Columbus and his expedition members explored the Caribbean, kidnapped about two dozen indigenous people as specimens, and grabbed birds, plants, and interesting rocks (gold) as other sorts of specimens. On this date in 1493, the expedition arrived back in Spain and Columbus dashed off a report in Spanish to the King and Queen of Spain, which was sent to Rome to be translated into Latin and printed. A copy from 1493 currently sits in the collection of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History (video below the fold):
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