1. March 17th is St. Patrick’s Day and the Chicago River runs green.
2. Also on March 17th, Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of The Moon” first hit the Billboard Top 200 chart at number 95 in 1973. A mere 14 years later (736 chart weeks), it finally left the top 200 for the first time, setting a still-unbroken world record.
3. In ancient Rome, March was the first month of the year. Their yearly cycles were 10 months long, beginning in March and ending in December. We still see clues of this old system in our modern calendar. Because December was the tenth month, it was named for the number ten in Latin (decem), just like September was named for seven (septem). But, what about January and February? They were just two nameless months called “winter.”
4. Beware The Ides of March! What does “beware the Ides of March” actually mean? On the Roman calendar, the midpoint of every month was known as the Ides and the Ides of March fell on March 15th. This day was supposed to correlate with the first full moon of the year (remember, winter didn’t count then) and marked by religious ceremonies, but thanks to Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar we know it for another reason. Supposedly, in 44 BC, a seer told Julius Caesar that his downfall would come no later than the Ides of March. Caesar ignored him, and when the fated day rolled around, he joked with the seer, “The Ides of March have come.” The seer replied, “aye, Caesar; but not gone.” Caesar continued on to a senate meeting at the Theater of Pompey, and was murdered by as many as 60 conspirators. Ironically, the spot where Caesar was assassinated is protected in today’s Rome as a no-kill cat sanctuary.
