March 23: Facts & Historical Events On This Day

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced they would relax their Covid mandates for some of the workforce.

This new relaxed mandate meant restaurants and other similar hospitality venues could increase their indoor capacity from 100 to 200. Vaccine passes were also no longer required to get into shops, and people no longer needed to scan the venue's location using their covid-19 tracer app.

A 28-year-old man broke into a trading card shop in Japan and stole thousands of dollars worth of Pokémon cards.

Kensuke Nakanishi stole 80 Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards from the store totaling a worth of roughly 1 million yen ($9,120). He was later arrested.

Researchers in England declared that the skull in William Shakespeare’s grave was probably stolen and replaced with someone else’s by grave robbers.

The PlayStation 3 was released in Europe, Austrailia, New Zealand, Africa, and the Middle East.

In November 2006, the PS3 was first released in North America and Japan. Due to delays, it took four months to be released around the rest of the world.

Russia’s Mir Space Station was deorbited over the South Pacific Ocean.

Mir's first components were launched into Earth's atmosphere in 1986 when Russia was still the Soviet Union. Over the next fifteen years, Mir orbited Earth 86,331 times and was occupied for 4,592 days. It was ultimately decommissioned due to a lack of funding. After retrieving anything of value that could easily be removed, the space station was deorbited. Much of the station burnt up during re-entry, with the remainder falling into the ocean.

Ricky Martin’s “Livin’ La Vida Loca” was released.

This was his biggest hit, reaching number one on the Billboard Top 100 chart and selling over 8 million copies.

James Cameron’s iconic film “Titanic” won 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

John Lennon’s wife, Yoko Ono, was granted permanent residence in the United States.

The news came on the same day John Lennon was issued a 60-day notice to leave the country.

Pakistan became the first Islamic Republic in the world.

Shareholders of The Swallow Sidecar Company agreed to change its company name to Jaguar Cars Limited.

The German legislature passed the Enabling Act of 1933, which gave Hitler complete control over Germany.

Benito Mussolini led a fascist political rally in Milan, Italy.

The rally ignited Italy's fascist movement called "Sansepolcrismo."

The University of California was founded.

The University first operated in Oakland before moving to Berkeley.

London launched its first tram, built by George Francis Train from NYC.

The trams operated from Bayswater and were pulled by horses. His designs had rails that stood above the road surface and obstructed other traffic. Four days later, Mr. Train was arrested and tried for "breaking and injuring" on Uxbridge Road in London.

Elisha Otis installed his first commercial elevator at 488 Broadway in New York City, US.