1923, 19 March
Lord Carnarvon, who sponsored Howard Carter's excavation of the tomb of Tutankhamen, is seriously ill in Egypt after an insect bite.
1939, 19 March
The falcon-masked, silver sarcophagus of the pharaoh Heqakheperre Shoshenq (II) is discovered in the tomb of Psusennes I at Tanis, Egypt, by French Egyptologist Pierre Montet.
1977, 19 March
Congolese president Major Marien Ngouabi is assassinated by a suicide commando during a failed military coup. Ex-president Alphonse Massemba-Débat is implicated in the coup and executed without trial one week later.
1996, 19 March
Nelson Mandela is granted a divorce from his wife. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, shown in the trial to have committed adultery, argued that the South African president should first submit to tribal meditation in order to save the marriage.
