They're usually carried by women in Westerns or by sneaky assassins.  

29 February 1504 - The 1504 lunar eclipse.

Not an unusual event in itself, but it was used to his advantage by Christopher Columbus whilst stranded in Jamaica.

On his fourth voyage to the West Indies his two ships with 230 men were stranded in Jamaica in June 1503 after storm damage. 24 men rowed to the colony on Hispaniola, but the Governor failed to send out a rescue party for many months by which time Columbus and his men faced starvation and hostile natives. 

Columbus however had an almanac in which a lunar eclipse was predicted for 29 February, he used this knowledge to warn the natives that if they didn't provide supplies to his men the gods would be angry and block out the moon. When his prediction came true the terrified natives loaded him with provisions, enough to see them through to rescue which came in June exactly a year after Columbus had arrived in Jamaica.   

Mark Twain used a version of the story in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

1 March 1966 - The first landing of a spacecraft on another planet.

A crash rather than a landing. The Russians launched their Venera 3 probe in November 1965 intending it to land safely on Venus and send back data. However it's initial trajectory was off and a correction sent it into a collision course with the planet rather than a controlled landing. It smashed into the surface and was destroyed on 1 March having lost radio contact two weeks before. 

2 March 1939 - Howard Carter died.

British archaeologist financed by the Earl of Carnarvon to locate and excavate Tutankhamen's tomb.

Carter was first commissioned by Lord Carnarvon as early as 1907 beginning work in the Valley of the Kings in 1914. By 1922 little had been discovered when, in the last season Carnarvon was prepared to finance, the long lost tomb of Tutankhamen was discovered. Carter was the first too see "wonderful things" inside. 

3 March 1765 - William Stukeley died.

The father of modern archaeology. In a varied career, first as a physician then ordained into the Church of England, his main interest however was history and the early science of archaeology. He supervised fieldwork rather than excavations at Stonehenge and Avebury, England's two greatest prehistoric monuments and although his conclusions have since been shown to be incorrect he laid the foundations for modern archaeology. 

He published his findings on both sites in 1740 and 1743.

Luckily there are a lot of archaeology programmes on TV here, always something to be dug up across Europe. One of the best is hosted by the rather lovely Alice Roberts.

4 March 1890 - The Forth Bridge opened.

One of the marvels of Victorian engineering, at the time the largest bridge in the world.

Spanning the Firth of Forth and connecting Edinburgh with Fife and the north of Scotland the bridge dramatically reduced the travelling time and distance by train. 

It took eight years to build and is over 8000 feet in length.    

I can find Alice Roberts' videos on YouTube.  They are probably old episodes, but so is the stuff she digs up, so it's all good.

5 March 1936 - First flight of the Supermarine Spitfire.

Designed by Staffordshire born aeronautical engineer Reginald Mitchell at the Supermarine Aviation Works in Southampton to replace the RAFs aged and obsolete singe-seater fighter biplanes.

The Spitfire became the most famous fighter of the war in Europe with over 20,350 constructed, with variants, into the late 1940s. 

6 March 1900 - Gottlieb Daimler died.

Along with Karl Benz Daimler is one of the prominent figures in the development of the internal combustion engine and the motor car. The two only met once despite living just 60 miles apart, both developing their inventions almost simultaneously but with Benz submitting his patent first in January 1886. In fact their only meeting was in court over a dispute in 1896. The Daimler-Benz Company was only founded in 1926 many years after Daimler's death.

Daimler produced engines not only for motor cars but motorcycles and boats in collaboration with Wilhelm Maybach. although Benz patented the first motor car Daimler is considered the true founder of the modern internal combustion engine.   

7 March 1809 - Jean Pierre Blanchard died.

French pioneer balloonist. In 1785 he and a companion became the first to fly across the English Channel and in 1793 made the first balloon flight in the USA.

In February 1808 he suffered a heart attack whilst on a flight in The Hague falling from the balloon. He never fully recovered and died just over a year later in March 1809. His widow continued to make exhibition flights until 1819 when she fell from her burning balloon and was killed. 

8 March 1803 - Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, died.

Father of the British canal system. He succeeded to the title aged 11 and at the age of 22 became engaged to the widowed Duchess of Hamilton. However the engagement was broken off whereupon Bridgewater gave up London society and retired to Worsley Hall in Lancashire devoting the rest of his left to improving his estate and his great project of building canals. 

He had extensive coal mines but little means of transporting the coal to the industrial centre of Manchester. So in 1762 he obtained permission to construct a canal from Worsley to Manchester and Runcorn on the Mersey (from where his coal could be transported across the country) employing the Staffordshire engineer James Brindley as chief designer. 

Completed in 1772 the Bridgewater Canal revolutionized British industry reducing the price of coal and transforming GB into the first great industrial nation.

The Duke never married and died the richest nobleman in the land with estates and interests valued at over £2 million, around £300 million today.

The Duke's residence at Worsley still stands as the restaurant/pub Worsley Old Hall, ever been? Sounds like the perfect place to take the lady wife.  

9 March 1847 - Mary Anning died.

The first serious fossil collector, her discoveries paved the way for the modern view of the evolution of life on Earth.

The daughter of a cabinet-maker in Lyme Regis, Dorset the young Mary began collecting and selling fossils, mostly ammonites, she discovered along the Dorset cliffs. Science at the time suggested such items were biblical in origin, victims of the Great Flood, but her investigations convinced her they were the remains of long dead prehistoric creatures.

Beginning serious study she unearthed almost complete fossil skeletons of huge fish-like creatures (ichthyosaurs) and lizard like creatures (plesiosaurs) plus many fish, ammonites and belemnites. So many in fact that she opened a shop in 1826 selling her finds where she was visited by museums and Royalty eager to purchase her artefacts. 

She died aged 47 in 1847 without the full recognition she deserved. 

You can tell her all about the Duke of Bridgewater over your prawn cocktail.