| 26 March 1027 | Holy Roman Empire, Italy [political events] | King Conrad II of Germany and Italy is crowned emperor by Pope John XIX in Rome. |
| 26 March 1349 | Spain [wars] | King Alfonso XI of Castile dies of the Black Death (a form of bubonic plague) while besieging the Muslims in Gibraltar. He is succeeded by his son Pedro I. |
| 26 March 1521 | Holy Roman Empire, Germany [political events] | Emperor Charles V convenes the Diet (legislative assembly) of Worms. Both Pope Leo X and the emperor want to condemn the views of the German church reformer Martin Luther, but they allow him to present his case. Refusing to retract his antipapal views, Luther makes his famous remark: ‘Here I stand. I can do no other’ on 18 April. On 25 May Luther is condemned as the ‘Devil incarnate’ and his books are ordered to be destroyed. |
| 26 March 1827 | Germany, Austria [births and deaths] | Ludwig van Beethoven, German classical Romantic composer, dies in Vienna, Austria (56). |
| 26 March 1892 | USA [births and deaths] | Walt Whitman, US journalist, essayist and poet, dies in Camden, New Jersey (72). |
| 26 March 1911 | [births and deaths] | Tennessee Williams (Thomas Lanier Williams), US dramatist, most of whose plays are set in the Deep South, born in Columbus, Mississippi (–1983). |
| 26 March 1923 | United Kingdom [radio] | The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) begins broadcasting daily weather forecasts in Britain. The first radio play is also transmitted. |
| 26 March 1933 | Portugal [administration] | A new constitution, known as the ‘Estado Novo’ is drawn up in Portugal, establishing a dictatorial government under the president, Sidónio Pais. |
| 26 March 1934 | United Kingdom [transport] | The Road Traffic Act introduces driving tests in the UK. |
| 26 March 1945 | Wales [births and deaths] | David Lloyd George, Welsh Liberal politician, British prime minister 1916–22, dies in Ty-newydd, Caernarvonshire, Wales (82). |
| 26 March 1971 | Pakistan [political events] | Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the leader of the Awami League, which has a majority in the all-Pakistan National Assembly, declares the independence of East Pakistan as Bangladesh (‘Bengali country’). The split sparks a civil war. |
| 26 March 1972 | Malta, UK [diplomacy] | Britain and NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) agree to pay Malta £14 million a year for the use of its military bases. |
| 26 March 1981 | UK [political parties] | The British Social Democratic Party (SDP) is officially launched, with a programme including an incomes policy, the adoption of a proportional representation voting system, and support for the European Community and NATO. |
| 26 March 1995 | Europe [political events] | Seven members of the European Union (Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain) remove internal border controls in line with the 1985 Schengen Agreement. |
| 26 March 2005 | England [births and deaths] | James (Lord) Callaghan, Labour Party politician who, uniquely, held all four of the main UK offices of state – chancellor of the exchequer (1964–67), home secretary (1967–70), foreign secretary (1974–76) and prime minister (1976–79) – dies in Ringmer, England (92). |
