March 2006

March 2006 was the third month of that common year. The month, which began on a Wednesday, ended on a Friday after 31 days.

Portal:Current events

This is an archived version of Wikipedia's Current events Portal from March 2006.

March 1, 2006 (Wednesday)
Arts and culture
  • In the fictional CW network drama One Tree Hill, this date marks a school shooting which took the lives of two people and drastically changed the dynamic of the show. It has been called one of the most essential and touching episodes in high school drama history.
Business and economy
  • A member of the board of directors of major German steel manufacturing company ThyssenKrupp AG says the company is "examining all its options," and may not complete its proposed acquisition of Canadian steel company Dofasco. (MSN Money)
Disasters and accidents
Politics and elections
March 2, 2006 (Thursday)
March 3, 2006 (Friday)
March 4, 2006 (Saturday)
  • The central Papeete power station is damaged by a fire, resulting in limited power for some areas of Tahiti for a couple of weeks.(Pacific Magazine)
  • Anti-war campaigners criticised British Prime Minister Tony Blair after he suggested his decision to go to war in Iraq would ultimately be judged by God. (BBC)
  • British Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell splits from her husband, David Mills' following allegations of an alleged acceptance of money from Silvio Berlusconi. (BBC)
  • A new species of shark, Mustelus hacat, is discovered in Mexico's Sea of Cortez, bringing the number of Mustelus species found in the eastern North Pacific to five.
  • The Deep Space Network tries one final contact attempt to Pioneer 10. (Planetary Society)
March 5, 2006 (Sunday)
March 6, 2006 (Monday)
March 7, 2006 (Tuesday)
March 8, 2006 (Wednesday)
March 9, 2006 (Thursday)
March 10, 2006 (Friday)
March 11, 2006 (Saturday)
March 12, 2006 (Sunday)
March 13, 2006 (Monday)
  • A cash-for-honours scandal has erupted around UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. A millionaire donor has revealed that Labour fundraisers had arranged secret loans from businessmen who were then nominated for peerages. (Daily Mail)
  • A major tornado outbreak finally ends in the central United States. In all, more than 100 tornadoes were reported and 11 people were killed. Two tornadoes hit Springfield, Illinois, late on the 12th, causing major damage to the city.
  • U.S. climate scientists working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have recorded a significant rise in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, pushing it to a new record level. (BBC)
  • A major oil slick, which could contain some 40 tonnes of fuel, has been detected off the coast of Estonia, one week after the Runner-4 cargo vessel sank in the Baltic Sea. Heavy sea ice prevents an accurate estimate of the content of the oil slick that may have killed 35,000 sea birds. (Yahoo News)
  • The judge in the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui is considering throwing out the death penalty as an option after lawyers from the Federal Aviation Administration coached four government witnesses. (CNN)
  • German drug and chemical manufacturer Merck KGaA announces plans to buy Schering in a merger of €14.6 billion. Merck and Schering would become Germany's largest pharmaceutical company. (Telegraph)
  • London Metropolitan Police chief Sir Ian Blair admits secretly recording conversations with the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith, an act that could lead to a civil legal proceedings if the other party has not granted permission for conversations to be taped. (BBC)
March 14, 2006 (Tuesday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
Business and economy
Disasters and accidents
  • At least seven people have died in wildfires in the U.S. state of Texas which have burned 1,000 mi2 (2500 km2), forcing 1,900 people to evacuate. (AP)
Health
International relations
March 15, 2006 (Wednesday)
March 16, 2006 (Thursday)
  • Tens of thousands of Thai anti-government protesters continue their rally against the country's current Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra today. They also demand his resignation from the post. The opposition leader, Sondhi Limthongkul, declared he and his party would not stop protesting all day and night until the PM resigns. (Reuters)
  • U.S. President George W. Bush nominates Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne as United States Secretary of the Interior. (CNN)
  • Near the third anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq war, U.S. and Iraqi forces on Thursday launch an air assault known as Operation Swarmer into Salahuddin province in what was termed the largest air assault since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. (ABC News), (BBC), (USDoD)
  • The Iraqi National Assembly meets for the first time since it was elected in December 2005. (Reuters)
  • An international child pornography network is discovered using information from an Internet chat room, leading to the worldwide arrests of 4 Australians, 13 Americans, 10 Canadians, and 2 Britons. (National Nine News)
  • The 2006 NCAA Men's Division 1 Basketball Tournament begins in Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Salt Lake City, Utah; Jacksonville, Florida; and San Diego, California
March 17, 2006 (Friday)
March 18, 2006 (Saturday)
  • Hamas announces the formation of its new cabinet to govern the territory under the control of the Palestinian Authority. Hamas, however, in a last-ditch effort to include the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the government, postponed by one day the submission of the new cabinet to the approval of PNA President Mahmoud Abbas. (IOL) (Al-Jazeera)
  • 2006 labor protests in France: In Paris, and other major French cities, hundreds of thousands of people march in protest of the Contrat de première embauche (First Employment Contract), a labor law set to take effect in April that gives employers the right to fire workers under the age of 26 in the first two years of their employment without justification.(BBC)
  • US Navy warships engage pirates off the coast of Somalia, killing one, capturing 12, after the U.N. Security Council on March 15, encouraged any naval forces near Somalia to take action against suspected piracy. This occurred after an attack on a UN World Food Program-chartered ship bringing drought-relief food supplies on March 13. (AP)(UPI)
  • The Labor government of South Australia, led by Mike Rann, has been returned with a ten percent swing. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
March 19, 2006 (Sunday)
March 20, 2006 (Monday)
March 21, 2006 (Tuesday)
  • The French National Assembly votes on "DADVSI" ("Right of the Author and related rights in the information society") with 296 votes for against 193. The DADVSI act implements the 2001 EU Copyright Directive with some modifications. The UMP (right-wing), which has the absolute majority at the National Assembly, voted for, while the left voted against it. MPs of the center-right UDF voted either against the text or abstained themselves. Le Monde
  • Over 150 Chadian soldiers are killed in eastern Chad by members of the rebel UFDC. The growing rebel movement seeks to overthrow Chadian president Idriss Deby. (AP via Forbes)
  • In the United Kingdom, Metropolitan Police confirm they are to investigate claims the ruling Labour Party broke the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925 in the ongoing controversy over "cash for Peerages" row. (BBC)
  • Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said in the Dáil that he believes the British security forces colluded with loyalist paramilitaries in the planning of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane's murder in 1989. (Irish examiner)
  • In a major Sino-Russian energy deal, it is announced that Gazprom intends to build two large natural gas pipelines directly to China within the next five years. (Forbes) Russia will also help with the construction of two nuclear power plants in China. (Makfax)
March 22, 2006 (Wednesday)
March 23, 2006 (Thursday)
March 24, 2006 (Friday)
March 25, 2006 (Saturday)
  • A revolutionary scramjet jet engine designed to fly at seven times sonic speed is successfully tested in Australia. (BBC)
  • Canada's annual seal hunt has begun, amid international appeals for an end to the controversial cull of up to 325,000 young harp seal pups. The Canadian government says the cull, which reportedly earns C$16.5 million (£8.3 million) in meat and pelt sales, is also necessary to control seal numbers. (BBC)
  • An explosion at a French university chemical research facility kills one professor. The cause is unknown. (National Nine News)
  • Protests against the US immigration reform bill H.R. 4437 are held in several US cities. 500,000 people march in Los Angeles, California, 50,000 in Denver, Colorado, and 20,000 in Phoenix, Arizona, protesting proposed legislation that includes construction of a security wall along the United States-Mexico border. (CNN) (BBC) (CBS4Denver) (East Valley Tribune)
  • A gunman killed six people at a party and then himself in the Capitol Hill massacre in Seattle, Washington. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
  • Reading Football Club are promoted to the Premier League for the first time in their 135-year history. They are also the first post-war Football Club to be promoted to the Premier League in March.
March 26, 2006 (Sunday)
March 27, 2006 (Monday)
March 28, 2006 (Tuesday)
March 29, 2006 (Wednesday)
March 30, 2006 (Thursday)
March 31, 2006 (Friday)
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