Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/March 10
March 10: Great Lent begins in Eastern Christianity (2008); Commonwealth Day in the Commonwealth of Nations and Canberra Day in the Australian Capital Territory (2008).
- 241 BC – The Roman Republic defeated Carthage at the Battle of the Aegates Islands, a naval battle off the coast of the Aegadian Islands near the western coast of the island of Sicily, ending the First Punic War.
- 1831 – King Louis-Philippe of France created the French Foreign Legion as a unit of foreign volunteers because foreigners were forbidden to serve in the French Army after the 1830 July Revolution.
- 1861 – Toucouleur forces led by El Hadj Umar Tall seized Ségou and conquered the Bamana Empire in present-day Mali.
- 1906 – More than a thousand coal miners were killed in the Courrières mine disaster in Northern France, Europe's worst mining accident.
- 1952 – Forbidden by law to seek re-election, former President Fulgencio Batista (pictured) staged a coup d'état to resume control in Cuba.
- 2000 – The NASDAQ stock market index peaked at 5048.62, the high point of the dot-com boom.