Royal Opera House, where Flight Pattern premiered

Flight Pattern is a contemporary ballet choreographed by Crystal Pite, set to the first movement of Henryk Górecki's Symphony No. 3. It premiered at the Royal Opera House (pictured) in London on 16 March 2017, making Pite the first woman to choreograph for the Royal Ballet's main stage in 18 years. The ballet won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production in 2018. Flight Pattern examines the plight of refugees, drawing inspiration from 20th and 21st-century events, particularly the refugee crisis caused by the Syrian civil war. The ballet starts with 36 dancers performing on stage and transitions to a series of duets and solos originated by the dancers Marcelino Sambé and Kristen McNally. The piece was mostly positively reviewed by critics, with many praising the performance of the two soloists and the choreography of the ensemble. In 2022, Pite expanded the ballet into Light of Passage, with Flight Pattern becoming the first part of the ballet. (Full article...)

Petrosedum sediforme

• ... that some pale stonecrops (example pictured) in Spain closely resemble Israeli specimens, while neighboring plants in Spain can look vastly different?
• ... that John Stacy warned the Duke of Suffolk that a Tower would be dangerous to him; Suffolk was later murdered by sailors on a ship called The Nicholas of the Tower?
• ... that Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple was likened to a Mayan ball court after its completion in 1908?
• ... that Emmett Barrett wore glasses while playing American football?
• ... that emos and anti-emos confronted each other, but Hare Krishna members de-escalated the situation?
• ... that baritone Simon Neal's 2020 performance as Don Pizarro in Beethoven's Fidelio included riding a horse on the stage of the Royal Opera House?
• ... that the defection of Padua during the Scaliger War was partly due to a Scaliger lord's open seduction of the Lord of Padua's wife?
• ... that Lyle Lin was the first Taiwanese player to be selected and signed via the Major League Baseball draft?
• ... that in one version of Zeus's childhood his enemies are terrified of the goat who raised him?

Mark Carney

• Mark Carney (pictured) succeeds Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister of Canada after winning the Liberal Party leadership election.
• Martin Pfister is elected to the Swiss Federal Council.
• In Pakistan, a train hijacking by the Balochistan Liberation Army leaves at least 71 people dead.
• Former president of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte is arrested on the basis of an International Criminal Court warrant charging him with crimes against humanity.

March 16: Remembrance Day of the Latvian Legionnaires

Cap badge of the Royal Welch Fusiliers

• 934 – Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period: Chinese general Meng Zhixiang proclaimed himself emperor and established Later Shu as a new state independent of Later Tang.
• 1689 – The Royal Welch Fusiliers (cap badge pictured), one of the oldest line-infantry regiments of the British Army, was founded.
• 1819 – The Bank for Savings in the City of New-York, the first savings bank in New York City, was incorporated.
• 1984 – William Buckley, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency station chief in Beirut, Lebanon, was kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists.
• 1988 – Michael Stone, an Ulster loyalist, attacked the funeral of three Provisional IRA members, killing three attendees and injuring at least sixty others.