she's a man, baby

March 14: New Year's Day (Sikhs); White Day in Japan; Pi Day

• 1489 – Queen of Cyprus Catherine Cornaro (pictured) was forced to abdicate and sell the administration of the island to the Republic of Venice.
• 1794 – American inventor Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin, the first ever machine that quickly and easily separatedcotton fibers from their seedpods.
• 1910 – Oil prospectors in Kern County, California, drilled into a pressurizedoil deposit, resulting in the largest accidental oil spill in history.
• 1931 – Alam Ara, the first Indian film with sound, was released.
• 1991 – The "Birmingham Six", wrongly convicted of the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings in England, were released after sixteen years in prison.