Fakhr al-Din II (c. 1572 – 1635) was the paramount Druze emir of Mount Lebanon and the strongman over much of the Levant from the 1620s to 1633. For uniting Lebanon's constituent communities, he is generally regarded as the country's founder. Fakhr al-Din succeeded his father as the emir of the Chouf mountains around 1591, and the Ottoman Empire gave him control over other districts, but attacked him in 1613 for allying with Tuscany. He escaped into exile but returned in 1618, resuming control of his former domains and greatly expanding them in the following years. Despite the empire being in a long economic crisis, Fakhr al-Din's territories thrived. He promoted commercial agriculture, focusing on the lucrative silk trade of Mount Lebanon. He surrendered to the Ottomans during a siege of his Chouf hideout in 1633 and was executed in Constantinople in 1635. His main enduring legacy is the symbiotic relationship between Maronites and Druze, foundational for the creation of a Lebanese state. (Full article...)

Five queens attacking or occupying every square on a chessboard

• ... that five queens on a chessboard (pictured) can attack or occupy every square on the board?
• ... that Jaz Brisack, leader of the movement to unionize Starbucks, was the first woman Rhodes Scholar at the University of Mississippi?
• ... that Dimple Kapadia won the National Film Award for Best Actress for playing a professional mourner in the film Rudaali?
• ... that a Forever 21 store at 1540 Broadway was expected to attract more daily visitors than the Statue of Liberty?
• ... that in a kishu ryūritan story a hero is exiled from their society, faces a variety of ordeals, and either returns in triumph or dies in exile?
• ... that Dianna Agron auditioned for Glee using a high voice because she interpreted her character as a perfectionist who would not want a deep voice, something for which Agron had been teased at school?
• ... that the developer Jack King-Spooner claimed that the people of Beeswing seemed to be supportive of his creation of his semi-autobiographical indie game Beeswing?
• ... that the Invisible Wind Factory will not be hosting Futurama?

• Yoon Suk-yeol (pictured) is elected president of South Korea
  .
• Australian cricketer Shane Warne dies at the age of 52.
• An attack at a mosque in Peshawar, Pakistan, kills at least 63 people and injures more than 190 others.
• The Winter Paralympics open in Beijing, China.
• Russia's
  invasion of Ukraine is condemned by the United Nations General Assembly
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March 12

Lord Ismay

• Jesuits, were canonized by Pope Gregory XV
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• 1881 – Andrew Watson captained the Scotland national football team against England, becoming the world's first black international footballer.
• 1934 – Supported by the Estonian army, Konstantin Päts staged a coup d'état, beginning the Era of Silence.
• 1952 – British diplomat Lord Ismay (pictured) was appointed the first secretary general of NATO.
• 2014 – A gas leak caused an explosion in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York City, destroying two apartment buildings and causing eight deaths.