Francis Ford Coppolas 'The Godfather' published – Chicago Tribune

Today is Saturday, March 15th, the 74th day of 2025. There are still 291 days a year.

Today in history:

On March 15, 1972, “The Godfather”, Francis Ford Coppola's film based on the Mario Puzo novel, with Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, who was premiered in New York.

Also on this date:

In 44 BC The Roman dictator Julius Caesar was murdered on the “Ides of March” by Roman senators, including Brutus and Cassius, who feared that Caesar had worked to build a monarchy.

In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson, who dealt with a joint congress meeting, called for new laws to ensure the right to vote for every American. The result was the adoption of the 1965 voting rights law.

In 2012, the convicted former governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, entered a federal prison in Colorado, in which the 55-year-old Democrat served a 14-year sentence for corruption. (He was released in February 2020 after President Donald Trump spoiled his prison sentence; Trump pardoned Blagojevich in February 2025.)

Rod Blagojevich Saga: From the arrest to Donald Trump's forgiveness

In 2018, a pedestrian bridge collapsed in the construction of a busy Miami Highway and crushed vehicles underneath. Six people died and 10 were injured.

In 2019, a shooter killed 51 people in two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, and streamed the massacre live on Facebook. (Brenton Tarrant, an Australian white supremacist, was sentenced to life imprisonment without probation after he was guilty of 51 murder and other charges.)