On March 15, 1916, a U.S. expeditionary force led by Brig. Gen. John J. Pershing entered Mexico on an ultimately futile mission to capture Pancho Villa, whose raiders had attacked Columbus, New Mexico, killing 18 U.S. citizens. Trumpet player and bandleader Harry James was born in Albany, Georgia.

Ten years ago

Saddam Hussein, testifying for the first time in his trial, called on Iraqis to stop killing each other and instead fight U.S. troops; the judge reprimanded him for making a rambling, political speech and ordered the TV cameras switched off.

Five years ago

The Syrian civil war had its beginnings with Arab Spring protests across the region that turned into an armed insurgency and eventually became a full-blown conflict. William Melchert-Dinkel, a former nurse accused of seeking out depressed people online and encouraging two to kill themselves, was found guilty by a judge in Faribault, Minnesota, of aiding the suicides of an English man and a Canadian woman. (The Minnesota Supreme Court later reversed the convictions; Melchert-Dinkel was later found guilty of one count of assisting a suicide and one count of attempting to assist a suicide).

One year ago

The United States and Iran plunged back into negotiations in Lausanne, Switzerland, hoping to end a decades-long standoff on Iran’s nuclear program. A pair of suicide bombers attacked two churches in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, killing at least 15 people.

— By The Associated Press