12 March 1938; 13 March 1905

Hitler creates the Anschluss; Mata Hari makes her public debut.

14 March is a sucky day in history, so I'll try to make up from missing the past two days. On 13 March 1938, Hitler entered Austria after 5 years of trying to incorporate the country into his Reich. He had tried everything, but the Austrians had futzed around, and they were going to hold a plebiscite which might not have supported integration with Germany. The vote was going to be held on 13 March, so Hitler felt his hand was forced. He entered Austria with the excuse of "restoring order" in Austrian towns - order that had been upset by rioting Nazis. Two days later, on 14 March, he proclaimed that the two German states were one. And so his attempted bloodless conquest of Europe began. He did quite well for a while.

Meanwhile, on 13 March 1905, Margaretha Zella appeared on stage as "Mata Hari," an Indian girl raised in service of the god Shiva. She was a Dutch girl who had moved to Java early in life with a domineering husband whom she eventually divorced. When she moved back to Europe, she had no prospects, so she decided to take off her clothes for profit! She was good at it, too, touring Europe and taking numerous lovers. She became a spy during World War I, but the French became convinced she was a double agent and arrested her. After a sham trial, she was shot in 1917.

Okay, I lied - on 14 March 1492 Isabella of Castile ordered the expulsion of 150,000 Jews from the re-united Spain. And so a sub-section of society that made Muslim Spain the cultural capital of Europe was kicked out, and Spain entered a nice period of time they liked to call the Inquisition. Good job, Spain!