March 20 in History

In 1602, the States General of the Dutch Republic granted a charter to the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, known in English as the Dutch East India Company or VOC. It was given a monopoly on Dutch trade east of the Cape of Good Hope, and it became one of the most influential commercial organizations in history. Its shares could be bought and traded by ordinary investors, and its stock became central to the early Amsterdam exchange. Historians often cite it as a milestone in the development of modern corporate capitalism, though it was not entirely without precedent.

In March 2003, a coalition led by the United States and joined chiefly by the United Kingdom, with smaller contributions from Australia and Poland, invaded Iraq and overthrew the government of Saddam Hussein. The war was justified mainly by the claim that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and might share them with terrorists. No such stockpiles were found, and the conflict that followed reshaped Iraq, the Middle East, and international debates about the use of force.