It is March 15th and, according to Shakespeare and many pop culture references since, we should "beware the Ides of March"!
The Assassination of Julius Caesar (1888) by William Holmes Sullivan
On this day, in 44B.C, Roman dictator Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of 60 conspirators, led by Marcus Junius Brutus ("Et tu, Brute?" Caesar's famous last words according to Shakespeare meaning "And you, Brutus?" in Latin) and Gaius Cassius Longinus, who believed his death would lead to the restoration of the Roman Republic. Instead, after years of civil war, Augustus would become the first Roman Emperor, under the guise of restoring the Republic, and thus the Republic was destroyed forever.
Augustus in victory pose. Possibly on the occasion of the Battle of Actium. Housed in the Vatican Museum. Photograph by Till Niermann.
The word 'Ides' refers to the first full moon of every month that usually fell between the 13th and 15th. In fact, before Julius Caesar reformed the Roman calendar to the Julian calendar the Ides of March once signified the new year.
Needless to say, if you take the opportunity to peruse the internet to see what other historical events have occurred on this unlucky day you'll notice that, whilst some things have happened such as Nicholas II the last Tsar of Russia abdicating and Hitler's invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939, it probably doesn't work out as being any more unlucky than any other day in history!