March 21
From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.
March 21 is the 80th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (81st in leap years). It is also the first day of the astrological year. There are 285 days until the end of the year.
[edit] Births
- 1685 - Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer
- 1957 - Youssef Rzouga, Tunisian poet
- 1960 - Ayrton Senna, Brazilian Formula 1 driver.
- 1963 - Shawn Lane, American musician
[edit] Deaths
- 1076 - Robert I, Duke of Burgundy
- 1306 - Robert II, Duke of Burgundy
- 1556 - Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, (born 1489)
- 1795 - Giovanni Arduino, geologist, (born 1714)
- 1843 - Robert Southey, English poet (born 1774)
- 1881 - Samuel Courtauld, textile magnate (born 1793)
- 1884 - Ezra Abbot, American bible scholar, (born 1819)
- 1934 - Franz Schreker, composer (born 1878)
- 1936 - Alexander Glazunov, Russian composer (born 1865)
- 1951 - Willem Mengelberg, Dutch conductor (born 1871)
- 1957 - C. K. Ogden, writer (born 1889)
- 1958 - Cyril M. Kornbluth, science fiction writer, (born 1923)
- 1984 - Shauna Grant, American actress
- 1985 - Sir Michael Redgrave, actor, (born 1908)
- 1987 - Robert Preston, actor (born 1918)
- 1987 - Dean Paul Martin, American musician
- 1991 - Leo Fender, guitar manufacturer
- 1994 - Dack Rambo, American actor
- 1994 - Macdonald Carey, American actor
- 1997 - W. V. Awdry, inventor (born 1911)
- 1997 - John Nemechek, American car racer
- 1999 - Ernie Wise, British comedian (born 1925)
- 2001 - Norma Macmillan, voice actress, (born 1921)
- 2001 - Chung Ju-young, Korean industrialist (born 1915)
- 2002 - Herman Talmadge, American politician
- 2003 - Wolfgang Kartte, politician
- 2005 - Bobby Short, singer (born 1924)
- 2005 - Barney Martin, American actor
[edit] Events
- 1556 - In Oxford, Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer is burned at the stake.
- 1788 - A fire destroys 856 buildings in New Orleans and leaves most of the town in ruins.
- 1800 - With the church leadership driven out of the Vatican during an armed conflict, Pius VII was crowned Pope in Venice with a temporary papal tiara made of papier-mâché.
- 1801 - The Battle of Alexandria was fought between British and French forces near the ruins of Nicopolis in Egypt.
- 1804 - Code Napoléon was adopted as French civil law.
- 1857 - Earthquake in Tokyo, Japan kills over 100,000.
- 1871 - Journalist Henry Morton Stanley began his trek to find the missionary and explorer David Livingstone.
- 1919 - The Chinese High School is established in Singapore by Tan Kah Kee.
- 1918 - World War I: Second Battle of the Somme begins
- 1928 - Charles Lindbergh is presented the Congressional Medal of Honor for his first trans-Atlantic flight.
- 1935 - Shah Reza Pahlavi formally asked the international community to call Persia by its native name, Iran, which means 'Land of the Aryans'.
- 1940 - Paul Reynaud becomes Prime Minister of France
- 1945 - World War II: British troops liberate Mandalay, Burma
- 1952 - Alan Freed presents the Moondog Coronation Ball, the first rock and roll concert, in Cleveland, Ohio
- 1960 - Apartheid: Massacre in Sharpeville, South Africa: Police open fire on a group of unarmed black South African demonstrators, killing 69 and wounding 180
- 1963 - Alcatraz, a federal penitentiary on an island in San Francisco Bay, closes.
- 1964 - In Copenhagen, Denmark, Gigliola Cinquetti wins the ninth Eurovision Song Contest for Italy singing "Non ho l'età" (I'm not old enough).
- 1965 - Ranger program: NASA launches Ranger 9 which is the last in a series of unmanned lunar space probes.
- 1965 - Martin Luther King Jr leads 3,200 people on the start of the 3rd and finally successful Civil Rights March from Selma to Montgomery Alabama.
- 1970 The first Earth Day proclamation was issued by San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto.
- 1970 - Vinko Bogataj crashes during a ski-jumping championship in Germany; his image becomes that of the "agony of defeat guy" in the opening credits of ABC's Wide World of Sports.
- 1970 - In Amsterdam, Netherlands, Dana wins the fifteenth Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland singing "All Kinds of Everything".
- 1980 - President Jimmy Carter announces a United States boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan.
- 1980 - On the season finale of the soap opera Dallas, the infamous character J.R. Ewing is shot by an unseen assailant, leading to the catchphrase "Who Shot JR?"
- 1985 - Canadian paraplegic athlete and humanitarian Rick Hansen begins his circumnavigation in a wheelchair in the name of spinal cord injury medical research.
- 1989 - Sports Illustrated reports allegations that tie baseball player Pete Rose to baseball gambling.
- 1990 - Namibia becomes independent after 75 years of South African rule.
- 1999 - Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones become the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon.
- 2002 - In Pakistan, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh along with three other suspects are charged with murder for their part in the kidnapping and killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
- 2004 - In Malaysia, the 11th Federal and State elections are held, returning the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional to power with an increased majority.
- 2005 - In Red Lake, Minnesota, 10 are killed in a school shooting, the worst since the Columbine High School massacre.
