March 21
is the
80th day of the year in the
Gregorian Calendar (81
st in
leap years). It is also the first day of the
astrological year. There are 285 days remaining.
is also the usual date of the
vernal equinox (first day of spring) in the
Northern Hemisphere, and the
autumnal equinox (first day of autumn) in the
Southern Hemisphere.
In
astrology,
is regarded as the first full day of the sign of
Aries.
*
717 -
Battle of Vincy between
Charles Martel and
Ragenfrid.
*
1413 -
Henry V becomes King of
England.
*
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
Rome 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.
*
1821 - First revolutionary act in Monastery of
Agia Lavra,
Kalavryta,
Greek War of Independence.
*
1857 -
Earthquake in
Tokyo,
Japan kills over 100,000.
*
1844 - The
Baha'i calendar begins. This is the first day of the first year of the
Baha'i calendar. It is annually celebrated by members of the
Baha'i Faith as the Baha'i New Year or Naw-Ruz.
* 1844 - The original date predicted by William Miller for the return of Christ.
*
1871 -
Journalist Henry Morton Stanley began his trek to find the missionary and explorer
David Livingstone.
*
1918 -
World War I:
Second Battle of the Somme begins.
*
1919 -
The Chinese High School is established in
Singapore by
Tan Kah Kee.
*
1928 -
Charles Lindbergh is presented the
Medal of Honor for his first trans-
Atlantic flight.
*
1933 -
Dachau, the first
Nazi Germany concentration camp, is completed.
*
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.
*
1943 - Masacre of the town of
Kalavryta,
Greece by
German Nazi troops.
*
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 third and finally successful
civil rights march from
Selma to
Montgomery, Alabama.
*
1968 - The
Israeli Defense Forces attack the village of
Karameh in
Jordan.
*
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.
*
1521 -
Maurice, Elector of Saxony (d.
1553)
*
1527 -
Hermann Finck, German composer (d.
1558)
*
1685 -
Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer (d.
1750)
*
1713 -
Francis Lewis, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (d.
1803)
*
1763 -
Jean Paul, German writer (d.
1825)
*
1768 -
Joseph Fourier, French mathematician (d.
1830)
*
1806 -
Benito Juárez, Mexican statesman and national hero (d.
1872)
*
1839 -
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, Russian composer (d.
1881)
*
1869 -
Florenz Ziegfeld, theater producer (d.
1932)
*
1876 -
John Tewksbury, American athlete (d.
1968)
*
1880 -
Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, American actor (d.
1971)
*
1895 -
Zlatko Baloković, Croatian violinist (d.
1955)
*
1901 -
Karl Arnold, German politician (d.
1958)
*
1902 -
Son House, American musician (d.
1988)
*
1904 -
Forrest Mars Sr., American candymaker (d.
1999)
*
1906 -
Jim Thompson, American designer and businessman
*
1913 -
George Abecassis, English race car driver (d.
1991)
*
1914 -
Paul Tortelier, French cellist (d.
1990)
*
1920 -
Georg Ots, Estonian singer (d.
1975)
*
1921 -
Arthur Grumiaux, Belgian violinist (d.
1986)
*
1922 -
Russ Meyer, American film director and producer (d.
2004)
*
1923 - Shri Mataji
Nirmala Srivastava, Indian founder of Sahaja Yoga
* 1923 -
Philip Abbott, American actor (d.
1998)
*
1925 -
Hugo Koblet, Swiss cyclist (d.
1964)
*
1927 -
Hans-Dietrich Genscher, German politician
*
1932 -
Walter Gilbert, American chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate
* 1932 -
Joseph Silverstein, American violinist and conductor
*
1930 -
James Coco, American actor (d.
1987)
*
1934 -
Al Freeman, Jr., American actor
*
1935 -
Brian Clough, English footballer and football manager (d.
2004)
*
1936 -
Ed Broadbent, Canadian politician
*
1940 -
Solomon Burke, American singer
*
1943 -
Vivian Stanshall, English musician, artist, actor, writer,
Bonzo Dog Band (d.
1995)
* 1943 -
István Gyulai, Hungarian General Secretary of the
IAAF (d.
2006)
*
1945 -
Rose Stone, American musician (
Sly & the Family Stone)
*
1946 -
Timothy Dalton, Welsh actor
*
1949 -
Slavoj Žižek, Slovenian sociologist, philosopher and cultural critic
*1949 -
Eddie Money, American musician
*
1950 -
Roger Hodgson, musician, former member from
Supertramp*
1956 -
Ingrid Kristiansen, Norwegian runner
*
1958 -
Sabrina Le Beauf, American actress
* 1958 -
Gary Oldman, English actor
*
1959 -
Nobuo Uematsu, Japanese composer
*
1960 -
Ayrton Senna, Brazilian race car driver (d.
1994)
*
1961 -
Lothar Matthäus, German footballer
*
1961 -
Shawn Lane, American guitar virtuoso
*
1962 -
Mark Waid, American comic book writer
* 1962 -
Matthew Broderick, American actor
* 1962 -
Rosie O'Donnell, American comedian, actress, talk show host, and publisher
*
1963 -
Ronald Koeman, Dutch footballer and football manager
* 1963 -
Shawon Dunston, baseball player
*
1964 -
Jesper Skibby, Danish professional cyclist
*
1967 -
Jonas "Joker" Berggren, Swedish musician (
Ace of Base)
* 1967 -
Maxim Reality, British MC (
The Prodigy)
* 1968 -
DJ Premier, Hip Hop Producer (
Preemo)
*
1972 -
Chris Candido, Professional wrestler (d.
2005)
*
1975 -
Justin Pierce, British actor (d.
2000)
* 1975 -
Mark Williams, Welsh snooker player
* 1975 -
Fabricio Oberto, Argentine basketball player, playing for San Antonio Spurs
*
1976 -
Liza Harper, French actress
*
1978 -
Kevin Federline, American dancer/hip hop artist
* 1978 -
Cristian Guzmán, Baseball player
*
1980 -
Ronaldinho Gaucho, Brazilian current international footballer
* 1980 -
Marit Bjørgen, Norwegian cross-country skier
* 1980 -
Deryck Whibley, Canadian guitarist and singer (
Sum41)
* 1982 -
Aaron Hill, American baseball player
*
1076 -
Robert I, Duke of Burgundy (b.
1011)
*
1306 -
Robert II, Duke of Burgundy (b.
1248)
*
1487 -
Nicholas of Flue, Swiss hermit and saint (b.
1417)
*
1556 -
Thomas Cranmer,
Archbishop of Canterbury (burned at the stake) (b.
1489)
*
1617 -
Pocahontas, Native American, daughter of Powhatan (b. c.
1595)
*
1656 -
James Ussher, Irish Catholic archbishop (b.
1581)
*
1676 -
Henri Sauval, French historian (b.
1623)
*
1729 -
John Law, Scottish economist (b.
1671)
*
1734 -
Robert Wodrow, Scottish historian (b.
1679)
*
1751 -
Johann Heinrich Zedler, German publisher (b.
1706)
*
1762 -
Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, French astronomer (b.
1713)
*
1772 -
Jacques-Nicolas Bellin, French cartographer (b.
1703)
*
1795 -
Giovanni Arduino, Italian geologist (b.
1714)
*
1801 -
Andrea Luchesi, Italian composer (b.
1741)
*
1804 -
Louis-Antoine-Henri de Bourbon-Condé, duc d'Enghien (executed) (b.
1772)
*
1843 -
Robert Southey, English poet (b.
1774)
* 1843 -
Guadalupe Victoria, first
President of Mexico (b.
1786)
*
1850 -
Miguel Pedrorena, American settler
*
1881 -
Samuel Courtauld, American-born textile magnate (b.
1793)
*
1884 -
Ezra Abbot, American bible scholar (b.
1819)
*
1910 -
Nadar, French photographer (b.
1820)
*
1934 -
Franz Schreker, Austrian composer (b.
1878)
*
1936 -
Alexander Glazunov, Russian composer (b.
1865)
*
1951 -
Willem Mengelberg, Dutch conductor (b.
1871)
*
1958 -
Cyril M. Kornbluth, American writer (b.
1923)
*
1975 -
Joe Medwick, baseball player (b.
1911)
*
1984 -
Shauna Grant, American actress (suicide) (b.
1963)
*
1985 - Sir
Michael Redgrave, English actor (b.
1908)
*
1987 -
Dean Paul Martin, American musician (b.
1951)
* 1987 -
Robert Preston, American actor (b.
1918)
*
1991 -
Leo Fender, American guitar manufacturer (b.
1909)
*
1994 -
Macdonald Carey, American actor (b.
1913)
* 1994 -
Dack Rambo, American actor (b.
1941)
*
1997 -
W. V. Awdry, English children's writer (b.
1911)
*
1998 -
Galina Ulanova, Russian prima ballerina assoluta (b.
1910)
*
1999 -
Ernie Wise, British comedian (b.
1925)
*
2001 -
Chung Ju-young, Korean industrialist (b.
1915)
* 2001 -
Norma Macmillan, voice actress (b.
1921)
*
2002 -
Herman Talmadge, American politician (b.
1913)
* 2002 -
Amanda Dowler, Missing British schoolgirl (b.
1988)
*
2005 -
Barney Martin, American actor (b.
1923)
* 2005 -
Bobby Short, American singer (b.
1924)
*
Iranian New Year's Day (Norouz): (also celebrated in many other countries of
Asia)
Iranian calendar.
*
Harmony Day in
Australia.
*
Earth Day.
*
China:
Chunfen.
*
Egypt:
Mother's Day*
Japan:
Vernal Equinox Day (public holiday).
*
Namibia:
Independence Day.
*
Benito Juárez Day, a
Fiesta Patria in
Mexico.
*
South Africa:
International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
*Traditional date of
vernal equinox, used for reckoning
Easter. The real
equinox usually occurs one day earlier.
*
Astrology: First day of star sign
Aries.
*The third day of
Quinquatria in ancient
Rome, held in honor of
Minerva.
*
New Year of the
Bahá'í Calendar.
*
Bahá'í Faith - End of the 19-day sunrise-to-sunset.
fast.
*
Ostara -
Neopagan festival of
Ostara.
*
World Poetry Day - by
UNESCO.
*
International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination - by
United Nations.
*
World Down Syndrome DayLiturgical feasts
*
Saints Philemon and Domnin*
Blessed Clementia of Hohenberg*St.
Nicholas of Flue*
On this day in Canada*
NY Times: On this day*
BBC: On This Day*
Today in History: March 21-
March 20 -
March 22 -
February 21 -
April 21 --
listing of all days
