On March 21st...

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New Year's Day (Iran)

1413 Henry of Monmouth, Prince of Wales, became King Henry V of England.

1556 Thomas Cranmer, the first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury, died.

1617 Indian "princess" Pocahontas died.

1685 Composer Johann Sebastian Bach was born.

1788 Fire destroyed 856 buildings in New Orleans, Louisiana.
1788 Olaudah Equiano, a freed slave, petitioned King George III and Queen Charlotte to free enslaved Africans.

1791 Captain Hopley Yeaton of New Hampshire became the first commissioned officer in the U. S. Navy.

1804 The Civil Code of Napoleon was adopted in France.

1806 Benito Juárez, Mexican President, was born.

1824 Fire at an ammunitions dump in Cairo, Egypt, killed 4,000 horses.

1839 Composer Modest Mussorgsky was born.

1859 The Philadelphia Zoological Society was incorporated, making it the first zoo in America.
1859 The Scottish National Gallery opened in Edinburgh.

1866 The U. S. Congress authorized national soldiers' homes.

1868 The first U. S. professional women's club, Sorosis, was formed in New York City, New York.

1869 Theater producer Florenz Ziegfeld was born.

1874 U. S. President Ulysses Grant's daughter Nellie got married in the White House.

1904 Forrest Mars, the inventor of M&M's, was born.

1906 Philanthropist John D. Rockefeller III was born.

1907 The United States invaded Honduras.

1916 Criminal Cole Younger died.

1917 Loretta Walsh became the U. S. Navy's first female Petty Officer.
1917 Author Frank Hardy was born.

1924 Mass Investors Trust became the first mutual fund set up in the United States.

1925 Tennessee enacted a law prohibiting the teaching of evolution.

1928 Actor James Coco was born.

1934 Fire destroyed Hakodate, Japan, and killed about 1,500 people.

1935 Persia was officially renamed Iran.

1939 Kate Smith recorded "God Bless America."

1942 The "Flying Tigers" were incorporated into the U. S. Army Air Force.
1942 Ali Abdullah Saleh, President of Yemen, was born.

1944 Actor Timothy Dalton was born.

1947 President Harry Truman signed Executive Order 9835 requiring all federal employees to swear allegiance to the United States.
1947 The U. S. Congress submitted the 22nd Amendment, limiting a President to two full elected terms, to the states for ratification.

1948 "Stop the Music," with Bert Parks premiered, on ABC Radio.

1949 Musician Eddie Money was born.

1951 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of espionage.

1952 The first rock and roll concert in America, the Moondog Coronation Ball, was hosted by DJ Alan Freed, in Cleveland, Ohio.

1958 Actress Sabrina Le Beauf was born.
1958 Actor Gary Oldman was born.

1959 Barthélémy Boganda, Premier of the Central African Republic, was killed in an airplane crash about 100 miles south of Bagui.
1959 California defeated WestVirginia 71-70 for the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship.

1960 More than 50 people were killed and more than 150 were injured at Sharpeville, South Africa, when police fired on Africans demonstrating against racial pass laws.
1960 Fifty Yemenites drowned when their boat sank in the Red Sea.

1962 Taco Bell was founded.
1962 Actor Matthew Broderick was born.
1962 Comedienne Rosie O'Donnell was born.

1963 Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary was officially closed.
1963 Karl Rolvaag was declared Governor of Minnesota by a state court.

1964 UCLA defeated Duke 98-83 for the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship.

1965 Dr. Martin Luther King led 3,000 demonstrators on a march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

1970 The first Earth Day proclamation was issued by San Francisco, California, Mayor Joseph Alioto.
1970 UCLA won its fourth straight NCAA Basketball Championship with an 80-69 victory over Jacksonville.

1975 Ethiopia abolished its monarchy.

1979 The Egyptian Parliament unanimously approved a peace treaty with Israel.

1980 President Jimmy Carter announced that the United States would not participate in the Summer Olympic Games in Moscow.
1980 The television series "Dallas" ended the season by having chief antagonist J. R. Ewing shot by an unknown assailant.

1984 NFL owners voted to implement a "no celebrating" rule.
1984 Part of New York City's Central Park was renamed Strawberry Fields in honor of John Lennon.

1985 Football player Adrian Peterson was born.
1985 Actor Michael Redgrave died.

1987 Actor Robert Preston died.

1990 Namibia became independent of South Africa.

1991 Electric guitar pioneer Leo Fender died.

1994 The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change entered into force.
1994 Actor Macdonald Carey died.

1999 Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones became the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon.

2002 American politician Herman Talmadge died.

2013 A car bombing killed 12 persons and injured 30 in Peshawar, Pakistan.
2013 A bomb exploded in a mosque in Damascus, Syria, killing 42 persons and injuring 84.
2013 A Nigerian boat sank off the coast of Gabon, killing at least 45 people.
2013 A tornado and hail storm killed 24 persons in southern China.

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This page was last updated on March 21, 2018.