Today in History - March 21

Alum-Ni

2021 Co-PotY
Messages
2,617
March 21

1556 - Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was burned at the stake as a heretic.

1685 - Composer Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Germany.

1804 - The French Civil Code, the Code Napoleon, was officially put forth.

1871 - Journalist Henry M. Stanley began his trek to find missionary and explorer David Livingstone.

1935 - Persia changes its name to Iran.

1945 - During World War II, Allied bombers began four days of raids over Germany.

1952 - The Moondog Coronation Ball, considered the first rock and roll concert, took place at Cleveland Arena.

1960 - Police fired on demonstrators in Sharpeville, South Africa, after which the African National Congress was banned. (Twenty-five years later, a march marking the anniversary of this event was also disrupted by police fire.)

1963 - Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco Bay, a harsh maximum security prison which once housed gangster Al Capone, was closed.

1965 - Martin Luther King Jr. led the start of a civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

1972 - The Supreme Court, in Dunn v. Blumstein, ruled that states may not require at least a year's residency for voting eligibility.

1990 - Namibia became an independent nation as the former colony marked the end of 75 years of South African rule.

1997 - President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin wrapped up their summit in Helsinki, Finland, still deadlocked over NATO expansion, but able to agree on slashing nuclear weapons arsenals.

2006 - The social media website Twitter was established with the sending of the first "tweet" by co-founder Jack Dorsey, who wrote: "just setting up my twttr."

2007 - Former Vice President Al Gore made an emotional return to Congress as he pleaded with House and Senate committees to fight global warming; skeptical Republicans questioned the science behind his climate-change documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth.”

2010 - The House of Representatives passes the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and sent it to President Barack Obama for his signature.

2016 - Laying bare a half-century of tensions, President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro prodded each other over human rights and the longstanding U.S. economic embargo during an unprecedented joint news conference in Havana.

2018 - As a SWAT team moved in on his SUV, Mark Conditt, the suspect in the deadly bombings that had terrorized Austin, Texas for three weeks, used one of his own devices to take his own life.

2018 - Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized for a “major breach of trust;” the apology came after it was revealed that the data mining firm Cambridge Analytica, whose clients included the Trump campaign, may have used data improperly obtained from Facebook users to try to sway elections.

2019 - President Donald Trump abruptly declared that the U.S. would recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the disputed Golan Heights, a major shift in American policy.

2020 - During a White House briefing, President Donald Trump doubled down on his support for the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a possible treatment for the coronavirus, while Dr. Anthony Fauci said the evidence was “anecdotal.”

2022 - In her first day of public hearings, Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson pledged to decide cases “without fear or favor” if the Senate confirmed her historic nomination as the first Black woman on the high court.

2022 - Veteran talk show host Maury Povich announced he was calling it quits, saying he would stop making original episodes of “Maury” after being a daytime mainstay for 31 years.

Birthdays
24 - Lexi DiBenedetto (actress)
29 - Jasmin Savoy Brown (actress)
31 - Karolina Pliskova (tennis player)
34 - Rochelle Humes (singer)
37 - Scott Eastwood (actor)
38 - Sonequa Martin-Green (actress)
45 - Kevin Federline (rapper/reality TV star)
45 - Rani Mukerji (actress)
49 - Laura Allen (actress)
58 - Cynthia Geary (actress)
61 - Rosie O'Donnell (actress/comedian)
61 - Matthew Broderick (actor)
62 - Kassie Depaiva (actress)
65 - Gary Oldman (actor)
65 - Sabrina LeBeauf (actress)
72 - Russell Thompkins Jr. (singer)
77 - Timothy Dalton (actor)
79 - Marie-Christine Barrault (actress)
84 - Kathleen Widdoes (actress)

==============================

Today in Sports History - March 21
1946 - The Los Angeles Rams signed Kenny Washington. Washington was the first black player to join a National Football League team since 1933.

1946 - The first Mexican League baseball game was played.

1953 - The Boston Celtics beat Syracuse Nationals (111-105) in four overtimes to eliminate them from the Eastern Division Semifinals. A total of seven players (both teams combined) fouled out of the game.

1962 - The Philadelphia Phillies retire Robin Roberts' #36.

1964 - UCLA defeats Duke 98-83 to win their first NCAA Tournament.

1968 - The new American League baseball franchise in Kansas City, Missouri announced the nickname of "Royals".

1970 - UCLA defeats Jacksonville 80-69 to win a fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament.

1973 - Frank Mohovlich (Montreal Canadiens) became the 5th NHL player to score 500 career goals.

1984 - NFL owners passed the infamous anti-celebrating rule.

1994 - Wayne Gretzky tied Gordie Howe's NHL record of 801 goals.

1994 - Michael Jordan was cut from the White Sox roster and was sent to their minor league club.

2004 - The NHL suspended Calgary Flames coach-general manager Darryl Sutter and forward Krzysztof Oliwa. Sutter was suspended for two games for player selection and team conduct in the final 2.5 seconds of the game. Oliwa was suspended for his conduct after being given a penalty for physical abuse of officials. The Flames lost to the Nashville Predators 3-1.

2004 - Mark Messier (New York Rangers) was ejected after he spearing Martin Strbak (Pittsburgh Penguins). Messier was later suspended for two games by the NHL.

2019 - Ichiro Suzuki finishes his career with a record 4,367 base hits (MLB and Japanese NPB).
 
Top