Today in History

On This Day In History, March 21st

2006 Jack Dorsey sends the world's first Twitter message or tweet
The microblogging service revolutionized the communication and social networking landscape. In 2012, about 340 million tweets were posted per day.

1985 South African Police kill at least 21 black people commemorating a similar mass shooting 25 years before
The Sharpeville massacre in 1985 left 69 unarmed people dead. It was a turning point in the history of South Africa.

1970 Earth Day is celebrated for the first time
The first edition was limited to some cities in the United States. Today, Earth Day is observed by about 1 billion people around the world.

1952 The world's first rock and roll concert is held in Cleveland, Ohio
DJ Alan Freed presented the concert, which was closed down after only one song because of overcrowding.

1943 A plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler by suicide bomb fails
German Wehrmacht officer, Rudolf von Gersdorff, failed to blow up the dictator but managed to defuse his bombs just before they went off and avoid suspicion.
 


Births On This Day, March 21st 🎂

1980 Ronaldinho
Brazilian footballer

1978 Rani Mukerji
Indian actress

1960 Ayrton Senna
Brazilian race car driver

1940 Solomon Burke
American singer-songwriter

1806 Benito Juárez
Mexican lawyer, politician, 25th President of Mexico

Deaths On This Day, March 21st 🪦

2013 Chinua Achebe
Nigerian author, poet, academic

2008 Klaus Dinger
German guitarist, songwriter

1843 Guadalupe Victoria
Mexican politician, 1st President of Mexico

1656 James Ussher
Irish archbishop

1556 Thomas Cranmer
English Archbishop of Canterbury
 
21 March 1952
The Cleveland Arena is the site of what will become recognized as the world's first major Rock 'n' Roll concert.
With over 10,000 people inside and another 20,000 waiting outside, Alan Freed is set to broadcast the event live over WJW radio.
Paul Williams And His Hucklebuckers were playing their first song when city officials decided to shut the proceedings down, citing fire code violations.
 

21st March

1556 England's first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer was burnt at the stake as a heretic, under the Catholic Queen Mary I, also know as "Bloody Mary". Imprisoned for over two years and under pressure from Church authorities, he apparently reconciled himself with the Roman Catholic Church. However, on the day of his execution, he dramatically recanted these beliefs, to die a heretic to Roman Catholics and a martyr to others. His legacy lives on within the Church of England through the Book of Common Prayer and the Thirty-Nine Articles, an Anglican statement of faith derived from his work.

1646 The Battle of Stow-on-the-Wold. In the early morning of 21 March 1646 the last battle of the first Civil War took place in Gloucestershire, north of the town of Stow on the Wold. After initial royalist success the superiority of the parliamentarian forces, particularly Brereton's cavalry, soon overwhelmed and routed the royalist forces.

1829 The Duke of Wellington, aged 60, fought a bloodless duel with the Earl of Winchelsea. The reason for the duel was the Duke’s support of Catholic emancipation. Wellington was both Prime Minister and leader of the Tory Party at the time.

1945 British warplanes destroyed Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen, killing over 70 Nazis. The raid also killed civilians, including 86 schoolchildren, in Denmark's worst civilian disaster of the war.

1946 Labour politician Aneurin Bevan announced the Government's proposals for a free National Health Service.

1960 Scores die in Sharpeville shoot-ou.t More than 50 black people were killed when police opened fire on a peaceful protest in the South African township of Sharpeville.
 
On This Day In History, March 22nd

1997 Tara Lipinski becomes the youngest female figure skating world champion
The American athlete won the 1997 World Figure Skating Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland at the age of 14 years and 10 months.

1993 The Intel Corporation produces the first Pentium microprocessor
Intel holds about 80% of the world market share in the PC microprocessor business.

1963 The Beatles release their first album
Please Please Me, which included the hit single “Love Me Do” is regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time.

1960 The laser is patented
Charles Hard Townes and Arthur Leonard Schawlow received the first patent for their device, although Gordon Gould had previously filed a patent application for a similar contraption, which was turned down.

1945 The Arab League is founded
The organization was founded to promote political, economic, and cultural collaboration amongst its member states, which include 21 African, Asian, and Middle Eastern countries, from Mauritania in the west to Oman in the east.
 
Births On This Day, March 22nd 🎂

1976 Reese Witherspoon
American actress, producer

1948 Andrew Lloyd Webber
English director, composer

1936 Ron Carey
American union leader

1930 Stephen Sondheim
American composer, songwriter

1923 Marcel Marceau
French mime, actor

Deaths On This Day, March 22nd 🪦

2009 Abismo *****
Mexican wrestler

2009 Jade Goody
English nurse, author

2001 William Hanna
American animator, director, producer, and actor, co-founded Hanna-Barbera

1832 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
German writer, scientist

1820 Stephen Decatur
American navy officer
 
22nd March 1955
23 year old Johnny Cash records his first tracks at Sam Phillips' Memphis Recording Studio.
Johnny sang five Country / Gospel numbers, of which "Mr. Porter" was the only useable cut. Phillips tells Johnny to come back when he's written a hit.
 
On This Day In History, March 24th

1999 For the first time in its history, NATO attacks a sovereign country
The military alliance bombed Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War - without a UN mandate.

1989 Oil tanker Exxon Valdez runs aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska
The mishap resulted in one of the most devastating environmental disasters in history, killing up to 250,000 seabirds and other wildlife.

1965 Millions watch NASA spacecraft Ranger 9 crash into the Moon
The U.S. space probe broadcasts live pictures back to Earth, enabling TV viewers to follow its approach to the Moon and its controlled crash.

1896 Aleksander Popov achieves the world's first radio transmission
The Russian physicist transmitted the words “Heinrich Hertz” from one building of St. Petersburg University to another.

1882 Robert Koch discovers the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis
The German scientist, who is regarded as the father of modern bacteriology, won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1905.
 
Births On This Day, March 24th 🎂

1930 Steve McQueen
American actor

1897 Wilhelm Reich
Austrian/American psychotherapist

1884 Peter Debye
Dutch/American physicist, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

1874 Harry Houdini
Hungarian/American magician, actor

1820 Fanny Crosby
American composer, songwriter

Deaths On This Day, March 24th 🪦

1976 Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein
English army officer

1946 Alexander Alekhine
Russian chess player

1905 Jules Verne
French author

1882 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
American poet

1603 Elizabeth I of England
 
24th March

1877 The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race on the River Thames ended in a dead heat.

1878 The British frigate HMS Eurydice sank off the Isle of Wight, close to Ventnor, during a heavy snow storm. All but two of the 319 crew and trainees were killed. It was one of Britain's worst peace-time naval disasters. The ship's bell is preserved in St. Paul's Church, Gatten, Shanklin.

1944 World War II: In an event later dramatized in the movie The Great Escape, prisoners began breaking out of Stalag Luft III. Around 10:30 pm. on the frigid, moonless night of March 24, 1944, British bomber pilot Johnny Bull slowly traversed the tunnel more than 30 feet below the oblivious Nazi guards and peeked his head out of the snowy ground beyond the camp’s fence.

1953 Her Majesty, Queen Mary, (Queen Consort to King George V) died peacefully in her sleep after a long illness.

1981 The 'Great Train Robber' Ronnie Biggs was rescued by Barbados police following his kidnapping.

1994 The new Jewel House, at the Tower of London, was opened by the Queen.
 
On This Day In History March 25th

1995 WikiWikiWeb, the world's first wiki, is launched
Ward Cunningham introduced the wiki or user-editable website. Today, Wikipedia is the world's most well-known and widely used wiki.

1988 Thousands of people join the first peaceful demonstrations against the communist regime in Czechoslovakia
The Candle Demonstration was brutally dispersed by the Police but was the first step towards the Velvet Revolution that resulted in the establishment of democracy in the country.

1975 King Faisal of Saudi Arabia is assassinated by his nephew
Despite the king's dying wish that the life of the assassin be spared, Faisal bin Musaid was publicly executed on June 18, 1975.

1957 6 countries founded the European Economic Community
The EEC's establishment was an important step towards European integration and the creation of the European Union (EU).

1949 The Soviet Union begins deporting some 90,000 Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians to some of Russia's most inhospitable areas
Operation Priboi, also known as March deportation, was designed to weaken the Baltic nationalist movement. Most of the deportees, labelled “enemies of the people” by the Soviet authorities, were women and children.
 
Births On This Day, March 25th 🎂

1976 Wladimir Klitschko
Ukrainian boxer

1947 Elton John
English singer-songwriter, pianist, producer, actor

1942 Aretha Franklin
American singer-songwriter, pianist

1914 Norman Borlaug
American agronomist, humanitarian, Nobel Prize laureate

1867 Arturo Toscanini
Italian conductor

Deaths On This Day, March 25th 🪦

2006 Buck Owens
American singer-songwriter, guitarist

1980 Milton H. Erickson
American psychiatrist

1931 Ida B. Wells
American civil rights activist

1918 Claude Debussy
French composer

1860 James Braid
Scottish surgeon
 
26th March

1484 William Caxton printed his translation of Aesop's Fables. As far as is known, Caxton was the first English person to work as a printer and the first to introduce a printing press into England. He was also the first English retailer of printed books.

1976 Queen Elizabeth II sent the first royal e-mail, from the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment in Worcestershire.

1979 Israel and Egypt ended 30 years of war with an historic peace treaty brokered by the United States.

2007 Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams made history in Northern Ireland with their first face-to-face meeting, where they agreed on the restoration of the Stormont assembly and the return of power sharing.

2015 Richard III, the only English monarch without a marked grave, was reinterred at Leicester Cathedral. Richard III's body was buried in the now demolished Franciscan Friary in Leicester and was discovered in September 2012 under what had become a car park.
 
On This Day In History, March 27th

1998 ****** is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Pfizer's pill was the first drug against male impotence to be approved in the United States. In 2012, the company made 2 billion U.S. Dollars from ****** alone.

1994 Silvio Berlusconi rises to power in Italy
In his 20 years in Italian politics, Berlusconi arguably made more headlines for his numerous affairs and scandals than for his policies. In 2013, he was sentenced to 4 years imprisonment for tax fraud.

1980 The oil rig Alexander L. Kjelland collapses in high winds in the North Sea
Only 89 of 212 crew survived the Norwegian platform's capsizing, which was caused by a fatigue crack in one of the legs.

1977 The worst air crash in history occurs in Tenerife, Spain
583 people died when 2 Boeing 747 aircraft collided on the runway.

1871 England and Scotland compete in the first international rugby match
Like association football, rugby is a British invention. Today, it is a popular sport mainly in large parts of the British Commonwealth.
 

Births On This Day, March 27th 🎂

1971 David Coulthard
Scottish race car driver

1970 Mariah Carey
American singer-songwriter, producer, actress

1963 Quentin Tarantino
American director, screenwriter, producer

1924 Sarah Vaughan
American singer

1845 Wilhelm Röntgen
German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

Deaths On This Day, March 27th 🪦

2006 Rudolf Vrba
Czech/Canadian holocaust survivor, educator

2002 Billy Wilder
Austrian/American director

1972 M. C. Escher
Dutch illustrator

1968 Yuri Gagarin
Russian pilot, astronaut

1898 Syed Ahmad Khan
Indian educator, politician
 
27th March 1960

Two anti-payola bills are introduced in US Congress by 71-year-old Representative Emanuel Celler of New York. He blames payola (the illegal practice of paying a commercial radio station to play a song without the station disclosing the payment.) for "the cacophonous music called Rock and Roll," and says that style of music would never have gained popularity, "especially among teenagers," if not for the result of payola.
 
On This Day In History, March 28th

1990 Jesse Owens receives the Congressional Gold Medal
The African American athlete dominated the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, which were held during the reign of Adolf Hitler's racist nazi regime.

1979 Three Mile Island nuclear power plant experiences a partial meltdown and radioactive leak
The coolant leak was the worst commercial nuclear accident in the United States. A continuous string of nuclear disasters, such as Three Mile Island (1979), Chernobyl (1986), and Fukushima (2011) continue to raise doubts about the security and environmental benefits of nuclear power.

1969 Greek poet Giorgos Seferis speaks out against the military junta
The Nobel Prize laureate issued his now famous statement against Greece's repressive right-wing Regime of the Colonels on the BBC World Service.

1963 Alfred Hitchcock's movie The Birds is released
The film about a swarm of birds wreaking havoc in Bodega Bay, California has become a classic of the horror movie genre.

1910 The first seaplane in history takes off
French inventor Henri Fabre's Canard (Fabre Hydration) was the first floatplane to take off from water under its own power. The first flight measured 457 meters.
 

Births On This Day, March 28th 🎂

1986 Lady Gaga
American singer-songwriter, producer, actress

1955 Reba McEntire
American singer-songwriter, producer, actress

1946 Alejandro Toledo
Peruvian politician, 48th President of Peru

1936 Mario Vargas Llosa
Peruvian/Spanish journalist, author, Nobel Prize laureate

1483 Raphael
Italian painter, architect

Deaths On This Day, March 28th 🪦

2004 Peter Ustinov
English actor, director, producer, screenwriter

1969 Dwight D. Eisenhower
American general, politician, 34th President of the United States

1943 Sergei Rachmaninoff
Russian pianist, composer, conductor

1941 Virginia Woolf
English author, critic

1584 Ivan the Terrible
Russian Tsar
 
On This Day In History, March 29th

2010 Two Chechen suicide bombers detonate their devices in the Moscow underground
40 people died in the attack allegedly carried out by so-called “black widows”, or Islamist Chechen female suicide bombers.

2004 Ireland becomes the first country to ban smoking in all workplaces
Contrary to initial concerns, the ban had no adverse economic effects, and soon several other countries passed similar legislation. According to the World Health Organization, tobacco smoke is the single greatest cause of preventable death globally.

1974 The Terracotta Army is discovered in Xi'an, China
The famous collection of some 8000 soldier sculptures, depicting Emperor Qin Shi Huang's army, was located by local farmers when they were digging a water well.

1971 Charles Manson is sentenced to death in the gas chamber
The sentence was never carried out because the California Supreme Court abolished the death penalty in 1972. The infamous criminal who ordered several murders served a life sentence and died on November 19, 2017.

1912 Robert Scott makes his final diary entry
Scott wrote: “We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker, of course, and the end cannot be far.” The British explorer and his companions died on an expedition to the South Pole.
 

Births On This Day, March 29th 🎂

1976 Jennifer Capriati
American tennis player

1949 Michael Brecker
American saxophonist, composer

1943 John Major
English banker, politician, and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

1895 Ernst Jünger
German author

1790 John Tyler
American lawyer, politician, 10th President of the United States

Deaths On This Day, March 29th 🪦

1982 Walter Hallstein
German politician, diplomat, 1st President of the European Commission

1924 Charles Villiers Stanford
Irish composer

1912 Robert Falcon Scott
English navy officer, explorer

1888 Charles-Valentin Alkan
French composer

1772 Emanuel Swedenborg
Swedish scientist
 


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