March 21......

March 21 is the 80th (81st in leap years) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 285 days remaining in the year on this date.

It is the first day of the astrological year. In astrology, March 21 is regarded as the first full day of the sign of Aries.

{Disclaimer: I have attempted to give credit to the many different sources that I get entries. Any failure to do so is unintentional. Any statement enclosed by brackets like these are the opinion of the blogger, A Proud Liberal.}

EVENTS

● 717 - Battle of Vincy between Charles Martel and Ragenfrid.

● 1098 - The monastery in Citeaux, France was founded by St. Robert, a Benedictine monk and abbot of Molesme. It marked the beginning of the Roman Catholic Cistercian religious order.

● 1146 - King Louis VII of France took up the cause of the Second Crusade, in response to Bernard of Clairvaux's preaching, and became leader of the ill-fated mission.

● 1188 - Accession to the throne of Japan by emperor Antoku.

● 1349 - 3,000 Jews killed in Black Death riots in Efurt Germany

● 1413 - Henry V becomes King of England.

● 1421 - Battle of Beauge-French beat British

● 1492 - Alonzo Pietro, pilot, sailed with Columbus

● 1556 - Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was burned at the stake at Oxford after retracting the last of seven recantations that same day.

● 1610 - King James I addresses English House of Commons

● 1681 - 3rd Exclusion Parliament meets in London

● 1685 - Composer Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany.

● 1697 - Czar Peter the Great begins tour through West-Europe

● 1702 - Queen Anne Stuart addresses English parliament

● 1747 - On a slave ship bound for England, during a violent storm at sea, English sea captain John Newton, 22, was dramatically converted to a living faith. It was more than a "foxhole religion," as Newton soon abandoned the sea, and from 1764 until his death (43 years later), he devoted his life as a clergyman in the Anglican Church.

● 1788 - A fire destroys 856 buildings in New Orleans and leaves most of the town in ruins.

● 1788 - Gustavus Vassa petitions Queen Charlotte, to free enslaved Africans

● 1790 - Thomas Jefferson reports to President Washington in New York as Secretary of State

● 1791 - Captain Hopley Yeaton of New Hampshire becomes 1st commissioned officer in USN

● 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.

● 1806 - Birth of Benito Juarez, Mexican hero and the country's first indigenous president.

● 1821 - First revolutionary act in Monastery of Agia Lavra, Kalavryta, Greek War of Independence.

● 1824 - Fire at Cairo ammunitions dump kills 4,000 horses

● 1826 - The Rensselaer School in Troy, NY, was incorporated. The school became known as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and was the first engineering college in the U.S.

● 1835 - Charles Darwin & Mariano Gonzales meet at Portillo Pass

● 1843 - Preacher William Miller of Massachusetts predicted the world will end today

● 1844 - The Bahá'í calendar begins. This is the first day of the first year of the Bahá'í calendar. It is annually celebrated by members of the Bahá'í Faith as the Bahá'í New Year or Náw-Rúz.

● 1844 - The original date predicted by William Miller for the return of Christ.

● 1849 - The Norwegian city of Hamar is reestablished by royal decree

● 1851 - Yosemite Valley discovered in California

● 1851 - Emperor Tu Duc ordered that Christian priests be put to death.

● 1851 - Modern Times, American anarchist colony, founded in New York by Josiah Warren, Stephen Pearl Andrews, and William G. Greene.

● 1853 - American Labor Union founded.

● 1857 - Birth of Alice Henry, editor and leader of Women's Trade Union League.

● 1857 - Earthquake hits Tokyo; about 107,000 die

● 1858 - British forces in India lift the siege of Lucknow, ending the Indian Mutiny.

● 1859 - Scottish National Gallery opens in Edinburgh

● 1859 - Zoological Society of Philadelphia, 1st in US, incorporated

● 1860 - US extradition treaty with Sweden

● 1863 - Naval Engagement at Havana Cuba-USS Henrick Hudson vs BR Wild Pigeon

● 1864 - Battle at Henderson's Hill (Bayou Rapids) Louisiana

● 1865 - Battle of Bentonville ends, last Confederate effort to stop Sherman

● 1866 - Congress authorizes national soldiers' homes

● 1867 - Florenz Ziegfeld, the theater producer who became known for glorifying American women, was born.

● 1871 - Otto von Bismarck is appointed Chancellor of the German Empire.

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

● 1885 - 2nd French government of Ferry resigns

● 1890 - Austrian Jewish communities are defined by law

● 1899 - British & French accord about West-Africa

● 1900 - In Chicago, following the death of its founder Dwight L. Moody, the Bible Institute for Home and Foreign Missions changed its name to Moody Bible Institute. The school has since become the model after which other learning institutions have patterned their curriculum.

● 1902 - In New York, three Park Avenue mansions were destroyed when a subway tunnel roof caved in.

● 1904 - The British Parliament vetoed a proposal to send Chinese workers to Transvaal.

● 1905 - Sterilization legislation was passed in the State of Pennsylvania. The governor vetoed the measure.

● 1906 - Ohio passed a law that prohibited hazing by fraternities after two fatalities.

● 1907 - The U.S. Marines landed in Honduras to "protect" American interests in the war with Nicaragua.

● 1907 - The first Parliament of Transvaal met in Pretoria.

● 1908 - A passenger was carried in a bi-plane for the first time by Henri Farman of France.

● 1909 - Russia withdrew its support for Serbia and recognized the Austrian annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Serbia accepted Austrian control over Bosnia-Herzegovina on March 31, 1909.

● 1910 - The U.S. Senate granted ex-President Teddy Roosevelt a yearly pension of $10,000.

● 1913 - Emile Maurin (1862-1913) (known as Elie Murmain) dies. French anarchist militant and photographer.

● 1913 - Flood in Ohio, kills 400

● 1916 - JP Van Limburg Stirum succeeds AWF Idenburg as Governor-General of Netherland Indies

● 1917 - 1st female US Navy Petty Officer is Loretta Walsh

● 1918 - World War I: Second Battle of the Somme begins.

● 1919 - Twenty-two Puerto Ricans killed in demonstrations for independence from U.S.

● 1919 - Hungary - Insurrection of the Councils with the participation of the anarchists in the commune of Budapest. The Communists will seize power in the new Republic and repress the revolutionists before being swept in their turn, at the beginning of August, by the reactionary armies of Czechoslovakia and Rumania. The latter occupy Budapest.

● 1919 - The Chinese High School is established in Singapore by Tan Kah Kee.

● 1923 - US foreign minister Charles Hughes refuses USSR recognition

● 1925 - Iran adopts Khorshidi solar Hijrah calendar

● 1927 - Beginning of the Shanghai Commune, which lasts three weeks until it is crushed by Chiang Kai-shek's nationalist troops (aided by Russian arms, advisors, and money).

● 1928 - U.S. President Calvin Coolidge gave the Congressional Medal of Honor to Charles Lindbergh for his first trans-Atlantic flight.

● 1933 - Hitler, Göring, Prince Ruprecht, Brüning & top army meet in Berlin

● 1933 - Dachau, the first Nazi Germany concentration camp, is completed.

● 1934 - Fire destroys Hakodate Japan, killing about 1,500

● 1935 - Incubator ambulance service began in Chicago, IL.

● 1935 - Shah Reza Pahlavi formally asked the international community to call Persia by its native name, Iran, which means 'Land of the Aryans'.

● 1937 - Ponce massacre, police kill 19 at Puerto Rican Nationalist parade

● 1939 - Nazi-Germany demands Gdansk (Danzig) from Poland

● 1940 - Paul Reynaud becomes Prime Minister of France.

● 1941 - The last Italian post in East Libya, North Africa, fell to the British.

● 1942 - Convoy QP9 departs Great Britain to Murmansk

● 1942 - Heavy German assault on Malta

● 1943 - Assassination attempt on Hitler fails

● 1943 - British 8th army opens assault on Mareth line, Tunisia

● 1943 - Massacre of the town of Kalavryta, Greece by German Nazi troops.

● 1944 - General Eisenhower postpones southern France invasion until after Normandy

● 1945 - 1st Japanese flying bombs (ochas) attack Okinawa

● 1945 - During WWII Allied bombers begin 4-day raid over Germany

● 1945 - Dutch Resistance fighter Hannie Schaft arrested by Nazi police

● 1945 - World War II: British troops liberate Mandalay, Burma.

● 1946 - UN set up temporary HQ at Hunter (now Lehman) College (Bronx)

● 1947 - Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Fulgens radiatur

● 1947 - President Truman signs Executive Order 9835 requiring all federal employees to have allegiance to the United States

● 1951 - 2,900,000 US soldiers in Korea

● 1952 - Tornadoes in Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Mississippi, Alabama & Kentucky cause 343 deaths

● 1955 - Archbishop Makarios of Cyprus desires Cyprus joining Greece

● 1958 - USSR performs atmospheric nuclear test

● 1960 - Sharpeville Massacre - South African police kill 89 protesters in Sharpeville and other towns during protests of apartheid pass laws. In Sharpeville itself, 69 were killed and 176 wounded when police opened fire on an unarmed crowd, 63 of them shot in the back. Overall, 13,000 were jailed.

● 1962 - A bear becomes the 1st creature to be ejected at supersonic speeds

● 1962 - Dutch Roman Catholic bishop Beckers of Bosch makes TV speech in Netherlands in favor of birth control

● 1963 - Train drives itself; The first automatic train on the London underground could be hurtling into stations in three weeks, the government has revealed.

● 1963 - Alcatraz, the world's most secure prison, closes. Only one man ever escaped the island in San Francisco Bay in 30 years -- only to be arrested when reaching the mainland.

● 1965 - Ranger program: NASA launches Ranger 9 which is the last in a series of unmanned lunar space probes. Takes 5,814 pictures before lunar impact.

● 1965 - The Rev. 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.

● 1966 - Supreme Court reverses Massachusetts ruling that "Fanny Hill" is obscene

● 1968 - Battle of Karameh in Jordan between Israeli Defense Forces and Fatah.

● 1968 - Portuguese socialist Mario Soares banished to Sao Tomé

● 1969 - Proctor & Gamble Company accidentally ejects 5,000 gallons of soybean oil into the Chicago River, reducing the local percentage of dissolved oxygen (necessary for marine life respiration) to zero.

● 1969 - John & Yoko stage their 1st bed-in for peace (Amsterdam Hilton)

● 1969 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 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.

● 1971 - Following a high-speed chase, a Seattle police officer shoots and kills black suspect Leslie Allen Black. An inquest later finds the shooting "unjustified."

● 1971 - Two U.S. platoons in Vietnam refused their orders to advance.

● 1971 - Vermont seasonal snowfall totals 132.2"

● 1972 - US Supreme Court rules states can't require 1-year residency to vote

● 1975 - Ethiopia ends monarchy after 3000 years

● 1977 - Menominee activists take over courthouse in Kenosha, Wisconsin, demanding authorities investigate the beating of two women.

● 1979 - Egyptian Parliament unanimously approve peace treaty with Israel

● 1980 - Five hundred fifty women gather at Amherst, Massachusetts, for the Women and Life on Earth Conference.

● 1980 - US President Jimmy Carter announces a United States boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan.

● 1981 - West Germany - Demonstrations erupting into violence involving young people -- most in sympathy with squatters -- angry with authority, in 19 cities.

● 1982 - Ten thousand women and men demonstrate at cruise missile base, Greenham Common, Berkshire, Britain.

● 1984 - EEC summit collapses over rebate row; Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher comes under attack for the breakdown of negotiations at the European Economic Community common market summit in Brussels.

● 1984 - Soviet sub crashes into USS aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk off Japan

● 1985 - The Association of International Mission Services was founded in Dallas. A trans-denominational organization, AIMS promotes the work of foreign missions among independent Pentecostal and charismatic churches.

● 1985 - In Langa, South Africa, at least 21 demonstrators were killed at a march to mark the 25th anniversary of the Sharpeville shootings.

● 1985 - Canadian paraplegic athlete and humanitarian Rick Hansen begins his circumnavigation in a wheelchair in the name of spinal cord injury medical research.

● 1988 - François-Charles Carpentier dies. French militant anarchist.

● 1989 - Randall Dale Adams was released from a Texas prison after his conviction was overturned. The documentary "The Thin Blue Line" had challenged evidence of Adams' conviction for killing a police officer.

● 1990 - Ploughshares Two disable U.S. F-111 bomber, Upper Heyford, Britain.

● 1990 - Namibia becomes independent after 75 years of South African rule.

● 1991 - Heseltine unveils new property tax; The government has revealed plans for a new property tax in place of the controversial poll tax.

● 1991 - 27 lost at sea when 2 US Navy anti-submarine planes collide

● 1991 - UN Security Council panel decided to lift the food embargo on Iraq

● 1993 - Pope John Paul II declares Duns Scotus, a saint

● 1993 - South Africa White Wolves kill 5 year old black girl

● 1995 - The state of Mississippi ratifies the thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, outlawing slavery. {Its hard to believe that it this long, I was always taught that acceptance of this Amendment was needed to be readmitted to the Union after the Civil War.}

● 1995 - South Africa - On the anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre, newly elected democratic government establishes today as Human Rights Day.

● 1995 - Tokyo police raided the headquarters of Aum Shinrikyo in search of evidence to link the cult to the Sarin gas released on five Tokyo subway trains.

● 1999 - Comedy genius Ernie Wise dies; One of Britain's most loved and most successful comedians, Ernie Wise, dies aged 73.

● 1999 - Israel's Supreme Court rejected the final effort to have American Samuel Sheinbein returned to the U.S. to face murder charges for killing Alfred Tello, Jr. Under a plea bargain Sheinbein was sentenced to 24 years in prison.

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

● 2000 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had overstepped its regulatory authority when it attempted to restrict the marketing of cigarettes to youngsters.

● 2002 - In Pakistan, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh was charged with murder for his role in the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pear. Three other Islamic militants that were in custody were also charged along with seven more accomplices that were still at large.

● 2002 - British schoolgirl Amanda Dowler is abducted in broad daylight on her way home from school in Surrey.

● 2004 - In Malaysia, the 11th Federal and State elections are held, returning the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional to power with an increased majority.

● 2005 - Armed with a new law rushed through Congress and signed by President George W. Bush, the attorney for Terri Schiavo's parents pleaded with a judge to order the brain-damaged woman's feeding tube re-inserted. (The judge later refused.)

● 2005 - In Red Lake, Minnesota, 10 are killed in a school shooting, the worst since the Columbine High School massacre.

BIRTHS

● 1471 - St. Nicholas of Flue, Swiss hermit and folk hero (d. 1487)

● 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)

● 1854 - Alick Bannerman, Australian cricketer (d. 1924)

● 1857 - Alice Henry, Australian journalist; promoted women's suffrage and social reform (d. 1943)

● 1863 - George Owen Squier, American inventor and Major General in U.S. Signal Corp(d.1934)

● 1869(67? NYT) - Florenz Ziegfeld, theater producer (d. 1932)

● 1876(78? NYT) - John Tewksbury, American athlete (d. 1968)

● 1877 - Maurice Farman, French aircraft designer and manufacturer (d. 1964)

● 1880 - Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, American actor (d. 1971)

● 1889 - Jock Sutherland, Scottish-born American collegiate and professional football coach (d. 1948)

● 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)

● 1904 - Nikolaos Skalkottas, Greek composer (d. 1949)

● 1905 - Phyllis McGinley, American poet, writer and author of juvenile books (d. 1978)

● 1906 - John D. Rockefeller III, American philanthropist (d. 1978)

● 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)

● 1922 - Mujibur Rahman, Prime Minister of Bangladesh (d. 1975)

● 1923 - Nizar Qabbani, Syrian diplomat and poet (d. 1998)

● 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

● 1936 - Mike Westbrook, British jazz composer, bandleader and pianist

● 1939 - Kathleen Widdoes, Actress (''As the World Turns'')

● 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)

● 1944 - Marie-Christine Barrault, Actress

● 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 of Supertramp

● 1951 - Conrad Lozano, Rock musician (Los Lobos)

● 1951 - Russell Thompkins Jr., R&B singer (The Stylistics)

● 1951 - Stephen Johnson, EPA administrator

● 1956 - Ingrid Kristiansen, Norwegian runner

● 1958 - Sabrina Le Beauf, American actress (''The Cosby Show'')

● 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

● 1964 - Ahmed Radhi, Iraqi international football star

● 1967 - Jonas "Joker" Berggren, Swedish musician (Ace of Base)

● 1967 - Maxim Reality, British MC (The Prodigy)

● 1968 - Andrew Copeland, Rock musician (Sister Hazel)

● 1968(69? NYT) - DJ Premier (Preemo), hip hop producer

● 1969 - Ali Daei, Iranian footballer

● 1972 - Chris Candido, professional wrestler (d. 2005)

● 1973 - Ananda Lewis, American model and television personality

● 1974 - Laura Allen, Actress

● 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 - Rani Mukherjee, Bollywood actress of Indian origin

● 1978 - Cristian Guzmán, baseball player

● 1980 - Ronaldinho Gaucho, Brazilian current international footballer (Ranked best Brazillian Footballer)

● 1980 - Marit Bjørgen, Norwegian cross-country skier

● 1980 - Deryck Whibley, Canadian guitarist and singer (Sum41)

● 1982 - Aaron Hill, American baseball player

DEATHS

● 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)

● 1980 - Peter Stoner, American mathematician, astronomer and Christian apologist (b. 1888)

● 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)

● 2003 - Umar Wirahadikusumah, Fourth Vice President of Indonesia (b. 1924)

● 2005 - Barney Martin, American actor (b. 1923)

● 2005 - Bobby Short, American singer (b. 1924)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Benedict, abbot
● St. Birillus
● St. Enda
● St. Lupicinus
● St. Nicholas of Flue
● Sts. Philemon and Domnin
● St. Serapion the Scholastic
● Bl. Clementia of Hohenberg

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for March 8 (Civil Date: March 21)
● St. Theophylactus, Bishop of Nicomedia.
● St. Dometius, monk.
● Hieromartyr Theodoretus of Antioch.
● Apostle Hermas of the Seventy.
● Saints Lazarus and Athanasius, monks of Murmansk.

● Greek Calendar:
● St. Paul of Plusias, confessor.
● Martyr Dio.

● Anglican:
● Thomas Ken, bishop of Bath & Wells

● Wicca : Alban Eilir sabbat

● Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq : Nawroz (Persian New Year)

● Iowa : Bird Day

● Harmony Day in Australia.

● US : National Agriculture Day (1981)

● World : Earth Day (most years)

● World : International Day For Elimination of Racial Discrimination

● China: Chunfen.

● Egypt: Mother's Day

● Japan: Vernal Equinox Day (public holiday).

● Namibia : Independence Day (1990)

● Benito Juárez Day, a Fiesta Patria in Mexico.

● Poland: Truant's Day

● South Africa: Human Rights Day.

● Traditional date of vernal equinox, used for reckoning Easter also called the Pascal equinox. Easter is determined to be the first Sunday after the first full moon after this day. The real equinox varies between years.

● 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. Feast of Naw-Rúz (New Year) (Bahá 1) [year=Gregorian-1843]

● Ostara - Neopagan festival of Ostara.

● World Poetry Day - UNESCO

● International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination - United Nations.

● World Down Syndrome Day

● Lebanon: Mother's Day


Click on this LINK to see original Wikipedia list with many having links with details.

Additional facts taken from:

On this day in the New York Times

The BBC’s Take on the day

On This Day Website

Geov Parrish's this Day in Radical History, things that happened on this day that you never had to memorize in school.

Scope Systems Any Day Website

Roman Catholic Saint of the Day

Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar

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