March 21

is the 80^th 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.

Events

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.

Births

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)
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
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
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)

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)
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)
2005 - Barney Martin, American actor (b. 1923)
2005 - Bobby Short, American singer (b. 1924)

Holidays and observances

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 Day

Liturgical feasts

External links