Today is Tuesday, March 21, 2017 the 80th day of the year with 285 days remaining.
- Sunrise: 7:11am
- Sunset: 7:23pm
...giving us 12 hours and 12 minutes of daylight. 48% of the waning moon will be visible, setting at 1:11pm
Tides at the Golden Gate
- High: 6:31am/9:10pm
- Low: 12:50am/1:35pm
Special international celebrations today…
- Anniversary of Installation of Sultan of Terengganu - Malaysia
- Human Rights Day - South Africa
- Independence Day - Namibia
- International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
- Mother's Day - Egypt, Syria
- National Tree Planting Day - Lesotho
- New Year's Day - (Navrus in Tajikistan, Nawroz in Afghanistan, Nevruz in Albania, Nooruz in Iran &
- Kyrgyzstan, Nov Ruz in Bairam & Turkmenistan
- Spring Day - Iraq
- Spring Season Opens - Switzerland
- Youth Day - Tunisia
It’s also…
- World Down Syndrome Day
- Common Courtesy Day
- French Bread Day
- California Strawberry Day
- National Agriculture Day
- International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
- International Day of Forests and The Tree
- Memory Day
- National Renewable Energy Day
- National Single Parent Day
- Poetry Day
- Spring Fairy Fun Day
- Twitter Day
On this day in…
1349 - 3,000 Jews were killed in Black Death riots in Efurt Germany.
1556 - Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was burned at the stake at Oxford after retracting the last of seven recantations that same day.
1788 - Almost the entire city of New Orleans,LA, was destroyed by fire. 856 buildings were destroyed.
1790 - Thomas Jefferson reported to U.S. President George Washington as the new secretary of state.
1804 - The French civil code, the Code Napoleon, was adopted.
1824 - A fire at a Cairo ammunitions dump killed 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 theU.S.
1835 - Charles Darwin & Mariano Gonzales met at Portillo Pass.
1851 - Emperor Tu Duc ordered that Christian priests be put to death.
1851 - Yosemite Valley was discovered inCalifornia.
1857 - An earthquake hit Tokyo killing about 107,000.
1858 - British forces in India lift the siege of Lucknow, ending the Indian Mutiny.
1859 - In Philadelphia, the first Zoological Society was incorporated.
1868 - The Sorosos club for professional women was formed in New York City by Jennie June. It was the first of its kind.
1871 - Journalist Henry M Stanley began his famous expedition to Africa.
1902 - Romain Roland's play "The 4th of July" premiered in Paris.
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 ofPennsylvania. The governor vetoed the measure.
1906 -Ohio passed a law that prohibited hazing by fraternities after two fatalities.
1907 - TheU.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 - TheU.S. Senate granted ex-President Teddy Roosevelt a yearly pension of $10,000.
1918 - During World War I, the Germans launched the Somme Offensive.
1925 - The state ofTennessee enacted the Butler Act. It was a law that made it a crime for a teacher in any state-supported public school to teach any theory that was in contradiction to the Bible's account of man's creation.
1928 -U.S. President Calvin Coolidge gave the Congressional Medal of Honor to Charles Lindbergh for his first trans-Atlantic flight.
1934 - A fire destroyed Hakodate, Japan, killing about 1,500.
1935 - Incubator ambulance service began in Chicago,IL.
1941 - The last Italian post in East Libya, North Africa, fell to the British.
1945 - During World War II, Allied bombers began four days of raids over Germany.
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 United Nations set up a temporary headquarters at Hunter College in New York City.
1953 - TheBoston Celtics beatSyracuse 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.
1955 - NBC-TV presented the first "Colgate Comedy Hour".
1957 - Shirley Booth made her TV acting debut in "The Hostess with the Mostest" on CBS.
1960 - About 70 people were killed in Sharpeville, South Africa, when police fired upon demonstrators.
1963 - Alcatraz Island, the federal penitentiary in San Francisco Bay,CA, closed.
1965 - TheU.S. launched Ranger 9. It was the last in a series of unmanned lunar explorations.
1965 - More than 3,000 civil rights demonstrators led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. began a march from Selma to Montgomery,AL.
1966 - In New York, demolition work began to clear thirteen square blocks for the construction of the original World Trade Center.
1971 - TwoU.S. platoons in Vietnam refused their orders to advance.
1972 - TheU.S. Supreme Court ruled that states could not require one year of residency for voting eligibility.
1974 - An attempt was made to kidnap Princess Anne in London's Pall Mall.
1980 -U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced to theU.S. Olympic Team that they would not participate in the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow as a boycott against Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.
1980 - On the TV show "Dallas", J.R. Ewing was shot.
1982 - The movie "Annie" premiered.
1982 - The United States, U.K. and other Western countries condemned the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.
1984 - A Soviet submarine crashed into the USS Kitty Hawk off the coast of Japan.
1985 - Larry Flynt offered to sell his pornography empire for $26 million or "Hustler" magazine alone for $18 million.
1985 - Police in Langa, South Africa, opened fire on blacks marching to mark the 25th anniversary of the Sharpeville shootings. At least 21 demonstrators were killed.
1989 - Randall Dale Adams was released from aTexas prison after his conviction was overturned. The documentary "The Thin Blue Line" had challenged evidence of Adams' conviction for killing a police officer.
1990 - "Normal Life" with Moon Unit & Dweezil Zappa premiered on CBS-TV.
1990 - Australian businessman Alan Bond sold Van Gogh's "Irises" to the Gerry Museum. Bond had purchased the painting for $53.9 million in 1987.
1990 - "Sydney" starring Valerie Bertinelli premiered on CBS-TV.
1990 - Namibia became independent of South Africa.
1991 - 27 people were lost at sea when twoU.S. Navy anti-submarine planes collided.
1991 - The U.N. Security Council lifted the food embargo against Iraq.
1994 - Dudley Moore was arrested for hitting his girlfriend.
1994 - Steven Spielberg won his first Oscars. They were for best picture and best director for "Schindler's List."
1994 -Wayne Gretzky tiedGordie Howe's NHL record of 801 goals.
1994 - Bill Gates of Microsoft and Craig McCaw of McCaw Cellular Communications announced a $9 billion plan that would send 840 satellites into orbit to relay information around the globe.
1995 -New Jersey officially dedicated the Howard Stern Rest Area along Route 295.
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 - Israel's Supreme Court rejected the final effort to have American Samuel Sheinbein returned to theU.S. to face murder charges for killing Alfred Tello, Jr. Under a plea bargain Sheinbein was sentenced to 24 years in prison.
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.
2001 -Nintendo released Game Boy Advance.
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 - In Paris, an 1825 print by French inventor Joseph Nicephore Niepce was sold for $443,220. The print, of a man leading a horse, was the earliest recorded image taken by photographic means.
2003 - It was reported that the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 235.27 (2.8%) at 8,521.97. It was the strongest weekly gain in more than 20 years.
2016 - It was reported that the Kepler space telescope had captured the visible light of a "shock breakout" when the star KSN 2011a exploded. It was the first time an exploding star's brilliant flash shockwave had been captured.
Today’s birthday celebrants include (or included)...
- Johann Sebastian Bach 1685
- Benito Juarez 1806
- James Jesse Strang 1813
- Modest Mussorgsky 1839
- Florenz Ziegfeld 1869
- Albert Khan 1869 - Architect
- Bascom Lunsford 1882
- Phyllis McGinley 1905
- Julio Gallo 1910
- Fonty Flock (Truman Fontello) 1921
- Mort Lindsey 1923
- James Coco 1929
- Joseph Silverstein 1932 - Violinist, conductor
- Al Freeman, Jr. 1934 - Actor
- Kathleen Widdoes 1939 - Actress ("As the World Turns")
Timothy Dalton 1944 - Actor
Marie-Christine Barrault 1944 - Actress
Rose Stone 1945 - Musician (Sly & the Family Stone)
Bill Plummer 1947
Eddie Money 1949 - Singer
Roger Hodgson 1950 - Musician (Supertramp)
Conrad Lozano 1951 - Musician (Los Lobos)
Russell Thompkins, Jr. 1951 - Singer (The Stylistics)
Gary Oldman 1958 - Actor
Sabrina LeBeauf 1958 - Actress ("The Cosby Show")
Robert Sweet 1960 - Musician (Stryper)
Rosie O'Donnell 1962 - Comedian, actress
Matthew Broderick 1962 - Actor
Cynthia Geary 1966
Maxim 1967 - MC (Prodigy)
Jonas "Joker" Berggren 1967 - Musician (Ace of Base)
Andrew Copeland 1968 - Musician (Sister Hazel)
DJ Premier 1969 - DJ (Gang Starr)
Ronaldinho 1980 - Soccer player
Adrian Peterson 1985 - Football player
