Today is Tuesday, March 21, the 80th day of 2023. There are 285 days left in the year. Summer arrives in 92 days (June 21, 2023). There are 191 days until fall (September 23, 2023).
Here are some notable events in history on this day — some that still have an impact on us:
In 1935, Persia officially changed its name to Iran.
In 1945, during World War II, Allied bombers began four days of raids over Germany.
In 1952, the Moondog Coronation Ball, considered the first rock and roll concert, took place at Cleveland Arena.
In 1965, civil rights demonstrators led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. began their third, successful march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
In 1990, Namibia became an independent nation as the former colony marked the end of 75 years of South African rule.
In 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.”
In 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.
In 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.
In 2022, a China Eastern Boeing 737-800 with 132 people on board crashed in a mountainous area of southern China, setting off a forest fire visible from space in the country’s worst air disaster in nearly a decade.(All 123 passengers and nine crew members would later be confirmed dead.
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Today’s Birthdays: Actor Kathleen Widdoes is 84. Songwriter Chip Taylor (“Wild Thing”) is 83. Folk-pop singer-musician Keith Potger (The Seekers) is 82. Actor Marie-Christine Barrault is 79. Singer-musician Rose Stone (Sly and the Family Stone) is 78. Actor Timothy Dalton is 77. Singer Ray Dorset (Mungo Jerry) is 77. Rock singer-musician Roger Hodgson (Supertramp) is 73. Rock musician Conrad Lozano (Los Lobos) is 72. R&B singer Russell Thompkins Jr. is 72. Comedy writer-performer Brad Hall is 65. Actor Sabrina LeBeauf is 65. Actor Gary Oldman is 65. Actor Kassie Depaiva is 62. Actor Matthew Broderick is 61. Comedian-actor Rosie O’Donnell is 61. Actor Cynthia Geary is 58. Hip-hop DJ Premier (Gang Starr) is 57. Rock musician Jonas “Joker” Berggren (Ace of Base) is 56. Rock MC Maxim (Prodigy) is 56. Rock musician Andrew Copeland (Sister Hazel) is 55. Actor Laura Allen is 49. Rapper-TV personality Kevin Federline is 45. Actor Sonequa Martin-Green (TV: “The Walking Dead”) is 38. Actor Scott Eastwood is 37. Tennis player Karolina Pliskova is 31. Actor Jasmin Savoy Brown is 29. Actor Forrest Wheeler is 19.
