Born on this Day in 1897: Martha Foley, created magazine “Story” in 1932 with her husband Whit Burnett, edited the annual “The Best American Short Stories” (1941-77) including entries by Eudora Welty, Joyce Carol Oates, and John Updike She died in 1977.

If today is your birthday, Happy Birthday To You! You share this day with…

1685 – Johann Sebastian Bach, German Baroque composer and musician (d. 1750)

1806 – Benito Juárez, Mexican lawyer and politician, 25th President of Mexico (d. 1872)

1839 – Modest Mussorgsky, Russian pianist and composer (d. 1881)

1902 – Son House, American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1988)

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

1910 – Julio Gallo, American businessman, co-founded E & J Gallo Winery (d. 1993)

1916 – Bismillah Khan, Indian shehnai player (d. 2006)

1922 – Russ Meyer, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2004)

1930 – James Coco, American actor (d. 1987)

1930 – Otis Spann, American blues pianist, singer and composer (d. 1970)

1936 – Ed Broadbent, Canadian pilot and politician

1940 – Solomon Burke, American singer-songwriter (d. 2010)

1944 – David Lindley, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer

1949 – Eddie Money, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

1949 – Slavoj Žižek, Slovenian sociologist, philosopher, and academic

1958 – Gary Oldman, English actor, filmmaker, musician and author

1962 – Matthew Broderick, American actor

1962 – Rosie O'Donnell, American actress, producer, and talk show host

1970 – Cenk Uygur, Turkish-American political activist

…and on this day in history…

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.

1871 – Journalist Henry Morton Stanley begins his trek to find the missionary and explorer David Livingstone.

1925 – The Butler Act prohibits the teaching of human evolution in Tennessee.

1928 – Charles Lindbergh is presented with the Medal of Honor for the first solo trans-Atlantic flight.

1935 – Shah of Iran Reza Shah Pahlavi formally asks the international community to call Persia by its native name, Iran.

1946 – The Los Angeles Rams sign Kenny Washington, making him the first African American player in the American football since 1933.

1952 – Alan Freed presents the Moondog Coronation Ball, the first rock and roll concert, in Cleveland, Ohio.

1960 – Apartheid: Sharpeville massacre, South Africa: Police open fire on a group of black South African demonstrators, killing 69 and wounding 180.

1963 – Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary (in California) closes.

1965 – Dr. 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

1970 – The first Earth Day proclamation is issued by Joseph Alioto, Mayor of San Francisco.

1980 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces a United States boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet–Afghan War.

1986 – Debi Thomas became the first African American to win the World Figure Skating Championships

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

1994 – The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change enters into force.

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

2006 – The social media site Twitter is founded.

2009 – Four police officers are shot and killed and a fifth is wounded in two shootings at Oakland, California.

Almanac - Thursday 3/21/19

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