Calendar for March 21st, 2013

Independence Day (Namibia)

International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

2001: Mothering Sunday

2008: Full Worm Moon

Died 1617: Pocahontas (Rebecca Rolfe)

1621: Last Mayflower passenger came ashore at Plymouth, Massachusetts

Born 1685: Johann Sebastian Bach (composer; Old Style date)

1790: Thomas Jefferson reported to President Washington in NY as the new Secretary of State

Born 1839: Modest Mussorgsky (composer)

1868: Jane Croly organized first club for professional women, Sorosis, in New York City

Born 1869: Florenz Ziegfeld (theatrical producer)

1871: Journalist Henry M. Stanley began his famous expedition into Africa to locate the missing Scottish missionary, David Livingstone

1918: World War I Second Battle of the Somme, one of the bloodiest in history, began in France

Born 1929: Jules Bergman (newsman)

Born 1929: James Coco (actor)

1946: United Nations established temporary headquarters in New York City, at Hunter College

Born 1946: Timothy Dalton (actor)

1952: DJ Alan Freed hosted the first rock-n-roll concert, Cleveland, Ohio. Reportedly, 25,000 people showed up, though only 10,000 seats were available

Born 1958: Gary Oldman (actor)

1960: Sharpeville Massacre took place in S. Africa when blacks besieged Johannesburg police station protesting law requiring all blacks to carry papers

Born 1960: Ayrton Senna (race car driver)

Born 1962: Rosie O'Donnell (comedienne & actress)

Born 1962: Matthew Broderick (actor)

1963: The federal prison on Alcatraz Island, California, closed after 29 years of operation

1965: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led thousands of civil rights demonstrators on a 50+ mile walk from Selma to Montgomery, AL, demanding voting rights for African Americans

1986: U.S. figure skater Debi Thomas became the first African American woman to win the world's championship, Geneva, Switzerland

1989: After 33 years, Dick Clark announced he was stepping down as host of American Bandstand

Died 1994: Macdonald Carey (actor)

1994: Former NBA star Michael Jordan was dropped from the White Sox major league baseball roster and sent to minor league spring training camp

Died 2002: Rabbi Israel Miller (leader of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany)

Died 2002: Herman Talmadge (governor & U.S. senator)

Died 2004: Ludmilla Tcherina (French-artist & ballet star)

Died 2004: Johnny Bristol (producer, songwriter, & singer)

Died 2005: Barney Martin (actor)

Died 2006: Bernard Lacoste (head of fashion company best known for its crocodile-crested polo shirts)