Daily Calendar for March 15th, 2021

The Old Farmer's Almanac daily calendar gives you quick reference for the significant events on any day throughout the year.

Orthodox Lent Begins

On this day, Great Lent begins in the Eastern Orthodox Catholic Church; it always falls on the 7th Monday before Orthodox Easter. Also called Clean Monday or Pure Monday, this religious observance is a day of fasting and spiritual purification and reflection, similar to Ash Wednesday of the Western Church. The first week of Great Lent is also called Pure Week. Great Lent lasts for 40 days and ends on Lazarus Saturday, the day before Orthodox Palm Sunday. The next week is Holy Week, and ends on Easter, the day of Christ's resurrection.

Every Year

• Died : 44BC Emperor Julius Caesar assassinated

• Maine: Admission Day

• Ides of March

• Andrew Jackson Day (Tenn.)

1720s

• 1729: Sister St. Stanislas Hachard became the first Catholic nun ordained in America

1760s

• Born 1767: Andrew Jackson (7th U.S. president)

1810s

• Born 1813: John Snow (physician)

1820s

• 1820: Maine was admitted to the Union as the 23rd state

1850s

• Born 1858: Liberty Hyde Bailey (botanist)

1870s

• 1875: Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York, John McCloskey, was named the first American Cardinal by Pope Pius IX

1880s

• Born 1887: Marjorie Merriweather Post (businesswoman)

1890s

• 1892: The first escalator was patented by inventor Jesse W. Reno of New York City

1910s

• 1913: Woodrow Wilson held the first presidential press conference after being in office for only 11 days

• Born 1916: Harry James (trumpet player)

• 1916: U.S. troops entered Mexico in futile search for revolutionary bandit Pancho Villa

• 1919: The American Legion founded by war veterans in Paris

1920s

• Born 1926: Norm Van Brocklin (football player)

1930s

• Born 1935: Judd Hirsch (actor)

1940s

• 1940: The first motion picture, My Little Chickadee, featuring both Mae West and W.C. Fields, was released

• Born 1941: Phil Lesh (rock bass guitarist)

• Born 1941: Mike Love (singer)

• Born 1944: Sly Stone (musician)

• 1945: The King Cole Trio led by Nat King Cole had the first #1 LP on the first Billboard magazine top-selling record album chart

• Born 1947: Ry Cooder (guitarist & composer)

1950s

• 1956: Lerner and Loewe's play My Fair Lady started what became a 2,717-performance run in New York

1960s

• 1960: Police in Orangeburg, SC, arrested more than 350 African Americans as sit-in demonstrations and sporadic racial violence spread throughout the South

• 1962: Basketball star Wilt Chamberlain scored his 4,000th point of the season, averaging 50.4 points per game

• 1964: Actress Elizabeth Taylor married Richard Burton (for the first time) on the 8th floor of the Ritz-Carlton in Montreal

1970s

• 1971: U.S. government eased restrictions on travel to China by U.S. citizens50 Years Ago

• 1972: The film The Godfather premiered in New York City

• Born 1975: Eva Longoria (actress)

• Died 1975: Aristotle Onassis (shipping magnate)

• Born 1979: Kevin Youkilis (baseball player)

1980s

• Born 1983: Sean Biggerstaff (actor)

• Born 1989: Caitlin Wachs (actress)

1990s

• 1994: Martin Buser captured his second Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in the record time of 10 days, 13 hours, 2 minutes and 39 seconds

• 1994: Highway line painting apparatus patented

• Died 1998: Dr. Benjamin Spock (pediatrician)

2000s

• Died 2002: Sylvester "Pat" Weaver (creator of NBC's Today and Tonight shows)

• Died 2009: Ron Silver (actor)

2010s

• 2011: Due to President Barack Obama's presidential proclamation (issued on February 28, 2011), flags were flown at half mast on this day of the internment of Army Corporal Frank W. Buckles, the last surviving American veteran of World War I, and in remembrance of the generation of American veterans of World War I