Daily Calendar for March 28th, 2021

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

Palm Sunday

This Christian observance falls on the Sunday before Easter and is the sixth and last Sunday of Lent, which began on Ash Wednesday. The beginning of Holy Week, Palm Sunday marks the day when Christ rode into Jerusalem a week before his death and resurrection and was greeted by its people, who strewed cloaks and tree branches along his path to honor him as their king. This event is known as the Triumphal Entry. Nowadays, Palm Sunday service often includes the blessing of palm leaves (or substitute branches from yews, willows, or other plants) before a procession into or in the church, after which hymns are sung and readings that focus on Christ’s final week are given. In many Christian denominations, palm fronds are burned at the end of the service; the ashes are saved for use on the next Ash Wednesday. Palm Sunday is also called Passion, Branch, Yew, Willow, Blossom, or Fig Sunday, as well as Flower Day and several other names.

1380s

• 1384: Cat eating condemned by England's Richard II

1670s

• Born 1674: William Byrd (satirist)

1830s

• 1834: The U.S. Senate voted to censure President Jackson for the removal of federal deposits from the Bank of the U.S.

1890s

• 1891: First world weightlifting championships held in London

• Born 1899: August Anheuser Busch Jr. (brewer)

1900s

• Born 1903: Rudolf Serkin (pianist)

• Born 1905: Marlin Perkins (zookeeper)

• Born 1909: Nelson Algren (novelist)

1910s

• Born 1914: Edmund Muskie (politician)

• 1915: Emma Goldman gave a shocking speech (on contraception) to an audience in NYC. She was arrested and given a choice of paying a $100 fine or going to jail for 15 days. She chose jail

1920s

• 1920: Mary Pickford married Douglas Fairbanks

• Born 1924: Freddie Bartholomew (actor)

1940s

• Born 1948: Dianne Wiest (actress)

1950s

• 1951: U.S. and U.N. officials signed an agreement permitting the U.N. to issue its own postage stamps

• Born 1955: Reba McEntire (country singer)

1960s

• 1964: Tsunami struck Port Alberni, British Columbia

• 1968: The rock musical Hair opened at the Biltmore Theater in New York City

• Died 1969: Dwight D. Eisenhower (34th U.S. president)

1970s

• Born 1970: Vince Vaughn (actor)

• 1973: Basketball's Wilt Chamberlain played his last professional game. In 14 years, 1,045 games, he never fouled out of a game

• 1977: Rocky, starring Sylvester Stallone, won the Academy Award for Best Picture

• 1979: Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in southeastern PA seriously malfunctioned, raising fears of a meltdown of the reactor's core, causing the evacuation of thousands and creating widespread concern about the safety of such facilities

1980s

• Born 1981: Julia Stiles (actress)

• 1982: El Chichon volcano in Mexico began series of eruptions, killing and injuring hundreds

• 1983: Mt. Kilauea, Hawaii, erupted

• Born 1986: Lady Gaga (entertainer)

• Died 1987: Maria von Trapp (singer)

1990s

• 1993: Russian President Boris Yeltsin claimed victory after surviving attempts by the Russian Congress to depose him

• Died 1994: Eugene Ionesco (playwright)

2000s

• Died 2004: Peter Ustinov (actor, playwright, novelist, & director)

• Died 2004: Art James (television game show host and announcer)

• 2005: A major earthquake struck off the west coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra island

2010s

• Died 2013: Richard Griffiths (actor)

• Died 2016: James Noble (actor)

• Died 2016: Peggy Fortnum (illustrator)