March 21

Birthdays:

1958 ~ Brad Hall (né William Brad Hall), American comedian and screenwriter.  He is married to Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

1958 ~ Gary Leonard Oldman, British actor.

1946 ~ Timothy Dalton, Welsh actor best known for his portrayal of James Bond.

1932 ~ Walter Gilbert, American chemist and recipient of the 1980 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  He was born in Boston, Massachusetts.

1924 ~ Dov Shilansky (d. Dec. 9, 2010), Israeli politician.  He died at age 86.

1920 ~ Éric Rohmer (né Maurice Henri Joseph Schérer, d. Jan. 11, 2010), French film director who specialized in art-house fare.  He died at age 89.

1913 ~ Guillermo Haro Barraza (d. Apr. 26, 1988), Mexican astronomer.  He was very influential in the development of astronomy in Mexico.  He died just a month after his 75^th birthday.

1910 ~ Julio Gallo (d. May 2, 1993), American vintner who, along with his brother, Ernest Gallo (1909-2007), founded the E&J Gallo Winery.  Julio was killed from injuries sustained in a single car crash.  He was 83 at the time of his death.

1905 ~ Phyllis McGinley (d. Feb. 22, 1978), American author and poet.  She wrote many children’s books.  She died a month before her 73^rd birthday.

1904 ~ Forrest Edward Mars, Sr. (d. July 1, 1999), American candy maker and creator of the Mars Bar and M&M’s.  He died at age 95.

1896 ~ Friedrich Waismann (d. Nov. 4, 1959), Austrian mathematician.  He died at age 63.

1885 ~ Pierre Renoir (d. Mar. 11, 1952), French actor and movie director.  He was the son of the impressionist painter, Pierre-Auguste Renoir.  He died 10 days before his 67^th birthday

1884 ~ George David Birkhoff (d. Nov. 12, 1944), American mathematician.  He died at age 60.

1867 ~ Florenz Edward Ziegfeld, Jr. (d. July 22, 1932), American theater producer.  He died of pleurisy at age 65.

1857 ~ Alice Henry (d. Feb. 14, 1943), Australian suffragist, journalist and trade unionist.  She died at age 85.

1839 ~ Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (d. Mar. 28, 1881), Russian composer.  He died 7 days after his 42^nd birthday.

1806 ~ Benito Juárez (d. July 18, 1872), President of Mexico.  He served as President from January 1858 until his death of a heart attack in July 1872.  He was 66 years old.

1768 ~ Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier (d. May 16, 1830), French mathematician.  He died at age 62.

1752 ~ Mary Dixon Kies (d. 1837), American inventor.  She received a patent for a new technique of weaving straw and silk.  She died at age 85, but the date of her death is not known.

1474 ~ Angela Merici (d. Jan. 27, 1540), Italian saint.  She founded the Company of St. Ursula, which was dedicated to the education of girls.  She died at age 65.

927 ~ Emperor Taizu of Song (d. Nov. 14, 976), Chinese emperor who was the founder and first emperor of the Song Dynasty.  He was Emperor from February 960 until his death in November 16 years later.  He died at age 49.

Events that Changed the World:

2006 ~ The social media site Twitter began.

2000 ~ Pope John Paul II (1920 ~ 2005) made his first visit to Israel.

1980 ~ The season finale of the TV show, Dallas, ended with a cliffhanger, when the evil protagonist, J.R. Ewing, played by Larry Hagman, was shot by an unknown assailant.  Viewers had to wait until the fall season to learn the identity of the shooter.

1980 ~ President Jimmy Carter (b. 1924) announced that the United States would boycott the 1980 summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan.

1970 ~ The first Earth Day proclamation was issued by the mayor of San Francisco.

1963 ~ Alcatraz, the federal penitentiary on Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay, closed.

1935 ~ Shah Reza Pahlavi (1878 ~ 1944) formally asked the international community to call his country Iran instead of Persia.  Iran means Land of the Aryans.

1933 ~ The construction of Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp was completed.

1925 ~ The Butler Act was passed, which prohibited the teaching of evolution in Tennessee.

1913 ~ The Great Dayton Flood in Dayton, Ohio killed over 360 people and destroyed 20,000 homes.

1871 ~ Henry Morton Stanley (1841 ~ 1904) began his trek into Africa to find missionary and explorer David Livingstone (1813 ~ 1873).

1871 ~ Otto von Bismarck (1815 ~ 1898) was appointed Chancellor of the German Empire.

1804 ~ The Code Napoléon was adopted as French Civil Law.

1788 ~ A fire in New Orleans left most of the city in ruins.

1152 ~ The marriage of King Louis VII of France (1120 ~ 1180) and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122 ~ 1204) was annulled on grounds of consanguinity within the fourth degree.

Good-Byes:

2017 ~ Chuck Barris (né Charles Hirsch Barris, b. June 3, 1929), American game show producer who embraced bad taste.  He is best remembered for hosting The Gong Show, and creating The Dating Game and The Newlywed Game.  He died of natural causes at age 87.

2015 ~ Chuck Bednarik (né Charles Philip Bednarik, b. May 1, 1925), American professional football player who epitomized football’s toughness.  He was known as the “60-Minute Man” because he played both offense and defense on a regular basis. He was 89 years old.

2013 ~ Chinua Achebe (né Albert Chinualumogu Achebe, b. Nov. 16, 1930), Nigerian novelist who gave post-colonial Africa a voice.  He is best known for his novel, Things Fall Apart.  He died at age 82.

2005 ~ Bobby Short (né Robert Waltrip Short, b. Sept. 15, 1924), American musician.  He died at age 80.

1991 ~ Leo Fender (né Clarence Leonidas Fender, b. Aug. 10, 1909), American businessman and founder of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation.  He died at age 81.

1987 ~ Robert Preston (né Robert Preston Meservey, b. June 8, 1918), American actor, best known for his role in The Music Man.  He died of lung cancer at age 68.

1985 ~ Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave (b. Mar. 20, 1908), English actor.  He died of Parkinson’s disease 1 day after his 77^th birthday.

1980 ~ Peter Stoner (b. June 16, 1888), American mathematician.  He died at age 91.

1943 ~ Cornelia Clarke Fort (b. Feb. 5, 1919), First American female pilot to be killed during US Military service.  She was 24 years old at the time of her death.

1843 ~ Guadalupe Victoria (né José Miguel Ramón Adaucto Fernández y Félix, b. Sept. 29, 1786), 1^st President of the United Mexican States.  He was President from October 1824 through March 1829.  He died of epilepsy at age 56.

1617 ~ Pocahontas (b. 1596), the date ascribed to the death of this Algonquain Indian.  The actual dates of her birth and death are unknown.  She is believed to have been about 20 or 21 at the time of her death.

1556 ~ Thomas Cranmer (b. July 2, 1489), Archbishop of Canterbury who was burned at the stake on grounds of treason against Henry VIII.  He died at age 66.