21 March
Notable Births
Ethan Nwaneri
b. 2007
English footballer (born 2007)
Abbi Pulling
b. 2003
British racing driver (born 2003)
Jace Norman
b. 2000
American actor (born 2000)
Yoon San-ha
b. 2000
South Korean singer and actor (born 2000)
Miles Bridges
b. 1998
American basketball player (born 1998)
Nat Phillips
b. 1997
English footballer (born 1997)
Tini (singer)
b. 1997
Argentine singer and actress (born 1997)
RJ Cyler
b. 1995
American actor
Nick Mullens
b. 1995
American football player (born 1995)
Mirco Müller
b. 1995
Swiss ice hockey player (born 1995)
Jasmin Savoy Brown
b. 1994
American actress (born 1994)
Sven Andrighetto
b. 1993
Swiss ice hockey player (born 1993)
Jake Bidwell
b. 1993
English footballer (born 1993)
Frankie Montas
b. 1993
Dominican baseball player (born 1993)
Chiney Ogwumike
b. 1992
Nigerian-American basketball player (born 1992)
Karolína Plíšková
b. 1992
Czech tennis player (born 1992)
Kristýna Plíšková
b. 1992
Czech tennis player (born 1992)
Antoine Griezmann
b. 1991
French footballer (born 1991)
Mandy Capristo
b. 1990
German pop singer
Johann Sebastian Bach
b. 1685
German composer (1685–1750)
Notable Deaths
Michael Lyster
d. 2026
Irish radio and television broadcaster (1954–2026)
Kitty Dukakis
d. 2025
American author (1936–2025)
George Foreman
d. 2025
American boxer (1949–2025)
Willis Reed
d. 2023
American basketball player (1942–2023)
Nawal El Saadawi
d. 2021
Egyptian feminist writer, activist, doctor and psychiatrist (1931–2021)
Gonzalo Portocarrero
d. 2019
Peruvian sociologist (1949–2019)
Chuck Barris
d. 2017
American game show host (1929–2017)
Colin Dexter
d. 2017
English writer (1930–2017)
Martin McGuinness
d. 2017
Irish republican politician and IRA leader (1950–2017)
Mike Hall (cyclist)
d. 2017
British sport cyclist
Ishaya Bakut
d. 2015
Nigerian politician and general
Chuck Bednarik
d. 2015
Slovak-American football player (1925–2015)
James C. Binnicker
d. 2015
Hans Erni
d. 2015
Swiss painter and engraver
Jørgen Ingmann
d. 2015
Danish jazz and pop guitarist (1925–2015)
Alberta Watson
d. 2015
Canadian actress (1955–2015)
Jack Fleck
d. 2014
American professional golfer (1921–2014)
Simeon Oduoye
d. 2014
Nigerian politician (1945–2014)
James Rebhorn
d. 2014
American actor (1948–2014)
Ignatius Zakka I
d. 2014
122nd Patriarch of Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch (1980–2014)
On This Day in History
All 54 ›
2022
China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 crashes in Guangxi, China, killing 132 people.
China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735
2019
The 2019 Xiangshui chemical plant explosion occurs, killing at least 47 people and injuring 640 others.
2019 Xiangshui chemical plant explosion
2006
The social media site Twitter (now officially named X) is founded.
Social media
2000
Pope John Paul II makes his first ever pontifical visit to Israel.
Pope John Paul II
1999
Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones become the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon.
Bertrand Piccard
1994
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change enters into force.
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
1990
Namibia becomes independent after 75 years of South African rule.
Namibia
1989
Transbrasil Flight 801 crashes into a slum near São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport, killing 25 people.
Transbrasil Flight 801
1986
Debi Thomas becomes the first African American to win the World Figure Skating Championships.
Debi Thomas
1985
Canadian paraplegic athlete and humanitarian Rick Hansen begins his circumnavigation of the globe in a wheelchair in the name of spinal cord injury medical research.
Paraplegia
1983
The first cases of the 1983 West Bank fainting epidemic begin; Israelis and Palestinians accuse each other of poison gas, but the cause is later determined mostly to be psychosomatic.
1983 West Bank fainting epidemic
1980
Cold War: American President Jimmy Carter announces a United States boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet–Afghan War.
Cold War
1970
The first Earth Day proclamation is issued by Joseph Alioto, Mayor of San Francisco.
Earth Day
1970
San Diego Comic-Con, the largest pop and culture festival in the world, hosts its inaugural event.
San Diego Comic-Con
1968
Battle of Karameh in Jordan between the Israel Defense Forces and the combined forces of the Jordanian Armed Forces and PLO.
Battle of Karameh
1965
Ranger program: NASA launches Ranger 9, the last in a series of uncrewed lunar space probes.
Ranger program
1965
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.
Martin Luther King Jr.
1963
Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary closes.
Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary
1960
Apartheid: Sharpeville massacre, South Africa: Police open fire on a group of black South African demonstrators, killing 69 and wounding 180.
Apartheid
1952
Alan Freed presents the Moondog Coronation Ball, the first rock and roll concert, in Cleveland, Ohio.
Alan Freed