TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 2019

On this day in history:

1349 - 3000 Jews were killed in Black Death riots in Efurt Germany.

1556 - Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was burned at the stake at Oxford after retracting the last of seven recantations that same day.

1851 - Emperor Tu Duc ordered that Christian priests be put to death.

1857 - An earthquake hit Tokyo killing about 107,000.

1858 - British forces in India lift the siege of Lucknow, ending the Indian Mutiny.

1895 - South Australia’s Suffrage Act is proclaimed after being passed by Queen Victoria.

1909 - Russia withdrew its support for Serbia and recognised the Austrian annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Serbia accepted Austrian control over Bosnia-Herzegovina on March 31, 1909.

1918 - During World War I, the Germans launched the Somme Offensive.

1934 - A fire destroyed Hakodate, Japan, killing about 1,500.

1941 - The last Italian post in East Libya, North Africa, fell to the British.

1945 - During World War II, Allied bombers began four days of raids over Germany.

1960 - About 70 people were killed in Sharpeville, South Africa, when police fired upon demonstrators.

1974 - In London, an attempt was made to kidnap Princess Anne on the Mall.

1990 - Australian businessman Alan Bond sold Van Gogh’s Irises to the Gerry Museum. Bond had purchased the painting for $53.9 million in 1987.

1990 - Namibia became independent of South Africa.

1991 - The UN Security Council lifted the food embargo against Iraq. BIRTHDAYS

Johann Sebastian Bach 1685 Benito Juarez 1806 James Jesse Strang 1813 Modest Mussorgsky 1839 Florenz Ziegfeld 1869 Albert Khan 1869 Bascom Lunsford 1882 Phyllis McGinley 1905

Julio Gallo 1910

Fonty Flock (Truman Fontello) 1921