TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS TUESDAY, MARCH 21, the 80th day of 2023. There are 285 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY:
On this date in 1965, civil rights demonstrators led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. began their third, successful march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. In 1685, composer Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany. In 1935, Persia officially changed its name to Iran. In 1945, during World War II, Allied bombers began four days of raids over Germany. In 1990, Namibia became an independent nation as the former colony marked the end of 75 years of South African rule. In 1997, President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin wrapped up their summit in Helsinki, Finland, still deadlocked over NATO expansion, but able to agree on slashing nuclear weapons arsenals. In 2006, the social media website Twitter was established with the sending of the first “tweet” by co-founder Jack Dorsey, who wrote: “just setting up my twttr.”
In 2016, laying bare a half-century of tensions, President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro prodded each other over human rights and the longstanding U.S. economic embargo during an unprecedented joint news conference in Havana. In 2019, President Donald Trump abruptly declared that the U.S. would recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the disputed Golan Heights, a major shift in American policy. TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Folk-pop singermusician Keith Potger (The Seekers) is 82. Actor Marie-Christine Barrault is 79. Singer-musician Rose Stone (Sly and the Family Stone) is 78. Actor Timothy Dalton and singer Ray Dorset (Mungo Jerry) are 77.Comedy writer-performer Brad Hall, and actors Sabrina LeBeauf and Gary Oldman are 65. Actor Kassie Depaiva is 62. Actor Matthew Broderick and comedian-actor Rosie O’Donnell are 61. Rock musician Andrew Copeland (Sister Hazel) is 55. Actor Laura Allen is 49. Rapper-TV personality Kevin Federline is 45. Actor Sonequa Martin-Green (TV: “The Walking Dead”) is 38. Actor Scott Eastwood is 37. Tennis player Karolina Pliskova is 31.