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 March 21, 1965, civil rights demonstrators led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. began their third, successful march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
On this date:
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 1952, the Moondog Coronation Ball, considered the first rock and roll concert, took place at Cleveland Arena.
In 1972, the Supreme Court, in Dunn v. Blumstein, ruled that states may not require at least a year's residency for voting eligibility.
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 2007, former Vice President Al Gore made an emotional return to Congress as he pleaded with House and Senate committees to fight global warming; skeptical Republicans questioned the science behind his climatechange documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth."
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.
Ten years ago: On his second day in the Middle East, President Barack Obama insisted "peace is possible" as he prodded both Israelis and Palestinians to return to long-stalled negotiations with few, if any, preconditions, softening his earlier demands that Israel stop building settlements in disputed territory.