On this day, March 21

1864 Ulysses S. Grant, en route to take command of the Army of the Potomac, was the guest of honor at a dinner in the Monongahela House.

1918 During World War I, Germany launched its Spring Offensive on the Western Front, hoping to break through the Allied lines before American reinforcements could arrive. (Although successful at first, the offensive ultimately failed.) 1948 Duquesne Light announced plans for a $28 million power plant at Elrama, south of Clairton, to serve the area. 1995 The Wilkinsburg school board agreed to privatize Turner School, an elementary school that would be run by Alternative Public Schools Inc. of Nashville, as the first privately run public school in the state.

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 climate-change documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth.”

Some items are from Stefan Lorant’s “Pittsburgh: The Story of an American City” (digital.library.pitt.edu/chronology).

— Compiled by Rick Nowlin

Today’s birthdays: Songwriter Chip Taylor (“Wild Thing”), 80. Folk-pop singer-musician Keith Potger (The Seekers), 79.

Singer-musician Rose Stone (Sly and the Family Stone), 75. Actor Timothy Dalton,

74. Singer Ray Dorset (Mungo Jerry), 74. Rock singer-musician Roger Hodgson (Supertramp), 70. Rock musician Conrad Lozano (Los Lobos), 69. Actor Gary Oldman,

62. Actor Matthew Broderick, 58. Comedian-actress Rosie O’Donnell, 58. Actress Sonequa Martin-Green (TV: “The Walking Dead”), 35. Actor Scott Eastwood, 34. Tennis player Karolina Pliskova, 28. Thought for today: “Is it worse to be scared than to be bored, that is the question.”