History of Today in India – 21 March

Explore the history of today 21 March in India, including important events, famous personalities, and milestones for UPSC SSC,Banking & PSC exams.

Last updated on 21 March 2026, 04:23 AM

📜 Important Events on 21 March in World History

• 21 Mar 2022: China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 crashes in Guangxi, China, killing 132 people. Read more
• 21 Mar 2019: The 2019 Xiangshui chemical plant explosion occurs, killing at least 47 people and injuring 640 others. Read more
• 21 Mar 2006: The social media site Twitter (now officially named X) is founded. Read more
• 21 Mar 2000: Pope John Paul II makes his first ever pontifical visit to Israel. Read more
• 21 Mar 1999: Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones become the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon. Read more
• 21 Mar 1994: The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change enters into force. Read more
• 21 Mar 1990: Namibia becomes independent after 75 years of South African rule. Read more
• 21 Mar 1989: Transbrasil Flight 801 crashes into a slum near São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport, killing 25 people. Read more
• 21 Mar 1986: Debi Thomas becomes the first African American to win the World Figure Skating Championships. Read more
• 21 Mar 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. Read more
• 21 Mar 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. Read more
• 21 Mar 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. Read more
• 21 Mar 1970: The first Earth Day proclamation is issued by Joseph Alioto, Mayor of San Francisco. Read more
• 21 Mar 1970: San Diego Comic-Con, the largest pop and culture festival in the world, hosts its inaugural event. Read more
• 21 Mar 1968: Battle of Karameh in Jordan between the Israel Defense Forces and the combined forces of the Jordanian Armed Forces and PLO. Read more
• 21 Mar 1965: Ranger program: NASA launches Ranger 9, the last in a series of uncrewed lunar space probes. Read more
• 21 Mar 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. Read more
• 21 Mar 1963: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary closes. Read more
• 21 Mar 1960: Apartheid: Sharpeville massacre, South Africa: Police open fire on a group of black South African demonstrators, killing 69 and wounding 180. Read more
• 21 Mar 1952: Alan Freed presents the Moondog Coronation Ball, the first rock and roll concert, in Cleveland, Ohio. Read more
• 21 Mar 1946: The Los Angeles Rams sign Kenny Washington, making him the first African American player in professional American football since 1933. Read more
• 21 Mar 1945: World War II: British troops liberate Mandalay, Burma. Read more
• 21 Mar 1945: World War II: Operation Carthage: Royal Air Force planes bomb Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. They also accidentally hit a school, killing 125 civilians. Read more
• 21 Mar 1945: World War II: Bulgaria and the Soviet Union successfully complete their defense of the north bank of the Drava River as the Battle of the Transdanubian Hills concludes. Read more
• 21 Mar 1943: Wehrmacht officer Rudolf von Gersdorff plots to assassinate Adolf Hitler by using a suicide bomb, but the plan falls through; von Gersdorff is able to defuse the bomb in time and avoid suspicion. Read more
• 21 Mar 1937: Ponce massacre: Nineteen unarmed civilians in Ponce, Puerto Rico are gunned down by police in a terrorist attack ordered by the US-appointed Governor, Blanton Winship. Read more
• 21 Mar 1935: Shah of Iran Reza Shah Pahlavi formally asks the international community to call Persia by its native name, Iran. Read more
• 21 Mar 1934: The landmark Australian Eastern Mission led by John Latham departs on its three-month tour of East and South-East Asia. Read more
• 21 Mar 1928: Charles Lindbergh is presented with the Medal of Honor for the first solo trans-Atlantic flight. Read more
• 21 Mar 1925: The Butler Act prohibits the teaching of human evolution in Tennessee. Read more
• 21 Mar 1925: Syngman Rhee is removed from office after being impeached as the President of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea. Read more
• 21 Mar 1925: Ravel's opera L'enfant et les sortilèges, to a libretto by Colette, is premiered at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo. Read more
• 21 Mar 1921: The New Economic Policy is implemented by the Bolshevik Party in response to the economic failure as a result of war communism. Read more
• 21 Mar 1919: The Hungarian Soviet Republic is established becoming the first Communist government to be formed in Europe after the October Revolution in Russia. Read more
• 21 Mar 1918: World War I: The first phase of the German spring offensive, Operation Michael, begins. Read more
• 21 Mar 1871: Otto von Bismarck is appointed as the first Chancellor of the German Empire. Read more
• 21 Mar 1871: Journalist Henry Morton Stanley begins his trek to find the missionary and explorer David Livingstone. Read more
• 21 Mar 1861: Alexander H. Stephens gives the Cornerstone Speech. Read more
• 21 Mar 1844: The Baháʼí calendar begins. This is the first day of the first year of the Baháʼí calendar. It is annually celebrated by members of the Baháʼí Faith as the Baháʼí New Year or Náw-Rúz. Read more
• 21 Mar 1829: The Wellington–Winchilsea duel takes place in London involving the Prime Minister the Duke of Wellington. Read more
• 21 Mar 1821: Greek War of Independence: Greek revolutionaries seize Kalavryta. Read more
• 21 Mar 1814: Napoleonic Wars: Austrian forces repel French troops in the Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube. Read more
• 21 Mar 1804: Code Napoléon is adopted as French civil law. Read more
• 21 Mar 1801: The Battle of Alexandria is fought between British and French forces near the ruins of Nicopolis near Alexandria in Egypt. Read more
• 21 Mar 1800: With the church leadership driven out of Rome during an armed conflict, Pius VII is crowned Pope in Venice with a temporary papal tiara made of papier-mâché. Read more

🎂 Important Births on 21 March in World History

• 21 Mar 2007: Ethan Nwaneri, English footballer Ethan Chidiebere Nwaneri is an English professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or winger for Ligue 1 club Marseille, on loan from Premier League club Arsenal, and the England U21 national team. Read more
• 21 Mar 2003: Abbi Pulling, English racing driver Abbi Jo Pulling is a British racing driver who is currently competing in GB3 Championship for Rodin Motorsport. She is also the rookie and simulator driver for the Nissan Formula E Team. Pulling is the 2024 F1 Academy drivers' champion. Read more
• 21 Mar 2000: Jace Norman, American actor Jace Lee Norman is an American actor. He starred as Henry Hart in the Nickelodeon television series Henry Danger from 2014 to 2020. Read more
• 21 Mar 2000: Yoon San-ha, South Korean singer and actor Yoon San-ha, known mononymously as Sanha, is a South Korean singer and actor under the label Fantagio. He is a member of the South Korean boy group Astro and a former member of its sub-unit Moonbin & Sanha. Read more
• 21 Mar 1998: Miles Bridges, American basketball player Miles Emmanuel Bridges Sr. is an American professional basketball player for the Charlotte Hornets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Michigan State Spartans. A native of Flint, Michigan, he competed for Flint Southwestern Academy at the high school level before moving to Huntington Prep School for his sophomore, junior, and senior years. Bridges was selected 12th overall by the Los Angeles Clippers in the 2018 NBA draft, but was traded to the Hornets on draft night. Read more
• 21 Mar 1997: Nat Phillips, English footballer Nathaniel Harry "Nat" Phillips is an English professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for EFL Championship club West Bromwich Albion. Read more
• 21 Mar 1997: Martina Stoessel, Argentine singer and actress Martina Stoessel, known professionally as Tini, is an Argentine singer, actress, dancer and model. She began her career as a child actress, by appearing on the Argentine children's television series Patito Feo (2007). Tini rose to fame for her title role in the Disney Channel Latin America telenovela Violetta (2012–2015), which became an international success and established her as a teen idol. She achieved success on Latin American and European charts with multiple soundtracks, and reprised the character in the series' sequel film Tini: The Movie (2016). Read more
• 21 Mar 1996: Aurora Mikalsen, Norwegian footballer Aurora Watten Mikalsen is a Norwegian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Frauen-Bundesliga club 1. FC Köln. She has represented the Norway national team at multiple youth levels and received her first senior call-up in February 2018. Read more
• 21 Mar 1995: RJ Cyler, American actor Ronald "RJ" Cyler II is an American actor. His films include Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015), Power Rangers (2017), The Harder They Fall (2021), and Emergency (2022). On television, he is known for his roles in the Showtime series I'm Dying Up Here (2017–2018) and Scream: Resurrection (2019). Read more
• 21 Mar 1995: Nick Mullens, American football player Nicholas Clayton Mullens is an American professional football quarterback for the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Southern Miss Golden Eagles, where he surpassed Brett Favre's single-season school records for passing yardage (4,476) and touchdown passes (38). Mullens was signed by the San Francisco 49ers as an undrafted free agent in 2018 and has also been a member of the Philadelphia Eagles, Cleveland Browns, Las Vegas Raiders, and Minnesota Vikings. Read more
• 21 Mar 1995: Mirco Müller, Swiss ice hockey player Mirco Müller is a Swiss professional ice hockey defenceman who is currently playing with HC Lugano of the National League (NL). He previously played in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the San Jose Sharks and the New Jersey Devils from 2014 to 2020. The Sharks selected Müller in the first round of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft. Read more
• 21 Mar 1994: Jasmin Savoy Brown, American actress Jasmin Savoy Brown is an American actress. She is known for starring in the thriller drama series Yellowjackets (2021–present) and the slasher franchise Scream (2022–present). Read more
• 21 Mar 1993: Sven Andrighetto, Swiss ice hockey player Sven Andrighetto is a Swiss professional ice hockey player who is a forward for the ZSC Lions of the National League (NL). He was selected in the third round, 86th overall, by the Montreal Canadiens in the 2013 NHL entry draft. Andrighetto has also previously played for the Colorado Avalanche. Read more
• 21 Mar 1993: Jake Bidwell, English footballer Jake Brian Bidwell is an English professional footballer who plays as a left back for EFL Championship club Coventry City. He began his career in the academy at Premier League side Everton and was capped by England at age-group level. Read more
• 21 Mar 1993: Jesse Joronen, Finnish footballer Jesse Pekka Joronen is a Finnish professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Serie B club Palermo and the Finland national team. He made his senior debut for Finland in 2013. Read more
• 21 Mar 1993: Frankie Montas, Dominican baseball player Francelis Montas Luna is a Dominican professional baseball pitcher who is a free agent. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago White Sox, Oakland Athletics, New York Yankees, Cincinnati Reds, Milwaukee Brewers and New York Mets. Read more
• 21 Mar 1992: Lehlogonolo Masalesa, South African footballer Lehlogonolo Masalesa is a South African footballer who last played for Black Leopards as a midfielder. Read more
• 21 Mar 1992: Chiney Ogwumike, American basketball player Chinenye Joy "Chiney" Ogwumike is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). In 2020, she became the first black woman and the first WNBA player to host a national radio show for ESPN. She was one of the first and youngest commentators ever to be named an NBA analyst for the network covering the NBA, WNBA, and variety of sports, while simultaneously playing in the WNBA. Chiney is a graduate of Stanford University, where she majored in International relations. She played in three Final Fours and finished as the conference leader in scoring and rebounding as of January 3, 2014. As of 2016, Ogwumike was elected vice-president of the WNBA Players Association, and signed an endorsement deal with Adidas. In May 2018, Ogwumike signed a multi-year contract with ESPN to become a full-time basketball analyst. Read more
• 21 Mar 1992: Karolína Plíšková, Czech tennis player Karolína Plíšková is a Czech professional tennis player. She has been ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the WTA, and at world No. 11 in doubles. She is a two-time Grand Slam finalist at the 2016 US Open and at 2021 Wimbledon. Plíšková has won 17 singles and five doubles titles on the WTA Tour, Read more
• 21 Mar 1992: Kristýna Plíšková, Czech tennis player Kristýna Plíšková is a Czech former professional tennis player. In her career, she won one singles title and five doubles titles on the WTA Tour, with three titles on the WTA Challenger Tour. She also won nine singles and eight doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. On 31 July 2017, she reached her career-high singles ranking of world No. 35. On 14 June 2021, she peaked at No. 44 in the WTA doubles rankings. Plíšková won the 2010 Wimbledon Championships junior tournament, beating Sachie Ishizu in straight sets. She currently holds the record for the most aces (31) in a match on the WTA Tour, which she set in a second-round match against Monica Puig at the 2016 Australian Open. Read more
• 21 Mar 1991: Luke Chapman, English footballer Luke Chapman is an English former footballer who played as a midfielder. Read more
• 21 Mar 1991: Antoine Griezmann, French footballer Antoine Griezmann is a French professional footballer who plays as a forward or attacking midfielder for La Liga club Atlético Madrid. Considered one of the greatest players of his generation, he is primarily known for his versatility, game intelligence, attacking output, and off-ball attributes. Read more
• 21 Mar 1990: Mandy Capristo, German singer-songwriter and dancer Mandy Grace Capristo, also known mononymously as Mandy, is a German singer and songwriter. Read more
• 21 Mar 1990: Ryann Krais, American runner and heptathlete Ryann Krais is an American athlete. She is a gold and bronze medalist from the 2007 World Youth Championships. Read more
• 21 Mar 1990: Darius Miller, American basketball player Darius Tiyon Miller is an American former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the Kentucky Wildcats and finished his senior season by winning the 2012 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament on the 2011–12 Kentucky Wildcats team. Read more
• 21 Mar 1990: Alex Nimo, Liberian-American soccer player Alexander Frank Nimo is a former soccer player. Born in Liberia, he represented the United States at youth level. Read more
• 21 Mar 1989: Jordi Alba, Spanish footballer Jordi Alba Ramos is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a left-back. He is often regarded as one of the best full-backs of his generation. Read more
• 21 Mar 1989: Nicolás Lodeiro, Uruguayan footballer Marcelo Nicolás Lodeiro Benítez, commonly known as Nicolás Lodeiro, is a Uruguayan professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Uruguayan Primera División club Nacional. Read more
• 21 Mar 1989: Takeru Satoh, Japanese actor Takeru Satoh is a Japanese actor. He is best known for his leading role as Ryotaro Nogami in the Kamen Rider Den-O franchise, and as Himura Kenshin in the live-action Rurouni Kenshin film and its sequels. In 2025, he starred in and co-executive produced the musical drama Glass Heart for Netflix. Read more
• 21 Mar 1988: Solomon Alabi, Nigerian basketball player Makafan Solomon Alabi is a Nigerian former professional basketball player. He moved to the United States at the age of 17 to attend Montverde Academy. Alabi played college basketball for the Florida State Seminoles where he was a two-time Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) All-Defensive team selection in both his freshman and sophomore years. He was selected by the Dallas Mavericks as the 50th overall pick in the 2010 NBA draft and played two seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Toronto Raptors. Alabi played one season in the NBA Development League and finished his career overseas with stints in Greece, Taiwan, the Philippines and Japan. Read more
• 21 Mar 1988: Kateřina Čechová, Czech sprinter Kateřina Čechová is a Czech athlete who specialises in the 100 m and 200 m sprints. Read more
• 21 Mar 1988: Erik Johnson, American ice hockey player Erik Robert Johnson is an American former professional ice hockey defenseman who played 17 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the St. Louis Blues, Colorado Avalanche, Buffalo Sabres and the Philadelphia Flyers. Nicknamed the "Condor", Johnson was selected with the first overall pick by the Blues in the 2006 NHL entry draft. Johnson won the Stanley Cup with the Avalanche in 2022. Additionally, he has represented the United States in numerous tournaments. Read more
• 21 Mar 1988: Eric Krüger, German sprinter Eric Krüger is a German athlete who competes in the sprint with a personal best time of 45.77 seconds over 400 metres. Read more
• 21 Mar 1988: Michael Madl, Austrian footballer Michael Madl is an Austrian professional football coach and a former player who played as a defender. He works as a coach with the Austria Wien academy. He represented the Austria under-21 team. Read more
• 21 Mar 1987: Carlos Carrasco, Venezuelan baseball pitcher Carlos Luis Carrasco, nicknamed "Cookie", is a Venezuelan-American professional baseball pitcher in the Atlanta Braves organization. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cleveland Indians / Guardians, New York Mets, and New York Yankees. Listed at 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) and 224 pounds (102 kg), he throws and bats right-handed. Read more
• 21 Mar 1986: Romanos Alyfantis, Greek swimmer Romanos Iasonas Alyfantis is a breaststroke swimmer from Greece. He won a silver medal at the 2005 Mediterranean Games, and represented his native country at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. Read more
• 21 Mar 1986: Scott Eastwood, American actor Scott Eastwood is an American actor. The son of the Hollywood actor Clint Eastwood, he has starred in several of his father's films, including Flags of Our Fathers (2006), Gran Torino (2008), Invictus (2009), and Trouble with the Curve (2012), as well as Texas Chainsaw (2013), Fury (2014), The Longest Ride (2015), Suicide Squad (2016), Snowden (2016), The Fate of the Furious (2017), Pacific Rim Uprising (2018), The Outpost (2020), Wrath of Man (2021), Fast X (2023) and 1992 (2024). Read more
• 21 Mar 1986: Nikoleta Kyriakopoulou, Greek pole vaulter Nikoleta 'Nikol' Kyriakopoulou is a Greek retired pole vaulter. Nikoleta was 8th at the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2021. She also won the bronze medal at the World Championships in Beijing in 2015 jumping 4.80m.
  During the 2015 season, she set five Greek records raising the bar to 4,83 meters. The same year, she became the first Greek athlete to win the IAAF Diamond League. During her career she broke 11 times the Greek National record. Read more
• 21 Mar 1986: Michu, Spanish footballer Miguel Pérez Cuesta, known as Michu, is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a forward or attacking midfielder. He is the current director of football of Segunda División club Burgos. Read more
• 21 Mar 1985: Ryan Callahan, American ice hockey player Ryan Callahan is an American former professional ice hockey right winger who played 13 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the New York Rangers and the Tampa Bay Lightning. He currently serves as a studio and game analyst for the NHL on ESPN/ABC. Read more
• 21 Mar 1985: Sonequa Martin-Green, American actress Sonequa Chaunté Martin-Green is an American actress. She is best known for her television roles as Michael Burnham, the main character in the streaming television series Star Trek: Discovery, and as Sasha Williams on The Walking Dead. Before that, Martin-Green starred in several independent films before gaining her first recurring role, as Courtney Wells on The Good Wife. Later, she had recurring roles as Tamara in Once Upon a Time and Rhonda in New Girl. Read more
• 21 Mar 1985: Adrian Peterson, American football player Adrian Lewis Peterson is an American former professional football running back. Peterson played 15 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He is widely considered to be one of the greatest running backs in football history. He played college football for the Oklahoma Sooners, setting the freshman rushing record with 1,925 yards in 2004. Named a unanimous All-American that year, he became the first freshman to finish as a runner-up in the Heisman Trophy balloting. Peterson finished his college career as the Sooners' third-all-time leading rusher. Read more
• 21 Mar 1984: Tarence Kinsey, American basketball player Tarence Anthony Kinsey is an American former professional basketball player. He played for the Memphis Grizzlies
  and the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association. He also played for several teams in Europe. He played college basketball for University of South Carolina. Read more
• 21 Mar 1984: Guillermo Daniel Rodríguez, Uruguayan footballer Guillermo Daniel Rodríguez Pérez is a Uruguayan former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. Read more
• 21 Mar 1983: Jean Ondoa, Cameroonian footballer Jean Chrisostome Mekongo Ondoa is a Cameroonian footballer. Read more
• 21 Mar 1983: Lucila Pascua, Spanish basketball player María Lucila Pascua Suárez is a Spanish basketball center. Read more
• 21 Mar 1982: Maria Elena Camerin, Italian tennis player Maria Elena Camerin is a former professional tennis player from Italy. In her career, Camerin won three doubles titles on the WTA Tour, including a Wta 1000 at Cincinnati Open, as well as ten singles and nine doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. On 11 October 2004, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 41. On 31 July 2006, she peaked at No. 33 in the doubles rankings. In a Grand Slam her greatest success where Quarter finals in doubles at 2007 French Open. Read more
• 21 Mar 1982: Ejegayehu Dibaba, Ethiopian runner Ejegayehu Dibaba Keneni is an Ethiopian long-distance runner. She won the silver medal in the 10,000 metres at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Ejegayehu earned bronze medals in the 5,000 metres and 10,000 metres events at the 2005 World Championships in Athletics. She took gold medals in the 10,000 m at the 2003 Afro-Asian Games and All-Africa Games. Read more
• 21 Mar 1982: Aaron Hill, American baseball player Aaron Walter Hill is an American former professional baseball second baseman. Hill played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Toronto Blue Jays, Arizona Diamondbacks, Milwaukee Brewers, Boston Red Sox, and San Francisco Giants. Read more
• 21 Mar 1982: Colin Turkington, Northern Irish race car driver Colin Henry Turkington is a British racing driver from Northern Ireland who competed in the British Touring Car Championship most recently for Team BMW. He is a 4 time BTCC champion, winning the title in 2009, 2014, 2018 and 2019, having made his debut in the series in 2002. Read more
• 21 Mar 1981: Sébastien Chavanel, French cyclist Sébastien Chavanel is a French former professional road bicycle racer who last rode for UCI ProTeam FDJ. He is a younger brother, by just under 2 years, to fellow professional cyclist Sylvain Chavanel. Read more
• 21 Mar 1981: Germano, Brazilian footballer Germano Borovicz Cardozo Schweger or simply Germano, is a retired Brazilian footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. Read more
• 21 Mar 1980: Goran Bezina, Swiss ice hockey player Goran Bezina is a Swiss former professional ice hockey defenseman who played most of his career with Genève-Servette HC of the National League (NL). He also played with the Arizona Coyotes in the National Hockey League (NHL), Medveščak Zagreb of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) HC Fribourg-Gottéron of the NL and HC Sierre of the Swiss League (SL). Read more
• 21 Mar 1980: Marit Bjørgen, Norwegian skier Marit Bjørgen is a former Norwegian cross-country skier. She is ranked first in the all-time Cross-Country World Cup rankings with 114 individual victories. Bjørgen is also the most successful sprinter in Cross-Country World Cup history, with 29 victories. She headed the medal table at the 2010 Winter Olympics by winning five medals, including three gold. A five-time Olympian, her five Olympic medals at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games brought her total number of medals up to a record 15, making her the most decorated Winter Olympian of all time and the third-most decorated Olympian of all time. Read more
• 21 Mar 1980: Lee Jin, South Korean singer and actress Lee Jin is a South Korean singer and actress. She made her entertainment debut as a member of the K-pop girl group Fin.K.L, along with Lee Hyori, Ock Joo-hyun, and Sung Yu-ri. After Fin.K.L came to an unofficial end in 2002, Lee became an actress. Read more
• 21 Mar 1980: Ronaldinho, Brazilian footballer Ronaldo de Assis Moreira, commonly known as Ronaldinho Gaúcho or simply Ronaldinho, is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder or left winger. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, he won two FIFA World Player of the Year awards and a Ballon d'Or. He is the only player ever to have won a World Cup, a Copa América, a Confederations Cup, a Champions League, a Copa Libertadores and a Ballon d'Or. A global icon of the sport, Ronaldinho was renowned for his dribbling abilities, free-kick accuracy, his use of tricks, feints, no-look passes, and overhead kicks, as well as his ability to score and create goals. Also known by the nickname "O Bruxo", during his career, he was one of the most valuable sportsmen in the world. Read more
• 21 Mar 1980: Deryck Whibley, Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer Deryck Jason Whibley, also known by the stage name Bizzy D, is a Canadian musician, best known as the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, keyboardist, main songwriter, producer, co-founder, and only constant member of the rock band Sum 41. Read more
• 21 Mar 1978: Sally Barsosio, Kenyan runner Sally Barsosio is a Kenyan distance runner. As of 2015, Barsosio is the youngest ever medallist at the World Junior Championships in Athletics, at 14 years and 182 days. Read more
• 21 Mar 1978: Charmaine Dragun, Australian journalist (died 2007) Charmaine Margaret Dragun was an Australian broadcast journalist and presenter. She was a co-anchor on Ten Eyewitness News. Dragun, who had been diagnosed with depression and had a history of anorexia, died by suicide in 2007. Read more
• 21 Mar 1978: Kevin Federline, American dancer and television personality Kevin Earl Federline, also known as K-Fed, is an American dancer, actor, and DJ. He is known for being the ex husband of singer Britney Spears and the public child custody battle that followed their divorce. In 2006, Federline released a debut album, Playing with Fire, which was panned by critics as one of the worst albums ever released. He has since made a number of television and film appearances, and also worked as a DJ. His memoir, You Thought You Knew was published on October 21, 2025. Read more
• 21 Mar 1978: Cristian Guzmán, Dominican baseball player Cristian Antonio Guzmán is a Dominican former professional baseball shortstop. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Minnesota Twins, Washington Nationals, and Texas Rangers. Read more
• 21 Mar 1978: Joyce Jimenez, Filipino movie and TV actress Joyce Herrín Reintegrado-Egbalic, popularly known by her screen name Joyce Jimenez is an American-born former Filipino actress. Read more
• 21 Mar 1978: Mohammad Rezaei, Iranian wrestler Mohammad Rezaei is an Iranian wrestler. Read more
• 21 Mar 1977: Bruno Cirillo, Italian footballer Bruno Cirillo is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. Read more
• 21 Mar 1977: Jamie Delgado, English tennis player Jamie Delgado is a British tennis coach and former professional player. Delgado has represented Great Britain in the Davis Cup, most recently in 2006. Read more
• 21 Mar 1976: Rachael MacFarlane, American voice actress and singer Rachael Ann MacFarlane is an American voice actress. Her voice credits include Hayley Smith on the animated television show American Dad!, Supreme Leader Numbuh 362 in the television series Codename: Kids Next Door, and Kate Lockwell in the video game StarCraft II. Her older brother is American Dad! co-creator and Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane. Read more
• 21 Mar 1976: Bamboo Mañalac, Filipino singer-songwriter and guitarist Francisco Gaudencio Lope Belardo Mañalac, popularly known as Bamboo Mañalac or simply by the mononym Bamboo, is a Filipino musician, singer, and songwriter. He began his career as vocalist and original frontman of Rivermaya and later fronted his own band, Bamboo. Bamboo band disbanded in 2011 and Mañalac then pursued a solo career and released his first solo album, No Water, No Moon. Read more
• 21 Mar 1976: Tekin Sazlog, German-Turkish footballer Tekin Sazlog is a Turkish former professional footballer who played as a striker. Read more
• 21 Mar 1975: Michale Graves, American singer-songwriter Michael Emanuel, better known by his stage name Michale Graves, is an American singer. He is best known as the lead vocalist for the 1990s re-incarnation of the horror punk band Misfits from 1995 to 2000, leaving briefly in 1998. He has also released several albums as a solo artist. Read more
• 21 Mar 1975: Corné Krige, South African rugby player Cornelius Petrus Johannes "Corné" Krige is a retired South African rugby union player. He played flanker for Western Province in the Currie Cup, the Stormers in Super Rugby and captained the South African national side, the Springboks. Read more
• 21 Mar 1975: Fabricio Oberto, Argentinian-Italian basketball player Fabricio Raúl Jesús Oberto is an Argentine-Italian color analyst and former professional basketball player. At 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m), he played as a center and power forward. With the LNB club Atenas, in his native Argentina, Oberto began playing professionally in 1993, and later played overseas with teams in Spain and Greece. In 2005, Oberto signed with the San Antonio Spurs, a team of the American National Basketball Association (NBA), and won a championship with the Spurs in 2007. He is also a former member of the senior Argentina national basketball team, with whom he won two Olympic medals, including a gold medal in 2004. Read more
• 21 Mar 1975: Vitaly Potapenko, Ukrainian basketball player and coach Vitalii Mykolayovych Potapenko is a Ukrainian professional basketball coach and former player who is an assistant coach for the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Wright State Raiders and was selected 12th overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 1996 NBA draft, also the last pick before Kobe Bryant. Nicknamed "the Ukraine Train", he played for the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Boston Celtics, the Seattle SuperSonics, and the Sacramento Kings of the NBA, as well as MMT Estudiantes in the Spanish ACB. Read more
• 21 Mar 1975: Mark Williams, Welsh snooker player Mark James Williams is a Welsh professional snooker player who is a three-time World Champion, winning the title in 2000, 2003 and 2018. He has been ranked the world number one player three times. His most successful season to date was 2002‍–‍03, when he won snooker's Triple Crown, making him only the third player, after Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry, to have won all three events in the same season. He is the first, and to date, the only player to win all three versions of the professional world championship: the World Snooker Championship, the Six-red World Championship and the World Seniors Championship. Read more
• 21 Mar 1974: Laura Allen, American actress Laura Allen is an American actress. She is known for her roles on the ABC Daytime soap opera All My Children (2000–2002) and the USA Network television series The 4400. She has also been a regular cast member on Dirt, Terriers (2010), and Awake (2012). Read more
• 21 Mar 1974: Rhys Darby, New Zealand comedian and actor Rhys Montague Darby is a New Zealand actor and comedian. He is known for his energetic physical comedy routines, telling stories accompanied with mime, and sound effects of things such as machinery and animals. He was nominated for the Billy T Award in 2001 and 2002 and won the 2012 Fred (Dagg) Award for best NZ show at the New Zealand International Comedy Festival. Read more
• 21 Mar 1974: Dejima Takeharu, Japanese sumo wrestler Dejima Takeharu is a former sumo wrestler from Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan. A former amateur champion, he made his professional debut in 1996, reaching the top makuuchi division the following year. In July 1999 he won the yūshō or tournament championship and earned promotion to the second highest rank of ōzeki. He lost the rank in 2001 and, for the most part, remained a maegashira until his retirement in 2009. He won ten special prizes and six gold stars over his long career. He wrestled for Musashigawa stable. He is now an elder of the Japan Sumo Association under the name Ōnaruto Oyakata. Read more
• 21 Mar 1973: Ananda Lewis, American television host (died 2025) Sarasvati Ananda Lewis was an American broadcast journalist, veejay and carpenter. She was a two-time NAACP Image Award recipient. Described as "a bright star who was the voice of a generation", Lewis served as a cultural role model and staple television personality for BET and MTV during the late 1990s. She hosted BET's Teen Summit and served as a MTV VJ as well as hosting the network's show Hot Zone as well as occasionally hosting and frequently co-hosting Total Request Live. Lewis hosted The Ananda Lewis Show, a nationally syndicated American television talk show that ran for two seasons. The show reported on serious subjects in contrast to more sensationalized contemporary talk shows such as the Ricki Lake Show and the Jerry Springer Show. After a break from television, she became a correspondent for The Insider. Lewis returned to television in 2019 to host the revival of While You Were Out on TLC. Read more
• 21 Mar 1973: Stuart Nethercott, English footballer and manager Stuart Nethercott is an English football manager and former professional footballer. Read more
• 21 Mar 1973: Large Professor, American rapper and producer William Paul Mitchell, better known by the stage name of Large Professor, is an American rapper and record producer. Based in New York City, he is a founding member of the underground hip-hop group Main Source, and is credited with having discovered and mentored fellow New York City-based rapper Nas. About.com ranked Large Professor at No. 13 on its Top 25 Hip-Hop Producers list. Read more
• 21 Mar 1972: Chris Candido, American wrestler (died 2005) Christopher Barrett Candito was an American professional wrestler. Candito is best remembered for his tenures with promotions such as World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), and Smoky Mountain Wrestling, where he performed under the ring name Chris Candido, as well as for his appearances in the World Wrestling Federation under the ring name Skip, one-half of the tag team The Bodydonnas. For much of his career, he performed alongside his real-life partner, Tammy "Sunny" Sytch, who acted as his valet. Read more
• 21 Mar 1972: Balázs Kiss, Hungarian hammer thrower Balázs Kiss is a retired Hungarian hammer thrower. He is the 1996 Olympic champion and the 1998 European Championships silver medalist, and has two fourth places from World Championships. His personal best throw was 83.00 metres, achieved during the 1998 Golden League circuit. Read more
• 21 Mar 1972: Boris Mironov, Russian ice hockey player Boris Olegovich Mironov is a Russian former professional ice hockey defenceman. He is the younger brother of Dmitri Mironov. Read more
• 21 Mar 1972: Derartu Tulu, Ethiopian runner Derartu Tulu NL COL is an Ethiopian former long-distance runner, who competed in track, cross country running, and road running up to the marathon distance. Read more
• 21 Mar 1972: Graeme Welch, English cricketer Graeme Welch is a former English cricket player and coach born in Durham. He played for two county teams, Derbyshire and Warwickshire. Read more
• 21 Mar 1971: Zsolt Kürtösi, Hungarian decathlete
  Zsolt István Kürtösi is a Hungarian decathlete and bobsledder. Read more
• 21 Mar 1970: Shiho Niiyama, Japanese voice actress (died 2000) Shiho Niiyama was a Japanese voice actress from Matsuyama, Ehime, affiliated with Aoni Production at the time of her death. Niiyama was most known for her roles as Kou Seiya/Sailor Star Fighter in the Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon series, Risa Kanzaki in Neighborhood Story, Suou Takamura in Clamp School Detectives, and Deedlit in Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight. She was also involved in the voice actor group Virgo, who were the voice actresses in the anime and game Ojōsama Sōsamō. Read more
• 21 Mar 1970: Cenk Uygur, Turkish-American political activist Cenk Kadir Uygur is a Turkish-American left-wing political activist, media host, and attorney. He is the co-creator of The Young Turks, a progressive and a left-wing populist sociopolitical news and commentary program. Read more
• 21 Mar 1969: Jonah Goldberg, American journalist and author Jonah Jacob Goldberg is an American conservative journalist, author, and political commentator. The founding editor of National Review Online, from 1998 until 2019, he was an editor at National Review. Goldberg writes a weekly column about politics and culture for the Los Angeles Times. In October 2019, Goldberg became the founding editor of the online opinion and news publication The Dispatch. Goldberg has authored the No. 1 New York Times bestseller Liberal Fascism, released in January 2008; The Tyranny of Cliches: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas, released in 2012; and Suicide of the West, which was published in April 2018 and also became a New York Times bestseller, reaching No. 5 on the list the following month. Read more
• 21 Mar 1968: Cameron Clyne, Australian businessman

  Cameron Clyne is an Australian businessman, who served Group CEO of the National Australia Bank Group. Read more

• 21 Mar 1968: Andrew Copeland, American singer and musician Sister Hazel is an American rock band from Gainesville, Florida, whose style blends elements of jangle pop, folk rock, classic rock, and Southern rock. They are best known for their 1997 single "All for You." Read more
• 21 Mar 1968: Greg Ellis, English actor, producer, and screenwriter Jonathan Rees, known professionally as Greg Ellis, is an English actor who has worked in film, television, video games, and theatre. He is, among other roles, known for playing Chief Engineer Olson in Star Trek (2009), Theodore Groves in Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean, and Trevor Wilcox in Touch (2013), as well as voice roles such as Anders in Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening (2010), Cullen in multiple Dragon Age games, and Jet-Vac in the Skylanders video game series, as well as in the series Skylanders Academy. Read more
• 21 Mar 1968: Johan Garpenlöv, Swedish ice hockey player Johan Kjell Garpenlöv is a Swedish former ice hockey left winger and ice hockey coach. He also starred for several years in his native Sweden. He was drafted in the fifth round, 85th overall, by the Detroit Red Wings in the 1986 NHL Entry Draft. Read more
• 21 Mar 1968: Tolunay Kafkas, Turkish footballer and manager Hakkı Tolunay Kafkas is a Turkish professional football manager and former player. He is currently managing Fatih Karagümrük. Read more
• 21 Mar 1968: Gary Walsh, English footballer and coach Gary Walsh is an English football coach and former professional player who is a goalkeeping coach at EFL League One club Port Vale. He played as a goalkeeper in a 21-year professional career, making 282 league and cup appearances. He was also capped twice at England U21 level. Read more
• 21 Mar 1968: Scott Williams, American basketball player and sportscaster Scott Christopher Williams is an American former professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Standing at 6' 10", he was capable of playing as a power forward or a center. Early in his professional career, Williams earned three NBA Finals rings as he contributed off the bench during the Chicago Bulls' first three-peat championships from 1991 to 1993. He developed into a front-court reserve during his fifteen seasons in the NBA, where he was known for his hustle and strong defense. Since his retirement, Williams has coached in the NBA Development League and NBA as well as commentating for a variety of NBA teams. Williams is currently the color analyst for the Grand Canyon Antelopes men's basketball team. Read more
• 21 Mar 1967: Jonas Berggren, Swedish singer-songwriter, musician, and producer Jonas Petter Berggren is a Swedish musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer, also known as Joker. He started writing songs when he was seven and continues to write for the band Ace of Base, a group he formed with his two sisters Linn and Jenny. Berggren has written most of their hit songs including "All That She Wants", "The Sign", and "Beautiful Life". As well as singing, he also plays the guitar and keyboards. Read more
• 21 Mar 1967: Carwyn Jones, Welsh lawyer and politician, First Minister of Wales Carwyn Howell Jones, Baron Jones of Penybont,, is a Welsh politician who served as First Minister of Wales and Leader of Welsh Labour from 2009 to 2018. He previously served as Counsel General for Wales from 2007 to 2009. Jones was the member of the Senedd (MS) for Bridgend from 1999 to 2021. He has been a member of the House of Lords since 2025. Read more
• 21 Mar 1967: Maxim, English musician and songwriter Keith Andrew Palmer, better known by his stage name Maxim, is a British musician, known for being a lead vocalist and MC of electronic music band The Prodigy. Read more
• 21 Mar 1967: Mirela Rupic, American costume and fashion designer Mirela Rupic is an American costume and fashion designer. Her costume designing career took off after she was included in a minor TV series, which followed with her involvement in the movie Fight Club in 1999. She is also known for being the lead costume designer in the 2007 TV series Chuck. Read more
• 21 Mar 1966: Benito Archundia, Mexican footballer, referee, lawyer, and economist Benito Armando Archundia Téllez is a Mexican former football referee. He is known in Mexico as Armando Archundia, but appears as Benito Archundia in FIFA records. He has been a professional referee since 1985 and has had his FIFA referee permission since 1993. His first fixture as an international referee was the 1994 match between USA and Greece. Read more
• 21 Mar 1966: Hauke Fuhlbrügge, German runner Hauke Fuhlbrügge is a German former middle-distance runner. Read more
• 21 Mar 1966: Al Iafrate, American ice hockey player Albert Anthony Iafrate is an American former professional ice hockey defenseman who played in the National Hockey League between 1984 and 1998. He was born in Dearborn, Michigan, and grew up in Livonia, Michigan. Read more
• 21 Mar 1966: Moa Matthis, Swedish author Moa Matthis, is a Swedish literature critic and author. She writes for Dagens Nyheter, and she writes articles and books mostly for a feminist angle. Read more
• 21 Mar 1966: Matthew Maynard, English cricketer and coach Matthew Peter Maynard, is an English cricket coach and former cricketer. He played in four Tests and fourteen ODIs for England. Read more
• 21 Mar 1966: DJ Premier, American DJ and producer Christopher Edward Martin, known professionally as DJ Premier, is an American record producer and DJ. He has been frequently lauded as one of hip hop's greatest producers by publications such as Vibe. He formed the hip hop duo Gang Starr alongside American rapper Guru, with whom he has released seven albums. He formed another hip hop duo, PRhyme—with American rapper Royce da 5'9"—in 2014, with whom he has released two albums. Read more
• 21 Mar 1965: Xavier Bertrand, French businessman and politician, French Minister of Social Affairs Xavier René Louis Bertrand is a French politician; he is president of the regional council of Hauts-de-France since the 2015 regional elections. Read more
• 21 Mar 1965: Thomas Frank, American author, historian and political analyst Thomas Carr Frank is an American political analyst, and historian. He co-founded and edited The Baffler magazine. Frank is the author of the books What's the Matter with Kansas? (2004) and Listen, Liberal (2016), among others. From 2008 to 2010 he wrote "The Tilting Yard", a column in The Wall Street Journal. Read more
• 21 Mar 1965: Cynthia Geary, American actress Cynthia Geary is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Shelly Tambo on the television series Northern Exposure (1990–1995), which earned her two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Read more
• 21 Mar 1964: Ieuan Evans, Welsh rugby player Ieuan Cennydd Evans is a Welsh former rugby union player. He played as a wing for Llanelli, Bath, Wales and the British and Irish Lions. He is the fourth highest try scorer for Wales and joint 32nd in the world on the all-time test try scoring list. Evans held the record for the most Wales caps as captain with 28, a record overtaken by Ryan Jones in 2012. Read more
• 21 Mar 1964: Jesper Skibby, Danish cyclist Jesper Skibby is a retired professional road racing cyclist. He won at least one stage at each of the major tours. He was one of the most popular in Denmark, not only because of his talent, but also because of his wit and his constant banter. He rode for the Dutch TVM from 1989 to 1997, but switched to the Danish team Team home – Jack & Jones in 1998, where he ended his active career in 2000. Read more
• 21 Mar 1963: Shawon Dunston, American baseball player Shawon Donnell Dunston is an American former professional baseball player. A shortstop, Dunston played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1985 through 2002. On January 13, 2023, he was selected as a member of the 2023 class of the Chicago Cubs Hall of Fame. Read more
• 21 Mar 1963: Ronald Koeman, Dutch footballer and manager Ronald Koeman is a Dutch professional football manager and former player who is the manager of the Netherlands national team. Koeman scored over 250 goals whilst playing in defence for the majority of his career. Koeman was capable of playing both as a defender and as a midfielder; he frequently played as a sweeper, although he was equally known for his goalscoring, long-range shooting, and accuracy from free kicks and penalties. Because of his goalscoring, he is considered one of the best attacking center backs of all time. Read more
• 21 Mar 1963: Shawn Lane, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer (died 2003) Shawn Lane was an American musician who released two studio albums and collaborated with a variety of musicians including Ringo Starr, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Reggie Young, Joe Walsh, Jonas Hellborg, Anders Johansson, Jens Johansson and many others. After studying the piano, he learned to play the guitar, which he played with exceptional speed. Read more
• 21 Mar 1963: Share Pedersen, American bass player Sharon June "Share" Ross is an American musician. She was the bassist, and high-harmony vocalist of the female glam metal/hard rock band, Vixen, from whom she has been on hiatus since February 2022. Read more
• 21 Mar 1962: Farahnaz Bahrami, Norwegian politician Farahnaz Bahrami is a Norwegian politician and deputy member of the Storting. A member of the Labour Party, she has represented Hedmark since October 2025. Read more
• 21 Mar 1962: Matthew Broderick, American actor Matthew Broderick is an American actor. He starred in WarGames (1983) as a teen government hacker, and Ladyhawke (1985), a medieval fantasy alongside Rutger Hauer and Michelle Pfeiffer. He played the title role in the Golden Globe–nominated Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), the voice of adult Simba in Disney's The Lion King (1994), and Leo Bloom in both the Broadway musical The Producers and its 2005 film adaptation. Other films he has starring credits in include Glory (1989), The Freshman (1990), The Cable Guy (1996), Godzilla (1998), Inspector Gadget (1999), You Can Count on Me (2000), The Last Shot (2004) and Tower Heist (2011). Broderick also directed himself in Infinity (1996) and provided voice work in Arabian Knight (1995), Good Boy! (2003), Bee Movie (2007), The Tale of Despereaux (2008) and Wonder Park (2019). Read more
• 21 Mar 1962: Kathy Greenwood, Canadian actress and screenwriter Kathryn Greenwood is a Canadian actress and comedian. She appeared on the American version of Whose Line Is It Anyway? numerous times, and played Grace Bailey on the Canadian television drama series Wind at My Back. Read more
• 21 Mar 1962: Rosie O'Donnell, American actress, producer, and talk show host Roseann O'Donnell is an American talk show host, comedian, and actress. She began her comedy career as a teenager and received her breakthrough on the television series Star Search in 1984. After a series of television and film roles that introduced her to a larger national audience, O'Donnell hosted her own syndicated daytime talk show, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, between 1996 and 2002, which won several Daytime Emmy Awards. During this period, she developed the nickname "Queen of Nice", as well as a reputation for philanthropic efforts. Read more
• 21 Mar 1962: Mark Waid, American author Mark Waid is an American comic book writer best known for his work on DC Comics titles The Flash, Kingdom Come and Superman: Birthright as well as his work on Captain America, Fantastic Four and Daredevil for Marvel. Other comics publishers he has done work for include Fantagraphics, Event, Top Cow, Dynamite, and Archie Comics. Read more
• 21 Mar 1961: Kassie DePaiva, American actress Katherine Virginia "Kassie" DePaiva is an American actress and singer. She is best known for playing the roles of Chelsea Reardon on the CBS soap opera Guiding Light, Blair Cramer on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live, and Eve Donovan on the NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives. She received one Daytime Emmy Award nomination for her role on One Life to Live and two nominations for her role on Days Of Our Lives. DePaiva also starred as Bobby Joe in the horror film Evil Dead II (1986). As a singer, she has released three albums, Naked (2000), No Regrets (2005), and I Want to Love You (2007). Read more
• 21 Mar 1961: Lothar Matthäus, German footballer and manager Lothar Herbert Matthäus is a German football pundit and former professional player and manager. He captained West Germany to victory in the 1990 FIFA World Cup and was awarded the Ballon d'Or. In 1991, he was named the first FIFA World Player of the Year, and remains the only German to have received the award. He was also included in the Ballon d'Or Dream Team in 2020. Read more
• 21 Mar 1961: Gary O'Reilly, English footballer Gary Mills O'Reilly is an English former professional footballer who played in the Football League for Tottenham Hotspur, Brighton & Hove Albion, Crystal Palace and Birmingham City as a central defender. Read more
• 21 Mar 1961: Kim Turner, American hurdler Kimberly "Kim" Seals is an American former athlete who competed mainly in the 100 meter hurdles. She won the 1984 US Olympic trials and went on to win a bronze medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. She also won the 1988 US national title. Read more
• 21 Mar 1960: Benito T. de Leon, Filipino general Benito Antonio Templo de León is a retired military officer of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). While a Roman Catholic, he was conferred the rare Muslim-Maranao honorary title of Sultan a Romapunut for his peace efforts. De León held the Philippine Army rank of major general and was the commander of the 5th Infantry Division until his designation as Inspector General of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. He retired in 2016 after reaching the mandatory age of 56. Read more
• 21 Mar 1960: Marwan Farhat, Syrian actor and voice actor Marwan Farhat is a Syrian television actor and voice actor. Read more
• 21 Mar 1960: Raivo Puusepp, Estonian architect Raivo Puusepp is an Estonian architect. Read more
• 21 Mar 1960: Ayrton Senna, Brazilian race car driver (died 1994) Ayrton Senna da Silva was a Brazilian racing driver who competed in Formula One from 1984 to 1994. Senna won three Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles with McLaren, and—at the time of his death—held the record for most pole positions (65), among others; he won 41 Grands Prix across 11 seasons. Read more
• 21 Mar 1960: Robert Sweet, American drummer and producer Robert Lee Sweet is the drummer of the Christian metal band Stryper. He and his brother Michael founded the band as Roxx or Roxx Regime. Robert became known as the "Visual Time Keeper" for his wild drumming and captivating drum kits. Unlike most drummers, Sweet faces in the direction of stage left or right while playing, not straight ahead, so that the audience can see him and not have their view of him obscured by his drumkit. He began using a sideways setup in 1978 as a way to enhance his showmanship and connect with the audience. Sweet also played a key role in the visual direction of the band itself as well as being a significant contributor to the group. Read more
• 21 Mar 1959: Sarah Jane Morris, English singer-songwriter Sarah Jane Morris is a British singer of pop, jazz, rock and R&B and a songwriter from Southampton, England. Read more
• 21 Mar 1959: Yuval Rotem, Israeli diplomat Yuval Rotem is an Israeli diplomat who is currently the Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Read more
• 21 Mar 1959: Nobuo Uematsu, Japanese keyboard player and composer Nobuo Uematsu is a Japanese composer and keyboardist best known for his contributions to the Final Fantasy video game series by Square Enix. A self-taught musician, he began playing the piano at the age of twelve, with English singer-songwriter Elton John as one of his biggest influences in pursuing a musical career. Read more
• 21 Mar 1958: Marlies Göhr, German sprinter Marlies Göhr, née Marlies Oelsner, is a former East German track and field athlete, the winner of the 100 metres at the inaugural World Championships in 1983. She ranked in the top 10 of the 100 m world rankings for twelve straight years, ranking first in six of those years. During this time she won many medals as a sprinter at major international championships and set several world records. Read more
• 21 Mar 1958: Brad Hall, American comedian, director, and screenwriter William Bradford Hall is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He appeared on Saturday Night Live from 1982 to 1984. He was also known for manning the Weekend Update anchor desk on the show. Read more
• 21 Mar 1958: Gary Oldman, English actor, filmmaker, musician, and author Sir Gary Leonard Oldman is an English actor and filmmaker. Known for his versatility and intense acting style, he has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, three British Academy Film Awards and nominations for three Primetime Emmy Awards. His films have grossed over US$11 billion worldwide, making him one of the highest-grossing actors of all time. Read more
• 21 Mar 1956: Dick Beardsley, American runner Dick Beardsley is an American long-distance runner. He tied for first place with Inge Simonsen in the inaugural 1981 London Marathon and finished second to Alberto Salazar by one second in the 1982 Boston Marathon. Read more
• 21 Mar 1956: Guy Chadwick, German-English singer-songwriter and guitarist Guy Stephen Chadwick is an English singer, songwriter and guitarist, best known as the frontman of alternative band the House of Love for which he wrote the majority of the band's material. Read more
• 21 Mar 1956: Richard H. Kirk, English guitarist, keyboard player, composer, and producer (died 2021) Richard Harold Kirk was an English composer, musician and producer. He is best known for his work in electronic music, and for co-founding the influential music group Cabaret Voltaire in 1973. As a solo artist, Kirk released music under his own name as well as under more than 30 aliases. He also collaborated with other artists in a range of groups such as Sweet Exorcist and Acid Horse. Read more
• 21 Mar 1956: Ingrid Kristiansen, Norwegian runner Ingrid Kristiansen is a Norwegian former athlete. She was one of the best female long-distance runners during the 1980s. She is a former world record holder in the 5000 metres, 10,000 metres and the marathon. Kristiansen was a World Champion on the track, roads and cross-country, becoming the first athlete to win World titles on all three surfaces. At the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, she finished fourth in the first women's Olympic marathon. At the 1988 Seoul Olympics, she dropped out of the 10,000 metres final while leading. Early in her career, she was also an elite cross country skier, winning several Norwegian titles and a European junior championships. Read more
• 21 Mar 1955: Fadi Abboud, Lebanese economist and politician Fadi Abboud is a Lebanese politician and businessman. Read more
• 21 Mar 1955: Bob Bennett, American singer-songwriter and guitarist Bob Bennett is an American contemporary Christian music singer, guitarist and songwriter from Downey, California. Bennett is known for his distinctive baritone voice, Christian lyrics and folk-inspired guitar playing. Read more
• 21 Mar 1955: Jair Bolsonaro, Brazilian politician and retired military officer, 38th President of Brazil Jair Messias Bolsonaro is a Brazilian politician and former military officer who served as the 38th president of Brazil from 2019 to 2023. He previously served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1991 to 2019. Read more
• 21 Mar 1955: Dimitrios Papadimoulis, Greek politician Dimitrios Papadimoulis is a Greek politician and former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) as a member of The Left in the European Parliament – GUE/NGL. Read more
• 21 Mar 1955: Bärbel Wöckel, German sprinter Bärbel Wöckel, née Bärbel Eckert, is a former East German sprinter. She never ran a world record in the individual disciplines. However, she ran several world records as part of relay teams with Doris Maletzki, Renate Stecher and Christina Heinich over 4 × 100 meters, the last time on September 8, 1974, in Rome. At the GDR Championships she took first place in the 4 × 100-meter relay in 1974, 1977, 1978, 1981 to 1984. In 1976 she won third place with the team. Read more
• 21 Mar 1954: Prayut Chan-o-cha, Thai politician, Prime Minister of Thailand Prayut Chan-o-cha is a Thai former politician and military officer who became the 29th prime minister of Thailand after seizing power in the 2014 coup d'état and served until 2023. He was concurrently the minister of defence in his own government from 2019 to 2023. Prayut served as commander-in-chief of the Royal Thai Army from 2010 to 2014 and led the coup d'état which installed the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), the military junta which governed Thailand between 22 May 2014 and 10 July 2019. Read more
• 21 Mar 1954: Mike Dunleavy Sr., American basketball player, coach, and executive Michael Joseph Dunleavy Sr. is an American former professional basketball player, coach, and former general manager of the National Basketball Association's Los Angeles Clippers. He was most recently the head coach of the Tulane University men's basketball team. Dunleavy is the father of former professional basketball player Mike Dunleavy Jr. Read more
• 21 Mar 1954: Steve Sheppard, American basketball player Steven Bernard Sheppard is an American former professional basketball player from New York City, who was nicknamed "Bear". Read more
• 21 Mar 1953: Steve Furber, English computer scientist and academic Stephen Byram Furber is an English computer scientist, mathematician and hardware engineer, and Emeritus ICL Professor of Computer Engineering in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Manchester, UK. After completing his education at the University of Cambridge, he spent the 1980s at Acorn Computers, where he was a principal designer of the BBC Micro and the ARM 32-bit RISC microprocessor. As of 2023, over 250 billion ARM chips have been manufactured, powering much of the world's mobile computing and embedded systems, everything from sensors to smartphones to servers. Read more
• 21 Mar 1953: Paul Martin Lester, American photographer, author, and educator (died 2023) Paul Martin Lester was an American professor of communications, photojournalist, and author known for his contributions to the fields of visual communication and photojournalism ethics. He was Clinical Professor at the School of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication (ATEC) and a Professor Emeritus from California State University, Fullerton. Read more
• 21 Mar 1953: David Wisniewski, English-American author and illustrator (died 2002) David R. Wisniewski, was an American writer and illustrator best known for children's books. Read more
• 21 Mar 1951: Conrad Lozano, American bass player Conrad R. Lozano is an American musician and the bass player for Los Lobos. Read more
• 21 Mar 1951: Russell Thompkins Jr., American singer-songwriter Russell Allen Thompkins Jr. is an American soul singer, best known as the original lead singer of the vocal group The Stylistics and noted for his high tenor, countertenor, and falsetto vocals. With Russell as lead singer, The Stylistics had 12 straight Top 10 Billboard R&B singles, and 5 gold singles from 1971 through 1974. Read more
• 21 Mar 1950: Roger Hodgson, English singer-songwriter and keyboard player Charles Roger Pomfret Hodgson is an English singer, musician and songwriter. He is best known as the founding member and former co-frontman of the rock band Supertramp. He wrote or co-wrote and sang the majority of the band’s hits including "Dreamer", "Give a Little Bit", "Take the Long Way Home", "The Logical Song", "It's Raining Again", and "Breakfast in America". Read more
• 21 Mar 1950: Sergey Lavrov, Russian politician and diplomat, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov is a Russian diplomat who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2004. He is the country's longest-serving foreign minister since the Soviet era. Read more
• 21 Mar 1950: Ron Oden, American minister and politician, 19th Mayor of Palm Springs Ron Oden is an American politician. In November 2003, he was elected the first gay African-American mayor of Palm Springs, California, after serving eight years on the city council. He became the first Black openly gay man to be a mayor of a U.S. city. He was also "the first gay African-American elected to lead a California city." In December 2017, Palm Springs elected "America's first all-LGBTQ city council." Read more
• 21 Mar 1949: Alvin Kallicharran, Guyanese cricketer and coach Alvin Isaac Kallicharran is a Guyanese former cricketer who played Test cricket for the West Indies between 1972 and 1981 as a left-handed batsman and right-arm off spinner. He was a member of the squads which won the 1975 Cricket World Cup and the 1979 Cricket World Cup. Read more
• 21 Mar 1949: Andy Love, Scottish-English politician Andy Love is a British Labour Co-operative politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for Edmonton from 1997 to 2015. Read more
• 21 Mar 1949: Eddie Money, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2019) Edward Joseph Money was an American singer and songwriter who had his greatest commercial success in the 1970s and 1980s. Money had eleven Top 40 singles, starting with "Baby Hold On" in 1977 and including the Billboard Top 10 hits "Take Me Home Tonight" (1986) and "Walk on Water" (1988). Critic Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times called him a working-class rocker. In 1987, he was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for "Take Me Home Tonight". Read more
• 21 Mar 1949: Slavoj Žižek, Slovenian sociologist, philosopher, and academic Slavoj Žižek is a Slovenian neo-Marxist philosopher, cultural theorist and public intellectual. Read more
• 21 Mar 1948: Scott Fahlman, American computer scientist and academic Scott Elliott Fahlman is an American computer scientist and Professor Emeritus at Carnegie Mellon University's Language Technologies Institute and Computer Science Department. He is notable for early work on automated planning and scheduling in a blocks world, on semantic networks, on neural networks, on the programming languages Dylan, and Common Lisp, and he was one of the founders of Lucid Inc. During the period when it was standardized, he was recognized as "the leader of Common Lisp." From 2006 to 2015, Fahlman was engaged in developing a knowledge base named Scone, based in part on his thesis work on the NETL Semantic Network. He also is credited with coining the use of the emoticon. Read more
• 21 Mar 1947: George Johnston, Scottish footballer George Johnston is a Scottish former professional footballer who played as a forward. He played more than 150 matches in the English Football League. Read more
• 21 Mar 1946: Timothy Dalton, Welsh-English actor Timothy Leonard Dalton Leggett is a British actor. He gained international prominence as the fourth actor to portray fictional secret agent James Bond in the Eon Productions film series, starring in The Living Daylights (1987) and Licence to Kill (1989). Read more
• 21 Mar 1946: Ray Dorset, English singer-songwriter and guitarist Ray Dorset is a British guitarist, singer, songwriter, and founder of Mungo Jerry. Read more
• 21 Mar 1946: Joseph Mitsuaki Takami, Japanese cardinal Joseph Mitsuaki Takami is a Japanese prelate of the Catholic Church who served as archbishop of Nagasaki from 2003 to 2021. Read more
• 21 Mar 1945: Anthony Grabiner, Baron Grabiner, English lawyer Anthony Stephen Grabiner, Baron Grabiner, KC is a British barrister, academic administrator, and life peer. Between 1994 and 2024, he was head of chambers at One Essex Court, a leading set of commercial barristers in the Temple, and continues to represent leading corporate and financial clients. From 2014 to 2021 he was the Master of Clare College, Cambridge and, since 2015, he has been the President of the University of Law. Read more
• 21 Mar 1945: Charles Greene, American sprinter and coach (died 2022) Charles Edward "Charlie" Greene was an American track and field sprinter and winner of the gold medal in the 4 × 100 metres relay at the 1968 Summer Olympics. Read more
• 21 Mar 1945: Rose Stone, American singer-songwriter and keyboard player Rose Stone is an American singer and keyboardist. She is best known as one of the lead singers in Sly and the Family Stone, a popular psychedelic soul/funk band founded by her brothers, Sly Stone and Freddie Stone. Read more
• 21 Mar 1944: Marie-Christine Barrault, French actress Marie-Christine Barrault is a French actress. She is best known for her performance in Cousin Cousine (1975) for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. In 2010, she released her autobiography, titled This Long Way to Get to You. Read more
• 21 Mar 1944: Janet Daley, American-English journalist and author Janet Daley is an American-born conservative journalist based in Britain. She is a columnist for The Sunday Telegraph. Read more
• 21 Mar 1944: Hideki Ishima, Japanese guitarist Hideki Ishima is a Japanese musician, known primarily for his work with Flower Travellin' Band and for creating the sitarla instrument. A guitarist and sitar player for nearly forty years, he now exclusively plays the sitarla, an instrument he invented in 2000 that combines aspects of a sitar with an electric guitar. Guitarists Kazuo Takeda, Akira Takasaki, Rolly, and Mikael Åkerfeldt have cited him as an influence. Read more
• 21 Mar 1944: Mike Jackson, English general (died 2024) General Sir Michael David Jackson was a British Army officer and one of its most high-profile generals since the Second World War. Originally commissioned into the Intelligence Corps in 1963, he transferred to the Parachute Regiment in 1970, with which he served two of his three tours of duty in Northern Ireland. On his first, he was present as an adjutant at the events of the Ballymurphy massacre (1971), where eleven unarmed civilians were shot dead by British troops, and then at Bloody Sunday in 1972, when British soldiers opened fire on unarmed protesters, killing fourteen. On his second, he was a company commander in the aftermath of the Warrenpoint ambush (1979), when the IRA killed 18 soldiers with two roadside bombs, the British Army's heaviest single loss of life during the Troubles. He was assigned to a staff post at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in 1982 before assuming command of the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment, in 1984. Jackson was posted to Northern Ireland for the third time, as a brigade commander, in the early 1990s. Read more
• 21 Mar 1944: David Lindley, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer (died 2023) David Perry Lindley was an American musician who founded the rock band El Rayo-X and worked with many other performers including Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Ry Cooder, Bonnie Raitt, Warren Zevon, Curtis Mayfield and Dolly Parton. He mastered such a wide variety of instruments that Acoustic Guitar magazine referred to him not as a multi-instrumentalist but instead as a "maxi-instrumentalist." Read more
• 21 Mar 1943: István Gyulai, Hungarian sprinter and sportscaster (died 2006) István Gyulai was a former Hungarian television commentator and General Secretary of the IAAF and the AIPS. Read more
• 21 Mar 1943: Hartmut Haenchen, German conductor Hartmut Haenchen is a German conductor, known as a specialist for the music of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, and for conducting operas in the leading opera houses of the world. Read more
• 21 Mar 1943: Vivian Stanshall, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and painter (died 1995) Vivian Stanshall was an English singer-songwriter, musician, author, poet and wit, best known for his work with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, for his exploration of the British upper classes in Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, and for acting as Master of Ceremonies on Mike Oldfield's album Tubular Bells. Read more
• 21 Mar 1942: Françoise Dorléac, French actress (died 1967) Françoise Paulette Louise Dorléac was a French actress. She was the elder sister of Sylvie Dorléac and Catherine Deneuve, with whom she starred in the musical comedy film, The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967). Her other films include Philippe de Broca's That Man from Rio, François Truffaut's The Soft Skin, Val Guest's Where the Spies Are (1965), and Roman Polanski's Cul-de-sac (1966). Read more
• 21 Mar 1942: Amina Claudine Myers, American singer-songwriter and pianist Amina Claudine Myers is an American jazz pianist, organist, vocalist, composer, and arranger. Read more
• 21 Mar 1942: Kostas Politis, Greek basketball player and coach (died 2018) Konstantinos "Kostas" Politis was a Greek professional basketball player and coach. Read more
• 21 Mar 1942: Patcha Ramachandra Rao, Indian metallurgist, educator and administrator (died 2010) Patcha Ramachandra Rao was a metallurgist and administrator. He has the unique distinction of being the only vice-chancellor (2002–05) of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) who was also a student (1963–68) and faculty (1964–92) at that institution. From 1992 to 2002, Rao was the director of the National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur. After his tenure as vice-chancellor of B.H.U., in 2005, he took the reins of the Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT) as its first vice-chancellor. He was to serve DIAT until his superannuation in 2007. From 2007 till the end, Rao was a Raja Ramanna Fellow at the International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials, in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. Read more
• 21 Mar 1940: Solomon Burke, American singer-songwriter (died 2010) Solomon Vincent McDonald Burke was an American singer who shaped the sound of rhythm and blues as one of the founding fathers of soul music in the 1960s. He has been called "a key transitional figure bridging R&B and soul", and was known for his "prodigious output". Read more
• 21 Mar 1940: Andrea Elle, German bicyclist Andrea Elle is a former East German road bicycle racer. Read more
• 21 Mar 1939: Kathleen Widdoes, American actress Kathleen Effie Widdoes is an American actress. She is known for playing the role of Emma Snyder on the CBS Daytime soap opera As the World Turns. For her work on As the World Turns, she was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 1986, 1987, and 1991. She also received a Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 1994. Widdoes has appeared in theatrical productions, including The Beggar's Opera (1972), Much Ado About Nothing (1972), Brighton Beach Memoirs (1983), The Tower of Evil (1991), Hamlet (1992), and Franny's Way (2002). She has been nominated for a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award. She has won two Obie Awards and a Lucille Lortel Award. Widdoes has also appeared in films, including The Group (1966), The Sea Gull (1968), and Courage Under Fire (1996). Read more
• 21 Mar 1938: Michael Foreman, English author and illustrator Michael Foreman is a British author and illustrator, one of the best-known and most prolific creators of children's books. He won the 1982 and 1989 Kate Greenaway Medals for British children's book illustration and he was a runner-up five times. Read more
• 21 Mar 1938: Grahame Thomas, Australian cricketer Grahame Thomas is a former Australian cricketer who played in eight Tests in 1965 and 1966. Read more
• 21 Mar 1937: Ann Clwyd, Welsh journalist and politician, Shadow Secretary of State for Wales (died 2023) Ann Clwyd Roberts was a Welsh Labour politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Cynon Valley for 35 years, from 1984 until 2019. Although she had intended to stand down in 2015, she was re-elected in that year's general election and in 2017 before standing down in 2019. Clwyd is the longest-serving female MP for a Welsh constituency. Read more
• 21 Mar 1937: Tom Flores, American football player and coach Thomas Raymond Flores is an American former professional football player in the American Football League (AFL) and coach in the National Football League (NFL). He played as a quarterback for nine seasons in the AFL, primarily with the Oakland Raiders. After his retirement as a coach, he was a radio announcer for more than twenty years. Read more
• 21 Mar 1937: Pierre-Jean Rémy, French diplomat and author (died 2010) Pierre-Jean Rémy is the pen-name of Jean-Pierre Angremy who was a French diplomat, novelist, and essayist. He was elected to the Académie française on 16 June 1988, and won the 1986 Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française for his novel Une ville immortelle. Read more
• 21 Mar 1936: Ed Broadbent, Canadian pilot and politician (died 2024) John Edward Broadbent was a Canadian social-democratic politician and political scientist. He was leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) from 1975 to 1989, and a member of Parliament from 1968 to 1990 and from 2004 to 2006. He led the NDP through four federal elections. He oversaw a period of growth for the party with its parliamentary representation rising from 17 to 43 seats as of the 1988 federal election. Read more
• 21 Mar 1936: Mike Westbrook, English pianist and composer Michael John David Westbrook is an English jazz pianist, composer, and writer of orchestrated jazz pieces. He is married to the musician, librettist and painter Kate Westbrook. Read more
• 21 Mar 1935: Brian Clough, English footballer and manager (died 2004) Brian Howard Clough was an English football player and manager, primarily known for his successes as a manager with Derby County and Nottingham Forest. He won the European Cup twice with Nottingham Forest and is one of four managers to have won the English league with two different clubs. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time. Charismatic, outspoken and often controversial, his achievements with Derby and Forest, two clubs with little prior history of success, are rated among the greatest in football history. His teams were also noted for playing attractive football and for their good sportsmanship. Despite applying several times and being a popular choice for the job, he was never appointed England manager and has been dubbed the "greatest manager England never had". Read more
• 21 Mar 1934: Al Freeman, Jr., American actor and director (died 2012) Albert Cornelius Freeman Jr. was an American actor, director, and educator. A life member of The Actors Studio, Freeman appeared in a wide variety of plays, ranging from Leroi Jones' Slave/Toilet to Joe Papp's revivals of Long Day's Journey Into Night and Troilus and Cressida, and films, including My Sweet Charlie, Finian's Rainbow, and Malcolm X, as well as television series The Mod Squad, Kojak, and Maude, and a long-running role on the soap opera One Life to Live. Read more
• 21 Mar 1933: John Hall, English businessman Sir John Hall is a property developer in North East England. He is also life president and former chairman of Newcastle United Football Club. Read more
• 21 Mar 1933: Michael Heseltine, Welsh businessman and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Michael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, is a British politician. Having begun his career as a property developer, he became one of the founders of the publishing house Haymarket Media Group in 1957. Heseltine served as a Conservative Member of Parliament from 1966 to 2001. He was a prominent figure in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, and served as Deputy Prime Minister and First Secretary of State under Major from 1995 to 1997. Read more
• 21 Mar 1932: Walter Gilbert, American physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate Walter Gilbert is an American biochemist, physicist, molecular biology pioneer, and Nobel laureate. Read more
• 21 Mar 1932: Joseph Silverstein, American violinist and conductor (died 2015) Joseph Harry Silverstein was an American violinist and conductor. Read more
• 21 Mar 1931: Clark L. Brundin, American-English engineer and academic (died 2021)

  Clark Lannerdahl Brundin was an American-born academic who was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Warwick, President of Templeton College, and an Oxford councillor. Read more

• 21 Mar 1931: Catherine Gibson, Scottish swimmer (died 2013) Catherine Gibson, later known by her married name Catherine Brown, was a Scottish swimmer. During a 16-year career she won three European Championships medals and a bronze medal at the 1948 Summer Olympics, Britain's sole swimming trophy in the home-based Games. In 2008, she was inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame. Read more
• 21 Mar 1931: Toyonobori, Japanese sumo wrestler (died 1998) Michiharu Sadano , known in sumo and professional wrestling as Michiharu Toyonobori or simply by his shikona Toyonobori , was a Japanese professional wrestler and sumo wrestler. Read more
• 21 Mar 1931: Al Williamson, American illustrator (died 2010) Alfonso Williamson was an American cartoonist, comic book artist and illustrator specializing in adventure, Western, science fiction and fantasy. Read more
• 21 Mar 1930: James Coco, American actor (died 1987) James Emil Coco was an American stage and screen actor. He was the recipient of a Primetime Emmy Award, a Drama Desk Award, a Cable ACE Award and three Obie Awards, as well as nominations for a Tony Award, an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. Coco is remembered for his supporting roles in the films Man of La Mancha (1972), Murder by Death (1976) and Only When I Laugh (1981). Read more
• 21 Mar 1930: Otis Spann, American blues pianist, singer and composer (died 1970) Otis Spann was an American blues musician many consider the leading postwar Chicago blues pianist. Read more
• 21 Mar 1929: Maurice Catarcio, American wrestler (died 2005) Maurice A. Catarcio was an American professional wrestler. He was best known for competing in the then World Wide Wrestling Federation from 1957 to 1960, under the ring-name The Matador. After being diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1991, he became an advocate for public health and fitness. He was also in The Guinness Book of World Records for his public displays of strength. Read more
• 21 Mar 1928: Surya Bahadur Thapa, Nepalese politician, 24th Prime Minister of Nepal (died 2015) Surya Bahadur Thapa was a Nepali politician and a five-time Prime Minister of Nepal. He served under three different kings in a political career lasting more than 50 years. Read more
• 21 Mar 1927: Halton Arp, American-German astronomer and critic (died 2013) Halton Christian "Chip" Arp was an American astronomer. He is remembered for his 1966 book Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, which catalogued unusual-looking galaxies and presented their images. Read more
• 21 Mar 1927: Hans-Dietrich Genscher, German soldier and politician, Vice-Chancellor of Germany (died 2016) Hans-Dietrich Genscher was a German statesman and a member of the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), who served as Federal Minister of the Interior from 1969 to 1974, and as Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs and Vice Chancellor of Germany from 1974 to 1992, making him the longest-serving occupant of either post and the only person to have held one of these positions under two different Chancellors of the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1991 he was chairman of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Read more
• 21 Mar 1926: André Delvaux, Belgian director and screenwriter (died 2002) André Albert Auguste Delvaux was a Belgian film director. He co-founded the film school INSAS in 1962 and is regarded as the founder of the Belgian national cinema. Adapting works by writers such as Johan Daisne, Julien Gracq and Marguerite Yourcenar, he received international attention for directing magic realist films. Read more
• 21 Mar 1925: Harold Ashby, American saxophonist (died 2003) Harold Ashby was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. He worked with Duke Ellington's band, replacing Jimmy Hamilton in 1968. In 1959, he recorded backing Willie Dixon on the latter's first album, Willie's Blues. Read more
• 21 Mar 1925: Peter Brook, English-French director and producer (died 2022) Peter Stephen Paul Brook was an English theatre and film director. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential figures in the history of twentieth-century theatre, he has received various accolades, including two Tony Awards, the Praemium Imperiale, the Prix Italia and the Europe Theatre Prize. In 2021, he was awarded India's Padma Shri. Read more
• 21 Mar 1925: Hugo Koblet, Swiss cyclist (died 1964) Hugo Koblet was a Swiss champion cyclist. He won the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia as well as competing in six-day and pursuit races on the track. He won 70 races as a professional. He died in a car accident amid speculation that he had committed suicide. Read more
• 21 Mar 1924: Philip Abbott, American actor (died 1998)
  Philip Abbott was an American character actor. He appeared in several films and numerous television series, including a lead role as Arthur Ward in the crime series The F.B.I. Read more
• 21 Mar 1924: Dov Shilansky, Lithuanian-Israeli lawyer and politician (died 2010) Dov Shilansky was an Israeli lawyer, politician and Speaker of the Knesset from 1988 to 1992. Read more
• 21 Mar 1923: Louis-Edmond Hamelin, Canadian geographer, author, and academic (died 2020) Louis-Edmond Hamelin, was a Canadian geographer, professor, and author born in Saint-Didace, Quebec, Canada, best known for his studies of Northern Canada. Read more
• 21 Mar 1923: Rezső Nyers, Hungarian politician (died 2018) Rezső Nyers was a Hungarian politician who served as Minister of Finance of Hungary from 1960 to 1962. For a few months in 1989, he was fifth and last leader of the Communist Hungarian People's Republic. Read more
• 21 Mar 1923: Nizar Qabbani, Syrian poet, publisher, and diplomat (died 1998) Nizar Tawfiq Qabbani was a Syrian poet, diplomat, and publisher. Widely regarded as Syria’s national poet. Qabbani’s work is noted for its blend of simplicity and lyrical elegance, addressing themes of love, eroticism, feminism, religion, Arab nationalism, and resistance to both foreign imperialism and domestic authoritarianism. He remains one of the most celebrated and influential contemporary poets in the Arab world. His notable relatives include the playwright Abu Khalil Qabbani, diplomat Sabah Qabbani, writer Rana Kabbani, and translator Yasmine Seale. Read more
• 21 Mar 1923: Nirmala Srivastava, Indian religious leader, founded Sahaja Yoga (died 2011) Nirmala Srivastava, also known as Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, was the founder and guru of Sahaja Yoga, a new religious movement. She claimed to have been born fully realised and spent her life working for peace by developing and promoting a simple technique through which people can achieve their self-realization. Read more
• 21 Mar 1922: Russ Meyer, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2004) Russell Albion Meyer was an American filmmaker. He was primarily known for writing and directing a successful series of sexploitation films featuring campy humor, sly satire and large-breasted women, which have attracted a considerable cult following. His best-known works include Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965), Vixen! (1968), Supervixens (1975), Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens (1979), and the film he considered to be his definitive work, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970). Read more
• 21 Mar 1921: Arthur Grumiaux, Belgian violinist and pianist (died 1986) Baron Arthur Grumiaux was a Belgian violinist, considered by some to have been "one of the few truly great violin virtuosi of the twentieth century". He has been noted for having a "consistently beautiful tone and flawless intonation". English music critic and broadcaster, Edward Greenfield wrote of him that he was "a master virtuoso who consistently refused to make a show of his technical prowess". Read more
• 21 Mar 1921: Antony Hopkins, English pianist, composer, and conductor (died 2014)

  Antony Hopkins was a composer, pianist, and conductor, as well as a writer and radio broadcaster. He was widely known for his books of musical analysis and for his radio programmes Talking About Music, broadcast by the BBC from 1954 to 1992, first on the Third Programme, later Radio 3, and then on Radio 4. Read more

• 21 Mar 1920: Manolis Chiotis, Greek singer-songwriter and bouzouki player (died 1970) Manolis Chiotis was a Greek rebetiko and laiko composer, singer, and bouzouki player. He is considered one of the greatest bouzouki soloists of all time. He popularised the four-course bouzouki (tetrachordo) and introduced the guitar-like tuning, which he found better suited to the kind of virtuoso playing he was famous for. Read more
• 21 Mar 1920: Éric Rohmer, French director, film critic, journalist, novelist and screenwriter (died 2010) Jean Marie Maurice Schérer or Maurice Henri Joseph Schérer, known as Éric Rohmer, was a French film director, film critic, journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and teacher. Rohmer was the last of the post-World War II French New Wave directors to become established. He edited the influential film journal Cahiers du cinéma from 1957 to 1963, while most of his colleagues—among them Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut—were making the transition from critics to filmmakers and gaining international attention. Read more
• 21 Mar 1919: Douglas Warren, Australian bishop (died 2013) Douglas Joseph Warren was an Australian bishop of the Roman Catholic Church. At the time of his death at the Southern Cross Village in Parkes, New South Wales, on 6 February 2013, he was, at the age of 93, the oldest Australian Roman Catholic bishop. Read more
• 21 Mar 1918: Patrick Lucey, American captain and politician, 38th Governor of Wisconsin (died 2014) Patrick Joseph Lucey was an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 38th governor of Wisconsin from 1971 to 1977. He was also independent presidential candidate John B. Anderson's running mate in the 1980 presidential election. Read more
• 21 Mar 1918: Charles Thompson, American pianist and composer (died 2016) Charles Phillip Thompson, known as Sir Charles Thompson, was an American swing and bebop pianist, organist, composer, and arranger. Read more
• 21 Mar 1917: Frank Hardy, Australian journalist, author, and playwright (died 1994) Francis Joseph Hardy, published as Frank J. Hardy and also under the pseudonym Ross Franklyn, was an Australian novelist and writer. He is best known for his 1950 novel Power Without Glory, and for his later political activism. He brought the plight of Aboriginal Australians to international attention with the publication of his book, The Unlucky Australians, in 1968, written during the Gurindji Strike. He ran unsuccessfully for the Australian parliament twice as a Communist Party of Australia candidate. Read more
• 21 Mar 1916: Bismillah Khan, Indian shehnai player (died 2006) Ustad Bismillah Khan, often referred to by the title Ustad, was an Indian musician credited with popularizing the shehnai, a reeded woodwind instrument. His virtuosity made him a leading Hindustani classical music artist, indelibly linking his name with the woodwind instrument. While the shehnai had importance as a folk instrument played primarily by musicians schooled in traditional ceremonies, Khan elevated its status and brought it to the concert stage. Read more
• 21 Mar 1916: Ken Wharton, English race car driver (died 1957) Frederick Charles Kenneth Wharton was a British racing driver from Smethwick, England. He competed in off-road trials, hillclimbs, and rallying, and also raced sports cars and single-seaters. He began racing in the new National 500cc Formula in his own special, and later acquired a Cooper. His World Championship Grand Prix debut was at the 1952 Swiss event, run to Formula 2 regulations, where he started from 13th position on the grid and finished 4th. He participated in a total of 15 World Championship Grands Prix, from which he scored three championship points. Read more
• 21 Mar 1914: Paul Tortelier, French cellist and composer (died 1990) Paul Tortelier was a French cellist and composer. After an outstanding student career at the Conservatoire de Paris he played in orchestras in France and the US before the Second World War. After the war he became a well-known soloist, playing in countries round the globe. He taught at music schools in France, Germany and China, and gave televised masterclasses in England. He was particularly associated with the solo part in Richard Strauss's Don Quixote, cello concertos by Elgar and others, and Bach's Cello Suites. Read more
• 21 Mar 1913: George Abecassis, English race car driver and pilot (died 1991) George Edgar Abecassis was a British racing driver, and co-founder of the HWM Formula One team. Read more
• 21 Mar 1913: Guillermo Haro, Mexican astronomer (died 1988) Guillermo Haro Barraza was a Mexican astronomer. Through his own astronomical research and the formation of new institutions, Haro was influential in the development of modern observational astronomy in Mexico. Internationally, he is best known for his contribution to the discovery of Herbig–Haro objects. Read more
• 21 Mar 1912: André Laurendeau, Canadian journalist, playwright, and politician (died 1968) Joseph-Edmond-André Laurendeau was a journalist, politician, co-chair of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, and playwright in Quebec, Canada. He is usually referred to as André Laurendeau. He was active in Québécois life, in various spheres and capacities, for three decades. Laurendeau's career also "spanned the most turbulent periods in the history of Canada". Read more
• 21 Mar 1911: Walter Lincoln Hawkins, American scientist and inventor (died 1992) Walter Lincoln Hawkins was an American chemist and engineer widely regarded as a pioneer of polymer chemistry. For thirty-four years he worked at Bell Laboratories, where he was instrumental in designing a long-lasting plastic to sheath telephone cables, enabling the introduction of telephone services to thousands of Americans, especially those in rural communities. In addition to his pioneering research, Hawkins is also known for his advocacy efforts for minority students. He also served as the chairman of Montclair State University in 1973. Amongst his many awards, Hawkins was the first African-American to be elected to the National Academy of Engineering (1975), and, shortly before his death in 1992, he was awarded the National Medal of Technology by then-U.S. president, George H. W. Bush. Read more
• 21 Mar 1910: Julio Gallo, American businessman, co-founded E & J Gallo Winery (died 1993) Julio Gallo was one of two of the founders of the E & J Gallo Winery. Read more
• 21 Mar 1910: Muhammad Siddiq Khan, Bangladeshi librarian and educator (died 1978) Muhammad Siddiq Khan was the librarian of the Central Library of the University of Dhaka and the founder of the university's Department of Library Science. In March 2004, the Government of Bangladesh posthumously awarded him the Independence Day Award, the country's highest civil honor. Read more
• 21 Mar 1909: Harry Lane, English footballer (died 1977) Henry William Lane was an English professional footballer who scored 74 goals in 271 appearances in the Football League playing for Birmingham, Southend United and Plymouth Argyle. Read more
• 21 Mar 1907: Zoltán Kemény, Hungarian sculptor (died 1965) Zoltán Kemény was a Hungarian sculptor. Read more
• 21 Mar 1906: André Filho, Brazilian musician and songwriter (died 1974) Antônio André de Sá Filho, known as André Filho was a Brazilian actor, violinist, mandolinist, banjo player, guitarist, pianist, composer and singer. He worked with some of Brazil's most notable performers of the 1930s including Carmen Miranda, Mário Reis and Noel Rosa. Read more
• 21 Mar 1906: John D. Rockefeller III, American philanthropist (died 1978) John Davison Rockefeller III was an American philanthropist. Rockefeller was the eldest son and second child of John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller as well as a grandson of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller. He was engaged in a wide range of philanthropic projects, many of which his family had launched, as well as supporting organizations related to East Asian affairs. Rockefeller was also a major supporter of the Population Council, and the committee that created the Lincoln Center in Manhattan. Read more
• 21 Mar 1906: Jim Thompson, American businessman (died 1967) James Harrison Wilson Thompson was an American businessman who helped revitalize the Thai silk industry in the 1950s and 1960s. At the time of his disappearance he was one of the most famous Americans living in Asia. Time magazine claimed he "almost singlehanded(ly) saved Thailand's vital silk industry from extinction". Read more
• 21 Mar 1905: Phyllis McGinley, American author and poet (died 1978) Phyllis McGinley was an American author of children's books and poetry. Her poetry was in the style of light verse, specializing in humor, satiric tone and the positive aspects of suburban life. She won a Pulitzer Prize in 1961. Read more
• 21 Mar 1904: Jehane Benoît, Canadian journalist and author (died 1987) Jehane Benoît was a Canadian culinary author, speaker, commentator, journalist and broadcaster. Read more
• 21 Mar 1904: Forrest Mars, Sr., American candy maker, created M&M's and Mars bar (died 1999) Forrest Edward Mars Sr. was an American billionaire businessman and the driving force of the candy company Mars Inc. until 1973. Read more
• 21 Mar 1904: Nikos Skalkottas, Greek violinist and composer (died 1949) Nikos Skalkottas was a Greek composer of 20th-century classical music. A member of the Second Viennese School, he drew his influences from both the classical repertoire and the Greek tradition. He also produced a sizeable amount of tonal music in the last phase of his musical creativity. Read more
• 21 Mar 1902: Son House, American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1988) Edward James "Son" House Jr. was an American Delta blues singer and guitarist, noted for his highly emotional style of singing and slide guitar playing. Read more
• 21 Mar 1901: Karl Arnold, German businessman and politician, President of the German Bundesrat (died 1958) Karl Arnold was a German politician. He was Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia from 1947 to 1956. Read more
• 21 Mar 1899: Panagiotis Pipinelis, Greek politician, Prime Minister of Greece (died 1970) Panagiotis Pipinelis was a Greek politician and diplomat. Read more
• 21 Mar 1897: Sim Gokkes, Dutch composer and conductor (died 1943) Simon (Sim) Gokkes was a Dutch-Jewish composer. Read more
• 21 Mar 1897: Salvador Lutteroth, Mexican wrestling promoter, founded Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (died 1987) Salvador Lutteroth González was a Mexican professional wrestling promoter of the mid-twentieth century. Lutteroth's organization, Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL), was the dominant Mexican wrestling promotional enterprise from its founding in 1933 until Lutteroth left the company in the 1950s. Under its current name of Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), it is, to date, the longest-running active professional wrestling promotion in the world presenting three weekly shows. Lutteroth was known as the father of Mexican professional wrestling or lucha libre and, in his position as promoter and booker of the dominant promotion, was the most powerful man in Mexican wrestling, and one of the most powerful wrestling executives in the world. He was, in large part, responsible for the widespread fame of the most famous Mexican professional wrestlers of the mid-twentieth century, such as Octavio Gaona, the first Mexican wrestler to win the middleweight championship of the world by defeating Gus Kallio, Carlos Tarzán López, El Santo, Gory Guerrero, René Guajardo, Karloff Lagarde, Enrique Llanes, and the international league wrestler Medico Asesino, Rito Romero, Dorrel Dixon and Mil Máscaras, who wrestled in the United States, Japan, and Europe. Read more
• 21 Mar 1896: Friedrich Waismann, Austrian mathematician, physicist, and philosopher from the Vienna Circle (died 1959) Friedrich Waismann was an Austrian mathematician, physicist, and philosopher. He is best known for being a member of the Vienna Circle and one of the key theorists in logical positivism. Read more
• 21 Mar 1894: Hannah Ryggen, Norwegian textile artist (died 1970) Hannah Ryggen was a Swedish-born Norwegian textile artist. Self-trained, she worked on a standing loom constructed by her husband, the painter Hans Ryggen. She lived on a farm on a Norwegian Fjord and dyed her yarn with local plants. Read more
• 21 Mar 1889: Jock Sutherland, American football player and coach (died 1948) John Bain Sutherland was a Scottish-American football player and coach. He coached college football at Lafayette College (1919–1923) and the University of Pittsburgh (1924–1938) and professional football for the Brooklyn Dodgers (1940–1941) and Pittsburgh Steelers (1946–1947). He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951. Read more
• 21 Mar 1887: Clarice Beckett, Australian painter (died 1935) Clarice Marjoribanks Beckett was an Australian artist and a key member of the Australian tonalist movement. Known for her subtle, misty landscapes of Melbourne and its suburbs, Beckett developed a personal style that contributed to the development of modernism in Australia. Disregarded by the art establishment during her lifetime, and largely forgotten in the decades after her death, she is now considered one of Australia's greatest artists. Read more
• 21 Mar 1887: Lajos Kassák, Hungarian poet, novelist and painter (died 1967) Lajos Kassák was a Hungarian poet, novelist, painter, essayist, editor, theoretician of the avant-garde, and translator. Read more
• 21 Mar 1887: M. N. Roy, Indian philosopher and politician (died 1954) Manabendra Nath Roy was a 20th-century Indian revolutionary, philosopher, radical activist and political theorist. Roy was the founder of the Mexican Communist Party and the Communist Party of India. Read more
• 21 Mar 1886: Walter Dray, American pole vaulter (died 1973) Walter Remy Dray was an American track and field athlete who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics. Dray attended Yale University, where he was the captain of the track team. He held the world record in pole vault three separate times. In 1904 he was sixth in pole vault competition. He died in Yorkville, Illinois, aged 87. Read more
• 21 Mar 1885: Pierre Renoir, French actor and director (died 1952) Pierre Renoir was a French stage and film actor. He was the son of the impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir and elder brother of the film director Jean Renoir. He is also noted for being the first actor to play Georges Simenon's character Inspector Jules Maigret in
  Night at the Crossroads, directed by his brother. Read more
• 21 Mar 1884: George David Birkhoff, American mathematician (died 1944) George David Birkhoff was one of the top American mathematicians of his generation. He made valuable contributions to the theory of differential equations, dynamical systems, the four-color problem, the three-body problem, and general relativity. Today, Birkhoff is best remembered for the ergodic theorem. The George D. Birkhoff House, his residence in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been designated a National Historic Landmark. Read more
• 21 Mar 1882: Aleksander Kesküla, Estonian politician (died 1963) Aleksander Eduard Kesküla was an Estonian politician and revolutionary. Read more
• 21 Mar 1880: Broncho Billy Anderson, American actor, director, and producer (died 1971) Gilbert M. "Broncho Billy" Anderson was an American actor, writer, film director, and film producer, who was the first star of the Western film genre. He was a founder and star for Essanay studios. In 1958, he received a special Academy Award for being a pioneer of the film industry. Read more
• 21 Mar 1880: Hans Hofmann, German-American painter and academic (died 1966) Hans Hofmann was a German-born American painter, renowned as both an artist and teacher. His career spanned two generations and two continents, and is considered to have both preceded and influenced Abstract Expressionism. Born and educated near Munich, he was active in the early twentieth-century European avant-garde and brought a deep understanding and synthesis of Symbolism, Neo-impressionism, Fauvism, and Cubism when he emigrated to the United States in 1932. Hofmann's painting is characterized by its rigorous concern with pictorial structure and unity, spatial illusionism, and use of bold color for expressive means. The influential critic Clement Greenberg considered Hofmann's first New York solo show at Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of This Century in 1944 as a breakthrough in painterly versus geometric abstraction that heralded abstract expressionism. In the decade that followed, Hofmann's recognition grew through numerous exhibitions, notably at the Kootz Gallery, culminating in major retrospectives at the Whitney Museum of American Art (1957) and Museum of Modern Art (1963), which traveled to venues throughout the United States, South America, and Europe. His works are in the permanent collections of major museums around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tate Modern, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, National Gallery of Art, and Art Institute of Chicago. Read more
• 21 Mar 1878: Morris H. Whitehouse, American architect (died 1944) Morris Homans Whitehouse was an American architect whose work included the design of the Gus Solomon United States Courthouse in Portland, Oregon. Read more
• 21 Mar 1877: Maurice Farman, French race car driver and pilot (died 1964) Maurice Alain Farman was a British-French Grand Prix motor racing champion, an aviator, and an aircraft manufacturer and designer. Read more
• 21 Mar 1876: Walter Tewksbury, American runner and hurdler (died 1968) John Walter Beardsley Tewksbury was an American track and field athlete. At the 1900 Summer Olympics, he won five medals, including two golds. Read more
• 21 Mar 1874: Alfred Tysoe, English runner (died 1901) Alfred Ernest Tysoe was an English athlete, and winner of two gold medals at the 1900 Olympic Games representing Great Britain. Read more
• 21 Mar 1869: David Robertson, Scottish-English golfer and rugby player (died 1937) David Donaldson Robertson was a Scottish sportsman who represented Great Britain and Ireland at golf in the 1900 Summer Olympics, and also played international rugby for the Scotland. Read more
• 21 Mar 1867: Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., American director and producer (died 1932) Florenz Edward Ziegfeld Jr. was an American Broadway impresario, notable for his series of theatrical revues, the Ziegfeld Follies (1907–1931), inspired by the Folies Bergère of Paris. He also produced the musical Show Boat. He was known as the "glorifier of the American girl". Ziegfeld is a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame. Read more
• 21 Mar 1866: Antonia Maury, American astronomer and astrophysicist (died 1952) Antonia Caetana de Paiva Pereira Maury was an American astronomer who was the first to detect and calculate the orbit of a spectroscopic binary. She published an important early catalog of stellar spectra using her own system of stellar classification, which was later adopted by the International Astronomical Union. She also spent many years studying the binary star Beta Lyrae. Maury was part of the Harvard Computers, a group of female astronomers and human computers at the Harvard College Observatory. Dorrit Hoffleit described Maury as an "independent Renegade", suffering at the Observation for her Independence not agreeing with the way Edward Charles Pickering had them working for minimal credit. Read more
• 21 Mar 1865: George Owen Squier, American general and inventor of Musak (died 1934) George Owen Squier was an American general, scientist, and inventor best known for inventing and popularizing what today is called Muzak. Read more
• 21 Mar 1859: Daria Pratt, American golfer (died 1938) Myra Abigail Pratt née Pankhurst and formerly Wright, later Daria, Princess Karageorgevich was an American golfer who competed in the 1900 Summer Olympics representing France. She won the bronze medal in the women's competition. By virtue of her third marriage, she was member of the House of Karađorđević. Read more
• 21 Mar 1857: Alice Henry, Australian journalist and activist (died 1943) Alice Henry was an Australian suffragist, journalist and trade unionist who also became prominent in the American trade union movement as a member of the Women's Trade Union League. Read more
• 21 Mar 1854: Alick Bannerman, Australian cricketer and coach (died 1924) Alexander Chalmers Bannerman was an Australian cricketer who played in 28 Test matches between 1879 and 1893. Read more
• 21 Mar 1839: Modest Mussorgsky, Russian pianist and composer (died 1881) Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a Russian composer, one of the group known as "The Five." He was an innovator of Russian music in the Romantic period and strove to achieve a uniquely Russian musical identity, often in deliberate defiance of the established conventions of Western music. Read more
• 21 Mar 1835: Thomas Hayward, English cricketer (died 1876) Thomas Hayward was an English cricketer who was generally reckoned to be one of the outstanding batsmen of the 1850s and 1860s. In the early 1860s, he and Robert Carpenter, his county colleague, were rated as the two finest batsmen in England. Richard Daft was among those ranking them as equal first, though George Parr reckoned Carpenter the better of the two. Read more
• 21 Mar 1831: Dorothea Beale, English suffragist, educational reformer and author (died 1906) Dorothea Beale LL.D. was a suffragist, educational reformer and author. As Principal of Cheltenham Ladies' College, she became the founder of St Hilda's College, Oxford. Read more
• 21 Mar 1825: Alexander Mozhaysky, Russian soldier and engineer (died 1890) Alexander Fedorovich Mozhaysky was an admiral in the Imperial Russian Navy, an aviation pioneer, and a researcher and designer of heavier-than-air craft. Read more
• 21 Mar 1811: Nathaniel Woodard, English priest and educator (died 1891) Nathaniel Woodard was a priest in the Church of England. He founded 11 schools for the middle classes in England whose aim was to provide education based on "sound principle and sound knowledge, firmly grounded in the Christian faith". His educational principles are promoted today through the Woodard Corporation, a registered charity. Read more
• 21 Mar 1806: Benito Juárez, Mexican lawyer and politician, 25th President of Mexico (died 1872) Benito Pablo Juárez García was a Mexican politician, military officer, and lawyer who served as the 26th president of Mexico from 1858 until his death in 1872. A Zapotec, he was the first Indigenous president of Mexico and the first democratically elected Indigenous president in postcolonial America. A member of the Liberal Party, he previously held a number of offices, including the governorship of Oaxaca and the presidency of the Supreme Court. During his presidency, he led the Liberals to victory in the Reform War and in the Second French intervention in Mexico. Read more
• 21 Mar 1802: Augusta Waddington, Welsh writer and patron of the arts (died 1896) Augusta Hall, Baroness Llanover, born Augusta Waddington, was a Welsh heiress, best known as a patron of the Welsh arts. Read more

🕊️ Important Deaths on 21 March in World History

• 21 Mar 2025: Kitty Dukakis, American author, First Lady of Massachusetts (born 1936) Katharine Dickson Dukakis was an American author and activist for various social causes. She served as the First Lady of Massachusetts from 1975 to 1979 and 1983 to 1991, as the wife of the Governor of Massachusetts, Michael Dukakis. Read more
• 21 Mar 2025: George Foreman, American boxer, actor, and businessman (born 1949) George Edward Foreman was an American professional boxer, businessman, minister, and author. In boxing, he competed between 1967 and 1997, and was nicknamed "Big George". He was a two-time world heavyweight champion and an Olympic gold medalist. He is the namesake of the George Foreman Grill. Read more
• 21 Mar 2023: Willis Reed, American basketball player (born 1942) Willis Reed Jr. was an American professional basketball player, coach, and general manager. He spent his entire ten-year pro playing career (1964–1974) with the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Reed was a seven-time NBA All-Star and five-time All-NBA selection, including once on the first team in 1970, when he was named the NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP). Until Nikola Jokić won his first MVP in 2020-21, he was the only player drafted in the second round to win the award. He was a two-time NBA champion and was voted the NBA Finals MVP both times. In 1982, Reed was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He was named to both the NBA's 50th and 75th anniversary teams. Read more
• 21 Mar 2021: Nawal El Saadawi, Egyptian secularist, feminist (born 1931) Nawal El Saadawi was an Egyptian feminist writer, activist and physician. She wrote numerous books on the subject of women in Islam, focusing on the concerns of women in the Global South pertaining to sexuality, patriarchy, class, and colonialism. Read more
• 21 Mar 2019: Victor Hochhauser CBE, British music promoter (born 1923) Victor Hochhauser was a British music promoter. Read more
• 21 Mar 2019: Gonzalo Portocarrero, Peruvian sociologist (born 1949) Gonzalo Portocarrero was a Peruvian sociologist, social scientist and essayist. Read more
• 21 Mar 2017: Chuck Barris, American game show host and producer (born 1929) Charles Hirsch Barris was an American game show creator, producer, and host, author, and songwriter. A key crew member of several hugely successful television game shows, he was the creator of The Dating Game (1965–2021), the original producer of The Newlywed Game (1966–2013) both for the ABC network and syndication, and the host and producer of The Gong Show from 1976 to 1980, for the NBC network and syndication. Read more
• 21 Mar 2017: Colin Dexter, English author (born 1930) Norman Colin Dexter was an English crime writer known for his Inspector Morse series of novels, which were written between 1975 and 1999 and adapted as an ITV television series, Inspector Morse, from 1987 to 2000. His characters have spawned a sequel series, Lewis, from 2006 to 2015, and a prequel series, Endeavour, from 2012 to 2023. He also set crosswords for The Oxford Times. Read more
• 21 Mar 2017: Martin McGuinness, Irish republican and deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland (born 1950) James Martin Pacelli McGuinness was an Irish republican politician and statesman for Sinn Féin and a leader within the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) during The Troubles. He was the deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland from May 2007 to January 2017. Read more
• 21 Mar 2017: Mike Hall, British cyclist (born 1981) Michael Richard Hall was a British cyclist and race organiser who specialised in self-supported ultra-distance cycling races. In 2012, he won the inaugural World Cycle Race. In 2013 and 2016, he won the Tour Divide ultra-endurance mountain bike race across the Rocky Mountains in Canada and the United States. In 2014, he won the inaugural Trans Am Bike Race, a road-based event from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast in the United States. From 2013, he was the principal organiser of the Transcontinental Race, an event similar to the TransAm Bicycle Race, but that traverses Europe. Michael Hall was also featured in the cycling film Inspired to Ride a film directed by Mike Dion. Read more
• 21 Mar 2015: Ishaya Bakut, Nigerian general and politician, Governor of Benue State (born 1947) Ishaya Bakut was Military Governor of Benue State in Nigeria from September 1986 to December 1987 during the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida.
  He was Field Commander in Liberia of the ECOMOG West African multinational force from September 1991 to December 1992. Read more
• 21 Mar 2015: Chuck Bednarik, American lieutenant and football player (born 1925) Charles Philip Bednarik, nicknamed "Concrete Charlie", was an American professional football linebacker and center who played in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Penn Quakers, and was selected with the first overall pick of the 1949 NFL draft by the Philadelphia Eagles, where he played his entire 14-year NFL career from 1949 through 1962. Bednarik is ranked one of the hardest hitting tacklers in NFL history, and was one of the league's last two-way players. Read more
• 21 Mar 2015: James C. Binnicker, American sergeant (born 1938) James C. Binnicker was a senior enlisted non-commissioned officer in the United States Air Force who served as the 9th Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force from 1986 to 1990. Read more
• 21 Mar 2015: Hans Erni, Swiss painter, sculptor, and illustrator (born 1909) Hans Erni was a Swiss graphic designer, painter, illustrator, engraver and sculptor. Read more
• 21 Mar 2015: Jørgen Ingmann, Danish singer and guitarist (born 1925) Jørgen Ingmann was a Danish jazz and pop guitarist from Copenhagen. He was popular in Europe and had a wider international hit in 1961 with his version of "Apache". He and his wife Grethe Ingmann won the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Dansevise". Read more
• 21 Mar 2015: Alberta Watson, Canadian actress (born 1955) Faith Susan Alberta Watson was a Canadian film and television actress. She was known for her roles as Dr. Rebecca Meyer on Buck James (1987-88), Madeline on La Femme Nikita (1997-2001) and Erin Driscoll on 24 (2004-05). Read more
• 21 Mar 2014: Qoriniasi Bale, Fijian lawyer and politician, 25th Attorney-General of Fiji (born 1929) Qoriniasi Babitu Bale was a Fijian barrister, solicitor and politician who served twice as Minister for Justice and Attorney-General, most recently from 2001 to 2006, when he was deposed in the military coup of 5 December. Like many of Fiji's most influential leaders, Bale was a native of Levukana Village in Vanua Balavu in the Lau Islands. Read more
• 21 Mar 2014: Bill Boedeker, American football player and soldier (born 1924) William Henry Boedeker, Jr. was a halfback in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and National Football League (NFL) who played for the Chicago Rockets, the Cleveland Browns, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Green Bay Packers. Read more
• 21 Mar 2014: Jack Fleck, American golfer (born 1921) Jackson Donald Fleck was an American professional golfer, best known for winning the U.S. Open in 1955 in a playoff over Ben Hogan. Read more
• 21 Mar 2014: Simeon Oduoye, Nigerian police officer and politician (born 1945) Simeon Olasukanmi Oduoye ; 13 April 1945 – 21 March 2014) was a Nigerian police officer and administrator of Niger and Ebonyi States. He was elected senator for Osun Central in April 2007 on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) platform. Read more
• 21 Mar 2014: James Rebhorn, American actor (born 1948) James Robert Rebhorn was an American character actor. Rebhorn appeared in over 100 films, television series, and plays. Read more
• 21 Mar 2014: Ignatius Zakka I Iwas, Iraqi patriarch (born 1933) Mor Ignatius Zakka I Iwas was the 122nd reigning Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and All the East and, as such, Supreme Head of the Universal Syriac Orthodox Church. Also known by his traditional episcopal name, Severios, he was enthroned as patriarch on 14 September 1980 in St. George's Patriarchal Cathedral in Damascus. He succeeded Ignatius Ya`qub III. As is traditional for the head of the church, Mor Severios adopted the name Ignatius. Read more
• 21 Mar 2013: Chinua Achebe, Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic (born 1930) Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as a central figure of modern African literature. His first novel and magnum opus, Things Fall Apart (1958), occupies a pivotal place in African literature and remains the most widely studied, translated, and read African novel. Along with Things Fall Apart, his No Longer at Ease (1960) and Arrow of God (1964) complete the "African Trilogy". Later novels include A Man of the People (1966) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987). Achebe is often referred to as the "father of modern African literature", although he vigorously rejected the characterization. Read more
• 21 Mar 2013: Rick Hautala, American author and screenwriter (born 1949) Rick Hautala was an American speculative fiction and horror writer. He graduated from the University of Maine in 1974, where he received a Master of Art in English Literature. Hautala arrived on the horror scene in 1980 with several of his early novels published by Zebra books. He wrote and published over 90 novels and short stories since the early 1980s. A number of his books have been translated to other languages and sold internationally. Cold Whisper, published in October, 1991 by Zebra Books, Inc. was also published in Finnish as Haamu by Werner Söderström, Helsinki, Finland, in August, 1994. Toward the end of his life, many of his works were published with specialty press and small press publishers like Cemetery Dance Publications and Dark Harvest. His novel The Wildman (2008), was chosen to be Full Moon Press' debut limited edition title. Read more
• 21 Mar 2013: Harlon Hill, American football player and coach (born 1932) Harlon Junius Hill
  was an American professional football end who played for nine seasons in the National Football League (NFL). Hill played for the Chicago Bears, the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Detroit Lions. He was the NFL Rookie of the Year in 1954 and winner of the Jim Thorpe Trophy as the NFL Most Valuable Player in 1955. The Harlon Hill Trophy, named in his honor, is awarded annually to the nation's best NCAA Division II football player. After his playing career, he became a coach and educator. Read more
• 21 Mar 2013: Pietro Mennea, Italian sprinter and politician (born 1952) Pietro Paolo Mennea, nicknamed la Freccia del Sud, was an Italian sprinter and politician. He was most successful in the 200 m event, winning a gold medal at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, and setting a world record at 19.72 seconds in September 1979. This record stood for almost 17 years – the longest duration in the event history – and is still the European record. He is the only male sprinter who has qualified at four consecutive 200 metres Olympic finals: from 1972 to 1984. Read more
• 21 Mar 2013: Giancarlo Zagni, Italian director and screenwriter (born 1926) Giancarlo Zagni was an Italian director and screenwriter. Read more
• 21 Mar 2012: Albrecht Dietz, German economist and businessman (born 1926) Albrecht Dietz was a German entrepreneur and scientist who founded the first leasing company in Germany. He was considered to be one of the pioneers and founding fathers of the German leasing industry. His publications on economic subjects ranged from leasing and corporate management to institutions and evolutionary economics. Read more
• 21 Mar 2012: Ron Erhardt, American football player and coach (born 1931) Ronald Peter Erhardt was an American football coach at both the collegiate and professional levels. From 1979 to 1981 he served as head coach of the National Football League (NFL)'s New England Patriots. Read more
• 21 Mar 2012: Robert Fuest, English director, screenwriter, and production designer (born 1927) Robert Fuest was an English film and television director, screenwriter, production designer, and painter, who worked mostly in the horror, fantasy and suspense genres. Read more
• 21 Mar 2012: Tonino Guerra, Italian poet and screenwriter (born 1920) Antonio "Tonino" Guerra was an Italian poet, writer and screenwriter who collaborated with some of the most prominent film directors, such as Andrei Tarkovsky, Michelangelo Antonioni, Theo Angelopoulos, and Federico Fellini. Read more
• 21 Mar 2012: Irving Louis Horowitz, American sociologist, author, and academic (born 1929) Irving Louis Horowitz was an American sociologist, author, and academic. He proposed a quantitative index for measuring a country's quality of life, and helped to popularize "Third World" as a term for the poorer nations of the Non-Aligned Movement. Read more
• 21 Mar 2012: Yuri Razuvaev, Russian chess player and trainer (born 1945) Yuri Sergeyevich Razuvaev Russian: Ю́рий Серге́евич Разува́ев was a Russian chess player and trainer. Read more
• 21 Mar 2012: Marina Salye, Russian geologist and politician (born 1934) Marina Yevgenyevna Salye was a Russian geologist and politician, being the former deputy of the legislative assembly of Leningrad. She was also a people's deputy in the Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR until September 1993, when the congress was dissolved. Salye was one of the leaders of the radical pro-reform group called Radical Democrats. Read more
• 21 Mar 2011: Loleatta Holloway, American singer-songwriter (born 1946) Loleatta Holloway was an American singer known for disco songs such as "Hit and Run" and "Love Sensation". Billboard ranked her the 95th most successful dance artist of all time. According to The Independent, she is the most sampled female singer in popular music; her vocals appear in house and dance tracks including the 1989 Black Box single "Ride on Time". Read more
• 21 Mar 2011: Gerd Klier, German footballer (born 1944) Gerd Klier was a professional German footballer. Read more
• 21 Mar 2011: Ladislav Novák, Czech footballer and manager (born 1931) Ladislav Novák was a Czech football defender and later a football manager. He played 75 matches for Czechoslovakia, 71 of them as a team captain. Read more
• 21 Mar 2011: Pinetop Perkins, American singer and pianist (born 1913) Joe Willie "Pinetop" Perkins was an American blues pianist. He played with some of the most influential blues and rock-and-roll performers of his time and received numerous honors, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and induction into the Blues Hall of Fame. Read more
• 21 Mar 2010: Wolfgang Wagner, German director and manager (born 1919) Wolfgang Wagner was a German opera director. He is best known as the director (Festspielleiter) of the Bayreuth Festival, a position he initially assumed alongside his brother Wieland in 1951 until the latter's death in 1966. From then on, he assumed total control until he retired in 2008, although many of the productions which he commissioned were severely criticized in their day. He had been plagued by family conflicts and criticism for many years. He was the son of Siegfried Wagner and he was the great-grandson of Franz Liszt. Read more
• 21 Mar 2009: Mohit Sharma, Indian army officer (born 1978) Major Mohit Sharma was an Indian Army Officer who was posthumously awarded the Ashoka Chakra, India's highest peace-time military decoration. Sharma was from the elite 1st Para SF. Read more
• 21 Mar 2009: Walt Poddubny, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (born 1960) Walter Michael Poddubny was a Canadian professional ice hockey left winger and coach who played eleven seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1981–82 until 1991–92. He played 468 career NHL games, scoring 184 goals and 238 assists for 422 points. Read more
• 21 Mar 2008: Denis Cosgrove, English-American geographer and academic (born 1948) Denis Edmund Cosgrove was a British cultural geographer. He taught at Oxford Polytechnic, Loughborough University, Royal Holloway, University of London, where he rose to become dean of the graduate school, and finally at the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1998, he received the prestigious Back Award from the Royal Geographical Society. Read more
• 21 Mar 2008: Guillermo Jullian de la Fuente, Chilean architect and academic (born 1931) Guillermo Jullian de la Fuente was a Chilean architect and painter. After finishing his studies of architecture at the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso, Jullian left his country for Europe, with the declared desire to work with the Swiss architect Le Corbusier. Read more
• 21 Mar 2008: John List, American murderer (born 1925) John Emil List was an American mass murderer and long-time fugitive. On November 9, 1971, he killed his wife, mother, and three children in their Westfield, New Jersey home, then disappeared. He had planned the murders so meticulously that nearly a month passed before anyone suspected that something was amiss. Read more
• 21 Mar 2007: Drew Hayes, American author and illustrator (born 1969) Lawrence Andrew "Drew" Hayes was a writer and comic book artist who is best known as the creator of the long-running independent comic book series Poison Elves. Read more
• 21 Mar 2007: Sven O. Høiby, Norwegian hurdler and journalist (born 1936) Sven Olaf Bjarte Høiby was the father of Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway. In his younger years he had briefly worked as a journalist with a local paper in his hometown of Kristiansand but was on welfare when he became known as the father of Mette-Marit; he had been convicted twice of assault. After his daughter married the Crown Prince, he became a national celebrity due to his years-long cooperation with the yellow press, especially Se og Hør, and his subsequent marriage to a stripper. He was accused of exploiting his daughter's relationship with the royal family and of selling articles about her and his grandson Marius Borg Høiby. Read more
• 21 Mar 2005: Barney Martin, American police officer and actor (born 1923) Barney Martin was an American actor, best known for playing Morty Seinfeld, father of Jerry, on the sitcom Seinfeld (1991–1998). He also played supporting roles in Mel Brooks's The Producers (1967), and the Dudley Moore comedy Arthur (1981). He originated the role of Amos Hart in the 1976 Broadway production of Chicago. Read more
• 21 Mar 2005: Bobby Short, American singer and pianist (born 1924) Robert Waltrip Short was an American cabaret singer and pianist who interpreted songs by popular composers from the first half of the 20th century such as Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Richard A. Whiting, Vernon Duke, Noël Coward and George and Ira Gershwin. Read more
• 21 Mar 2004: Ludmilla Tchérina, French actress, dancer, and choreographer (born 1924) Ludmilla Tchérina was a French prima ballerina and actress. Read more
• 21 Mar 2003: Shivani, Indian author (born 1923) Gaura Pant, better known as Shivani, was a Hindi writer of the 20th century and a pioneer in writing Indian women-centric fiction. She was awarded the Padma Shri for her contribution to Hindi literature in 1982. Read more
• 21 Mar 2003: Umar Wirahadikusumah, Indonesian general and politician, 4th Vice President of Indonesia (born 1924) Umar Wirahadikusumah was an Indonesian politician and former army general, who served as the fourth vice president of Indonesia, serving from 1983 until 1988. Previously, he was chair of the Audit Board of Indonesia from 1973 until 1983, and Chief of Staff of the Indonesian Army from 1969 until 1973. Born to a noble Sundanese family, he was educated at the Europeesche Lagere School Tasikmalaya and Meer Uitgebreid Lager Onderwijs Pasundan. He entered the military in 1943, during the Japanese occupation. He would go on to serve in the Indonesian Army during and after the Indonesian National Revolution, seeing combat in the Madiun Affair and the PRRI rebellion. Read more
• 21 Mar 2002: Herman Talmadge, American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician, 70th Governor of Georgia (born 1913) Herman Eugene Talmadge was a U.S. politician who served as governor of Georgia in 1947 and from 1948 to 1955 and as a U.S. senator from Georgia from 1957 to 1981. A Democrat, Talmadge served during a time of political transition, both in Georgia and nationally. He began his career as a staunch segregationist known for his opposition to civil rights, including supporting legislation that would have closed public schools to prevent desegregation. By the later stages of his career, following the enactment of the Voting Rights Act, which gave substance to the Fifteenth Amendment enacted nearly one hundred years before, and increased African American voter participation, Talmadge, like many other Southern politicians of that period, had modified his views on race. His life eventually encapsulated the emergence of his native Georgia from entrenched white supremacy into a multiracial political culture where many white voters regularly elect Black and other non-white candidates to the U.S. Congress and Georgia General Assembly. Read more
• 21 Mar 2001: Chung Ju-yung, South Korean businessman, founded Hyundai (born 1915) Chung Ju-yung or Jung Joo-young was a South Korean entrepreneur and the founder of Hyundai Group, one of the largest chaebols in South Korea. During his leadership, Hyundai became the world's largest shipbuilder, while Hyundai Motor Group expanded to become the largest automobile manufacturer in Korea and the third-largest worldwide. Read more
• 21 Mar 2001: Anthony Steel, English actor and singer (born 1920) Anthony Maitland Steel was an English actor and singer who appeared in British war films of the 1950s such as The Wooden Horse (1950) and Where No Vultures Fly (1951). He was also known for his tumultuous marriage to Anita Ekberg. Read more
• 21 Mar 1999: Jean Guitton, French philosopher and author (born 1905) Jean Guitton was a French Catholic philosopher and theologian. Le Monde called him "the last of the great Catholic philosophers." Read more
• 21 Mar 1999: Ernie Wise, English comedian and actor (born 1925) Ernest Wiseman, known by his stage name Ernie Wise, was an English comedian, best known as one half of the comedy duo Morecambe and Wise, who became a national institution on British television, especially for their Christmas specials. Read more
• 21 Mar 1998: Galina Ulanova, Russian ballerina (born 1910) Galina Sergeyevna Ulanova was a Russian ballet dancer. She is frequently cited as being one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century. Read more
• 21 Mar 1997: Wilbert Awdry, English cleric and author, created The Railway Series, the basis for Thomas the Tank Engine (born 1911) Wilbert Vere Awdry, often credited as Rev. W. Awdry, was an English Anglican priest, railway enthusiast, and children's author. He was the creator of Thomas the Tank Engine and several other characters who appeared in his Railway Series. Read more
• 21 Mar 1994: Macdonald Carey, American actor (born 1913) Edward Macdonald Carey was an American actor. He first made his career starring in various B-movies from the 1940s through the 1960s,, and was known in many Hollywood circles as "King of the Bs". Beginning in 1965, he portrayed patriarch Dr. Tom Horton on NBC's soap opera Days of Our Lives. For almost three decades, he was the show's central cast member, winning two Daytime Emmy Awards. Read more
• 21 Mar 1994: Lili Damita, French-American actress and singer (born 1904) Lili Damita was a French-American actress, singer, and dancer who appeared in 33 films between 1922 and 1937. Read more
• 21 Mar 1994: Aleksandrs Laime, Latvian-born explorer (born 1911) Aleksandrs Laime was a famous Latvian-born explorer. He is most noted for being the first recorded human to reach Angel Falls, located in Venezuela, by foot. He also established, together with Charles Baughan, the tourist camp of Canaima, created solely for the purpose of bringing tourists to Angel Falls. Read more
• 21 Mar 1992: John Ireland, Canadian-American actor and director (born 1914) John Benjamin Ireland was a Canadian-American actor and film director. Born in Vancouver, British Columbia and raised in New York City, he came to prominence with film audiences for his supporting roles in several high-profile Western films, including My Darling Clementine (1946), Red River (1948), Vengeance Valley (1951), and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957). He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Jack Burden in All the King's Men (1949), making him the first British Columbia-born actor to receive an Oscar nomination. Read more
• 21 Mar 1992: Natalie Sleeth, American pianist and composer (born 1930) Natalie Allyn Sleeth was an American composer of hymns and choral music. Read more
• 21 Mar 1991: Vedat Dalokay, Turkish architect and politician, Mayor of Ankara (born 1927) Vedat Dalokay was a Turkish architect and a former mayor of Ankara. Read more
• 21 Mar 1991: Leo Fender, American businessman, founded Fender Musical Instruments Corporation (born 1909) Clarence Leonidas Fender was an American inventor and founder of the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. Read more
• 21 Mar 1987: Walter L. Gordon, Canadian accountant, lawyer, and politician, 22nd Canadian Minister of Finance (born 1906) Walter Lockhart Gordon was a Canadian accountant, businessman, politician, and writer. Read more
• 21 Mar 1987: Robert Preston, American captain, actor, and singer (born 1918) Robert Preston Meservey was an American stage and screen actor best-known for his role as Professor Harold Hill in the 1957 musical The Music Man, for which he received the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. He reprised the role in the 1962 film adaptation, and received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy nomination. Read more
• 21 Mar 1985: Michael Redgrave, English actor, director, and manager (born 1908) Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave was an English actor and filmmaker. Beginning his career in theatre, he first appeared in the West End in 1937. He made his film debut in Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes in 1938. Read more
• 21 Mar 1980: Peter Stoner, American mathematician and astronomer (born 1888) Peter Stoner was a Christian writer and Chairman of the departments of mathematics and astronomy at Pasadena City College until 1953; Chairman of the science division, Westmont College, 1953–57; Professor Emeritus of Science, Westmont College; and Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and Astronomy, Pasadena City College. Read more
• 21 Mar 1978: Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh, President of Ireland (born 1911) Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh was an Irish barrister, judge and Fianna Fáil politician who served as the president of Ireland from December 1974 to October 1976. Following a breakdown in relations with the government intensified by remarks made by a senior minister, he was the first president of Ireland to resign from office. Read more
• 21 Mar 1975: Joe Medwick, American baseball player and coach (born 1911) Joseph Michael Medwick, nicknamed "Ducky" and "Muscles", was an American Major League Baseball player. A left fielder with the St. Louis Cardinals during the "Gashouse Gang" era of the 1930s, he also played with the Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Giants (1943–1945), and Boston Braves (1945). Medwick is the last National League player to win the Triple Crown award (1937). Read more
• 21 Mar 1970: Manolis Chiotis, Greek singer-songwriter and bouzouki player (born 1920) Manolis Chiotis was a Greek rebetiko and laiko composer, singer, and bouzouki player. He is considered one of the greatest bouzouki soloists of all time. He popularised the four-course bouzouki (tetrachordo) and introduced the guitar-like tuning, which he found better suited to the kind of virtuoso playing he was famous for. Read more
• 21 Mar 1958: Cyril M. Kornbluth, American soldier and author (born 1923) Cyril M. Kornbluth was an American science fiction author and a member of the Futurians. He used a variety of pen-names, including Cecil Corwin, S. D. Gottesman, Edward J. Bellin, Kenneth Falconer, Walter C. Davies, Simon Eisner, Jordan Park, Arthur Cooke, Paul Dennis Lavond, and Scott Mariner. Read more
• 21 Mar 1956: Hatı Çırpan, Turkish politician (born 1890) Hatı Çırpan was a Turkish politician, one of the first female members of the parliament in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, elected in the 1935 general elections. Read more
• 21 Mar 1953: Ed Voss, American basketball player (born 1922) Ed Voss was an American basketball player. Read more
• 21 Mar 1951: Willem Mengelberg, Dutch conductor and composer (born 1871) Joseph Wilhelm Mengelberg was a Dutch conductor, famous for his performances of Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler and Strauss with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest symphonic conductors of the 20th century. Read more
• 21 Mar 1946: Henry Hanna, Irish Judge, photographer and author (born 1871) Henry Hanna was an Irish barrister and later judge of the High Court, author, and photographer. Hanna was born to a Belfast-based Presbyterian merchant family on 4 January 1871. He was educated at the Belfast Royal Academy, Queen's University, and London University. Read more
• 21 Mar 1945: Arthur Nebe, German SS officer (born 1894) Arthur Nebe was a German SS functionary who held key positions in the security and police apparatus of Nazi Germany and was, from 1941, a major perpetrator of the Holocaust. Read more
• 21 Mar 1943: Cornelia Fort, American soldier and pilot (born 1919) Cornelia Clark Fort was an American aviator who became famous for being part of two aviation-related events. The first occurred while conducting a civilian training flight at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, when she was the first United States pilot to encounter the Japanese air fleet during the Attack on Pearl Harbor. She and her student narrowly escaped a mid-air collision with the Japanese aircraft and a strafing attack after making an emergency landing. Read more
• 21 Mar 1939: Evald Aav, Estonian composer and conductor (born 1900) Evald Aav was an Estonian composer born in Tallinn, Governorate of Estonia, Russian Empire. He studied music composition there with Artur Kapp and wrote primarily vocal music to words in the Estonian language. In 1928 he composed the first national Estonian opera, Vikerlased. The opera premiered in Tallinn on 8 September 1928. He modelled his style of composition after Tchaikovsky. Read more
• 21 Mar 1939: Ali Hikmet Ayerdem, Turkish general and politician (born 1877) Ali Hikmet Ayerdem was an officer of the Ottoman Army and a general of the Turkish Army. Read more
• 21 Mar 1936: Alexander Glazunov, Russian composer and conductor (born 1865) Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov was a Russian composer, music teacher, and conductor of the late Russian Romantic period. He was director of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory between 1905 and 1928 and was instrumental in the reorganization of the institute into the Petrograd Conservatory, then the Leningrad Conservatory, following the Bolshevik Revolution. He continued as head of the Conservatory until 1930, though he had left the Soviet Union in 1928 and did not return. The best-known student under his tenure during the early Soviet years was Dmitri Shostakovich. Read more
• 21 Mar 1934: Franz Schreker, Austrian composer and conductor (born 1878) Franz Schreker was an Austrian composer, conductor, librettist, teacher and administrator. Primarily a composer of operas, Schreker developed a style characterized by aesthetic plurality, timbral experimentation, strategies of extended tonality and conception of total music theatre into the narrative of 20th-century music. Read more
• 21 Mar 1934: Lilyan Tashman, American actress (born 1896) Lilyan Tashman was an American stage, silent film, and sound film actress. Read more
• 21 Mar 1933: Enrico D'Ovidio, Italian mathematician (born 1842) Enrico D'Ovidio (1842–1933) was an Italian mathematician who is known by his works on geometry. Read more
• 21 Mar 1927: Thomas Oikonomou, Greek actor (born 1864) Thomas Oikonomou was a Greek actor and one of the first modern Greek directors. Read more
• 21 Mar 1920: Evelina Haverfield, British suffragette and aid worker (born 1867) Evelina Haverfield was a British suffragette and aid worker. Read more
• 21 Mar 1915: Frederick Winslow Taylor, American golfer, tennis player, and engineer (born 1856) Frederick Winslow Taylor was an American mechanical engineer. He was widely known for his methods to improve industrial efficiency. He was one of the first management consultants. In 1909, Taylor summed up his efficiency techniques in his book The Principles of Scientific Management which, in 2001, Fellows of the Academy of Management voted the most influential management book of the twentieth century. His pioneering work in applying engineering principles to the work done on the factory floor was instrumental in the creation and development of the branch of engineering that is now known as industrial engineering. Taylor made his name, and was most proud of his work, in scientific management; as a result, scientific management is sometimes referred to as Taylorism. His main source of income came from patenting improvements to steelmaking. Read more
• 21 Mar 1892: Annibale de Gasparis, Italian astronomer (born 1819)[citation needed] Annibale de Gasparis was an Italian astronomer, known for discovering asteroids and his contributions to theoretical astronomy. Read more
• 21 Mar 1891: Joseph E. Johnston, American general (born 1807) Joseph Eggleston Johnston was an American military officer and politician who served in the United States Army during the Mexican–American War and in the Seminole Wars. After Virginia declared secession from the United States in 1861, he entered the Confederate States Army as one of its most senior general officers during the American Civil War. Read more
• 21 Mar 1884: Ezra Abbot, American scholar and academic (born 1819) Ezra Abbot was an American biblical scholar. Read more
• 21 Mar 1869: Juan Almonte, son of José María Morelos, was a Mexican soldier and diplomat who served as a regent in the Second Mexican Empire (1863-1864) (born 1803) Juan Nepomuceno Almonte Ramírez was a Mexican soldier, commander, minister of war, congressman, diplomat, presidential candidate, and regent. The natural son of Catholic cleric José María Morelos, a leading commander during the Mexican War of Independence, Almonte played an important role as a conservative in the Mexican Republic. He served as Minister of War during multiple administrations as well as in various diplomatic posts in the United States and in Europe. In 1840 he led government forces in an attempt to rescue president Anastasio Bustamante after the president was taken hostage by rebels in the National Palace. Almonte was minister to the United States in the years leading up to the Mexican American War and lobbied against its interference in Texas, which Mexico considered a rebellious province. Almonte was a leading figure in conservative efforts to re-establish monarchy in Mexico, supporting the French imperial forces during the Second French Intervention in Mexico and the establishment of the Second Mexican Empire under Maximilian I of Mexico. Almonte was serving as a diplomat in France when France withdrew military support of the Empire, which fell in 1867. He died two years later in 1869. Read more
• 21 Mar 1863: Edwin Vose Sumner, American general (born 1797) Edwin Vose Sumner was a career United States Army officer who became a Union Army general and the oldest field commander of any Army Corps on either side during the American Civil War. His nicknames "Bull" or "Bull Head" came both from his great booming voice and a legend that a musket ball once bounced off his head. Read more
• 21 Mar 1854: Pedro María de Anaya, Mexican soldier. President (1847-1848) (born 1795) Pedro Bernardino María de Anaya y Álvarez was a Mexican soldier who served twice as interim president of Mexico during the Mexican-American War. Inbetween presidencies, he directly participated in the fighting as an officer, distinguishing himself at the Battle of Churubusco. Read more
• 21 Mar 1843: Robert Southey, English poet, historian, and translator (born 1774) Robert Southey was an English poet of the Romantic school, and Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death. Like the other Lake Poets, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Southey began as a radical but became steadily more conservative as he gained respect for Britain and its institutions. Other romantics such as Byron accused him of siding with the establishment for money and status. He is remembered especially for the poem "After Blenheim" and the original version of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears". Read more
• 21 Mar 1843: Guadalupe Victoria, Mexican general and politician, 1st President of Mexico (born 1786) Guadalupe Victoria, born José Miguel Ramón Adaucto Fernández y Félix, was a Mexican general and politician who fought for independence against the Spanish Empire in the Mexican War of Independence and after the adoption of the Constitution of 1824, was elected as the first president of the United Mexican States. He was a deputy in the Mexican Chamber of Deputies for Durango and a member of the Supreme Executive Power following the downfall of the First Mexican Empire, which was followed by the 1824 Constitution and his presidency. He later served as Governor of Puebla. Read more
• 21 Mar 1804: Louis Antoine, Duke of Enghien (born 1772) Louis Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Enghien was a member of the House of Bourbon of France. More famous for his death than his life, he was executed by order of Napoleon Bonaparte, who brought charges against him of aiding Britain and plotting against Napoleon. Read more
• 21 Mar 1801: Andrea Luchesi, Italian composer and educator (born 1741) Andrea Luca Luchesi was an Italian composer. He knew Mozart and Beethoven. Read more

Why is 21 March Important in World History?

Several significant political, cultural, educational, and sporting events took place on 21 March, making it an important topic for general knowledge and competitive examinations.

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What happened on 21 March in World history?

On 21 March, several important historical events, notable births, and major milestones occurred in World history.

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