As of today, March 21, 2023

What happened like today in Greece and the world.

717: Charles Marthelos defeats Ratzenfrid at the Battle of Vinci.

1556: In Oxford, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, is burned at the stake.

1800: The Treaty of Istanbul is signed between Russia and Turkey, establishing the State of the Seven United Islands (Eptanisa), the first Greek state after the annexation, which will be independent.

1821: The Greek revolutionaries occupy Kalavryta. It is considered the first act of war of the Agon in the Peloponnese. Around 600 armed fighters led by Sotiris Charalambis, Fotilas, Sotiris Theocharopoulos, Ioannis Papadopoulos, Nikolaos Soliotis and the Petimezai gathered, besieged the area and attacked the Turks who had taken refuge in the towers. After a five-day resistance (March 21-25), Arnautoglou will surrender. After the liberation in Kalavryta and in the Historical Monastery of Agia Lavra, an official doxology will be held.

1871: Otto von Bismarck is appointed first chancellor of Germany.

1919: The Hungarian Soviet Republic is established and the first communist government in Europe since the October Revolution in Russia is established.

1920: Manolis Chiotis, the folk composer and master of the bouzouki, is born, who on March 21, 1970, on his 50th birthday, takes his last breath.

1925: Teaching human evolution is prohibited by law in Tennessee.

1935: Persia is renamed Iran.

[1945: British Royal Air Force planes bomb the Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen. They also accidentally hit a school, killing 125 people.

[1945: Bulgaria and the Soviet Union successfully complete their defense on the north bank of the Drava River.

1952: About 25,000 people attend the first Rock & Roll concert in Cleveland, Ohio.

1960: The Sharpeville Massacre takes place. A group of blacks, who made up 90% of South Africa’s population, decided to protest and demonstrate in the streets, demanding equal rights. Everything will happen in a flash. Within a few minutes the demonstration will be painted in blood, since the policemen open fire on the defenseless crowd. The result will be tragic, as 69 people lose their lives and another 180 are injured, among them young women, men, but also children. On the occasion of this tragic event, the UN will declare March 21 as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

1963: The infamous Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay is closing.

1965: NASA launches ‘Ranger 9’, the latest in a series of unmanned lunar robotic spacecraft.

1965: Martin Luther King leads 3,200 people at the start of the third and ultimately successful civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

1968: The Israeli Armed Forces launch a surprise attack on Jordan, where they face the combined armed forces of Jordan and the Palestine Liberation Organization.

1972: Dictator George Papadopoulos removes George Zoitakis as regent and assumes the office himself.

1979: The Association of Football Societies (EPAE) is founded, responsible for the professional competitions of professional football.

1980: US President Jimmy Carter boycotts the same year’s Olympic Games held in Moscow in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

1990: Namibia gains independence after 75 years of rule by South Africa.

1996: Kostas Karamanlis is elected president of New Democracy by the party congress, succeeding Miltiadis Evert. In the first vote he was a candidate together with Giorgos Souflia, Miltiadis Evert and Byron Polydora. In the second round where they passed, Karamanlis gathered 69.16% of the votes, compared to Souflia’s 30%.

1999: Bertrand Picard and Brian Jones become the first people to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon.

2002: In Pakistan, Ahmed Omar Shaikh and three others are convicted of kidnapping and murdering Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

2003: In the early hours of the morning, military operations in Iraq begin.

2020: The World Health Organization reports that at least 20 vaccines are being developed for COVID-19 internationally and that clinical trials are underway.

2021: The Turkish lira plunges by 15% after the dismissal of the governor of the Central Bank of Turkey, Naci Agbal, by the decision of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. His replacement is the close friend of Erdogan, Sahap Cavcioglu.

2022: Russia gives Ukraine until 5:00 AM. to deliver Mariupoli.

Births

1226 – Charles of Andegavos, king of Sicily

1521 – Maurice, Elector of Saxony

1522 – Mihrimah, Ottoman sultan

1626 – Pedro de Betancourt, Spanish missionary

1768 – Joseph Fourier, French mathematician

1790 – Markos Botsaris, Greek fighter

1825 – Alexander Mozaisky, Russian admiral

1839 – Modest Mussorgsky, Russian composer

1877 – Maurice Farman, French pilot and aircraft designer

1887 – Louis Philippe, Prince of Portugal

1887 – Erich Mendelssohn, German architect

1902 – Sean House, American musician

1920 – Manolis Chiotis, Greek musician and songwriter

1921 – Abdul Salam Arif, Iraqi soldier and politician

1927 – Hans-Dietrich Genscher, German politician

1929 – Galeno Ferri, Italian illustrator

1931 – Richard Rachimandrava, president of Madagascar

1935 – Brian Clough, English footballer and manager

1942 – Frandique de Menezes, president of São Tomé and Príncipe

1942 – Maruf al-Bakit, Jordanian politician

1942 – Kostas Politis, Greek basketball player and coach

1942 – Ali Abdullah Saleh, president of Yemen

1944 – Timothy Dalton, British actor

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1947 – Ali Abdullah Saleh, president of Yemen

1949 – Slavoj Žižek, Slovenian sociologist and critic

1958 – Gary Oldman, English actor

1959 – Nobuo Uematsu, Japanese composer

1960 – Ayrton Senna, Brazilian racing driver

1961 – Lothar Matthaus, German soccer player

1962 – Matthew Broderick, American actor

1967 – Carwyn Jones, Welsh politician

1976 – Dimitris Kaffatos, Greek handball goalkeeper

1977 – Bruno Cirillo, Italian soccer player

1978 – Rani Mukerji, Indian actress

1980 – Peter Oforikwe, Ghanaian footballer

1980 – Ronaldinho (born Ronaldo de Asis Moreira), Brazilian soccer player

1985 – Adrian Peterson, American football player

1986 – Romanos Alifantis, Greek swimmer

1990 – Mandy Capristo, German singer

1991 – Antoine Griezmann, French soccer player

1997 – Martina Stessel, Argentine actress and singer

2000 – Jace Norman, American actor

Deaths

1076 – Robert I, Duke of Burgundy

1306 – Robert II, Duke of Burgundy

1556 – Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury

1762 – Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, French astronomer

1801 – Andrea Lucchesi, Italian composer

1804 – Louis-Anthony of Angie, French prince

1808 – Johann Afsprung, German educator and publisher

1855 – Kitsos Tzavelas, Greek campaigner and politician

1892 – Annibale de Gasparis, Italian astronomer

1910 – Felix Nandar, French photographer

1927 – Thomas Economou, Greek actor and theater director

1936 – Alexander Glazunov, Russian composer and conductor

1956 – Spyridon, archbishop of Athens and all Greece

1970 – Manolis Chiotis, Greek musician and songwriter

1995 – Xenophon Peloponnesios, Greek resistance fighter and politician

1998 – Panagiotis Foteas, Greek politician

2008 – Klaus Dinger, German musician

2010 – Wolfgang Wagner, German director

2012 – Tonino Guerra, Italian writer

2013 – Pietro Menea, Italian athlete

2014 – Kostis Papagiorgis, Greek writer

2015 – Hans Erni, Swiss painter and sculptor

2017 – Martin McGuinness, Northern Irish politician

2017 – Colin Dexter, English writer