On this day ( 21. March )

Day 1,948, 01:24 • Published in Japan Japan • by Imre Bertalan

1685: Johann Sebastian Bach was born.

1790: Thomas Jefferson reported to U.S. President George Washington as the new secretary of state.

1857: An earthquake hit Tokyo killing about 107,000.

1918: During World War I, the Germans launched the Somme Offensive.

1934: A fire destroyed Hakodate, Japan, killing about 1,500.

1941: The last Italian post in East Libya, North Africa, fell to the British.

1944: Timothy Dalton was born.

1960: About 70 people were killed in Sharpeville, South Africa, when police fired upon demonstrators.

1962: Rosie O'Donnell was born.

1963: Alcatraz Island, the federal penitentiary in San Francisco Bay, CA, closed.

1965: The U.S. launched Ranger 9. It was the last in a series of unmanned lunar explorations.

1965: More than 3,000 civil rights demonstrators led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. began a march from Selma to Montgomery, AL.

1980: On the TV show "Dallas", J.R. Ewing was shot.

1980: Ronaldinho was born.

1984: A Soviet submarine crashed into the USS Kitty Hawk off the coast of Japan.

1985: Police in Langa, South Africa, opened fire on blacks marching to mark the 25th anniversary of the Sharpeville shootings. At least 21 demonstrators were killed.

1990: Namibia became independent of South Africa.

1995: Tokyo police raided the headquarters of Aum Shinrikyo in search of evidence to link the cult to the Sarin gas released on five Tokyo subway trains.

2001: Nintendo released Game Boy Advance.