CNN logo
navigation

Infoseek/Big
Yellow/Pathfinder
Almanac Main banner

Friday, March 21, 1997

  • Today's Events
  • On Horizon
  • On This Day
  • Newslink
  • Holidays & more
  • Almanac archive
  • "The Internet threatens to give every child with access to an interactive computer a free pass into the equivalent of every adult bookstore and video outlet in the country,"

    -- Justice Department attorney Seth Waxman





    Today's events


  • Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma is due to deliver the state of the nation address to parliament in Kiev.

  • A world water forum attended by U.N. agencies and the World Bank is scheduled to take place in Marrakesh, Morocco. The aim of the forum is to produce a world water charter and to draw up details of water resources and discuss longterm management plans.

  • One hundred days countdown begins for the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China.

  • rule


    On the horizon


  • On Saturday, March 22, an auction of Beatles paraphernalia is scheduled at the Tokyo Auction House.

  • On Sunday, March 23, the presentation of the Golden Raspberry Awards takes place in Hollywood. The ceremony spoofs the Oscars with awards for the year's worst movies and film performances.

  • On Monday, March 24, the 69th annual Academy Awards presentation is broadcast live from Hollywood.

  • On Tuesday, March 25, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton continues her goodwill tour of Africa with a stop in Tanzania.

  • On Wednesday, March 26, Britain's Salman Rushdie is among 40 writers attending a Writers Parliament session to denounce "the rise of fascism."

  • On Thursday, March 27, South African President Nelson Mandela pays an official visit to India.

  • rule


    On this day


  • In 1556, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, was burned at the stake as a heretic.

  • In 1791, Bangalore in India was seized by the British under Lord Cornwallis in the Third Mysore war.

  • In 1871, Otto von Bismarck opened the first Reichstag or Parliament in the newly created German Reich.

  • In 1917, Tsar Nicholas II and his family were arrested by the revolutionary forces in Russia.

  • In 1918, the Second Battle of the Somme, the last German offensive in World War I, began.

  • In 1919, a pro-Soviet coup headed by Bela Kun overthrew the government of Hungary.

  • In 1927, the Nationalist Chinese forces of Chiang Kai-shek took the city of Shanghai.

  • In 1939, the Lithuanian port of Memel was ceded to Germany.

  • In 1945, British warplanes destroyed Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen, killing more than 70 Nazis. The raid also killed civilians, including 86 schoolchildren, in Denmark's worst civilian disaster of the war.

  • In 1952, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah became prime minister of the Gold Coast, the first African to be elected prime minister south of the Sahara.

  • In 1960, almost 70 people were killed and more than 180 wounded when South African police opened fire on a peaceful demonstration in Sharpeville in the Transvaal.

  • In 1963, Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco Bay, a harsh maximum security jail which once housed gangster Al Capone, closed when the last 27 prisoners were transferred.

  • In 1965, Martin Luther King led the start of a 4,000-strong civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

  • In 1989, Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke wept on television as he admitted having an extramarital affair.

  • In 1990, Namibia, formerly known as South West Africa, became independent after 75 years of South African rule.

  • In 1994, the last Italian soldiers ended their 15-month peacekeeping mission in Somalia.

  • In 1996, Goran Persson, a former finance minister, became Swedish prime minister.

  • rule


    Newslink


    Visit the Space Tourism Initiative Information site to take a look at an idea whose time has almost arrived. Today, the first international symposium on space tourism opens in Germany. Get a jump on your friends and find out what it will take to be the first paying customer in orbit.


    rule


    Holidays and more


  • Today is International Astrology Day.

  • It's National Tree Planting Day in Lesotho, South Africa.

  • Today is Independence Day in Namibia.

  • It's the Iranian New Year today in Noruz.

  • Today is the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination for the United Nations.

  • Actor Matthew Broderick is 35.

  • Actor Timothy Dalton is 51.

  • Actor Al Freeman Jr. is 63.

  • Poet Phyllis McGinley is 92.

  • Actor Gary Oldman is 39.

  • rule


    Sources: Reuters,
    Chase's Calendar of Events 1997, J.P. Morgan



    To the top

    © 1997 Cable News Network, Inc.
    All Rights Reserved.

    Terms under which this service is provided to you.