On this day in history —

• The city of Venice is founded (421)
• Richard the Lionheart is fatally wounded while besieging Castle Chalus-Chabrol (1199)
• Christiaan Huygens discovers Saturn’s moon Titan (1655)
• The British abolish the slave trade throughout the Empire (1807)
• The first passenger railway service, the Swansea and Mumbles, begins operation (1807)
• Coxey’s Army begins its protest march on Washington (1894)
• The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire kills 146 garment workers (1911)
• The Scottsboro Boys are arrested (1931)
• The March Deportation removes nearly 90,000 Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians from their home (1949)
• The European Economic Community (EEC) is established (1957)
• The Selma Marchers reach Montgomery (1965)
• John Lennon and Yoko Ono begin their “Bed-In for Peace” (1969)
• Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev (Сергей Крикалёв), the “last citizen of the USSR,” returns from space (1992)

It’s the birthday of —

• Danica Patrick, racer (1982)
• Sarah Jessica Parker, actress (1965)
• Ray Tanner, baseball coach (1958)
• Lee Mazzili, baseball player (1955)
• Bonnie Bedelia, actress (1948)
• Elton John, singer (1947)
• Paul Michael Glaser, actor (1943)
• Richard O’Brien, Rocky Horror author and Riff Raff in the film (1942)
• Aretha Franklin, singer (1941)
• Anita Bryant, anti-gay activist (1940)
• Hoyt Axton, singer-songwriter (1938)
• Tom Monaghan, Domino’s Pizza founder (1937)
• Gloria Steinem, feminist (1934)
• James Lovell, astronaut (1928)
• Gene Shalit, film critic (1926)
• Flannery O’Connor, writer (1925)
• Eileen Ford, model agency executive (1922)
• Simone Signoret, actress (1921)
• Patrick Troughton, second Doctor (1920)
• Howard Cosell, sportscaster (1918)
• Jean Rogers, Dale Arden in the Flash Gordon serials (1916)
• Norman Borlaug, agronomist (1914)
• Jack Ruby, night club owner, Lee Harvey Oswald killer (1911)
• Sir David Lean, director (1908)
• Ed Begley, actor (1901)
• Béla Bartók, composer (1881)
• Gutzon Borglum, monumental sculptor (1867)
• Arturo Toscanini, conductor (1867)
• Myles Keogh, Irish soldier of fortune, died at Little Big Horn (1840)
• Christopher Clavius, designed the Gregorian calendar (1538)

Deaths —

• Buck Owens, country singer (2006)
• Cal Ripken, Sr., baseball player and manager (1999)
• Robert Joffrey, ballet impressario (1988)
• Bob Waterfield, quarterback (1983)
• Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (فيصل بن عبدالعزيز آل سعو), monarch (1975)
• Robert Newton, Long John Silver in Disney”s Treasure Island, patron saint of “International Talk Like a Pirate Day” (1956)
• Eddie “Cocky” Collins, baseball player (1951)
• Claude Debussy, composer (1918)
• James Braid, “father of modern hypnotism” (1860)

Holidays —

• Anniversary of the Arengo and the Festa delle Milizie (San Marino)
• Feast of the Annunciation (Christianity)
• Freedom Day (Belarus)
• Maryland Day (Maryland)
• Mother’s Day (Slovenia)
• Revolution Day (Greece)
• Struggle for Human Rights Day (Slovakia)
• Tolkien Reading Day (The Tolkien Society, international)
• Våffeldagen (Sweden)
• Hilaria Matris Deûm (ancient Rome)
• Feast of Dismas the Good Thief (Western Christianity)
• Repose of Hiero-schema monk Parthenins of Kiev (Eastern Christianity)