Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date
Sunday, March 22, 2026
Today is the 81st day of 2026. There are 284 days left in this year.
Notable Events
1621
The Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony sign a peace treaty with Massasoit of the Wampanoags.
1622
Algonquians kill 347 English settlers around Jamestown, Virginia, a third of the colony's population, during the Second Anglo-Powhatan War.
1638
Religious dissident Anne Hutchinson was expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
1765
Britain enacted the Stamp Act to raise money from the American colonies. The Act was repealed the following year.
1792
Black slave insurgents gain a victory in the battle of Croix-des-Bouquets. the first major battle of the Haitian Revolution.
1794
The Slave Trade Act of 1794 bans the export of slaves from the United States, and prohibits American citizens from outfitting a ship for the purpose of importing slaves.
1820
U.S. naval hero Stephen Decatur was killed in a duel with Commodore James Barron near Washington, D.C.
1829
In the London Protocol, the three protecting powers (United Kingdom, France and Russia) establish the borders of Greece.
1871
In North Carolina, William Woods Holden becomes the first governor of a U.S. state to be removed from office by impeachment.
1873
The Spanish National Assembly abolishes slavery in Puerto Rico.
1882
Congress outlawed polygamy.
1894
Hockey's first Stanley Cup championship game was played; the home team Montreal Amateur Athletic Association defeated the Ottawa Capitals 3-1.
1894
The Stanley Cup ice hockey competition is held for the first time, in Montreal, Canada.
1895
Auguste and Louis Lumiere showed their first movie to an invited audience in Paris; this is generally regarded as the first-ever public display of a movie projected onto a screen.
1896
Charilaos Vasilakos wins the first modern Olympic marathon race with a time of three hours and 18 minutes.
1933
During Prohibition, President Roosevelt signed a measure to make wine and beer containing up to 3.2 percent alcohol legal.
1933
Nazi Germany opens its first concentration camp, Dachau.
1934
The first Masters Tournament is held at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia.
1943
The entire village of Khatyn (in present-day Republic of Belarus) is burnt alive by Schutzmannschaft Battalion 118.
1945
The Arab League was formed with the adoption of a charter in Cairo, Egypt.
1945
The Arab League is founded when a charter is adopted in Cairo, Egypt.
1946
The British mandate in Transjordan came to an end.
1955
A United States Navy Douglas R6D-1 Liftmaster crashes into Hawaii's Waiʻanae Range, killing 66.
1960
Arthur Leonard Schawlow and Charles Hard Townes receive the first patent for a laser.
1963
The Beatles release their debut album Please Please Me.
1970
Chicano residents in San Diego, California occupy a site under the Coronado Bridge, leading to the creation of Chicano Park.
1972
Congress sent the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution to the states for ratification. It fell short of the three-fourths approval needed.
1972
In Eisenstadt v. Baird, the United States Supreme Court decides that unmarried persons have the right to possess contraceptives.
1978
Karl Wallenda, the 73-year-old patriarch of The Flying Wallendas high-wire act, fell to his death while attempting to walk a cable strung between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
1987
A garbage barge, carrying 32,00 tons of refuse, left Islip, N.Y., on a six-month journey in search of a place to unload. The barge was turned away by several states and three countries until space was found back in Islip.
1988
The United States Congress votes to override President Ronald Reagan's veto of the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987.
1990
A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, found former tanker captain Joseph Hazelwood innocent of three major charges in connection with the Exxon Valdez oil spill, but convicted him of a minor charge of negligent discharge of oil.
1991
High school instructor Pamela Smart, accused of manipulating her student-lover into killing her husband, was convicted in Exeter, N.H., of murder-conspiracy.
1993
The Intel Corporation ships the first Pentium chips (80586), featuring a 60 MHz clock speed, 100+ MIPS, and a 64 bit data path.
1995
Convicted Long Island Rail Road gunman Colin Ferguson was sentenced to life in prison for killing six people.
1995
Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returns to earth after setting a record of 438 days in space.
1997
Tara Lipinski, aged 14 years and nine months, becomes the youngest women's World Figure Skating Champion.
1999
Acting as his own lawyer, Dr. Jack Kevorkian went on trial for murder, telling a jury in Pontiac, Mich., he was merely carrying out his professional duty in a videotaped assisted death shown on ''60 Minutes.'' (Kevorkian was convicted of second-degree mur
2000
Journeying to the cradle of Christianity, Pope John Paul II knelt and prayed in Bethlehem at the traditional spot of Jesus' birth.
2000
Some 1,100 women denied jobs with the now-defunct U.S. Information Agency and its broadcast branch, the Voice of America, won $508 million from the government in the largest-ever settlement of a federal sex discrimination case.
2006
Three Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) hostages are freed by British forces in Baghdad after 118 days of captivity and the murder of their colleague from the U.S., Tom Fox.
2013
At least 37 people are killed and 200 are injured after a fire destroys a camp containing Burmese refugees near Ban Mae, Thailand.
2016
Three suicide bombers kill 32 people and injure 316 in the 2016 Brussels bombings at the airport and at the Maelbeek/Maalbeek metro station.
2019
The Special Counsel investigation on the 2016 United States presidential election concludes when Robert Mueller submits his report to the United States Attorney General.
2019
Two buses crashed in Kitampo, a town north of Ghana's capital Accra, killing at least 50 people.
2020
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announces the country's largest ever self-imposed curfew, in an effort to fight the spread of COVID-19.
2020
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announces a national lockdown and the country's first ever self-imposed curfew, in an effort to fight the spread of COVID-19.
2021
A mass shooting occurred at a King Soopers supermarket in Boulder, Colorado. Ten people were killed, including a local on-duty police officer.
Notable Births
1817
Braxton Bragg was an American army officer during the Second Seminole War and Mexican-American War and Confederate general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, serving in the Western Theater. (d. 1876)
1846
James H. Timberlake was an American law enforcement officer, Civil War soldier, farmer and rancher who is best known for being the chief enforcer and investigator against the James-Younger Gang. (d. 1891)
1887
Leonard Chico Marx was an American comedian, actor and pianist. He was the oldest brother in the Marx Brothers comedy troupe, alongside his brothers Arthur ("Harpo"), Julius (Groucho), Milton (Gummo) and Herbert (Zeppo). (d. 1961)
1892
Charlie Poole was an American old-time musician and leader of the North Carolina Ramblers, a string band that recorded many popular songs between 1925 and 1930. (d. 1931)
1908
Louis L'Amour was an American novelist and short story writer. His books consisted primarily of Western novels, though he called his work "frontier stories". (d. 1988)
1912
Karl Malden was an American stage, movie and television actor. (d. 2009)
1917
Virginia Grey was an American actress who appeared in more than 100 films and a number of radio and television shows from the 1930s to the early 1980s. (d. 2004)
1920
James Edward Brown was an American film and television actor who played Lt. Ripley Masters in the American western television series The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin. (d. 1992)
1920
Werner Klemperer was an American actor. He was known for playing Colonel Wilhelm Klink on the CBS television sitcom Hogan's Heroes, for which he twice won the award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. (d. 2000)
1923
Marcel Marceau was a French mime artist and actor most famous for his stage persona, "Bip the Clown". He referred to mime as the "art of silence", performing professionally worldwide for more than 60 years. (d. 2007)
1924
Al Neuharth was an American businessman, author, and columnist born in Eureka, South Dakota. He was the founder of USA Today, The Freedom Forum, and its Newseum. (d. 2013)
1930
Pat Robertson, American minister and broadcaster, founded the Christian Broadcasting Network.
1930
Stephen Sondheim, American composer and songwriter (d. 2021)
1931
William Shatner is a Canadian actor. In a career spanning seven decades, he is best known for his portrayal of James T. Kirk in the Star Trek Series.
1936
Roger Whittaker was a British singer-songwriter and musician. His music is an eclectic mix of folk music and popular songs, the latter variously in a crooning or in a schlager style.
1943
George Benson is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He began his professional career at the age of 19 as a jazz guitarist.
1947
James Patterson is an American author. Among his works are the Alex Cross, Michael Bennett, Women's Murder Club, NYPD Red, Private and Middle School series, as well as many stand-alone thrillers, non-fiction, and romance novels.
1948
Wolf Blitzer is an American journalist, television news anchor, and author who has been a CNN reporter since 1990, and who currently serves as one of the principal anchors at the network.
1948
Andrew Lloyd Webber is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway.
1952
Bob Costas is an American sportscaster who is known for his long tenure with NBC Sports, from 1980 through 2019. He has received 28 Emmy awards for his work and was the prime-time host of 12 Olympic Games from 1988 until 2016.
1959
Matthew Modine, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter.
1975
Cole Hauser, American actor and producer.
1976
Reese Witherspoon is an American actress and producer. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Golden Globe Awards.
1979
Aaron Wright North is an American musician. He was the co-founder and guitarist of punk band The Icarus Line, a touring lead guitarist of industrial rock group Nine Inch Nails, and vocalist/guitarist for Jubilee.
Notable Deaths
1832
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German novelist, poet, playwright, and diplomat (b. 1749)
1958
Mike Todd was an American theater and film producer, celebrated for his 1956 Around the World in 80 Days, which won an Academy Award for Best Picture. Actress Elizabeth Taylor was his third wife. (b. 1909)
1966
John Harlin was an American alpinist and US Air Force pilot who was killed while making an ascent of the north face of the Eiger. (b. 1935)
1978
Karl Wallenda, German-American acrobat and tightrope walker, founded The Flying Wallendas (b. 1905)
1993
Cleveland Indians pitchers Steve Olin and Tim Crews were killed when the boat they were riding in slammed into a Florida pier; pitcher Bob Ojeda was seriously injured.
1994
Walter Lantz was an American cartoonist, animator, producer and director best known for founding Walter Lantz Productions and creating Woody Woodpecker. (b. 1899)
1996
Donald Ray Murray was an American drummer and Hanna-Barbera animator, best known for his work with the Turtles. In the 1980s he went on to perform with the newly formed Surfaris. (b. 1945)
1996
Billy Williamson was the American steel guitar player for Bill Haley and His Saddlemen, and its successor group Bill Haley & His Comets, from 1949 to 1963. (b. 1925)
2001
William Hanna, American animator, director, producer, and voice actor, co-founded Hanna-Barbera (b. 1910)
2004
Ahmed Yassin, co-founder and leader of the Palestinian Sunni Islamist group Hamas, two bodyguards, and nine civilian bystanders are killed in the Gaza Strip when hit by Israeli Air Force Hellfire missiles. (b. 1937)
2005
Rod Price was an English guitarist best known for his work with the rock band Foghat. (b. 1947)
2010
James Black, Scottish biologist and pharmacologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1924)
2012
David Waltz was a computer scientist who made significant contributions in several areas of artificial intelligence, including constraint satisfaction, case-based reasoning and the application of massively parallel computation to AI problems. (b. 1943)
2013
Derek Watkins was an English jazz, pop, and classical trumpeter. Best known for his lead trumpet work on the soundtracks of James Bond films. (b. 1945)