Unix Timestamp: 1048204800
Friday, March 21. 2003, 12:00:00 AM UTC

Emirates Airline Flight EK407 makes an emergency landing in Australia after enduring a tailstrike during takeoff from Melbourne Airport. //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7956541.stm (BBC)

A labour strike in Israel led by union Histadrut shuts down all government offices and transportation. //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6473681.stm (BBC)

An Israeli Special committee decides the recent conflict between Israel and Hezbullah is to be named the Second Lebanon War. //www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3379605,00.html (Ynetnews)

Salvadoran presidential election, 2004: Antonio Saca is elected President of El Salvador.

In Pakistan, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and 3 others are charged with the kidnapping and killing of "Wall Street Journal" reporter Daniel Pearl.

The 66th Academy Awards, hosted by Whoopi Goldberg, are held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California. Steven Spielberg's Holocaust drama, "Schindler's List", wins 7 Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director (Spielberg).

The 66th Academy Awards, hosted by Whoopi Goldberg, are held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California. Steven Spielberg's Holocaust drama, "Schindler\'s List", wins 7 Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director (Spielberg).

After 75 years of South African rule, Namibia becomes independent.

Canadian paraplegic athlete and activist Rick Hansen sets out on his 40,000 km, 26 month Man in Motion tour which raises $26M for spinal cord research and quality of life initiatives.

The Lofthouse Colliery disaster occurs in Great Britain.

Vietnam War: In ongoing cus unrest, Howard University students protesting the Vietnam War, the ROTC program on cus and the draft, confront Gen. Lewis Hershey, then head of the U.S. Selective Service System, and as he attempts to deliver an address, shout him down with cries of America is the Black man's battleground!

A military coup takes place in Sierra Leone.

"Non ho l'età" by Gigliola Cinquetti (music by Nicola Salerno, text by Mario Panzeri) wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1964 for Italy.

The Alcatraz Island federal penitentiary in San Francisco Bay closes the last 27 prisoners are transferred elsewhere at the order of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.

The Sharpeville massacre in South Africa results in more than 69 dead, 300 injured.

The 28th Academy Awards ceremony is held.

WWII: British troops liberate Mandalay, Burma.

Édouard Daladier resigns as prime minister of France Paul Reynaud succeeds him.

In London: the Ordo Templi Orientis publish Aleister Crowley's "Eight Lectures on Yoga".

The first successful flying car, Waldo Waterman's "Aerobile", makes its initial flight.

In Crystal City, Texas, spinach growers erect a statue of the cartoon characterPopeye.

William Henry Hastie becomes the first African-American appointed to a federal judgeship .

Persia is renamed Iran.

Charles Lindbergh is presented the Medal of Honor for his first trans-Atlantic flight.

Tennessee Governor Austin Peay signs the Butler Act, prohibiting the teaching of evolution in the state's public schools.

The Hungarian Soviet Republic is established by Béla Kun.

In London at the Wood Green Empire, Chung Ling Soo (William E Robinson, U.S.-born magician) dies during his trick where he is supposed to catch two separate bullets – but one of them perforates his lung. He dies the following morning in a hospital.

The Social Revolutionary Party declares Belarus independent Bolshevik armies soon crush them.

Belarus declares independence.

The giant German cannon, the so-called Paris Gun, begins to shell Paris from away.

WWI: The Second Battle of the Somme begins.

Dr. Karl Muck, music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, is arrested under the Alien Enemies Act and imprisoned for the duration of WWI.

The remains of the Báb were placed in his Shrine of the Báb on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel.

A syzygy of planets occurs as Mercury transits the Sun as seen from Venus, and Mercury and Venus both transit the Sun as seen from Saturn. But no two of the transits are simultaneous.

The U.S. Army issued an order for the abandonment of Fort Kearny, Nebraska.

John Cbell, Marquess of Lorne, whose father, the 8th Duke of Argyll, is the serving Secretary of State for India, marries Princess Louise.

In North Carolina, William Holden becomes the first governor of a U.S. state to be removed from office by impeachment.

Alexander Stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy, gives the infamous Cornerstone Speech in Savannah, Georgia, in which he declares that slavery is the natural condition of blacks and the foundation of the Confederacy.

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania issues the charter establishing the Zoological Society of Philadelphia, the first organization of its kind in the United States and founder of the nation's first zoo.

An earthquake in Tokyo, Japan kills over 100,000.

The Bahá'í calendar begins.

The world does not end, contrary to the first prediction by American preacher William Miller.

The "Napoleonic Code" is adopted as French civil law.

Second Battle of Abukir in Egypt: British troops defeat the French, but the British commander, Sir Ralph Abercromby, dies later of a wound received in the action.

Thomas Jefferson reports to President George Washington in New York as the new United States Secretary of State.

Great New Orleans Fire kills 25% of the population and destroys 856 buildings, including St. Louis Cathedral and the Cabildo, leaving most of the town in ruins.

Henry IV enters his capital of Paris for the first time.

In Oxford, Thomas Cranmer is burned at the stake for treason.

November ndash The Truce of Vaucelles collapses, and war resumes between Henry II of France and Philip II of Spain.

May 2 ndash Hundred Years\' War: Siege of Meaux: Meaux surrenders to the English.

Battle of Baugé: A small French force surprises and defeats a smaller English force under Thomas, Duke of Clarence, a brother of Henry V of England, in Normandy.

Henry V becomes King of England.

May ndash The Black Death ceases in Ireland.

The bulk of the 900 strong Jewish community of Erfurt (Germany) is murdered by the rest of the population which accuses the minority to be the underlying cause of the Black Death.

Cîteaux Abbey is founded by the Cistercian Order.

Battle of Vincy: Charles Martel, with his Austrasian forces, defeats Chilperic II, King of Neustria, and his Mayor of the Palace, Ragenfrid, and proclaims Clotaire IV King of Austrasia.

April ndash The Goths capture the "Portus Claudii" at Ostia, the harbour is left unguarded by the Romans. Belisarius is forced to unload his supplies at Antium (modern Anzio), he sends urgent messages for reinforcements to Constantinople.Procopius, "De Bello Gothico" I.XXVII

Vitiges attemps to assault the northern and eastern city walls with four siege towers, but is repulsed at the Praenestine Gate, known as the "Vivarium", by the defenders under the Byzantine generals Bessas and Peranius.Procopius, "De Bello Gothico" I.XXIII