A man in the UK legally changed his name to "Bacon Double Cheeseburger" to win free burgers
The 33-year-old from London changed his name by deed poll to take advantage of a restaurant promotion offering free food to anyone with that name. Whi...
March 21 in History
Significant events that happened on this day.
Historical Events
2014
2010
A man in Louisiana was arrested for stealing $31,000 worth of fajitas over nine years from a juvenile detention center
The fraudster had been ordering fajitas that were never supposed to be delivered to the facility, then intercepting the deliveries for himself. He was...
2006
Twitter was officially launched to the public, with Jack Dorsey posting the first tweet
MajorThe social media platform that would revolutionize online communication went live, limiting users to 140 characters per post. Dorsey's first tweet sim...
1999
Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones completed the first non-stop balloon flight around the world
The Swiss and British team landed in Egypt after a 19-day journey covering 29,056 miles in their Breitling Orbiter 3 balloon. They survived on freeze-...
1980
President Jimmy Carter announced the United States would boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow
The boycott was in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Eventually, 65 countries joined the boycott, making it one of the largest Olympic bo...
1965
Martin Luther King Jr. led over 3,000 civil rights marchers from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama
MajorAfter two previous attempts were violently stopped, the successful five-day march for voting rights covered 54 miles. Protected by federal troops, the...
1963
Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary officially closed after 29 years as America's most notorious prison
The infamous island prison in San Francisco Bay shut its doors for good, unable to continue operations due to deteriorating facilities and high operat...
1946
The first basketball game of what would become the NBA was played
The Basketball Association of America (BAA) had its inaugural game in Toronto, with the New York Knickerbockers defeating the Toronto Huskies 68-66. T...
1935
Persia officially changed its name to Iran in international correspondence
Shah Reza Pahlavi requested that foreign nations use "Iran" (meaning "Land of the Aryans" in Persian) instead of Persia. Iranians had always called th...
1925
Tennessee passed the Butler Act, making it illegal to teach evolution in public schools
This law prohibited teaching any theory denying the divine creation of man as taught in the Bible. It led directly to the famous Scopes "Monkey Trial"...
1871
A journalist named Henry Morton Stanley began his famous expedition to find missing explorer David Livingstone in Africa
Funded by the New York Herald, Stanley embarked from Zanzibar with nearly 200 porters to search for the Scottish missionary and explorer who hadn't be...
1804
The Napoleonic Code was formally adopted as the civil law of France
Napoleon Bonaparte's comprehensive legal code revolutionized French law and would influence legal systems worldwide. It emphasized clearly written and...
1685
Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany, destined to become one of history's greatest composers
MajorBorn into a family of musicians, Bach would compose over 1,000 musical works including the Brandenburg Concertos and The Well-Tempered Clavier. Despit...
1556
Archbishop Thomas Cranmer was burned at stake in Oxford for heresy after recanting his recantations
The former Archbishop of Canterbury had initially recanted his Protestant beliefs under pressure from Queen Mary I, but at his execution dramatically...