Tuesday 26 March 2024 Calendar with holidays, observances and special days

Holidays and observances

• Bangladesh Independence Day and National Day (celebrates the declaration of independence from Pakistan in 1971)
• Legal Assistant’s Day
• Make Up Your Own Holiday Day
• Martyr's Day or Democracy Day in Mali
• National Agriculture Day in USA
• National Nougat Day and National Spinach Day in USA
• Purple Day (Cassidy Megan created the idea of Purple Day in 2008, motivated by her own struggles with epilepsy)
• Purple Day in Canada and United States
• Youth Day in Vietnam

Events

• 1981 – Social Democratic Party (UK) is founded as a party.
• 1958 – The United States Army launches Explorer 3.
• 1945 – World War II: The Battle of Iwo Jima ends as the island is officially secured by American forces.
• 1942 – World War II: The first female prisoners arrive at Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland.
• 1931 – Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union is founded in Vietnam.
• 1931 – Swissair is founded as the national airline of Switzerland.
• 1922 – The German Social Democratic Party is founded in Poland.
• 1917 – World War I: First Battle of Gaza: British troops are halted after 17,000 Turks block their advance.
• 1915 – The Vancouver Millionaires win the 1915 Stanley Cup Finals, the first championship played between the Pacific Coast Hockey Association and the National Hockey Association.
• 1839 – The first Henley Royal Regatta is held.
• 1812 – A political cartoon in the Boston Gazette coins the term "gerrymander" to describe oddly shaped electoral districts designed to help incumbents win reelection.
• 1636 – Utrecht University is founded in the Netherlands.
• 1344 – The Siege of Algeciras, one of the first European military engagements where gunpowder was used, comes to an end.

Births

• 2005 – Ella Anderson, American actress. Ella Aiko Anderson (born March 26, 2005) is an American child actress who currently portrays Piper Hart on the Nickelodeon series Henry Danger and is known for playing the role of Rachel Rawlings in the comedy adventure movie The Boss.
• 1987 – Jermichael Finley, American football player. With the Packers, he attended the Super Bowl XLV win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, not participating due to injury.
• 1985 – Jonathan Groff, American actor and singer. He returned to Broadway in 2015 to play the role of King George III in Hamilton, a performance for which he earned a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical.
• 1985 – Matt Grevers, American swimmer. Matthew Grevers (born March 26, 1985) is an American competition swimmer who competes in the backstroke and freestyle events, and is a six-time Olympic medalist.
• 1984 – Jimmy Howard, American ice hockey player. James Russell Howard III (born March 26, 1984) is an American professional ice hockey goaltender who is currently playing for the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League (NHL).
• 1984 – Sara Jean Underwood, American model, television host, and actress, was chosen as the Playmate of the Month for the July 2006 issue of Playboy magazine and later became Playmate of the Year in 2007. She is a former host of Attack of the Show! on G4.
• 1983 – Floriana Lima, American actress. She played Maggie Sawyer on The CW's Supergirl.
• 1983 – Mike Mondo, American wrestler. He also appeared in Major League Wrestling (MLW) in a tag team with fellow Squad member Kenny Dykstra during 2019.
• 1982 – Nate Kaeding, American football player, was a placekicker in the National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons. He played the majority of his career with the San Diego Chargers and retired after the 2012 season as the second-most accurate field goal kicker in NFL history, having made 86.2 percent of his career attempts.
• 1977 – Bianca Kajlich, American actress. Kajlich has had starring and supporting roles in television and film including the role of Jennifer on the CBS comedy Rules of Engagement (2007–2013).Kajlich is currently starring in the Amazon Prime series Bosch as Christina Henry.
• 1976 – Amy Smart, American actress and former model. Amy Lysle Smart (born March 26, 1976) is an American actress and former fashion model who rose to prominence in the late 1990s.
• 1973 – Larry Page, American computer scientist and businessman, co-founder of Google. He is best known for being one of the co-founders of Google along with Sergey Brin.
• 1973 – T. R. Knight, American actor. George O'Malley on the ABC medical drama Grey's Anatomy.
• 1972 – Jason Maxwell, American baseball player. Maxwell played the 2000 and 2001 seasons with the Minnesota Twins}.
• 1972 – Leslie Mann, American actress. She is married to Judd Apatow.
• 1971 – Erick Morillo, Colombian-American DJ and producer. His label Subliminal Records has produced the #1 Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play hit "Fun" by Da Mob, and won the Muzik magazine "Remixer of the Year" award in 1999.
• 1968 – James Iha, American guitarist and songwriter. James Yoshinobu Iha (井葉吉伸, Iha Yoshinobu) (born March 26, 1968) is a Japanese-American rock musician.
• 1968 – Kenny Chesney, American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He has also produced more than 40 Top 10 singles on the US Billboard Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts, 30 of which have reached number one.
• 1967 – Jason Chaffetz, American politician. Representative for Utah's 3rd congressional district from 2009 until his retirement in 2017.
• 1966 – Michael Imperioli, American actor and screenwriter. Michael Imperioli (Italian: ; born March 26, 1966) is an American actor, writer and director best known for his role as Christopher Moltisanti on The Sopranos, for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2004.
• 1966 – Nick Wirth, English engineer, founded Wirth Research. Nicholas John Peter Wirth (born 26 March 1966) is an automotive engineer and the founder and owner of Wirth Research.
• 1965 – Trey Azagthoth, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer. Morbid Angel is an American death metal band based in Tampa, Florida formed in 1983 by guitarist and sole remaining original member Trey Azagthoth, vocalist and bassist Dallas Ward, and drummer Mike Browning.
• 1964 – Ulf Samuelsson, Swedish-American ice hockey player and coach. He is a two-time Stanley Cup champion, as a member of the Penguins in 1991 and 1992.
• 1962 – John Stockton, American basketball player and coach. In 1997 and 1998, together with his longtime teammate Karl Malone, Stockton led the Jazz to the franchise's only two NBA Finals appearances.
• 1962 – Kevin Seitzer, American baseball player and coach. Kevin Lee Seitzer (/ˈsaɪtsər/; born March 26, 1962) is an American former third baseman in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Kansas City Royals, Milwaukee Brewers, Oakland Athletics, and Cleveland Indians.
• 1961 – William Hague, English historian and politician, First Secretary of State. William Jefferson Hague, Baron Hague of Richmond, PC, FRSL (born 26 March 1961), is a British Conservative politician and life peer.
• 1960 – Jennifer Grey, American actress and dancer. Her television work includes her 2010 victory in season eleven of Dancing with the Stars, and starring in the Amazon Studios comedy series Red Oaks.
• 1960 – Marcus Allen, American football player and sportscaster. Marcus LeMarr Allen (born March 26, 1960) is an American former football running back and football analyst for CBS.
• 1959 – Chris Hansen, American journalist. He also hosts Killer Instinct on Investigation Discovery, which documents homicide investigations.
• 1957 – Leeza Gibbons, American talk show host and television personality. In 2013, her book Take 2 became a New York Times bestseller and she won the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Host in a Lifestyle or Travel program for the PBS show, My Generation.
• 1956 – Charly McClain, American country singer. Charlotte Denise McClain (born March 26, 1956) is an American country music singer, best known for string of country hits during the 1980s.
• 1954 – Curtis Sliwa, American talk show host and activist, founded Guardian Angels. Curtis Sliwa (born March 26, 1954) is an American anti-crime activist, founder and CEO of the Guardian Angels, radio talk show host, and media personality.
• 1953 – Elaine Chao, Taiwanese-American banker and politician, 24th United States Secretary of Labor. Elaine Lan Chao (Chinese: 趙小蘭; pinyin: Zhào Xiǎolán; born March 26, 1953) is an American civil servant and executive who serves as the United States Secretary of Transportation, having assumed office on January 31, 2017.
• 1953 – Lincoln Chafee, American academic and politician, 74th Governor of Rhode Island. He was a member of the Democratic Party from 2013–2019; in June 2019, The Boston Globe reported that he had become a registered Libertarian, having previously been a Republican until 2007 and an independent and then a Democrat in the interim.
• 1952 – T. A. Barron, American novelist. Thomas Archibald Barron (born March 26, 1952) is an American writer of fantasy literature, books for children and young adults, and nature books.
• 1951 – Carl Wieman, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate. Carl Edwin Wieman (born March 26, 1951) is an American physicist and educationist at Stanford University.
• 1950 – Alan Silvestri, American composer and conductor. Alan Anthony Silvestri (born March 26, 1950) is an American composer and conductor known for his film and television scores.
• 1950 – Martin Short, Canadian-American actor, screenwriter, and producer. He has starred in comedy films such as Three Amigos (1986), Innerspace (1987), Three Fugitives (1989), Father of the Bride (1991), Pure Luck (1991), Captain Ron (1992), Father of the Bride Part II (1995), Mars Attacks! (1996), Jungle 2 Jungle (1997), and The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006).
• 1950 – Teddy Pendergrass, American singer-songwriter (d. 2010). Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he initially rose to musical fame as the lead singer of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes.
• 1949 – Ernest Lee Thomas, American actor. Omar on Everybody Hates Chris.
• 1949 – Fran Sheehan, American bass player. Fran Sheehan (26 March, 1949) is an American rock musician best known for being the bass player in the early incarnation of the rock band Boston.
• 1949 – Vicki Lawrence, American actress, comedian, talk show host, and singer. Vicki Ann Lawrence (born Vicki Ann Axelrad; born March 26, 1949), sometimes credited as Vicki Lawrence Schultz, is an American actress, comedian, and pop music singer known for the many characters she originated on CBS's The Carol Burnett Show, where she appeared from 1967–78, for the entire series run.
• 1948 – Steven Tyler, American singer-songwriter and actor. He is known as the "Demon of Screamin'" due to his high screams and his wide vocal range.
• 1946 – Johnny Crawford, American actor and singer. Crawford first performed before a national audience as a Mouseketeer.
• 1944 – Diana Ross, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress. The group released a record-setting twelve number-one hit singles on the US Billboard Hot 100, including "Where Did Our Love Go", "Baby Love", "Come See About Me", "Stop! In the Name of Love", "You Can't Hurry Love", "You Keep Me Hangin' On", "Love Child", and "Someday We'll Be Together".
• 1943 – Bob Woodward, American journalist and author. He has worked for The Washington Post since 1971 as a reporter, and is currently an associate editor.
• 1942 – Erica Jong, American novelist and poet. Erica Jong (née Mann; born March 26, 1942) is an American novelist, satirist, and poet, known particularly for her 1973 novel Fear of Flying.
• 1940 – James Caan, American actor and singer. For his signature role in The Godfather (1972), that of hot-tempered Sonny Corleone, Caan was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the corresponding Golden Globe.
• 1940 – Nancy Pelosi, American lawyer and politician, 60th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. First elected to Congress in 1987, Pelosi is the highest-ranking female elected official in United States history.
• 1938 – Anthony James Leggett, English-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate. Sir Anthony James Leggett KBE FRS (born 26 March 1938), has been a professor of physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign since 1983.
• 1937 – Wayne Embry, American basketball player and manager. After his playing career, Embry transitioned to a career as a professional basketball executive, becoming the first African-American general manager & team president in NBA history.
• 1934 – Alan Arkin, American actor. With a film career spanning eight decades, Arkin is known for his performances in The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966), Wait Until Dark (1967), The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968), Popi (1969), Catch-22 (1970), The In-Laws (1979), Edward Scissorhands (1990), The Rocketeer (1991), Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (2001), Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Get Smart (2008), Sunshine Cleaning (2008), and Argo (2012).
• 1932 – James Andrew Harris, American chemist and academic (d. 2000), was a nuclear chemist who was involved in the discovery of elements 104 and 105 (rutherfordium and dubnium, respectively). Harris is known for being the first African American to contribute to the discovery of new elements.
• 1932 – Leroy Griffith, American businessman. Leroy Charles Griffith (born March 26, 1932) is an American theater and nightclub proprietor, former Broadway theater producer, and film producer.
• 1931 – Leonard Nimoy, American actor (d. 2015), was an American actor, film director, photographer, author, singer, and songwriter. He was known for playing Spock in the Star Trek franchise, a character he portrayed in television and film for almost fifty years, from a pilot episode shot in late 1964 to his final film performance in 2013.
• 1930 – Gregory Corso, American poet (d. 2001), was an American poet, youngest of the inner circle of Beat Generation writers (with Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs).
• 1930 – Sandra Day O'Connor, American lawyer and jurist. Sandra Day O'Connor (born March 26, 1930) is a retired Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who served from her 1981 appointment by President Ronald Reagan until her retirement in 2006.
• 1929 – Edward Sorel, American illustrator and caricaturist. Formerly a regular contributor to The Nation, New York Magazine and The Atlantic, his work is today seen more frequently in Vanity Fair.
• 1929 – Edwin Turney, American businessman, co-founded Advanced Micro Devices (d. 2008). Edwin James Turney (March 26, 1929, Brooklyn, New York - October 15, 2008) is best known as one of the founders of Advanced Micro Devices serving as the Vice President of Sales and Administration from 1969 to 1974.
• 1925 – Ben Mondor, Canadian-American businessman (d. 2010), was a Canadian-born American baseball executive.
• 1925 – Vesta Roy, American politician, Governor of New Hampshire (d. 2002). Roy (née Coward; March 26, 1925 – February 9, 2002) was a Republican New Hampshire politician.
• 1919 – Strother Martin, American actor (d. 1980), was an American character actor who often appeared in support of John Wayne and Paul Newman and in western films directed by John Ford and Sam Peckinpah. Martin perhaps is best known as the prison "captain" in the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke, in which he uttered the line, "What we've got here is failure to communicate." The line is number 11 on the American Film Institute list of AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes.
• 1917 – Rufus Thomas, American R&B singer-songwriter (d. 2001). Thomas, Jr. (March 26, 1917 – December 15, 2001) was an American rhythm-and-blues, funk, soul and blues singer, songwriter, dancer, DJ and comic entertainer from Memphis, Tennessee.
• 1916 – Christian B. Anfinsen, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995). He shared the 1972 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Stanford Moore and William Howard Stein for work on ribonuclease, especially concerning the connection between the amino acid sequence and the biologically active conformation (see Anfinsen's dogma).
• 1916 – Sterling Hayden, American actor and author (d. 1986), was an American actor, author, and sailor. A leading man for most of his career, he specialized in westerns and film noir throughout the 1950s, in films such as John Huston's The Asphalt Jungle (1950), Joan Crawford's Johnny Guitar (1954), and Stanley Kubrick's The Killing (1956).
• 1914 – William Westmoreland, American general (d. 2005), was a United States Army General, most notably commander of United States forces during the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1968. He served as Chief of Staff of the United States Army from 1968 to 1972.
• 1911 – Tennessee Williams, American playwright, and poet (d. 1983). Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the three foremost playwrights of 20th-century American drama.
• 1904 – Joseph Campbell, American mythologist and author (d. 1987), was an American professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work covers many aspects of the human experience.
• 1898 – Rudolf Dassler, German businessman, founded Puma SE (d. 1974), was the German founder of the sportswear company Puma and the older brother of Adidas founder, Adolf "Adi" Dassler. The brothers were partners in a shoe company Adi started, Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik (Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory).
• 1893 – James Bryant Conant, American chemist, academic, and diplomat, 1st United States Ambassador to West Germany (d. 1978), was an American chemist, a transformative President of Harvard University, and the first U.S. Ambassador to West Germany.
• 1886 – Hugh Mulzac, Vincentian-American soldier and politician (d. 1971), was an African-American member of the United States Merchant Marine. He earned a Master rating in 1918 which should have qualified him to command a ship, but this did not happen until September 29, 1942 because of racial discrimination.
• 1884 – Georges Imbert, French chemical engineer and inventor (d. 1950). He became famous for the invention of the wood gas generator.
• 1881 – Guccio Gucci, Italian fashion designer, founded Gucci (d. 1953), was an Italian-British businessman and fashion designer. He is most known for being the founder of the fashion house of Gucci.
• 1879 – Othmar Ammann, Swiss-American engineer, designed the George Washington Bridge and Verrazano-Narrows Bridge (d. 1965), was a Swiss-American civil engineer whose bridge designs include the George Washington Bridge, Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, and Bayonne Bridge. He also directed the planning and construction of the Lincoln Tunnel.
• 1874 – Robert Frost, American poet and playwright (d. 1963). His work was initially published in England before it was published in America.
• 1850 – Edward Bellamy, American author, socialist, and utopian visionary (d. 1898), was an American author, journalist, and political activist most famous for his utopian novel, Looking Backward. Bellamy's vision of a harmonious future world inspired the formation of numerous "Nationalist Clubs" dedicated to the propagation of Bellamy's political ideas.
• 1804 – David Humphreys Storer, American physician and academic (d. 1891), was an American physician and naturalist. He served as dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard Medical School from 1855-1864, and published on the reptiles and fishes of New England.
• 1773 – Nathaniel Bowditch, American mathematician and navigator (d. 1838), was an early American mathematician remembered for his work on ocean navigation. He is often credited as the founder of modern maritime navigation; his book The New American Practical Navigator, first published in 1802, is still carried on board every commissioned U.S.
• 1753 – Benjamin Thompson, American-French physicist and politician, Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies (d. 1814), was an American-born British physicist and inventor whose challenges to established physical theory were part of the 19th-century revolution in thermodynamics. He served as lieutenant-colonel of the King's American Dragoons, part of the British Loyalist forces, during the American Revolutionary War.
• 1749 – William Blount, American politician (d. 1800), was an American statesman and land speculator, and a signer of the United States Constitution. He was a member of the North Carolina delegation at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, and led efforts in North Carolina to ratify the Constitution in 1789 at Fayetteville.
• 1698 – Prokop Diviš, Czech priest, scientist and inventor (d. 1765), was a Czech canon regular, theologian and natural scientist. In an attempt to prevent thunderstorms from occurring, he inadvertently constructed one of the first grounded lightning rods.

Deaths

• 2016 – Jim Harrison, American novelist, essayist, and poet (b. 1937)
• 2014 – Dick Guidry, American businessman and politician (b. 1929)
• 2014 – Roger Birkman, American psychologist and author (b. 1919)
• 2013 – Dave Leggett, American baseball player (b. 1933)
• 2013 – Tom Boerwinkle, American basketball player and sportscaster (b. 1945)
• 2012 – David Craighead, American organist and educator (b. 1924)
• 2012 – Sisto Averno, American football player (b. 1925)
• 2012 – Thomas M. Cover, American theorist and academic (b. 1938)
• 2011 – Geraldine Ferraro, American lawyer and politician (b. 1935)
• 2010 – Charles Ryskamp, American art collector and curator (b. 1928)
• 2008 – Robert Fagles, American poet and academic (b. 1933)
• 2006 – Paul Dana, American race car driver (b. 1975)
• 2004 – Jan Sterling, American actress (b. 1921)
• 2003 – Daniel Patrick Moynihan, American sociologist and politician, 12th United States Ambassador to the United Nations (b. 1927)
• 2002 – Randy Castillo, American drummer and songwriter (b. 1950)
• 1996 – David Packard, American engineer and businessman, co-founded Hewlett-Packard (b. 1912)
• 1996 – Edmund Muskie, American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician, 58th United States Secretary of State (b. 1914)
• 1995 – Eazy-E, American rapper and producer (b. 1963)
• 1993 – Louis Falco, American dancer and choreographer (b. 1942)
• 1992 – Barbara Frum, American-Canadian journalist and radio host (b. 1937)
• 1990 – Halston, American fashion designer (b. 1932)
• 1987 – Walter Abel, American actor (b. 1898)
• 1979 – Beauford Delaney, American-French painter (b. 1901)
• 1979 – Jean Stafford, American author and academic (b. 1915)
• 1973 – Johnny Drake, American football player (b. 1916)
• 1969 – John Kennedy Toole, American novelist (b. 1937)
• 1959 – Raymond Chandler, American crime novelist and screenwriter (b. 1888)
• 1951 – James F. Hinkle, American banker and politician, 6th Governor of New Mexico (b. 1864)
• 1942 – Jimmy Burke, American baseball player and manager (b. 1874)
• 1934 – John Biller, American jumper and discus thrower (b. 1877)
• 1932 – Henry M. Leland, American machinist, inventor, engineer, automotive entrepreneur and founded of Cadillac and Lincoln (b. 1843)
• 1920 – William Chester Minor, American surgeon and lexicographer (b. 1834)
• 1905 – Maurice Barrymore, American actor (b. 1849)
• 1892 – Walt Whitman, American poet, essayist, and journalist (b. 1819)
• 1885 – Anson Stager, American general and businessman, co-founded Western Union (b. 1825)
• 1862 – Uriah P. Levy, American commander (b. 1792)
• 1858 – John Addison Thomas, American lieutenant, engineer, and politician, 3rd United States Assistant Secretary of State (b. 1811)
• 1726 – John Vanbrugh, English playwright and architect, designed Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard (b. 1664)