Hōnen Matsuri in Japan (豊年祭, "Harvest Festival" is a fertility festival celebrated every year on March 15 in Japan. Hōnen means prosperous year in Japanese, implying a rich harvest, while a matsuri is a festival)
World Speech Day (The idea came from Simon's work in establishing a free database for contemporary and historic speeches. Speeches change the world: socially, politically, in the arts, business and religion. World Speech Day was launched by Simon Gibson at the Athens Democracy Forum in 2015)
1990 – Mikhail Gorbachev is elected as the first President of the Soviet Union.
1985 – The first Internet domain name is registered (symbolics.com).
1941 – Philippine Airlines, the flag carrier of the Philippines takes its first flight between Manila (from Nielson Field) to Baguio City with a Beechcraft Model 18 making the airline the first and oldest commercial airline in Asia operating under its original name.
1927 – The first Women's Boat Race between the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge takes place on The Isis in Oxford.
1916 – United States President Woodrow Wilson sends 4,800 United States troops over the U.S.–Mexico border to pursue Pancho Villa.
1892 – Liverpool F.C. is founded.
1877 – First ever official cricket test match is played: Australia vs England at the MCG Stadium, in Melbourne, Australia.
1875 – Archbishop of New York John McCloskey is named the first cardinal in the United States.
1864 – American Civil War: The Red River Campaign: U.S. Navy fleet arrives at Alexandria, Louisiana.
1781 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Guilford Court House: Near present-day Greensboro, North Carolina, 1,900 British troops under General Charles Cornwallis defeat a mixed American force numbering 4,400 in a Pyrrhic victory.
1493 – Christopher Columbus returns to Spain after his first trip to the Americas.
493 – Odoacer, the first barbarian King of Italy after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, is slain by Theoderic the Great, king of the Ostrogoths, while the two kings were feasting together.
Births
1993 – Michael Fulmer, American baseball player. Michael Joseph Fulmer (born March 15, 1993) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball (MLB).
1991 – Naren Weiss, American actor and playwright. He has been called "the greatest actor you've never heard of."
1991 – Tavon Austin, American football player. Tavon Wesley Austin (born March 15, 1990) is an American football wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL).
1991 – Xavier Henry, American basketball player. He played one year of college basketball with the Kansas Jayhawks before he was drafted in the 2010 NBA draft by the Memphis Grizzlies.
1990 – Siobhan Magnus, American singer-songwriter, was the sixth place finalist on the ninth season of American Idol.
1987 – Eric Decker, American football player. Eric Thomas Decker (born March 15, 1987) is a former American football wide receiver who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 8 seasons.
1985 – Jon Jay, American baseball player. Jonathan Henry Jay (born March 15, 1985) is an American professional baseball center fielder who is a free agent.
1985 – Kellan Lutz, American model and actor. He has since played Poseidon in the 2011 film Immortals, the title character in the 2013 animated film Tarzan, John Smilee in The Expendables 3 (2014), and Hercules in The Legend of Hercules (2014).
1981 – Young Buck, American rapper, producer, and actor. David Darnell Brown (born March 15, 1981), best known by his stage name Young Buck, is an American rapper.
1980 – Freddie Bynum, American baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago Cubs, Oakland Athletics, and Baltimore Orioles he also played in Nippon Professional Baseball for Orix Buffaloes.
1979 – Kevin Youkilis, American baseball player and scout. Kevin Edmund Youkilis (/ˈjuːkəlɪs/; born March 15, 1979), also known as "Youk" /ˈjuːk/, is an American former professional baseball first baseman and third baseman, who primarily played for the Boston Red Sox.
1977 – Brian Tee, Japanese-American actor, producer, and screenwriter. Jaebeom Takata (Japanese: 高田 ゼボム, Takata Zebomu; born March 15, 1977), known professionally as Brian Tee, is an Japanese-American actor best known for his starring role as Dr.
1977 – Joe Hahn, American DJ, producer, and director (Linkin Park). Hahn, along with bandmate Mike Shinoda, are responsible for most of Linkin Park's album artwork.
1976 – Katherine Brooks, American director, producer, and screenwriter. Katherine Brooks (born March 15, 1976, Covington, Louisiana) is an American film writer and director.
1975 – Eva Longoria, American actress and producer. Eva Jacqueline Longoria Bastón (née Longoria; born March 15, 1975) is an American actress, producer, director, activist, and businesswoman.
1975 – will.i.am, American rapper, producer, and actor. William Adams (born March 15, 1975), known professionally as will.i.am (pronounced ‘Will-I-am’), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, DJ, actor and television personality.
1974 – Robert Fick, American baseball player. Robert Charles Fick (born March 15, 1974) is a former Major League Baseball first baseman.
1973 – Robin Hunicke, American video game designer and producer. She is a professor of game design at UC Santa Cruz and the co-founder of Funomena.
1972 – Mark Hoppus, American singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer. Mark Allan Hoppus (born March 15, 1972) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and former television personality best known as the bassist and co-lead vocalist of the rock band blink-182, as well as part of synth-pop duo Simple Creatures with All Time Low's Alex Gaskarth.
1972 – Mike Tomlin, American football player and coach. Michael Pettaway Tomlin (born March 15, 1972) is an American football coach who is head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL), having led the team since 2007.
1970 – Derek Parra, American speed skater and coach. Derek Parra (born March 15, 1970) is a Mexican American inline skater and speed skater from San Bernardino, California, who graduated from Eisenhower High School in Rialto, California, in 1988.
1969 – Kim Raver, American actress. She is best known for television roles as Kim Zambrano on Third Watch, Audrey Raines on 24 and Teddy Altman on ABC's medical drama Grey's Anatomy.
1968 – Mark McGrath, American singer-songwriter and television host. Mark Sayers McGrath (born March 15, 1968) is an American singer who is the lead vocalist of the rock band Sugar Ray.
1963 – Bret Michaels, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor. The band has also charted 10 singles to the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, including six Top 10 singles and a number-one single, "Every Rose Has Its Thorn".
1962 – Terence Trent D'Arby, American singer-songwriter. Sananda Francesco Maitreya (born Terence Trent Howard, March 15, 1962), better known by his former stage name Terence Trent D'Arby, is an American singer and songwriter who came to fame with his debut studio album, Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D'Arby (1987).
1961 – Craig Ludwig, American ice hockey player and coach. Ludwig was the color analyst for the Dallas Stars television and radio broadcasts for two seasons from 2016–2018.
1961 – Terry Cummings, American basketball player and singer. Robert Terrell Cummings (born March 15, 1961) is an American former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association for 18 seasons as a power forward and occasional center.
1960 – Mike Pagliarulo, American baseball player and coach. Michael Timothy Pagliarulo, a.k.a. "Pags" (born March 15, 1960), is an American former professional baseball third baseman and later the hitting coach of the Miami Marlins.
1959 – Harold Baines, American baseball player and coach. Harold Douglas Baines (born March 15, 1959) is an American former professional baseball right fielder and designated hitter (DH), who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago White Sox, Texas Rangers, Oakland Athletics, Baltimore Orioles, and Cleveland Indians, for 22 seasons (1980–2001).
1959 – Lisa Holton, American journalist and author. She is a former Business Editor of the Chicago Sun-Times and has authored or edited 15 nonfiction books and ebooks including Business Valuation for Dummies (with Jim Bates) and For Members Only: A History and Guide to Chicago's Oldest Private Clubs."
1957 – Joaquim de Almeida, Portuguese-American actor. Joaquim António Portugal Baptista de Almeida CvIH (born 15 March 1957) is a Portuguese-American actor.
1956 – Clay Matthews, Jr., American football player and coach. Clay Matthews may refer to any one of three generations of American football players:
1955 – Dee Snider, American singer-songwriter and actor. He was ranked 83 in the Hit Parader's Top 100 Metal Vocalists of All Time.
1954 – Bob Budiansky, American author and illustrator. Bob Budiansky (/ˌbuːdiˈænski/; born March 15, 1954) is an American comic book writer, editor, and penciller, best known for his work on Marvel's Transformers comic.
1953 – Heather Graham Pozzessere, American author. Heather Graham Pozzessere (born March 15, 1953) is a best-selling American writer, who writes primarily romance novels.
1952 – Howard Koh, American physician and politician, 14th United States Assistant Secretary for Health. Senate in 2009.
1948 – Kate Bornstein, American author and activist. Katherine Vandam "Kate" Bornstein (born March 15, 1948) is an American author, playwright, performance artist, actress, and gender theorist.
1946 – Bobby Bonds, American baseball player and coach (d. 2003), was an American right fielder in Major League Baseball from 1968 to 1981, primarily with the San Francisco Giants. Noted for his outstanding combination of power hitting and speed, he was the first player to have more than two seasons of 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases, doing so a record five times (the record was matched only by his son Barry), and was the first to accomplish the feat in both major leagues; he became the second player to hit 300 career home runs and steal 300 bases, joining Willie Mays.
1946 – Howard E. Scott, American funk/rock guitarist and songwriter. Scott (born March 15, 1946 in San Pedro, Los Angeles, California) is an American funk/rock guitarist and founding member of the successful 1970s funk band War.
1945 – Mark J. Green, American lawyer and politician. Mark Joseph Green (born March 15, 1945) is an American author, former public official, public interest lawyer and Democratic politician from New York City.
1943 – Sly Stone, American singer-songwriter, musician, and producer. Sly Stone (born Sylvester Stewart, March 15, 1943) is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer who is most famous for his role as frontman for Sly and the Family Stone, a band that played a critical role in the development of soul, funk, rock, and psychedelia in the 1960s and 1970s.
1941 – Mike Love, American singer-songwriter and musician. He is the cousin of bandmates Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson, and is often regarded as a malign figure in the group's history, a reputation he acknowledges: "For those who believe that Brian walks on water, I will always be the Antichrist."
1939 – Ted Kaufman, American engineer and politician. Edward E. "Ted" Kaufman (born March 15, 1939) is an American politician and former businessman who served as a United States Senator from Delaware from 2009 to 2010.
1937 – Marcus Raichle, American neurologist and physiologist. Raichle (born March 15, 1937) is an American neurologist at the Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis, Missouri.
1936 – Howard Greenfield, American songwriter (d. 1986), was an American lyricist and songwriter, who for several years in the 1960s worked out of the famous Brill Building. He is best known for his successful songwriting collaborations, including one with Neil Sedaka from the late 1950s to the mid-1970s, and a near-simultaneous (and equally successful) songwriting partnership with Jack Keller throughout most of the 1960s.
1935 – Jimmy Swaggart, American pastor and television host. Jimmy Lee Swaggart (/ˈswæɡərt/; born March 15, 1935) is an American Pentecostal evangelist.
1935 – Judd Hirsch, American actor. Judd Seymore Hirsch (born March 15, 1935) is an American actor known for playing Alex Rieger on the television comedy series Taxi (1978–1983), John Lacey on the NBC series Dear John (1988–1992), and Alan Eppes on the CBS series NUMB3RS (2005–2010).
1933 – Ruth Bader Ginsburg, American lawyer and judge. Ginsburg was appointed by President Bill Clinton and took the oath of office on August 10, 1993.
1932 – Alan Bean, American captain, pilot, and astronaut, was an American naval officer and aviator, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut; he was the fourth person to walk on the Moon. He was selected to become an astronaut by NASA in 1963 as part of Astronaut Group 3.
1932 – Arif Mardin, Turkish-American record producer (d. 2006), was a Turkish-American music producer, who worked with hundreds of artists across many different styles of music, including jazz, rock, soul, disco and country. He worked at Atlantic Records for over 30 years, as producer, arranger, studio manager, and vice president, before moving to EMI and serving as vice president and general manager of Manhattan Records.
1930 – Martin Karplus, Austrian-American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate. He is also the Theodore William Richards Professor of Chemistry, emeritus at Harvard University.
1928 – Bob Wilber, American clarinet player and saxophonist, was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, and band leader. Although his scope covers a wide range of jazz, Wilber was a dedicated advocate of classic styles, working throughout his career to present traditional jazz pieces in a contemporary manner.
1926 – Norm Van Brocklin, American football player and coach (d. 1983), was an American football quarterback, punter, and coach in the National Football League. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971.
1921 – Madelyn Pugh, American television writer and producer (d. 2011), was a television writer who became known in the 1950s for her work on the I Love Lucy television series.
1920 – E. Donnall Thomas, American physician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2012), was an American physician, professor emeritus at the University of Washington, and director emeritus of the clinical research division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. In 1990 he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Joseph E.
1919 – Lawrence Tierney, American actor (d. 2002). Tierney was known for his many screen portrayals of mobsters and tough guys, roles that mirrored his own frequent brushes with the law.
1918 – Richard Ellmann, American author and critic (d. 1987), was an American literary critic and biographer of the Irish writers James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, and William Butler Yeats. He won the U.S.
1916 – Harry James, American trumpet player, bandleader, and actor (d. 1983), was an American musician who is best known as a trumpet-playing band leader who led a big band from 1939 to 1946. He broke up his band for a short period in 1947 but shortly after he reorganized and was active again with his band from then until his death in 1983.
1913 – Macdonald Carey, American actor (d. 1994), was an American actor, best known for his role as the patriarch Dr. Tom Horton on NBC's soap opera Days of Our Lives.
1911 – Lightnin' Hopkins, American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1982), was an American country blues singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional pianist, from Centerville, Texas. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him number 71 on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.
1904 – George Brent, Irish-American actor (d. 1979), was an Irish-American stage, film, and television actor.
1904 – J. Pat O'Malley, English-American actor (d. 1985), was an English singer and character actor, who appeared in many American films and television programmes from the 1940s to 1982, using the stage name J. Pat O'Malley.
1897 – Jackson Scholz, American runner (d. 1986), was an American sprint runner. In the 1920s, he became the first person to appear in an Olympic sprint final in three different Olympic Games.
1892 – James Basevi Ord, Mexican-American colonel (d. 1938), was a United States Army lieutenant colonel killed in an air crash at Camp John Hay, Philippines. At the time, Ord was serving as the Assistant Military Advisor to the Commonwealth of the Philippines, under United States Military Advisor Douglas MacArthur.
1887 – Marjorie Merriweather Post, American businesswoman and philanthropist, founded General Foods (d. 1973), was an American businesswoman, socialite, and the owner of General Foods, Inc. She used much of her fortune to collect art, particularly pre-revolutionary Russian art, much of which is now on display at Hillwood, the museum that was her estate.
1874 – Harold L. Ickes, American journalist and politician, 32nd United States Secretary of the Interior (d. 1952), was an American administrator and politician. He served as United States Secretary of the Interior for 13 years, from 1933 to 1946, the longest tenure of anyone to hold the office, and the second longest-serving Cabinet member in U.S. history after James Wilson.
1866 – Johan Vaaler, Norwegian inventor, invented the Paper clip (d. 1910), was a Norwegian inventor and patent clerk. He has often erroneously been identified with the invention of the common paper clip, known to all office employees for more than a hundred years.
1858 – Liberty Hyde Bailey, American botanist and academic, co-founded the American Society for Horticultural Science (d. 1954), was an American horticulturist and botanist who was cofounder of the American Society for Horticultural Science.:10–15 Bailey is credited with being instrumental in starting agricultural extension services, the 4-H movement, the nature study movement, parcel post and rural electrification. He was considered the father of rural sociology and rural journalism.
1851 – John Sebastian Little, American lawyer and politician, 21st Governor of Arkansas (d. 1916), was an American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives and the 21st Governor of the U.S. state of Arkansas.
1835 – John Henry Kagi, American lawyer and activist (d. 1859), was an American attorney, abolitionist and second in command to John Brown in Brown's failed raid on Harper's Ferry. He bore the title of "Secretary of War" in Brown's "provisional government." At age 24, Kagi was killed during the raid.
1824 – Jules Chevalier, French priest, founded the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (d. 1907), was a French Roman Catholic priest and founder of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart and Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic religious institutes, and the inspiration for the members of the Chevalier Family.
1809 – Joseph Jenkins Roberts, American-Liberian historian and politician, 1st President of Liberia (d. 1876), was an African-American merchant who emigrated to Liberia in 1829, where he became a noted politician. Elected as the first (1848–1856) and seventh (1872–1876) President of Liberia after independence, he was the first man of African descent to govern the country, serving previously as governor from 1841 to 1848.
1767 – Andrew Jackson, American general, judge, and politician, 7th President of the United States (d. 1845), was an American soldier and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, Jackson gained fame as a general in the United States Army and served in both houses of the U.S.
1666 – George Bähr, German architect, designed the Dresden Frauenkirche (d. 1738). George Bähr was born into a poor family in Fürstenwalde (now a part of Geising, Saxony), the son of a weaver.
Deaths
2015 – Curtis Gans, American political scientist and author (b. 1937)
2015 – Sally Forrest, American actress and dancer (b. 1928)
2014 – Bo Callaway, American soldier and politician, 11th United States Secretary of the Army (b. 1927)
2014 – David Brenner, American comedian, actor, and author (b. 1936)
2014 – Everett L. Fullam, American priest and scholar (b. 1930)
2013 – Booth Gardner, American businessman and politician, 19th Governor of Washington (b. 1936)
2013 – Hardrock Gunter, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1925)
2013 – James Bonk, American chemist and academic (b. 1931)
2013 – Kallam Anji Reddy, Indian engineer and businessman, founded Dr. Reddy's Laboratories (b. 1940)
Remind me of this day
