Friday 29 March 2024 Calendar with holidays, observances and special days

Good Friday

Good Friday is a Christian religious holiday commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. The holiday is observed during Holy Week as part of t..→

Holidays and observances

• Boganda Day in Central African Republic
• Commemoration of the 1947 Rebellion in Madagascar
• Day of the Young Combatant in Chile (Día del joven combatiente)
• National Chiffon Cake Day in USA
• National Day of Girls and Boys Victims of Forced Disappearance in El Salvador (Día Nacional de las Niñas y los Niños Víctimas de la Desaparición Forzada)
• National Small Business Owner Day in USA
• National Vietnam War Veterans Day in US
• Niagara Falls Runs Dry Day
• Nyepi in Indonesia
• Rio Tinto Day
• Smoke and Mirrors Day or Magician Day
• World Piano Day (a annual worldwide event founded by a group of likeminded people, takes place on the 88th day of the year – because of the number of keys on the instrument being celebrated)
• Youth Day in Taiwan

Events

• 2014 – The first same-sex marriages in England and Wales are performed.
• 1999 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the 10,000 mark (10,006.78) for the first time, during the height of the dot-com bubble.
• 1993 – Catherine Callbeck becomes premier of Prince Edward Island and the first woman to be elected in a general election as premier of a Canadian province.
• 1974 – NASA's Mariner 10 becomes the first space probe to fly by Mercury.
• 1974 – Terracotta Army was discovered in Shaanxi province, China.
• 1973 – Operation Barrel Roll, a covert American bombing campaign in Laos to stop communist infiltration of South Vietnam, ends.
• 1973 – Vietnam War: The last United States combat soldiers leave South Vietnam.
• 1961 – The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, allowing residents of Washington, D.C., to vote in presidential elections.
• 1957 – The New York, Ontario and Western Railway makes its final run, the first major U.S. railroad to be abandoned in its entirety.
• 1946 – Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, one of Mexico's leading universities, is founded.
• 1942 – The Bombing of Lübeck in World War II is the first major success for the RAF Bomber Command against Germany and a German city.
• 1941 – The North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement goes into effect at 03:00 local time.
• 1886 – John Pemberton brews the first batch of Coca-Cola in a backyard in Atlanta.
• 1865 – American Civil War: Federal forces under Major General Philip Sheridan move to flank Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee as the Appomattox Campaign begins.
• 1847 – Mexican–American War: United States forces led by General Winfield Scott take Veracruz after a siege.
• 1806 – Construction is authorized of the Great National Pike, better known as the Cumberland Road, becoming the first United States federal highway.
• 1549 – The city of Salvador da Bahia, the first capital of Brazil, is founded.

Births

• 1985 – Mickey Pimentel, American football player. He played college football at California.
• 1980 – Bill Demong, American skier. William "Bill" Demong (born March 29, 1980 in Vermontville, New York) is an American former Nordic combined skier and Olympic gold medalist.
• 1976 – Jennifer Capriati, American tennis player. A member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, she won three singles championships in Grand Slam tournaments, was the gold medalist at the 1992 Summer Olympics, reached the World No. 1 ranking, and is generally considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time.
• 1974 – Miguel Gómez, Colombian-American photographer and educator. Miguel Gómez is the name of:
• 1972 – Alex Ochoa, Cuban-American baseball player and coach. Alex Ochoa (/oʊˈtʃoʊ.ə/; born March 29, 1972) is a Cuban-American former professional baseball outfielder in Major League Baseball and Nippon Professional Baseball.
• 1971 – Robert Gibbs, American political adviser, 28th White House Press Secretary. Robert Lane Gibbs (born March 29, 1971) is an American communication professional who is the executive vice president and global chief communications officer of McDonald's.
• 1969 – Kim Batten, American hurdler. Kim Batten (born March 29, 1969 in McRae, Georgia) is an American former 400 meter hurdles champion.
• 1967 – Brian Jordan, American baseball player and sportscaster. Brian O'Neal Jordan (born March 29, 1967) is a former Major League Baseball outfielder and National Football League safety.
• 1966 – Eric Gunderson, American baseball player. Eric Andrew Gunderson (born March 29, 1966) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher who played in the major leagues from 1990–1992 and 1994–2000.
• 1965 – William Oefelein, American commander, pilot, and astronaut. William Anthony "Bill" Oefelein (/ˈoʊfɛlaɪn/; born March 29, 1965) is an American test pilot instructor and former NASA astronaut who, on his only spaceflight, piloted the STS-116 Space Shuttle mission.
• 1964 – Catherine Cortez Masto, American attorney and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as the 32nd Attorney General of Nevada from 2007 to 2015.
• 1964 – Jill Goodacre, American model and actress. She is married to singer Harry Connick Jr.
• 1964 – Ming Tsai, American chef and television host. Ming Tsai (Chinese: 蔡明昊; pinyin: Cài Mínghào; born March 29, 1964) is an American restaurateur, television personality, and celebrity chef.
• 1962 – Billy Beane, American baseball player and manager. William Lamar Beane III (born March 29, 1962) is a former American professional baseball player and current front office executive.
• 1962 – Kirk Triplett, American golfer. Kirk Alan Triplett (born March 29, 1962) is an American professional golfer who has played on the PGA Tour, Nationwide Tour, and PGA Tour Champions.
• 1961 – Amy Sedaris, American actress and comedian. She is the creator and star of her show At Home with Amy Sedaris on truTV, in which she plays various characters and focuses on her love of crafts.
• 1961 – Mike Kingery, American baseball player. Michael Scott Kingery (born March 29, 1961), is a former professional baseball player who played in the Major Leagues, primarily as an outfielder, from 1986–1992 and 1994–1996.
• 1959 – Perry Farrell, American singer-songwriter. Perry Farrell (born Peretz Bernstein; March 29, 1959) is an American singer-songwriter and musician, best known as the frontman for the alternative rock band Jane's Addiction.
• 1958 – Marc Silvestri, American publisher, founded Top Cow Productions. Marc Silvestri (born March 29, 1958) is an American comic book artist, creator and publisher.
• 1958 – Nouriel Roubini, Turkish-American economist and academic. He teaches at New York University's Stern School of Business and is chairman of Roubini Macro Associates LLC, an economic consultancy firm.
• 1958 – Travis Childers, American businessman and politician. The district included much of the northern portion of the state including New Albany, Columbus, Oxford, Southaven, and Tupelo.
• 1958 – Victor Salva, American director, producer, and screenwriter. Victor Ronald Salva (born March 29, 1958) is an American filmmaker and convicted sex offender.
• 1957 – Christopher Lambert, American-born French actor. Christophe Guy Denis Lambert (/ˈlæmbərt/; French: ; born 29 March 1957), known professionally as Christopher Lambert, is a French actor and producer.
• 1957 – Elizabeth Hand, American author. Elizabeth Hand (born March 29, 1957) is an American writer.
• 1956 – Patty Donahue, American singer (The Waitresses) (d. 1996), was the lead singer of the 1980s new wave group the Waitresses. She is best known for the band’s singles "I Know What Boys Like" and "Christmas Wrapping."
• 1955 – Earl Campbell, American football player, was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for the Houston Oilers and New Orleans Saints. Known for his aggressive, punishing running style and ability to break tackles, Campbell gained recognition as one of the best power running backs in NFL history.
• 1955 – Marina Sirtis, British-American actress. She is best known for her role as Counselor Deanna Troi on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and the four feature films that followed, as well as other appearances in the Star Trek franchise.
• 1952 – John Hendricks, American businessman, founded Discovery Communications. John Samuel Hendricks (born March 29, 1952) is an American businessman and is the founder and former chairman of Discovery, Inc., a broadcasting and film production company which owns the Discovery Channel, TLC and Animal Planet networks, among other ventures.
• 1949 – Michael Brecker, American saxophonist and composer (d. 2007), was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. He was awarded 15 Grammy Awards as both performer and composer.
• 1948 – Bud Cort, American actor, director, and screenwriter. Walter Edward Cox, known professionally as Bud Cort, is an American actor and comedian, known for his portrayals of Harold in Hal Ashby's film Harold and Maude (1971) and the eponymous hero in Robert Altman's film Brewster McCloud (1970).
• 1947 – Bobby Kimball, American singer-songwriter. Robert Troy Kimball (born March 29, 1947) is an American singer and songwriter best known as the original and longtime frontman of the rock band Toto from 1977 to 1984 and again from 1998 to 2008.
• 1945 – Walt Frazier, American basketball player and sportscaster. Upon his retirement from basketball, Frazier went into broadcasting; he is currently a color commentator for telecasts of Knicks games on the MSG Network.
• 1944 – Denny McLain, American baseball player and sportscaster. In 1968, McLain became the most recent Major League Baseball pitcher to win 30 or more games during a season (with a record of 31–6) — a feat accomplished by only 11 players in the 20th century.
• 1942 – Bob Lurtsema, American football player. Robert Ross Lurtsema (born March 29, 1942) is a former American football defensive end in the National Football League for the Minnesota Vikings, New York Giants, and Seattle Seahawks.
• 1941 – Joseph Hooton Taylor, Jr., American astrophysicist and astronomer, Nobel Prize laureate. Joseph Hooton Taylor Jr. (born March 29, 1941) is an American astrophysicist and Nobel Prize in Physics laureate for his discovery with Russell Alan Hulse of a "new type of pulsar, a discovery that has opened up new possibilities for the study of gravitation."
• 1939 – Roland Arnall, French-American businessman and diplomat, 63rd United States Ambassador to the Netherlands (d. 2008). As the owner of ACC Capital Holdings, he became a billionaire with Ameriquest Mortgage.
• 1936 – John A. Durkin, American lawyer and politician (d. 2012), was an American politician who served as a Democratic U.S. Senator from New Hampshire from 1975 until 1980.
• 1936 – Joseph P. Teasdale, American lawyer and politician, 48th Governor of Missouri (d. 2014), was an American politician. A Democrat, he served as the 48th Governor of Missouri from 1977 to 1981.
• 1936 – Judith Guest, American author and screenwriter. She is a recipient of the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize.
• 1936 – Richard Rodney Bennett, English-American composer and educator (d. 2012), was an English composer of film, TV and concert music, and also a jazz pianist. He was based in New York City from 1979 until his death there in 2012.
• 1929 – Richard Lewontin, American biologist, geneticist, and academic. A leader in developing the mathematical basis of population genetics and evolutionary theory, he pioneered the application of techniques from molecular biology, such as gel electrophoresis, to questions of genetic variation and evolution.
• 1928 – Keith Botsford, Belgian-American journalist, author, and academic, was an American/European writer, Professor Emeritus at Boston University and editor of News from the Republic of Letters.
• 1928 – Vincent Gigante, American boxer and mobster (d. 2005), was a New York Italian-American mobster in the American Mafia who was boss of the Genovese crime family from 1981 to 2005. Gigante started out as a professional boxer who fought 25 bouts between 1944 and 1947.
• 1923 – Betty Binns Fletcher, American lawyer and judge (d. 2012). She served as a United States Circuit Judge of the San Francisco-based United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit between 1979 and 2012.
• 1923 – Bob Haymes, American singer-songwriter, and actor (d. 1989), was an American singer, songwriter, actor and radio and television host. He is best remembered for co-writing the song "That's All", part of the Great American Songbook.
• 1920 – Clarke Fraser, American-Canadian geneticist and academic (d. 2014), was a Canadian medical geneticist. Spanning the fields of science and medicine, he was Canada's first medical geneticist, one of the creators of the discipline of medical genetics in North America, and laid the foundations in the field of Genetic Counselling, which has enhanced the lives of patients worldwide.
• 1920 – John M. Belk, American businessman and politician (d. 2007), was head of the Belk, Inc. department store chain and member of the Democratic Party, he served as the mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina for four terms (1969–1977). He was the son of William Henry Belk, who founded the first Belk store in Monroe, N.C., in 1888.
• 1920 – Theodore Trautwein, American lawyer and judge (d. 2000), was an American judge from New Jersey who presided over issues related to release of reporter's notes that arose from the 1978 murder trial of "Dr. X" physician Mario Jascalevich, in which Trautwein held a reporter from The New York Times in contempt for refusing to turn over these investigative notes and held the reporter involved in jail for 40 days, triggering a separate set of cases on the limits of shield laws in protecting journalists from testifying about information they collected from their sources.
• 1919 – Eileen Heckart, American actress (d. 2001), was an American actress whose career spanned nearly 60 years. She first became known for her role as schoolteacher Rosemary Sydney in the original 1953 cast of William Inge's play Picnic on Broadway.
• 1918 – Pearl Bailey, American actress and singer (d. 1990). After appearing in vaudeville she made her Broadway debut in St.
• 1918 – Sam Walton, American businessman, founded Walmart and Sam's Club (d. 1992), was an American businessman and entrepreneur best known for founding the retailers Walmart and Sam's Club. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. grew to be the world's largest corporation by revenue as well as the biggest private employer in the world.
• 1917 – Tommy Holmes, American baseball player (d. 2008). Thomas Francis Holmes (March 29, 1917 – April 14, 2008) was an American right and center fielder and manager in Major League Baseball who played nearly his entire career for the Boston Braves.
• 1916 – Eugene McCarthy, American poet and politician (d. 2005), was an American politician and poet from Minnesota. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and the United States Senate from 1959 to 1971.
• 1914 – Phil Foster, American actor (d. 1985), was an American actor and performer. He is best known for playing Frank DeFazio on the television sitcom Laverne & Shirley.
• 1909 – Moon Mullican, American country and western singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 1967). He was associated with the hillbilly boogie style which greatly influenced rockabilly.
• 1908 – Arthur O'Connell, American actor (d. 1981), was an American stage and film actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for both Picnic (1955) and Anatomy of a Murder (1959).
• 1908 – Dennis O'Keefe, American actor and screenwriter (d. 1968), was an American actor and writer,
• 1906 – James Bausch, American decathlete and football player (d. 1974), was an American athlete who competed mainly in the decathlon.
• 1889 – Howard Lindsay, American producer, playwright, librettist, director and actor (d. 1968), was an American theatrical producer, playwright, librettist, director and actor. He is best known for his writing work as part of the collaboration of Lindsay and Crouse, and for his performance, with his wife Dorothy Stickney, in the long-running play Life With Father.
• 1889 – Warner Baxter, American actor (d. 1951), was an American film actor from the 1910s to the 1940s. Baxter became known for his role as the Cisco Kid in the 1928 film In Old Arizona, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor at the 2nd Academy Awards.
• 1888 – Enea Bossi, Sr., Italian-American engineer, designed the Budd BB-1 Pioneer and Bossi-Bonomi Pedaliante (d. 1963), was an Italian-American aerospace engineer and aviation pioneer. He is best known for designing the Budd BB-1 Pioneer, the first stainless steel aircraft; and also the Pedaliante airplane, disputably credited with the first fully human-powered flight.
• 1874 – Lou Henry Hoover, American wife of Herbert Hoover, 33rd First Lady of the United States (d. 1944), was the wife of President of the United States Herbert Hoover and served as the First Lady of the United States from 1929 to 1933.
• 1869 – Aleš Hrdlička, Czech-American anthropologist and scholar (d. 1943), was a Czech anthropologist who lived in the United States after his family had moved there in 1881. He was born in Humpolec, Bohemia (today in the Czech Republic).
• 1867 – Cy Young, American baseball player and manager (d. 1955). Denton True "Cy" Young (March 29, 1867 – November 4, 1955) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher.
• 1862 – Adolfo Müller-Ury, Swiss-American painter (d. 1947), was a Swiss-born American portrait painter and impressionistic painter of roses and still life.
• 1790 – John Tyler, American lawyer and politician, 10th President of the United States (d. 1862), was the tenth president of the United States from 1841 to 1845 after briefly serving as the tenth vice president in 1841; he was elected to the latter office on the 1840 Whig ticket with President William Henry Harrison. Tyler ascended to the presidency after Harrison's death in April 1841, only a month after the start of the new administration.

Deaths

• 2016 – Patty Duke, American actress (b. 1946)
• 2012 – Bill Jenkins, American race car driver and engineer (b. 1930)
• 2009 – Andy Hallett, American actor and singer (b. 1975)
• 2004 – Joel Feinberg, American philosopher and academic (b. 1926)
• 1996 – Frank Daniel, Czech-American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1926)
• 1995 – Mort Meskin, American illustrator (b. 1916)
• 1992 – Paul Henreid, American actor (b. 1908)
• 1988 – Ted Kluszewski, American baseball player and coach (b. 1924)
• 1985 – Luther Terry, American physician and academic, 9th Surgeon General of the United States (b. 1911)
• 1982 – Nathan Farragut Twining, American general (b. 1897)
• 1972 – J. Arthur Rank, 1st Baron Rank, English businessman, founded Rank Organisation (b. 1888)
• 1970 – Anna Louise Strong, American journalist and author (b. 1885)
• 1934 – Otto Hermann Kahn, German-American banker and philanthropist (b. 1867)
• 1905 – William Plankinton, American businessman, industrialist and banker (b. 1843)
• 1900 – Cyrus K. Holliday, American businessman (b. 1826)
• 1891 – John Plankinton, American businessman and industrialist, also noted for philanthropy (b. 1820)
• 1848 – John Jacob Astor, German-American businessman (b. 1763)
• 1751 – Thomas Coram, English captain and philanthropist, founded Foundling Hospital (b. 1668)