Yoko Ono, widow of John Lennon, reacts during ceremonies in New Yorks Central Park, dedicating a portion of the park as Strawberry Fields after the title of one of the ex-Beatles songs, Wednesday, March 21, 1984, New York. (AP Photo/Rene Perez)

Today is Sunday, March 21, the 80th day of 2021. There are 285 days left in the year.

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Today’s Highlight in History

On March 21, 2006, the social media website Twitter was established with the sending of the first “tweet” by co-founder Jack Dorsey, who wrote: “just setting up my twttr.”

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Earvin “Magic” Johnson smiles while addressing the media at a news conference at the Forum in Inglewood, Calif., March 23, 1994, where he was named the Los Angeles Lakers head coach for the rest of the season. (AP Photo/Lois Bernstein)

On this date

In 1685, composer Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany.

In 1918, during World War I, Germany launched its Spring Offensive on the Western Front, hoping to break through the Allied lines before American reinforcements could arrive. (Although successful at first, the Spring Offensive ultimately failed.)

In 1935, Persia officially changed its name to Iran.

In 1945, during World War II, Allied bombers began four days of raids over Germany.

Democratic presidential candidate, Jesse Jackson, gives the thumbs up sign to a group of supporters in the Norfolk Democratic Caucus in Norfolk, Virginia, Saturday, March 24, 1984. Jackson gathered over 1,500 supporters to vote in the local caucus. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

In 1963, the Alcatraz federal prison island in San Francisco Bay was emptied of its last inmates and closed at the order of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.

In 1965, civil rights demonstrators led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. began their third, successful march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

In 1972, the Supreme Court, in Dunn v. Blumstein, ruled that states may not require at least a year’s residency for voting eligibility.

In 1981, Michael Donald, a Black teenager in Mobile, Alabama, was abducted, tortured and killed by members of the Ku Klux Klan. (A lawsuit brought by Donald’s mother, Beulah Mae Donald, later resulted in a landmark judgment that bankrupted one Klan organization.)

In 1986, Debi Thomas of the United States won the ladies’ title at the World Figure Skating Championships in Geneva, Switzerland, dethroning Katarina Witt of East Germany.

Frankie Avalon admires a plaque, Thursday, March 25, 1988 that will be placed in the sidewalk along the Philadelphia Music Walk of Fame in his honor. The ?Walk? honors members of the music industry who had their roots in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)

In 1990, Namibia became an independent nation as the former colony marked the end of 75 years of South African rule.

In 1997, President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin wrapped up their summit in Helsinki, Finland, still deadlocked over NATO expansion, but able to agree on slashing nuclear weapons arsenals.

In 2019, President Donald Trump abruptly declared that the U.S. would recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the disputed Golan Heights, a major shift in American policy.

Ten years ago: Syrians chanting “No more fear!” held a defiant march after a deadly government crackdown failed to quash three days of mass protests in the southern city of Deraa. Grammy-winning bluesman Pinetop Perkins died in Austin, Texas, at 97.

Five years ago: Laying bare a half-century of tensions, President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro prodded each other over human rights and the longstanding U.S. economic embargo during an unprecedented joint news conference in Havana.

One year ago: Negotiators from Congress and the White House held talks on a $1 trillion-plus economic rescue package. During a White House briefing, President Donald Trump doubled down on his support for the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a possible treatment for the coronavirus, while Dr. Anthony Fauci said the evidence was “anecdotal.” Italy announced nearly 800 new deaths of people with the coronavirus. Hawaii’s governor instituted a mandatory 14-day self-quarantine of all people traveling to the state.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Kathleen Widdoes is 82. Songwriter Chip Taylor (“Wild Thing”) is 81. Folk-pop singer-musician Keith Potger (The Seekers) is 80. Actor Marie-Christine Barrault is 77. Singer-musician Rose Stone (Sly and the Family Stone) is 76. Actor Timothy Dalton is 75. Singer Ray Dorset (Mungo Jerry) is 75. Rock singer-musician Roger Hodgson (Supertramp) is 71. Rock musician Conrad Lozano (Los Lobos) is 70. R&B singer Russell Thompkins Jr. is 70. Comedy writer-performer Brad Hall is 63. Actor Sabrina LeBeauf is 63. Actor Gary Oldman is 63. Actor Kassie Depaiva is 60. Actor Matthew Broderick is 59. Comedian-actor Rosie O’Donnell is 59. Actor Cynthia Geary is 56. Hip-hop DJ Premier (Gang Starr) is 55. Rock musician Jonas “Joker” Berggren (Ace of Base) is 54. Rock MC Maxim (Prodigy) is 54. Rock musician Andrew Copeland (Sister Hazel) is 53. Actor Laura Allen is 47. Rapper-TV personality Kevin Federline is 43. Actor Sonequa Martin-Green (TV: “The Walking Dead”) is 36. Actor Scott Eastwood is 35. Tennis player Karolina Pliskova is 29. Actor Jasmin Savoy Brown is 27. Actor Forrest Wheeler is 17.

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MARCH 22

On March 22, 1941, the Grand Coulee hydroelectric dam in Washington state officially went into operation.

In 1820, U.S. naval hero Stephen Decatur was killed in a duel with Commodore James Barron near Washington, D.C.

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MARCH 23

On March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry delivered an address to the Virginia Provincial Convention in which he is said to have declared, “Give me liberty, or give me death!”

In 1792, Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 94 in G Major (the “Surprise” symphony) had its first public performance in London.

In 1919, Benito Mussolini founded his Fascist political movement in Milan, Italy.

In 1973, before sentencing a group of Watergate break-in defendants, Chief U.S. District Judge John J. Sirica read aloud a letter he’d received from James W. McCord Jr. which said there was “political pressure” to “plead guilty and remain silent.”

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MARCH 24

On March 24, 1976, the president of Argentina, Isabel Peron, was deposed by her country’s military.

In 1913, New York’s Palace Theatre, the legendary home of vaudeville, opened on Broadway.

In 1958, Elvis Presley was inducted into the U.S. Army at the draft board in Memphis, Tennessee, before boarding a bus for Fort Chaffee, Arkansas. (Presley underwent basic training at Fort Hood, Texas, before being shipped off to Germany.)

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MARCH 25

On March 25, 1911, 146 people, mostly young female immigrants, were killed when fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Co. in New York.

In 1776, Gen. George Washington, commander of the Continental Army, was awarded the first Congressional Gold Medal by the Continental Congress.

In 1965, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led 25,000 people to the Alabama state capitol in Montgomery after a five-day march from Selma to protest the denial of voting rights to Blacks. Later that day, civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo, a white Detroit homemaker, was shot and killed by Ku Klux Klansmen.

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MARCH 26

On March 26, 1982, groundbreaking ceremonies took place in Washington, D.C., for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

In 1827, composer Ludwig van Beethoven died in Vienna.

In 1874, poet Robert Frost was born in San Francisco.

In 1892, poet Walt Whitman died in Camden, New Jersey.

In 1964, the musical play “Funny Girl,” starring Barbra Streisand as Fanny Brice, opened on Broadway.

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MARCH 27

On March 27, 1964, Alaska was hit by a magnitude 9.2 earthquake (the strongest on record in North America) and tsunamis that together claimed about 130 lives.

In 1884, the first telephone line between Boston and New York was inaugurated.

In 1973, “The Godfather” won the Academy Award for best picture of 1972, but its star, Marlon Brando, refused to accept his Oscar for best actor. Liza Minnelli won best actress for “Cabaret.”