1 Farvardin 1404 | Friday 21 March 2025

This day in four calendars

1800 (226 years ago) With the church leadership driven out of Rome during an armed conflict, Pius VII is crowned Pope in Venice with a temporary papal tiara made of papier-mâché.
1801 (225 years ago) The Battle of Alexandria is fought between British and French forces near the ruins of Nicopolis near Alexandria in Egypt.
1829 (197 years ago) The Wellington–Winchilsea duel takes place in London involving the Prime Minister the Duke of Wellington.
1935 (91 years ago) Shah of Iran Reza Shah Pahlavi formally asks the international community to call Persia by its native name, Iran.
1980 (46 years ago) Cold War: American President Jimmy Carter announces a United States boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet–Afghan War.
1983 (43 years ago) The first cases of the 1983 West Bank fainting epidemic begin; Israelis and Palestinians accuse each other of poison gas, but the cause is later determined mostly to be psychosomatic.
1990 (36 years ago) Namibia becomes independent after 75 years of South African rule.
2000 (26 years ago) Pope John Paul II makes his first ever pontifical visit to Israel.

1685 (341 years ago) Johann Sebastian Bach, German Baroque composer and musician (died 1750)
1768 (258 years ago) Joseph Fourier, French mathematician and physicist (died 1830)
1950 (76 years ago) Sergey Lavrov, Russian politician and diplomat, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs
1955 (71 years ago) Jair Bolsonaro, Brazilian politician and retired military officer, 38th President of Brazil
1958 (68 years ago) Gary Oldman, English actor, filmmaker, musician, and author
1960 (66 years ago) Ayrton Senna, Brazilian race car driver (died 1994)
1980 (46 years ago) Ronaldinho, Brazilian footballer
1991 (35 years ago) Antoine Griezmann, French footballer

1556 (470 years ago) Thomas Cranmer, English archbishop (born 1489)
1617 (409 years ago) Pocahontas, Algonquian Indigenous woman (born c. 1595)
1762 (264 years ago) Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, French priest, astronomer, and academic (born 1713)
1843 (183 years ago) Robert Southey, English poet, historian, and translator (born 1774)
1915 (111 years ago) Frederick Winslow Taylor, American golfer, tennis player, and engineer (born 1856)
2013 (13 years ago) Chinua Achebe, Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic (born 1930)
2021 (5 years ago) Nawal El Saadawi, Egyptian secularist, feminist (born 1931)
2025 (a year ago) George Foreman, American boxer, actor, and businessman (born 1949)