Today’s Highlights

On March 21, 1965, civil rights demonstrators led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. began their third attempt to march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama — this time under the escort of U.S. Army and National Guard troops assigned by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

On this date

1952: The Moondog Coronation Ball, considered the first rock and roll concert, took place at Cleveland Arena.

1980: President Jimmy Carter announced that the United States would boycott the Summer Olympic games in Moscow because of the Soviet Union’s failure to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.

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

2019: President Donald Trump abruptly declared that the U.S. would recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the disputed Golan Heights — the first country to do so — in a major shift in American policy.

2022: A China Eastern Boeing 737 aircraft with 132 people on board crashed in a mountainous area of southern China, setting off a forest fire visible from space in the country’s worst air disaster in decades. (All 123 passengers and nine crew members would later be confirmed dead.)

Today’s birthdays

Football Hall of Fame coach Tom Flores is 88. Actor Timothy Dalton is 79. Actor Gary Oldman is 67. Actor Matthew Broderick is 63. Comedian-actor Rosie O’Donnell is 63. Former soccer player Ronaldinho is 45.