SATURDAY, MARCH 21, 2009

Today is Saturday, March 21, the 80th day of 2008. There are 285 days left in the year.

1610 _ King James I addresses English House of Commons

1697 _ Czar Peter the Great begins tour through West-Europe

1790 _ Thomas Jefferson reports to President Washington in New York as secretary of state

1826 _ Beethoven's Quartet No.13 in B flat major (Op. 130) premieres in Vienna

1857 _ Earthquake hits Tokyo; about 107,000 die

1935 _ Persia officially renamed Iran

1939 _ Nazi-Germany demands Gdansk (Danzig) from Poland

1951 _ 29,000 U.S. soldiers in Korea

1961 _ Beatles' first appearance at the Cavern Club

1965 _ Martin Luther King Jr. begins march from Selma to Montgomery, Al.