Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Today is March 21. On this date in 2002, Pope John Paul II made a brief comment on the sexual abuse scandal that had shaken the Roman Catholic clergy. He said in a letter that "a dark shadow of suspicion" had fallen over all priests because of the behavior of those who had succumbed to "the most grievous forms" of evil. Advertisement Police opened fire on a group of unarmed black South African demonstrators in the black township of Sharpeville, near Johannesburg, killing 69 people and wounding 180 in a hail of submachine-gun fire on this date in 1960. The demonstrators were protesting against the South African government's restriction of nonwhite travel. Around the world in 19 days. Swiss psychiatrist Bertrand Piccard and British co-pilot Brian Jones landed near Cairo, Egypt, on this date in 1999, completing the first around-the-world balloon flight. They flew -- or maybe we should say floated -- more than 29,000 miles after launching their quest from the Swiss Alps March 1. Thomas Jefferson became the first U.S. secretary of state on this date in 1790, serving under President Washington. He later would become the third president of the United States. Advertisement The key World War I Battle of Somme began on this date in 1918 when the Germans launched an artillery barrage against British and French troops. The battle lasted until April 4 and ended what had effectively been a stalemate. The Allies lost 230,000 men and the Germans almost as many. The Cold War wasn't so cold on this date in 1962, when Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev pledged that Russia would cooperate with the United States in peaceful exploration of space. A joint American-Soviet Soyuz space mission was conducted 13 years later, in July 1975. And it was on this date in 1952 that the first rock 'n' roll concert -- the Moondog Coronation Ball -- was held at the Cleveland Arena. Things just haven't been the same since. We now return you to the present, already in progress.
