Comedian Luke Mockridge

Events in 1989 and 21-3

Events in the world in the birth year of Luke Mockridge

• US planes shoot down two Libyan fighters over international waters in Mediterranean (Jan. 4).
• Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini declares author Salman Rushdie's book The Satanic Verses offensive and sentences him to death (Feb. 14).
• Tens of thousands of Chinese students take over Beijing's Tiananmen Square in rally for democracy (April 19 et seq.). More than one million in Beijing demonstrate for democracy; chaos spreads across nation (mid-May et seq.). Thousands killed in Tiananmen Square as Chinese leaders take hard line toward demonstrators (June 4 et seq.).
• Mikhail S. Gorbachev named Soviet President (May 25).
• P. W. Botha quits as South Africa's President (Aug. 14).
• Deng Xiaoping resigns from China's leadership (Nov. 9).
• After 28 years, Berlin Wall is open to West (Nov. 11).
• Czech Parliament ends Communists' dominant role (Nov. 30).
• Romanian uprising overthrows Communist government (Dec. 15 et seq.); President Ceausescu and wife executed (Dec. 25).
• US troops invade Panama, seeking capture of General Manuel Noriega (Dec. 20).

Birthday Luke Mockridge (21-3) in history

• Day 21-3 year 1556: Archbishop Thomas Cranmer of Canterbury was imprisoned in Oxford, UK, accused of heresy.
• Day 21-3 year 1804: The French civil code, the Code Napoleon, was officially put forth.
• Day 21-3 year 1871: Journalist Henry M. Stanley began his trek to find the missionary and explorer David Livingstone.
• Day 21-3 year 1960: Police fired on demonstrators in Sharpeville, South Africa, after which the African National Congress was banned. 25 years later, a march marking the anniversary was also disrupted by police fire.
• Day 21-3 year 1963: Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco Bay, a harsh maximum security jail which once housed gangster Al Capone, closed.
• Day 21-3 year 1965: Martin Luther King, Jr., led the start of a civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
• Day 21-3 year 2010: The House of Representatives passes a bill that will overhaul the American health-care system. The bill, called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, will be sent to President Obama to sign into law.