Today in History: Mehmet Ali Ağca Sentenced to Lifetime Prison in Italy

March 22 is the 81th day of the year (82st in leap years) according to the Gregorian calendar. The number of days left until the end of the year is 284.

Railways

• 22 March 1924 The first law adopted by the Republic for railway construction: Law 448 on the construction of the Arade-Diyarbakır-Ergani Railway.

Events

• 1737 – Hacı İvazzade Mehmed Pasha was brought to the position of Grand Vizier in the Ottoman Empire, replacing Yeğin Mehmed Pasha.
• 1829 – The protocol on the founding of Greece was signed by the ambassadors of the European states at the conference held in London.
• 1888 – The English Football League, the oldest football organization in world football, was founded in England.
• 1921 – War of Independence: Kuva-yi Milliye forces forced French army units to leave Feke.
• 1933 - Dachau Concentration Camp, the first regular concentration camp, is established.
• 1939 – Memel (in and around modern-day Klaipėda) joins Germany.
• 1942 – II. World War II: Second Battle of Sirte (naval battle between the Royal Navy and Regia Marina)
• 1943 – Mutual radio broadcasting service was opened between Turkey and the USA.
• 1944 – II. World War II: At the Battle of Monte Cassino, German resistance is broken.
• 1945 – Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Yemen establish the Arab League in Cairo.
• 1963 – The first album of The Beatles, which is shown among the best five hundred albums in history, Please Please Me was released to the market.
• 1963 – Former President Celâl Bayar, who was sentenced to death in the Yassıada trials but whose sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, was released.
• 1967 – Daewoo company was founded in South Korea.
• 1968 – Students at Nanterre University in Paris, who opposed the US war in Vietnam and wanted education reform, occupied the first lecture hall of the university under the leadership of Daniel Cohn-Bendit, initiating the “68 events”.
• 1969 – Revolutionary Nationalist Youth Congress convened in Istanbul. Yusuf Kupeli and Deniz Gezmiş, the leader of the Federation of Intellectual Clubs, whose short name is FKF, published a manifesto. They announced the program of struggle for the goal of “a fully independent and truly democratic Turkey”.
• 1980 – The Process Leading to the 12 September 1980 Coup in Turkey (1979 - 12 September 1980): The presidential election that should have been held in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey was not held. He was not elected president for months until September 12, 1980.
• 1986 – Mehmet Ali Ağca was sentenced to life imprisonment in Italy.
• 1988 – Türkiye İmar Bankası TAŞ was established.
• 1993 – Intel Pentium goes on sale.
• 1995 – In the operation in northern Iraq, 3 thousand PKK members were surrounded; 200 were killed, eight soldiers were killed and another 11 were wounded.
• 2001 – In the Yüksekova Gang trial, which lasted 5 years at Diyarbakır SSC, 15 defendants were given prison sentences ranging from 3 to 30 years.
• 2003 – Businessman Halil Bezmen, who has three separate arrest warrants in absentia, was put in prison.
• 2006 – Adwaitya, the tortoise considered the oldest living animal of its time, dies at the age of 256.
• 2016 – After 2 explosions at the airport in Brussels, twin explosions occurred at metro stations. At least 34 people were killed and 136 seriously injured in the attacks. 

Births

• 1394 – Ulugh Beg, 4th Sultan of the Timurid Empire, mathematician and astronomer (d. 1449)
• 1459 – Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1519)
• 1599 – Anthony van Dyck, Flemish painter (d. 1641)
• 1609 – II. Jan Kazimierz Waza, king of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (d. 1672)
• 1709 – Giuseppe Zais, Italian Landscape painter (d. 1784)
• 1797 – Wilhelm I, King of Prussia and first German Emperor (d. 1888)
• 1818 – Heinrich Zollinger, Swiss botanist (d. 1859)
• 1822 – Isaac Dignus Fransen van de Putte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 1902)
• 1842 – Carl Rosa, German-born English opera composer and director (d. 1889)
• 1857 – Paul Doumer, President of France (d. 1932)
• 1868 – Robert A. Millikan, American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate in Physics (d. 1953)
• 1869 – Emilio Aguinaldo, Filipino independence leader (d. 1964)
• 1872 – Salvador Toscano, Mexican film producer, director, and distributor (d. 1947)
• 1875 – Anton Hanak, Austrian sculptor (d. 1934)
• 1880 – Kuniaki Koiso, Japanese soldier and politician (d. 1950)
• 1886 – Kálmán Darányi, Prime Minister of Hungary (d. 1939)
• 1887 – Chico Marx, American comedian and film actor (d. 1961)
• 1892 – Johannes Friessner, German Generaloberst (d. 1971)
• 1893 – Abbas Mirza Sharifzade, Azerbaijani actor and director (d. 1938)
• 1905 – Grigori Kozintsev, Soviet film director (d. 1973)
• 1906 – Nurullah Berk, Turkish painter (d. 1982)
• 1907 James Maurice Gavin, American soldier (d. 1990)
• 1909 – Nathan Rosen, Israeli physicist (d. 1995)
• 1911 – Munis Faik Ozansoy, Turkish bureaucrat, poet and writer (d. 1975)
• 1912 – Karl Malden, American actor and winner of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (d. 2009)
• Sabiha Gökçen, Turkish pilot (d. 2001)
• Vartan İhmalyan, Armenian-Turkish writer and member of the Communist Party of Turkey (d. 1987)
• 1917 – Ewald Cebula, Polish former football player (d. 2004)
• 1922 – Osman Fahir Seden, Turkish director (d. 1998)
• 1923 – Marcel Marceau, French mime (d. 2007)
• 1925 – Mustafa Ok, Turkish soldier and politician (d. 2009)
• 1931 – Burton Richter, American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate in Physics (d. 2018)
• 1933 – Abu'l-Hasan Bani Sadr, 1st President of Iran
• 1943 - George Benson is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter.
• 1947 – Érik Orsenna, French politician and novelist
• 1948 – Andrew Lloyd Webber, English musician
• 1949 – John Toshack, Welsh football player
• 1950 - Hugo Egon Balder, German comedian, actor and presenter
• 1950 – Goran Bregović, Bosnian Serbo-Croatian composer, guitarist and singer
• 1959 – Carlton Cuse, Mexican producer and screenwriter
• 1966 – António Pinto, Portuguese athlete
• 1967 – Hiroaki Nagashima, Japanese football player
• 1968 – Euronymous (Øystein Aarseth), Norwegian guitarist and co-founder of Mayhem (d. 1993)
• 1968 – Mubariz Mansimov, Turkish businessman of Azerbaijani descent
• 1969 – Tuna Arman, Turkish actress
• 1970 – Anja Kling, German actress
• 1972 – Elvis Stojko, Canadian figure skater
• 1976 - Reese Witherspoon, American actress
• 1977 – John Otto, American musician
• 1985 – Jakob Diemer Fuglsang, Danish professional road cyclist
• 1986 – Jeon Boram, South Korean singer, actress, and member of the group T-ara
• 1987 – Ludovic Lamine Sané, Senegalese international football player
• 1988 - Tania Raymonde, American actress
• 1992 – Walter Tavares, Cape Verdean professional basketball player
• 1993 – Christopher Jullien, French football player
• 1997 – İnci Ece Öztürk, Turkish bocce player

Deaths

• 1685 – Emperor Go-Sai or Emperor Go-Saiin, 111th emperor of Japan in the traditional succession order (b. 1638)
• 1687 – Jean-Baptiste Lully, Italian-born French composer, violinist, and ballet dancer (b. 1632)
• 1727 – Francesco Gasparini, Italian baroque composer (b. 1661)
• 1801 – Umma Khan, ruler of the Avar Khanate (b. 1761)
• 1832 – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet and writer (b. 1749)
• 1841 – Tokugawa Ienari, 11th Tokugawa Shogun (b. 1773)
• 1852 – Auguste de Marmont, French general and nobleman (b. 1774)
• 1859 – Arif Hikmet Bey, Ottoman Shaykh al-Islam (b. 1786)
• 1881 – Big Nose George, United States outlaw and pet thief (b. ?)
• 1953 – Ahmet Şükrü Oğuz, Turkish politician (b. 1881)
• 1958 – Mike Todd, American film and theater producer (b. 1909)
• 1959 – Olga Knipper, Soviet actress (b. 1868)
• 1965 – Mario Bonnard, Italian actor, screenwriter, producer and film director (b. 1889)
• 1993 – Samiha Ayverdi, Turkish writer (b. 1905)
• 1993 – Vizier Orucov, National Hero of Azerbaijan (b. 1956)
• 1994 – Walter Lantz, American cartoonist, animator, filmmaker, and screenwriter (b. 1899)
• 2001 – Ali Rıza Çarmıklı, Turkish businessman and founder of Çarmıklı Holding (b. 1920)
• 2001 – Sabiha Gökçen, Turkish pilot (b. 1913)
• 2001 – William Hanna, American producer (b. 1910)
• 2004 – Ahmed Yasin, Palestinian politician and founder of Hamas (b. 1938)
• 2004 – Janet Akyüz Mattei, American astronomer (b. 1943)
• 2005 – Kenzō Tange, Japanese architect (b. 1913)
• 2006 – Adwaitya, giant tortoise of the genus Aldabra (b. ca. 1750)
• 2007 – Kadir Has, Turkish businessman (b. 1921)
• 2007 – Münir Ülgür, Turkish academic (b. 1917)
• 2010 – Özhan Canaydın, Turkish businessman and former President of Galatasaray Sports Club (b. 1943)
• 2011 – Hamza Yanılmaz, Turkish politician and former Mayor of Elazig (b. 1963)
• 2014 – Patrice “Pat” Wymore, American actress and singer (b. 1922)
• 2015 – Arkady Arkanov, Russian playwright and comedian (b. 1933)
• 2017 – Peter “Pete” Hamilton, American speedway racing NASCAR rally (b. 1942)
• 2018 – René Houseman, Argentine football player (b. 1953)
• 2019 – June Harding, Actress (b. 1937)

Holidays and special occasions

• world Water Day
• World Children's Poems Day
• Emergency Medical Technicians and Technicians Day
• Withdrawal of French troops from Feke, Adana (1922)