March 21 in History

Historical Events on March 21

537

Siege of Rome: King Vitiges attempts to assault the northern and eastern city walls, but is repulsed at the Praenestine Gate, known as the Vivarium, by the defenders under the Byzantine generals Bessas and Peranius.
630

Emperor Heraclius returns the True Cross, one of the holiest Christian relics, to Jerusalem.
717

Battle of Vincy between Charles Martel and Ragenfrid.
1152

Annulment of the marriage of King Louis VII of France and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine.
1188

Emperor Antoku accedes to the throne of Japan.
1556

In Oxford, Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer is burned at the stake.
1788

A fire in New Orleans leaves most of the town in ruins.
1800

With the church leadership driven out of Rome during an armed conflict, Pius VII is crowned Pope in Venice with a temporary papal tiara made of papier-mâché.
1801

The Battle of Alexandria is fought between British and French forces near the ruins of Nicopolis in Egypt.
1804

Code Napoléon is adopted as French civil law.
1814

Napoleonic Wars: Austrian forces repel French troops in the Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube.
1844

The Bahá'í calendar begins. This is the first day of the first year of the Bahá'í calendar. It is annually celebrated by members of the Bahá'í Faith as the Bahá'í New Year or Náw-Rúz.
1861

Alexander Stephens gives the Cornerstone Speech.
1871

Otto von Bismarck is appointed Chancellor of the German Empire.
1871

Journalist Henry Morton Stanley begins his trek to find the missionary and explorer David Livingstone.
1913

Over 360 are killed and 20,000 homes destroyed in the Great Dayton Flood in Dayton, Ohio.
1918

World War I: The first phase of the German Spring Offensive, Operation Michael, begins.
1919

The Hungarian Soviet Republic is established becoming the first Communist government to be formed in Europe after the October Revolution in Russia.
1921

The New Economic Policy is implemented by the Bolshevik Party in response to the economic failure as a result of war communism.
1925

The Butler Act prohibits the teaching of human evolution in Tennessee.
1925

Syngman Rhee is removed from office after being impeached as the President of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea.
1928

Charles Lindbergh is presented with the Medal of Honor for the first solo trans-Atlantic flight.
1935

Shah of Iran Reza Shah Pahlavi formally asks the international community to call Persia by its native name, Iran.
1937

Ponce massacre: Nineteen people in Ponce, Puerto Rico are gunned down by police acting on orders of the US-appointed Governor, Blanton C. Winship.
1943

Wehrmacht officer Rudolf von Gersdorff plots to assassinate Adolf Hitler by using a suicide bomb, but the plan falls through; von Gersdorff is able to defuse the bomb in time and avoid suspicion.
1945

World War II: British troops liberate Mandalay, Burma.
1945

World War II: Operation Carthage: Royal Air Force planes bomb Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. They also accidentally hit a school, killing 125 civilians.
1945

World War II: Bulgaria and the Soviet Union successfully complete their defense of the north bank of the Drava River as the Battle of the Transdanubian Hills concludes.
1946

The Los Angeles Rams sign Kenny Washington, making him the first African American player in the American football since 1933.
1952

Alan Freed presents the Moondog Coronation Ball, the first rock and roll concert, in Cleveland, Ohio.
1960

Apartheid: Sharpeville massacre, South Africa: Police open fire on a group of unarmed black South African demonstrators, killing 69 and wounding 180.
1963

Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary (in California) closes.
1965

Ranger program: NASA launches Ranger 9, the last in a series of unmanned lunar space probes.
1965

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. leads 3,200 people on the start of the third and finally successful civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
1968

Battle of Karameh in Jordan between the Israel Defense Forces and the combined forces of the Jordanian Armed Forces and PLO.
1970

The first Earth Day proclamation is issued by Joseph Alioto, Mayor of San Francisco.
1980

US President Jimmy Carter announces a United States boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet war in Afghanistan.
1983

The first cases of the 1983 West Bank fainting epidemic begin; Israelis and Palestinians accuse each other of poison gas, but the cause is later determined mostly to be psychosomatic.
1986

Debi Thomas became the first African American to win the World Figure Skating Championships
1990

Namibia becomes independent after 75 years of South African rule.
1994

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change enters into force.
1999

Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones become the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon.
2000

Pope John Paul II makes his first ever pontifical visit to Israel.
2006

The social media site Twitter is founded.
2009

Four police officers are shot and killed and a fifth is wounded in two shootings at Oakland, California.

March 21 Birthdays

March 21 Deaths

Choose Another Date