March 21

Events

Pre-1600

* 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.
*1180 – Emperor Antoku accedes to the throne of Japan.
* 1556 – On the day of his execution in Oxford, former archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer deviates from the scripted sermon by renouncing the recantations he has made and adds, "And as for the pope, I refuse him, as Christ's enemy, and Antichrist with all his false doctrine."

1601–1900

* 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 near Alexandria 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.
* 1821 – Greek War of Independence: Greek revolutionaries seize Kalavryta.
*1844 – The Baháʼí calendar begins. This is the first day of the first year of the Baháʼí calendar. It is annually celebrated by members of the Baháʼí Faith as the Baháʼí New Year or Náw-Rúz.
* 1861 – Alexander Stephens gives the Cornerstone Speech.
*1871 – Otto von Bismarck is appointed as the first Chancellor of the German Empire.
* 1871 – Journalist Henry Morton Stanley begins his trek to find the missionary and explorer David Livingstone.

1901–present

*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 unarmed civilians in Ponce, Puerto Rico are gunned down by police in a terrorist attack ordered by 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 professional 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 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 – 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.
* 1970 – San Diego Comic-Con, the largest pop and culture festival in the world, hosts its inaugural event.
*1980 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces a United States boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet–Afghan War.
*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
*1989 – Transbrasil Flight 801 crashes into a slum near São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport, killing 25 people.
*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.
*2019 – The 2019 Xiangshui chemical plant explosion occurs, killing at least 47 people and injuring 640 others.
*2022 – China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 crashes in Guangxi, China, killing 132 people.

Births

Pre-1600

* 927 – Emperor Taizu of Song (d. 976)
*1474 – Angela Merici, Italian educator and saint (d. 1540)
* 1501 – Anne Brooke, Baroness Cobham, English noble (d. 1558)
*1521 – Maurice, Elector of Saxony (d. 1553)
* 1527 – Hermann Finck, German composer and educator (d. 1558)
* 1555 – John Leveson, English politician (d. 1615)
* 1557 – Anne Howard, Countess of Arundel, English countess and poet (d. 1630)

1601–1900

* 1626 – Peter of Saint Joseph Betancur, Spanish saint and missionary (d. 1667)
*1672 – Stefano Benedetto Pallavicino, Italian poet and translator (d. 1742)
* 1685 – Johann Sebastian Bach, German Baroque composer and musician (d. 1750)
*1713 – Francis Lewis, Welsh-American merchant and politician (d. 1803)
* 1716 – Josef Seger, Bohemian organist, composer, and educator (d. 1782)
* 1752 – Mary Dixon Kies, American inventor (d. 1837)
* 1763 – Jean Paul, German journalist and author (d. 1825)
*1768 – Joseph Fourier, French mathematician and physicist (d. 1830)
* 1802 – Augusta Waddington, Welsh writer and patron of the arts (d. 1896)
*1806 – Benito Juárez, Mexican lawyer and politician, 25th President of Mexico (d. 1872)
*1811 – Nathaniel Woodard, English priest and educator (d. 1891)
* 1825 – Alexander Mozhaysky, Russian soldier and engineer (d. 1890)
* 1831 – Dorothea Beale, English suffragist, educational reformer and author (d. 1906)
*1835 – Thomas Hayward, English cricketer (d. 1876)
*1839 – Modest Mussorgsky, Russian pianist and composer (d. 1881)
*1854 – Alick Bannerman, Australian cricketer and coach (d. 1924)
*1857 – Alice Henry, Australian journalist and activist (d. 1943)
* 1859 – Daria Pratt, American golfer (d. 1938)
*1865 – George Owen Squier, American general (d. 1934)
*1866 – Antonia Maury, American astronomer and astrophysicist (d. 1952)
* 1867 – Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., American director and producer (d. 1932)
*1869 – David Robertson, Scottish-English golfer and rugby player (d. 1937)
*1874 – Alfred Tysoe, English runner (d. 1901)
*1876 – Walter Tewksbury, American runner and hurdler (d. 1968)
*1877 – Maurice Farman, French race car driver and pilot (d. 1964)
*1878 – Morris H. Whitehouse, American architect (d. 1944)
*1880 – Broncho Billy Anderson, American actor, director, and producer (d. 1971)
* 1880 – Hans Hofmann, German-American painter and academic (d. 1966)
*1882 – Aleksander Kesküla, Estonian politician (d. 1963)
* 1884 – George David Birkhoff, American mathematician (d. 1944)
*1885 – Pierre Renoir, French actor and director (d. 1952)
*1886 – Walter Dray, American pole vaulter (d. 1973)
* 1887 – Clarice Beckett, Australian painter (d. 1935)
* 1887 – Lajos Kassák, Hungarian poet, novelist and painter (d. 1967)
* 1887 – M. N. Roy, Indian philosopher and politician (d. 1954)
*1889 – Jock Sutherland, American football player and coach (d. 1948)
* 1896 – Friedrich Waismann, Austrian mathematician, physicist, and philosopher from the Vienna Circle (d. 1959)
* 1897 – Sim Gokkes, Dutch composer and conductor (d. 1943)
* 1897 – Salvador Lutteroth, Mexican wrestling promoter, founded Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (d. 1987)
* 1899 – Panagiotis Pipinelis, Greek politician, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1970)

1901–present

*1901 – Karl Arnold, German businessman and politician, President of the German Bundesrat (d. 1958)
*1902 – Son House, American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1988)
*1904 – Jehane Benoît, Canadian journalist and author (d. 1987)
* 1904 – Forrest Mars, Sr., American candy maker, created M&M's and Mars bar (d. 1999)
* 1904 – Nikos Skalkottas, Greek violinist and composer (d. 1949)
*1905 – Phyllis McGinley, American author and poet (d. 1978)
* 1906 – John D. Rockefeller III, American philanthropist (d. 1978)
* 1906 – Jim Thompson, American businessman (d. 1967)
* 1906 – André Filho, Brazilian musician and songwriter (d. 1974)
*1907 – Zoltán Kemény, Hungarian sculptor (d. 1965)
*1909 – Harry Lane, English footballer (d. 1977)
*1910 – Julio Gallo, American businessman, co-founded E & J Gallo Winery (d. 1993)
* 1910 – Muhammad Siddiq Khan, Bangladeshi librarian and educator (d. 1978)
*1911 – Walter Lincoln Hawkins, African-American scientist and inventor (d. 1992)
*1912 – André Laurendeau, Canadian journalist, playwright, and politician (d. 1968)
*1913 – George Abecassis, English race car driver and pilot (d. 1991)
* 1913 – Guillermo Haro, Mexican astronomer (d. 1988)
*1914 – Paul Tortelier, French cellist and composer (d. 1990)
*1916 – Bismillah Khan, Indian shehnai

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