March 21Birthdays & History

On this day: March 21 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 537Siege 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.Europe
2. 630Emperor Heraclius returns the True Cross, one of the holiest Christian relics, to Jerusalem.Middle East
3. 717Battle of Vincy between Charles Martel and Ragenfrid.Europe
4. 867An army of the Kingdom of Northumbria attempts to recapture York from the Great Heathen Army but is defeated in the battle of York.Europe
5. 1152Annulment of the marriage of King Louis VII of France and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine.Europe
6. 1180Emperor Antoku accedes to the throne of Japan.Asia
7. 1349Erfurt massacre: Outbreak of an antisemitic pogrom in Erfurt, Germany, during which between 100 and up to 3000 Jews were killed by Christians after being accused of causing the Black Death.Europe
8. 1556On 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."Europe
9. 1788A fire in New Orleans leaves most of the town in ruins.North America
10. 1800With 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.Europe
11. 1801The Battle of Alexandria is fought between British and French forces near the ruins of Nicopolis near Alexandria in Egypt.Middle EastEurope
12. 1804Code Napoléon is adopted as French civil law.Europe
13. 1814Napoleonic Wars: Austrian forces repel French troops in the Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube.Europe
14. 1821Greek War of Independence: Greek revolutionaries seize Kalavryta.Europe
15. 1829The Wellington–Winchilsea duel takes place in London involving the Prime Minister the Duke of Wellington.OceaniaEurope
16. 1844The 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.Middle East
17. 1861Alexander H. Stephens gives the Cornerstone Speech.North America
18. 1871Otto von Bismarck is appointed as the first Chancellor of the German Empire.Europe
19. 1871Journalist Henry Morton Stanley begins his trek to find the missionary and explorer David Livingstone.Africa
20. 1918World War I: The first phase of the German spring offensive, Operation Michael, begins.Europe
21. 1919The Hungarian Soviet Republic is established becoming the first Communist government to be formed in Europe after the October Revolution in Russia.Europe
22. 1921The New Economic Policy is implemented by the Bolshevik Party in response to the economic failure as a result of war communism.Europe
23. 1925The Butler Act prohibits the teaching of human evolution in Tennessee.North America
24. 1925Ravel's opera L'enfant et les sortilèges, to a libretto by Colette, is premiered at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo.Europe
25. 1925Syngman Rhee is removed from office after being impeached as the President of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea.Asia
26. 1928Charles Lindbergh is presented with the Medal of Honor for the first solo trans-Atlantic flight.North America
27. 1934The landmark Australian Eastern Mission led by John Latham departs on its three-month tour of East and South-East Asia.OceaniaAsia
28. 1935Shah of Iran Reza Shah Pahlavi formally asks the international community to call Persia by its native name, Iran.Middle East
29. 1937Ponce massacre: Nineteen unarmed civilians in Ponce, Puerto Rico are gunned down by police in a terrorist attack ordered by the US-appointed Governor, Blanton Winship.Latin AmericaNorth America
30. 1943Wehrmacht 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.Europe
31. 1945World War II: British troops liberate Mandalay, Burma.EuropeAsia
32. 1945World War II: Operation Carthage: Royal Air Force planes bomb Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. They also accidentally hit a school, killing 125 civilians.AfricaEurope
33. 1945World 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.Europe
34. 1946The Los Angeles Rams sign Kenny Washington, making him the first African American player in professional American football since 1933.North AmericaAfrica
35. 1952Alan Freed presents the Moondog Coronation Ball, the first rock and roll concert, in Cleveland, Ohio.North America
36. 1960Apartheid: Sharpeville massacre, South Africa: Police open fire on a group of black South African demonstrators, killing 69 and wounding 180.Africa
37. 1963Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary closes.North America
38. 1965Ranger program: NASA launches Ranger 9, the last in a series of uncrewed lunar space probes.North America
39. 1965Martin Luther King Jr. leads 3,200 people on the start of the third and finally successful civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.North America
40. 1968Battle of Karameh in Jordan between the Israel Defense Forces and the combined forces of the Jordanian Armed Forces and PLO.Middle East
41. 1970The first Earth Day proclamation is issued by Joseph Alioto, Mayor of San Francisco.North America
42. 1970San Diego Comic-Con, the largest pop and culture festival in the world, hosts its inaugural event.North America
43. 1980Cold War: American President Jimmy Carter announces a United States boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet–Afghan War.North AmericaEuropeAsia
44. 1983The 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.Middle East
45. 1985Canadian paraplegic athlete and humanitarian Rick Hansen begins his circumnavigation of the globe in a wheelchair in the name of spinal cord injury medical research.North America
46. 1986Debi Thomas becomes the first African American to win the World Figure Skating Championships.AfricaNorth America
47. 1989Transbrasil Flight 801 crashes into a slum near São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport, killing 25 people.Latin America
48. 1990Namibia becomes independent after 75 years of South African rule.Africa
49. 1994The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change enters into force.World
50. 1999Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones become the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon.World
51. 2000Pope John Paul II makes his first ever pontifical visit to Israel.EuropeMiddle East
52. 2006The social media site Twitter (now officially named X) is founded.North America
53. 2019The 2019 Xiangshui chemical plant explosion occurs, killing at least 47 people and injuring 640 others.Asia
54. 2022China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 crashes in Guangxi, China, killing 132 people.Asia

Source: Wikipedia "March 21" / CC BY-SA 4.0