March 21 in History

Historical Events on March 21

1556 In Oxford, Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer is burned at the stake.

1935 Shah of Iran Reza Shah Pahlavi formally asks the international community to call Persia by its native name, Iran.

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

1946 The Los Angeles Rams sign Kenny Washington, making him the first African American player in the American football since 1933.

1960 Apartheid: Sharpeville massacre, South Africa: Police open fire on a group of unarmed black South African demonstrators, killing 69 and wounding 180.

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.

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

2000 Pope John Paul II makes his first ever pontifical visit to Israel.

2006 The social media site Twitter is founded.

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Famous Birthdays on March 21

1933 Michael Heseltine

1960 Ayrton Senna

1980 Ronaldinho

1985 Adrian Peterson

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Famous Deaths on March 21

1556 Thomas Cranmer

1617 Pocahontas

1843 Guadalupe Victoria

2013 Chinua Achebe

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