Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/March 21

Images
Use only ONE image at a time

Eligible

 * 1556 – Former Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer, one of the founders of Anglicanism, was burnt at the stake for heresy in Oxford, England.
 * 1788 – A large fire destroyed 856 of the 1,100 structures in New Orleans.
 * 1814 – War of the Sixth Coalition: During their march on Paris, Coalition forces defeated Napoleon's French army on the final day of the Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube.
 * 1861 – Alexander H. Stephens, Vice President of the Confederate States of America, gave an extemporaneous speech laying out the Confederacy's rationale for seceding from the United States.
 * 1918 – First World War: The German Army opened the Spring Offensive with Operation Michael, attempting to break through the Allied lines and to seize ports on the English Channel.
 * 1937 – A police squad, acting under orders from Governor of Puerto Rico Blanton Winship, opened fire on demonstrators protesting the arrest of Puerto Rican Nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos, killing 21 people and injuring 235 others.
 * 1946 – The Los Angeles Rams signed Kenny Washington, making him the first African-American player in the National Football League since 1933.
 * 1952 – The Moondog Coronation Ball (poster pictured), generally considered to be the first major rock and roll concert, took place at the Cleveland Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.
 * 1960 – Police in Sharpeville, South Africa, opened fire on a group of unarmed black demonstrators who were protesting pass laws, killing 69 people and wounding 180 others.
 * 1963 – Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, California—one of the world's most notorious and best known prisons—was closed.
 * Born/died this day: | Absalon |d|1201| John Law |d|1729| William Y. Slack |d|1862| Evelina Haverfield |d|1920| Nobuo Uematsu |b|1959|Emily Infeld |b|1990| Wolfgang Wagner |d|2010| Marina Salye |d|2012

March 21: Fast of Esther (Judaism, 2024); Oltenia Day in Romania


 * 1874 – Queen's Park defeated Clydesdale 2–0 in the final of the inaugural Scottish Cup (trophy pictured).
 * 1913 – More than 360 were killed and 20,000 homes were destroyed in the Great Dayton Flood in Dayton, Ohio, U.S.
 * 1968 – War of Attrition: The Battle of Karameh took place between the Israel Defense Forces and allied troops of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Jordanian Armed Forces.
 * 1980 – The American soap opera Dallas aired the episode "A House Divided", which led to eight months of international speculation on "Who shot J.R.?"
 * 2019 – A major explosion at a chemical plant in Yancheng, China, killed 78 people and injured 640 others.