Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/March 21
This is a list of selected March 21 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article, featured list or picture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
Images
Use only ONE image at a time
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Flag of Namibia -
Coat of Arms of Namibia -
President Sam Nujoma of Namibia -
Alcatraz Island -
President Benito Juárez of Mexico -
Archbishop Thomas Cranmer -
Battle of Karameh aftermath -
Pope Pius VII -
Phra Phrom statue, Erawan Shrine -
Rudolf Christoph von Gersdorff
Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| Benito Juárez Day in Mexico; | unreferenced section (Ancestry), refimprove section |
| World Poetry Day | stub |
| World Down Syndrome Day | needs more footnotes and cleanup |
| ; Mother's Day in the Arab world | refimprove sections |
| Independence Day in Namibia (1990); | outdated |
| 630 – Byzantine emperor Heraclius restored the True Cross to Jerusalem. | lots of CN tags |
| 1800 – After being elected as a compromise candidate after several months of stalemate, Pope Pius VII was crowned in Venice with a temporary papal tiara made of papier-mâché. | refimprove |
| 1801 – French Revolutionary Wars: The Battle of Alexandria was fought between British and French forces near the ruins of Nicopolis in Egypt. | refimprove |
| 1804 – The Napoleonic Code, the French civil code established under Napoleon, entered into force, eventually strongly influencing the law of many other countries. | unreferenced section, refimprove sections |
| 1871 – Otto von Bismarck, the founder of the German Empire, was proclaimed as its first chancellor. | lots of CN tags |
| 1943 – World War II: Wehrmacht officer Rudolf Christoph von Gersdorff attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler by suicide bombing, but had to abort the plan at the last minute. | needs more footnotes |
| 1945 – World War II: Bulgaria and the Soviet Union successfully defended the north bank of the Drava River as the Battle of the Transdanubian Hills concluded. | refimprove section |
| 1989 – An article in Sports Illustrated alleged that Pete Rose, the manager of the Major League Baseball team Cincinnati Reds, was involved in gambling. | refimprove section |
Eligible
- 1556 – Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer, one of the founders of Anglicanism, was burnt at the stake in Oxford, England, for heresy.
- 1913 – Over 360 were killed and 20,000 homes destroyed in the Great Dayton Flood in Dayton, Ohio, U.S.
- 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 – The Papal encyclical Mit brennender Sorge, condemning antisemitism and criticizing Nazism, was read from the pulpits of all German Catholic churches.
- 1946 – The Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League signed Kenny Washington, making him the first African American player in the league since 1933.
- 1952 – The first major rock and roll concert, the Moondog Coronation Ball, was held at the Cleveland Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
- 1960 – Police in Sharpeville, South Africa, opened fire on a group of unarmed black demonstrators who were protesting pass laws, killing almost 70 people and wounding about 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.
- 1968 – War of Attrition: The Israel Defense Forces clashed with the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Jordanian Armed Forces during the Battle of Karameh.
- 1980 – Dallas aired its "A House Divided" episode which led to eight months of international speculation regarding "Who shot J.R.?"
- Born/died this day: Absalon (d. 1201) · Alice Henry (b. 1857) · Al Williamson (b. 1931) · Emily Infeld (b. 1990) · Chinua Achebe (d. 2013) · Nobuo Uematsu (b. 1959)
March 21: Purim (Judaism, 2019)
- 1814 – War of the Sixth Coalition: At the Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube, Napoleon suddenly realized his army was vastly outnumbered and hurriedly ordered a retreat.
- 1861 – Vice President of the Confederate States of America Alexander H. Stephens (pictured) extemporaneously gave the "Cornerstone Speech", in which he laid out the Confederacy's causes for declaring secession.
- 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.
- 1983 – In the West Bank, a number of Palestinian girls complained of breathing difficulties due to strange odors, leading to accusations of poison gas.
- 2006 – A man using a hammer smashed the statue of Phra Phrom in the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok, Thailand, and was subsequently beaten to death by bystanders.
Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. (b. 1867) · Salvador Lutteroth (b. 1897) · Wolfgang Wagner (d. 2010)