This day in history: March 21
1963- Alcatraz Prison Closing
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| image-britannica.com |
The US federal prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, which held some of the most dangerous civilian prisoners, including Al Capone and Robert Stroud, the “Birdman of Alcatraz”, was closed to this day in 1963.
2017—Irish politician Martin McGuinness—who played an influential role in negotiating the 1998 Good Friday Agreement (Belfast Agreement) as a member of Sinn Féin, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA)—died at age 66 happened.
2006—Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey sent out the first public tweet, which read, “Just set up my Twitter.”
1990 – Namibia becomes independent after 106 years of German and South African rule.
1980—In one of the most famous cliff-hangers in American television, season 3 of Dallas stars J.R. Ewing (played by Larry Hagman); The phrase “Who shot JR?” Entered the lexicon of American popular culture.
1980-Jimmy Carter (President of America) opposes Russia’s (Soviet Union) invasion of Afghanistan, announcing that he will boycott the Summer Olympic Games to be held in Moscow.
1965 – American civil rights activists organized a protest march led by Martin King Jr. The march was carried out from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
1960 – About 70 black African protesters are killed by police in Sharpeville, Gauteng province, during a protest against South Africa’s passed laws.
1925 – The Butler Act outlawing the teaching of evolution in Tennessee schools is signed into law; The law was at the heart of the Scopes trial, and it was not repealed until 1967.
1918 – The Second Battle of the Somme begins during World War I.
1880—German painter Hans Hoffmann, an influential art teacher and pioneer in the use of improvisational techniques, whose work paved the way for American painters to develop abstract expressionism, is born.
1806 – Benito Juárez, Mexican national hero, was born in San Pablo Gueltao, Oaxaca.
1768—French mathematician Joseph Fourier, who exerted a strong influence on mathematical physics through his The Analytical Theory of Heat (1822), was born in Auxerre.
1685 – German composer Johann Sebastian Bach, generally considered the greatest composer of all time, is born.
1556 – Thomas Cranmer, the first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury, is burned at the stake for violating the heretical laws amended under Roman Catholic Queen Mary I, known as the Bloody Mary.