March 21 in History

• 1956

  March 21, 1956:

  The film "Marty" wins 4 out of its 8 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted at the 28th edition of the ceremony.

• 1960

  March 21, 1960:

  About 70 black South African demonstrators are killed by police in Sharpeville, Gauteng province, while protesting the country’s pass laws.

• 1963

  March 21, 1963:

  The U.S. federal prison on San Francisco Bay's Alcatraz Island is closed.

• 1965

  March 21, 1965:

  Martin Luther King, Jr. leads American civil rights activists to start a protest march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

• 1980

  March 21, 1980:

  U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces the decision of the United States to boycott the Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union.

• 1990

  March 21, 1990:

  Namibia officially becomes independent following 106 years of German and South African rule.

• 2000

  March 21, 2000:

  “No Strings Attached”, the 4th studio album of American boy group NSYNC is released.

• 2013

  March 21, 2013:

  A hail storm and a tornado in southern China kills 24 people and injures 100.

• 2016

  March 21, 2016:

  The first public tweet is sent by Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey and it reads “just setting up my twttr.”

• 2017

  March 21, 2017:

  The LA county sheriff’s department detains singer Wyclef Jean after he is wrongly identified as a suspect and handcuffed.

• 2018

  March 21, 2018:

  The return of 101 out of 110 kidnapped schoolgirls from Dapchi in Nigeria is confirmed by the government.