On this day: March 21

Events on March 21

• 537 Siege of Rome: King Vitiges attempts to assault the northern and eastern city walls, but is repulsed at the Praenestine Gate, known as the Vivarium, by the defenders under the Byzantine generals Bessas and Peranius. Wikipedia
• 630 Emperor Heraclius returns the True Cross, one of the holiest Christian relics, to Jerusalem. Wikipedia
• 1800 With the church leadership driven out of Rome during an armed conflict, Pius VII is crowned Pope in Venice with a temporary papal tiara made of papier-mâché. Wikipedia
• 1801 The Battle of Alexandria is fought between British and French forces near the ruins of Nicopolis near Alexandria in Egypt. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1829 The Wellington–Winchilsea duel takes place in London involving the Prime Minister the Duke of Wellington. Wikipedia
• 1871 Otto von Bismarck is appointed as the first Chancellor of the German Empire. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1918 World War I: The first phase of the German spring offensive, Operation Michael, begins. Wikipedia
• 1919 The Hungarian Soviet Republic is established becoming the first Communist government to be formed in Europe after the October Revolution in Russia. Wikipedia
• 1925 The Butler Act prohibits the teaching of human evolution in Tennessee. Wikipedia
• 1935 Shah of Iran Reza Shah Pahlavi formally asks the international community to call Persia by its native name, Iran. Wikipedia
• 1943 Wehrmacht officer Rudolf von Gersdorff plots to assassinate Adolf Hitler by using a suicide bomb, but the plan falls through; von Gersdorff is able to defuse the bomb in time and avoid suspicion. Wikipedia
• 1945 World War II: British troops liberate Mandalay, Burma. Wikipedia
• 1945 World War II: Bulgaria and the Soviet Union successfully complete their defense of the north bank of the Drava River as the Battle of the Transdanubian Hills concludes. Wikipedia
• 1945 World War II: Operation Carthage: Royal Air Force planes bomb Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. They also accidentally hit a school, killing 125 civilians. Wikipedia
• 1965 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. Wikipedia
• 1965 Ranger program: NASA launches Ranger 9, the last in a series of uncrewed lunar space probes. Wikipedia
• 1968 Battle of Karameh in Jordan between the Israel Defense Forces and the combined forces of the Jordanian Armed Forces and PLO. Wikipedia
• 1980 Cold War: American President Jimmy Carter announces a United States boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet–Afghan War. Wikipedia
• 1983 The first cases of the 1983 West Bank fainting epidemic begin; Israelis and Palestinians accuse each other of poison gas, but the cause is later determined mostly to be psychosomatic. Wikipedia
• 1990 Namibia becomes independent after 75 years of South African rule. Wikipedia
• 2000 Pope John Paul II makes his first ever pontifical visit to Israel. Wikipedia
• 2006 A man smashed the statue of Phra Phrom at the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok, Thailand, with a hammer, and was subsequently beaten to death by bystanders. Wikipedia
• 2006 Jack Dorsey sent the first message on the social-media network Twitter. Wikipedia
• 2006 The social media site Twitter (now officially named X) is founded. Wikipedia

Born on March 21

• 1626 Peter of Saint Joseph Betancur, Spanish saint and missionary (died 1667) Wikipedia
• 1685 Johann Sebastian Bach, German Baroque composer and musician (died 1750) Wikipedia
• 1763 Jean Paul, German journalist and author (died 1825) Wikipedia
• 1768 Joseph Fourier, French mathematician and physicist (died 1830) Wikipedia
• 1806 Benito Juárez, Mexican lawyer and politician, 25th President of Mexico (died 1872) Wikipedia
• 1839 Modest Mussorgsky, Russian pianist and composer (died 1881) Wikipedia
• 1925 Peter Brook, English-French director and producer (died 2022) Wikipedia
• 1927 Hans-Dietrich Genscher, German soldier and politician, Vice-Chancellor of Germany (died 2016) Wikipedia
• 1932 Walter Gilbert, American physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate Wikipedia
• 1946 Timothy Dalton, Welsh-English actor Wikipedia
• 1949 Slavoj Žižek, Slovenian sociologist, philosopher, and academic Wikipedia
• 1950 Sergey Lavrov, Russian politician and diplomat, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Wikipedia
• 1954 Prayut Chan-o-cha, Thai politician, Prime Minister of Thailand Wikipedia
• 1955 Jair Bolsonaro, Brazilian politician and retired military officer, 38th President of Brazil Wikipedia
• 1958 Gary Oldman, English actor, filmmaker, musician, and author Wikipedia
• 1960 Ayrton Senna, Brazilian race car driver (died 1994) Wikipedia
• 1961 Lothar Matthäus, German footballer and manager Wikipedia
• 1962 Matthew Broderick, American actor Wikipedia
• 1963 Ronald Koeman, Dutch footballer and manager Wikipedia
• 1980 Ronaldinho, Brazilian footballer Wikipedia
• 1989 Jordi Alba, Spanish footballer Wikipedia
• 1991 Antoine Griezmann, French footballer Wikipedia

Died on March 21

• 867 Ælla, king of Northumbria Wikipedia
• 1556 Thomas Cranmer, English archbishop (born 1489) Wikipedia
• 1617 Pocahontas, Algonquian Indigenous woman (born c. 1595) Wikipedia
• 1762 Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, French priest, astronomer, and academic (born 1713) Wikipedia
• 1843 Robert Southey, English poet, historian, and translator (born 1774) Wikipedia
• 1869 Juan Almonte, son of José María Morelos, was a Mexican soldier and diplomat who served as a regent in the Second Mexican Empire (1863-1864) (born 1803) Wikipedia
• 1892 Annibale de Gasparis, Italian astronomer (born 1819)[citation needed] Wikipedia
• 1915 Frederick Winslow Taylor, American golfer, tennis player, and engineer (born 1856) Wikipedia
• 1936 Alexander Glazunov, Russian composer and conductor (born 1865) Wikipedia
• 1945 Arthur Nebe, German SS officer (born 1894) Wikipedia
• 1994 Aleksandrs Laime, Latvian-born explorer (born 1911) Wikipedia
• 2013 Chinua Achebe, Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic (born 1930) Wikipedia
• 2021 Nawal El Saadawi, Egyptian secularist, feminist (born 1931) Wikipedia
• 2025 George Foreman, American boxer, actor, and businessman (born 1949) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Arbor Day (Lesotho) Wikipedia
• Arbor Day (Portugal) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Augustine Zhao Rong Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Benedetta Cambiagio Frassinello Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Passing of Saint Benedict (Order of Saint Benedict, pre-1970 Calendar) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Birillus Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Enda of Aran Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Nicholas of Flüe Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Serapion of Thmuis Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Thomas Cranmer (Anglicanism) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: March 21 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Early music Wikipedia
• Education Freedom Day Wikipedia
• Harmony Day (Australia) Wikipedia
• Human Rights Day (South Africa) Wikipedia
• Independence Day (Namibia) Wikipedia
• International Colour Day (International) Wikipedia
• International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (International) Wikipedia
• International Day of Forests (International), by proclamation of the United Nations General Assembly Wikipedia
• Mother's Day (most of the Arab world) Wikipedia
• Natalicio de Benito Juárez, one of Fiestas Patrias (Mexico) Wikipedia
• Oltenia Day (Romania) Wikipedia
• Rosie the Riveter Day (United States) Wikipedia
• Truant's Day (Poland, Faroe Islands) Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “March 21” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.