History of the Day for:
March 21
- 1685: Composer Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany.
- 1790: Thomas Jefferson reported to President George Washington in New York as the new Secretary of State.
- 1804: The French civil code, the Code Napoleon, was adopted.
- 1918: During World War I, Germany launched the Somme Offensive, hoping to break through the Allied line before American reinforcements could arrive.
- 1925: The voice of Lowell Thomas was first heard on radio this night. Thomas was heard talking about "Man's First Flight Around the World," on KDKA in Pittsburgh.
- 1939: Kate Smith recorded "God Bless America," which became the "second" national anthem of the United States.
- 1945: World War II: British troops liberate Mandalay, Burma.
- 1945: World War II: Operation Carthage – British planes bomb Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. Unfortunately they also hit a school; 125 civilians are killed.
- 1946: The United Nations set up temporary headquarters at Hunter College in New York.
- 1955: NBC-TV aired the first "Colgate Comedy Hour."
- 1961: The Beatles played their debut performance at The Cavern Club in Liverpool.
- 1963: Alcatraz federal prison in San Francisco Bay was emptied of its last prisoners by the order of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.
- 1964: Singer Judy Collins made her debut at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
- 1965: More than 3,000 civil rights demonstrators led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. began their march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala.
- 1972: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled states may not require one?year residency for voting eligibility.
- 1980: On the season finale of the soap opera Dallas, the infamous character J.R. Ewing is shot by an unseen assailant, leading to the catchphrase "Who Shot JR?"
- 1985: Canadian paraplegic athlete and humanitarian Rick Hansen begins his circumnavigation of the globe in a wheelchair in the name of spinal cord injury medical research.
- 1989: Sports Illustrated reports allegations tying baseball player Pete Rose to baseball gambling.
- 1990: Namibia becomes independent after 75 years of South African rule.
- 1997: In a Tel Aviv, Israel coffee shop, a suicide bomber kills 3 and injures 49.
- 1999: Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones become the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon.
- 2002: In Pakistan, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh along with three other suspects are charged with murder for their part in the kidnapping and killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
- 2002: British schoolgirl Amanda Dowler is abducted in broad daylight on her way home from Heathside School in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey.
- 2006: Immigrant workers constructing the Burj Dubayy in Dubai, The United Arab Emirates and a new terminal of Dubai International Airport join together and riot, causing $1M in damage.