The Act in Conditional Restraint of Annates is passed by the English parliament on March 21, 1532 as an initial tactic to threaten the Pope by suspending the payment of annates to Rome but allowed for a small portion to still be sent to Rome, with the rest redirected to the Crown, if a papal annulment of King Henry VIII marriage wasn't granted within a year.
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On This Day in History: March 21
Explore the historical events that shaped our world on March 21st. From major milestones to cultural achievements, see what happened on this day in history. Dates for earlier events may be approximate.
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Thomas Cranmer, the first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury and key architect of the English Reformation under Henry VIII and Edward VI, was burned at the stake for heresy in Oxford, on March 21, 1556. becoming one of the "Marian Martyrs", despite recanting his beliefs under pressure from Mary I.
The Sharpeville massacre in South Africa occurs on March 21, 1960, as police open fire on a crowd of approximately 5,000 demonstrating against apartheid, resulting in at least 91 people killed and 238 people wounded. Many people were shot in the back as they fled from the police. More
The Alcatraz Federal Prison in San Francisco Bay closes on March 21, 1963, after 29 years of operation.
The first batch of 137 prisoners had arrived at Alcatraz on August 11, 1934 from the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. During its 29 year history, Alcatraz held some of the most dangerous civilian prisoners, including Al Capone and Robert Stroud, the “Birdman of Alcatraz”. More
Martin Luther King Jr. leads thousands of civil rights demonstrators out of Selma, Alabama, on March 21, 1965, on his third, and this time, successful attempt, to complete the march to the state capital of Montgomery, aimed to secure voting rights.
The successful march was protected by federalized National Guardsmen, ordered by President Lyndon B. Johnson after two previous attempts were halted by injunctions and violence particularly on "Bloody Sunday" on March 7. The March grew to roughly 25,000 by the time they reached the Capitol in Montgomery on March 25. The publicity surrounding it contributed to the passage of the Voting Rights Act later that year on August 6, 1965.
U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces on March 21, 1980, that the United States was boycotting the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979.
Despite Carter's efforts to recruit allies, several key nations, including Britain and France, did not join the boycott. In the end, 65 nations skipped the games. In retaliation for the American-led boycott, the Soviet Union and 14 of its allies boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles. The Soviet Union did not withdraw from Afghanistan until 1989.
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, becomes independent on March 21, 1990, officially ending 106 years of foreign control, first by Germany (1884–1915) and subsequently by South Africa. Namibia's has a reported 2025 population of over 3 Million, its capital and largest city is Windhoek.
Namibia is a country in Southern Africa bordering the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the northeast, Zimbabwe lies less than 660 feet (200 meters) away along the Zambezi River near Kazungula, Zambia.
The first public tweet is sent by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, on March 21, 2006. The message was: "just setting up my twttr". At the time, Twitter was still in its early stages and known as "Twttr".