March 21
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Featured Event
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Alcatraz prison is shut down
On this day in 1963, the prison on San Francisco Bay’s Alcatraz Island was formally shut down by the government. It had long held famous prisoners such as Al Capone and Robert Stroud (nicknamed the “Birdman of Alcatraz”). During its operation, 36 men attempted to escape—and five are still listed as “missing and presumed drowned.” The prison was ultimately shut down because of high costs. Months after becoming a part of the National Park Service, Alcatraz Island had more visitors than in the previous 120 years combined. [Read today’s edition of Today in History > >]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
© Gianni Dagli Orti/Shutterstock.com
Born this day in 1474, St. Angela Merici was inspired by a mystical vision to found (1535) the Ursuline order, which was the oldest religious order of women in the Roman Catholic Church dedicated to the education of girls.
Famous Birthdays
More on March 21
Bruno Vincent/Getty Images
2017
Irish politician Martin McGuinness—who, as a member of Sinn Féin, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), played an influential role in negotiating the Good Friday Agreement (Belfast Agreement) of 1998—died at age 66. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about famous Europeans.]
Jose Luis Magana—AP/Shutterstock.com
2006
Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey sent the first public tweet, which read “just setting up my twttr.” [Test your knowledge of tech companies.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1990
After 106 years of German and South African rule, Namibia became independent. [Sort fact from fiction in our Africa quiz.]
© Columbia Broadcasting System
1980
In one of the most famous cliff-hangers in American television, season 3 of Dallas ended with the shooting of J.R. Ewing (played by Larry Hagman); the phrase “Who shot J.R.?” entered the lexicon of American popular culture. [How much do you know about pop culture?]
Courtesy: Jimmy Carter Library
1980
U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced that the United States was boycotting the Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. [Take our Olympic history quiz.]
Peter Pettus/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-ppmsca-08102)
1965
American civil rights activists led by Martin Luther King, Jr., began a protest march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. [Learn about 10 milestones in civil rights history.]
Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
1960
About 70 Black African demonstrators were killed by police in Sharpeville, Gauteng province, during a protest against South Africa’s pass laws. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about South Africa.]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
1925
The Butler Act, which outlawed the teaching of evolution in Tennessee schools, was signed into law; the legislation was at the centre of the Scopes Trial, and it was not repealed until 1967. [Sort fact from fiction in our history quiz.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1918
© Arnold Newman
1880
German painter Hans Hofmann, an influential art teacher and a pioneer in the use of improvisatory techniques whose work paved the way for American painters to develop Abstract Expressionism, was born. [Test your knowledge of artistic styles and techniques.]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (2005683081)
1806
Mexican national hero Benito Juárez was born in San Pablo Guelatao, Oaxaca. [How much do you know about Latin American history?]
Giraudon/Art Resource, New York
1768
French mathematician Joseph Fourier, who exerted strong influence on mathematical physics through his The Analytical Theory of Heat (1822), was born in Auxerre. [Sort fact from fiction in our mathematics quiz.]
© Photos.com/Getty Images
1685
German composer Johann Sebastian Bach, who is generally considered the greatest composer of all time, was born. [Discover how well you know classical composers.]
Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London
1556
Thomas Cranmer, the first Protestant archbishop of Canterbury, was burned at the stake for violating heresy laws revised under the Roman Catholic queen Mary I, known as Bloody Mary. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about notable Englishmen.]