Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/March 21
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This is a list of selected March 21 anniversaries that appears on the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition may be controversial, or on a day that is or soon will be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors.March 21: Good Friday (Western Christianity, 2008); Purim ends at sundown (Judaism, 2008); Naw-Rúz in the Bahá'í calendar; Benito Juárez Day in Mexico; World Poetry Day
- 1556 – Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer (pictured), one of the founders of Anglicanism, was burnt at the stake in Oxford, England for heresy.
- 1800 – Pius VII was crowned Pope in Venice with a temporary papal tiara made of papier-mâché.
- 1804 – The Napoleonic code, the French civil code established under Napoleon, entered into force.
- 1960 – Police in Sharpeville, South Africa opened fire on a group of unarmed black demonstrators who were protesting pass laws, killing almost 70 people and wounding about 180 others.
- 1980 – The United States announced the boycott of the Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan.
- 1990 – Formerly known as South West Africa, Namibia gained independence from South Africa, with Sam Nujoma as its first President.
