THE DAY IN HISTORY · MARCH 21
March 21 in history
What happened on March 21: 5 moments from the Maps of History atlases, in 1865, 1918, 1960, 1969 and 1990, each linked to the map that shows it.
— Battle of Bentonville
19–21 Mar 1865 — Johnston’s scraped-together army strikes one wing of Sherman’s host in North Carolina — the Confederacy’s last offensive, gallant, briefly successful, and hopeless.
READ THIS MOMENT → · SEE IT ON THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR MAP → · THE FULL STORY →
— Operation Michael
21 Mar 1918 — After a five-hour hurricane bombardment, 76 divisions of stormtroops break the British Fifth Army and advance 65 km in a week — farther than anyone since 1914. Then the guns, the supplies and the plan all fail to keep up.
READ THIS MOMENT → · SEE IT ON THE WWI MAP → · THE FULL STORY →
— Sharpeville massacre
21 Mar 1960 — South African police fire on a crowd protesting the pass laws, killing 69, most shot in the back. The ANC and PAC are banned and turn to armed struggle; the world can no longer quite look away. Remember them.
READ THIS MOMENT → · SEE IT ON THE DECOLONIZATION OF AFRICA MAP → · THE FULL STORY →
— Redstockings abortion speak-out
21 Mar 1969 — In a Greenwich Village church, Redstockings members tell some 300 listeners about their own illegal abortions, after a New York legislative hearing on reform had invited fourteen men and a nun to testify.
READ THIS MOMENT → · SEE IT ON THE PROTEST AND CHANGE MAP → · THE FULL STORY →
— Independence of Namibia
21 Mar 1990 — After 75 years of South African rule and 23 years of war, Sam Nujoma’s SWAPO takes office. Africa’s last colony is free; only apartheid South Africa now remains.
READ THIS MOMENT → · SEE IT ON THE DECOLONIZATION OF AFRICA MAP → · THE FULL STORY →
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