Today is Sunday, March 21, the 80th day of 2021.
There are 285 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On March 21, 2006, the social media website Twitter was established with the sending of the first “tweet” by co-founder Jack Dorsey, who wrote: “just setting up my twttr.”
On this date:
In 1685, composer Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany.
In 1918, during World War I, Germany launched its Spring Offensive on the Western Front, hoping to break through the Allied lines before American reinforcements could arrive. (Although successful at first, the Spring Offensive ultimately failed.)
In 1935, Persia officially changed its name to Iran.
In 1945, during World War II, Allied bombers began four days of raids over Germany.
In 1963, the Alcatraz federal prison island in San Francisco Bay was emptied of its last inmates and closed at the order of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.
In 1965, civil rights demonstrators led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. began their third, successful march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
In 1972, the Supreme Court, in Dunn v. Blumstein, ruled that states may not require at least a year’s residency for voting eligibility.
In 1981, Michael Donald, a Black teenager in Mobile, Alabama, was abducted, tortured and killed by members of the Ku Klux Klan. (A lawsuit brought by Donald’s mother, Beulah Mae Donald, later resulted in a landmark judgment that bankrupted one Klan organization.)
In 1986, Debi Thomas of the United States won the ladies’ title at the World Figure Skating Championships in Geneva, Switzerland, dethroning Katarina Witt of East Germany.
In 1990, Namibia became an independent nation as the former colony marked the end of 75 years of South African rule.
In 1997, President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin wrapped up their summit in Helsinki, Finland, still deadlocked over NATO expansion, but able to agree on slashing nuclear weapons arsenals.
In 2019, President Donald Trump abruptly declared that the U.S. would recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the disputed Golan Heights, a major shift in American policy.
