Today In History [21st March, 2015]

A chronological timetable of historical events that occurred on this day in history. Historical facts of the day in the areas of military, politics, science, music, sports, arts, entertainment and more. Discover what happened today in history.

Today in History
March 21
630           Heraclius restores the True Cross, which he has recaptured from the Persians.
1556           Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is burned at the stake at Oxford after retracting the last of seven recantations that same day.
1617           Pocahontas (Rebecca Rolfe) dies of either small pox or pneumonia while in England with her husband, John Rolfe.
1788           Almost the entire city of New Orleans, Louisiana, is destroyed by fire.
1806           Lewis and Clark begin their trip home after an 8,000 mile trek of the Mississippi basin and the Pacific Coast.
1865           The Battle of Bentonville, N.C. ends, marking the last Confederate attempt to stop Union General William Sherman.
1851           Emperor Tu Duc orders that Christian priests are to put to death.
1858           British forces in India lift the siege of Lucknow, ending the Indian Mutiny.
1906           Ohio passes a law that prohibits hazing by fraternities.
1908           Frenchman Henri Farman carries a passenger in a bi-plane for the first time.
1910           The U.S. Senate grants ex-President Teddy Roosevelt an annual pension of $10,000.
1918           The Germans launch the 'Michael' offensive, better remembered as the First Battle of the Somme.
1928           President Calvin Coolidge presents the Congressional Medal of Honor to Charles Lindbergh, a captain in the US Army Air Corps Reserve, for making the first solo trans-Atlantic flight. On June 11, 1927, Lindbergh had received the first Distinguished Flying Cross ever awarded.
1939           Singer Kate Smith records "God Bless America" for Victor Records.
1941           The last Italian post in East Libya, North Africa, falls to the British.
1951           Secretary of Defense George C. Marshall reports that the U.S. military has doubled to 2.9 million since the start of the Korean War.
1963           Alcatraz Island, the federal penitentiary in San Francisco Bay, California, closes.
1965           The United States launches Ranger 9, last in a series of unmanned lunar explorations.
1971           Two U.S. platoons in Vietnam refuse their orders to advance.
1975           As North Vietnamese forces advance, Hue and other northern towns in South Vietnam are evacuated.
1980           President Jimmy Carter announces to the U.S. Olympic Team that they will not participate in the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow as a boycott against Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.
1984           A Soviet submarine crashes into the USS Kitty Hawk off the coast of Japan.

Born on March 21
1685           Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer.
1806           Benito Juarez, President of Mexico.
1869           Albert Kahn, architect who originated modern factory design.
1869           Florenz Ziegfeld, producer, creator of Ziegfeld Follies.
1885           Raoul Lufbery, French-born American fighter pilot of World War I.