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March 21
March 21 is the 21st day in March.
Events
62 — England: Queen Boadicea [boh-DAY-shuh] of Iceni in eastern Britain commits suicide rather than be captured by Roman troops. The Romans began taking over Boadiceaʼs kingdom last year when her husband died. They publicly beat her and raped her two daughters. In response to this brutality, Boadicea raised an army and led a revolt against the Romans. Leading her troops into battle, Boadicea rode a chariot and wielded a sword with her daughters beside her. They sacked Colchester, St. Albans and London — the three largest Roman encampments in England — and annihilated the famous Ninth Legion. All the Romans in Britain, however, rallied to defeat Boadiceaʼs undisciplined troops, killing thousands of her people.
1678 — The London Gazette offers a reward to anyone who can reveal the author of An Account of the Growth of Popery, published anonymously by Andrew Marvell in 1677.
1685 — German classical composer Johann Sebastian Bach lives. [1]
1788 — United States of America: Fire in New Orleans destroys 800 buildings.
1804 — French Civil code, the Code Napoleon, adopted.
1843 — Robert Southey, historian and poet laureate for 30 years, dies at Greta Hall, Keswick, England.
1843 — William Miller says the world will end on this day…
1844 — William Miller says the world will end on this day.
1848 — Gustaf von Numers (1848 — 1913) lives. Finnish playwright; his best known works were in cooperation with Kaarlo Bergbom, the central figure of Finnish theatre in the 1880s. Later Numers broke with Bergbom and wrote plays for Swedish theatres. [2]
1851 — United States of America: Modern Times, an anarchist colony, founded in New York by Josiah Warren, Stephen Pearl Andrews, William G. Greene. See Kenneth Rexrothʼs chapter on Josiah Warren in Communalism See also "The Lemonade Ocean and Modern Times" by Hakim Bey, [3]
1853 — United States of America: American Labor Union founded.
1857 — Japan: A major earthquake followed by massive fires fanned by high winds all but destroys Tokyo; an estimated 107,000 die, most from the flames.
1871 — France: Proclamation of the Commune of Toulouse.
1877 — Anna Strunsky Walling lives.
1887 — Hungary: Avant-garde theorist Lajos Kassák lives (1887 — 1967).
1891 — United States of America: A Hatfield marries a McCoy, ending a famous long feud in West Virginia. [4] [5]
1905 — Author Phyllis McKinley lives, Ontario, Oregon.
1907 — Honduras: Marines land here during war with Nicaragua, to "protect US interests." Must be a dandy nice place. Done it before (1903), and done going to keep going back (1911, 1912, 1919, 1982—90). [6] [7]
1910 — Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (aka Nadar) dies, Paris. French photographic pioneer, caricaturist, bohemian. Autonomedia Calendar patron saint 2005. [8]
1911 — United States of America: Scheduling problems, March 13-21, for Emma Goldmanʼs lecture series in St. Paul — she holds only one meeting.
1913 — France: Emile Maurin (1862 — 1913) (known as Elie Murmain) dies. Militant and photographer. [9]
1914 — United States of America: Emma Goldman, the "Queen of Anarchy," addresses a demonstration of unemployed workers at Union Square in New York City; the rally is followed by a march along Fifth Avenue. This event launches a city-wide campaign of the unemployed, in which Alexander Berkman takes an active role.
1918 — United States of America: Mexican revolutionary Ricardo Flores Magón arrested in Los Angeles, placed under $25,000 bail. He is later convicted, under the Espionage Act for obstructing the war effort, and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. He will die there, ostensibly at the hands of his prison guards.
1919 — Hungary: Insurrection of the Councils with the participation of anarchists in the Commune of Budapest. The Communists, however, seize power from the new Republic and repress the revolutionists before being swept, in their turn, at the beginning of August, by the reactionary armies of Czechoslovakia and Roumania. The latter occupy Budapest. The Hungarian communist revolution of 1919 has been long considered by the students of history as an important episode in the genesis of national communism. The birth of the Bela Kun regime today — and its 133 day existence — jolted the world. Révolution des Chrysanthèmes; See La Commune hongroise et les anarchistes, 21 mars 1919-7 août 1919 (Librairie internationale, Paris, 1926, 87 p.). [10]
1920 — Brazil: Second Rio Grande do Sul State Congress. Held March 21—25th with delegates representing 30 associations, all adhering to revolutionary unionism. Source: [ Arquivo de História Social ]
1927 — China: New insurrection by Shanghai workers succeeds. Tomorrow Nationalist troops enter the already liberated city. Beginning of the Shanghai Commune, which lasts until April 12 when it is crushed by Chiang Kai-shekʼs nationalist troops (aided by Communist Russiaʼs arms, advisers and money).
1937 — Puerto Rico: The "Ponce Massacre," 22 Puerto Ricans killed in demonstrations for independence from US. [11] [12]
1937 — Spain: The anarchist Iron Column meets in assembly to vote on militarization or disbandment: it agrees to militarization. [13]
1942 — United States of America: The first advance groups of Japanese American "volunteers" arrive at Manzanar. The WRA would take over on June 1 and transform it into a "relocation center." [14]
1946 — United States of America: United Nations set up temporary headquarters at Hunter College, New York.
1960 — South Africa: Sharpeville Massacre, 69 people murdered by police during protests of apartheid pass laws. [15]
1961 — The Beatles play Liverpoolʼs Cavern Club for the first time.
1962 — A bear becomes the first creature to be ejected at supersonic speeds. [16]
1963 — United States of America: Alcatraz, the worldʼs most secure prison, closes. Only one man ever escaped the island in San Francisco Bay in 30 years — only to be arrested when reaching the mainland.
1964 — Timothy Leary starts first week of solitary LSD.
1964 — England: Three women found guilty of indecency for wearing topless dresses, London. [Source: Calendar Riots]
1965 — United States of America: Viola Liuzzo murdered while transporting civil rights workers after the Selma-to-Montgomery march (see March 19).
1965 — United States of America: Civil rights marchers from Selma head for Alabama capitol Montgomery, Alabama with Martin Luther King, Jr. among the 25,000 who participate. TWU (Transportation Workers' Union) contingent included, to support voting rights drive. They arrive on the March 25th.
1967 — Eric Burdon and the Animals appear at the Civic Auditorium in Frisco. Source: [Frisco History Archive]
1969 — United States of America: Proctor and Gamble Company accidentally ejects 5,000 gallons of soybean oil into the Chicago River, reducing the local percentage of dissolved oxygen (necessary for marine life respiration) to zero.
1969 — The newly wed John Lennon and Yoko Ono begin their famous "bed-in for peace" at the Amsterdam Hilton.
1969 — United States of America: San Francisco State College strike ends.
1969 — United States of America: Philip Rothʼs Portnoy's Complaint heads fiction bestseller list; Kurt Vonnegutʼs Slaughterhouse-Five published. Vonnegut calls himself an anarchist and uses black humor against the ruling class.
1969 — United States of America: Black students exit from occupied student union building at Cornell University carrying guns.
1969 — United States of America: Easy Rider, starring Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson, premieres.
1970 — United States of America: In New York, an effigy of Gus Johnson, president of the letter carriers' union local there, is hung at a tumultous meeting where the national union leaders are called "rats" and "creeps." During this month a wildcat strike of postal employees, in defiance of union orders, public employee anti-strike law, and federal injunctions, spread across the country disabling post offices in more than 200 cities and towns. Only the use of thousands of National Guardsmen ended the strike, major issues of which were the projected layoff of large numbers of workers and methods of work. See John Zerzanʼs "Organized Labor versus 'The Revolt Against Work'," [17]
1971 — United States of America: Following a high-speed chase, a Seattle, Washington police officer shoots and kills black suspect Leslie Allen Black. An inquest later finds the shooting "unjustified." Similar to a number of other killings by police during this period.
1973 — United States of America: Watergate tapes.
1977 — United States of America: Menomonee activists take over courthouse in Kenosha, Wisc., demanding authorities investigate the beating of two women.
1980 — United States of America: 550 women gather at Amherst, Massachusetts, for Women and Life on Earth Conference.
1981 — West Germany: Demonstrations erupting into violence involving young people — most in sympathy with squatters — angry with authority, in 19 cities. [18] [19] [20]
1981 — United States of America: The useless and lazy anarchist band, The Layabouts, takes form, Highland Park, Detroit, Spring, 1981, the Colorado House… [21]
1985 — South Africa: During funeral march for three killed in Sharpeville memorial demo, South African police kill 19 more.
1988 — François-Charles Carpentier dies. French militant anarchist, friend of Louis Mercier Vega and fighter with the Durruti Column. [22]
1990 — Namibian Independence Day. (or yesterday?)
1990 — England: Ploughshares Two disable US F-111 bomber, Upper Heyford.
1991 — The man who invented the electric guitar, Leo Fender dies. [23] [24]
1995 — The state of Mississippi ratifies the 13th amendment to the U.S. Constitution outlawing slavery.
1995 — South Africa: On the anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre, newly elected democratic government establishes today as Human Rights Day.
1996 — France: Conference on La Culture Libertaire begins in Grenoble, March 21st to 23rd, with over 30 sessions (some parallel) running from 9am to 7pm for three days. [25]
2003 — Iraq: US begins concerted bombing and missile attack of western Baghdad.
2006 — Iraq: Repeat after Bush: Victory is just around the corner!
