● Mar 21 in History
1685 — Composer Johann Sebastian Bach is born in Eisenach, duchy of Saxe-Eisenach (now in Germany), the youngest of eight children. He composes cantatas, sonatas, preludes, fugues and chorale preludes. His works include the “Brandenburg Concerto” and “Goldberg Variations”.
1963 — Alcatraz (The Rock), the maximum-security federal prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay (2.01km off the coast of San Francisco) since August 11 1934, is emptied of its last 27 inmates.
1975 — The Inkatha Freedom Party is founded by Mangosuthu Buthelezi. He leads the party until August 25 2019.
1980 — President Jimmy Carter announces that the US will not participate in the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow (July 19 to August 3) as a boycott against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. Ultimately, 65 countries join the boycott, while 80 head to Moscow — including those (such as Great Britain) which elect to let their athletes decide for themselves whether to participate.
1987 — Dean Paul Martin jnr, 35, the singer/actor son of Hollywood legend Dean Martin, dies when his F-4 Phantom fighter jet crashes in California’s San Bernardino Mountains during a snowstorm. The captain in the California Air National Guard’s 196th Tactical Fighter Squadron dies with his weapons systems officer, Captain Ramon Ortiz. Martin became a successful tennis player in his teens (he competed in the junior competition at Wimbledon) and an actor. He obtained his pilot’s licence at age 16. 1990 — Namibia gains Independence and Sam Nujoma is sworn in as its first president.
1995 — Thousands of Japanese police raid the offices of the secretive religious group Aum Shinrikyo, a day after the sarin-gas attacks on Tokyo subways that killed 13 people, injured 5,500 to varying degrees and caused temporary vision problems for nearly 1,000 others. In ensuing weeks they find tons of chemicals used to make sarin nerve gas and evidence of biological weapons research. Shoko Asahara, founder and leader of the doomsday cult, is sentenced to death in 2004 for the attacks and various other crimes. He is executed by hanging on July 6 2018, along with six other cult members.
1960 — Ayrton Senna, three-time Formula One champion ( 1988, ’90, ’91), is born in São Paulo, the middle child of a wealthy Brazilian family.
1975 — Corné (Cornelius Petrus Johannes) Krige, Springbok flanker (39 Tests from 1999 to 2003, 18 as captain), is born in Lusaka, Zambia.
2000 — Pope John Paul II lands in Tel Aviv for the first official visit by a Roman Catholic pontiff to Israel.