66 years ago today
Sharpeville Massacre
On March 21, 1960, South African police opened fire on a crowd of approximately 7,000 Black South Africans who had gathered peacefully at the Sharpeville police station to protest the apartheid pass laws. Sixty-nine people were killed — most of them shot in the back while fleeing — and 180 were wounded. The massacre provoked international outrage, led to South Africa's suspension from the Commonwealth, and hardened the African National Congress's resolve toward armed resistance. Nelson Mandela and others cited Sharpeville as the moment it became clear that peaceful protest alone could not end apartheid. The date is now commemorated annually as Human Rights Day in South Africa.
On the record: Nelson Mandela
This day, across time
- 1556EventArchbishop Cranmer Renounces His Recantations at the Stake
- 1556DiedThomas Cranmer
- 1685EventJohann Sebastian Bach Born
- 1806BornBenito Juárez
- 1839BornModest Mussorgsky
- 1871EventBismarck Appointed First German Chancellor
- 1918EventGerman Spring Offensive Begins
- 1946BornTimothy Dalton
- 1960FeaturedSharpeville Massacre
- 1963EventAlcatraz Federal Penitentiary Closes
- 1965EventMartin Luther King Leads Final Selma March
- 1990EventNamibia Gains Independence
Alive in 1960
OverlapSame years; not influence
Nelson Mandelaturned 42 this year
Abraham Heschelturned 53 this year
Carl Gustav Jungturned 85 this year
Deng Xiaopingturned 56 this year
Eleanor Rooseveltturned 76 this year
Elvis Presleyturned 25 this year
Emmanuel Levinasturned 54 this year
Ernest Hemingwayturned 61 this year
John F. Kennedyturned 43 this year
John Lennonturned 20 this year
12 more figures were alive that year
Step into the moment
Simulation · scenario
Crowned With Laurels at the Comédie-Française
Paris — the Comédie-Française's theatre, in the audience
Voltaire, March 21, 1778. A simulation set on this date. The figure doesn’t know how the day ends.
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Step into the sceneOn This Day in History
8 EventsArchbishop Cranmer Renounces His Recantations at the Stake
Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer, who had previously recanted his Protestant faith under Catholic Queen Mary I, publicly renounces those recantations at his execution in Oxford, thrusting his right hand into the flame first as penance.
Johann Sebastian Bach Born
Johann Sebastian Bach is born in Eisenach, Thuringia, beginning a life that would produce some of the most extraordinary music ever composed, from the Brandenburg Concertos to the Mass in B Minor.
Bismarck Appointed First German Chancellor
Otto von Bismarck is appointed as the first Chancellor of the newly unified German Empire, beginning a 19-year tenure that would reshape European politics through his masterful system of alliances and realpolitik.
German Spring Offensive Begins
Germany launches Operation Michael, the first phase of its 1918 Spring Offensive on the Western Front, breaking through Allied lines with new stormtrooper tactics in the largest advance since the war's opening months.
Sharpeville Massacre
South African police kill 69 Black protesters outside the Sharpeville police station, shocking the world and intensifying global pressure against the apartheid regime.
Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary Closes
The famous federal prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay closes after 29 years of operation, its operating costs deemed too high. Its notorious inmates had included Al Capone and Robert Stroud, the "Birdman of Alcatraz."
Martin Luther King Leads Final Selma March
Martin Luther King Jr. leads 3,200 people on the start of the third and finally successful civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama — a pivotal moment that led directly to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Namibia Gains Independence
Namibia becomes an independent nation after 75 years of South African rule, with Sam Nujoma sworn in as its first president — one of the last African nations to achieve independence from colonial rule.
Born on This Day
Johann Sebastian Bach
Baroque Composer (Julian calendar)
Johann Sebastian Bach is widely considered one of the greatest composers in Western musical history, producing an extraordinary body of work across virtually every genre of his time. His fugues, cantatas, the Well-Tempered Clavier, and the Brandenburg Concertos set a standard of counterpoint and harmonic complexity that influenced every composer who followed. He was largely unknown outside Germany during his lifetime but was rediscovered in the 19th century through Felix Mendelssohn's revival of the St. Matthew Passion.
Benito Juárez
25th President of Mexico
Benito Juárez was Mexico's first indigenous president, a Zapotec leader who became a liberal reformer known as the "Abraham Lincoln of Mexico." He led Mexico through French intervention and the execution of Emperor Maximilian I, restoring the republic in 1867. His Reform Laws established a secular state and were foundational to modern Mexican identity.
Modest Mussorgsky
Russian Composer
Modest Mussorgsky was one of the "Mighty Five" Russian nationalist composers, best known for his piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition and the opera Boris Godunov. His raw, unconventional harmonies influenced Debussy, Ravel, and many 20th-century composers. He struggled with alcoholism throughout his life and died at 42, leaving several works unfinished.
Timothy Dalton
Actor (James Bond)
Welsh actor Timothy Dalton is best known for playing James Bond in The Living Daylights (1987) and Licence to Kill (1989), bringing a darker and more serious interpretation to the role. He began his career as a Shakespearean actor with the Royal Shakespeare Company and is also known for his role as Rochester in the 1983 TV adaptation of Jane Eyre.
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Thomas Cranmer
Archbishop of Canterbury
Thomas Cranmer, the first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury and principal author of the Book of Common Prayer, was burned at the stake under the Catholic Queen Mary I. His final act of thrusting his right hand into the flame first became one of the most dramatic moments of the English Reformation.
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