Today in History: Alkatraz Prison Closed

March 21 is the 80th day of the year (81st in leap years) according to the Gregorian calendar. The number of days left until the end of the year is 285.

Railways

• 21 March 1925 Station Hotel was opened in the Steering Wheel Building in Ankara Station. Ground floor restaurant upstairs 7 rooms. 6 lira per night. Atatürk, İsmet Pasha and their relatives remained in the building, which is a museum today.

Events 

• 1590 – Ferhat Pasha Treaty was signed between the Ottoman Empire and the Safavid Empire.
• 1779 – The Aynalıkavak Treaty was signed between the Ottoman Empire and Russia.
• 1788 – The city of New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, was completely burned in a fire.
• 1851 - Emperor Tu Duc of Vietnam orders all Christian priests to be killed.
• 1857 – In the earthquake that struck Tokyo, more than 100.000 people died.
• 1871 - Otto von Bismarck assumes the title of Prince.
• 1914 – The journal titled "Woman's", of which Nigar Hanım was the editor-in-chief, began to be published weekly.
• 1918 – The liberation of Tortum from enemy occupation.
• 1919 - The Hungarian Soviet Republic is established.
• 1921 – The activities of the Military Police Organization were terminated.
• 1928 - Charles Lindbergh is awarded the Medal of Honor for making the first trans-Atlantic flight.
• 1935 – Shah Reza Pahlavi, addressing the international community; He wanted his country to be called Iran, which means "land of the Aryans", not "Persia".
• 1937 – The Dersim Rebellion started in Tunceli.
• 1938 – Noel Cobb, US-born English philosopher, psychiatrist, and author (d. 2015)
• 1941 – Ankara Radio started broadcasting in Greek again.
• 1952 – The 950 gross tonnage Galatasaray freighter sank off the coast of Kefken in the Black Sea, no survivors from the crew of 15.
• 1960 – Apartheid; Sharpeville Massacre: In South Africa, police opened fire on a group of unarmed black demonstrators; 69 blacks were killed and 180 injured.
• 1963 - Alkatraz Prison was closed.
• 1964 – Turkish pianist İdil Biret won the Boulanger Music Award.
• 1965 - Ranger 9 was launched to probe the Moon.
• 1965 – Martin Luther King, with a group of 3200 people, sets out from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, Alabama for a march for human rights.
• 1978 – White rule ends in Rhodesia, three black ministers take office.
• 1978 – Ankara Belediyespor was founded.
• 1979 – Athens High Court with its decision, Turkey's intervention in Cyprus, the Treaty of Zurich IV. confirmed that it is legal according to the article.
• 1980 – Jimmy Carter announced that the United States was protesting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and would not participate in the 1980 Summer Olympics held in Moscow.
• 1980 – The Process Leading to the 12 September 1980 Coup in Turkey (1979 - 12 September 1980): 8 people were killed across the country.
• 1990 – Multi-party political life started in Mongolia.
• 1990 - Namibia declared its independence from South Africa.
• 1991 – Vedat Dalokay, one of the former mayors of Ankara, architect and writer, and his wife died in a traffic accident.
• 1991 – Events broke out in many cities and towns during the Nevruz celebrations.
• 1992 – 38 people died in the events that broke out during the Nevruz celebrations in Van, Şırnak, Cizre and Adana.
• 1993 – Nowruz celebrations passed without incident.
• 1993 – President Turgut Özal and Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel also attended the Turkish Congress celebrations held in Antalya.
• 2008 – İlhan Selçuk, Doğu Perinçek and Kemal Alemdaroğlu were detained on charges of Ergenekon Gang.
• 2009 – TRT Avaz went on the air.

Births 

• 1226 – Carlo I, King of France VIII. Louis' youngest son (d. 1285)
• 1522 – Mihrimah Sultan, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1578)
• 1626 – Pedro de Betancur, Christian saint and missionary (d. 1667)
• 1685 – Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer (d. 1750)
• 1752 – Mary Dixon Kies, American inventor (d. 1837)
• 1768 – Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier, French mathematician and physicist (d. 1830)
• 1806 – Benito Juárez, Mexican lawyer and politician (d. 1872)
• 1837 – Theodore Gill, American ichthyologist, mammologist, and librarian (d. 1914)
• 1839 – Modest Musorgski, Russian composer (d. 1881)
• 1854 – Léo Taxil, French journalist and author (d. 1907)
• 1866 – Wakatsuki Reijirō, 15th Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1949)
• 1867 – İsmail Safa, Turkish poet and writer (d. 1901)
• 1870 – Cenap Şahabettin, Turkish poet and writer (Poet of Servet-i Fünûn period) (d. 1934)
• 1873 – Esma Sultan, daughter of Abdulaziz (d. 1899)
• 1881 – Henri Grégoire, Belgian historian (d. 1964)
• 1884 – George David Birkhoff, American mathematician (d. 1944)
• 1887 – Lajos Kassák, Hungarian poet, painter, and novelist (d. 1967)
• 1887 – Manabendra Nath Roy, Indian revolutionary, theorist, and activist (d. 1954)
• 1889 Bernard Freyberg, British general (d. 1963)
• 1893 – Walter Schreiber, German Schutzstaffel officer (d. 1970)
• 1896 – Friedrich Waismann, Austrian philosopher, mathematician, and linguist (d. 1959)
• 1904 – Nikos Skalkottas, Greek composer (d. 1949)
• 1905 – Nusret Suman, Turkish sculptor and painter (d. 1978)
• 1906 – Emin Türk Elinç, Turkish teacher and writer (d.1966)
• 1906 – Samed Vurgun, Azerbaijani poet (d.1956)
• 1907 – Zoltan Kemeny, Swiss sculptor (d.1965)
• 1915 – Cahit Irgat, Turkish cinema and theater actor (d. 1971)
• 1923 – Abbas Sayar, Turkish novelist (d. 1999)
• 1925 – Beatriz Aguirre, Mexican actress and voice actor (d. 2019)
• 1925 – Peter Brook, English actor and director
• 1927 – Hans-Dietrich Genscher, German politician (d. 2016)
• 1929 – Gallieno Ferri, Italian comics artist and illustrator (d. 2016)
• 1931 – William Shatner, Canadian filmmaker, director, and actor
• 1932 – Walter Gilbert, American physicist, biologist, and Nobel Prize laureate in Chemistry
• 1934 – Buta Singh, Indian politician (d. 2021)
• 1935 – Brian Clough, English football player (d. 2004)
• 1938 – Luigi Tenco, Italian musician (d. 1967)
• 1938 – Noel Cobb, American-British philosopher, psychiatrist, and author (d. 2015)
• 1942 – Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemeni soldier, politician, and President of the Republic of Yemen (d. 2017)
• 1942 – Fradique de Menezes, politician and President of São Tomé and Príncipe
• 1942 – Françoise Dorléac, French actress (sister to Catherine Deneuve) (d. 1967)
• 1946 – Timothy Dalton, English actor
• 1949 – Muammer Güler, Turkish bureaucrat and politician
• 1949 – Slavoj Žižek, Slovenian philosopher
• 1955 – Philippe Troussier (Omar Tourssier), French football coach
• 1958 - Gary Oldman, English actor, director and winner of the Academy Award for Best Actor
• 1959 – Murat Ülker, Turkish industrialist and businessman
• 1960 – Ayrton Senna, Brazilian Formula 1 driver (d. 1994)
• 1961 – Lothar Matthaus, German football player
• 1962 – Matthew Broderick, American actor
• 1963 – Ronald Koeman, Dutch football player
• 1963 – Yekta Saraç, Turkish academician
• 1968 Dalian Atkinson, English football player (d. 2016)
• 1968 – Jaye Davidson, American film actress
• 1968 – Tolunay Kafkas, Turkish football player and coach
• 1969 – Ali Dayi, Iranian football player and manager
• 1972 – Derartu Tulu, Ethiopian athlete
• 1973 – Hozan Bashir, Kurdish artist
• 1976 – Bedirhan Gökçe, Turkish poet
• 1980 – Marit Bjørgen, Norwegian athlete
• 1980 – Ronaldinho, Brazilian football player
• 1982 – Maria Elena Camerin, Italian tennis player
• 1986 – Bahar Saygılı, Turkish triathlete
• 1987 – İrem Derici, Turkish singer
• 1991 – Antoine Griezmann, French football player
• 1997 – Martina Stoessel, Argentine actress, singer and dancer

Deaths 

• 642 – Cyrus of Alexandria, Melkani patriarch of Alexandria (b. ?)
• 1237 – Jean de Brienne, French aristocrat who ruled the Latin Empire (b. 1170)
• 1617 – Pocahontas, Algonkin Indian (b. 1596)
• 1653 – Tarhuncu Sarı Ahmed Pasha, Ottoman statesman (b. ?)
• 1729 – John Law, Scottish economist and author (b. 1671)
• 1762 – Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, French astronomer (b. 1713)
• 1795 – Giovanni Arduino, Italian geologist (b. 1714)
• 1801 – Andrea Luchesi, Italian composer (b. 1741)
• 1805 – Jean-Baptiste Greuze, French painter (b. 1725)
• 1843 – Guadalupe Victoria, Mexican politician, soldier, and lawyer (b. 1786)
• 1864 – Luke Howard, English chemist and meteorologist (b. 1772)
• 1892 – Annibale de Gasparis, Italian astronomer (b. 1819)
• 1892 – Anthon van Rappard, Dutch painter (b. 1858)
• 1892 – Ferdinand Barbedienne, French sculptor, engineer, and entrepreneur (b. 1810)
• 1896 – William Quan Judge, American theosophist (b. 1851)
• 1910 – Nadar, French photographer (b. 1820)
• 1914 – Franz Fredrik Wathén, Finnish speed skater (b. 1878)
• 1915 – Frederick Winslow Taylor, American engineer (b. 1856)
• 1936 – Alexander Glazunov, Russian composer (b. 1865)
• 1939 – Ali Hikmet Ayerdem, Turkish soldier (b. 1877)
• 1942 – Hüseyin Suat Yalçın, Turkish poet and playwright (b. 1867)
• 1956 – Satı Çırpan, Turkish politician and one of the first female MPs (b. 1890)
• 1958 – Ferdi Tayfur, Turkish dubbing artist (b. 1904)
• 1973 – Aşık Veysel Turkish folk poet (b. 1894)
• 1975 – Lore Alford Rogers, American bacteriologist and dairy scientist (b. 1875)
• 1985 – Sir Michael Redgrave, English actor (Vanessa Redgrave's father) (b. 1908)
• 1987 – Robert Preston, American actor (b. 1918)
• 1991 – Vedat Dalokay Turkish architect and politician (b. 1927)
• 1992 – John Ireland, Canadian actor and director (b. 1914)
• 1998 – Galina Ulanova, Russian ballerina (b. 1910)
• 2001 – Chung Ju-yung or Jung Joo-young was a South Korean entrepreneur, businessman and founder of all Hyundai South Korea Groups (b. 1915)
• 2004 – Ludmilla Tcherina, French ballerina and actress (b. 1924)
• 2008 – Shusha Guppy, Iranian writer, editor, singer (b. 1935)
• 2013 – Chinua Achebe, Nigerian writer (b. 1930)
• 2015 – Pedro Aguayo Ramírez, Mexican professional wrestler (b. 1979)
• 2015 - Faith Susan Alberta Watson, Canadian television and film actress. (b. 1955)
• 2017 – Tayfun Talipoğlu, Turkish journalist (b.1962)
• 2017 – Norman Colin Dexter, English novelist (b. 1930)
• 2017 – Henri Emmanuelli, French politician (b. 1945)
• 2018 – Deniz Bölükbaşı, Turkish diplomat and politician (b. 1949)
• 2018 – Anna-Lisa, American actress (b. 1930)
• 2020 – Levent Ünsal, Turkish actor, presenter and voice actor (b. 1965)
• 2021 – Nawal es-Saadawi, Egyptian feminist writer, activist, and psychiatrist (b. 1931)

Holidays and special occasions 

• World Computer Engineers Day
• World Down Syndrome Day
• World Day Against Racial Discrimination
• World Puppet Day
• World Forestry Day
• World Color Day
• World Poetry Day
• World Sleep Day
• Nevruz Feast
• Storm: 1st of Üçdoklar
• Withdrawal of Russian and Armenian troops from Tortum district of Erzurum (1918)