Today is Friday, March 21, the 80th day of 2014. There are 285 days left in the year. On March 21, 1685, composer Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany.
In 1556, Thomas Cranmer, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, was burned at the stake for heresy.
In 1871, journalist Henry M. Stanley began his famous expedition in Africa to locate the missing Scottish missionary David Livingstone.
In 1960, about 70 people were killed in Sharpeville, South Africa, when police fired on black protesters.
In 1963, the Alcatraz federal prison island in San Francisco Bay was emptied of its last inmates and closed at the order of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.
In 1965, civil rights demonstrators led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. began their third, successful march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala.
In 1985, police in Langa, South Africa, opened fire on blacks marching to mark the 25th anniversary of Sharpeville; the reported death toll varied between 29 and 43.
Ten years ago: The White House disputed assertions by President George W. Bush's former counterterrorism coordinator, Richard A. Clarke, that the administration had failed to recognize the risk of an attack by al-Qaida in the months leading up to 9/11. (Clarke's assertions were contained in a new book, "Against All Enemies," that went on sale the next day.)
Iraqi-born architect Zaha Hadid won the prestigious 2004 Pritzker Architecture Prize, becoming the first woman to receive the profession's highest honor.
One year ago: On his second day in the Middle East, President Barack Obama insisted "peace is possible" as he prodded both Israelis and Palestinians to return to long-stalled negotiations with few, if any, pre-conditions.
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