March 21

On This Day In History
	1963: Closing of Alcatraz prison The U.S. federal prison on San Francisco Bay's Alcatraz Island, which had held some of the most dangerous civilian prisoners—including Al Capone and Robert Stroud, the “Birdman of Alcatraz”—was closed this day in 1963.
Alcatraz Island, in San Francisco Bay, California
Biography Of The Day
	Hans Hofmann German painter Hans Hofmann, born this day in 1880, was an influential art teacher and a pioneer in the use of improvisatory techniques whose work paved the way for American painters to develop Abstract Expressionism.
Hans Hofmann, photograph by Arnold Newman, 1960
More Events On This Day In History
	1965 American civil rights activists led by Martin Luther King, Jr., began a protest march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
1960	1960 About 70 black African demonstrators were killed by police during a protest in Sharpeville, Gauteng province, against South Africa's pass laws.
1918	1918 The Second Battle of the Somme began during World War I.
	1806 Mexican national hero Benito Juárez was born in San Pablo Guelatao, Oaxaca.
	1768 French mathematician Joseph Fourier was born in Auxerre.
	1556 Thomas Cranmer, the first Protestant archbishop of Canterbury, was burned at the stake for violating heresy laws revised under the Roman Catholic queen Mary I, known as Bloody Mary.