March 21

  • 1960 Sixty-nine people were killed and 189 others injured when police opened fire on a crowd of c. 5,000–7,000 protesting against pass laws outside the police station in the South African township of Sharpeville.
  • 1920 An t-Athair Peadar Ó Laoghaire (81), scholar and author, notably of Mo scéal féin (1915), died.
  • 1978 Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh (66), jurist and president of Ireland (1974–6), died.
  • 1961 Joseph Holloway, architect and theatrical enthusiast, born in Lower Camden Street, Dublin. Over a 50-year period Holloway attended every theatre performance in the city and kept a journal in which he wrote some 28 million words on Dublin’s theatre world.
  • 1960 South African police opened fire on black protesters at Sharpeville, a black township near Johannesburg, killing 69 and injuring over 180.
  • 1924 Machine-gun attack on British soldiers vacating Spike Island near Cobh. One soldier was shot dead and eighteen soldiers and five civilians were wounded.