1617
Mar 21, Pocahontas (Rebecca Rolfe) died of either small pox or pneumonia while in England with her husband, John Rolfe. As Pocahontas and John Rolfe prepared to sail back to Virginia, she died reportedly from the wet English winter. She was buried at the parish church of St. George in Gravesend, England. In 2003 Paula Gunn Allen authored "Pocahontas "Medicine Woman, Spy, entrepreneur, Diplomat."

1702
Mar 21, Queen Anne Stuart addressed the English parliament.

1939
Mar 21, Singer Kate Smith recorded “God Bless America" for Victor Records. She introduced the song on her radio program in 1938.

1998
Mar 21, In Germany Christina Nytsch (11) was found raped and murdered in woods 8 miles from her home in Struecklingen. In April Police began collecting saliva from 18,000 local men to test for a DNA match. Police found a match and arrested a suspect in Elisabethfehn in May, 1998. The man, a father of 3 children, confessed to another rape of an 11-year-old girl in Jan, 1996.

2002
Mar 21, Marjorie Knoller, whose two huge dogs mauled neighbor Diane Whipple to death in their San Francisco apartment building, was convicted in Los Angeles of murder and involuntary manslaughter; her husband, Robert Noel, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. A judge later threw out the murder conviction against Knoller, replacing it with manslaughter, but the murder conviction was reinstated by an appeals court.

2002
Mar 21, In Britain schoolgirl MillyDowler (13) was kidnapped in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey. Her body was found 6 months later in nearby woods. As police pursued leads in the case the British tabloid News of the World hacked into Dowler’s cell phone, listened to messages, and deleted some to make room for more. In 2010 Levi Bellfield (41), a former nightclub bouncer, appeared in court accused of kidnapping and murdering the teenager. On June 23, 2011, Bellfield was convicted and jailed for life.


2004
Mar 21, LudmilaTcherina (79), French ballerina and Oscar-winning actress, The Tales of Hoffman (1950), died.

2006
Mar 21, President Bush welcomed Liberia’s Pres. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to the White House, calling Africa's first democratically elected female head of state "a pioneer."

2007
Mar 21, Sonia Falcone, former Miss Bolivia (1988), was ordered to leave the United States after pleading guilty to employing four illegal immigrants as household servants at her $10.5 million
Mar 21, In Panama Cheryl Lynn Hughes (50), an American, went missing in western Bocas del Toro province. Police on July 20 found her body and the skeletal remains of another person buried in the back patio of a hotel owned by William Adolfo Cortez, of Texas.

2011
Mar 21, Guatemala's first lady, Sandra Torresde Colom, began divorce proceedings ending her eight-year marriage to President Alvaro Colom, so that she can seek to succeed him as president. On April 1 a judge temporarily blocked the divorce proceedings. On April 8 a judge dismissed a suit seeking to block the divorce proceedings, clearing the way for her to run for the presidency.

2012
Mar 21, In southern California ShaimaAlawadi (32), a woman from Iraq, was found by her daughter (17) unconscious on the dining room floor of her home in El Cajon. She was taken to the hospital and put on life support, but she was taken off life around 3 p.m. on March 24. Police investigated her death as a possible a hate crime. On Nov 9 police announced the arrest of her husband, Kassim al-Himidi, on suspicion of her murder. On June 23, 2014, Kassim al-Himidi was sentenced to 26 years to life in prison for his wife’s fatal beating.

2013
Mar 21, Australian PM Julia Gillard delivered a historic national apology in Parliament to the thousands of unwed mothers who were forced by government policies to give up their babies for adoption over several decades.

2014
Mar 21, US first lady Michelle Obama met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the first day of her weeklong visit to China, in a sign that the leaders of the world's two largest economies are seeking to build stronger bonds.

Mar 21, Uganda news reported that authorities have ordered a police investigation into complaints by elite female runners that they suffered sexual harassment and abuse from a top athletics coach.