• Today is Friday, March 21, the 80th day of 2014. There are 285 days left in the year.
• Today's Highlight in History:
• On March 21, 1685, composer Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany.
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• On this date:
• In 1556, Thomas Cranmer, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, was burned at the stake for heresy.
• In 1804, the French civil code, or the "Code Napoleon" as it was later called, was adopted.
• In 1871, journalist Henry M. Stanley began his famous expedition in Africa to locate the missing Scottish missionary David Livingstone.
• In 1907, U.S. Marines arrived in Honduras to protect American lives and interests in the wake of political violence.
• In 1944, Charles Chaplin went on trial in Los Angeles, accused of transporting former protegee Joan Barry across state lines for immoral purposes. (Chaplin was acquitted, but later lost a paternity suit despite tests showing he wasn't the father of Barry's child.)
• 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 1972, the Supreme Court, in Dunn v. Blumstein, ruled that states may not require at least a year's residency for voting eligibility.
• 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.
• In 1994, at the Academy Awards, "Schindler's List" won seven Oscars, including best picture and best director for Steven Spielberg; Tom Hanks won best actor for "Philadelphia" while Holly Hunter was honored as best actress for "The Piano."

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