History in 21st Mar

President Jimmy Carter announces the American boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics, protesting the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The Olympics Games, hosted in Moscow by the Soviet Union, went on as scheduled despite 65 nations declining invitations to compete.

For the third time, civil rights activists begin a march from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery to protest the denial of voting rights to African-Americans in Dallas County and across the state of Alabama. After the initial March 7 march ended with police brutality and harassment, President Lyndon Johnson sent federal law enforcement to protect the marchers, who arrived at the Alabama State Capitol on March 25.

More »