Milestones: March 21, 2024

March 21, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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THE SPRING OFFENSIVE — THE GERMAN ARMY LAUNCHED THE SPRING OFFENSIVE, ALSO KNOWN AS THE “MICHAEL OFFENSIVE,” on March 21, 1918, against the western front. General Erich Ludendorff launched the five-day offensive, Germany’s first in two years, with the strategy of capturing the Western Front (France and England), driving a wedge between those two countries, and forcing their armies out to sea. This last goal was not met, but the offensive was successful because of its stealth and surprise element: the Central Powers shifted at least 44 divisions into England and France, a move made possible because Russia had left the war.

In addition to a fierce ground attack, Ludendorff’s forces also unleashed a series of toxic gases into the Allied forces, starting with tear gas, and then adding lethal phosgene and chlorine gases. The Allies lost about 230,000 soldiers but Ludendorff’s army lost almost as many.

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UNKIND TO WOMEN — THE NAPOLEONIC CODE, WHICH GAVE A NEW AND ORGANIZED FRAMEWORK TO FRENCH LAW, WAS APPROVED ON MARCH 21, 1804. French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte enacted the code that gave post-Revolutionary France its first cogent set of laws, but ones that prioritized the rights of men over those of women. The code, which also governed property, family, and individual rights, and codified commercial and criminal law, was also applied to France’s colonies and territories, particularly reintroducing slavery. The Napoleonic code gave men authority over their families, rescinded the individual rights of women, and reduced the rights of children produced outside of marriage.

The laws have been amended and codified over time but are still active in many French areas of the world, including parts of Louisiana in the United States.

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THE SHARPEVILLE MASSACRE — AFRIKANER POLICE IN SOUTH AFRICA OPENED FIRE ON UNARMED BLACK SOUTH AFRICAN DEMONSTRATORS, which became known as the Sharpeville Massacre, on March 21, 1960. The Black township Sharpeville was situated near Johannesburg, and the townsfolk were protesting the South African government’s rule that restricted nonwhites from traveling. The Afrikaner police opened fire with submachine guns, killing 69 and wounding 180 of the protestors. The backlash was fierce, with protests breaking out around Capetown. The Sharpeville Massacre also convinced an anti-apartheid leader named Nelson Mandela to abandon his non-violent approach. He then organized paramilitary groups to fight South Africa’s systemic racial discrimination policies.

Convicted of sabotage and sentenced to life in prison, Mandela was later released after 27 years and, in 1994, elected as South Africa’s first Black president.

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SUPERPOWER OLYMPIC BOYCOTTS — THE UNITED STATES WOULD BOYCOTT THE 1980 OLYMPIC GAMES BEING HOSTED IN MOSCOW, PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER announced on March 21 of that year. Carter made his decision after the Soviet Union failed to comply with his deadline to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. The Carter administration was supporting Afghanistan in what it viewed as an atheistic superpower’s avowed subjugation of Afghanistan’s Muslim population, with an ulterior motive of controlling that Western Asia nation’s oil supply. Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev responded with his own rebuke, calling Carter’s statements both bellicose and wicked. And reaction from the American public was not entirely supportive; many sided with the athletes who had worked so hard for a chance to become Olympians.

The Soviet Union also returned the favor four years later, with a boycott of the 1984 Olympics, hosted in Los Angeles. The boycott worked in the United States’ favor, however, as U.S. teams won 174 medals, 83 of them gold.

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BACH’S BIRTHDAY — THE PROLIFIC GERMAN BAROQUE COMPOSER, JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH, was born on March 21, 1685. He was a church organist and composed more than a thousand works, among them, cantatas and oratorios for every Sunday of the Christian (specifically, Lutheran) liturgical year, plus some secular vocal and instrumental works, most famous among them the six “Brandenburg Concertos.” Bach’s compositions carry a mathematical logic to them, with harmonies often inverted among the main four voice parts of soprano, alto, tenor and bass. These are catalogued in the Bach-Werke Verzeichnis (BWV).

Around this time of year, many professional and church choirs sing Bach’s St. Matthew and St. John’s Passions (BWV 244 and 245, respectively), as well as Cantata No. 4 (Christ Lag in Todes Banden) and of course his Easter Oratorio (BWV 249).

See previous milestones, here.