📅 Today in HistoryMarch 21
Siege of Rome: King Vitiges attempts to assault the northern and eastern city walls, but is repulsed at the Praenestine Gate, known as the Vivarium, by the defenders under the Byzantine generals Bessas and Peranius.
Emperor Heraclius returns the True Cross, one of the holiest Christian relics, to Jerusalem.
Erfurt massacre: Outbreak of an antisemitic pogrom in Erfurt, Germany, during which hundreds to thousands of Jews were killed by Christians after being accused of causing the Black Death.
On the day of his execution in Oxford, former archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer deviates from the scripted sermon by renouncing the recantations he has made and adds, "And as for the pope, I refuse him, as Christ's enemy, and Antichrist with all his false doctrine."
With the church leadership driven out of Rome during an armed conflict, Pius VII is crowned Pope in Venice with a temporary papal tiara made of papier-mâché.
The Battle of Alexandria is fought between British and French forces near the ruins of Nicopolis near Alexandria in Egypt.
