 "On March 21, 2006, Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, sent the first-ever tweet, which read \"just setting up my twttr\". Illustration: Santan")
One of the most important events occurred when social platform Twitter came into existence on March 21, 2006. “just setting up my twttr”, was the first ever tweet by co-founder Jack Dorsey.
If you are a history geek who loves to learn about important events from the past, Firstpost Explainers’ ongoing series, History Today will be your one-stop destination to explore key events.
On this day in 1963, the infamous Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, one of America’s most feared prisons shut its doors.
Here is all that took place on this day across the world.
Twitter was first launched
Jack Dorsey , Noah Glass, Biz Stone and Evan Williams, came together to form the microblogging site Twitter. It was on March 21, 2006 when Twitter was launched with the simple idea - a platform where people could share short, status-like updates with others.
The app had been developed as an internal project for Odeo, a podcasting company. Odeo’s main service was rendered useless with the launch of Apple’s iTunes. iTunes was not just a music streaming app, it also had a built-in podcasting platform.
Now, Evan Williams asked his employees to provide ideas for the flailing startup. This is when Jack Dorsey, one of Odeo’s engineers, suggested the concept of a service allowing users to share personal status updates via SMS to groups of people. By 2006, they had a working prototype and a name — Twttr.
Its unique design of short, rapid posts known as “tweets”, made it stand out from other platforms, encouraging real-time sharing and immediate public engagement. The hashtag (#) and retweet (RT) culture became Twitter’s signature features, turning it into a go-to platform for breaking news, public debates, and viral movements.
Over the years, Twitter has played a crucial role in significant global events, from elections and protests to celebrity announcements and corporate communications. It revolutionised how people, governments and organisations communicate with the world.
Alcatraz prison shut its doors
One of the biggest events of the 20th century took place on this day in 1963 in San Francisco Bay. It was the shutting down of an infamous US federal prison on Alcatraz Island. Also known as “The Rock”, the prison housed some of the most notorious criminals of the United States, including Al Capone, George “Machine Gun” Kelly and Robert Stroud, the “Birdman of Alcatraz.”
Alcatraz, a twelve-acre island, implemented strict rules for its inmates, including enforced silence, alongside advanced security measures like early metal detectors. Its isolation, one and a half miles from San Francisco, added to its severity.
For 29 years, from 1934 to 1963, Alcatraz Penitentiary operated as a maximum-security prison, designed to be inescapable due to its isolated island location and the dangerous waters that encircled it. Ultimately, the prison’s harsh conditions and the significant financial burden of its upkeep, especially in comparison to other federal prisons situated on the mainland, resulted in its closure. The ageing facility became too costly to maintain.
The Alcatraz story continued after its prison days, with a 1969 occupation by the American Indian Movement (AIM), who claimed the island based on a treaty. This followed earlier Sioux claims in 1964. The AIM occupation lasted until 1971 when federal authorities removed them.
This Day, That Year
On this day in 1990, Namibia became an independent nation.
In 1965, Martin Luther King Jr began a protest march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
The Second Battle of the Somme began during World War I on this day in 1918.