August 21Birthdays & History

On this day: August 21 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 959Eraclus becomes the 25th bishop of Liège.Europe
2. 1140Song dynasty general Yue Fei defeats an army led by Jin dynasty general Wuzhu at the Battle of Yancheng during the Jin–Song Wars.Asia
3. 1169Battle of the Blacks: Uprising by the black African forces of the Fatimid army, along with a number of Egyptian emirs and commoners, against Saladin.AfricaMiddle East
4. 1192Minamoto no Yoritomo becomes Sei-i Taishōgun and the de facto ruler of Japan. (Traditional Japanese date: the 12th day of the seventh month in the third year of the Kenkyū (建久) era).Asia
5. 1331King Stefan Uroš III, after months of anarchy, surrenders to his son and rival Stefan Dušan, who succeeds as King of Serbia.Europe
6. 1415Henry the Navigator leads Portuguese forces to victory over the Marinids at the Conquest of Ceuta.Europe
7. 1673The Dutch fleet defeats an Anglo-French fleet under Prince Rupert in the battle of Texel.Europe
8. 1680Pueblo Indians capture Santa Fe from the Spanish during the Pueblo Revolt.Europe
9. 1689The Battle of Dunkeld in Scotland.Europe
10. 1716Seventh Ottoman–Venetian War: The arrival of naval reinforcements and the news of the Battle of Petrovaradin force the Ottomans to abandon the Siege of Corfu, thus preserving the Ionian Islands under Venetian rule.Middle EastEurope
11. 1772King Gustav III completes his coup d'état by adopting a new Constitution, ending half a century of parliamentary rule in Sweden and installing himself as an enlightened despot.Europe
12. 1778American Revolutionary War: British forces begin besieging the French outpost at Pondichéry.North AmericaEurope
13. 1791Enslaved Africans in Saint-Domingue, led by Dutty Boukman, held a Vodou ceremony that became a pivotal act of resistance. This gathering sparked a mass uprising against slavery, marking the beginning of the Haitian Revolution.Latin America
14. 1808Battle of Vimeiro: British and Portuguese forces led by General Arthur Wellesley defeat French force under Major-General Jean-Andoche Junot near the village of Vimeiro, Portugal, the first Anglo-Portuguese victory of the Peninsular War.Europe
15. 1810Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, Marshal of France, is elected Crown Prince of Sweden by the Swedish Riksdag of the Estates.Europe
16. 1821Jarvis Island is discovered by the crew of the ship, Eliza Frances.Oceania
17. 1831Nat Turner leads black slaves and free blacks in a rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia, which will claim the lives of 55 to 65 whites and about twice that number of blacks.North America
18. 1852Tlingit Indians destroy Fort Selkirk, Yukon Territory.North America
19. 1858The first of the Lincoln–Douglas debates is held in Ottawa, Illinois.North America
20. 1862The Stadtpark, the first public park in Vienna, opens to the public.Europe
21. 1863Lawrence, Kansas is destroyed by pro-Confederate guerrillas known as Quantrill's Raiders.North America
22. 1878The American Bar Association is founded in Saratoga Springs, New York.North America
23. 1879The locals of Knock, County Mayo, Ireland report their having seen an apparition of the Virgin Mary. The apparition is later named "Our Lady of Knock" and the spot transformed into a Catholic pilgrimage site.Europe
24. 1883An F5 tornado strikes Rochester, Minnesota, leading to the creation of the Mayo Clinic.North America
25. 1888The first successful adding machine in the United States is patented by William Seward Burroughs.North America
26. 1901Six hundred American school teachers, Thomasites, arrived in Manila on the USAT Thomas.North AmericaAsia
27. 1911The Mona Lisa is stolen by Vincenzo Peruggia, a Louvre employee.Europe
28. 1914World War I: The Battle of Charleroi, a successful German attack across the River Sambre that pre-empted a French offensive in the same area.Europe
29. 1918World War I: The Second Battle of the Somme begins.Europe
30. 1942World War II: The Guadalcanal campaign: American forces defeat an attack by Imperial Japanese Army soldiers in the Battle of the Tenaru.OceaniaNorth AmericaAsia
31. 1944Dumbarton Oaks Conference, prelude to the United Nations, begins.North America
32. 1944World War II: Canadian and Polish units capture the strategically important town of Falaise, Calvados, France.North AmericaEurope
33. 1945Physicist Harry Daghlian is fatally irradiated in a criticality accident during an experiment with the Demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory.North America
34. 1957The Soviet Union successfully conducts a long-range test flight of the R-7 Semyorka, the first intercontinental ballistic missile.Europe
35. 1959United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order proclaiming Hawaii the 50th state of the union. Hawaii's admission is currently commemorated by Hawaii Admission Day.North America
36. 1963Xá Lợi Pagoda raids: The Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces loyal to Ngô Đình Nhu, brother of President Ngo Dinh Diem, vandalizes Buddhist pagodas across the country, arresting thousands and leaving an estimated hundreds dead.Asia
37. 1965The Socialist Republic of Romania is proclaimed, following the adoption of a new constitution.Europe
38. 1968Cold War: Nicolae Ceaușescu, leader of the Socialist Republic of Romania, publicly condemns the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, encouraging the Romanian population to arm itself against possible Soviet reprisals.Europe
39. 1968James Anderson Jr. posthumously receives the first Medal of Honor to be awarded to an African American U.S. Marine.AfricaNorth America
40. 1971A bomb exploded in the Liberal Party campaign rally in Plaza Miranda, Manila, Philippines with several anti-Marcos political candidates injured.Asia
41. 1982Lebanese Civil War: The first troops of a multinational force lands in Beirut to oversee the Palestine Liberation Organization's withdrawal from Lebanon.Middle East
42. 1983Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr. is assassinated at Manila International Airport (now renamed Ninoy Aquino International Airport in his honor).Asia
43. 1986Carbon dioxide gas erupts from volcanic Lake Nyos in Cameroon, killing up to 1,800 people within a 20-kilometre (12 mi) range.Africa
44. 1988The 6.9 Mw Nepal earthquake shakes the Nepal–India border with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), leaving 709–1,450 people killed and thousands injured.Asia
45. 1991Coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev collapses.Europe
46. 1991Latvia declares renewal of its full independence after its occupation by the Soviet Union since 1940.Europe
47. 1993NASA loses contact with the Mars Observer spacecraft.North America
48. 1994Royal Air Maroc Flight 630 crashes in Douar Izounine, Morocco, killing all 44 people on board.Africa
49. 1995Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 529, an Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia, attempts to divert to West Georgia Regional Airport after the left engine fails, but the aircraft crashes in Carroll County near Carrollton, Georgia, killing nine of the 29 people on board.North America
50. 2000American golfer Tiger Woods wins the 82nd PGA Championship and becomes the first golfer since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win three majors in a calendar year.North America
51. 2013Hundreds of people are reported killed by chemical attacks in the Ghouta region of Syria.Middle East
52. 2017A solar eclipse traverses the continental United States.North America

Source: Wikipedia "August 21" / CC BY-SA 4.0