|
What happened in history on this day: August 21?
On August 21 in ...
- 1165 - Birth of Philip II Augustus first great Capetian king of France (1179-1223).
- 1660 - Birth of Hubert Gautier engineer, wrote first book on bridge building.
- 1680 - Pueblo Indians took possession of Santa Fé from Spanish.
- 1765 - Birth of William IV king of England (1830-37).
- 1770 - James Cook formally claims eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales.
- 1796 - Birth of Asher Brown Durand in South Orange, New Jersey, USA; engraver of first US postage stamps (1847 5-cent and 10-cent), landscape painter, president of National Academy of Design.
- 1807 - Fire at Spa, burns two days, almost whole town.
- 1810 - In Örebro, Sweden, the Riksdag elects Jean Baptiste Bernadotte of France crown prince of Sweden.
- 1831 - Nat Turner slave revolt kills 55 (Southampton County, Virginia).
- 1841 - John Hampson first patents the Venetian blind in the United States.
- 1858 - Birth of (Crown Prince Archduke) Rudolf to Emperor Franz Josef and Empress Elisabeth, of the House of Hapsburg.
- 1858 - First Abraham Lincoln - Douglas debate (Illinois).
- 1872 - Birth of Aubrey Beardsley in England; artist (Salome).
- 1878 - The American Bar Association is founded at Sarasota, New York.
- 1888 - William Seward Burroughs patents the first successful adding machine in the United States.
- 1890 - Birth of Bill Henry in San Francisco, California, USA; newscaster (Who Said That?).
- 1896 - Birth of Roark Bradford; writer/humorist (Ol' Man Adan an' His Chillun).
- 1901 - Joe McGinnity is suspended from the National League for punching and spitting on an umpire.
- 1904 - Birth of William James Basie AKA Count Basie in Red Bank, New Jersey, USA; jazz pianist, band leader, composer ("One O'Clock Jump", "April In Paris", Blazing Saddles) (dies 1984).
- 1906 - Birth of Friz Freleng; animator (Bugs Bunny-Emmy 1982) (dies 1995).
- 1907 - Birth of Roy K Marshall in Glen Carbon, Illinois, USA; TV scientist (The Nature of Things).
- 1909 - Birth of C Dillon Douglas in Geneva, Switzerland; US Secretary of Treasury (1961-65).
- 1911 - In Paris, France, the Mona Lisa painting is stolen by former Louvre employee Vincenzo Perugia, by hiding it under his coat. His intention is to sell it to an Italian museum.
- 1912 - Mr Carter-Cotton is chosen first chancellor of University of British Columbia.
- 1915 - Birth of Morris Weinstein AKA Jack Weston in Cleveland, Ohio, USA; actor (Four Seasons, Rad).
- 1919 - Birth of Bill Idelson in Chicago, Illinois, USA; actor/writer (Vic and Sade radio show, Herman Glimscher - The Dick Van Dyke Show TV show, MASH, Andy Griffith, Happy Days, The Flintstones).
- 1922 - Curly Lambeau and Green Bay Football Club granted NFL franchise.
- 1923 - Birth of Chris Schenkel in Biuppus, Indiana, USA; sportscasters (play-by-play for ABC TV on college football, Major League Baseball, NBA basketball, golf and tennis tournaments, boxing, auto racing, Summer and Winter Olympic Games, Professional Bowling).
- 1924 - Birth of Clara Ward to Gertrude Wardin Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; composer, arranger, lyricist, singer (Ward Singers, Ward Trio, The Famous Ward Singers, Consecrated Family Gospel Singers, "How I Got Over" song, "Packin' Up" song).
- 1924 - Birth of Jack Buck in Holyoke, Massachusetts, USA; sportscaster (baseball play-by-play of the St. Louis Cardinals, NFL football, World Series Baseball, Monday Night Football for CBS radio).
- 1926 - Chicago White Sox player Ted Lyons no hits Boston Red Sox 6-0 in just 67 minutes at Fenway Park.
- 1927 - 4th Pan-African Congress meets (New York City).
- 1928 - Birth of Gillian Sheen in England; foils (Olympic-gold-1956).
- 1930 - Birth of Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, in England; sister of Queen Elizabeth.
- 1931 - Babe Ruth hits his 600th home run (New York Yankees beat Saint Louis Browns 11-7).
- 1931 - Birth of Nancy Hadley in Los Angeles, California, USA; actress (Love That Jill, Joey Bishop Show).
- 1933 - Birth of Janet Baker in York, England; mezzo-soprano (Owen Wingrave).
- 1933 - Babe Ruth's homer leads American League to a 4-2 win in first All-Star Game.
- 1936 - Birth of Mart Crowley; playwright (Boys in the Band).
- 1936 - Birth of Wilt Chamberlain; NBA great center (Los Angeles Lakers, five time Most Valuable Player).
- 1938 - Birth of Kenny Rogers; singer ("Lady"), actor (Coward of the County).
- 1939 - Adolf Hitler reads a telegram from Josef Stalin, acknowledging agreement on a non-aggression pact. Hitler responds by banging his fist on the supper table, exclaiming "I have them! I have them!".
- 1939 - Birth of Harold Reid; singer (Statler Brothers).
- 1939 - Birth of Clarence Williams III in New York City, New York, USA; actor (Mod Squad, 52 Pick Up, Purple Rain).
- 1939 - Birth of James Burton; guitarist (with Elvis Presley).
- 1940 - Leon Trotsky dies of wounds inflicted by an assailant the previous day.
- 1941 - Adolf Hitler decides against concentrating attacks on Moscow, and orders central forces south to help capture Kiev.
- 1944 - Birth of Jackie DeShannon in Hazel, Kentucky, USA; singer ("What the World Needs Now").
- 1944 - Dumbarton Oaks conference opens in Washington, DC; establishes United Nations.
- 1945 - Birth of Patty McCormack in Brooklyn, New York, USA; actress (Mama, Peck's Bad Girl, The Ropers).
- 1945 - US President Harry Truman ends Lend-Lease program.
- 1946 - Birth of Lev Alburt in the USSR; International Chess Master (1976).
- 1947 - Birth of Carl Giammarese; singer (The Buckinghams).
- 1949 - Birth of Loretta Devine; actress (Boston Public).
- 1949 - New York Giants beat Philadelphia Phillies on a forfeit, due to fan's throwing debris.
- 1951 - Birth of Bernhard Germeshausen in German Democratic Republic; bobsled (Olympic-gold-1976, 1980).
- 1951 - Birth of Harry Smith in Indiana, USA; TV host (CBS Morning Show).
- 1953 - Birth of Joe Strummer [John Mellor]; rocker (Clash - "Rock the Casbah").
- 1953 - Marion Carl in Douglas Skyrocket reaches record altitude 25,370m.
- 1954 - Birth of Nick Kane; guitarist (The Mavericks).
- 1956 - Birth of Kim Cattrall in Liverpool, England; actress (Mannequin, Star Trek VI, Sex and the City).
- 1957 - Birth of Budgie; rocker (Siouxsie and the Banshees - "Wild Thing").
- 1957 - Birth of Janice Thomas; Women's Professional Basketball League guard (New York Stars).
- 1957 - Birth of Kim Sledge in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; vocalist (Sister Sledge - "We are Family").
- 1958 - Death of Walter Schumann at age 44 during open-heart surgery; choral director and composer (Ford Show, "Dragnet theme" (Emmy award)).
- 1959 - Birth of Jim McMahon; NFL quarterback (Chicago Bears, San Diego Chargers, Philadelphia Eagles).
- 1959 - Hawaii becomes the 50th state of the USA.
- 1963 - Martial law declared in South Vietnam.
- 1965 - Gemini 5 launched into Earth orbit (two astronauts).
- 1967 - Birth of Michael Bendetti, actor (Officer Tony McCann - 21 Jump Street).
- 1967 - Birth of Serj Tankian; singer (System Of A Down).
- 1968 - After five years, Russia once again jams Voice of America radio.
- 1968 - Radio Prague (Czechoslovakia) at 12:50 AM announces a Soviet-led invasion. Warsaw Pact forces enter Czechoslovakia to end reform movement.
- 1968 - William Dana reaches 80 km (last high-altitude X-15 flight).
- 1970 - Birth of Carrie-Anne Moss; actress (The Matrix, Chocolat).
- 1971 - Birth of Liam Howlett; musician (Prodigy).
- 1972 - First hot air balloon flight over the Alps.
- 1972 - US orbiting astronomy observatory Copernicus launched.
- 1975 - Birth of Alicia Witt; actress (Cybill).
- 1975 - Three-truck pile up kills 10, injures 26 on French highway.
- 1975 - Rick and Paul Reuschel become first brothers to pitch a combined shut out.
- 1976 - RCA Victor announces that sales of Elvis Presley records had passed the 400 million mark.
- 1976 - Al Bumbry hits the 17th inside-the-park home run in Baltimore Orioles' history.
- 1977 - Donna Patterson Brice sets high speed water skiing record (111.11 mph).
- 1982 - Milwaukee Brewers' reliever Rollie Fingers becomes the first player in major league history to record 300 career saves as Milwaukee defeats the Seattle Mariners, 3-2.
- 1982 - Death of King Sobhuza II of Swaziland, at the time the longest reigning living monarch (born 1899).
- 1982 - Palestinian terrorists are dispersed from Beirut, Lebanon.
- 1982 - Rollie Fingers (Milwaukee Brewers) becomes first pitcher to get save #300.
- 1983 - Benigno Aquino, Junior, Philippines opposition leader, is assassinated in Manila just as he returns from exile. Suspected assassin former member of presidential guard Rolando Vizcarra is shot dead on the runway by guards.
- 1984 - Half a million people in Manila demonstrate against the regime of Ferdinand Marcos.
- 1984 - Film and TV actor Clint Eastwood is given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
- 1985 - Mary Decker Slaney runs mile in world record 4:16.71.
- 1985 - Near the coast of Northern Peru, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake occurs. At least 100 people injured, 60 homes destroyed and damage to other buildings in the Chimbote area. Felt along the coast of Peru from Chiclayo to Chincha.
- 1986 - Lake Nios volcanic eruption in Cameroon releases poison gas, killing 1,746.
- 1986 - Boston Red Sox player Spike Owens scores six runs (first time in 40 years) in a 24-5 rout of the Cleveland Indians.
- 1987 - Birth of Cody Kasch; actor (Desperate Housewives).
- 1987 - Birth of Kim Kibum; Korean singer (Super Junior).
- 1987 - "Mack Lobell" sets harness racing's trotting mile (1:52).
- 1987 - Clayton Lonetree, first US Marine court-martialed for spying, convicted.
- 1987 - Vestron releases the film Dirty Dancing to theaters.
- 1987 - At the Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California, the 14th Annual Monterey Historic Automobile Races are held, over three days. About 50,000 people attend. Chevrolet holds its official 75th birthday party. Many historic Corvettes are on display and 34 participate in races, including the 1957 Corvette SS, 1960 Le Mans Corvette, CERV I, CERV II, 1959 Stingray, 1970 Manta Ray, 1977 Aerovette, two 1956 Corvette SR-2s, 1969 Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corvette, 1971 ZR-2 Corvette, 1963 Z06 Corvette, 1956 Sebring Corvette, 1962 Sebring coupe, and two 1963 Grand Sports (#003 and #004). Attending the event are Zora Arkus-Duntov, Ed Cole, Dave McLellan, Dick Thompson, Phil Hill, Jim Hall, Joe Pike, John Fitch, Augie Pabst, Roger Penske, Bill Mitchell, Hap Sharp, and Bob D'Olivio.
- 1989 - Voyager 2 begins a flyby of the planet Neptune.
- 1989 - Birth of Hayden Panettiere; singer, actress (Heroes).
- 1991 - Latvia declares independence from the Soviet Union.
- 1991 - Communist coup is crushed in USSR in two days.
- 1991 - Lieutenant-colonel Vladimir Putin resigns from the Soviet Union's KGB.
- 1992 - Birth of RJ Mitte; actor (Breaking Bad).
- 1992 - (to August 22) Events at Ruby Ridge, Idaho are sparked by a Federal Marshal surveillance team, resulting in the death of Marshal Sam Weaver and his dog and the next day the wounding of Randy Weaver, the death of his wife Vicki and the wounding of Kevin Harris.
- 1993 - NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Observer orbiter three days before the spacecraft is scheduled to enter orbit around Mars.
- 1995 - Death of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Indian-born astrophysicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1910).
- 1995 - Nintendo of America introduces the Virtual Boy portable video game system in the US. It features 32-bit 20 MHz RISC processor, a special headset that creates a stereoscopic 3-D environment with two RTI mirror-scanning 384x224 pixel LED arrays, 8- or 16-Megabit ROM Game Paks, digital stereo sound, double-grip controller with dual directional control buttons, and powered by six AA batteries. The game Mario's Tennis is included in the hardware. Price is US$179.95.
- 1995 - US District Court Judge Thomas Jackson holds the first and only hearing on the consent decree between Microsoft and the US Department of Justice. Within 17 minutes, he signs his approval of it. The decree will govern Microsoft's licensing practices of Windows for the next 6.5 years, barring the company from linking unrelated software licenses. The ruling comes after five years of investigation of monopolistic licensing practices.
- 2004 - A series of blasts rocks an opposition party rally in Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing at least 13 people.
- 2005 - Death of István Cserháti, Hungarian keyboardist (P.Box) (born 1954).
- 2005 - Death of Robert Moog at age 71 from a brain tumour; the inventor of the Moog Synthesizer.
- 2007 - STS-118 lands at the Kennedy Space Center, completing Space Shuttle Endeavour's 19th flight.
- 2007 - Hurricane Dean, a powerful Category 5 storm, slams into a sparsely populated area of the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico. Hundreds of Mayan village houses are destroyed.
- 2008 - Twin suicide bombings outside Pakistan's main munitions factory in the town of Wah kills at least 63 people.
- 2010 - Iranian and Russian engineers begin loading uranium fuel into Iran's first nuclear power plant, Bushehr.
- 2013 - 1,429 are killed in the Ghouta chemical attack during the Syrian Civil War.
- 2014 - Death of Albert Reynolds, Irish Taoiseach (prime minister) (born 1932).
- 2017 - A total solar eclipse is visible within a band across the entire contiguous United States of America, passing from the Pacific to the Atlantic coasts. Prime viewing location is near Carbondale, Illinois.
- 2017 - Death of Bajram Rexhepi, 1st Prime Minister of Kosovo (born 1954).
- 2019 - Giuseppe Conte offers his resignation as Prime Minister of Italy in order to avoid a no-confidence motion.
- 2021 - Death of Marie, Princess of Liechtenstein (born 1940).
|
|
vvv advertisement vvv
^^^ advertisement ^^^
You can pick a particular day to view that day's events in history.
Bookmark this URL: http://kpolsson.com/thisday/ and revisit each day.
(this URL will automatically re-direct to the file containing the current day's events)
Or, visit my Timelines of History page.
|