August 21

is the 233rd day of the year (234th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 132 days remaining.

Events

1192 - Minamoto Yoritomo becomes Seii Tai Shōgun and the de facto ruler of Japan. (Traditional Japanese date: July 12, 1192)
1680 - Pueblo Indians capture Santa Fe from Spanish during the Pueblo Revolt
1760 - The church (later cathedral) of "Our Lady of Candlemas of Mayagüez (Puerto Rico)" is founded, establishing the basis for the founding of the city.
1770 - James Cook formally claims eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales.
1772 - King Gustav III completes his coup d'etat by adopting a new Constitution, ending half a century of parliamentary rule in Sweden and installing him as an enlightened despot.
1810 - Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, Marshal of France, is elected Crown Prince of Sweden by the Swedish Riksdag of the Estates.
1831 - Nat Turner leads slave revolt in Southampton County, Virginia
1841 - The Venetian blind is first patented in the United States by John Hampson.
1842 - The city of Hobart, Tasmania, is founded.
1852 - Tlingit Indians destroy Fort Selkirk, Yukon Territory
1856 - America's first consul to Japan, Townsend Harris, arrives in Shimoda. (Traditional Japanese date: July 21, 1856)
1858 - The Lincoln-Douglas debates begin
1862 - The Vienna Stadtpark opens its gates.
1863 - Lawrence, Kansas is destroyed by Confederate guerillas Quantrill's Raiders in the Lawrence Massacre.
1878 - The American Bar Association is founded
1879 - The Virgin Mary, along with St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist reportedly appear to the people of Knock, County Mayo, Ireland.
1888 - The first successful adding machine in the United States was patented by William Seward Burroughs.
1911 - The Mona Lisa was stolen by a Louvre employee.
1942 - A Nazi flag was installed atop the Elbrus Mountain.
1944 - Dumbarton Oaks Conference, prelude to the United Nations, begins.
1959 - President Eisenhower signs an executive order proclaiming Hawaii the 50th state of the union.
1968 - Soviet Union-dominated Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia, crushing the Prague Spring; on the same day, Nicolae Ceauşescu, leader of Communist Romania, publicly condemns the Soviet maneuver, encouraging the Romanian population to arm itself against possible Soviet reprisals.
1971 - Black Panther George Jackson is shot and killed in the prison yard at California's San Quentin prison.
1971 - A bomb exploded in the Liberal Party campaign rally in Plaza Miranda, Manila, Philippines with several anti-Marcos political candidates injured.
1976 - Operation Paul Bunyan at Panmunjeom, Korea
1983 - Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino, Jr. was assassinated at the Manila International Airport.
1986 - Carbon dioxide gas erupts from volcanic Lake Nyos in Cameroon, killing over 1700 people up to 20 kilometers away.
1987 - Hard rock band Guns N' Roses release their classic debut Appetite for Destruction.
1991 - Latvia declares its full independence from the Soviet Union.
1991 - Coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev collapses.
1993 - NASA loses contact with the Mars Observer spacecraft.
1998 - The United States destroys a pharmaceutical plant (erroneously believed to be a chemical weapons plant) in Sudan.
2001 - NATO decides to send a peace-keeping force to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
2001 - A sixth-century temple is discovered in central Mexico.
2001 - The Red Cross announces that a famine is striking Tajikistan, and calls for international financial aid for Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
2002 - Jean Chrétien, Prime Minister of Canada, announces that he will not seek re-election and would resign within eighteen months.
2004 - A grenade attack on Bangladesh Awamee League, the biggest political party in Bangladesh kills 22 and injures more than a thousand, including party president Sheikh Hasina.
2005 - Pope Benedict XVI concludes World Youth Day with a mass. Over 1,100,000+ people attended the closing liturgy.

Births

1165 - King Philip II of France (d. 1223)
1535 - Shimazu Yoshihiro, Japanese samurai and warlord (d. 1619)
1567 - Francis de Sales, Bishop of Geneva and saint (d. 1622)
1597 - Roger Twysden, English antiquarian and royalist (d. 1672)
1643 - King Afonso VI of Portugal (d. 1683)
1660 - Hubert Gautier, French scientist and civil engineer (d. 1737)
1665 - Giacomo F. Maraldi, French-Italian astronomer (d. 1729)
1670 - James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick, French military leader (d. 1734)
1725 - Jean-Baptiste Greuze, French painter (d. 1805)
1754 - William Murdoch, Scottish inventor (d. 1839)
1754 - Banastre Tarleton, British soldier and politician (d. 1833)
1765 - William IV of the United Kingdom (d. 1837)
1789 - Augustin Louis Cauchy, French mathematician (d. 1857)
1801 - Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer, Dutch politician (d. 1876)
1811 - William Kelly, American inventor (d. 1888)
1813 - Jean Stas, Belgian chemist (d. 1891)
1816 - Charles Frédéric Gerhardt, French chemist (d. 1856)
1826 - Karl Gegenbaur, German anatomist (d. 1903)
1872 - Aubrey Beardsley, English illustrator (d. 1898)
1904 - William "Count" Basie, American bandleader (d. 1984)
1906 - Friz Freleng, American movie animator (d. 1995)
1908 - M. M. Kaye, British writer (d. 2004)
1915 - Raquel Rastenni, Danish singer (d. 1998)
1924 - Jack Buck, American sports announcer (d. 2002)
1924 - Chris Schenkel, American sports journalist (d. 2005)
1924 - Jack Weston, American actor (d. 1996)
1925 - Maurice Pialat, French actor and director (d. 2003)
1925 - Jorge Rafael Videla, ex-dictator of Argentina
1928 - Art Farmer, American trumpet player (d. 1999)
1930 - Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon (d. 2002)
1932 - Melvin Van Peebles, American actor and screenwriter
1933 - Janet Baker, English mezzo-soprano
1936 - Wilt Chamberlain, American basketball player (d. 1999)
1938 - Kenny Rogers, American singer and actor
1939 - James Burton, American guitarist
1939 - Clarence Williams III, American actor
1944 - Jackie DeShannon, American singer
1944 - Peter Weir, Australian film director
1950 - Patrick Juvet, Swiss singer
1951 - Eric Goles, Chilean mathematician and computer scientist
1952 - Joe Strummer, British musician and singer (The Clash) (d. 2002)
1954 - Ivan Stang, American writer
1956 - Kim Cattrall, English-born actress
1959 - Jim McMahon, American football player
1961 - David Morales, American disc jockey
1962 - Jeff Stryker, American actor
1963 - King Mohammed VI of Morocco
1964 - Trinity Loren, American actress and model (d. 1998)
1967 - Carrie-Anne Moss, Canadian actress
1967 - Serj Tankian, Lebanese-born singer (System of a Down)
1969 - Josée Chouinard, Canadian figure skater
1970 - Erik Dekker, Dutch cyclist
1971 - Liam Howlett, British musician (The Prodigy)
1978 - Reuben Droughns, American football player
1978 - Jason Marquis, American baseball player
1978 - Alan Lee, Irish footballer
1980 - Burney Lamar, American race car driver
1983 - Josh Harrington, American professional BMX rider
1983 - Chantelle Houghton, British TV personality
1984 - Alizée, French singer
1988 - Paris Bennett, American Idol contestant
1991 - Tess Gaerthé, Dutch singer and actress

Deaths

1157 - King Alfonso VII of Castile (b. 1104/1105)
1153 - Bernard of Clairvaux, French theologian (b. 1090)
1271 - Alphonse of Toulouse, son of Louis VIII of France (b. 1220)
1581 - Sakuma Nobumori, Japanese retainer and samurai (b. 1527)
1614 - Elizabeth Báthory, the world's most prolific female serial killer (b. 1560)
1627 - Jacques Mauduit, French composer (b. 1557)
1673 - Henry Grey, 1st Earl of Stamford, English soldier
1689 - William Cleland, Scottish poet and soldier
1762 - Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, English writer (b. 1689)
1763 - Charles Wyndham, 2nd Earl of Egremont, British statesman (b. 1710)
1796 - John McKinly, American physician and President of Delaware (b. 1721)
1814 - Benjamin Thompson, American physicist and inventor (b. 1753)
1836 - Claude-Louis Navier, French physicist (b. 1785)
1838 - Adelbert von Chamisso, German writer (b. 1781)
1940 - Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary (b. 1879)
1940 - Ernest Lawrence Thayer, American poet (b. 1863)
1940 - Hermann Obrecht, member of the Swiss Federal Council (b. 1882)
1943 - Henrik Pontoppidan, Danish writer, Nobel Prize (b. 1857)
1947 - Ettore Bugatti, Italian automobile manufacturer (b. 1881)
1951 - Constant Lambert, British composer and conductor (b. 1905)
1957 - Harald Ulrik Sverdrup, Norwegian meteorologist and oceanographer (b. 1888)
1960 - David Barnard Steinman, American civil engineer and bridge designer (b. 1886)
1964 - Palmiro Togliatti, Italian communist leader (b. 1893)
1978 - Charles Eames, American designer and architect (b. 1907)
1982 - Sobhuza II, King of Swaziland (b. 1899)
1983 - Benigno S. Aquino Jr., Philippine opposition leader (b. 1932)
1988 - Ray Eames, American designer, artist and architect (b. 1912)
1995 - Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Indian-born astrophysicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1910)
1997 - Norris Bradbury, American physicist (b. 1909)
2000 - Daniel Lisulo, Prime Minister of Zambia (b. 1930)
2003 - Kathy Wilkes, English philosopher and aid worker (b. 1946)
2003 - Wesley Willis, American musician (b. 1963)
2005 - Marcus Schmuck, Austrian mountaineer (b. 1925)
2005 - Robert Moog, American pioneer of electronic music (b. 1934)
2005 - Dalia Rabikovich, Israeli poet (b. 1936)

Holidays and observances

Ninoy Aquino Day - special holiday in the Philippines.
Roman festivals - Consualia, in honor of Consus, is held
RC saints - Pope Pius X
Orthodox - Thaddaeus

External links

BBC: On This Day

August 20 - August 22 - July 21 - September 21 -- listing of all days

Gourt Home::Gourt :: August 21

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

External links