August
21
Events
1192 – Minamoto
Yoritomo becomes Seii Tai Shōgun and the de facto ruler of Japan.
(Traditional Japanese date: July 12, 1192)
1331 – King Stephen Uroš III, after months of anarchy, surrenders
to his son and rival Stephen Dušan, who succeeds as King of
Serbia.
1680 – Pueblo Indians capture Santa Fe from Spanish during the
Pueblo Revolt.
1689 – The Battle of Dunkeld in Scotland.
1770 – James Cook formally claims eastern Australia for Great
Britain, naming it New South Wales.
1772 – King 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.
1778 – American Revolutionary War: British forces begin besieging
the French outpost at Pondicherry.
1808 – Battle 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.
1810 – Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, Marshal of France, is elected
Crown Prince of Sweden by the Swedish Riksdag of the Estates.
1821 – Jarvis Island is discovered by the crew of the ship,
Eliza Frances.
1831 – Nat Turner leads black slaves and free blacks in a rebellion.
1852 – Tlingit Indians destroy Fort Selkirk, Yukon Territory.
1863 – Lawrence, Kansas is destroyed by Confederate guerrillas
Quantrill's Raiders in the Lawrence Massacre.
1879 – The Virgin Mary, along with St. Joseph and St. John the
Evangelist, reportedly appears at Knock Shrine in Knock, County
Mayo, Ireland.
1888 – The first successful adding machine in the United States
is patented by William Seward Burroughs.
1911 – The Mona Lisa is stolen by a Louvre employee.
1918 – World War I: The Second Battle of the Somme begins.
1942 – World War II: a Nazi flag is installed atop the Mount
Elbrus.
1942 – World War II: the Guadalcanal campaign: American forces
defeat an attack by Imperial Japanese Army soldiers in the Battle
of the Tenaru.
1944 – Dumbarton Oaks Conference, prelude to the United Nations,
begins.
1944 – World War II: Canadian and Polish units capture the strategically
important town of Falaise, France.
1945 – Physicist Harry K. Daghlian, Jr. is fatally irradiated
in a criticality incident during an experiment with the Demon
core at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
1959 – 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
1961 – Motown releases what would be its first #1 hit, "Please
Mr. Postman" by The Marvelettes.
1963 – Xa Loi Pagoda raids: the Army of the Republic of Vietnam
Special Forces loyal to Ngo Dinh Nhu, brother of President Ngo
Dinh Diem, vandalises Buddhist pagodas across the country, arresting
thousands and leaving an estimated hundreds dead.
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.
1968 – James Anderson, Jr. posthumously receives the first Medal
of Honor to be awarded to an African American U.S. Marine.
1969 – An Australian, Michael Dennis Rohan, sets the Al-Aqsa
Mosque on fire, a major catalyst of the formation of the Organisation
of Islamic Cooperation.
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.
1979 – Soviet dancer Alexander Godunov defects to the United
States.
1982 – Lebanese Civil War: The first troops of a multinational
force lands in Beirut to oversee the Palestine Liberation Organization's
withdrawal from Lebanon.
1983 – Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino, Jr. is assassinated
at the Manila International Airport (now renamed Ninoy Aquino
International Airport).
1986 – Carbon dioxide gas erupts from volcanic Lake Nyos in
Cameroon, killing up to 1,800 people within a 20-kilometer range.
1991 – Latvia declares renewal of its full independence after
the occupation of Soviet Union.
1991 – Coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev collapses.
1992 – Ruby Ridge Standoff in Idaho
1993 – NASA loses contact with the Mars Observer spacecraft.
2001 – NATO decides to send a peace-keeping force to the former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
2001 – The Red Cross announces that a famine is striking Tajikistan,
and calls for international financial aid for Tajikistan and
Uzbekistan.
2007 – Hurricane Dean makes its first landfall in Costa Maya,
Mexico with winds at 165 mph (266 km/h). Dean is the first storm
since Hurricane Andrew to make landfall as a Category 5.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Abraham of Smolensk (Eastern Orthodox Church)
Euprepius of Verona
Maximilian of Antioch
Pope St. Pius X
Sidonius Apollinaris
August 21 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Consualia, in honor of Consus. (Roman Empire)
Ninoy Aquino Day (Philippines)
Youth Day/King Mohammed VI's Birthday (Morocco)
World Fashion Day
For details, contact Datacentre
|