August 21 Historical Events
The following events took place on August 21. The list is arranged in chronological order.
Found 47 events. Showing 1 - 30.
- 1140Song dynasty general Yue Fei defeats an army led by Jin dynasty general Wanyan Wuzhu at the Battle of Yancheng during the Jin–Song Wars.
- 1192Minamoto no Yoritomo becomes Seii Tai Shōgun and the de facto ruler of Japan. (Traditional Japanese date: July 12, 1192)
- 1331King Stefan Uroš III, after months of anarchy, surrenders to his son and rival Stefan Dušan, who succeeds as King of Serbia.
- 1680Pueblo Indians capture Santa Fe from the Spanish during the Pueblo Revolt.
- 1689The Battle of Dunkeld in Scotland.
- 1770James Cook formally claims eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales.
- 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.
- 1778American Revolutionary War: British forces begin besieging the French outpost at Pondichéry.
- 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.
- 1810Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, Marshal of France, is elected Crown Prince of Sweden by the Swedish Riksdag of the Estates.
- 1821Jarvis Island is discovered by the crew of the ship, Eliza Frances.
- 1831Nat Turner leads black slaves and free blacks in a rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia.
- 1852Tlingit Indians destroy Fort Selkirk, Yukon Territory.
- 1863Lawrence, Kansas is destroyed by Confederate guerrillas Quantrill’s Raiders in the Lawrence Massacre.
- 1879The Virgin Mary, along with St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist, reportedly appears at Knock Shrine in Knock, County Mayo, Ireland.
- 1883An F5 tornado strikes Rochester, Minnesota, leading to the creation of the Mayo Clinic.
- 1888The first successful adding machine in the United States is patented by William Seward Burroughs.
- 1897Oldsmobile, a brand of American automobiles, is founded.
- 1901The International Secretariat of National Trade Union Centres is founded in Copenhagen.
- 1911The Mona Lisa is stolen by a Louvre employee.
- 1914World War I: The Battle of Charleroi, a successful German attack across the River Sambre which pre-empted a French offensive in the same area.
- 1918World War I: The Second Battle of the Somme begins.
- 1942World War II: The flag of Nazi Germany is installed atop the Mount Elbrus, the highest peak of the Caucasus mountain range.
- 1942World War II: The Guadalcanal Campaign: American forces defeat an attack by Imperial Japanese Army soldiers in the Battle of the Tenaru.
- 1944Dumbarton Oaks Conference, prelude to the United Nations, begins.
- 1944World War II: Canadian and Polish units capture the strategically important town of Falaise, Calvados, France.
- 1945Physicist Harry K. Daghlian, Jr. is fatally irradiated in a criticality accident during an experiment with the Demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
- 1957The Soviet Union successfully conducts a long-range test flight of the R-7 Semyorka, the first intercontinental ballistic missile.
- 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
- 1961Motown releases what would be its first #1 hit, “Please Mr. Postman” by The Marvelettes.
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