October 21 Historical Events

The following events took place on October 21. The list is arranged in chronological order.

Found 55 events. Showing 31 - 55.

• 1944
  World War II: Battle of Aachen: The city of Aachen falls to American forces after three weeks of fighting, making it the first German city to fall to the Allies.
• 1945
  Women’s suffrage: Women are allowed to vote in France for the first time.
• 1950
  Korean War: Heavy fighting begins between British and Australian forces from the 27th British Commonwealth Brigade and the North Korean 239th Regiment during the Battle of Yongju.
• 1956
  Mau Mau Uprising: Kenyan rebel leader Dedan Kimathi is captured by the British Army, signalling the ultimate defeat of the rebellion, and essentially ending the British military campaign.
• 1959
  In New York City, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opens to the public.
• 1959
  U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order transferring Wernher von Braun and other German scientists from the United States Army to NASA.
• 1965
  Comet Ikeya–Seki approaches perihelion, passing 450,000 kilometers (279,617 miles) from the sun.
• 1966
  Aberfan disaster: A slag heap collapses on the village of Aberfan in Wales, killing 144 people, mostly schoolchildren.
• 1967
  Vietnam War: More than 100,000 war protesters gather in Washington, D.C. A peaceful rally at the Lincoln Memorial is followed by a march to The Pentagon and clashes with soldiers and United States Marshals protecting the facility. Similar demonstrations occurred simultaneously in Japan and Western Europe.
• 1969
  A coup d'état in Somalia brings Siad Barre to power and establishes a socialist republic in Somalia.
• 1971
  A gas explosion kills 22 people at a shopping center in Clarkston, East Renfrewshire, near Glasgow, Scotland.
• 1973
  John Paul Getty III’s ear is cut off by his kidnappers and sent to a newspaper in Rome; it doesn't arrive until November 8.

• 1973
  Fred Dryer of the then Los Angeles Rams becomes the first player in NFL history to score two safeties in the same game.
• 1977
  The European Patent Institute is founded.
• 1978
  Australian civilian pilot Frederick Valentich vanishes in a Cessna 182 over the Bass Strait south of Melbourne, after reporting contact with an unidentified aircraft.
• 1979
  Moshe Dayan resigns from the Israeli government because of strong disagreements with Prime Minister Menachem Begin over policy towards the Arabs.
• 1981
  Andreas Papandreou becomes Prime Minister of Greece, ending an almost 50-year-long system of power dominated by conservative forces.
• 1983
  The metre is defined at the seventeenth General Conference on Weights and Measures as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.
• 1986
  In Lebanon, pro-Iran kidnappers claim to have abducted American writer Edward Tracy (he is released in August 1991).
• 1987
  Jaffna hospital massacre is carried out by Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka killing 70 ethnic Tamil patients, doctors and nurses.
• 1994
  North Korea nuclear weapons program: North Korea and the United States sign an agreement that requires North Korea to stop its nuclear weapons program and agree to inspections.
• 1994
  In Seoul, 32 people are killed when the Seongsu Bridge collapses.
• 2005
  Images of the dwarf planet Eris are taken and subsequently used in documenting its discovery by the team of Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz.
• 2012
  A shooting at a spa in Brookfield, Wisconsin, leaves four people dead, including the shooter.
• 2013
  Record smog closes schools, roadways, and the airport in Harbin, China.