August 21



Events

Up to 1900 
 1140  China: Song Dynasty general Yue Fei defeats an army led by Jin Dynasty general Wanyan Wuzhu at the Battle of Yancheng during the Jin-Song Wars.
 1192  Minamoto Yoritomo becomes de facto ruler of Japan.
 1526  Spanish explorer Alonso de Salazar reaches the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
 1680  Pueblo Native Americans capture Santa Fe from the Spanish during the Pueblo Revolt.
 1689  The Battle of Dunkeld takes place in Scotland.
 1728  Vitus Bering discovers Saint Lawrence Island in the now-named Bering Sea.
 1770  James Cook formally claims eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales.
 1772  Half a century of parliamentary rule in Sweden is ended when King Gustav III adopts a new constitution.
 1778  American Revolutionary War: British forces begin besieging the French outpost of Pondicherry in India.
 1810  The Swedish parliament elects Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte as crown prince.
 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.
 1842  The city of Hobart, capital of Tasmania, is founded.
 1852  Tlingits destroy Fort Selkirk, Yukon.
 1858  In the United States, the first in a series of debates takes place between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas.
 1863  Lawrence, Kansas is destroyed by Confederate troops.
 1883  A Force 5 tornado strikes Rochester, Minnesota.
 1888  The first successful adding machine in the US is patented by William Seward Burroughs.
 1891  Chilean Civil War: The Battle of Concon takes place.
 1897  Oldsmobile, a brand of American automobiles, is founded.

1901  2000 
 1911  In the night to August 22, Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting, the Mona Lisa, is stolen from the Louvre in Paris. It is recovered two years later.
 1914  World War I: Battle of Charleroi - a successful German attack across the River Sambre.
 1918  World War I: The Second Battle of the Somme begins.
 1940  Former Bolshevik revolutionary Leon Trotsky dies in Mexico City, one day after being wounded with an ice-ax.
 1942  World War II Guadalcanal Campaign: American forces defeat an attack from Imperial Japanese Army soldiers in the Battle of Tenaru.
 1942  World War II: The flag of Nazi Germany is put on top of Mount Elbrus, the highest point in the Caucasus mountains.
 1944  World War II: The Dumbarton Oaks Conference begins, on the way to creating the UN.
 1944  World War II: Canadian and Polish units capture the strategic town of Falaise, Calvados, France.
 1957  The Soviet Union successfully conducts a long-range test flight of the R-7 Semyorka, the first intercontinental ballistic missile.
 1959  Hawaii becomes the 50th State of the United States.
 1961  Motown releases what would become its first Number One hit, Please, Mr. Postman by the Marvelettes.
 1963  The Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces loyal to Ngo Dinh Nhu, brother of Ngo Dinh Diem, vandalizes Buddhist pagodas, arresting thousands and leaving an estimated hundreds dead.
 1968  The Prague Spring uprising in Czechoslovakia is brutally crushed by Warsaw Pact forces.
 1969  An Australian, Denis Michael Rohan, sets the Al-Aqsa Mosque on fire.
 1971  A bomb explodes at a Liberal Party campaign rally in Manila, Philippines, injuring several anti-Ferdinand Marcos candidates.
 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 Palestinian Liberation Organization's withdrawal from Lebanon.
 1983  Filipino opposition leader Benigno Aquino, Jr. is murdered at Manila International Airport, on his return from exile.
 1986  Carbon dioxide gas erupts from the volcanic Lake Nyos in Cameroon, killing up to 1,800 people, within a 20 km range, as they slept.
 1987  Dirty Dancing has its first showing in the United States.
 1991  Latvia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
 1991  The August Coup, a coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, fails.
 1993  NASA loses contact with the Mars Observer spacecraft.

From 2001 
 2001  NATO decides to send a peacekeeping force to the Republic of Macedonia.
 2001  The International Red Cross announces that Tajikistan is being struck by a famine, and calls for aid to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
 2007  Hurricane Dean makes landfall in Costa Maya, Mexico, as a category 5 hurricane.
 2010  Australia's 2010 General Election is the closest in years with little to separate Julia Gillard of the Australian Labor Party and Tony Abbott of the Conservative Liberal Party of Australia. Through the support of independent MPs, Julia Gillard is allowed to stay on as Prime Minister of Australia.
 2013  Chemical attacks are carried out in Ghouta, Syria, during the Syrian Civil War, killing hundreds of people.
 2016  The 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, end.
 2017  American naval ship "USS John S. McCain" collides with a merchant vessel near Singapore, killing 11 sailors.
 2017  A total solar eclipse is seen across several states of the United States, from Oregon to South Carolina, with partial eclipses seen over several other countries and the North Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
 2019  Brazil's Institute for Space Research reports a record number of fires burning in the Amazon rainforest, with 36,000 in the year up to this date, and smoke reaching as far south as Sao Paulo.

Births

Up to 1900 
 1165  King Philip II of France (d. 1223)
 1535  Shimazu Yoshihiro, Japanese samurai and warlord (d. 1619)
 1567  Francis de Sales, French mystic and church teacher (d. 1622)
 1597  Roger Twysden, English historian and politician (d. 1672)
 1643  King Afonso VI of Portugal (d. 1683)
 1660  Hubert Gautier, French scientist and civil engineer (d. 1737)
 1665  Giacomo F. Maraldi, Italian-French astronomer and mathematician (d. 1729)
 1725  Jean-Baptiste Greuze, French painter (d. 1805)
 1754  William Murdoch, Scottish inventor (d. 1839)
 1765  King William IV of the United Kingdom (d. 1837)
 1773  Jens Christian Djurhuus, Faroese farmer and poet (d. 1853)
 1789  Augustin Louis Cauchy, French mathematician (d. 1857)
 1798  Jules Michelet, French historian (d. 1874)
 1800  Hiram Walden, American politician (d. 1880)
 1805  August Bournonville, Danish dancer and choreographer (d. 1879)
 1813  Jean Stas, Belgian chemist (d. 1891)
 1821  Andrew Kim Taegon, South Korean priest (d. 1846)
 1823  Nathaniel Everett Green, English painter, educator and astronomer (d. 1899)
 1826  Karl Gegenbaur, German anatomist (d. 1903)
 1845  William Healey Dall, American naturalist, palaeontologist and explorer (d. 1927)
 1858  Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria (d. 1889)
 1862  Emilio Salgari, Italian writer (d. 1911)
 1869  William Henry Ogilvie, Scottish-Australian poet (d. 1963)
 1872  Aubrey Beardsley, English illustrator (d. 1898)
 1878  Richard Girulaitis, German football manager (d. 1963)
 1884  Chandler Egan, American golfer (d. 1936)
 1887  James Paul Moody, Sixth officer of the RMS Titanic (d. 1912)
 1891  Emiliano Mercado del Toro, Puerto Rican supercentenarian (d. 2007)
 1892  Charles Vanel, French actor and director (d. 1989)
 1893  Lili Boulanger, French composer (d. 1918)

1901  1950 
 1902  Angel Karaliychev, Bulgarian writer (d. 1972)
 1904  Count Basie, American musician, bandleader and composer (d. 1984)
 1906  Friz Freleng, American animator (d. 1995)
 1908  M. M. Kaye, British writer (d. 2004)
 1909  Nikolay Bogolyubov, Russian physicist (d. 1992)
 1909  C. Douglas Dillon, American politician (d. 2003)
 1917  Leonid Hurwicz, Polish-born American economist (d. 2008)
 1918  Billy Reay, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2004)
 1920  Christopher Robin Milne, inspiration for Winnie the Pooh stories (d. 1996)
 1921  Reuven Feuerstein, Israeli psychologist (d. 2014)
 1923  Keith Allen, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2014)
 1924  Arthur Janov, American psychologist, psychotherapist and writer (d. 2017)
 1926  Marian Jaworski, Polish-Ukrainian cardinal
 1927  Wilhelm Killmayer, German composer and conductor (d. 2017)
 1927  Thomas S. Monson, American Mormon Church leader (d. 2018)
 1928  Chris Brasher, British athlete (d. 2003)
 1928  Marie Severin, American comic book artist (d. 2018)
 1929  Herman Badillo, American politician (d. 2014)
 1929  Ahmed Kathrada, South African political activist (d. 2017)
 1930  Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, member of the British royal family (d. 2002)
 1930  Frank Perry, American movie director (d. 1995)
 1932  Menashe Kadishman, Israeli sculptor and painter (d. 2015)
 1932  Melvin Van Peebles, American actor and screenwriter
 1933  Michael Dacher, German mountaineer (d. 1994)
 1933  Janet Baker, English mezzo-soprano
 1933  Barry Norman, English movie critic (d. 2017)
 1934  John L. Hall, American physicist
 1934  Sudhakarrao Naik, Indian politician, 13th Chief Minister of Maharashtra (d. 2001)
 1935  Bernhard Eckstein, German track cyclist (d. 2017)
 1935  Anatoly Gladilin, Russian writer (d. 2018)
 1936  Radish Tordia, Georgian painter
 1936  Wilt Chamberlain, American basketball player (d. 1999)
 1936  Booth Gardner, former Governor of Washington (d. 2013)
 1937  Donald Dewar, Scottish politician, 1st First Minister of Scotland (d. 2000)
 1937  Gustavo Noboa, former President of Ecuador
 1937  Robert Stone, American novelist (d. 2015)
 1938  Nicolás Ardito Barletta Vallarino, former President of Panama
 1938  Steve Cowper, former Governor of Alaska
 1938  Kenny Rogers, American singer (d. 2020)
 1939  Festus Mogae, former President of Botswana
 1939  James Burton, American guitarist
 1943  Gary Friedrich, American comic book writer (d. 2018)
 1943  Clarence Williams III, American actor
 1943  Jonathan Schell, American author (d. 2014)
 1943  Lucius Shepard, American writer (d. 2014)
 1943  Hugh Wilson, American film and television director (d. 2018)
 1944  Peter Weir, Australian movie director
 1944  Perry Christie, former Prime Minister of the Bahamas
 1945  Patty McCormack, American actress
 1945  Basil Poledouris, American movie score composer (d. 2006)
 1946  Margaret Chan, former Director-General of the World Health Organization
 1949  Loretta Devine, American actress
 1950  Arthur Bremer, American criminal
 1950  Patrick Juvet, Swiss singer

1951  1975 
 1951  Karekin II, head of the Armenian Apostolic Church
 1951  Eric Goles, Chilean mathematician and computer scientist
 1952  Jiri Paroubek, 6th Prime Minister of the Czech Republic
 1952  Glenn Hughes, British musician
 1952  Joe Strummer, British musician and singer (d. 2002)
 1954  Archie Griffin, American football player
 1954  Chip Coffey, American psychic, medium and television personality
 1956  Kim Cattrall, British-born actress
 1956  Laura Morante, Italian actress
 1956  Jon Tester, United States Senator
 1957  Budgie, English musician
 1957  Tignous, French cartoonist (d. 2015)
 1961  V. B. Chandrasekhar, Indian cricketer (d. 2019)
 1961  Stephen Hillenburg, American marine biologist, animator, writer and director, creator of SpongeBob SquarePants (d. 2018)
 1962  Tsutomu Miyazaki, Japanese serial killer (d. 2008)
 1963  King Mohammed VI of Morocco
 1965  Nigel Pearson, English football manager
 1967  Charb, French cartoonist and journalist, Editor of Charlie Hebdo (d. 2015)
 1967  Serj Tankian, Armenian-American singer (System of a Down)
 1967  Carrie-Anne Moss, Canadian actress
 1967  Noel Francisco, 47th Solicitor General of the United States
 1967  Darren Bewick, Australian footballer
 1968  Antonio Benarrivo, Italian footballer
 1968  Laura Trevelyan, British broadcaster
 1969  Julie Etchingham, British journalist and news presenter
 1971  Mamadou Diallo, Senegalese footballer
 1971  Liam Howlett, English musician
 1973  Steve McKenna, Canadian ice hockey player
 1973  Sergey Brin, Russian-born co-founder of Google
 1973  Nikolai Valuev, Russian boxer
 1975  Alicia Witt, American actress

From 1976 
 1976  Jeff Cunningham, Jamaican-American soccer player
 1978  Jason Marquis, American baseball player
 1979  Joel Griffiths, Australian footballer
 1979  Kelis, American singer
 1980  Joanne Froggatt, English actress
 1981  Cameron Winklevoss, American rower and businessman
 1981  Tyler Winklevoss, American rower and businessman
 1983  Scott McDonald, Australian footballer
 1983  Josh Harrington, American BMX rider
 1983  Chantelle Houghton, British television personality
 1983  Brody Jenner, American actor
 1984  Alizée, French singer
 1984  Eve Torres, American dancer, model and wrestler 
 1985  Aleksandra Kiryashova, Russian pole vaulter
 1985  Nicolás Almagro, Spanish tennis player
 1986  Wout Brama, Dutch footballer
 1986  Usain Bolt, Jamaican sprinter
 1987  Kim Kibum, South Korean singer and actor
 1988  Robert Lewandowski, Polish footballer
 1988  Kacey Musgraves, American country music singer
 1989  Judd Trump, British snooker player
 1989  Rob Knox, British actor (d. 2008)
 1989  Hayden Panettiere, American actress, model and singer
 1990  Jared Staal, Canadian ice hockey player
 1990  Bo Burnham, American comedian, singer-songwriter, musician and actor
 1990  Omar El Kaddouri, Belgian footballer
 1992  Brad Kavanagh, English songwriter and actor
 1992  RJ Mitte, American actor
 1996  Jamia Simone Nash, American singer and actress

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 1131  Baldwin of Jerusalem (b. 1060)
 1157  Alfonso VII of Leon and Castile (b. 1104)
 1271  Alphonse, Count of Poitiers, son of Louis VIII of France (b. 1220)
 1581  Sakuma Nobumori, Japanese retainer and samurai (b. 1527)
 1614  Elizabeth Bathory, Hungarian countess and serial killer (b. 1560)
 1627  Jacques Mauduit, French composer (b. 1557)
 1762  Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, English writer (b. 1689)
 1763  Charles Wyndham, 2nd Earl of Egremont, British statesman (b. 1710)
 1775  Daher el-Omar, Arab ruler of Galilee (b. 1690)
 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 poet and botanist (b. 1781)
 1854  Thomas Clayton, American lawyer and politician (b. 1777)
 1870  Ma Xinyi, Chinese Viceroy of Liangjing and statesman (b. 1821)

1901  2000 
 1910  Gustave Moynier, Swiss jurist (b. 1826)
 1919  Laurence Doherty, English tennis player (b. 1875)
 1926  Ugyen Wangchuck, King of Bhutan (b. 1862)
 1935  John Hartley, English tennis player (b. 1849)
 1935  Pavlos Kountouriotis, Greek politician (b. 1855)
 1940  Leon Trotsky, Ukrainian revolutionary and Marxist (b. 1879)
 1940  Hermann Obrecht, Swiss politician (b. 1882)
 1940  Ernest Thayer, American poet (b. 1863)
 1943  Henrik Pontoppidan, Danish writer (b. 1857)
 1947  Ettore Bugatti, Italian automobile manufacturer (b. 1881)
 1947  Theodore C. Bilbo, Governor of Mississippi (b. 1877)
 1951  Constant Lambert, British composer and conductor (b. 1905)
 1957  Harald Sverdrup, Norwegian oceanographer and professor (b. 1888)
 1964  Palmiro Togliatti, Italian politician (b. 1893)
 1971  George Jackson, American activist and author (b. 1941)
 1978  Charles Eames, American designer and architect (b. 1907)
 1979  Giuseppe Meazza, Italian footballer (b. 1910)
 1981  Michael Devine, Irish hunger striker (b. 1954)
 1982  Sobhuza II, King of Swaziland (b. 1899)
 1983  Benigno Aquino, Jr., Filipino politician (b. 1932)
 1988  Ray Eames, American designer, artist and architect (b. 1912)
 1989  Raul Seixas, Brazilian singer (b. 1945)
 1991  Wolfgang Hildesheimer, German writer (b. 1916)
 1995  Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Indian astrophysicist (b. 1910)
 1997  Misael Pastrana, President of Colombia (b. 1923)
 2000  Daniel Lusilo, Prime Minister of Zambia (b. 1930)
 2000  Andrzej Zawada, Polish mountaineer (b. 1928)
 2000  Bubi Scholz, German boxer (b. 1930)

From 2001 
 2005  Marcus Schmuck, Austrian mountaineer (b. 1925)
 2005  Robert Moog, American pioneer of electronic music (b. 1934)
 2005  Martin Dillon, American opera singer (b. 1957)
 2007  Haley Paige, American pornographic actress (b. 1981)
 2010  Christoph Schlingensief, German director (b. 1960)
 2012  William Thurston, American mathematician (b. 1946)
 2013  C. Gordon Fullerton, American astronaut (b. 1936)
 2013  Sid Bernstein, American record producer (b. 1918)
 2014  Albert Reynolds, Irish Taoiseach (b. 1932)
 2014  Jean Redpath, Scottish folk singer (b. 1937)
 2014  Robert Hansen, American serial killer (b. 1939)
 2014  Gerry Anderson, Northern Irish broadcaster (b. 1944)
 2014  Raed al Atar, Palestinian military commander (b. 1974)
 2014  Steven R. Nagel, American astronaut (b. 1946)
 2015  Wang Dongxing, Chinese politician (b. 1916)
 2015  Anna Kashfi, British actress (b. 1934)
 2015  Gerry Steinberg, British politician (b. 1945)
 2017  James Joseph Dresnok, American Korean War military personnel and actor (b. 1942)
 2017  Greg Evers, American politician (b. 1955)
 2017  Roberto Gottardi, Italian architect (b. 1927)
 2017  Thomas Meehan, American playwright (b. 1929)
 2017  Abdur Razzak, Bangladeshi actor (b. 1942)
 2017  Bajram Rexhepi, Kosovar politician (b. 1954)
 2017  Boris Spremo, Yugoslavian-born Canadian photojournalist (b. 1935)
 2017  Perch Zeytuntsyan, Egyptian-Armenian playwright and screenwriter (b. 1938)
 2018  Barbara Harris, American actress (b. 1935)
 2018  Spencer P. Jones, New Zealand-Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1958)
 2018  Villano III, Mexican  professional wrestler (b. 1952)
 2018  Stefan Karl Stefansson, Icelandic actor (b. 1975)
 2018  Otávio Frias Filho, Brazilian journalist (b. 1957)
 2018  Charles Gain, American police officer (b. 1923)
 2019  Dina bint Abdul-Hamid, Jordanian princess, former Queen Consort of Jordan (b. 1929)
 2019  Norma Croker, Australian athlete (b. 1934)
 2019  Babulal Gaur, Indian politician, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh (b. 1930)
 2019  Celso Piña, Mexican singer and musician (b. 1953)

Observances 
 Admission Day (Hawaii)
 Ninoy Aquino Day (Philippines)
 Youth Day (Morocco)
 Regaining of Independence (Latvia)

Days of the year