July 21



Events

Up to 1900 
 356 BC  The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus (present-day Turkey), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, is destroyed in an arson attack.
 230  Pope Pontian succeeds Pope Urban I.
 285  Diocletian appoints Maximian as Roman Caesar and co-ruler.
 365  After a magnitude 8 earthquake, and a tsunami, around 50,000 people are killed in and around Alexandria, Egypt.
 1342  The St. Mary Magdalene's flood leads to several rivers in central Europe bursting their banks. It is Europe's worst flood of the second millennium.
 1403  Battle of Shrewsbury: King Henry IV of England defeats rebels in the north of the county of Shropshire.
 1545  The first landing of French troops on the coast of the Isle of Wight, during the island's French invasion.
 1645  Qing Dynasty regent Dorgon issues an edict ordering all Han Chinese men to shave their forehead and braid the rest of their hair into a queue identical to those of the Manchus.
 1656  The Raid on Malaga takes place during the Anglo-Spanish War.
 1718  The Treaty of Passarowitz between the Ottoman Empire, Austria and the Republic of Venice is signed.
 1774  The First Russo-Turkish War ends.
 1795  Mungo Park becomes the first European to reach the River Niger.
 1798  Battle of the Pyramids: Napoleon Bonaparte's army defeats the army of the Mamluks under the leadership of Mourad Bey.
 1822  Agustin de Iturbide becomes Emperor of Mexico.
 1831  The British Guyana colony is created.
 1831  Leopold I, King of the Belgians becomes Belgium's first king.
 1843  Antwerp Zoo is founded, becoming the first zoo in Belgium.
 1847  Spain recognizes Bolivia's independence.
 1861  American Civil War: The First Battle of Bull Run at Manassas ends in Confederate victory.
 1865  Wild Bill Hickok shoots Davis Tutt in one of the first Western showdowns.
 1873  At Adair, Iowa Jesse James and the James Younger Gang pull off the first successful train robbery in the Old American West.
 1897  London's Tate Gallery opens.

1901  2000 
 1902  The steamer Primus sinks in the Elbe River near Hamburg, killing 101 people.
 1904  Louis Rigolly, a Frenchman, becomes the first man to break the  barrier on land. He drove a 15-litre Gobron-Brille in Ostend, Belgium.
 1907  The passenger steamer SS Columbia collides with the steam schooner San Pedro off Shelter Cove, California. The Columbia sinks, killing 88 people.
 1914  Romania, it is decided, is neutral in World War I, after a decision by the country's crown council.
 1925  Tennessee high school biology teacher John T. Scopes is found guilty of teaching the theory of evolution. He is fined 100 dollars.
 1925  Malcolm Campbell becomes the first man to break the  land barrier at Pendine Sands, Wales. He drove a Sunbeam at a two-way average speed of .
 1938  In a peace deal at the end of the Chaco War, Bolivia loses part of its territory to Paraguay. That makes Paraguay twice as big.
 1944  Leaders of the July 20 plot to kill Adolf Hitler are executed.
 1944  World War II: The Battle of Guam begins.
 1949  The United States Senate ratifies the North Atlantic Treaty.
 1951  The Dalai Lama returns to Tibet from exile.
 1954  Publication of the first part of the novel The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien.
 1954  The Geneva Conference decides to split Vietnam into North and South.
 1959  Pumpsie Green becomes the first African American to play for the Boston Red Sox baseball team.
 1961  Gus Grissom becomes the second American in space.
 1962  British band the Rolling Stones play their first show, at the Marquee Club in London.
 1969  At 2:56 am on this day (July 20 in the US), Apollo 11 lands, leading to Neil Armstrong becoming the first person to walk on the Moon.
 1970  In Egypt, the Aswan Dam is completed.
 1972  The Troubles: Bloody Friday - Provisional IRA members detonate 22 bombs in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the space of 80 minutes.
 1973  Lillehammer affair: The Mossad kills waiter Ahmed Bouchiki in Norway, mistakenly thinking he was terrorist leader Ali Hassan Salameh.
 1974  Eddy Merckx wins his 5th Tour de France.
 1977  Start of the four-day Libyan-Egyptian War.
 1983  The lowest-measured temperature is recorded as  at the Soviet Vostok Station in Antarctica.
 1992  Russia and Moldova enter into a peace agreement.
 1994  Tony Blair becomes leader of the British Labour Party.
 1994  Jacques Santer is elected President of the European Commission.
 1996  Bjarne Riis becomes the first Scandinavian to win the Tour de France.

From 2001 
 2001  At the end of a fireworks display in Okura Beach, Akashi, Hyogo, Japan, the footbridge connecting the beach to the JR Asagiri railway station becomes crowded, with the resulting crush killing 11 people and injuring 120.
 2005  Four suicide bombers fail to detonate their bombs on London's underground and bus systems.
 2005  Horst Koehler dissolves the Bundestag (German Parliament) ahead of an early election.
 2007  The last novel in the Harry Potter series goes on sale.
 2008  Former Bosnian-Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is arrested on war crimes charges in Belgrade, after several years in disguise.
 2011  The Space Shuttle program ends, as the Space Shuttle Atlantis returns safely to Earth on its last mission.
 2013  King Albert II of Belgium leaves the throne to his son, who becomes King Philippe of Belgium, and is therefore the 7th King of the Belgians.
 2013  British cyclist Chris Froome wins the 100th Tour de France.
 2016  Donald Trump accepts the Republican Party nomination for US president.

Births

Up to 1900 
 1414  Pope Sixtus IV (d. 1484)
 1515  Philip Neri, Italian saint (d. 1595)
 1620  Jean Picard, French astronomer (d. 1682)
 1664  Matthew Prior, English poet and diplomat (d. 1721)
 1693  Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Prime Minister of Great Britain (d. 1768)
 1766  Thomas Charles Hope, Scottish physician and chemist (d. 1844)
 1808  Simion Barnutiu, Romanian philosopher, liberal politician, jurist and historian (d. 1864)
 1810  Henri Victor Regnault, French chemist and physicist (d. 1878)
 1816  Paul Reuter, German-British journalist (d. 1899)
 1821  Vasile Alecsandri, Romanian poet, dramatist and politician (d. 1890)
 1843  Infanta Maria Anna of Portugal (d. 1884)
 1851  Sam Bass, American train robber and outlaw (d. 1878)
 1856  Wilhelm Geiger, German indologist (d. 1943)
 1858  Maria Christina of Austria, Queen of Spain (d. 1929)
 1858  Lovis Corinth, German painter and graphic artist (d. 1925)
 1864  Frances Folsom Cleveland, First Lady of the United States (d. 1947)
 1870  Emil Orlik, Czech painter and graphic artist (d. 1932)
 1873  Charles Schlee, Danish-American cyclist (d. 1947)
 1875  Charles Gondouin, French rugby player (d. 1947)
 1879  Joseph A. A. Burnquist, Governor of Minnesota (d. 1961)
 1880  Milan Rastislav Stefanik, Slovakian politician and astronomer (d. 1919)
 1882  David Burliuk, Ukrainian illustrator, publicist and author (d. 1967)
 1885  Jacques Feyder, Belgian actor, screenwriter and movie director (d. 1948)
 1891  Julius Saaristo, Finnish javelin thrower (d. 1969)
 1893  Hans Fallada, German writer (d. 1947)
 1893  Margarete Sommer, German humanitarian (d. 1965)
 1897  Edmund Heines, German Nazi politician (d. 1934)
 1899  Hart Crane, American poet (d. 1932)
 1899  Ernest Hemingway, American writer (d. 1961)

1901  1950 
 1903  Roy Neuberger, American financier and art collector (d. 2010)
 1908  Ljerko Spiller, Argentine conductor and violinist (d. 2008)
 1908  Harold "Jug" McSpaden, American golfer (d. 1996)
 1911  Marshall McLuhan, Canadian writer (d. 1980)
 1914  Suso Cecchi d'Amico, Italian screenwriter (d. 2010)
 1919  Nuto Revelli, Italian military, resistance activist, professor and writer (d. 2004)
 1920  John Horsley, English actor (d. 2014)
 1920  Isaac Stern, Ukrainian violinist (d. 2001)
 1920  Constant Nieuwenhuys, Dutch painter (d. 2005)
 1920  Mohammed Dib, Algerian journalist and writer (d. 2003)
 1921  James Cooke Brown, American sociologist (d. 2000)
 1922  Jay Hammond, Governor of Alaska (d. 2005)
 1922  Kay Starr, American entertainer (d. 2016)
 1922  Molly Sugden, British actress (d. 2009)
 1923  Rudolph A. Marcus, Canadian chemist
 1924  Rahimuddin Khan, Pakistani politician, 7th Governor of Balochistan
 1924  Don Knotts, American actor (d. 2006)
 1925  Anne Meacham, American actress (d. 2006)
 1926  Norman Jewison, Canadian movie director
 1926  Bill Pertwee, English actor (d. 2013)
 1926  Karel Reisz, Czech-English director (d. 2002)
 1930  Helen Merrill, American jazz singer
 1933  John Gardner, American writer (d. 1982)
 1934  Jonathan Miller, British director, actor and author
 1935  Norbert Blüm, German politician
 1938  Janet Reno, United States Attorney General (d. 2016)
 1938  Anton Kuerti, Austrian-Canadian pianist, composer and conductor
 1939  Helmut Haller, German footballer (d. 2012)
 1939  Kim Fowley, American record producer (d. 2015)
 1941  Martin Bandier, music publisher
 1943  Edward Herrmann, American actor (d. 2014)
 1943  Henry McCullough, Northern Irish guitarist, singer and songwriter (d. 2016)
 1944  Buchi Emecheta, Nigerian novelist (d. 2017)
 1944  John Atta Mills, President of Ghana (d. 2012)
 1944  Paul Wellstone, U.S. Senator from Minnesota (d. 2002)
 1945  Lydia Shum, Hong Kong actress and singer (d. 2008)
 1945  John Lowe, English darts player
 1945  Wendy Cope, English poet
 1946  Ken Starr, American lawyer and judge
 1946  Jüri Tarmak, Estonian high jumper  
 1947  Chetan Chauan, Indian cricketer
 1947  Co Adriaanse, Dutch football manager
 1948  Beppe Grillo, Italian actor, comedian and political activist (Five Star Movement)
 1948  Ed Hinton, sportswriter
 1948  Yusuf Islam, English singer, formerly known as Cat Stevens
 1948  Garry Trudeau, American cartoonist
 1948  Litto Nebbia, Argentine tango and rock musician
 1948  Snooty, American manatee (d. 2017)
 1950  Susan Kramer, English politician

1951  1975 
 1951  Robin Williams, American actor and comedian (d. 2014)
 1953  John Salazar, American politician
 1953  Jeff Fatt, Australian musician (The Wiggles)
 1955  Marcelo Bielsa, Argentine footballer and manager
 1955  Taco, Indonesian-born Dutch singer
 1955  Howie Epstein, American bass player, songwriter and producer (d. 2003)
 1955  Béla Tarr, Hungarian actor, director and screenwriter
 1955  Dannel Malloy, American politician, 88th Governor of Connecticut
 1957  Stefan Löfven, Prime Minister of Sweden
 1957  Jon Lovitz, American comedian
 1958  Dave Henderson, American baseball player (d. 2015)
 1960  Lance Guest, American actor
 1962  Mokgweetsi Masisi, 5th President of Botswana
 1964  Ross Kemp, British actor
 1964  Jens Weissflog, German ski jumper
 1965  Gudni Bergsson, Icelandic footballer
 1968  Brandi Chastain, American soccer player
 1968  Lyle Odelein, hockey player
 1969  Emerson Hart, American singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer
 1970  Angus MacNeil, Scottish politician
 1971  Charlotte Gainsbourg, French actress
 1972  Catherine Ndereba, Kenyan long-distance runner
 1972  Simon Reeve, English television presenter and writer
 1973  Roberto Bisconti, Belgian footballer
 1973  Ali Landry, American model and actress
 1973  Caroline Néron, Canadian singer, actress and fashion designer

From 1976 
 1977  Paul Casey, British golfer
 1977  Jaime Murray, British actress
 1978  Kyoko Iwasaki, Japanese swimmer
 1978  Gary Teale, Scottish footballer
 1978  Josh Hartnett, American actor
 1978  Damian Marley, Jamaican singer-songwriter and producer
 1979  David Carr, American football player
 1979  Dorinel Gurbina, Romanian handball player
 1979  Andriy Voronin, Ukrainian footballer
 1980  CC Sabathia, American baseball player
 1981  Paloma Faith, English singer-songwriter and actress
 1981  Yushin Okami, Japanese mixed martial artist
 1981  Joaquín Sánchez, Spanish footballer
 1982  Mao Kobayashi, Japanese actress
 1983  Kellen Winslow Jr., American football player
 1983  Eivør Pálsdóttir, Faroese singer and composer
 1984  Liam Ridgewell, English footballer
 1985  Von Wafer, American basketball player
 1986  Anthony Annan, Ghanaian footballer
 1986  Livia Brito, Cuban-Mexican actress and model
 1986  Rebecca Ferguson, English singer
 1988  DeAndre Jordan, American basketball player
 1989  Rory Culkin, American actor
 1989  Ali Cobrin, American actress
 1989  Juno Temple, English actress
 1989  Marco Fabian, Mexican footballer
 1989  Chris Gunter, Welsh footballer
 1990  Chris Martin, English footballer
 1992  Rachael Flatt, American figure skater
 1992  Jessica Barden, English actress
 1995  Baekho, South Korean singer

Deaths

Up to 1950 
 1403  Henry Percy, English nobleman and soldier (b. 1364)
 1425  Manuel II Palaeologus, Byzantine Emperor (b. 1350)
 1552  Antonio de Mendoza, 1st Viceroy of New Spain (b. 1495)
 1793  Bruni d'Entrecasteaux, French explorer (b. 1739)
 1796  Robert Burns, Scottish poet (b. 1759)
 1796  Philip Carteret, English explorer (b. 1733)
 1859  John Gayle, American politician (b. 1792)
 1865  Davis Tutt, American gambler and salloon drinker (b. 1836)
 1878  Sam Bass, American train robber and outlaw (b. 1851)
 1880  Hiram Walden, American politician (b. 1800)
 1889  Nelson Dewey, American politician (b. 1813)
 1899  Robert G. Ingersoll, American soldier and politician (b. 1833)
 1907  Nicolae Grigorescu, Romanian painter (b. 1838)
 1938  Owen Wister, American writer (b. 1860)
 1941  Bohdan Lepky, Ukrainian writer and poet (b. 1872)
 1943  Charley Paddock, American politician (b. 1900)
 1944  Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, leader of the July 20 plot to kill Hitler (b. 1907)
 1944  Ludwig Beck, German Chief of Staff (b. 1880)
 1946  Gualberto Villarroel, 45th President of Bolivia (b. 1908)
 1948  Arshile Gorky, Armenian-American painter and illustrator (b. 1904)

1951  2010 
 1967  Albert Lutuli, South African political activist (b. 1898)
 1967  Basil Rathbone, British actor (b. 1892)
 1968  Ruth St. Denis, American dancer and choreographer (b. 1878)
 1970  Mikhail Gerasimov, Russian anthropologist and sculptor (b. 1907)
 1972  Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, King of Bhutan (b. 1928)
 1972  Ralph Craig, American sprinter (b. 1889)
 1973  Ahmed Bouchiki, Algerian-born victim of mistaken identity, killed by the Mossad in Norway (b. 1943)
 1982  Dave Garroway, American journalist (b. 1913)
 1991  Paul Warwick, English racing driver (b. 1969)
 1998  Robert Young, American actor (b. 1907)
 1998  Alan Shepard, the first American to travel into space (b. 1923)
 2004  Edward B. Lewis, American geneticist (b. 1918)
 2010  Anthony Rolfe Johnson, British operatic tenor (b. 1940)
 2010  Luis Corvalán, Chilean Communist politician (b. 1916)

From 2011 
 2011  Kazimierz Świątek, former Catholic Cardinal of Belarus, Gulag survivor (b. 1914)
 2011  Bruce Sundlum, Governor of Rhode Island (b. 1920)
 2012  Susanne Lothar, German actress (b. 1960)
 2013  Denys de La Patellière, French director (b. 1921)
 2014  Kevin Skinner, New Zealand rugby player (b. 1927)
 2014  John M. Coyne, American politician (b. 1916)
 2014  Hans-Peter Kaul, German judge (b. 1943)
 2014  Dan Borislow, American telecommunications executive (b. 1961)
 2014  Harald Hove, Norwegian politician (b. 1949)
 2015  Dick Nanninga, Dutch footballer (b. 1949)
 2015  Theodore Bikel, Austrian-American actor (b. 1924)
 2015  Robert Broberg, Swedish singer and songwriter (b. 1940)
 2015  E. L. Doctorow, American writer (b. 1931)
 2015  Luiz Paulo Conde, Brazilian politician and architect (b. 1934)
 2017  Howard Eichenbaum, American psychologist and neuroscientist (b. 1947)
 2017  John Heard, American actor (b. 1945)
 2017  Yami Lester, Australian activist (b. 1942)
 2017  Geoff Mack, Australian singer-songwriter (b. 1922)
 2017  Deborah Watling, English actress (b. 1948)
 2017  Stubbs, American cat, Honorary Mayor of Talkeetna, Alaska (b. 1997)
 2017  Jon van Rood, Dutch immunologist (b. 1926)
 2018  Jonathan Gold, American food critic (b. 1965)
 2018  Don McCarthy, British businessman and philanthropist (b. 1955)
 2018  Elmarie Wendel, American actress (b. 1928)
 2018  Alene Duerk, American admiral (b. 1920)
 2019  José Manuel Estepa Llaurens, Spanish cardinal (b. 1926)
 2019  Hugo Cóccaro, Argentine politician (b. 1954)
 2019  Antonino Cuffaro, Italian politician (b. 1932)
 2019  Francisco Grau, Spanish military officer and composer (b. 1947)
 2019  Paul Krassner, American writer and political activist (b. 1932)
 2019  Robert Morgenthau, American lawyer (b. 1919)

Observances 
 National Day of Belgium
 Liberation Day in Guam
 Racial Harmony Day (Singapore)

Days of the year