Historical Events
- 1192 Minamoto Yoritomo becomes Seii Tai Shōgun and the de facto ruler of Japan. (Traditional Japanese date: July 12, 1192)
- 1703 The Edirne Event: Turkish army removes Sultan Mustafa II, lessening the power of the sultans
- 1772 King Gustav III of Sweden completes a coup d'etat by adopting a new Constitution and installing himself as an enlightened despot, ending 50 years of parliamentary rule
- 1888 American inventor William Seward Burroughs patents the adding machine
- 1911 "Mona Lisa" stolen from the Louvre by Vincenzo Perugia; recovered in 1913
- 1959 Hawaii becomes the 50th US state
- 1991 Conservative coup in the Soviet Union is crushed by popular resistance led by Boris Yeltsin in three days
- More Historical Events
Aug 21 in Film & TV
- 1942 Walt Disney's animated movie "Bambi", based on the book by Felix Salten, is released
- 2020 Korean pop group BTS releases single "Dynamite", becomes 1st video to be watched more than 100 million times in 24 hours on YouTube
Aug 21 in Music
- 2001 "How You Remind Me" single released by Nickelback (Billboard Song of the Year 2002)
Aug 21 in Sport
- 1986 Ian Botham takes world-record 356th Test Cricket wkt (v NZ, The Oval)
Did You Know?
1st British unmanned drone hit on a UK citizen outside a conflict - ISIS fighter Reyaad Khan in Raqqa, Syria
On August 21, 2015
Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria
Bugs Moran
Wilt Chamberlain
Kenny Rogers
Amy Fisher
Usain BoltFamous Weddings
- 1745 Future Russian Tsar Peter III marries Ekaterina Alexeievna later Catherine II (Catherine the Great)
- 1869 Business magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt marries second wife and cousin Frank Armstrong Crawford in London, Ontario
- 1929 Painter Diego Rivera (42) weds fellow artist Frida Kahlo (22)
More Weddings
Elizabeth Báthory
Laurence Doherty
Leon Trotsky
Palmiro TogliattiArticles, Photos and Quiz
Burroughs' Adding Machine
Patent drawing for Burroughs's calculating machine, 1888
August 21, 1888
Fighter Pilot Shows Mercy
Compassion was not expected of a fighter pilot in the Second World War but it was just that quality that saved the lives of a struggling American bomber crew.
August 21, 1915
Weekly Quiz for August 19-25
Test your knowledge of historical events and famous people in our weekly history quiz for August 19-25. Then challenge your friends
