What Happened on October 21
Significant Events
- 1805 Battle of Trafalgar: British Admiral Horatio Nelson defeats combined French and Spanish fleet. Nelson shot and killed during battle.
- 1854 Florence Nightingale with a staff of 38 nurses is sent to the Crimean War
- 1944 World War II: US troops capture Aachen, 1st large German city to fall
- 1948 UN rejects Russian proposal to destroy atomic weapons
- 1950 Chinese forces occupy Tibet
- 1993 Military coup by Burundi President Ndadaye; 525,000 Hutus flee
October 21 in Film & TV
- 1964 Film version of "My Fair Lady" directed by George Cukor and starring Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn premieres in New York (Academy Awards Best Picture 1965)
October 21 in Music
- 1858 Jacques Offenbach's operetta " Orpheus in the Underworld" (Orphée aux Enfers) premieres in Paris, includes "Infernal Galop" (can-can tune)
October 21 in Sport
- 1980 Phillies win their 1st World Championship in their 98-year history
Did You Know?
Explorer Ferdinand Magellan and his fleet reach Cape Virgenes and become the first Europeans to sail into the Pacific Ocean
On October 21, 1520
Famous Birthdays
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(1772 - 1834)
Alfred Nobel
(1833 - 1896)
Whitey Ford
90 Years Old
Benjamin Netanyahu
69 Years Old
Carrie Fisher
(1956 - 2016)
Kim Kardashian
38 Years Old
Would You Believe?
Margaret Owen sets world typing speed record of 170 wpm for 1 min
On October 21, 1918
Famous Weddings
- 1917 Irish poet and playwright William Butler Yeats (52) weds Georgie Hyde-Lees (25)
- 1929 Bank robber Willie Sutton (28) weds Louise Leudemann
- 1948 Science fiction pioneering author "Stranger in a Strange Land" Robert A. Heinlein marries 3rd wife Virginia "Ginny" Gerstenfeld
- 1977 Actor Peter Boyle (42) weds Loraine Alterman at the United Nations chapel in Manhattan
- 1995 "Family Ties" actress Meredith Baxter (48) weds screenwriter Michael Blodgett (56) in Los Angeles
Horatio Nelson
Jack Kerouac
Ben BradleeOctober in History
The Tragedy of Aberfan
One hundred and sixteen young children died on this day when an avalanche of coal tip waste and debris thundered down a hillside and engulfed their school.
October 21, 1966
Jumping Jacques Makes First Parachute Descent
Daredevil André-Jacques Garnerin took to the sky in a hydrogen balloon on this day and after cutting himself adrift performed the first ‘parachute’ descent.
October 22, 1797
Test of Time for the Date of Creation
The assertion by a 17th Century bishop that the universe was created on this day in the year 4004 BC was put to the test in a famous trial in the United States.
October 23, 4004 BC
The Charge of the Light Brigade, a Brave and Foolish Tale
The Charge of the Light Brigade is infamous as an act of bravery in the face all insurmountable odds. An event immortalized in poetry by Alfred Tennyson.
October 25, 1854