August 21
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
August 21 is the 234th day of the year (235th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 131 days remaining after August 21 until the end of the year.
[change] Births
- 1165 – King Philip II of France (d. 1223)
- 1643 – King Afonso VI of Portugal (d. 1683)
- 1765 – King William IV of the United Kingdom (d. 1837)
- 1789 – Augustin Louis Cauchy, French mathematician (d. 1857)
- 1826 – Karl Gegenbaur, German anatomist (d. 1903)
- 1858 – Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria (d. 1889)
- 1872 – Aubrey Beardsley, English illustrator (d. 1898)
- 1891 – Emiliano Mercado del Toro, Puerto-Rican supercentenarian (d. 2007)
- 1904 – Count Basie, American musician (d. 1984)
- 1906 – Friz Freleng, American animator (d. 1995)
- 1909 – Nikolay Bogolyubov, Russian physicist (d. 1992)
- 1917 – Leonid Hurwicz, Polish-born American economist (d. 2008)
- 1920 – Christopher Robin Milne, inspiration for Winnie the Pooh stories (d. 1996)
- 1930 – Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, member of the British royal family (d. 2002)
- 1933 – Janet Baker, English mezzo-soprano
- 1934 – John L. Hall, American physicist
- 1936 – Wilt Chamberlain, American basketball player (d. 1999)
- 1937 – Donald Dewar, Scottish politician, First Minister of Scotland (d. 2000)
- 1937 – Gustavo Noboa, former President of Ecuador
- 1938 – Steve Cowper, former Governor of Alaska
- 1938 – Kenny Rogers, American singer
- 1939 – Festus Mogae, former President of Botswana
- 1944 – Perry Christie, former Prime Minister of the Bahamas
- 1952 – Glenn Hughes, British musician
- 1952 – Joe Strummer, British musician and singer (d. 2002)
- 1954 – Archie Griffin, American football player
- 1956 – Kim Cattrall, British-born actress
- 1956 – John Tester, United States senator
- 1963 – King Mohammed VI of Morocco
- 1967 – Serj Tankian, Armenian-American singer (System of a Down)
- 1968 – Antonio Benarrivo, Italian footballer
- 1971 – Mamadou Diallo, Senegalese footballer
- 1973 – Steve McKenna, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1973 – Sergey Brin, Russian-born co-founder of Google
- 1973 – Nikolay Valuev, Russian boxer
- 1979 – Kelis, American singer
- 1983 – Scott McDonald, Australian footballer
- 1985 – Nicolas Almagro, Spanish tennis player
- 1986 – Wout Brama, Dutch footballer
- 1986 – Usain Bolt, Jamaican sprinter
- 1988 – Robert Lewandowski, Polish footballer
- 1989 – Judd Trump, British snooker player
- 1989 – Robert Knox, British actor (d. 2008)
- 1989 – Hayden Panettiere, American actress, model and singer
- 1990 – Jared Staal, Canadian ice hockey player
[change] Deaths
- 1614 – Elizabeth Bathory, Hungarian countess and serial killer (b. 1560)
- 1838 – Adelbert von Chamisso, German poet and botanist (b. 1781)
- 1910 – Gustave Moynier, Swiss jurist (b. 1826)
- 1926 – Ugyen Wangchuck, King of Bhutan (b. 1862)
- 1940 – Leon Trotsky, Ukrainian revolutionary and Marxist (b. 1879)
- 1943 – Henrik Pontoppidan, Danish writer (b. 1857)
- 1957 – Harald Sverdrup, Norwegian oceanographer and professor (b. 1888)
- 1964 – Palmiro Togliatti, Italian politician (b. 1893)
- 1979 – Giuseppe Meazza, Italian footballer (b. 1910)
- 1982 – Sobhuza II, King of Swaziland (b. 1899)
- 1983 – Benigno Aquino, Jr., Filipino politician (b. 1932)
- 1995 – Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Indian astrophysicist (b. 1910)
- 2000 – Daniel Lusilo, Prime Minister of Zambia (b. 1930)
- 2005 – Robert Moog, American pioneer of electronic music (b. 1934)
- 2010 – Christoph Schlingensief, German director (b. 1960)
[change] Events
- 1192 – Minamoto Yoritomo becomes de facto ruler of Japan.
- 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.
- 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.
- 1940 – Revolutionary Leon Trotsky dies in Mexico City, one day after being wounded with an ice-ax.
- 1959 – Hawaii becomes the 50th State of the United States.
- 1968 – The Prague Spring uprising in Czechoslovakia is brutally crushed by Warsaw Pact forces.
- 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 20km range, as they slept.
- 1991 – Latvia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
- 1991 – The August Coup, a coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, fails.
- 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.
