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April 21 is the 111th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (112th in leap years). There are 254
days remaining.
Events
- 753 BC - Romulus
founds Rome (traditional).
- 43 BC - Mark Antony is defeated
in battle by consul Hirtius in the Battle of Mutina, who is
killed.
- 1792 - Tiradentes, revolutionary who
was leading a movement for Brazil's independence, is hanged.
- 1836 - Texas Revolution:
Battle of San Jacinto - Republic of Texas forces under Sam Houston
defeat troops under Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna. (Santa Anna and hundreds of his troops are taken prisoner
along the San Jacinto
River the next day.)
- 1863 - Bahá'u'lláh is proclaimed as the
head of the Bahá'í Faith.
- 1863 - American Civil War: Steight's Raid begins - Troops led
by Union Colonel Abel Streight move into northern
Alabama and Georgia to cut the Western and Atlantic Railroad between Chattanooga, Tennessee and Atlanta, Georgia (the raid failed).
- 1898 - Spanish-American War: The United
States Congress, on April 25, recognized that a state of war had existed
between the United States and Spain as of this date.
- 1912 - The New York
Giants and New York Yankees play an exhibition game to benefit
survivors of the RMS Titanic.
- 1918 - World War I: German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, known as "The Red Baron," is shot down and killed by Allied fire over Vauz sur Somme in France.
- 1944 - Women in France receive the right to
vote
- 1945 - World War II: Soviet Union forces south of Berlin at
Zossen attack the German High Command
headquarters.
- 1952 - Administrative Professionals' Day (formerly Secretaries Day), first
celebrated
- 1953 - Roy Cohn and G. David Schine, two of Senator Joseph McCarthy's chief aides,
recommend the removal of 30,000 books from the libraries of the United States Information Service posts in Europe, including works by Dashiell Hammett, W. E. B. Du Bois, Herman Melville, John Steinbeck and Henry David Thoreau, calling them "pro-Communist".
- 1955 - Bob Hope's radio program airs its
last segment.
- 1956 - Elvis Presley's song
"Heartbreak Hotel" becomes the "King's" first song to reach the top
of the Billboard magazine music charts.
- 1960 - Brasília, Brazil's capital, is
officially inaugurated.
- 1960 - Founding of the Orthodox Baha'i faith in Washington, DC
- 1967 - A few days before the general election in Greece, Colonel George Papadopoulos leads a coup d'état establishing a military regime that is going to last for seven
years.
- 1970 - Hutt River
Province "secedes" from the Commonwealth of
Australia.
- 1975 - Vietnam War: President of
South Vietnam Nguyen Van Thieu flees Saigon, as Xuan Loc, the last South Vietnamese outpost
blocking a direct North Vietnamese assault on Saigon, falls.
- 1985 - Ayrton Senna wins the
first of 41 Formula One championships at the Portuguese Grand Prix in Estoril.
- 1989 - Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989: In Beijing, around 100,000 students gather in Tiananmen
Square to commemorate the late Chinese reform leader Hu Yaobang.
- 1992 - Death penalty: After 13
years on death row, convicted murderer Robert Alton Harris is executed in California's
gas chamber.
- 1994 - The first discovery of extrasolar planets are announced by astronomer Alexander Wolszczan.
Births
- 1652 - Michel Rolle,
mathematician (d. 1719)
- 1729 - Tsarina Catherine II of Russia (d. 1796)
- 1816 - Charlotte
Brontë, author (d. 1855)
- 1838 - John Muir, environmentalist (d.
1914)
- 1851 - Charles Barrois,
geologist (d. 1939)
- 1864 - Max Weber, economist and
sociologist (d. 1920)
- 1912 - Marcel Camus, film
director (d. 1982)
- 1914 - Anthony Quinn, actor (d.
2001)
- 1922 - Alistair MacLean,
author (d. 1987)
- 1923 - John Mortimer, barrister, writer
- 1924 - Clara Ward, gospel music singer (d. 1973)
- 1926 - Queen Elizabeth II
- 1929 - Martin Kruse, theologian
- 1930 - Silvana Mangano,
actress (d. 1989)
- 1932 - Elaine May, comedienne
- 1935 - Charles Grodin, actor,
journalist
- 1947 - Iggy Pop
- 1951 - Michael Hartley Freedman, mathematician
- 1958 - Andie MacDowell,
actress
- 1959 - Robert Smith, musician
- 1965 - Ed Belfour, NHL goalie
- 1970 - Nicole Sullivan,
actress, comedienne and writer
- 1977 - Jamie Salé, figure skater
- 1980 - Vincent
Lecavalier, NHL hockey player
Deaths
- 1073 - Pope Alexander
II
- 1699 - Jean Racine, dramatist (b.
1639)
- 1793 - John Michell, seismologist
(b. 1724)
- 1910 - Mark Twain, author, humorist
(b. 1835)
- 1918 - Manfred
von Richthofen, pilot (b. 1892)
- 1938 - Allama Iqbal,
philosopher-poet (b. 1877)
- 1946 - John Maynard
Keynes, economist (b. 1883)
- 1956 - Charles
MacArthur, writer (b. 1895)
- 1973 - Arthur Fadden,
thirteenth Prime Minister of Australia (b.
1894)
- 1977 - Gummo Marx, actor, comedian,
Marx Brothers (b. 1892)
- 1978 - Thomas Wyatt
Turner, civil rights advocate and agricultural engineer (b. 1877)
- 1980 - Aleksandr Oparin,
biochemist (b. 1894)
- 1985 - Rudi Gernreich,
fashion designer
- 1999 - Charles 'Buddy' Rogers, actor, musician
- 2001 - Jack Haley Jr., producer
- 2003 - Nina Simone, singer and
pianist (b. 1933)
Holidays and observances
April 20 - April 22 - March 21 - May 21 -- listing of all days
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