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October 21 is the 294th day of the year (295th in leap years)
in the Gregorian Calendar, with 71 days remaining.
Events
- 686 - Conon becomes Pope.
- 1797 - In Boston Harbor, the 44-gun United States
Navy frigate USS Constitution is launched to fight
Barbary pirates off the coast of Tripoli
(in 1805 the Tripoli peace treaty was
signed on Constitution's deck).
- 1805 - Napoleonic Wars:
Battle of Trafalgar - British naval fleet led by Admiral Lord Nelson defeats a
combined French and Spanish off the coast of
Spain.
- 1861 - American Civil
War: Battle
of Ball's Bluff - Union forces under Colonel Edward Baker are defeated by Confederate troops in the second major battle of
the war. Baker, a close friend of Abraham Lincoln, is killed in the
fighting.
- 1867 - 'Manifest
Destiny': Medicine Lodge Treaty - Near Medicine
Lodge Creek, Kansas a landmark treaty is signed by southern Great
Plains Indian leaders. The treaty requires Native American Plains
tribes to relocate a reservation in western Oklahoma.
- 1879 - Using a filament of carbonized thread,
Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric light bulb (it lasted 13 1/2 hours before burning out).
- 1895 - The Republic of
Taiwan collapses as Japanese forces invade.
- 1902 - In the United States, a
five month strike by United Mine Workers ends.
- 1941 - World War II: Germans rampage in Yugoslavia, killing
thousands of civilians.
- 1945 - Women's
suffrage: Women are allowed to vote in France for the first time.
- 1957 - The movie Jailhouse
Rock, starring Elvis Presley, opens.
- 1959 - In New York City, the
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opens to the
public. It was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
- 1959 - US President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an
executive order transferring Wernher Von Braun and other German scientists from the
United States Army to NASA.
- 1966 - A coal tip falls on the village of Aberfan in Wales, killing 144 people, mostly schoolchildren
- 1967 - Vietnam War: More than
100,000 war protesters gather in
Washington, DC. A peaceful rally at the Lincoln Memorial is followed by a march to The Pentagon and clashes with soldiers and United States Marshals
protecting the facility (event lasts until October 23; 683 people will be
arrested). Similar demonstrations occurred simultaneously in Japan and Western Europe.
- 1980 - 1980 World Series: During Game 6, the Philadelphia Phillies win their first World
Series.
- 1986 - In Lebanon, pro-Iranian kidnappers claim to have abducted American
writer Edward Tracy (he will be
released in August 1991).
- 1994 - North Korea nuclear weapons program: North Korea and the United States sign an agreement
that requires North Korea to stop its nuclear weapons program and agree
to inspections.
Births
- 1449 - George, Duke of Clarence
- 1660 - Georg Ernst
Stahl, German scientist
- 1772 - Samuel
Taylor Coleridge, British poet (d. 1834)
- 1833 - Alfred Nobel, Swedish inventor and benefactor of the Nobel
Prize (d. 1896)
- 1895 - Edna Purviance,
actress (d. 1958)
- 1908 - Louis L'Amour,
novelist (d. 1988)
- 1912 - Sir Georg Solti, conductor
(d. 1997)
- 1914 - Martin Gardner,
American writer on mathematics and games
- 1917 - Dizzy Gillespie,
American jazz musician (d. 1993)
- 1920 - Hy Averback, film and television director (d. 1997)
- 1924 - Celia Cruz, singer (d.
2003)
- 1928 - Whitey Ford, American baseball player
- 1929 - Ursula K. Le
Guin, American science fiction author
- 1940 - Manfred Mann,
musician
- 1941 - Steve Cropper, musician
- 1942 - Elvin Bishop, musician
- 1942 - Judge Judy Sheindlin, American judge, television host
- 1943 - Brian Piccolo, American football star (d.
1970)
- 1955 - Rich Mullins, American musician (d. 1997)
- 1956 - Carrie Fisher, actress,
writer
- 1972 - Felicity
Andersen, actress
Deaths
- 310 - Pope Eusebius
- 1558 - Julius
Caesar Scaliger, humanist scholar
- 1805 - Horatio Nelson,
British admiral
- 1896 - James Henry
Greathead, British engineer
- 1931 - Arthur
Schnitzler, Austrian writer
- 1944 - Alois Kayser, German missionary, working in Nauru
- 1969 - Waclaw
Sierpinski, Polish mathematician
- 1969 - Jack Kerouac, American beat novelist
- 1975 - Charles Reidpath,
American athlete
- 1984 - François
Truffaut, French film director
Holidays
October 20 - October 22 -
November 21 - September
21 - more historical anniversaries
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