21st July, on this day
356 BC - A young
man called Herostratus
set fire to the Temple
of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven
Wonders of the World
230 St Pontianus
begins his reign as Catholic Pope
285 Diocletian
appoints Maximian
as Caesar, co-ruler.
1403 Battle
of Shrewsbury: King Henry IV of England defeats rebels to the
north of the county town of Shropshire, England
1545 The first landing of French troops onto the coast of the Isle
of Wight during the French
invasion of the Isle of Wight occurs.
1568 Eighty
Years' War: Battle
of Jemmingen - Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva
defeats Louis of Nassau
1588 English fleet defeats Spanish
armada
1718 Treaty of
Passarowitz between the Ottoman Empire, Austria and the Republic
of Venice is signed.
1774 Russo-Turkish
War, 1768-1774: Russia and the Ottoman Empire sign the Treaty
of Kuchuk-Kainarji ending the war.
1798 The Battle
of the Pyramids. The French Army, led by Napoleon Bonaparte, defeats
an Egyptian army of 60,000
1831 Belgium gains independence from Netherland, Leopold
I made king
1846 Mormons
found 1st English settlement in California (San Joaquin Valley)
1861 American Civil War: The First
Battle of Bull Run - with victory for the Confederates over the
Union
1865 In the market square of Springfield, Missouri, Wild
Bill Hickok shoots Dave Tutt dead in what is regarded as the first
true western showdown.
1873 Jesse
James, 1st train robbery
1877 After rioting by Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad workers and the deaths of nine rail workers
at the hands of the Maryland militia, workers in Pittsburgh stage
a sympathy strike that is met with an assault by the state militia.
1880 Compressed air accident kills 20 workers on Hudson River tunnel,
NY
1896 In England, the first Royal
Command Performance
1897 Official opening of the Tate
Gallery in London - built on the site of the former Millbank Prison
near Westminster
1898 Spain cedes Guam to US
1904 Completion of the Trans-Siberian
Railway consisting of 4,607 miles of track which took 13 years
to lay
1918 U-156
shells Nauset Beach, in Orleans, Massachusetts.
1919 Dirigible
crashes through bank skylight killing 12 (Chicago, Ill)
1925 Scopes
Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John
T. Scopes is found guilty of teaching evolution in class and fined
$100.
1940 Soviet Union annexes Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania
1942 8 die as coal waste heap slides in river valley near Oakwood,
Va
1944 Battle
of Guam starts and ends 8th August
1949 The U.S. Senate ratifies the North
Atlantic Treaty.
1954 At Geneva, France agrees to independence of North and South Vietnam
1955 1st sub powered by liquid metal cooled reactor launched-Seawolf
1957 Althea
Gibson is the first 1st black to win a major US tennis tournament
1959 1st atomic powered merchant ship, Savannah, christened, Camden,
NJ
1960 English yachtsman Francis
Chichester docks in New York in his boat Gypsy Moth II - setting
a new record of 40 days for a solo crossing of the Atlantic
1960 Sirimavo
Bandaranaika replaces her murdered husband as Prime Minister of
Sri Lanka to become the first woman to lead the country
1960 The country of Katanga
forms in Africa
1961 Launch of Mercury
4 (Liberty Bell) with Grissom
1962 160 civil right activists jailed after demonstration in Albany,
Ga
1962 British group The Rolling Stones make their first public appearance
at the Marquee Club in London
1965 Pakistan, Iran and Turkey sign Regional Co-Operation pact
1966 Gemini
X returns to Earth
1969 Neil
Armstrong steps on the Moon at 2:56:15 AM (GMT)
1969 Russia's Luna
15 impacts moon after 52 lunar orbits
1970 After 11 years of construction, the Aswan
High Dam in Egypt is completed.
1972 2 passenger trains collide head-on killing 76 (Seville, Spain)
1972 In New York, 57 murders occur in 24 hours
1972 Bloody
Friday bombing by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA)
around Belfast, Northern Ireland - 22 bomb explosions, 9 people killed
and 130 people seriously injured.
1973 In the Lillehammer
affair in Norway, Israeli Mossad agents kill a waiter whom they
mistakenly thought was involved in 1972's
Munich Olympics Massacre.
1973 USSR launches Mars 4 for fly-by (2600 km) of the red planet
1976 The British Ambassador to Ireland, Christopher
Ewart-Biggs, is killed by a terrorist car bomb in Dublin
1977 Start of a four day long Libyan-Egyptian
War.
1980 Jean-Claude Droyer climbs the Eiffel Tower in 2 hrs 18 mins
1983 Polish govt ends 19 months of martial law
1983 Storm cuts short Diana
Ross' free concert in NY's Central Park
1983 US announces Lebanon freed American hostage David
Dodge
1983 The world's lowest temperature is recorded at
Vostok Station, Antarctica at -89.2°C (-129°F).
1984 1st documented case of a robot killing a human in US
1988 ESA's Ariane-3 launches 2 communications satellites (1 Indian)
1989 Greg LeMond (US) wins Tour de France in fastest time
1990 More than 150,000 attend 'The Wall' - a huge outdoor rock concert
in East Berlin to celebrate the dismantling of the Berlin Wall. Pink
Floyd's"The Wall" is performed 1990 Goodwill Games opens
in Seattle, Wash
1994 Tony Blair
is declared the winner of the leadership election of the British Labour
Party, paving the way to him becoming Prime Minister in 1997.
1995 Third
Taiwan Strait Crisis: The People's Liberation Army begins firing
missiles into the waters north of Taiwan.
1997The fully restored USS
Constitution (aka "Old Ironsides") celebrates her 200th
birthday by setting sail for the first time in 116 years.
2002 Telecom giant WorldCom
files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the largest such filing
in United States history.
2004 The United Kingdom government publishes Delivering
Security in a Changing World, a paper detailing wide-ranging reform
of the country's armed forces.
2005 Four
terrorist bombings, occurring exactly two weeks after the similar
July 7 bombings, target London's public transportation system. All
four bombs fail to detonate and all four suspected suicide bombers
were captured, convicted and imprisoned for long terms.
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Birthdates which
occurred on 21st July :
1804 Victor Schoelcher
Guadeloupe, abolished french slavery
1816 Paul Julius Baron von Reuter founded Reuters news service
1856 Louise Blanchard Bethune 1st US woman architect
1863 C Aubrey Smith London England, actor (Prisoner of Zenda)
1864 Frances Folsom Cleveland 1st lady
1885 Frances Parkinson Keyes novelist (Dinner at Antoine)
1896 Jean Rivier Villemomble France, composer (V‚nitienne)
1899 Ernest Hemmingway Oak Park, for whom the bell tolled... (Nobel
1954)
1899 Hart Crane US, poet (The Bridge)
19-- Jim Martin rocker (Faith No More-The Real Thing)
19-- Joaquin Galan Buenos Aires Argentina, singer (Pimpinera)
19-- John Martin actor (One Life to Live)
1901 Allyn Joslyn Milford Pa, actor (They Won't Forget, Cafe Society)
1911 Marshall McLuhan Canada, writer (The Medium is the Massage)
1920 Isaac Stern Kremenetz, Russia, violinist (debut SF Symph)
1921 Billy Taylor Greenville NC, orch leader (David Frost Show)
1922 Kay Starr Dougherty Okla, singer (Rock & Roll Waltz, Club
Oasis)
1924 Don Knotts Morgantown WV, actor (Amdy Griffth Show, 3's Company)
1926 Norman Jewison director (Moonstruck, ...And Justice For All)
1926 Paul Burke New Orleans, actor (Thomas Crown Affair)
1931 Gene Littler golfer (1961 US Open)
1933 John Gardner scholar/writer (Grendel, Sunlight Dialogues)
1935 Kaye Stevens US, singer (Jerry Lewis Show)
1942 Fred Hetzel NBA star (SF, Cincinatti, Milwaukee Bucks)
1942 Patricia Elliot Gunnison Co, actress (Renee-Empire, One Life
to Live)
1943 David Downing NYC, actor (Backstairs at the White House)
1943 Edward Herrmann Wash DC, actor (Day of the Dolphin, Reds)
1945 Alton Maddox NY black activist/attorney (Tawana Brawley case)
1945 Leigh Lawson Atherston England, actress (Fire & Sword, Charlie
Boy)
1946 Zbigniew Kaczmarek Poland, lightweight (Olympic-gold-1976)
1947 Cat Stevens aka Yusuf Islam, rocker (Peace Train, Father &
Son)
1947 Wendell Burton San Antonio Tx, actor (Lucas-New Dick Van Dyke
Show)
1948 Art Hindle Halifax Nova Scotia, actor (Jeff-Dallas, Berrengers)
1949 Ludmila Smirnova USSR, pairs figure skater (Olympic-silver-1972)
1951 Doug Collins US, basketball player (Olympic-silver-1972)
1951 Slick Watts NBA (Seattle SuperSonic)
1952 Robin Williams Chicago Ill, comedian (Mork & Mindy, Awakenings)
1955 Henry Preistman rocker (The Christians-Harvest the World)
1955 Tacho Ocheriski singer (Putting on the Ritz)
1957 Jon Lovitz Tarzana Calif, comedian (SNL)
1960 Lance Guest Saratoga Calif, actor (Lance-Lou Grant)
1962 Ike Eisenmann Houston Tx, actor (Scott-Fantastic Journey)
1964 Susan Swift Houston Tx, actress (Chisholms)
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Deaths which occurred
on July 21st:
1796 Robert Burns Scottish poet, dies
1948 Arshile Gorky abstract expressionist, dies at 43
1957 Bernard Spooner US inventor of bulletproof jacket, dies
1967 Basil Rathbone Johannesburg S Africa, actor, dies at 75
1967 Jimmy Foxx baseball hall of famer
1972 Jigme Dori Wangchuck king of Bhutan, dies
1976 Christopher Ewart-Biggs Brit ambassador to Ireland is assassinated
1982 Dave Garroway TV host (Today Show), dies at 69
1984 James Fixx runner & author, dies at age 43 of a heart attack
1985 Mickey Shaughnessy actor (Chicago Teddy Bears), dies at 65
1985 Vicki Vola actress (Miss Miller-Mr District Attorney)
1986 Virginia Hewitt actress (Carol-Space Patrol), dies at 60
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