See what makes July 21 special at Famous Daily. History, birthdays, holiday, and a quote!

What happened on July 21

• July 21, 0356 "BC - A young man called Herostratus set fire to the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World."
  
• July 21, 1403 "Battle of Shrewsbury: King Henry IV of England defeats rebels to the north of the county town of Shropshire, England"
  
• July 21, 1568 "Eighty Years' War: Battle of Jemmingen - Fernando lvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva defeats Louis of Nassau"
  
• July 21, 1588 English fleet defeats Spanish armada
  
• July 21, 1667 "The Treaties of Breda signed, ended the second Anglo-Dutch war after a Dutch fleet has broken the chain in England's Medway River, reached Chatham, and captured the flagship Royal Charles."
  
• July 21, 1718 "Treaty of Passarowitz between the Ottoman Empire, Austria and the Republic of Venice is signed."
  
• July 21, 1774 "Russo-Turkish War, 1768-1774: Russia and the Ottoman Empire sign the Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji ending the war."
  
• July 21, 1796 "Robert Burns Scottish poet, dies"
  
• July 21, 1823 "After pirate attack, LT David G. Farragut leads landing party to destroy pirate stronghold in Cuba."
  
• July 21, 1831 "Belgium gains independence from Netherland, Leopold I made king"
  
• July 21, 1831 "Inauguration of Lopold I of Belgium, first king of the Belgians."
  
• July 21, 1836 "The first Canadian RR opens, between Laprairie & St John, Quebec"
  
• July 21, 1846 Mormons found first English settlement in Calif (San Joaquin Valley)
  
• July 21, 1861 "American Civil War: First Battle of Bull Run - At Manassas Junction, Virginia, the first major battle of the war begins (Confederate victory)."
  
• July 21, 1861 Battle of first Bull Run
  
• July 21, 1861 "The first major battle of Civil War ends (Bull Run), Va-South wins"
  
• July 21, 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."
  
• July 21, 1873 "At Adair, Iowa, Jesse James and the James-Younger gang pull off the first successful train robbery in the American West."
  
• July 21, 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."
  
• July 21, 1880 "Compressed air accident kills 20 workers on Hudson River tunnel, NY League merge to form National Association of Colored Woman"
  
• July 21, 1898 Spain cedes Guam to US
  
• July 21, 1904 Camille Jenatzy sets world auto speed record at 65.79 MPH
  
• July 21, 1919 "The dirigible Wingfoot Air Express crashed into the Illinois Trust and Savings Building in Chicago, killing 12 people."
  
• July 21, 1925 John Scopes convicted of teaching evolution in Tennessee.
  
• July 21, 1930 US Veterans Administration established
  
• July 21, 1931 CBS's New York City station begins broadcasting the first regular seven days a week television schedule in the U.S.
  
• July 21, 1931 "Reno race track, becomes first in US to use daily double wagering"
  
• July 21, 1934 "113? F (45? C), near Gallipolis, Ohio (state record)"
  
• July 21, 1940 "Soviet Union annexes Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania"
  
• July 21, 1942 "8 die as coal waste heap slides in river valley near Oakwood, Va"
  
• July 21, 1944 Invasion and recapture of Guam begins.
  
• July 21, 1944 US forces free Guam of Japanese invaders
  
• July 21, 1946 "In first U.S. test of adaptability of jet aircraft to shipboard operations, XFD-1 Phantom makes landings and takeoffs without catapults from Franklin D. Roosevelt."
  
• July 21, 1948 "Arshile Gorky abstract expressionist, dies at 43"
  
• July 21, 1949 Senate ratifies North Atlantic Treaty by a vote of 82-13
  
• July 21, 1954 "At Geneva, France agrees to independence of North & South Vietnam"
  
• July 21, 1954 First Indochina War: The Geneva Conference partitions Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam.
  
• July 21, 1957 "Bernard Spooner US inventor of bulletproof jacket, dies"
  
• July 21, 1960 "Sirimavo Bandaranaike becomes the first woman prime minister in the world, making her the first elected female national leader in the world (Sri Lanka)."
  
• July 21, 1960 The country of Katanga forms in Africa 
• July 21, 1961 Launch of Mercury 4 (Liberty Bell) with Grissom
  
• July 21, 1961 "Mercury program: Mercury-Redstone 4 Mission - Gus Grissom piloting ""Liberty Bell 7"" becomes the second American to go into space (in a suborbital mission)."
  
• July 21, 1962 160 civil right activists jailed after demonstration in Albany Ga
  
• July 21, 1965 "Pakistan, Iran & Turkey sign Regional Co-Operation pact"
  
• July 21, 1966 Gemini X returns to Earth
  
• July 21, 1966 Number one hit on UK music charts - Georgie Fame & The Blue Flames - Get Away
  
• July 21, 1967 "Basil Rathbone Johannesburg S Africa, actor, dies at 75"
  
• July 21, 1969 "Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin ""Buzz"" Aldrin become the first men to walk on the Moon, during the Apollo 11 mission. At 2:56:15 AM (GMT)"
  
• July 21, 1969 Russia's Luna 15 impacts moon after 52 lunar orbits
  
• July 21, 1970 "After 11 years of construction, the Aswan High Dam in Egypt is completed."
  
• July 21, 1972 "2 passenger trains collide head-on killing 76 (Seville, Spain)"
  
• July 21, 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."
  
• July 21, 1972 "In New York, 57 murders occur in 24 hours (Murder City?)"
  
• July 21, 1972 "Jigme Dori Wangchuck king of Bhutan, dies"
  
• July 21, 1973 Hank Aaron becomes 2nd major leaguer to hit 700 HRs
  
• July 21, 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."
  
• July 21, 1973 Number one hit on UK music charts - Peters & Lee - Welcome Home
  
• July 21, 1973 USSR launches Mars 4 for fly-by (2600 km) of the red planet
  
• July 21, 1976 Christopher Ewart-Biggs Brit ambassador to Ireland is assassinated
  
• July 21, 1976 "The first outbreak of ""Legionnaire's Disease"" kills 29 in Phila"
  
• July 21, 1977 Start of a four day long Libyan-Egyptian War.
  
• July 21, 1978 "The final flight of the service acceptance trials for the AH-1T Cobra helicopter gunship was made at Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent Rive"
  
• July 21, 1978 US Postal Service & unions agree on a contract averting mail strike
  
• July 21, 1978 "World's strongest dog, 80-kg St Bernard, pulls 2909-kg load 27 m"
  
• July 21, 1979 "National Women's Hall of Fame (Seneca Falls, NY) dedicated"
  
• July 21, 1980 Jean-Claude Droyer climbs the Eiffel Tower in 2 hrs 18 mins
  
• July 21, 1982 "Dave Garroway TV host (Today Show), dies at 69"
  
• July 21, 1983 Polish govt ends 19 months of martial law
  
• July 21, 1983 Storm cuts short Diana Ross' free concert in NY's Central Park
  
• July 21, 1983 "The world's lowest temperature is recorded at Vostok Station, Antarctica at 89.2C (129F)."
  
• July 21, 1983 US announces Lebanon freed American hostage David Dodge
  
• July 21, 1984 "Marita Koch of E Germany sets world women's mark for 200m, 21.71s"
  
• July 21, 1985 "Mickey Shaughnessy actor (Chicago Teddy Bears), dies at 65"
  
• July 21, 1985 Vicki Vola actress (Miss Miller-Mr District Attorney)
  
• July 21, 1986 Pleasure Island plans unveiled
  
• July 21, 1986 "Virginia Hewitt actress (Carol-Space Patrol), dies at 60"
  
• July 21, 1987 Navy escorts first Earnest Will Convoy in the Persian Gulf.
  
• July 21, 1988 ESA's Ariane-3 launches 2 communications satellites (1 Indian)
  
• July 21, 1989 Eastern Airlines submits a reorganization plan to creditors
  
• July 21, 1989 Greg LeMond (US) wins Tour de France in fastest time
  
• July 21, 1989 "Mike Tyson TKOs Carl ""the Truth"" Williams in 1:33 of first round"
  
• July 21, 1990 Goodwill Games opens in Seattle Wash
  
• July 21, 1990 "Pink Floyds' ""The Wall"" is performed where the Berlin Wall once stood"
  
• July 21, 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."
  
• July 21, 1995 Third Taiwan Strait Crisis: The People's Liberation Army begins firing missiles into the waters north of Taiwan.
  
• July 21, 1997 "The fully restored USS Constitution (aka ""Old Ironsides"") celebrates her 200th birthday by setting sail for the first time in 116 years."
  
• July 21, 1998 "Alan Shepard dies in Monterey, CA, at age 74. Shepard was the first American in space, and later commanded the Apollo 14 moon mission. He was the fifth person to walk on the lunar surface."
  
• July 21, 2002 Telecom giant WorldCom files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the largest such filing in United States history.
  
• July 21, 2004 "The United Kingdom government publishes Delivering Security in a Changing World, a paper detailing wide-ranging reform of the country's armed forces."
  
• July 21, 2005 "A second series of four explosions took place on the London Underground and a London bus. The detonators of all four bombs exploded, but none of the main explosive charges detonated, and there were no casualties: the single injury reported at the time was later revealed to be an asthma sufferer. All suspected bombers from this failed attack escaped from the scenes but were later arrested."
  
• July 21, 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 escaped."
  
• July 21, 2007 Release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowlingthe final book in the Harry Potter series.