August 21 facts for kids

August 21st is a day filled with many interesting events throughout history, from important battles and discoveries to the birth of famous people and the creation of new technologies. Let's explore some of the key moments that happened on this date!

Historic Events

Early History (Before 1600)

• 959 – Eraclus became the 25th bishop of Liège, an important religious leader in a city in what is now Belgium.
• 1140 – A Chinese general named Yue Fei led his army to victory against the Jin dynasty forces at the Battle of Yancheng during the Jin–Song Wars.
• 1169 – The "Battle of the Blacks" happened in Egypt. This was an uprising by African soldiers and Egyptian people against Saladin, a famous Muslim leader.
• 1192 – Minamoto no Yoritomo became the Shōgun (a powerful military ruler) and the real leader of Japan.
• 1415 – Henry the Navigator, a Portuguese prince, led his forces to win control of Ceuta, a city in North Africa.

Later History (1601–1900)

• 1680 – Pueblo Indians took control of Santa Fe from the Spanish during the Pueblo Revolt.
• 1770 – The famous explorer James Cook officially claimed the eastern part of Australia for Great Britain, calling it New South Wales.
• 1772 – King Gustav III of Sweden changed the country's government, ending a long period of parliamentary rule and making himself an absolute ruler.
• 1791 – A special ceremony called Vodou ceremony led to a large slave rebellion, which was the start of the Haitian Revolution.
• 1808 – British and Portuguese forces, led by General Arthur Wellesley, defeated a French army in Portugal during the Peninsular War. This was their first big victory together.
• 1810 – Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, a French military leader, was chosen to be the Crown Prince of Sweden. He later became King Charles XIV John.
• 1821 – Jarvis Island, a small island in the Pacific Ocean, was discovered by the crew of a ship called Eliza Frances.
• 1831 – Nat Turner led a rebellion of enslaved and free Black people in Virginia.
• 1858 – The first of the famous Lincoln–Douglas debates took place in Illinois. These were a series of discussions between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas about important political issues.
• 1862 – The Stadtpark, which was the first public park in Vienna, Austria, opened to everyone.
• 1878 – The American Bar Association, a group for lawyers in the United States, was started in New York.
• 1883 – A very strong tornado hit Rochester, Minnesota, which led to the creation of the famous Mayo Clinic.
• 1888 – The first successful adding machine in the United States was patented by William Seward Burroughs I.

Modern Times (1901–present)

• 1901 – Six hundred American school teachers, known as Thomasites, arrived in Manila, Philippines, to help set up schools.
• 1911 – The famous painting Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre museum by an employee. It was later found.
• 1914 – During World War I, the Battle of Charleroi took place, where German forces successfully attacked French positions.
• 1942 – In World War II, American forces won a battle against Japanese soldiers in the Battle of the Tenaru during the Guadalcanal Campaign.
• 1944 – The Dumbarton Oaks Conference began, which was an important meeting that helped set up the United Nations.
• 1945 – A physicist named Harry Daghlian was accidentally exposed to a dangerous amount of radiation during an experiment at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
• 1957 – The Soviet Union successfully tested the R-7 Semyorka, which was the first intercontinental ballistic missile (a very long-range rocket).
• 1959 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed an order making Hawaii the 50th state of the United States.
• 1965 – The Socialist Republic of Romania was officially created with a new constitution.
• 1968 – Nicolae Ceaușescu, the leader of Romania, spoke out against the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia, encouraging Romanians to be ready to defend themselves.
• 1971 – A bomb exploded at a political rally in Plaza Miranda, Manila, Philippines, injuring several politicians.
• 1982 – During the Lebanese Civil War, international forces arrived in Beirut to help the Palestine Liberation Organization leave Lebanon.
• 1983 – Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr. was killed at Manila International Airport, which was later renamed in his honor.
• 1986 – Carbon dioxide gas burst out of Lake Nyos in Cameroon, causing many deaths.
• 1988 – A strong earthquake hit the border between Nepal and India, causing many deaths and injuries.
• 1991 – Latvia declared that it was fully independent again after being occupied by the Soviet Union since 1940.
• 1991 – A coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union failed.
• 1993 – NASA lost contact with its Mars Observer spacecraft.
• 2000 – American golfer Tiger Woods won the PGA Championship, becoming the first golfer since 1953 to win three major championships in one year.
• 2017 – A solar eclipse could be seen across the entire continental United States.

Notable Births

Many interesting people were born on August 21st:

Historical Figures (Before 1900)

• 1165 – Philip II of France, a powerful King of France.
• 1567 – Francis de Sales, a Swiss bishop and a Catholic saint.
• 1754 – William Murdoch, a Scottish engineer who invented gas lighting.
• 1765 – William IV of the United Kingdom, a King of the United Kingdom.
• 1789 – Augustin-Louis Cauchy, a very important French mathematician.
• 1829 – Otto Goldschmidt, a German composer and pianist.
• 1858 – Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria.
• 1862 – Emilio Salgari, a famous Italian journalist and author, known for adventure novels.
• 1872 – Aubrey Beardsley, an English author and illustrator.
• 1886 – Ruth Manning-Sanders, a Welsh-English author and poet, known for fairy tales.
• 1891 – Emiliano Mercado del Toro, a Puerto Rican-American soldier who became one of the oldest people in the world.

Modern Personalities (1901–present)

• 1904 – Count Basie, a legendary American jazz pianist and bandleader.
• 1906 – Friz Freleng, an American animator and director who worked on many classic cartoons like Looney Tunes.
• 1917 – Leonid Hurwicz, a Russian economist and mathematician who won the Nobel Prize.
• 1924 – Jack Buck, a famous American sportscaster.
• 1926 – Can Yücel, a well-known Turkish poet.
• 1927 – Thomas S. Monson, an American religious leader and President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
• 1929 – Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, sister of Queen Elizabeth II.
• 1932 – Melvin Van Peebles, an American actor, director, and screenwriter.
• 1936 – Wilt Chamberlain, one of the greatest American basketball players of all time.
• 1938 – Kenny Rogers, a beloved American country music singer-songwriter.
• 1939 – James Burton, a famous American guitarist, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
• 1939 – Festus Mogae, a former President of Botswana.
• 1944 – Peter Weir, an acclaimed Australian film director.
• 1945 – Patty McCormack, an American actress.
• 1949 – Loretta Devine, an American actress and singer.
• 1951 – Glenn Hughes, an English musician, known for his work with Deep Purple.
• 1952 – Joe Strummer, the English singer-songwriter and guitarist for the punk band The Clash.
• 1956 – Kim Cattrall, a Canadian-English actress.
• 1958 – Steve Case, co-founder of America Online (AOL).
• 1959 – Jim McMahon, an American football player who won the Super Bowl.
• 1961 – Stephen Hillenburg, an American marine biologist, cartoonist, and the creator of SpongeBob SquarePants.
• 1963 – Mohammed VI of Morocco, the current King of Morocco.
• 1967 – Carrie-Anne Moss, a Canadian actress, known for The Matrix films.
• 1967 – Serj Tankian, the lead singer of the band System of a Down.
• 1973 – Sergey Brin, a Russian-American computer scientist who co-founded Google.
• 1975 – Alicia Witt, an American actress and musician.
• 1979 – Kelis, an American singer-songwriter.
• 1981 – Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss, American rowers and businessmen who co-founded ConnectU.
• 1983 – Brody Jenner, an American television personality.
• 1985 – Alizée, a popular French singer.
• 1986 – Usain Bolt, a Jamaican sprinter and the fastest man in the world.
• 1988 – Robert Lewandowski, a famous Polish footballer.
• 1988 – Kacey Musgraves, an American country music singer-songwriter.
• 1989 – Hayden Panettiere, an American actress.
• 1990 – Bo Burnham, an American comedian, musician, and filmmaker.
• 1992 – RJ Mitte, an American actor.
• 1993 – Millie Bright, an English footballer.
• 2000 – Corbin Carroll, an American baseball player.

Notable Deaths

Here are some of the well-known people who passed away on August 21st:

Historical Figures (Before 1900)

• 672 – Emperor Kōbun of Japan.
• 1131 – King Baldwin II of Jerusalem.
• 1157 – Alfonso VII of León and Castile, a King of Spain.
• 1568 – Jean Parisot de Valette, a Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller, who famously defended Malta.
• 1762 – Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, an English author and poet.
• 1796 – John McKinly, the first Governor of Delaware.
• 1814 – Benjamin Thompson, an American-English physicist and inventor.
• 1836 – Claude-Louis Navier, a French physicist and engineer.
• 1838 – Adelbert von Chamisso, a German botanist and poet.

Modern Personalities (1901–present)

• 1911 – Mahboob Ali Khan, the sixth ruler of Hyderabad State in India.
• 1940 – Leon Trotsky, a Russian theorist and politician who helped create the Red Army.
• 1943 – Henrik Pontoppidan, a Danish journalist and author who won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
• 1947 – Ettore Bugatti, an Italian-French engineer who founded the famous car company Bugatti.
• 1951 – Constant Lambert, an English composer and conductor.
• 1957 – Harald Sverdrup, a Norwegian meteorologist and oceanographer.
• 1960 – David B. Steinman, an American engineer who designed many bridges, including the Mackinac Bridge.
• 1978 – Charles Eames, an American architect and designer, known for the Eames House.
• 1979 – Giuseppe Meazza, a legendary Italian footballer.
• 1983 – Benigno Aquino Jr., a Filipino journalist and politician.
• 1988 – Ray Eames, an American architect and designer, who worked with Charles Eames.
• 1995 – Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, an Indian-American astrophysicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics.
• 2005 – Robert Moog, an American businessman who founded Moog Music and created the Moog synthesizer.
• 2006 – Bismillah Khan, a famous Indian musician who played the shehnai.
• 2007 – Siobhan Dowd, a British author of children's books.
• 2014 – Albert Reynolds, a former Prime Minister of Ireland.
• 2018 – Stefán Karl Stefánsson, an Icelandic actor and singer, known for playing Robbie Rotten in LazyTown.
• 2019 – Celso Piña, a Mexican singer and accordionist.

Holidays and Observances

• Christian Feast Day:
  • Abraham of Smolensk
  • Euprepius of Verona
  • Maximilian of Antioch
  • Our Lady of Knock
  • Pope Pius X
  • Sidonius Apollinaris
• Ninoy Aquino Day (Philippines)
• Youth Day (Morocco)
• World Senior Citizen's Day

See also

In Spanish: 21 de agosto para niños