On this day: 21 July
Events, births and deaths on 21 July. Every date is checked against Wikidata.
Years ago today
1 year ago2025
- Events · 2025 Dhaka fighter jet crash
10 years ago2016
- Deaths · Dennis Green
100 years ago1926
- Births · Norman Jewison
- Births · Karel Reisz
- Births · Paul Burke
1000 years ago1026
Within 100 years of that
- 987 · Deaths · Geoffrey I, Count of Anjou
- 1030 · Births · Kyansittha
Events · 31
- 365(Julian date)365 Crete earthquake — earthquake which occurred on 21 July 365 AD in the Eastern Mediterranean, with an assumed epicentre near Crete
- 1242(Julian date)Battle of Taillebourg — 1242 battle between England and France
- 1403(Julian date)Battle of Shrewsbury — 1403 battle of the Glyndŵr Rising
- 1568Battle of Jemmingen — 1568 battle during the Eighty Years' War
- 1656Raid on Málaga — 1656 conflict
- 1718treaty of Passarowitz — peace treaty
- 1774Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca — 1774 peace treaty ending the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–74
- 1798Battle of the Pyramids — 1798 battle during the French invasion of Egypt
- 1861First Battle of Bull Run — 1861 first major land battle of the American Civil War
- 1865Wild Bill Hickok – Davis Tutt shootout — Gunfight between Wild Bill Hickok and gambler Davis Tutt
- 1918Attack on Orleans — 1918 German U-boat raid off Massachusetts, US
- 1919Wingfoot Air Express crash — crash of a Goodyear FD dirigible into a building in Chicago
- 1936Revolutionary Catalonia — Various labor unions, parties, and militias with de facto power in Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War
- 19511951 Canadian Pacific Air Lines Douglas DC-4 disappearance — 1951 missed passenger plane flight
- 19521952 Kern County earthquake — earthquake
- 1961Alaska Airlines Flight 779 — aviation accident
- 19641964 race riots in Singapore — domestic conflict
- 1972Bloody Friday — bombings by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in Belfast on 21 July 1972
- 1973Lillehammer affair — failed but fatal assassination attempt carried out by Mossad agents in Lillehammer, Norway
- 1977Libyan–Egyptian War — short war (1977–1977) between Libya and Egypt
- 1983lowest temperature recorded on Earth — the coldest temperature on Earth
- 1995Third Taiwan Strait Crisis — the effect of a series of missile tests (1995–1996) conducted by the People's Republic of China in the waters surrounding Taiwan including the Taiwan Strait
- 2001Akashi pedestrian bridge accident — human crush on 21 July 2001 in Akashi, Hyōgo
- 200521 July 2005 London bombings — attempted terrorist attacks in London
- 2007Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — fantasy novel by J. K. Rowling concluding the Harry Potter series
- 2012July 2012 Beijing flood — Chinese flood
- 20132013 Iranian diplomat kidnapping — kidnapping Incident
- 20192019 Yuen Long attack — violent mob attack at Hong Kong's Yuen Long station
- 2019
- 2024withdrawal of Joe Biden from the 2024 United States presidential election — Biden's decision to stop his 2024 re-election campaign and endorse Kamala Harris
- 20252025 Dhaka fighter jet crash — 2025 plane crash in Bangladesh
Births · 60
- 541(Julian date)Emperor Wen of Sui — founding emperor of the Sui Dynasty (541-604)
- 628(Julian date)Emperor Gaozong of Tang — Emperor of the Tang Dynasty (628-683) (r. 649-683)
- 1414(Julian date)Sixtus IV — pope of the Catholic Church from 1471 to 1484 (1414-1484)
- 1620Jean Picard — French astronomer
- 1693Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne — Prime Minister of Great Britain (1693-1768)
- 1810Henri Victor Regnault — French physicist (1810–1878)
- 1816Paul Reuter — German-Jewish-born British entrepreneur and news agency founder (1816–1899)
- 1858Lovis Corinth — German painter (1858–1925)
- 1858Maria Christina of Austria — Queen consort of Spain (1858-1929)
- 1864Frances Cleveland — First Lady of the United States from 1886 to 1889 and 1893 to 1897
- 1880Milan Rastislav Štefánik — Slovak politician, diplomat, French Army general and astronomer (1880-1919)
- 1882David Burliuk — Ukrainian & American artist (1882-1967)
- 1885Jacques Feyder — Belgian-French film director (1885-1948)
- 1893Hans Fallada — German writer (1893–1947)
- 1899Ernest Hemingway — American author and journalist (1899–1961)
- 1899Hart Crane — American writer (1899–1932)
- 1911Marshall McLuhan — Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar (1911–1980)
- 1920Isaac Stern — American musician (1920–2001)
- 1923Rudolph A. Marcus — Canadian-American chemist (1923-2026)
- 1924Don Knotts — American actor and stand-up comedian (1924-2006)
- 1926Norman Jewison — Canadian film director, producer and actor (1926–2024)
- 1926Karel Reisz — Czech-born British director, producer, film theorist, theatre director (1926-2002)
- 1937Eduard Streltsov — Soviet footballer (1937-1990)
- 1938Janet Reno — former Attorney General of the United States (1938-2016)
- 1943Edward Herrmann — American actor, director (1943–2014)
Deaths · 60
- 710Shangguan Wan'er — Poet, writer, politician and imperial consort of Emperor Zhongzong of Tang (664-710)
- 710(Julian date)Empress Wei — wife of Emperor Zhongzong of Tang (664-710)
- 987(Julian date)Geoffrey I, Count of Anjou — count of Anjou from 960 to 987
- 1259(Julian date)Gojong of Goryeo — King of Goryeo (1192-1259)
- 1403(Julian date)Henry Percy — English noble
- 1425(Julian date)Manuel II Palaiologos — Byzantine emperor (1350-1425)
- 1552(Julian date)Antonio de Mendoza — Spanish colonial administrator
- 1688James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde — Anglo-Irish statesman
- 1793Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux — French explorer
- 1796Robert Burns — Scottish poet and lyricist (1759–1796)
- 1798François Sebastien Charles Joseph de Croix, Count of Clerfayt — Austrian marshal
- 1838Johann Nepomuk Maelzel — German inventor (1772–1838)
- 1878Sam Bass — American Old West outlaw (1851-1878)
- 1899Robert Green Ingersoll — American lawyer, orator, and politician (1833-1899)
- 1920Fiammetta Wilson — British astronomer (1864-1920)
- 1928Ellen Terry — English actress (1847–1928)
- 1934Louis-Hubert Lyautey — general and colonial administrator from France (1854-1934)
- 1938Owen Wister — American writer (1860–1938)
- 1941Bohdan Lepky — Ukrainian writer
- 1943Charley Paddock — American athlete and Olympic gold medalist (1900-1943)
- 1943Louis Vauxcelles — French art critic (1870–1943)
- 1944Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg — German aristocrat, army officer and resistance fighter (1907–1944)
- 1946Gualberto Villarroel — President of Bolivia (1908-1946)
- 1948Arshile Gorky — Armenian-American painter (1904–1948)
- 1952Pedro Lascuráin — President of Mexico for 45 minutes in 1913
Dates verified against Wikidata (CC0). Titles and descriptions come from Wikidata.