On this day: 21 October
Events, births and deaths on 21 October. Every date is checked against Wikidata.
Years ago today
1 year ago2025
- Deaths · Francisco Pinto Balsemão
10 years ago2016
- Deaths · Lutz D. Schmadel
- Events · October 2016 Dyn cyberattack
100 years ago1926
- Births · Leonard Rossiter
1000 years ago1026
Within 100 years of that
- 1125 · Deaths · Cosmas of Prague
- 1096 · Events · Battle of Civetot
Events · 25
- 1096Battle of Civetot — 1096 battle
- 1345(Julian date)Battle of Auberoche — 1345 Middle Ages battle
- 1600Battle of Sekigahara — 1600 battle preceding Tokugawa shogunate in Japan
- 1774flag of Taunton — city flag of Taunton, Massachusetts, United States
- 1805Battle of Trafalgar — 1805 battle during the War of the Third Coalition
- 1861Battle of Ball's Bluff — 1861 battle of the American Civil War
- 19071907 Qaratog earthquake — earthquake struck Khatlon Province, Tajikistan on October 21, 1907
- 1931October Incident — 1931 aborative coup d'état in Japan
- 1941Kragujevac massacre — 1941 massacre by Nazi forces in Serbia
- 1944Nemmersdorf massacre — massacre perpetrated by Red Army soldiers in the late stages of World War II
- 1945
- 1950Battle of Yongju — 1950 United Nations Command (UNC) offensive into North Korea against the Korean People's Army
- 1966Aberfan disaster — October 1966 mining disaster in Wales, UK
- 19681968 Shinjuku Riot — 1968 riot in Japan
- 19691969 Somali coup d'état — Military overthrow of President Sheikh Mukhtar Mohamed Hussein
- 1978Disappearance of Frederick Valentich — 1978 disappearance of a pilot over Bass Strait, Australia
- 19841984 Portuguese Grand Prix — Formula One motor race held in 1984
- 1989Tan-Sahsa Flight 414 — aviation accident
- 1994Agreed Framework — 1994 treaty between the United States and North Korea
- 1994Seongsu Bridge collapse — collapse of the Seongsu Bridge in Seoul, South Korea
- 20072007 Brazilian Grand Prix — Formula One motor race held in 2007
- 2016October 2016 Dyn cyberattack — large cyberattack that affected Europe and North America in 2016
- 20182018 Yilan train derailment — train derailed in Yilan County, Taiwan on 21 October 2018
- 20192019 Canadian federal election — general election in Canada
- 20212021 Rust shooting incident — accidental fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins on a movie set
Births · 60
- 1449(Julian date)George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence — Third son of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, and Cecily Neville, and the brother of English Kings Edward IV and Richard III (1449-1478)
- 1581(Julian date)Domenichino — Italian painter (1581–1641)
- 1650Jean Bart — French admiral and privateer (1651-1702)
- 1659Georg Ernst Stahl — German physician and chemist (1659-1734)
- 1675Higashiyama — emperor of Japan (1675-1710)
- 1757Pierre Augereau — general, Marshal of France (1757-1816)
- 1772Samuel Taylor Coleridge — English poet, literary critic and philosopher (1772–1834)
- 1790Alphonse de Lamartine — French author, poet and statesman (1790-1869)
- 1833Alfred Nobel — Swedish chemist and inventor (1833–1896)
- 1847Giuseppe Giacosa — Italian librettist, poet and writer (1847-1906)
- 1877Oswald Avery — Canadian-born American physician and medical researcher
- 1882Maximiliano Hernández Martínez — president of El Salvador (1882–1966)
- 1894Edogawa Ranpo — Japanese writer (1894–1965)
- 1895
- 1911Mary Blair — American artist (1911-1978)
- 1912Georg Solti — Hungarian-British conductor (1912–1997)
- 1914Martin Gardner — American mathematics and science writer (1914–2010)
- 1917Dizzy Gillespie — American jazz trumpeter (1917–1993)
- 1918Albertina Nontsikelelo Sisulu — South African anti–apartheid activist (1918-2011)
- 1921Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld — Dutch astronomer (1921–2015)
- 1921Malcolm Arnold — English composer and conductor (1921–2006)
- 1922Liliane Bettencourt — French heiress, socialite and businesswoman
- 1925Celia Cruz — Cuban singer (1925–2003)
- 1929Ursula K. Le Guin — American fantasy and science fiction author (1929–2018)
- 1929George Stinney — Black American wrongfully convicted of murder (1929–1944)
Deaths · 60
- 1125Cosmas of Prague — Bohemian priest (c.1045–1125)
- 1221(Julian date)Alix, duchess of Brittany — Hereditary Duchess of Brittany 1203-1221, Breton noble
- 1266Birger Jarl — Jarl and ruler of Sweden (c.1210–1266)
- 1422(Julian date)Charles VI of France — King of France from 1380 to 1422 (1368–1422)
- 1500(Julian date)Go-Tsuchimikado — emperor of Japan
- 1556(Julian date)Pietro Aretino — Italian author, playwright, poet, satirist, and blackmailer (1492-1556)
- 1558(Julian date)Julius Caesar Scaliger — Italian scholar, physician and philosopher (1484-1558)
- 1600Ōtani Yoshitsugu — daimyo
- 1600Shima Sakon — samurai (1540-1600)
- 1662Henry Lawes — English musician and composer
- 1687Edmund Waller — English poet and politician (1606-1687)
- 1765Giovanni Paolo Panini — Italian painter and architect (1691–1765)
- 1794Francis Light — founder of the British colony on Penang in 1786
- 1805
- 1835Muthuswami Dikshitar — Indian poet and composer
- 1861Edward Dickinson Baker — American politician, lawyer and military leader (1811–1861)
- 1872Jacques Babinet — French physicist, mathematician and astronomer (1794–1872)
- 1873Johan Sebastian Welhaven — Norwegian writer (1807-1873)
- 1886José Hernández — Argentine writer (1834-1886)
- 1904Isabelle Eberhardt — Swiss explorer and author (1877-1904)
- 1931Arthur Schnitzler — Austrian writer (1862–1931)
- 1938Dorothy Hale — American socialite, actress (1905–1938)
- 1944Alois Kayser — German missionary
- 1965Bill Black — American bassist (1926–1965)
- 1967Ejnar Hertzsprung — Danish astronomer and chemist
Dates verified against Wikidata (CC0). Titles and descriptions come from Wikidata.