Today In History. What Happened This Day In History
A Timeline Of Events That Occurred On This Day In History
A chronological timetable of historical events that occurred on this day in history. Historical facts of the day in the areas of military, politics, science, music, sports, arts, entertainment and more. Discover what happened today in history.
Today in History
October 21
| 1096 | Seljuk Turks at Chivitot slaughter thousands of German crusaders. | |
| 1529 | The Pope names Henry VIII of England Defender of the Faith after defending the seven sacraments against Luther. | |
| 1600 | Tokugawa Ieyasu defeats his enemies in battle and affirms his position as Japan's most powerful warlord. | |
| 1790 | The Tricolor is chosen as the official flag of France. | |
| 1805 | Vice Admiral and Viscount Horatio Nelson wins his greatest victory over a Franco-Spanish fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar, fought off Cape Trafalgar, Spain. Nelson is fatally wounded in the battle, but lives long enough to see victory. | |
| 1837 | Under a flag of truce during peace talks, U.S. troops siege the Indian Seminole Chief Osceola in Florida. | |
| 1861 | The Battle of Ball's Bluff, Va. begins, a disastrous Union defeat which sparks Congressional investigations. | |
| 1867 | Many leaders of the Kiowa, Comanche and Kiowa-Apache sign a peace treaty at Medicine Lodge, Kan. Comanche Chief Quanah Parker refused to accept the treaty terms. | |
| 1872 | The U.S. Naval Academy admits John H. Conyers, the first African American to be accepted. | |
| 1879 | After 14 months of testing, Thomas Edison first demonstrates his electric lamp, hoping to one day compete with gaslight. | |
| 1904 | Panamanians clash with U.S. Marines in Panama in a brief uprising. | |
| 1917 | The first U.S. troops enter the front lines at Sommerviller under French command. | |
| 1939 | As war heats up with Germany, the British war cabinet holds its first meeting in the underground war room in London. | |
| 1940 | Ernest Hemingway's novel For Whom the Bell Tolls is published. | |
| 1942 | Eight American and British officers land from a submarine on an Algerian beach to take measure of Vichy French to the Operation Torch landings. | |
| 1950 | North Korean Premier Kim Il-Sung establishes a new capital at Sinuiju on the Yalu River opposite the Chinese City of Antung. | |
| 1959 | The Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opens in Manhattan. | |
| 1961 | Bob Dylan records his first album in a single day at a cost of $400. | |
| 1967 | The "March on the Pentagon," protesting American involvement in Vietnam , draws 50,000 protesters. | |
| 1983 | The United States sends a ten-ship task force to Grenada. | |
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Born on October 21 |
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| 1760 | Katsushika Hokusai, Japanese printmaker. | |
| 1772 | Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet ("The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," "Kubla Khan"). | |
| 1833 | Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite and founder of the Nobel Prizes. | |
| 1917 | Dizzy Gillespie, jazz trumpeter. | |
| 1929 | Ursula K. Le Guin, science fiction writer (The Left Hand of Darkness). | |
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