What happened on your birthday?

What’s Your Vietnam War Draft Lottery Number?

The Vietnam War draft lottery ran from 1969 to 1972. If you were born on August 21, would your number have been called?

  • Vietnam War 1969 Lottery
    Not CalledNot drafted
    291
  • Vietnam War 1970 Lottery
    CalledDrafted
    50
  • Vietnam War 1971 Lottery
    CalledDrafted
    33
  • Vietnam War 1972 Lottery
    CalledDrafted
    30

Read on to learn more about the Vietnam war draft lottery.





more events on August 21

  • 2001

    NATO decides to send a peacekeeping force to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

  • 2000

    Tiger Woods wins golf’s PGA Championship, the first golfer to win 3 majors in a calendar year since Ben Hogan in 1953.

  • 1996

    The new Globe theater opens in England.

  • 1994

    Ernesto Zedillo wins Mexico’s presidential election.

  • 1991

    Communist hardliners’ coup is crushed in USSR after just 2 days; Latvia declares independence from USSR.

  • 1989

    Voyager 2 begins a flyby of planet Neptune.

  • 1988

    Ceasefire in the 8-year war between Iran and Iraq.

  • 1986

    In Cameroon 2,000 die from poison gas from a volcanic eruption.

  • 1976

    Operation Paul Bunyan: after North Korean guards killed two American officers sent to trim a poplar tree along the DMZ on Aug. 18, US and ROK soldiers with heavy support chopped down the tree.

  • Mary Langdon in Battle, East Sussex, becomes Britain’s first firewoman.

  • 1973

    Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google.

  • 1972

    US orbiting astronomy observatory Copernicus launched.

  • 1968

    Soviet forces invade Czechoslovakia because of the country’s experiments with a more liberal government.

  • 1963

    The South Vietnamese Army arrests over 100 Buddhist monks in Saigon.

  • 1961

    Stephen Hillenburg, animator and cartoonist; created character of Spongebob Squarepants.

  • 1959

    Hawaii is admitted into the Union.

  • 1956

    Kim Cattrall, actress (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Sex in the City TV series).

  • 1954

    Archie Griffin, NFL running back; only college player to win two Heisman trophies (Ohio State) and first player to start in four Rose Bowls; member, College Football Hall of Fame.

  • 1953

    Ivan Stang (Douglass St. Clair Smith), writer, Church of the SubGenius.

  • 1952

    Joe Strummer, lead singer of British punk band The Clash (“Rock the Casbah”).

  • 1951

    Harry Smith, TV co-anchor (The Early Show and its predecessor CBS Morning Show, 1987–96, 2002–10).

  • 1950

    Arthur Bremer, attempted assassin who shot segregationist Alabama governor George C. Wallace in May 1972.

  • 1945

    President Harry S. Truman cancels all contracts under the Lend-Lease Act.

  • 1944

    Peter Weir, film director; among the leaders of Australian New Wave cinema (Picnic at Hanging Rock, Gallipoli); Academy Award nominee (Dead Poets Society, Master and Commander).

  • Jackie DeShannon (Sharon Lee Meyers), singer/songwriter (“Lonely Girl,” “What the World Needs Now”); toured as The Beatles opening act in 1964; inducted into Songwriters Hall of Fame, 2010.

  • The Dumbarton Oaks conference, which lays the foundation for the establishment of the United Nations, is held in Washington, D.C.

  • 1942

    U.S. Marines turn back the first major Japanese ground attack on Guadalcanal in the Battle of Tenaru.

  • 1938

    Kenny Rogers, singer, actor; one of top-selling artists of all time; voted Favorite Singer of All Time in 1986 poll.

  • 1936

    Wilt Chamberlin, four-time MVP for the National Basketball Association and only player to score 100 points in a professional basketball game.

  • 1915

    Italy declares war on Turkey.

  • 1904

    William “Count” Basie, American band leader and composer.

  • 1864

    Confederate General A.P. Hill attacks Union troops south of Petersburg, Va., at the Weldon railroad. His attack is repulsed, resulting in heavy Confederate casualties.

  • 1863

    Confederate raiders under William Quantrill strike Lawrence, Kansas, leaving 150 civilians dead.

  • 1858

    The first of a series of debates begins between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas. Douglas goes on to win the Senate seat in November, but Lincoln gains national visibility for the first time.

  • 1831

    Nat Turner leads a slave revolt in Southampton County, Virginia that kills close to 60 whites.

  • 1808

    Napoleon Bonaparte‘s General Junot is defeated by Wellington at the first Battle of the Peninsular War at Vimeiro, Portugal.

  • 1798

    Jules Michelet, French historian who wrote the 24-volume Historie de France.

  • 1794

    France surrenders the island of Corsica to the British.

  • 1525

    Estevao Gomes returns to Portugal after failing to find a clear waterway to Asia.

  • 1129

    The warrior Yoritomo is made Shogun without equal in Japan.