October 21 in History

Historical Events on October 21

1096

People's Crusade: A Seljuk Turkish army successfully fight off the People's Army of the West.
1097

First Crusade: Crusaders led by Godfrey of Bouillon, Bohemund of Taranto, and Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse, begin the Siege of Antioch.
1209

Otto IV is crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by Pope Innocent III.
1392

Nanboku-chō, Japan: Emperor Go-Kameyama abdicates in favor of rival claimant Go-Komatsu.
1512

Martin Luther joins the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg.
1520

Ferdinand Magellan discovers a strait now known as Strait of Magellan.
1520

João Álvares Fagundes discovers the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, bestowing them their original name of "Islands of the 11,000 Virgins".
1600

Tokugawa Ieyasu defeats the leaders of rival Japanese clans in the Battle of Sekigahara, which marks the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate.
1774

First display of the word "Liberty" on a flag, raised by colonists in Taunton, Massachusetts in defiance of British rule in Colonial America.
1797

In Boston Harbor, the 44-gun United States Navy frigate USS Constitution is launched.
1805

Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Trafalgar: A British fleet led by Vice Admiral Lord Nelson defeats a combined French and Spanish fleet under Admiral Villeneuve.
1824

Joseph Aspdin patents Portland cement.
1854

Florence Nightingale and a staff of 38 nurses are sent to the Crimean War.
1861

American Civil War: Battle of Ball's Bluff: Union forces under Colonel Edward Baker are defeated by Confederate troops in the second major battle of the war.
1867

The Medicine Lodge Treaty is signed by southern Great Plains Indian leaders. The treaty requires Native American Plains tribes to relocate to a reservation in western Oklahoma.
1879

Thomas Edison applies for a patent for his design for an incandescent light bulb.
1888

Foundation of the Swiss Social Democratic Party.
1892

Opening ceremonies for the World's Columbian Exposition are held in Chicago, though because construction was behind schedule, the exposition did not open until May 1, 1893.
1895

The Republic of Formosa collapses as Japanese forces invade.
1910

HMS Niobe arrives in Halifax Harbour to become the first ship of the Royal Canadian Navy.
1912

First Balkan War: Kardzhali is liberated by Bulgarian forces.
1921

President Warren G. Harding delivers the first speech by a sitting U.S. President against lynching in the deep South.
1931

The Sakurakai, a secret society in the Imperial Japanese Army, launches an abortive coup d'état attempt.
1940

The first edition of the Ernest Hemingway novel For Whom the Bell Tolls is published.
1943

The Provisional Government of Free India is formally declared by Subhas Chandra Bose.
1944

World War II: The first kamikaze attack. A Japanese fighter plane carrying a 200-kilogram (440 lb) bomb attacks HMAS Australia off Leyte Island, as the Battle of Leyte Gulf began.
1944

World War II: Nemmersdorf massacre against the German civilians takes place.
1944

World War II: Battle of Aachen: The city of Aachen falls to American forces after three weeks of fighting, making it the first German city to fall to the Allies.
1945

Women's suffrage: Women are allowed to vote in France for the first time.
1950

Korean War: Heavy fighting begins between British and Australian forces from the 27th British Commonwealth Brigade and the North Korean 239th Regiment during the Battle of Yongju.
1956

Mau Mau Uprising: Kenyan rebel leader Dedan Kimathi is captured by the British Army, signalling the ultimate defeat of the rebellion, and essentially ending the British military campaign.
1959

In New York City, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opens to the public.
1959

U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order transferring Wernher von Braun and other German scientists from the United States Army to NASA.
1965

Comet Ikeya-Seki approaches perihelion, passing 450,000 kilometers (279,617 miles) from the sun.
1966

Aberfan disaster: A colliery spoil tip collapses on the village of Aberfan in Wales, killing 144 people, mostly schoolchildren.
1967

Vietnam War: More than 100,000 war protesters gather in Washington, D.C.. Similar demonstrations occur simultaneously in Japan and Western Europe.
1969

A coup d'état in Somalia brings Siad Barre to power and establishes a socialist republic in Somalia.
1971

A gas explosion kills 22 people at a shopping center in Clarkston, East Renfrewshire, near Glasgow, Scotland.
1973

Fred Dryer of the Los Angeles Rams becomes the first player in NFL history to score two safeties in the same game.
1978

Australian civilian pilot Frederick Valentich vanishes in a Cessna 182 over the Bass Strait south of Melbourne, after reporting contact with an unidentified aircraft.
1979

Moshe Dayan resigns from the Israeli government because of strong disagreements with Prime Minister Menachem Begin over policy towards the Arabs.
1981

Andreas Papandreou becomes Prime Minister of Greece, ending an almost 50-year-long system of power dominated by conservative forces.
1983

The metre is defined at the seventeenth General Conference on Weights and Measures as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.
1986

In Lebanon, pro-Iran kidnappers claim to have abducted American writer Edward Tracy (he is released in August 1991).
1987

Jaffna hospital massacre is carried out by Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka killing 70 ethnic Tamil patients, doctors and nurses.
1994

North Korea nuclear weapons program: North Korea and the United States sign an Agreed Framework that requires North Korea to stop its nuclear weapons program and agree to inspections.
1994

In Seoul, 32 people are killed when the Seongsu Bridge collapses.
2005

Images of the dwarf planet Eris are taken and subsequently used in documenting its discovery by the team of Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz.

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