1485 – Battle of Bosworth Field: Henry Tudor’s forces defeat English King Richard III during last battle in the Wars of the Roses. Richard is killed, the last English monarch to die in battle.
1791 – Haitian Slave Revolution begins under voodoo priest Boukman
1917 – Pittsburgh Pirates play 4th straight extra inning game; left fielder Carson Bigbee sets MLB record of 11 at-bats in 22 inning, 6-5 loss to Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field
1950 – Althea Gibson becomes 1st black competitor in a US national tennis competition
1950 – Rotterdam dock strike ends
1971 – J. Edgar Hoover and John Mitchell announce the arrest of 20 of the “Camden 28”.
1986 – “Stand By Me” film based on the novella by Stephen King, directed by Rob Reiner starring Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O’Connell is released
2004 – Justine Henin of Belgium wins the women’s singles tennis gold medal at the Athens Olympics 6-3, 6-3 over Amélie Mauresmo of France
2017 – Missouri Governor Eric Greitens grants stay of execution for Marcellus Williams in light of possible new DNA eividence
2019 – Bielefeld in Germany offers €1m prize to anyone in who can prove the town doesn’t exit to disprove 25-year-old conspiracy theory
Category: Historical Events
Historical Events for 21st August 2021
1321 – 160 Jews of Chincon France, burned at stake
1541 – Ottoman Turks under Suleiman the Magnificent capture Buda, the capital of the Hungarian Kingdom and go on to dominate central Hungary for 150 years
1842 – The city of Hobart, Tasmania, is founded.
1899 – US National Championship Men’s Tennis, Newport, RI: Malcolm Whitman wins second of 3 consecutive US singles titles; beats J. Parmly Paret 6-1, 6-2, 3-6, 7-5
1911 – “Mona Lisa” stolen from the Louvre by Vincenzo Perugia; recovered in 1913
1930 – Prohibition of Wieringermeer finished
1970 – The Social and Democratic Labour Party (SDLP) is established with Gerry Fitt as the first leader of the party
1987 – “Mack Lobell” set harness racing’s trotting mil (1:52)
1987 – Clayton Lonetree, 1st US marine court-martialed for spying, convicted
1996 – Christie Lee Woods, 18, of Texas, crowned 14th Miss Teen USA
Historical Events for 20th August 2021
1879 – Government Kappeijne of Coppello resigns
1940 – 1st Polish squadrons fight along allies in the Battle of Britain
1948 – US expels Soviet Consul General in New York, Jacob Lomakin
1948 – 15th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: Chi Cards 28, All-Stars 0 (101,220)
1949 – 78,382 watch White Sox play Indians at Cleveland
1962 – USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
1980 – Reinhold Messner of Italy is 1st to solo ascent Mt Everest
1988 – Yordanka Donkova of Bulgaria sets 100m hurdle woman’s record (12.21)
2020 – Kamala Harris accepts her nomination for vice-president, becoming the 1st US woman of color on a major-party ticket saying “there is no vaccine for racism”
2020 – Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny falls into a coma after a suspected poisoning (later confirmed to be Novichok poisoning)
Historical Events for 19th August 2021
1812 – US warship Constitution defeats British warship Guerriere
1895 – American frontier murderer and outlaw, John Wesley Hardin is shot and killed by John Selman Sr. in a saloon in El Paso, Texas
1905 – Russian Tsar Nicholas II installs “Imperial Duma”, without legislative powers
1934 – The first All-American Soap Box Derby is held in Dayton, Ohio
1944 – Allied air raid on Maastricht, 80+ killed
1979 – “My Sharonna” by the Knack hits #1 (stays for 42 days)
1993 – 26th San Diego Comic-Con International opens at Doubletree Hotel
1997 – STS 85 (Discovery 23) lands
2001 – PGA Championship Men’s Golf, Atlanta Athletic Club: David Toms wins his first major title by 1 stroke from Phil Mickelson
2007 – The Tradition Senior Men’s Golf, Crosswater Club: Mark McNulty of Zimbabwe wins lone career major title by 5 strokes from David Edwards
Historical Events for 18th August 2021
440 – St Sixtus III ends his reign as Catholic Pope
1289 – Pope Nicolas IV publishes decree “Supra montem”
1759 – -19] 2nd sea battle of Lagos: England vs France
1873 – 1st ascent of Mount Whitney, California (14,494′)
1894 – US Congress creates Bureau of Immigration
1964 – Charles Helu elected president of Lebanon
1969 – Mick Jagger accidentally shot while filming “Ned Kelly”
1977 – 2 girls are killed by a runaway car outside of Graceland
1981 – Football running back, Herschel Walker, of U of Georgia, takes out a Lloyd’s of London insurance policy for $1 million
1983 – USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
Historical Events for 17th August 2021
1807 – Robert Fulton’s steamboat Clermont begins first trip up Hudson River
1863 – Federal batteries and ships attacked Fort Sumter in SC
1870 – 1st ascent of Mt Rainier, Washington, by Hazard Stevens and P. B. Van Trump
1918 – Turkish troops overthrow Caukasus
1944 – Yanks Johnny Lindell ties record with 4 consecutive doubles in a game
1947 – The Radcliffe Line, the border between Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan is revealed
1956 – Federal Constitutional Court bans the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in West Germany
1987 – Mohammad Ali elected to “Ring” magazine’s Boxing Hall of Fame
1991 – Royals Warren Cromartie’s 1st major league HR since 1983
2019 – Landmark power-sharing deal signed by military and civilian leaders celebrated in Khartoum, Sudan, with transitional government to take over Sept 1
Historical Events for 16th August 2021
1940 – 45 German aircraft shot down over England
1947 – Ralph Kiner becomes 1st Pirate to hit 3 consecutive HRs
1948 – Israeli pound becomes legal tender
1960 – Republic of Congo (Zaire, Dem Rep of Congo) forms
1975 – Singer Peter Gabriel announces his departure from the rock group Genesis
1981 – Highest score in World Cup soccer match (New Zealand-13, Fiji-0)
1987 – Northwest Airlines 255 plane crashes in Detroit, 156 die (1 lives)
1991 – US President George H. W. Bush declares recession is near an end
2016 – “When the Levees Broke” documentary directed by Spike Lee, of effects of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans, premieres at New Orleans Arena
2017 – Philippine police kill 32 in raids near Manilia, most deadly night in President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs
Historical Events for 15th August 2021
1549 – Jesuit priest Saint Francis Xavier comes ashore at Kagoshima (Traditional Japanese date: July 22, 1549).
1893 – US no longer allowed exclusive rights in Bering Sea
1912 – Yankee Guy Zinn sets record by stealing home twice in a game
1914 – Panama Canal opens (under cost) with the SS Ancon making the 1st official steamship through the canal
1964 – Ralph Boston of US, sets then long jump record at 27′ 3½”
1967 – UK’s Marine Offences Bill making pirate radio stations a crime goes into effect, pirate station Radio 355 closes down
1983 – Ramones guitarist Joey Ramone beaten in fight-undergoes brain surgery
2004 – Bay of Plenty defeat Auckland 33-26 in Rugby Union to win NZ’s Ranfurly shield for the first time in the shield’s 102 year history and after 28 unsuccessful challenges
2006 – Der Spiegel, Spiegel Online, publishes documents confirming German writer Günter Grass’ membership of the Waffen-SS in World War II
2019 – 60th annual finger wrestling (Fingerhakeln) championships takes place in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, southern Germany, part of Partenkirchner Festival week
Historical Events for 14th August 2021
1861 – 79th NY troops mutinies
1908 – The first beauty contest is held in Folkestone, England.
1920 – VII Summer Olympic Games open in Antwerp, Belgium; first time Olympic Oath voiced, doves released to symbolise peace, and Olympic Flag flown
1944 – Soviet offensive at Weichsel
1952 – Mátyás Rákosi appointed premier of Hungary
1953 – 20th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: Detroit 24, All-Stars 10 (93,818)
1964 – Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait and Syria form common market
1967 – Radio Scotland and Radio Swinging Holland go off the air
1974 – Congress authorizes US citizens to own gold
1977 – PGA Championship Men’s Golf, Pebble Beach: Lanny Wadkins wins his only major title in event’s 1st sudden-death playoff with Gene Littler
Historical Events for 13th August 2021
1553 – Spanish theologian and physician Michael Servetus arrested as a heretic in Geneva (put on trial the next day, eventually found guilty of heresy and burned to death)
1919 – American thoroughbred racehorse Man o’ War’s only defeat in 21 start career; Upset wins Sanford Memorial Stakes at Saratoga Race Course
1920 – Flag designed by Marcus Garvey consisting of three horizontal stripes of red, black and green is adopted as the pan-African flag
1948 – Satchel Paige at 42, pitches his 1st major league complete game
1959 – US Military satellite Discoverer 5 launches into polar orbit
1963 – Warren Spahn sets left-hander strike out mark at 2,382
1963 – US Customs agents confiscate 21 gold coins from Witte Museum, San Antonio, Texas
1970 – Pamphlet bombs which scatter revolutionary African National Congress propaganda leaflets explode in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban and Port Elizabeth, South Africa
1981 – American swimmer Mary T. Meagher breaks her own world women’s 200 m butterfly record (2:05.96) in Brown Deer, Wisconsin
1985 – South African Defence Force soldiers, travelling in a convoy of more than ten armoured vehicles, surrounded the Thaba-Juluba high school in Soweto and arrest 200 students during a clampdown on school boycotts