On This Day — 21 July

2025

A Bangladesh Air Force Chengdu FT-7BGI crashes shortly after takeoff into Milestone School campus in Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing 35 people and injuring 173.

Bangladesh Air Force

2024

U.S. President Joe Biden announces he will no longer seek a second term and withdraws from the 2024 election, endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as she launches her own presidential campaign.

Joe Biden

2023

The Barbenheimer phenomenon begins as two major motion pictures, Greta Gerwig's fantasy comedy Barbie and Christopher Nolan's epic biographical thriller Oppenheimer, are released in theaters on the same day and audiences, instead of creating a rivalry between the extremely dissimilar films, instead attend and praise both as an informal, surreal double feature.

Barbenheimer

2019

Yuen Long attack or "721 incident" in Hong Kong. Triad members indiscriminately beat civilians returning from protests while police failed to take action.

2019 Yuen Long attack

2012

Erden Eruç completes the first solo human-powered circumnavigation of the world.

Erden Eruç

2011

NASA's Space Shuttle program ends with the landing of Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-135 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

NASA

2010

U.S. President Barack Obama signs the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Barack Obama

2008

Ram Baran Yadav is declared the first President of Nepal.

Ram Baran Yadav

2005

Four attempted bomb attacks by Islamist extremists disrupt part of London's public transport system.

21 July 2005 London attempted bombings

2001

At the conclusion of a fireworks display on Okura Beach in Akashi, Hyōgo, Japan, 11 people are killed and more than 120 are injured when a pedestrian footbridge connecting the beach to JR Asagiri Station becomes overcrowded and people leaving the event fall down in a domino effect.

Akashi, Hyōgo

1995

Third Taiwan Strait Crisis: The People's Liberation Army begins firing missiles into the waters north of Taiwan.

Third Taiwan Strait Crisis

1990

Taiwan's military police forces mainland Chinese illegal immigrants into sealed holds of a fishing boat Min Ping Yu No. 5540 for repatriation to Fujian, causing 25 people to die from suffocation.

Republic of China Military Police

1983

The world's lowest temperature in an inhabited location is recorded at Vostok Station, Antarctica at −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F).

Lowest temperature recorded on Earth

1979

Jay Silverheels, a Mohawk actor, becomes the first Native American to have a star commemorated in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Jay Silverheels

1977

The start of the four-day-long Libyan–Egyptian War.

Egyptian–Libyan War

1976

Christopher Ewart-Biggs, the British ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, is assassinated by the Provisional IRA.

Christopher Ewart-Biggs

1973

In Lillehammer, Norway, Mossad agents kill a waiter whom they mistakenly thought was involved in the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre.

Lillehammer affair

1972

The Troubles: Bloody Friday: The Provisional IRA detonate 22 bombs in central Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom in the space of 80 minutes, killing nine and injuring 130.

The Troubles

1970

After 11 years of construction, the Aswan High Dam in Egypt is completed.

Aswan High Dam

1969

Apollo program: At 02:56 UTC, astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes the first person to walk on the Moon, followed 19 minutes later by Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin.

Apollo program

1964

A series of racial riots break out in Singapore. In the next six weeks, 23 die with 454 others injured.

1964 race riots in Singapore

1961

Mercury program: Mercury-Redstone 4 Mission: Gus Grissom piloting Liberty Bell 7 becomes the second American to go into space (in a suborbital mission).

Project Mercury

1961

Alaska Airlines Flight 779 crashes near Shemya Air Force Base in Shemya, Alaska killing six.

Alaska Airlines Flight 779

1960

Sirimavo Bandaranaike is sworn in as prime minister of Ceylon, becoming the world's first democratically elected female head of government.

Sirimavo Bandaranaike

1959

NS Savannah, the first nuclear-powered cargo-passenger ship, is launched as a showcase for Dwight D. Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" initiative.

NS Savannah

1959

Elijah Jerry "Pumpsie" Green becomes the first African-American to play for the Boston Red Sox, the last team to integrate. He came in as a pinch runner for Vic Wertz and stayed in as shortstop in a 2–1 loss to the Chicago White Sox.

Pumpsie Green

1954

First Indochina War: The Geneva Conference partitions Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam.

First Indochina War

1952

The 7.3 Mw  Kern County earthquake strikes Southern California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing 12 and injuring hundreds.

1952 Kern County earthquake

1951

Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 3505 disappears while flying from Vancouver to Tokyo. The aircraft and its 37 occupants are never found.

Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 3505

1949

The United States Senate ratifies the North Atlantic Treaty.

United States Senate

1944

World War II: Battle of Guam: American troops land on Guam, starting a battle that will end on August 10.

World War II

1944

World War II: Claus von Stauffenberg and four fellow conspirators are executed for the July 20 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

Claus von Stauffenberg

1936

Spanish Civil War: The Central Committee of Antifascist Militias of Catalonia is constituted, establishing an anarcho-syndicalist economy in Catalonia.

Spanish Civil War

1925

Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes is found guilty of teaching human evolution in class and fined $100.

Scopes trial

1925

Malcolm Campbell becomes the first man to exceed 150 mph (241 km/h) on land. At Pendine Sands in Wales, he drives Sunbeam 350HP built by Sunbeam at a two-way average speed of 150.33 mph (242 km/h).

Malcolm Campbell

1919

The dirigible Wingfoot Air Express crashes into the Illinois Trust and Savings Building in Chicago, killing 12 people.

Airship

1907

The passenger steamer SS Columbia sinks after colliding with the steam schooner San Pedro off Shelter Cove, California, killing 88 people.

SS Columbia (1880)

1904

Louis Rigolly, a Frenchman, becomes the first man to break the 100 mph (161 km/h) barrier on land. He drove a 15-liter Gobron-Brillié in Ostend, Belgium.

Louis Rigolly

1877

After rioting by Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers and the deaths of nine rail workers at the hands of the Maryland militia, workers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, stage a sympathy strike that is met with an assault by the state militia.

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

1873

At Adair, Iowa, Jesse James and the James–Younger Gang pull off the first successful train robbery in the American Old West.

Adair, Iowa

1865

In the market square of Springfield, Missouri, Wild Bill Hickok shoots and kills Davis Tutt in what is regarded as the first western showdown.

Springfield, Missouri

1861

American Civil War: First Battle of Bull Run: At Manassas Junction, Virginia, the first major battle of the war begins and ends in a victory for the Confederate army.

American Civil War

1831

Inauguration of Leopold I of Belgium, first king of the Belgians.

Leopold I of Belgium

1798

French campaign in Egypt and Syria: Napoleon's forces defeat an Ottoman-Mamluk army near Cairo in the Battle of the Pyramids.

French invasion of Egypt and Syria

1774

Russo-Turkish War (1768–74): Russia and the Ottoman Empire sign the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca ending the war.

Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774)

1718

The Treaty of Passarowitz between the Ottoman Empire, Austria and the Republic of Venice is signed.

Treaty of Passarowitz

1674

A Dutch assault on the French island of Martinique is repulsed against all odds.

Invasion of Martinique (1674)

1656

The Raid on Málaga takes place during the Anglo-Spanish War.

Raid on Málaga (1656)

1645

Qing dynasty regent Dorgon issues an edict ordering all Han Chinese men to shave their forehead and braid the rest of their hair into a queue identical to those of the Manchus.

Qing dynasty

1568

Eighty Years' War: Battle of Jemmingen: Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva defeats Louis of Nassau.

Eighty Years' War

1545

The first landing of French troops on the coast of the Isle of Wight during the French invasion of the Isle of Wight.

Isle of Wight

1403

Battle of Shrewsbury: King Henry IV of England defeats rebels to the north of the county town of Shropshire, England.

Battle of Shrewsbury

1242

Battle of Taillebourg: Louis IX of France puts an end to the revolt of his vassals Henry III of England and Hugh X of Lusignan.

Battle of Taillebourg

905

King Berengar I of Italy and a hired Hungarian army defeats the Frankish forces at Verona. King Louis III is captured and blinded for breaking his oath (see 902).

Berengar I of Italy

365

The 365 Crete earthquake affected the Greek island of Crete with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), causing a destructive tsunami that affects the coasts of Libya and Egypt, especially Alexandria. Many thousands are killed.

AD 365

285

Diocletian appoints Maximian as Caesar and co-ruler.

Diocletian

230

Pope Pontian succeeds Urban I as the eighteenth pope. After being exiled to Sardinia, he became the first pope to resign his office.

Pope Pontian

-356

The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, is destroyed by arson.

Temple of Artemis