On This Day — 21 June

2025

A hot air balloon catches fire mid-flight and crashes in Praia Grande, Santa Catarina, Brazil, killing 8 of the 21 on board.

Hot air balloon

2012

A boat carrying more than 200 migrants capsizes in the Indian Ocean between the Indonesian island of Java and Christmas Island, killing 17 people and leaving 70 others missing.

2012 Indian Ocean migrant boat disaster

2012

An Indonesian Air Force Fokker F27 Friendship crashes near Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport, killing 11.

Indonesian Air Force

2009

Greenland assumes self-rule.

Greenland

2006

Pluto's newly discovered moons are officially named Nix and Hydra.

Pluto

2006

A Yeti Airlines de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter crashes at Jumla Airport in Nepal, killing nine people.

Yeti Airlines

2005

Edgar Ray Killen, who had previously been unsuccessfully tried for the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Mickey Schwerner, is convicted of manslaughter 41 years afterwards (the case had been reopened in 2004).

Edgar Ray Killen

2004

SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.

SpaceShipOne

2001

A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, indicts 13 Saudis and a Lebanese in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 American servicemen.

Alexandria, Virginia

2000

Section 28 (of the Local Government Act 1988), outlawing the 'promotion' of homosexuality in the United Kingdom, is repealed in Scotland with a 99 to 17 vote.

Section 28

1993

Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on STS-57 to retrieve the European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA) satellite. It is also the first shuttle mission to carry the Spacehab module.

Space Shuttle Endeavour

1989

The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397, that American flag-burning is a form of political protest protected by the First Amendment.

Supreme Court of the United States

1985

Braathens SAFE Flight 139 is hijacked on approach to Oslo Airport, Fornebu. Special forces arrest the hijacker and there are no fatalities.

Braathens SAFE Flight 139

1982

John Hinckley is found not guilty by reason of insanity for the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

John Hinckley Jr.

1978

The original production of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, Evita, based on the life of Eva Perón, opens at the Prince Edward Theatre, London.

Tim Rice

1973

The Primer Congreso del Hombre Andino is inaugurated in Arica, Chile.

Primer Congreso del Hombre Andino

1973

In its decision in Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15, the Supreme Court of the United States establishes the Miller test for determining whether something is obscene and not protected speech under the U.S. constitution.

Miller v. California

1970

Penn Central declares Section 77 bankruptcy in what was the largest U.S. corporate bankruptcy to date.

Penn Central Transportation Company

1964

Three civil rights workers, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner, are murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi, United States, by members of the Ku Klux Klan.

Civil rights movement

1963

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini is elected as Pope Paul VI.

1963 conclave

1957

Ellen Fairclough is sworn in as Canada's first female Cabinet Minister.

Ellen Fairclough

1952

The Philippine School of Commerce, through a republic act, is converted to Philippine College of Commerce, later to be the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.

Polytechnic University of the Philippines

1945

World War II: The Battle of Okinawa ends when the organized resistance of Imperial Japanese Army forces collapses in the Mabuni area on the southern tip of the main island.

Battle of Okinawa

1942

World War II: Tobruk falls to Italian and German forces; 33,000 Allied troops are taken prisoner.

Axis capture of Tobruk

1942

World War II: A Japanese submarine surfaces near the Columbia River in Oregon, firing 17 shells at Fort Stevens in one of only a handful of attacks by Japan against the United States mainland.

Bombardment of Fort Stevens

1940

World War II: Italy begins an unsuccessful invasion of France.

World War II

1930

One-year conscription comes into force in France.

Conscription

1929

An agreement brokered by U.S. Ambassador Dwight Whitney Morrow ends the Cristero War in Mexico.

Dwight Morrow

1921

The Irish village of Knockcroghery was burned by British forces.

Knockcroghery

1919

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police fire a volley into a crowd of unemployed war veterans, killing two, during the Winnipeg general strike.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police

1919

Admiral Ludwig von Reuter scuttles the German fleet at Scapa Flow, Orkney. The nine sailors killed are the last casualties of World War I.

Ludwig von Reuter

1915

The U.S. Supreme Court hands down its decision in Guinn v. United States 238 US 347 1915, striking down Oklahoma grandfather clause legislation which had the effect of denying the right to vote to blacks.

Supreme Court of the United States

1900

Boxer Rebellion: China formally declares war on the United States, Britain, Germany, France and Japan, as an edict issued from the Empress Dowager Cixi.

Boxer Rebellion

1898

The United States captures Guam from Spain. The few warning shots fired by the U.S. naval vessels are misinterpreted as salutes by the Spanish garrison, which was unaware that the two nations were at war.

Capture of Guam

1864

American Civil War: The Battle of Jerusalem Plank Road begins.

American Civil War

1848

In the Wallachian Revolution, Ion Heliade Rădulescu and Christian Tell issue the Proclamation of Islaz and create a new republican government.

Wallachian Revolution of 1848

1826

Maniots defeat Egyptians under Ibrahim Pasha in the Battle of Vergas.

Maniots

1824

Greek War of Independence: Egyptian forces capture Psara in the Aegean Sea.

Greek War of Independence

1813

Peninsular War: Wellington defeats Joseph Bonaparte at the Battle of Vitoria.

Peninsular War

1798

Irish Rebellion of 1798: The British Army defeats Irish rebels at the Battle of Vinegar Hill.

Irish Rebellion of 1798

1791

King Louis XVI and his immediate family begin the Flight to Varennes during the French Revolution.

Louis XVI

1788

New Hampshire becomes the ninth state to ratify the Constitution of the United States.

New Hampshire

1768

James Otis Jr. offends the King and Parliament in a speech to the Massachusetts General Court.

James Otis Jr.

1749

Halifax, Nova Scotia, is founded.

Halifax, Nova Scotia

1734

In Montreal, New France, a slave known by the French name of Marie-Joseph Angélique is put to death, having been convicted of setting the fire that destroyed much of the city.

Montreal

1621

Execution of 27 Czech noblemen on the Old Town Square in Prague as a consequence of the Battle of White Mountain.

Old Town Square execution

1582

Sengoku period: Oda Nobunaga, the most powerful of the Japanese daimyōs, is forced to commit suicide by his own general Akechi Mitsuhide.

Sengoku period

1529

French forces are driven out of northern Italy by Spain at the Battle of Landriano during the War of the League of Cognac.

Kingdom of France

1307

Külüg Khan is enthroned as Khagan of the Mongols and Wuzong of the Yuan.

Külüg Khan

533

A Byzantine expeditionary fleet under Belisarios sails from Constantinople to attack the Vandals in Africa, via Greece and Sicily.

Belisarius