On This Day — 21 September

2000s

2019

A 5.6 Mw earthquake shakes the Albanian port of Durrës. Forty-nine people are injured in the capital, Tirana.

2019 Albania earthquake

2018

LGBT rights activist Zak Kostopoulos is beaten to death on a busy street in Athens

Zak Kostopoulos

2015

Adventist Health System agreed to pay $118.7 million to settle allegations of fraud. It was the largest a hospital network has ever paid.

AdventHealth

2013

Al-Shabaab Islamic militants attack the Westgate shopping mall in Kenya, killing at least 67 people.

Al-Shabaab (militant group)

📅

2012

Three Egyptian militants open fire on a group of Israeli soldiers in a southern Israel cross-border attack.

Egyptians

2003

The Galileo spacecraft is terminated by sending it into Jupiter's atmosphere.

Galileo (spacecraft)

2001

America: A Tribute to Heroes is broadcast by over 35 network and cable channels, raising over $200 million for the victims of the September 11 attacks.

America: A Tribute to Heroes

2001

Ross Parker is murdered in Peterborough, England, by a gang of ten British Pakistani youths.

Murder of Ross Parker

1900s

1999

The 7.7-magnitude Chi-Chi earthquake strikes central Taiwan, killing 2,400 people.

1999 Jiji earthquake

1997

St. Olaf's Church, a stone church from the 16th century in Tyrvää, Finland, is burnt down by a burglar.

St. Olaf's Church, Tyrvää

1996

The Defense of Marriage Act is passed by the United States Congress.

Defense of Marriage Act

1993

Russian president Boris Yeltsin triggers a constitutional crisis when he suspends parliament and scraps the constitution.

Boris Yeltsin

1993

A Transair Georgian Airlines Tu-134 is shot down by a missile in the Black Sea near Sokhumi, Georgia.

1993 Sukhumi airliner attacks

1991

Armenia gains independence from the Soviet Union.

Armenia

1984

Brunei joins the United Nations.

Brunei

1981

Belize is granted full independence from the United Kingdom.

Belize

1981

Sandra Day O'Connor is unanimously approved by the U.S. Senate as the first female Supreme Court justice.

Sandra Day O'Connor

1976

Orlando Letelier is assassinated in Washington, D.C., at the order of Augusto Pinochet.

Orlando Letelier

1976

Seychelles joins the United Nations.

Seychelles

1972

Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos begins authoritarian rule by declaring martial law.

Ferdinand Marcos

1971

Bahrain, Bhutan and Qatar join the United Nations.

Bahrain

1969

Mexicana de Aviación Flight 801, a Boeing 727-100 passenger plane, crashes during a landing attempt in Mexico City, killing 27 of the 118 occupants.

Mexicana de Aviación Flight 801

1965

The Gambia, Maldives and Singapore are admitted as members of the United Nations.

The Gambia

1964

Malta gains independence from the United Kingdom, but remains in the Commonwealth.

Malta

1964

The North American XB-70 Valkyrie, the world's fastest bomber, makes its maiden flight from Palmdale, California.

North American XB-70 Valkyrie

1957

Pamir, a four-masted barque, was shipwrecked and sank off the Azores during Hurricane Carrie.

Pamir (ship)

1953

Lieutenant No Kum-sok, a North Korean pilot, defects to South Korea with his jet fighter.

No Kum-sok

1942

The Holocaust in Ukraine: On the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, Nazis send over 1,000 Jews of Pidhaitsi to Bełżec extermination camp.

The Holocaust in Ukraine

1942

The Holocaust in Ukraine: In Dunaivtsi, Ukraine, Nazis murder 2,588 Jews.

Dunaivtsi

1942

The Holocaust in Poland: At the end of Yom Kippur, Germans order Jews to permanently move from Konstantynów to Biała Podlaska.

The Holocaust in Poland

1942

The Boeing B-29 Superfortress makes its maiden flight.

Boeing B-29 Superfortress

1939

Romanian prime minister Armand Călinescu is assassinated by the Iron Guard.

Armand Călinescu

1938

The Great Hurricane of 1938 makes landfall on Long Island in New York. The death toll is estimated at 500–700 people.

1938 New England hurricane

1937

J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit is published for the first time. (September 22 is celebrated by some fans as Hobbit Day, however.)

J. R. R. Tolkien

1934

A large typhoon hits western Honshū, Japan, killing more than 3,000 people.

1934 Muroto typhoon

1933

Salvador Lutteroth establishes Mexican professional wrestling.

Salvador Lutteroth

1921

A storage silo in Oppau, Germany, explodes, killing 500–600 people.

Oppau explosion

1800s

1898

Empress Dowager Cixi seizes power and ends the Hundred Days' Reform in China.

Empress Dowager Cixi

1896

Anglo-Egyptian conquest of Sudan: British forces under the command of Horatio Kitchener take Dongola.

Anglo-Egyptian conquest of Sudan

1862

Taiping Rebellion: The Ever Victorious Army defeats Taiping forces at the Battle of Cixi.

Taiping Rebellion

1860

Second Opium War: An Anglo-French force defeats Chinese troops at the Battle of Palikao.

Second Opium War

1843

The crew of schooner Ancud, led by John Williams Wilson, takes possession of the Strait of Magellan on behalf of the Chilean government.

Chilean schooner Ancud

1814

War of 1812: British forces abandon their unsuccessful siege of Fort Erie.

War of 1812

1809

British Secretary of War Lord Castlereagh and Foreign Secretary George Canning meet in a duel on Putney Heath, with Castlereagh wounding Canning in the thigh.

Secretary of State for War and the Colonies