Events on July 21 44
Year 365
The 365 Crete earthquake affects 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 were killed.
Year 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).[1]
Year 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.
Year 1403
Battle of Shrewsbury: King Henry IV of England defeats rebels to the north of the county town of Shropshire, England.
Year 1545
The first landing of French troops on the coast of the Isle of Wight during the French invasion of the Isle of Wight.
Year 1568
Eighty Years' War: Battle of Jemmingen: Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva defeats Louis of Nassau.
Year 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.
Year 1718
The Treaty of Passarowitz between the Ottoman Empire, Austria and the Republic of Venice is signed.
Year 1774
Russo-Turkish War (1768-74): Russia and the Ottoman Empire sign the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca ending the war.
Year 1775
Battle of Brewster Isand : Patriot minutemen in whaleboats, commanded by Major Joseph Vose, raid Nantasket Point, also known as Little Brewster Island, in Boston Harbor, Massachusetts.
Year 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.
Year 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.
Year 1873
At Adair, Iowa, Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang pull off the first successful train robbery in the American Old West.
Year 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.
Year 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.
Year 1907
The passenger steamer SS Columbia sinks after colliding with the steam schooner San Pedro off Shelter Cove, California, killing 88 people.
Year 1919
The dirigible Wingfoot Air Express crashes into the Illinois Trust and Savings Building in Chicago, killing 12 people.
Year 1944
World War II: Battle of Guam: American troops land on Guam, starting a battle that will end on August 10.
Year 1944
World War II: Claus von Stauffenberg and fellow conspirators are tortured and executed in Berlin, Germany, for the July 20 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
Year 1952
The 7.3-Mw Kern County earthquake strikes Southern California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing 12 and injuring hundreds.
Year 1954
First Indochina War: The Geneva Conference partitions Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam.
Year 1959
NS Savannah, the first nuclear-powered cargo-passenger ship, is launched as a showcase for Dwight D. Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" initiative.
Year 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.
Year 1960
Sirimavo Bandaranaike is elected Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, becoming the world's first female head of government
Year 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).
Year 1969
At 02:56 UTC, astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes the first person to walk on the Moon.
Year 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.
Year 1973
In Lillehammer, Norway, Mossad agents kill a waiter whom they mistakenly thought was involved in the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre.
Year 1976
Christopher Ewart-Biggs, the British ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, is assassinated by the Provisional IRA.
Year 1983
The world's lowest temperature in an inhabited location is recorded at Vostok Station, Antarctica at −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F).
Year 1995
Third Taiwan Strait Crisis: The People's Liberation Army begins firing missiles into the waters north of Taiwan.
Year 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.
Year 2011
NASA's Space Shuttle program ends with the landing of Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-135 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
Year 2012
Erden Eruç completes the first solo human-powered circumnavigation of the world.
Year ?
The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, is destroyed by arson.