This Day in History
21 Apr 1453
Turkish fleet sinks ships Golden Receiver in Constantinople
21 Apr 1521
Battle at Villalar Emperor Charles I beats Communards
21 Apr 1572
France & England sign anti-Spanish military covenant
21 Apr 1649
Maryland Toleration Act passed in the American colony allowing freedom of worship for Christians but sentencing to death anyone who rejected the divinity of Jesus
More History
Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree tops the U.S. pop charts and creates a cultural phenomenon
The yellow ribbon has long been a symbol of support for absent or missing loved ones. There are some who believe that the tradition of the yellow ribbon dates b...
Texas militia routes Mexicans in the Battle of San Jacinto
During the Texan War for Independence the Texas militia under Sam Houston launches a surprise attack against the forces of Mexican General Santa Anna along the...
Red Baron killed in action
In the skies over Vauz sur Somme France Manfred von Richthofen the notorious German flying ace known as The Red Baron is killed by Allied fire...
Chinese students begin protests at Tiananmen Square
Six days after the death of Hu Yaobang the deposed reform-minded leader of the Chinese Communist Party some 100000 students gather at Beijings Tianan...
Rome founded
According to tradition on April 21 753 B.C. Romulus and his twin brother Remus found Rome on the site where they were suckled by a she-wolf as orphaned inf...
Red Army overruns German High Command as it approaches the capital
On this day in 1945 Soviet forces fighting south of Berlin at Zossen assault the headquarters of the German High Command. The only remaining opposing ...
German flying ace, Red Baron, killed in action
In the well-trafficked skies above the Somme River in France Baron Manfred von Richthofen the notorious German flying ace known as the Red Baron is ki...
South Vietnamese president flees Saigon as Xuan Loc falls
Xuan Loc the last South Vietnamese outpost blocking a direct North Vietnamese assault on Saigon falls to the communists.The North Vietnamese had launched a ma...
Intelligence reveals North Vietnamese units in South Vietnam
The Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency report a most ominous development a regiment of the Peoples Army of V...
Rosie Ruiz fakes Boston Marathon win
Rosie Ruiz age 26 finishes first in the womens division of the Boston Marathon with a time of 23156 on April 21 1980. She was rewarded with a meda...
Abraham Lincolns funeral train leaves D.C.
On this day in 1865 a train carrying the coffin of assassinated President Abraham Lincoln leaves Washington D.C. on its way to Springfield Illinois where he...
Naturalist John Muir is born
John Muir a dedicated advocate for the protection of American wild lands is born in Dunbar Scotland.When he was still a boy Muirs parents immigrated...
Charlotte Bronte born
Charlotte Bront the only one of three novelist Bront sisters to live past age 31 is born.Bront one of six siblings who grew up in a gloomy parson...
First movie projector demonstrated in United States
On this day in 1895 Woodville Latham and his sons Otway and Gray demonstrate their Panopticon the first movie projector developed in the Unite...
Prisoners left to burn in Ohio fire
A fire at an Ohio prison kills 320 inmates some of whom burn to death when they are not unlocked from their cells. It is one of the worst prison disasters in ...
Load More