Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date
Tuesday, July 21, 2026
Today is the 202nd day of 2026. There are 163 days left in this year.
Notable Events
1798
Napoleon's forces defeat an Ottoman-Mamluk army near Cairo in the Battle of the Pyramids.
1831
Belgium became independent as Leopold I was proclaimed King of the Belgians.
1861
The first Battle of Bull Run was fought at Manassas, Va., resulting in a Confederate victory.
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.
1873
At Adair, Iowa, Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang pull off the first successful train robbery in the American Old West.
1907
The passenger steamer SS Columbia sinks after colliding with the steam schooner San Pedro off Shelter Cove, California, killing 88 people.
1919
The dirigible Wingfoot Air Express crashes into the Illinois Trust and Savings Building in Chicago, killing 12 people.
1925
The so-called "Monkey Trial" ended in Dayton, Tenn., with John T. Scopes convicted of violating state law for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution. The conviction was later overturned.
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).
1944
The Democratic National Convention in Chicago nominated Sen. Harry S. Truman to be vice president.
1944
The Battle of Guam began as American forces landed on the Japanese-occupied island, leading to its eventual capture three weeks later. It was a crucial victory for the U.S. in its goal of ending Japanese control of the Pacific.
1944
World War II: Claus von Stauffenberg and four fellow conspirators are executed for the July 20 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
1949
The U.S. Senate ratified the North Atlantic Treaty.
1954
France surrendered North Vietnam to the Communists.
1955
During the Geneva summit, President Eisenhower presented his ''open skies'' proposal under which the United States and the Soviet Union would trade information on each other's military facilities.
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.
1959
NS Savannah, the first nuclear-powered cargo-passenger ship, is launched as a showcase for Dwight D. Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" initiative.
1961
Capt. Virgil ''Gus'' Grissom became the second American to rocket into a sub-orbital pattern around the Earth, flying on the Liberty Bell 7.
1964
A series of racial riots break out in Singapore. In the next six weeks, 23 die with 454 others injured.
1969
Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin ''Buzz'' Aldrin blasted off from the moon aboard the lunar module.
1970
After 11 years of construction, the Aswan High Dam in Egypt is completed.
1972
The Provisional IRA detonate 22 bombs in central Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom in the space of 80 minutes, killing nine and injuring 130.
1973
In Lillehammer, Norway, Mossad agents kill a waiter whom they thought was involved in the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre.
1976
Christopher Ewart-Biggs, the British ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, is assassinated by the Provisional IRA.
1979
Jay Silverheels, a Mohawk actor, becomes the first Native American to have a star commemorated in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1980
Draft registration began in the United States for 19- and 20-year-old men.
1983
The world's lowest temperature in an inhabited location is recorded at Vostok Station, Antarctica at −89.2 C (−128.6 F).
1987
Hard rock band Guns N' Roses released their debut album Appetite for Destruction, which included the songs "Welcome to the Jungle" and "Sweet Child o' Mine." It would go on to become the best-selling debut album of all time.
1988
Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis accepted the Democratic presidential nomination at the party's convention in Atlanta, declaring, ''this election isn't about ideology; it's about competence.''
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.
1996
"The Daily Show" aired for the very first time on Comedy Central, with Craig Kilborn as the initial host.
1998
The Pentagon said it found no evidence to support allegations in a CNN report that U.S. troops had used nerve gas against American defectors in Laos.
1999
Navy divers found the bodies of John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn, and sister-in-law, Lauren Bessette, in the wreckage of Kennedy's plane in the Atlantic Ocean off Martha's Vineyard.
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.
2005
Four attempted bomb attacks by Islamist extremists disrupt part of London's public transport system.
2008
Ram Baran Yadav is declared the first President of Nepal.
2010
President Barack Obama signs the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
2011
NASA's Space Shuttle program came to an end after 30 years and 135 missions with the successful landing of the Space Shuttle Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center.
2019
Yuen Long attack or "721 incident" in Hong Kong. Triad members indiscriminately beat civilians returning from protests while police failed to take action
Notable Births
1899
Author Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Ill.
1899
Poet Hart Crane was born in Garrettsville, Ohio.
1938
Janet Reno, American lawyer and politician, 79th United States Attorney General (d. 2016)
1946
Kenneth Winston Starr was an American lawyer and judge who authored the Starr Report, which led to the impeachment of Bill Clinton.
1948
Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam), English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1948
Garry Trudeau is an American cartoonist, best known for creating the Doonesbury comic strip.
1951
Robin McLaurin Williams was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and comedies.
1955
Howard Norman Epstein was an American musician best known as a bassist with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
1957
Jonathan Michael Lovitz is an American actor and comedian. Lovitz is best known for his tenure as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1985 to 1990.
1961
James Blanco Martin is an American guitarist best known for his membership in the rock band Faith No More from 1983 to late 1993.
Notable Deaths
1796
Robert Burns, also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide.
1798
Anthony Perry, known as the "screeching general" was one of the most important leaders of the United Irish Wexford rebels during the 1798 rebellion.
1878
Sam Bass was a 19th-century American train robber, outlaw, and outlaw gang leader. Notably, he was a member of a gang of six that robbed a Union Pacific train in Nebraska of $60,000 in newly minted gold from San Francisco, California.
1967
Basil Rathbone, South African-American actor and singer (b. 1892)
1982
David Cunningham Garroway was an American television personality. He was the founding host and anchor of NBC's Today from 1952 to 1961.
1998
Astronaut Alan Shepard died in Monterey, Calif., at age 74.
1998
Robert George Young was an American film, television, and radio actor best known for his leading roles as Jim Anderson, the father character, in Father Knows Best and the physician Marcus Welby in Marcus Welby, M.D. (ABC).
2005
John William "Long John" Baldry was an English musician and actor. In the 1960s, he was one of the first British vocalists to sing the blues in clubs and shared the stage with many British musicians including the Rolling Stones and the Beatles.
2014
Dan Borislow, American businessman, invented the magicJack (b. 1961)
2017
John Heard Jr. was an American actor. Heard made his debut appearance in film with the ensemble Between the Lines (1977).