This Day in History on 21 August
The historical events hold a lot of value for aspirants who are sitting for UPSC competitive exams including the IAS Exam.
On this page, we will list all historical events that occurred on 21 August. The students can refer them while preparing for all competitive exams and banking exams.
Important Days
World senior citizen day: The day is celebrated on August 21 each year and recognizes the achievements of senior citizens worldwide. The day has been globally observed since then. The number of senior citizens is expected to be more than twice what it is now in the next three decades.
Important Events
1680: Pueblo Indians capture Santa Fe from the Spanish during the Pueblo Revolt.
1852: Tlingit Indians destroy Fort Selkirk, Yukon Territory.
1888: The first successful adding machine in the United States was patented by William Seward Burroughs.
1911: The Mona Lisa painting was stolen by Vincenzo Perugia, a Louvre employee.
1959: Hawaii became the 50th State of the USA.
1972: The Wildlife Protection Act was passed in India. A law was passed for protecting wild animals, including lions and tigers, from extinction.
1976: 25-year-old Mary Langdon joins the East Sussex fire brigade to become Britain’s first female fireman.
1987: Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma elected the Vice President of India (1987 – 1992).
1990: Prasar Bharati Bill moved in the Lok Sabha .
1991: Latvia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
1993: NASA lost contact with the Mars Observer Spacecraft.
1997: Government extends the provision of the payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 to all those societies and trusts which employed 10 or more people.
1997: Krishan Kant assumes office as tenth Vice President of India.
Birth/Birth Anniversary
1540: Badauni Abdul Kadir, the famous Muslim historian, was born.
1746: William IV of the United Kingdom.
1879: Jahangir Bemanji Petit, famous industrialist, was born.
1905: Bipin Gupta, Indian actor and producer (d. 1981)
1907: P Jeevanandham, Indian Lawyer and politician.
1934: Sudhakar Rao Naik, Indian politician, 6th Chief Minister of Maharashtra.
1949: Ahmed Patel, an Indian politician and Member of Parliament.
1961: V. B. Chandrasekhar, Indian cricketer and coach (d. 2019)
1963: Mohammad VI, King of Morocco.
1973: Sergey Brin, a Russian American Computer scientist, and internet entrepreneur. Co-founder of Google.
1986: Usain Bolt, Jamaican sprinter.
Death/ Death Anniversary
1931: Pandit Vishnu Dingambar Paluskar, famous singer and the blind musician of Maharashtra, passed away.
1947: Ettore Bugatti, an Italian French engineer, and businessman. Founder of Bugatti.
1955: Ramnarayan Vishwanath Pathak, noted critic of Gujarati literature, poet and story writer, passed away.
1974: Kirpal Singh, Indian spiritual master (b. 1894)
1978: Vinu Mankad, an Indian cricket player. He played 44 tests for India and had 2109 runs and took 162 wickets.
1981: Dattatrey Balkrishna Kalelkar “Kakasaheb”, Indian Hindi Writer, freedom fighter (B.1885)
1989: American fashion journalist Diana Vreeland.
1991: Gopinath Mahant, famous Odissi litterateur and Gyanpeeth awardee, died.
1995: Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Indian-American astrophysicist and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1910). He was one of the world’s leading astro-physicists for his contributions to the study of stars. Chandrasekhar had received the highest award in Science–the Noble Prize in Physics in 1983.
2000: Mahatma Gandhi’s daughter-in-law Mrs. Nirmala Gandhi dies in Wardha. She was 91.
2004: Sachidananda Routray, an Indian Oriya-language poet, novelist and short-story writer.
2005: Robert Moog, American electronic engineer.
2006: Bismillah Khan, Indian musician, Bharat ratna awardi (b. 1916)