What Happened Today – July 21?
History cannot give us a program for the future but it can give us a fuller understanding of ourselves, and of common humanity so that we can better face the future – Robert Penn Warren
On this day:
356 BC – Herostratus sets fire to the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World
365 – Crete Earthquake followed by tsunami around the Eastern Mediterranean allegedly destroys Alexandria
1613 – Michael Romanov was crowned tsar of Russia, founding the Romanov dynasty
1774 – The Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca was signed at the conclusion of the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–74
1798 – Napoleon Bonaparte’s Army of Egypt uses a new military tactic, the massive divisional square, to defeat the Egyptian forces of Murād at the Battle of the Pyramids
1853 – Central Park in New York created when New York State Legislature puts aside more than 750 acres of land on Manhattan Island
1861 – First Battle of Bull Run [Battle of First Manassas], 1st major battle of the US Civil War is fought near Manassas, Virginia, Confederate victory
1873 – Jesse James and James Younger gang’s 1st train robbery at Adair, Iowa
1884 – 1st Test Cricket match played at Lord’s; England won over Australia by an innings and 5 run
1904 – After 13 years, the 4,607-mile Trans-Siberian railway is completed
1943 – “Stormy Weather”, directed by Andrew L. Stone, starring Bill Robinson, Lena Horne and Fats Waller singing “Ain’t Misbehavin'” premieres in the US
1960 – Sirimavo Bandaranaike becomes the world’s 1st female head of state elected in modern times, as Prime Minister of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka)
1967 – Albert John Luthuli, President of the African National Congress, the first African to be awarded a Nobel Prize for Peace, died after being struck by a train
1969 – Apollo 11: Neil Armstrong becomes the first person to step on the Moon at 2:56:15 AM (GMT)
1970 – Aswan High Dam opens in Egypt, enables human control of the flooding of the Nile
1983 – World’s lowest-ever natural temperature was recorded in Antarctica − 89.2 °C (−128.6 °F; 184.0 K) at Soviet Vostok Station
1987 – Guns N’ Roses releases the landmark album Appetite for Destruction, which went to sell more than 17 million copies
1990 – Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” is performed where the Berlin Wall once stood
1996 – “The Daily Show” hosted by Craig Kilborn premieres on Comedy Central in the US
2002 – German Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher clinches his 5th F1 World Drivers Championship with victory in the French Grand Prix at Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours; 3rd straight title win
2007 – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final book in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, releases
2011 – U.S. space shuttle program ends, after 135 missions, as the orbiter Atlantis lands at NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida
2014 – “Guardians of the Galaxy”, directed by James Gunn, starring Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana, premieres in Hollywood, Los Angeles
