Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/July 21
This is a list of selected July 21 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article, featured list or picture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
Images
Use only ONE image at a time
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Bull Run -
John T. Scopes -
Soldier with a queue -
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the Moon -
Model of the Temple of Artemis -
Wild Bill Hickok
Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| ; Liberation Day in Guam (1944) | unreferenced section |
| Racial Harmony Day in Singapore (1964) | unreferenced stub |
| 1403 – Forces under Henry IV of England defeated a rebel army led by Henry "Hotspur" Percy at the Battle of Shrewsbury in what is now Battlefield, Shropshire. | needs more footnotes |
| 1645 – Qing dynasty regent Dorgon issued 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. | multiple issues |
| 1918 – World War I: An Imperial German U-boat opened fire on the American town of Orleans, Massachusetts, and several merchant vessels nearby. | needs more footnotes |
| 1944 – World War II: American troops landed on Guam to liberate it from Japanese control. | single source |
| 1960 – Sirimavo Bandaranaike became Prime Minister of Ceylon and thus the world's first female head of government. | refimprove |
| 1964 – Race riots began in Padang, Singapore (then part of Malaysia) during a Malay procession marking Muhammad's birthday, leaving 23 people dead, 450 people injured, significant damage to property and vehicles, and a government imposed 11-day curfew. | refimprove |
| 1969 – During the Apollo 11 mission, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the Moon. | Aldrin: refimprove section |
| 1977 – Libyan forces carried out a raid at Sallum, sparking a four-day war with Egypt. | unreferenced section |
Eligible
- 230 – Pope Pontian began his pontificate, succeeding Urban I.
- 365 – A large earthquake that occurred near Crete and its subsequent tsunami caused widespread destruction throughout the eastern Mediterranean region.
- 1774 – The Russo-Turkish War officially ended after the Russian and Ottoman Empires signed the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca, with the latter ceding parts of the Yedisan region to the former.
- 1861 – In the First Battle of Bull Run, the first major land battle in the American Civil War, the Confederate Army under Joseph E. Johnston and P. G. T. Beauregard routed Union Army troops under Irvin McDowell.
- 1973 – Mossad agents mistakenly assassinated a Moroccan waiter in Lillehammer, Norway, whom they believed had been involved in the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre.
- 1954 – First Indochina War: The Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone was established at the Geneva Conference, partitioning Vietnam along the 17th parallel north into two zones: North Vietnam led by Ho Chi Minh and South Vietnam under Bảo Đại.
- 1970 – The Aswan High Dam in Egypt was completed after 11 years of construction.
- 1972 – The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated twenty-two bombs throughout Belfast, Northern Ireland.
- 2007 – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final book in the popular Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, was released to record sales of 15 million copies in its first 24 hours, making it the fastest-selling book in history.
- 2012 – Turkish adventurer Erden Eruç became the first person in history to complete a solo human-powered circumnavigation of the Earth.
Notes
- Apollo 11 featured on July 20, so Armstrong/Aldrin should not be used in the same year
- Wild Bill Hickok appears on August 2, so Hickok–Tutt shootout should not be used in the same year
July 21: Belgian National Day (1831)
- 356 BC – The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was destroyed in an act of arson by a man named Herostratus.
- 1831 – In Brussels, Leopold I (pictured) was inaugurated as the first King of the Belgians.
- 1865 – In one of the few recorded instances of a "quick draw" gun duel in the American Old West, Wild Bill Hickok shot and killed Davis Tutt over a poker debt.
- 1925 – American high school biology teacher John T. Scopes was found guilty of violating Tennessee's Butler Act by teaching evolution in class.
- 1995 – The Chinese People's Liberation Army began firing missiles into the waters north of Taiwan, starting the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis.