On this day in history

April 21

26 births · 19 deaths · 5 events

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Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

2019 Sri Lanka bombings

7 years ago

Born this day

1926

Elizabeth II

Would be 100

Oldest record

517th

Henry VII of England

death anniversary

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Famous births26

1729 · 297 yrs

Catherine II of Russia

Catherine II (born Sophie Auguste Friederike von Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 1729 – 17 November 1796), known as Catherine the Great, was Empress of Russia from 9 July 1762 until her death in 1796. Before her accession, Catherine had been a royal consort as the wife of Emperor Peter III, whom she overthrew in a coup d'état.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 67

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Photo: After Alexander Roslin · Public domain

1774 · 252 yrs

Jean-Baptiste Biot

Jean-Baptiste Biot (French:; 21 April 1774 – 3 February 1862) was a French physicist, astronomer, and mathematician who co-discovered the Biot–Savart law of magnetostatics with Félix Savart, established the reality of meteorites, made an early balloon flight, and studied the polarization of light.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 87

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Photo: Auguste Lemoine (?) · Public domain

1782 · 244 yrs

Friedrich Fröbel

Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel or Froebel (German:; 21 April 1782 – 21 June 1852) was a German pedagogue, a student of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, who laid the foundation for modern education based on the recognition that children have unique needs and capabilities.

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LiteratureDied aged 70

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Photo: Verlag A.Pichlers Witwe und Sohn · Public domain

1816 · 210 yrs

Charlotte Brontë

Charlotte Nicholls (21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855), commonly known by her maiden name Charlotte Brontë (commonly ), was an English novelist and poet, and was the elder sister of Emily, Anne and Branwell Brontë. She is best known for her novel Jane Eyre, which was first published under the pseudonym Currer Bell.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 38

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Photo: George Richmond · Public domain

1828 · 198 yrs

Hippolyte Taine

Hippolyte Adolphe Taine (21 April 1828 – 5 March 1893) was a French historian, critic and philosopher. He was the chief theoretical influence on French naturalism, a major proponent of sociological positivism and one of the first practitioners of historicist criticism.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScholarshipDied aged 64

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Photo: Unknown author · Public domain

1837 · 189 yrs

Fredrik Bajer

Fredrik Bajer (21 April 1837 – 22 January 1922) was a Danish writer, teacher, and pacifist politician who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1908 together with Klas Pontus Arnoldson.

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PoliticsDied aged 84

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Photo: Eduard Benjamin Møller (1841-1911) · Public domain

1838 · 188 yrs

John Muir

John Muir ( MURE; April 21, 1838 – December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist, and early advocate for the preservation of wilderness in the United States.

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ScienceDied aged 76

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Photo: Photograph by H. W. Bradley (1813–1891) and William Rulofson (1826–1878); original source: Holt-Atherton Library, Univer · Public domain

1864 · 162 yrs

Max Weber

Maximilian Carl Emil Weber (German:; 21 April 1864 – 14 June 1920) was a German sociologist, historian, jurist, and political economist who was one of the central figures in the development of sociology and the social sciences more generally. His ideas continue to influence social theory and research.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PhilosophyDied aged 56

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Photo: Ernst Gottmann · Public domain

1879 · 147 yrs

Kartini

Raden Adjeng Kartini, also known as Raden Ayu Kartini (21 April 1879 – 17 September 1904), was a prominent Indonesian advocate of women's rights and female education. She was born into an aristocratic Javanese family in the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia).

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ActivismWould be 147

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Photo: fotografer tidak diketahui. · CC BY-SA 3.0

1882 · 144 yrs

Percy Williams Bridgman

Percy Williams Bridgman (April 21, 1882 – August 20, 1961) was an American physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1946 for his work on the physics of high pressures. He also wrote extensively on the scientific method and on other aspects of the philosophy of science.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 144

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Photo: Nobel foundation · Public domain

1889 · 137 yrs

Paul Karrer

Paul Karrer (21 April 1889 – 18 June 1971) was a Swiss organic chemist best known for his research on vitamins. He and British chemist Norman Haworth won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1937.

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ScienceWould be 137

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Photo: Unknown · CC BY-SA 4.0

1915 · 111 yrs

Anthony Quinn

Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca (April 21, 1915 – June 3, 2001), known as Anthony Quinn, was a Mexican and American actor. He was known for his portrayal of earthy, passionate characters "marked by a brutal and elemental virility" in over 100 film, television and stage roles between 1936 and 2001.

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FilmWould be 111

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Photo: Unknown author · Public domain

Showing 12 of 26

Famous deaths19

1509 · 517 yrs

Henry VII of England

Henry VII (28 January 1457 – 21 April 1509), also known as Henry Tudor, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death in 1509. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor.

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RoyaltyDied aged 52

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Photo: anonymous · Public domain

1699 · 327 yrs

Jean Racine

Jean-Baptiste Racine ( rass-EEN, US also rə-SEEN; French:; 22 December 1639 – 21 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille, as well as an important literary figure in the Western tradition and world literature.

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LiteratureDied aged 59

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Photo: After Jean-Baptiste Santerre · Public domain

1736 · 290 yrs

Eugene of Savoy

Prince Eugene Francis of Savoy-Carignano (18 October 1663 – 21 April 1736), better known as Prince Eugene, was a distinguished feldmarschall in the Army of the Holy Roman Empire and of the Austrian Habsburg dynasty during the 17th and 18th centuries.

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RoyaltyDied aged 72

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Photo: Godfrey Kneller · Public domain

1910 · 116 yrs

Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He has been praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced", with William Faulkner calling him "the father of American literature".

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 74

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Photo: A.F. Bradley, New York · Public domain

1918 · 108 yrs

Manfred von Richthofen

Rittmeister Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen (German:; 2 May 1892 – 21 April 1918), known in English as Baron von Richthofen or the Red Baron, was a German fighter pilot with the German Air Force during World War I.

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AviationWould be 134

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Photo: C. J. von Dühren · Public domain

1924 · 102 yrs

Eleonora Duse

Eleonora Giulia Amalia Duse ( DEW-zay, Italian:; 3 October 1858 – 21 April 1924), often known simply as Duse, was an Italian actress, rated by many as the greatest of her time. She performed in many countries, notably in the plays of Gabriele D'Annunzio and Henrik Ibsen.

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FilmDied aged 65

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Photo: Aimé Dupont · Public domain

1938 · 88 yrs

Muhammad Iqbal

Sir Muhammad Iqbal (9 November 1877 – 21 April 1938) was an Islamic philosopher and poet.

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LiteratureWould be 148

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Photo: Amrita Sher-Gil · Public domain

1945 · 81 yrs

Walter Model

Otto Moritz Walter Model (IPA:; 24 January 1891 – 21 April 1945) was a German Generalfeldmarschall during World War II. Although he was a hard-driving, aggressive panzer commander early in the war, Model became best known as a practitioner of defensive warfare.

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MilitaryWould be 135

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Photo: Jäger · CC BY-SA 3.0 de

1946 · 80 yrs

John Maynard Keynes

John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes ( KAYNZ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist whose writings are considered the basis for the school of thought known as Keynesian economics, as well as its various offshoots.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 143

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Photo: Unknown author · Public domain

1965 · 61 yrs

Edward Victor Appleton

Sir Edward Victor Appleton (6 September 1892 – 21 April 1965) was an English physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1947 for his contributions to the knowledge of the ionosphere, which led to the development of radar and shortwave radio.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 134

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Photo: Nobel foundation · Public domain

1971 · 55 yrs

François Duvalier

François Duvalier (14 April 1907 – 21 April 1971), also known as Papa Doc, was a Haitian politician, dictator and physician who served as president of Haiti from 1957 until his death in 1971.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 119

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Photo: Unknown artist · Public domain

1980 · 46 yrs

Alexander Oparin

Alexander Ivanovich Oparin (Russian: Александр Иванович Опарин; 2 March 1894 – 21 April 1980) was a Soviet biochemist notable for his theories about the origin of life and for his book The Origin of Life. He also studied the biochemistry of material processing by plants and enzyme reactions in plant cells.

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ScienceWould be 132

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Photo: Unknown author · CC BY 4.0

Showing 12 of 19

Events5

1836 · 190 yrs

Battle of San Jacinto

The Battle of San Jacinto (Spanish: Batalla de San Jacinto), fought on April 21, 1836, in present-day La Porte and Deer Park, Texas, was the final and decisive battle of the Texas Revolution.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1915 · 111 yrs

Second Battle of Ypres

The Second Battle of Ypres was fought from 22 April to 25 May 1915, during the First World War, for control of the tactically valuable high ground to the east and the south of the Flemish town of Ypres, in western Belgium. The First Battle of Ypres had been fought the previous autumn.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1967 · 59 yrs

Greek junta

The Greek junta or Regime of the Colonels was a right-wing military junta that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974. On 21 April 1967, a group of colonels overthrew a caretaker government a month before scheduled elections which Georgios Papandreou's Centre Union was favoured to win.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1999 · 27 yrs

Second Liberian Civil War

The Second Liberian Civil War was a civil war in the West African nation of Liberia that lasted from 1999 to 2003. The war was mainly caused by transition failures after the First Civil War, especially the peace-building process which would result from re-integration, disarmament, rehabilitation and demobilization.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

2019 · 7 yrs

2019 Sri Lanka bombings

On 21 April 2019, Easter Sunday, three churches in Sri Lanka and three luxury hotels in the commercial capital, Colombo, were targeted in a series of coordinated Islamic State (IS)-related terrorist suicide bombings.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Tragedy

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