What are the important events that happened on July 21? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.
July 21: Facts & Myths About This Day
July 21 is the 202nd day of the year 2025 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 163 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Monday.
Under the Julian calendar, this day is July 8, 2025 – a Monday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?
When this day started, 29,217,600 minutes has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.
Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘dihectadigon’ day.
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Cancer is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Ruby is the modern birthstone for this month. Ruby is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.
According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 211 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.
The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,595 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.
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July 21 Historical Events
- 230 –Pope Pontian succeeds Urban I as the eighteenth pope.
- 1403 –Battle of Shrewsbury: King Henry IV of England defeats rebels to the north of the county town of Shropshire, England.
- 1568 –Eighty Years’ War: Battle of Jemmingen – Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva defeats Louis of Nassau.
- 1831 –Inauguration of Leopold I of Belgium, first king of the Belgians.
- 1904 –Louis Rigolly, a Frenchman, becomes the first man to break the 100 mph barrier on land. He drove a 15-liter Gobron-Brille in Ostend, Belgium.
- 1918 –SMU U-156 shells Nauset Beach, in Orleans, Massachusetts.
- 1919 –The dirigible Wingfoot Air Express crashes into the Illinois Trust and Savings Building in Chicago, killing 12 people.
- 1949 –The United States Senate ratifies the North Atlantic Treaty.
- 1969 –Space Race: Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin become the first humans to walk on the Moon, during the Apollo 11 mission (July 20 in North America).
- 1973 –In the Lillehammer affair in Norway, Israeli Mossad agents kill a waiter whom they mistakenly thought was involved in the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre.
Who were born on July 21?
- 1934 –Jonathan Miller, British theatre director
- 1935 –Norbert Blüm, German politician
- 1938 –Les Aspin, American politician (d. 1995)
- 1955 –Henry Priestman, British keyboardist and singer
- 1961 –Amar Singh Chamkila, Punjabi folk singer
- 1975 –Ravindra Pushpakumara, Sri Lankan cricketer
- 1978 –Gary Teale, Scottish footballer
- 1978 –Kyoko Iwasaki, Japanese swimmer
- 1981 –Blake Lewis, American musician
- 1988 –Chris Mitchell, Scottish footballer
Who died on July 21?
- 1425 –Manuel II Palaeologus, Byzantine Emperor (b. 1350)
- 1796 –Robert Burns, Scottish poet (b. 1759)
- 1932 –Bill Gleason, American baseball player (b. 1858)
- 1943 –Charlie Paddock, American athlete (b. 1900)
- 1946 –Gualberto Villarroel, Bolivian politician (b. 1908)
- 1967 –Basil Rathbone, English actor (b. 1892)
- 1972 –Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, Third king of Bhutan (b. 1928)
- 1986 –Ernest Maas, American screenwriter (b. 1892)
- 2001 –Steve Barton, American actor (b. 1954)
- 2007 –Dubravko Škiljan, Croatian linguist known for his work on Classical philology and semiotics (b. 1949)
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