On this day in History - Apr. 21

• 753 BC - Romulus founds Rome (traditional).
• 043 BC - Mark Antony is defeated in battle by consul Hirtius in the Battle of Mutina, who is killed.
• 0748 - Empress Gensho of Japan dies (b. 0680)
• 0953 - Otto I the Great gives Utrecht fishing rights.
• 1073 - Pope Alexander II [Anselmo da Baggio], Pope (1061-73), dies .
• 1109 - Anselm of Canterbury dies. Archbishop of Canterbury
• 1142 - Pierre Abélard dies (b. 1079). French writer.
• 1329 - Frederick IV, Duke of Lorraine dies (b. 1282)
• 1509 - King Henry VII of England dies (b. 1457).
• 1519 - El conquistador Hernán Cortés funda la ciudad de Veracruz, en México.
• 1551 - Oda Nobuhide dies (b. 1510). Japanese warlord.
• 1555 - Ludovico Carracci was born (d. 1619). Italian painter.
• 1574 - Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany dies (b. 1519).
• 1651 - Blessed Joseph Vaz was born (d. 1711). Apostle of Ceylon.
• 1652 - Michel Rolle was born (d. 1719). French mathematician.
• 1671 - John Law was born (d. 1729). Scottish economist.
• 1699 - Jean Racine dies (b. 1639). French dramatist.
• 1701 - Asano Naganori dies (b. 1667). Japanese warlord.
• 1713 - Louis, 4th duc de Noailles was born (d. 1793). Marshal of France.
• 1719 - Philippe de la Hire dies (b. 1640). French mathematician and historian
• 1720 - Antoine Hamilton dies (b. 1646). French writer.
• 1729 - Tsarina Catherine II of Russia was born (d. 1796).
• 1731 - Daniel Defoe dies (b. 1660). British author .
• 1774 - Jean-Baptiste Biot was born (d. 3 Feb 1862). French physicist who helped formulate the Biot-Savart law, which concerns magnetic fields, and laid the basis for saccharimetry, a useful technique of analyzing sugar solutions.
• 1775 - Alexander Anderson was born (d. 1870). American wood-engraver and illustrator.
• 1782 - Friedrich Froebel was born. German educationalist
• 1789 - John Adams sworn in as first US Vice President, 9 days before Washington is sworn in as president.
• 1792 - Tiradentes, [Joaquim José da Silva Xavier], dies hanged (b. 1746).Revolutionary who was leading a movement for Brazil's independence.
• 1793 - John Michell dies (b. 1724). British geologist and astronomer who is considered the father of seismology, the science of earthquakes.
• 1810 - John Putnam Chapin was born (d. 1864). Mayor of Chicago .
• 1811 - Alson Sherman was born (d. 1903). Mayor of Chicago .
• 1814 - Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts was born (d. 1906). English philanthropist.
• 1815 - Joseph Winston dies (b. 1746). American patriot and Congressman from North Carolina.
• 1816 - Charlotte Brontë was born (d. 1855). English author.
• 1822 - Combate de Riobamba: 96 granaderos al mando de Lavalle derrotan a más de 400 realistas.
• 1825 - Johann Friedrich Pfaff dies (b. 22 Dec 1765). German mathematician who proposed the first general method of integrating partial differential equations of the first order.
• 1830 - James Starley was born (d. 17 June 1881). British inventor and father of the bicycle industry.
• 1835 - Samuel Slater dies (b. 9 June 1768). English-American mechanical engineer who founded the American cotton-textile industry.
• 1836 - Texas Revolution: Battle of San Jacinto - Republic of Texas forces under Sam Houston defeat troops under Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna. (Santa Anna and hundreds of his troops are taken prisoner along the San Jacinto River the next day.)
• 1837 - Fredrik Bajer was born. Danish writer and pacifist, Nobel Prize in Peace - 1908 .
• 1838 - John Muir was born (d. 24 Dec 1814). Scottish-American naturalist, farmer, explorer, writer, conservationist, who championed the establishment of Sequoia and Yosemite national parks in California.Environmentalist.
• 1843 - Walther Flemming was born (d. 4 Aug 1905). German anatomist, a founder of the science of cytogenetics (the study of the cell's hereditary material, the chromosomes). He was the first to observe and describe systematically the behaviour of chromosomes in the cell nucleus during normal cell division (mitosis).
• 1849 - Oskar Hertwig was born (d. 25 Oct 1922). German embryologist and cytologist who did extensive work on the nuclear transmission of heredity. He was the first to recognize that the essential event in fertilization is the fusion of the nuclei of the sperm and ovum.
• 1851 - Charles Barrois was born (d. 1939). French geologist.
• 1863 - Bahá'u'lláh is proclaimed as the head of the Bahá'í Faith. Declaration of Baha'u'llah; Baha'i Feast of Ridvan (Jalal 13, 20)
• 1863 - American Civil War: Steight's Raid begins - Troops led by Union Colonel Abel Streight move into northern Alabama and Georgia to cut the Western and Atlantic Railroad between Chattanooga, Tennessee and Atlanta, Georgia (the raid failed).
• 1864 - Max Weber was born (d. 1920). German economist and sociologist.
• 1868 - Henry James O'Farrell dies hanged. Australian would-be assassin of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh
• 1870 - Edwin S. Porter was born (d. 1941). American film pioneer.
• 1878 - Pope Leo XIII publishes encyclical Inscrutabili.
• 1879 - Kartini was born (d. 1904). Indonesian national heroine
• 1882 - Percy Williams Bridgman was born (d. 20 Aug 1961). American experimental physicist noted for his studies of materials at high temperatures and pressures. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1946 for his "invention of an apparatus to produce extremely high pressures, and for the discoveries he made therewith in the field of high pressure physics."
• 1889 - Manuel Prado y Ugarteche was born. President of Perú (1939-1945 and 1956-1962).
• 1889 - Paul Karrer was born (d. 18 Jun 1971). Swiss chemist who investigated the constitution of carotenoids, flavins, and vitamins A and B2, for which he shared Nobel Prize in Chemistry -1937 (with Sir Norman Haworth of Great Britain).
• 1891 - José Elias Garcia dies. Portuguese politician.
• 1894 - Norway formaly adopts the Krag-Jørgensen rifle as the main arm of its armed forces, a weapon that would remain in service for almost 50 years.
• 1898 - Spanish-American War: The U.S. Congress, on April 25, recognized that a state of war had existed between the United States and Spain as of this date.
• 1905 - Pat Brown was born (d. 1996). American politician.
• 1907 - Enrique Líster was born. Spanish militar and politician.
• 1907 - Antoni Szalowski was born. Composer.
• 1909 - Dr. Rollo May was born (d. 22 Oct 1994). American psychologist who is the best known American existential psychologist.
• 1910 - Mark Twain dies (b. 1835). American author and humorist.
• 1911 - Ivan Combe was born (d. 2000). American inventor.
• 1911 - Alfred Elis Törnebohm dies (b. 16 Oct 1838). Swedish geologist and pioneer in the study and analysis of mountain structure
• 1912 - The New York Giants and New York Yankees play an exhibition game to benefit survivors of the RMS Titanic.
• 1912 - Marcel Camus was born (d. 1982). Film director.
• 1913 - Choh Hao Li was born (d. 28 Nov 1987). Chinese-American biochemist and experimental endocrinologist who with his co-workers isolated in pure form six of the eight hormones known to be secreted by the anterior pituitary gland
• 1914 - Revolución Mexicana: los marines estadounidenses ocupan Veracruz.
• 1915 - Anthony Quinn was born in Mexico (d. 3 Jun 2001). Oscar-winning actor, Zorba the Greek, Lawrence of Arabia.
• 1918 - World War I: German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, known as "The Red Baron," is shot down and killed by Allied fire over Vaux sur Somme in France.
• 1918 - Manfred von Richthofen ["Red Baron"] is shot down in I World War (b. 1892). German pilot.
• 1919 - Don Cornell was born (d. 2004). American singer.
• 1920 - Anselmo Duarte was born in Salto, SP, Brazil. Brazilian actor and director.
• 1922 - Alistair MacLean was born (d. 1987). Scotish author.
• 1922 - Caso y Andrade was born (d. 30 Nov 1984). Mexican archaeologist and government official who explored the early Oaxacan cultures and is best remembered for his excavation of Tomb Seven at Monte Albán, the earliest-known North American necropolis . [El mapa de Teozacoalco, (1949); Kings and Kingdoms of the Mixteca ]
• 1923 - John Mortimer was born. English barrister and writer.
• 1924 - Clara Ward was born (d. 1973). Gospel music singer.
• 1924 - Eleonora Duse dies (b. 1858). Italian actress.
• 1926 - Queen Elizabeth II was born. Queen of England, since 1952.
• 1926 - Sir Henry Christopher Mance dies (b. 1840). British scientist and engineer who invented the heliograph, a signaling device that employs two mirrors to gather sunlight and send it to a prearranged spot as a coded series of short and long flashes.
• 1927 - Gerald Flood was born (d. 1989). British actor.
• 1928 - Anselmo de Andrade dies. Portuguese politician and economist.
• 1929 - Martin Kruse was born. Theologian .
• 1930 - Silvana Mangano was born in Rome, Italy (d. 1989). Actress ( Death in Venice, Barabbas ).
• 1930 - Hilda Hilst was born (d. 2004). Brazilian poetess, writer and dramatist
• 1930 - A fire at a Columbus, Ohio penitentiary kills 320 people.
• 1930 - Robert Bridges dies (b. 1844). English poet.
• 1932 - Elaine May was born. American comedien.
• 1933 - Ohio, EE.UU.: el dirigible Macon hace su vuelo inaugural.
• 1935 - Charles Grodin was born. Actor, journalist .
• 1935 - Thomas Kean was born. Governor of New Jersey
• 1935 - King Boris of Bulgaria forbids all political parties .
• 1935 - Charles Grodin was born. American actor and journalist .
• 1936 - James Dobson was born. American evangelist
• 1937 - Club Deportivo Universidad Católica of Santiago (Chile) is founded.
• 1938 - Allama Iqbal dies (b. 1887). Indian philosopher and poet.
• 1939 - Helen Prejean was born. American nun and writer
• 1943 - Football Club Nantes Atlantique, France is founded
• 1944 - Women in France receive the right to vote
• 1945 - World War II: Soviet Union forces south of Berlin at Zossen attack the German High Command headquarters.
• 1945 - Ana Lúcia Torre was born in São Paulo. Brazilian actress.
• 1946 - John Maynard Keynes dies (b. 1883). English economist.
• 1947 - Iggy Pop was born. American musician (The Stooges)
• 1948 - Gary Condit was born. American politician.
• 1948 - Claire Denis was born in Paris. French actress ( Boom Boom, Chocolat) .
• 1948 - Carlos López Buchardo dies. Argentine musician and composer.
• 1949 - Patti Lupone was born. American singer and actress
• 1951 - The National Olympic Committee of the USSR was formed.
• 1951 - Michael Hartley Freedman, was born. American mathematician who was awarded the Fields Medal in 1986 for his solution of the Poincaré conjecture in four dimensions.
• 1951 - Tony Danza was born. American actor and talk show host.
• 1951 - Michael Hartley Freedman was born.American mathematician.
• 1951 - Steve Vickers was born. Canadian ice hockey player.
• 1952 - Administrative Professionals' Day (formerly Secretaries Day), first celebrated.
• 1953 - Roy Cohn and G. David Schine, two of Senator Joseph McCarthy's chief aides, recommend the removal of 30,000 books from the libraries of the United States Information Service posts in Europe, including works by Dashiell Hammett, W. E. B. Du Bois, Herman Melville, John Steinbeck and Henry David Thoreau, calling them "pro-Communist".
• 1954 - Gregori Malenkov becomes premier of USSR.
• 1955 - Bob Hope's radio program airs its last segment.
• 1956 - Elvis Presley's song "Heartbreak Hotel" becomes the "King's" first song to reach the top of the Billboard magazine music charts.
• 1956 - Charles MacArthur dies (b. 1895). American writer.
• 1957 - Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Fidei Donum
• 1957 - Sir John Graham Kerr dies (b. 18 Sep 1869). English embryologist and pioneer in naval camouflage who greatly advanced knowledge of the evolution of vertebrates and, in 1914, was among the first to advocate camouflage of ships by means of "dazzle" (countershading and strongly contrasting patches).
• 1958 - Andie MacDowell was born. American actress.
• 1959 - Gene Callahan was born. American writer.
• 1959 - Michael Timmins was born. Canadian folk/rock guitarist, songwriter (Cowboy Junkies)
• 1959 - Robert Smith was born. English musician The Cure.
• 1960 - Brasília, Brazil's capital, is officially inaugurated. At 9:30 am the Three Powers of the Republic were simultaneously transferred from the old capital, Rio de Janeiro.
• 1960 - Founding of the Orthodox Baha'i faith in Washington, DC
• 1960 - Michel Goulet was born. Canadian ice hockey player
• 1961 - O austronauta soviético Yuri Gagarin torna-se o primeiro homem a ser lançado no espaço.
• 1961 - French army revolts in Algeria .
• 1962 - The Seattle World's Fair (Century 21 Exposition) opens. It is the first World's Fair in the U.S. since World War II.
• 1962 - Sir Frederick Handley Page dies (b. 15 Nov 1885). British aircraft designer who built the Handley Page 0/400, the world's first twin-engine bomber for the Royal Flying Corps, one of the largest planes used in WW I.
• 1963 - Ken Caminiti was born (d. 2004). Baseball player.
• 1963 - Roy Dupuis was born. Canadian actor.
• 1964 - Ludmila Engquist, Russian-born Swedish athlete
• 1965 - Karen Foster was born. American model (Playboy)
• 1965 - The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair opens for its second and final season.
• 1965 - Ed Belfour was born. Canadian ice hockey player.
• 1965 - Sir Edward Victor Appleton dies (b. 6 Sep 1892). English physicist, born in Bradford, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1947 for his discovery of the so-called Appleton layer of the ionosphere, which is a dependable reflector of radio waves and as such is useful in communication.
• 1966 - Nos Estados Unidos, foi realizada a primeira implantação de um coração artificial num ser humano.
• 1966 - Rastafarianism: Haile Selassie of Ethiopia visits Jamaica. (Grounation Day) .
• 1967 - A few days before the general election in Greece, Colonel George Papadopoulos leads a coup d'état establishing a military regime that lasted for seven years.
• 1967 - André-Louis Danjon dies (b. 6 Apr 1890). French astronomer who devised a now standard five-point scale for rating the darkness and colour of a total lunar eclipse, which is known as the Danjon Luminosity Scale
• 1969 - 73rd Boston Marathon won by Yoshiaki Unetani of Japan in 2:13:49
• 1970 - Hutt River Province "secedes" from the Commonwealth of Australia.
• 1970 - Nicole Sullivan, was born. American actress, comedian and writer .
• 1970 - Rob Riggle was born. American comedian.
• 1971 - Eric Mabius was born. American actor.
• 1971 - Michael Turner was born. American comic book artist
• 1971 - François "Papa Doc" Duvalier dies (b. 1907). Haitian dictator
• 1971 - Jean Claude Duvalier asume el poder en Haití, luego de la muerte de su padre.
• 1971 - Jennifer Reed was born. Miss USA-Michigan 1997
• 1972 - John Young y Charles Duke, tripulantes del Apolo 16, exploran la superficie de la Luna.
• 1972 - Juan Carlos Castagnino dies (b. 19 Nov 1928). Argentine painter.
• 1973 - Arthur Fadden dies (b. 1894). Thirteenth Prime Minister of Australia
• 1975 - Vietnam War: President of South Vietnam Nguyen Van Thieu flees Saigon, as Xuan Loc, the last South Vietnamese outpost blocking a direct North Vietnamese assault on Saigon, falls.
• 1975 - 4th Boston Women's Marathon won by Liane Winter of W Germ in 2:42:24 (world record) .
• 1975 - 79th Boston Marathon won by Bill Rodgers of Mass in 2:09:55
• 1975 - Last South Vietnam president Nguyen Van Thieu resigns after 10 years
• 1977 - Jamie Salé was born. Canadian figure skater.
• 1977 - Karen Ann Peterson, was born. Miss Aruba Universe 1997
• 1977 - Gummo Marx dies (b. 1892). American actor, comedian, Marx Brothers
• 1977 - Héctor German Oesterheld dies (b.1919). Argentine writer and guionist, born in Buenos Aires. Oesterheld is probably the most important comics writer from South America.
• 1978 - Jukka Nevalainen was born. Drummer of Finnish heavy metal band Nightwish
• 1978 - Sandy Denny dies (b. 1947). British vocalist.
• 1978 - Angelo Maria Ripellino dies (b. 1923 ). Italian Critic and poet born in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. He wrote extensively on Contemporary Russian literature and Czech literature.
• 1978 - Thomas Wyatt Turner dies (b. 1877). American civil rights advocate and agricultural engineer.
• 1980 - Vincent Lecavalier was born. Canadian hockey player .
• 1980 - 84th Boston Marathon won by Bill Rodgers of Mass in 2:12:11
• 1980 - 9th Boston Women's Marathon won by Jacqueline Gareau of Canada in 2:34:28 Rosie Ruiz disqualified as women's champ she hadn't run entire course
• 1980 - Aleksandr Oparin dies (b. 18 Feb 1894). Russian biochemist noted for his studies on the origin of life from chemical matter.
• 1982 - Carnell "Cadillac" Williams was born. American football player.
• 1983 - Walter Slezak dies (b. 1902). Austrian actor.
• 1984 - Manuel "Manucho" Mujica Lainez dies (b. 1910). Argentine journalist and novelist.
• 1985 - Ayrton Senna wins the first of 41 Formula One championship races at the Portuguese Grand Prix in Estoril.
• 1985 - Ingrid Kristiansen wins London Marathon in a record 2:21:06
• 1985 - Rudi Gernreich dies (b. 1922). Austrian fashion designer.
• 1985 - Tancredo Neves dies in São Paulo (b. 1910). Elected President of Brazil.
• 1986 - Geraldo Rivera opens Al Capone's vault on live television and finds nothing.
• 1986 - 15th Boston Women's Marathon won by I Kristiansen of Norway in 2:24:55 April 21, 1986 - 90th Boston Marathon won by Rob de Castella of Australia in 2:07:51
• 1987 - The Tamil Tigers are blamed for a car bomb that explodes in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo, killing 106 people.
• 1987 - La Asamblea Nacional francesa aprueba el Tratado franco-británico para la construcción del túnel bajo el Canal de La Mancha.
• 1988 - El escritor mexicano Carlos Fuentes recibe el Premio Cervantes de Literatura.
• 1989 - Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989: In Beijing, around 100,000 students gather in Tiananmen Square to commemorate the late Chinese reform leader Hu Yaobang.
• 1989 - Princess Dukhye of Korea dies (b. 1912)
• 1990 - Richard Bevan Braithwaite dies (b. 15 Jan 1900). British philosopher best known for his theories in the philosophy of science and in moral and religious philosophy.
• 1990 - Erté dies (b. 1892). French artist.
• 1991 - Jakov Tolstikov wins 4th World Cup marathon (2:09:17)
• 1991 - Rosa Mota wins 4th World Cup female marathon (2:26:14) / A atleta portuguesa Rosa Mota venceu a maratona de Londres
• 1991 - 52nd PGA Seniors Golf Championship: Jack Nicklaus
• 1991 - Willi Boskovsky dies (b. 1909). Austrian violinist and conductor.
• 1992 - Death penalty: After 13 years on death row, convicted murderer Robert Alton Harris is executed in California's gas chamber.
• 1992 - Vladimir K Romanov, Grand Duke/Russian pretender to the throne, dies at 74
• 1993 - Brazil votes against a monarchy
• 1993 - Portugal: A escritora Maria Ondina Braga recebe o Prémio Eça de Queiroz pelo seu romance Nocturno em Lisboa.
• 1994 - The first discovery of extrasolar planets are announced by astronomer Alexander Wolszczan.
• 1994 - Raúl Soldi dies. Painter.
• 1996 - 57th PGA Seniors Golf Championship: Hale Irwin
• 1996 - Dzhokhar Dudaev dies (b. 1944). President of Republic of Chechenia.
• 1996 - Jimmy the Greek dies (b. 1919). American bookie and sports broadcaster.
• 1997 - Andres Rodriguez dies. Paraguayan president (1989-93)
• 1997 - Diosdado Macapagal dies. Philippine president (1961-65).
• 1997 - 101st Boston Marathon won by Lameck Aguta of Kenya in 2:10:34
• 1997 - 26th Boston Women's Marathon won by Fatuma Roba of Ethopia in 2:26:23
• 1999 - Charles 'Buddy' Rogers dies (b. 1904). American actor, musician.
• 2000 - Neal Matthews, Jr. dies (b. 1929). American singer.
• 2001 - Jack Haley Jr. dies. Producer.
• 2003 - Nina Simone dies in Carry-le-Rouet, France (b. 1933). American singer and pianist - I Put a Spell on You.
• 2004 - Mary McGrory dies (b. 1918). American journalist.
• 2005 - John Negroponte becomes the first United States Director of National Intelligence.
• 2005 - Gerry Marshall dies (b. 1941). British racing driver.
• Bahá'í Faith - First day of the festival of Ridván
• Roman Empire - the Parilia was held in honor of Pales
• Rome - city birthday
• Tiradentes - Brazil
• Grounation Day in Rastafari movement