August 21

1745 In 1744, the Russian Tsarina Elizabeth selected the German Princess Sophie as the wife for her chosen successor, her uncouth, unstable and drunken nephew, Grand Duke Peter. Sophie changed her name to "Catherine" when she accepted the Russian Orthodox faith and they married on August 21, 1745. Peter humiliated and neglected his wife and wasted hours playing with his toy soldiers on the floor and under the bed clothes. He was assassinated in July 1762, six months after becoming Peter III.

Catherine the Great and Peter III

1765 William IV of the United Kingdom was born on August 21, 1765 at Buckingham House, the third child and son of King George III and Queen Charlotte. He was the younger brother of King George III's successor George IV. William joined the Navy aged 13 and served in the West Indies under Horatio Nelson. He gave away the bride at Nelson's wedding. William IV became king in June 1830, aged 64,  the oldest ever person to have come to the British or English throne.

1770 Lieutenant James Cook first sighted the south-eastern coast of what is now Australia in April 1770. He spent the next few months sailing along and mapping the east coast, before formally claiming it for Great Britain on August 21, 1770, naming it New South Wales. The area covered most of eastern Australia, from 38°S 145°E (near the later site of Mordialloc, Victoria), to the tip of Cape York, with an unspecified western boundary.

1789 Green, white and red, the national colors of Italy, first appeared on a tricolor cockade in Genoa on August 21, 1789, shortly after the outbreak of the French Revolution. The first official Italian tricolor flag was adopted by the government of the Cispadane Republic in 1797.

1888 The American Arithmometer Company was established in St. Louis, Missouri in 1886 to produce and sell an adding machine that William Seward Burroughs was developing. The inventor received a patent for the first successful adding machine in the US on August 21, 1888. American Arithmometer Company, became Burroughs Corporation and evolved to produce electronic billing machines and mainframes, and eventually merged with Sperry to form Unisys.

An early Burroughs adding machine By Royalbroil

1911 The Mona Lisa was taken from the Louvre on August 21, 1911. The museum's employee, Italian handyman Vincenzo Peruggia stole it by hiding in a closet and walking out with the painting hidden under his coat after the Louvre had closed. For the next two years, the painting was believed to be lost forever,  Peruggia was eventually caught after he returned to his native Italy and tried to sell the painting to a gallery owner.  It was retrieved from Florence hotel room in December 1913.

1921 One of the most famous teddy bears was an 18-inch-high one A. A. Milne and his wife brought from Harrods in London. It was a present for their son, Christopher Robin Milne, in honor of his first birthday on August 21, 1921. Milne called the toy bear "Winnie" after a Canadian black bear he often saw at London Zoo. It was later immortalized in Milne's children's book Winnie-the-Pooh, (The other part of the name, "Pooh," was based on a swan Milne and his family met on holiday).

Winnie the Pooh plus other stuffed animal toys owned by Milne's son

1944 During the Battle of Normandy From D-Day, June 6th to August 21, 1944, the Allies landed 2,052,299 men in northern France - over 27,000 men per day for those first 76 days. The Battle of Normandy was a major turning point in World War II. It was the first major Allied offensive on German-occupied territory, and it led to the liberation of France and the eventual defeat of Germany. 

1959 Hawaii became the fiftieth and most recent US state to join the union on August 21, 1959. Hawaii's admission is currently commemorated by Hawaii Admission Day, which is a legal holiday celebrated annually on the third Friday in August.

1967 James Anderson, Jr. posthumously received on August 21, 1967 the first Medal of Honor to be awarded to an African American U.S. Marine. Anderson covered a grenade with his body to save his colleagues when mortally wounded while serving in Vietnam six months earlier.

1969 The first Gap store was founded as a result of Donald and Doris Fisher's difficulties in finding jeans that fitted them. The pair decided to get in the game and the original Gap store was opened on Ocean Avenue in San Francisco on August 21, 1969; its merchandise consisted of Levi's and LP records. The American worldwide clothing and accessories store chain is today the largest specialty retailer in the United States.

Gap in Hillcrest Mall

1971 George Jackson was a prominent figure in the Black Panther Party and an author known for his activism and writings on prison conditions and racial inequality. He was incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison in California and was shot and killed on August 21, 1971 by guards who were convinced he was hiding a pistol in his bushy Afro. There is no evidence to support this claim. 

1982 King Sobhuza II was the Paramount Chief and later King of Swaziland for 82 years and 254 days, making him the longest-reigning monarch in history. He had 100 wives and more than 600 children by the time he passed away on August 21, 1982.

Sobhuza II - Paramount Chief of Swaziland. By The National Archives UK, 

1986 The earliest reference to a ‘bacon sandwich’ listed in the Oxford English Dictionary was by George Orwell in 1931 and the first mention of a ‘bacon sarnie’ was in the Daily Express on August 21, 1986.

1986 The sprinter Usain Bolt was born on August 21, 1986, in the rural town of Sherwood Content in Trelawny parish, Cornwall County, Jamaica. His parents Jennifer and Wellesley ran the local grocery store. Usain spent much of his free time as a child playing soccer and cricket with his brother Sadeeki. He is the only man to win gold in the 100 meter and 200 meter at three consecutive Olympics (2008, 2012 and 2016) earning the nickname "Lightning Bolt." 

1986 The Lake Nyos disaster occurred on August 21, 1986, when a limnic eruption at Lake Nyos, in northwestern Cameroon, erupted a massive cloud of carbon dioxide (CO2), which descended onto nearby villages, and killed 1,700 people and 3500 livestock through asphyxiation.

1994 On New Year's Eve 1993, Barbra Streisand embarked on her first ever full tour. The tour consisted of 26 shows and ended in Anaheim, California in July 1994. Although she had sung concerts this was her first tour after a 28 year bout of stage fright. Barbra: The Concert was broadcast on HBO August 21, 1994 and received a television audience of 11.2 million viewers, becoming the highest-rated musical event in HBO’s history. 

2008 The record for the most people riding on a single skateboard is 22. This record was set during the filming of the music video "Troublemaker" by the band Weezer in Los Angeles, California, USA, on August 21, 2008.

2013 UK surgeon Simon Bramhall marked his initials with an argon beam on the livers of two of his patients on February 9 and August 21, 2013. A colleague saw “SB” on a liver during a follow-up surgery. The marks aren't believed to be harmful to the liver but Bramhall pleaded guilty to assault.

2017 On August 21, 2017, a total solar eclipse was visible across the United States. The previous total solar eclipse visible from the U.S. mainland happened on February 26, 1979, but this one was different. The eclipse’s ‘path of totality’ was completely within U.S. soil for the first time since 1776.

2021 The official world record for eating grapes is 76 in one minute, set by Takuma Inoue in Kashiwara, Osaka, Japan, on 21 August 2021. He used a variety of grape famous in his hometown called Koshu grapes.