About October 21
October 21, 2025 is the 294th day of the year 2025 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 71 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Tuesday.
You can browse the full year calendar in case you need it.
Is this your birthday? Are you not curious to learn who shares your special day? Find out the October 21 famous birthdays and expand your knowledge today. (Sponsored link)
Libra is the sun sign of a person born on this day. Opal is the modern birthstone for this month. Jasper is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.
According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 119 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.
What Happened On October 21
- 1209 –Otto IV is crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by Pope Innocent III.
- 1392 –Nanboku-chō: Emperor Go-Kameyama abdicates in favor of rival claimant Go-Komatsu.
- 1520 –João Álvares Fagundes discovers the islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, bestowing them their original name of “Islands of the 11,000 Virgins”.
- 1774 –First display of the word “Liberty” on a flag, raised by colonists in Taunton, Massachusetts in defiance of British rule in Colonial America.
- 1816 –The Penang Free School is founded in George Town, Penang, Malaysia, by the Rev Hutchings. It is the oldest English-language school in Southeast Asia.
- 1912 –During the First Balkan War, Kardzhali is liberated by Bulgarian forces
- 1921 –George Melford’s silent film, The Sheik, starring Rudolph Valentino, premiers.
- 1921 –President Warren G. Harding delivers the first speech by a sitting President against lynching in the deep south.
- 1931 –The Sakurakai, a secret society in the Imperial Japanese Army, launches an abortive coup d'état attempt.
- 1950 –Korean War: heavy fighting begins between British and Australian forces from the 27th British Commonwealth Brigade and the North Korean 239th Regiment during the Battle of Yongju.
- 1956 –Kenyan rebel leader Dedan Kimathi is captured by the British Army, signalling the ultimate defeat of the Mau Mau Uprising, and essentially ending the British military campaign.
- 1959 –In New York City, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opens to the public.
- 1959 –President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order transferring Wernher von Braun and other German scientists from the United States Army to NASA.
- 1965 –Comet Ikeya-Seki approaches perihelion, passing 450,000 kilometers from the sun.
- 1969 –A coup d'état in Somalia brings Siad Barre to power.
- 1973 –John Paul Getty III’s ear is cut off by his kidnappers and sent to a newspaper in Rome; it doesn't arrive until November 8.
- 1977 –The European Patent Institute is founded.
- 1983 –The metre is defined at the seventeenth General Conference on Weights and Measures as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.
- 1986 –In Lebanon, pro-Iranian kidnappers claim to have abducted American writer Edward Tracy (he is released in August 1991).
- 1994 –In Seoul, 32 people are killed when the Seongsu Bridge collapses.
What no one tells you about your first name’s personality. Are there magical powers in your given name? Check out Dianne’s personality today! (Sponsored links)
Share or Link to This Page: