History of the Day for:
August 21
- 1680: Pueblo Indians drove out the Spanish and took Santa Fe, N.M.
- 1841: John Hampton patented the venetian blind.
- 1878: The American Bar Association was founded.
- 1888: William Seward Burroughs patented the adding machine.
- 1897: Oldsmobile began operation as a General Motors Corp. division.
- 1904: Pianist/bandleader Count Basie was born in Red Bank, N.J.
- 1911: Leonardo da Vinci's painting of the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in Paris by an Italian waiter, Vicenzo Perruggia. It was recovered in 1913.
- 1944: U.S., British, Russian and Chinese representatives met at Dumbarton Oaks near Washington to plan the formation of the United Nations.
- 1959: Hawaii was admitted as the 50th state.
- 1963: Martial law was declared in South Vietnam following raids on Buddhist pagodas and the arrest of hundreds of Buddhist monks.
- 1965: The U.S. spacecraft Gemini 5 was launched from Cape Kennedy with Gordon Cooper and Charles Conrad on board.
- 1968: Marine James Anderson Jr. became the first black to be awarded the Medal of Honor for his service in the Vietnam War.
- 1983: Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino was assassinated moments after stepping off the plane carrying him home from three years in exile in the U.S.
- 1990: British conservationist George Adamson, whose work was featured in the film "Born Free," was murdered by bandits in Kenya.
- 1991: Latvia declared its independence from the Soviet Union.
- 1991: Coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev collapses.
- 1992: Ruby Ridge Standoff in Idaho .
- 1993: NASA loses contact with the Mars Observer spacecraft.
- 2001: NATO decides to send a peace-keeping force to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
- 2001: The Red Cross announces that a famine is striking Tajikistan, and calls for international financial aid for Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
- 2007: Hurricane Dean makes its first landfall in Costa Maya, Mexico with winds at 165 mph (266 km/h). Dean is the first storm since Hurricane Andrew to make landfall as a Category 5.