October 21

2024 Calendar

October 21 is the 294th day of the year (295th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 71 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1900

310 – Pope Eusebius
1125 - Cosmas of Prague, Bohemian writer
1204 - Robert de Beaufort, 4th Earl of Leicester
1221 - Alix, Duchess of Brittany (b. 1201)
1266 – Birger Jarl, Swedish statesman (b. 1210)
1422 – King Charles VI of France (b. 1368)
1500 - Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado of Japan (b. 1442)
1558 – Julius Caesar Scaliger, humanist scholar (b. 1484)
1600 - Toda Katsushige, Japanese warlord (b. 1557)
1623 - William Wade, English statesman and diplomat (b. 1546)
1687 – Sir Edmund Waller, English poet (b. 1606)
1708 - Guru Gobind Singh, 10th Sikh Guru (b. 1666)
1765 – Giovani Paolo Panini, Italian painter and architect (b. 1691)
1775 – Peyton Randolph, American politician, President of the Continental Congress (b. 1721)
1805 - Killed in the Battle of Trafalgar:
- Horatio Nelson, British admiral (b. 1758)
- George Duff, Royal Navy captain (b. 1764)
- John Cooke, Royal Navy captain (b. 1763)
1818 – Michael Howe, bushranger in Tasmania, Australia
1821 - Dorothea Ackermann, German actress (b. 1752)
1872 - Jacques Babinet, French physicist (b. 1794)
1873 – Johann Sebastian Welhaven, Norwegian poet (b. 1807)
1896 – James Henry Greathead, British engineer (b. 1844)

1901 – 2000

1903 - Jinmaku Kyugoro, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1829)
1904 - Isabelle Eberhardt, Swiss explorer and writer (b. 1877)
1907 - Jules Chevalier, French priest (b. 1824)
1916 - Count Karl von Stürgkh, Austrian politician (b. 1859)
1929 - Vasil Radoslavov, Bulgarian politician (b. 1854)
1931 – Arthur Schnitzler, Austrian writer (b. 1862)
1931 - Barbecue Bob, American blues musician (b. 1902)
1940 - William G. Conley, Governor of West Virginia (b. 1866)
1944 – Alois Kayser, German missionary, working in Nauru
1944 - Hilma af Klint, Swedish artist and mystic (b. 1862)
1952 - Hans Merensky, South African geologist and philanthropist (b. 1871)
1967 - Ejnar Hertzsprung, Danish astronomer (b. 1873)
1969 – Waclaw Sierpinski, Polish mathematician (b. 1882)
1969 – Jack Kerouac, American beat novelist (b. 1922)
1975 – Charles Reidpath, American athlete (b. 1887)
1978 – Anastas Mikoyan, Soviet politician (b. 1895)
1980 – Hans Asperger, Austrian psychologist who discovered Asperger's Syndrome (b. 1906).
1980 - Vulko Cherenkov, Bulgarian politician (b. 1900)
1984 – François Truffaut, French movie director (b. 1932)
1985 - Dan White, American politician (b. 1946)
1986 – Lionel Murphy, Australian Labor Party politician and High Court judge (b. 1922)
1990 - Walther Sommerlath, German businessman, father of Queen Silvia of Sweden (b. 1901)
1993 – Melchior Ndadaye, President of Burundi (b. 1953)
1995 – Shannon Hoon, lead singer of pop band Blind Melon (b. 1967)
1995 - Maxene Andrews, American singer (b. 1916)
1995 – Jesús Blasco, Spanish comic book writer (b. 1919)
1996 - Georgios Zoitakis, Greek army general and regent (b. 1910)
1998 - Francis W. Sargent, Governor of Massachusetts (b. 1915)
1999 – Lars Bo, Danish artist and writer (b. 1924)

From 2001

2003 – Fred Berry, American actor (b. 1951)
2003 – Luis A. Ferré, former governor of Puerto Rico (b. 1904)
2003 – Louise Day Hicks, US politician (b. 1916)
2003 – Elliott Smith, American musician (b. 1969)
2006 – Sandy West, American musician (b. 1959)
2010 – Loki Schmidt, German environmentalist and wife of Helmut Schmidt (b. 1919)
2011 - Edmundo Ros, Trinidadian musician (b. 1910)
2012 - George McGovern, American politician (b. 1922)
2012 - Yash Chopra, Indian movie director, screenwriter and producer (b. 1932)
2014 - Gough Whitlam, 21st Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1916)
2014 - Benjamin C. Bradlee, American journalist (b. 1921)
2014 - Mohammad-Reza Mahdavi Kani, Iranian politician and cleric (b. 1931)
2014 - Seth Gaaikema, Dutch comedian and writer (b. 1939)
2014 - Lilli Carati, Italian actress (b. 1956)
2015 - Marty Ingels, American actor (b. 1936)
2016 - Manfred Krug, German actor (b. 1937)
2017 - Martin Eric Ain, American-Swiss musician (b. 1967)
2017 - Emilio D'Amore, Italian politician (b. 1915)
2017 - Rosemary Leach, English actress (b. 1935)
2017 - Lech Ordon, Polish actor (b. 1928)
2017 - Denise P. Barlow, British geneticist (b. 1950)
2017 - Judith McGrath, Australian actress (b. 1947)
2017 - Gilbert Stork, American organic chemist (b. 1921)
2018 - Earl Bakken, American inventor and museum founder (b. 1924)
2018 - Ilie Balaci, Romanian footballer and manager (b. 1956)
2018 - Harry L. Ettlinger, American engineer (b. 1926)
2018 - Robert Faurisson, British-French journalist, academic and Holocaust denier (b. 1929)
2018 - Joachim Ronneberg, Norwegian military officer and broadcaster (b. 1919)
2018 - Jun-ichi Nishizawa, Japanese electrical engineer (b. 1926)
2018 - Charles Wang, Chinese-born American software engineer, philanthropist and sports team owner (b. 1944)
2019 - Gilberto Aceves Navarro, Mexican painter and sculptor (b. 1931)
2019 - Bengt Feldreich, Swedish television journalist (b. 1925)
2019 - Taras Kutovy, Ukrainian politician (b. 1976)
2019 - Lho Shin-yong, Prime Minister of South Korea (b. 1930)
2019 - Aila Meriluoto, Finnish poet (b. 1924)

Births

1901 – 1950

1901 - Margarete Buber-Neumann, German politician (d. 1989)
1907 - Nikos Engonopoulos, Greek painter and poet (d. 1985)
1911 – Mary Blair, American artist and illustrator (d. 1978)
1912 – Georg Solti, Hungarian conductor (d. 1997)
1914 – Kazimierz Swiatek, Roman Catholic cardinal of Belarus (d. 2011)
1914 – Martin Gardner, American writer (d. 2010)
1917 – Dizzy Gillespie, American musician (d. 1993)
1918 - Hulett C. Smith, Governor of West Virginia (d. 2012)
1921 – Malcolm Arnold, British composer (d. 2006)
1921 - Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld, Dutch astronomer (d. 2015)
1921 - Sena Jurinac, Bosnian operatic soprano (d. 2011)
1922 – Liliane Bettencourt, French L'Oreal heiress (d. 2017)
1924 - Joyce Randolph, American actress
1924 - Julie Wilson, American actress (d. 2015)
1925 – Celia Cruz, Cuban Salsa singer (d. 2003)
1925 - Virginia Zeani, Romanian soprano
1926 – Leonard Rossiter, English comedian and actor (d. 1984)
1926 - William Love Waller, Governor of Mississippi (d. 2011)
1927 – Fritz Wintersteller, Austrian mountaineer (d. 2018)
1927 - Howard Zieff, American director (d. 2009)
1928 - Vern Mikkelsen, American basketball player (d. 2013)
1928 - Whitey Ford, American baseball player
1929 - Pierre Bellemare, French writer, radio and television host (d. 2018)
1930 - Pascale Roberts, French actress (d. 2019)
1930 - Ivan Silayev, Soviet Prime Minister
1931 – Shammi Kapoor, Indian actor (d. 2011)
1932 - Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme, Vice president of Nigeria (d. 2017)
1932 - Pál Csernai, Hungarian footballer (d. 2013)
1933 - Georgia Brown, American actress (d. 1992)
1933 - Joan Hinde, English trumpeter and entertainer (d. 2015)
1937 - Hans-Ulrich Schmincke, German volcanologist
1937 - Said Afandi al-Chirkawi, Russian spiritual leader (d. 2012)
1937 - Valentina Pyatchenko, Russian singer (Buranovskiye Babushki)
1940 – Geoffrey Boycott, English cricketer
1940 – Manfred Mann, South African-English musician
1940 - Marita Petersen, Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (d. 2001)
1941 – Steve Cropper, American musician and songwriter
1942 – Christopher A. Sims, American economist
1942 - Paul Churchland, Canadian philosopher
1942 - Judith Sheindlin, American judge (Judge Judy)
1942 - Lou Lamoriello, American ice hockey player, coach and manager
1943 – Tariq Ali, Pakistani writer and historian
1944 - Jean-Pierre Sauvage, French chemist, 2016 joint Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate
1944 - Mandy Rice-Davies, British media personality (d. 2014)
1945 - Nikita Mikhalkov, Soviet-Russian movie director
1946 - Jane Heal, British philosopher
1946 – Lux Interior, American singer (d. 2009)
1948 - Tom Everett, American actor
1949 – Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel
1949 - LeTanya Richardson, American actress
1949 - Mike Keenan, Canadian ice hockey coach
1950 - Ronald McNair, American astronaut (d. 1986)

1951 – 1975

1952 - Trevor Chappell, Australian cricketer
1952 – Brent Mydland, American keyboardist (d. 1990)
1952 - Patti Davis, American actress and novelist, daughter of Ronald Reagan
1953 – Peter Mandelson, English politician
1953 - Eric Faulkner, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist
1954 - Brian Tobin, Canadian politician
1955 - Catherine Hardwicke, American movie director, producer, designer and screenwriter
1956 – Carrie Fisher, American actress and writer (d. 2016)
1957 - Steve Lukather, American guitarist and singer (Toto)
1957 – Wolfgang Ketterle, German physicist, Nobel Prize winner
1958 - Andre Geim, Russian-born physicist, Nobel Prize winner
1959 – Ken Watanabe, Japanese actor
1960 - Scott Stearney, American Vice Admiral (d. 2018)
1962 - David Campese, Australian rugby player
1964 – Jon Carin, American musician
1965 – Ion Andoni Goikoetxea, Basque-Spanish footballer
1967 – Paul Ince, English footballer
1969 – Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, crown prince of Bahrain
1969 - Chris Law, Scottish politician
1971 – Jade Jagger, socialite and jewellery designer
1971 - Damien Martyn, Australian cricketer
1971 - Paul Telfer, Scottish footballer
1971 - Thomas Ulsrud, Norwegian curler
1972 - Felicity Anderson, Australian actress
1974 - Costel Busuioc, Romanian tenor

From 1976

1976 - Andrew Scott, Irish actor
1979 - Fernanda Rodrigues, Brazilian actress and television presenter
1979 - Karl Harris, British motorcycle racer (d. 2014)
1980 – Kim Kardashian, American socialite, model and reality television personality
1981 – Nemanja Vidic, Serbian footballer
1981 - Martin Castrogiovanni, Argentine-born Italian rugby player
1983 – Hrvoje Custic, Croatian footballer (d. 2008)
1983 - Amber Rose, American model
1983 - Charlotte Sullivan, Canadian actress
1984 – Kieran Richardson, English footballer
1986 – Natalee Holloway, American teenager (missing since 2005)
1986 - Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Chechen-American terrorist (d. 2013)
1988 - James White, American basketball player
1989 - Sam Vokes, Welsh footballer
1990 - Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, French chess player
1990 – Ricky Rubio, Spanish basketball player
1992 – Bernard Tomic, Australian tennis player
1993 - Kane Brown, American singer
1995 - Cameron Burgess, Scottish-Australian footballer
1995 - Shannon Magrane, American singer

Deaths

Observances

International Day of the Nacho (Mexico and the United States)
National Nurses' Day (Thailand)
Overseas Chinese Day (Republic of China)
Apple Day (UK)