Signing The US Constitution

U.S. Constitution ratified

Born on This Day

Lana Del Rey visits 107.7 The End in Seattle

Lana Del Rey

1985 -

Singer-songwriter who evoked Old Hollywood nostalgia and melancholic glamour on hits like "Born to Die" and "Summertime Sadness."

Shirin Ebadi

Shirin Ebadi

1947 -

Iranian lawyer and advocate for women's and children's rights. First Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Sartre, Jean-Paul - Schriftsteller, Frankreich/ undatiert

Jean-Paul Sartre

1905 - 1980

French philosopher and author whose works "Being and Nothingness" and "No Exit" are landmarks of the existentialism genre.

Lana Del ReyGetty Images

Shirin EbadiGetty Images

Jean-Paul Sartreullstein bild via Getty Images

1913

JUN21

Just 4 feet tall and 80 pounds, pioneering aviatrix Tiny Broadwick becomes the first woman to parachute from a plane. On the way up, she was suspended from a trap seat outside the cockpit, with her parachute on a shelf above her.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on June 21st

Spain declares war against Great Britain

On June 21, 1779, Spain declares war on Great Britain, creating a de facto alliance with the Americans. Spain’s King Charles III would not consent to a treaty of alliance with the United States. For one imperial power to encourage another imperial power’s colonies in revolt was a treacherous game, and he was unwilling to […]

1:22m read read

Zachary Taylor and Richard Nixon marry their future first ladies

On this day in June (in two different years), two future presidents, Zachary Taylor and Richard Nixon, marry the women who will become their first ladies. On this day in 1810, 26-year-old Zachary Taylor married Margaret Smith, age 31, in her sister’s log house in Louisville, Kentucky. The daughter of a wealthy planter, Margaret met […]

1:34m read read

France pushed out of Spain in the decisive battle of the Peninsular War

At Vitoria, Spain, a massive allied British, Portuguese and Spanish force under British General Arthur Wellesley routs the French, pushing them out of Spain in the decisive battle of the Peninsular War. On February 16, 1808, under the pretext of sending reinforcements to the French army occupying Portugal, French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Spain. Thus […]

1:34m read read

General Santa Anna dies in Mexico City

Embittered and impoverished, the once mighty Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna dies in Mexico City. Born in 1792 at Jalapa, Vera Cruz, Mexico, Santa Anna was the son of middle-class parents. As a teen, he won a commission in the Spanish army and might have been expected to live out an unspectacular career as a […]

2:50m read read

U.S. General John J. Pershing’s force attacked by Mexican troops

The controversial U.S. military expedition against Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa brings the United States and Mexico closer to war when Mexican government troops attack U.S. Brigadier General John J. Pershing’s force at Carrizal, Mexico. The Americans suffered 22 casualties, and more than 30 Mexicans were killed. Against the protests of Venustiano Carranza’s government, Pershing’s force […]

2:16m read read

Hollywood stars Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks mobbed by crowds

Swarms of admirers mob the Hollywood film actors Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, who arrive in London on their honeymoon on June 21, 1920. Two of film’s earliest stars, Pickford and Fairbanks had been business partners since 1919, when they teamed up with Charlie Chaplin and director D.W. Griffith to form United Artists. As a […]

3:28m read read

Allies surrender at Tobruk, Libya

On June 21, 1942, General Erwin Rommel turns his assault on the British-Allied garrison at Tobruk, Libya, into victory, as his panzer division occupies the North African port. Britain had established control of Tobruk after routing the Italians in 1940. But the Germans attempted to win it back by reinforcing Italian troops with the Afrika […]

Arthur Miller refuses to name communists

Playwright Arthur Miller defies the House Committee on Un-American Activities and refuses to name suspected communists. Miller’s defiance of McCarthyism won him a conviction for contempt of court, which was later reversed by the Supreme Court. His passport had already been denied when he tried to go to Brussels to attend the premiere of his […]

1:22m read read

The KKK kills three civil rights activists

Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney are killed by a Ku Klux Klan mob near Meridian, Mississippi. The three young civil rights workers were working to register Black voters in Mississippi, thus inspiring the ire of the local Klan. The deaths of Schwerner and Goodman, white Northerners and members of the Congress of Racial Equality […]

“Mr. Tambourine Man” is released, and the folk-rock revolution is on

Released on June 21, 1965, the Byrds’ debut album, Mr. Tambourine Man, marks the beginning of the folk-rock revolution. In just a few months, the Byrds had become a household name, with a number-one single and a smash-hit album that married the ringing guitars and backbeat of the British Invasion with the harmonies and lyrical […]

1:58m read read

A teenage girl’s boyfriend murders her parents

On June 21, Jim and Naomi Olive are brutally killed by their high school-aged daughter’s boyfriend, a waterbed salesman. Their bodies are later cremated in a barbeque pit. Police were called to the home of Jim and Naomi Olive in Terra Linda, California, after Jim Olive’s business partner reports that the couple had not been […]

2:12m read read

John Hinckley Jr., who attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan, found not guilty

John W. Hinckley, Jr., who on March 30, 1981, shot President Ronald Reagan and three others outside a Washington, D.C., hotel, is found not guilty of attempted murder by reason of insanity. In the trial, Hinckley’s defense attorneys argues that their client was ill with narcissistic personality disorder, citing medical evidence, and had a pathological […]

2:04m read read

Earthquake devastates Iran

An earthquake near the Caspian Sea in Iran kills an estimated 50,000 and injures another 135,000 people on June 21, 1990. The 7.7-magnitude tremor wrecked havoc on the simply constructed houses in the area. Thirty minutes past midnight, with most people sleeping in their homes, a violent quake, centered along the shores of the Caspian […]

1:06m read read

First privately owned spacecraft, SS1, travels beyond the earth’s atmosphere

On June 21, 2004, SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately owned spacecraft to reach an altitude of 100 kilometers, or about 62 miles, above the earth, the generally accepted point at which “space” begins. Pilot Mike Melvill, the sole crew member, took SpaceShipOne, or SS1 for short, to an altitude of 100.124 kilometers, just past the […]

1:44m read read

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