The seeds of the United Nations are planted

On August 21, 1793, prominent Philadelphia physician Benjamin Rush alerts the city’s mayor that an epidemic of yellow fever was fast emerging. By the time the epidemic ended, some 5,000 people had died. Yellow fever, or American plague as it was known at the time, is a viral disease that begins with fever and muscle […]

Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois and Abraham Lincoln, a Kentucky-born lawyer and one-time U.S. representative from Illinois, begin a series of famous public encounters on the issue of slavery. The two politicians, the former a Northern Democrat and the latter a Republican, were competing for Douglas’ U.S. Senate seat. In the seven Lincoln-Douglas debates—all about […]

On August 21, 1897, Ransom Eli Olds of Lansing, Michigan, founds Olds Motor Vehicle Company, which will later become Olds Motor Werks and then Oldsmobile. Born in Geneva, Ohio, in 1864, Olds went to work for his family’s machine-repair and engine-building business in 1883. In 1896, Olds completed his first gasoline-powered vehicle, and the following […]

On August 22, 1950, officials of the United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) accept Althea Gibson into their annual championship at Forest Hills, New York, making her the first African American player to compete in a U.S. national tennis competition.

Jomo Kenyatta, leader of the Kenyan independence movement, is released by British colonial authorities after nearly nine years of imprisonment and detention. Two years later, Kenya achieved independence and Kenyatta became prime minister. Once portrayed as a menacing symbol of African nationalism, he brought stability to the country and defended Western interests during his 15 […]

The Equal Educational Opportunities Act is enacted on August 21, 1974. The new law addressed civil rights issues in education, barring states from discriminating against students based on gender, race, color or nationality and requiring public schools to provide for students who do not speak English. In many ways, the EEOA was an extension of the Civil Rights […]

An eruption of lethal gas from Lake Nyos in Cameroon kills nearly 2,000 people and wipes out four villages on August 21, 1986. Carbon dioxide, though ubiquitous in Earth’s atmosphere, can be deadly in large quantities, as was evident in this disaster. Lake Nyos and Lake Monoun are both crater lakes about a mile square […]

Phelps wins his eighth medal of the 2004 Athens Olympics.