21 October on the globe: what happened in the world on this day, and who was born

Sixty-five days after being exiled by the Emperor Maxentius to Sicily, Pope Eusebius dies.

Election of Pope Conon following the death of Pope John V.

El Cid and his forces defeat a larger army of the Almoravids in the battle of Cuarte.

A Seljuk Turkish army successfully ambushes the People's Crusade at the Battle of Civetot.

First Crusade: Crusaders led by Godfrey of Bouillon, Bohemund of Taranto, and Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse, begin the Siege of Antioch.

Zengi, atabeg of Aleppo, takes Baalbek from the Burid dynasty.

Election of Gregory VIII following the death of Pope Urban III.

Hundred Years' War: The English victory at the Battle of Auberoche marked a change in the military balance of power in Aquitaine, with the subsequent collapse of the French position.

Japanese Emperor Go-Kameyama abdicates in favor of rival claimant Go-Komatsu.

Martin Luther joins the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg.

João Álvares Fagundes discovers the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, bestowing them their original name of "Islands of the 11,000 Virgins".

Tokugawa Ieyasu defeats the leaders of rival Japanese clans in the Battle of Sekigahara and becomes shōgun of Japan.

The flag of Taunton, Massachusetts is the first to include the word "Liberty".

In Boston Harbor, the 44-gun United States Navy frigate USS Constitution is launched.

Napoleonic Wars: A British fleet led by Lord Nelson defeats a combined French and Spanish fleet under Admiral Villeneuve in the Battle of Trafalgar.

Portland cement is patented.

Florence Nightingale and a staff of 38 nurses are sent to the Crimean War.

French composer Jacques Offenbach's operetta Orpheus in the Underworld, featuring the music most associated with the can-can (audio featured), was first performed at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens in Paris.

American Civil War: Union forces under Colonel Edward Baker are defeated by Confederate troops in the second major battle of the war.

The Medicine Lodge Treaty is signed by southern Great Plains Indian leaders. The treaty requires Native American Plains tribes to relocate to a reservation in the western Indian Territory.

Thomas Edison applies for a patent for his design for an incandescent light bulb.

The Swiss Social Democratic Party is founded.

Opening ceremonies for the World's Columbian Exposition are held in Chicago, though because construction was behind schedule, the exposition did not open until May 1, 1893.

The capitulation of Tainan completes the Japanese conquest of Taiwan.

The 1907 Qaratog earthquake hits the borders of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, killing between 12,000 and 15,000 people.

HMS Niobe arrives in Halifax Harbour to become the first ship of the Royal Canadian Navy.

First Balkan War: The Greek navy completes the capture of the island of Lemnos for use as a forward base against the Dardanelles.

President Warren G. Harding delivers the first speech by a sitting U.S. president against lynching in the Deep South.

A secret society in the Imperial Japanese Army launches an abortive coup d'état attempt.

The first edition of the Ernest Hemingway novel For Whom the Bell Tolls is published.

World War II: The Kragujevac massacre against Serbian men and boys takes place.

World War II: The Provisional Government of Free India is formally established in Japanese-occupied Singapore.

World War II: The Nemmersdorf massacre against German civilians takes place.

World War II: The city of Aachen falls to American forces after three weeks of fighting, the first German city to fall to the Allies.

World War II: The first kamikaze attack damages HMAS Australia as the Battle of Leyte Gulf begins.

In the 1945 French legislative election French women vote for the first time.

Korean War: Heavy fighting begins between British and Australian forces and North Koreans during the Battle of Yongju.

The Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya is defeated.

In New York City, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opens to the public.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower approves the transfer of all US Army space-related activities to NASA, including most of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency.

Comet Ikeya–Seki approaches perihelion, passing 450,000 kilometers (279,617 miles) from the sun.

A colliery spoil tip slips onto houses and a school in the village of Aberfan in Wales, killing 144 people, 116 of whom were schoolchildren.

The National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam organizes a march of fifty thousand people from the Lincoln Memorial to the Pentagon.

At the height of the Japanese university protests, protesters occupied Shinjuku Station in Tokyo and clashed violently with police.

The 1969 Somali coup d'état establishes a Marxist–Leninist administration.

A gas explosion kills 22 people at a shopping centre near Glasgow, Scotland.

Fred Dryer of the Los Angeles Rams becomes the first player in NFL history to score two safeties in the same game.

Australian civilian pilot Frederick Valentich vanishes over the Bass Strait south of Melbourne, after reporting contact with an unidentified aircraft.

Moshe Dayan resigns from the Israeli government because of strong disagreements with Prime Minister Menachem Begin over policy towards the Arabs.

Andreas Papandreou becomes Prime Minister of Greece, ending an almost 50-year-long system of power dominated by conservative forces.

The metre is defined as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.

Niki Lauda claims his third and final Formula One Drivers' Championship Title by half a point ahead of McLaren team-mate Alain Prost at the Portuguese Grand Prix.

In Lebanon, pro-Iran kidnappers claim to have abducted American writer Edward Tracy (he is released in August 1991).

The Jaffna hospital massacre is carried out by Indian peacekeeping forces in Sri Lanka, killing 70 Tamil patients, doctors and nurses.

In Honduras, 131 people are killed when a Boeing 727 crashes on approach to Toncontín International Airport near the nation's capital Tegucigalpa.

In Seoul, South Korea, 32 people are killed when a span of the Seongsu Bridge collapses.

North Korea and the United States sign an Agreed Framework that requires North Korea to stop its nuclear weapons program and agree to inspections.

Images of the dwarf planet Eris are taken and subsequently used in documenting its discovery.

Finnish race drivers Kimi Räikkönen of Scuderia Ferrari won the Brazilian Grand Prix in Formula One. With this result, Räikkönen became world champion, surpassing McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso by one point in the drivers' standings.

Iraq War: President Barack Obama announces that the withdrawal of United States troops from Iraq will be complete by the end of the year.

A passenger train derails in Yilan County, Taiwan, killing 18 people and injuring 187.

In Canada, the 2019 Canadian federal election ends, resulting in incumbent Prime Minister Justin Trudeau remaining in office, albeit with the Liberal Party in a minority government.

Thirty people are killed in a fiery bus crash in western Democratic Republic of the Congo.

A shooting occurs on the set of the film Rust, in which actor Alec Baldwin discharged a prop weapon which had been loaded, killing the director of photography, Halyna Hutchins, and injuring director Joel Souza.

Alfred Nobel, Swedish chemist and engineer, invented dynamite and founded the Nobel Prize (died 1896)

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli captain and politician, 9th Prime Minister of Israel

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet, philosopher, and critic (died 1834)

Kim Kardashian, American reality television personality, actress, model, businesswoman and socialite

Ursula K. Le Guin, American author and critic (died 2018)

Alphonse de Lamartine, French poet and politician, French Head of State (died 1869)

Carrie Fisher, American actress and screenwriter (died 2016)

Nemanja Vidić, Serbian footballer

Nikita Mikhalkov, Russian filmmaker

Andre Geim, Russian-English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate

Hongwu Emperor of China (died 1398)

Wolfgang Ketterle, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate

Doja Cat, American rapper, singer and songwriter

Dizzy Gillespie, American trumpet player, composer, and bandleader (died 1993)

Celia Cruz, Cuban-American singer (died 2003)

Ken Watanabe, Japanese actor and producer

Tariq Ali, Pakistani historian and author

Martin Gardner, American mathematician and author (died 2010)

Francisco Gento, Spanish footballer and manager (died 2022)

Ion Andoni Goikoetxea, Spanish footballer and manager

Christopher A. Sims, American economist and statistician, Nobel Prize laureate

Hadise, Belgian-Turkish singer-songwriter and dancer

Edogawa Ranpo, Japanese author and critic (died 1965)

Paul Ince, English footballer and manager

Domenichino, Italian painter (died 1641)

Ricky Rubio, Spanish basketball player

Georg Solti, Hungarian-English conductor and director (died 1997)

Liliane Bettencourt, French businesswoman and philanthropist (died 2017)

Shammi Kapoor, Indian actor and director (died 2011)

Ronald McNair, American physicist and astronaut (died 1986)

Peter Mandelson, English journalist and politician, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland

Andrew Scott, Irish actor

Lee Chong Wei, Malaysian badminton player

Ivan Silayev, Russian engineer and politician, 19th Prime Minister of Russia (died 2023)

Sam Vokes, English-Welsh footballer

Oswald Avery, Canadian-American physician and microbiologist (died 1955)

Glen Powell, American actor

Emperor Higashiyama of Japan (died 1710)

Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld, Dutch astronomer and academic (died 2015)

Henrique Hilário, Portuguese footballer

Matt Dallas, American actor

Edna Purviance, American actress (died 1958)

Catherine Hardwicke, American film director, producer, and screenwriter

Mary Blair, American illustrator and animator (died 1978)

Pierre Augereau, French general (died 1816)

George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, Irish-English son of Cecily Neville, Duchess of York (died 1478)

Malcolm Arnold, English composer (died 2006)

Giuseppe Giacosa, Italian poet and playwright (died 1906)

George Stinney Jr., wrongfully convicted African-American inmate; second youngest person in the U.S. to be executed (died 1944)

Thomas Cavalier-Smith, English academic and biologist (died 2021)

Steve Lukather, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer

Kieran Richardson, English footballer

Bernard Tomic, German-Australian tennis player

Jean Bart, French admiral (died 1702)

Albertina Sisulu, South African anti-apartheid activist (died 2011)

Amber Rose, American model

Jonathan Viera, Spanish footballer

Everett McGill, American actor

Cameron Burgess, Scottish-Australian footballer

Steve Cropper, American guitarist, songwriter, producer, and actor (died 2025)