August 21st is

National Senior Citizens Day *

National Spumoni Day

Sweet Tea Day

World P.O.E.T. Day
(Aussie slang – Piss Off Early Today) _________________________________________

MORE! Count Basie, Jaymala Shiledar and Ninoy Aquino, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Croatia – Novalja: Sonus Festival

Micronesia – Kosrae Gospel Day
(arrival of missionaries at Kosrae Island)

Morocco & Western Sahara –
Féte de la Jeunesse (Mohammed VI birthday)

Philippines – Ninoy Aquino Day *

United Kingdom – Totnes: Orange Races

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On This Day in HISTORY

1192 – Minamoto no Yoritomo, a member of the Seiwa Genji branch of the Minamoto clan, who grew up in exile because his immediate family was on the losing side in the Heiji rebellion, becomes Seii Tai Shōgun and the de facto ruler of Japan; founder of the Kamakura Shogunate, which ruled Japan until 1333

1680 – Pueblo peoples drive the Spanish out and take possession of Santa Fe NM

1689 – Battle of Dunkeld: Orange Convenantor Royalists (supporters of William of Orange) win a decisive victory over Jacobite Royalists (Highlanders and Irish recruits who support deposed Scottish King James VII)

William Cleland commanding the Orange forces during Dunkeld

1725 – Jean-Baptiste Greuze born, French painter

1770 – Captain James Cook claims eastern Australia for Great Britain, names it New South Wales

1791 – The Haitian Revolution begins, the only slave uprising that became a successful revolution, leading to the founding of the independent nation of Haiti in 1804, ruled by former slaves in an uneasy coalition with mulattoes and black freedmen; reparations demanded by the French government for former slave owners were so heavy Haiti’s last payment wasn’t made until 1947, keeping the country deeply impoverished

1805 – August Bournonville born, Danish ballet master, soloist and choreographer; Royal Danish Ballet; his best-known ballet is La Sylphide

1808 – British and Portuguese forces led by General Arthur Wellesley (later 1^st Duke of Wellington) defeat French forces under Major-General Jean-Andoche Junta near the Vimeiro, Portugal, the first Anglo-Portuguese victory of the Peninsular War

1810 – Jean-Bastiste Bernadotte resigns as a Marshal of France when he is elected Crown Prince of Sweden by the Riksdag of the Estates

1831 – Former slave Nat Turner leads anti-slavery revolt in Southhampton County VA

1841 – John Hampton patents the venetian blind

1858 – First of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglass

1861 – Mary Lizzie Macomber born, American artist in the Pre-Raphaelite style

1863 – Lawrence, Kansas is destroyed, and 180 civilians killed, by pro-Confederate “bushwackers” led by William Quantrill, operating under the Confederate Partisan Ranger Act, which was repealed in February 1864 because of the growing violence against civilians

1872 – Aubrey Beardsley born, English Aestheticism illustrator and author

Excaliber Rises from the Lake, by Aubrey Beardsley

1876 – The Qing dynasty and the United Kingdom signed the Chefoo Convention, under which Qing promised to punish those responsible for the murder of British diplomat Augustus Margary in February, 1875, and repeal the likin (a Chinese internal tariff on goods in transit first introduced in 1853. It was not actually repealed until 1931)

1878 – The American Bar Association is founded in Saratoga NY

1886 – Ruth Manning-Sanders born in Wales, British poet and author of children’s books and collections of folk and fairy tales, who published over 90 books; noted for her series, A Book of . . . which tell tales of magical creatures of all kinds, from A Book of Giants (1962) to A Book of Magic Horses (1984)

1888 – William Burroughs patents an adding machine

1893 – Lili Boulanger born, French composer, first woman to win the Prix de Rome with her composition Faust et Hélène

1897 – The Olds Motor Works begins producing Oldsmobiles

1897 – Constance McLaughlin Green born, American historian and author; Pulitzer Prize for History for Washington, Village and Capital, 1800-1878

1901 – The International Secretariat of National Trade Union Centres (ISNTUC) is founded in Copenhagen, Denmark; an international consultative body of trade unions

1904 – Count Basie born, American pianist, composer, and bandleader

1906 – Friz Freleng born, American animator, director, and producer

1911 – A Louvre employee steals the Mona Lisa

1916 – Consuelo Velázquez born, Mexican concert pianist, singer-songwriter, and member of the Mexican Congress

1918 – WWI: The Second Battle of the Somme begins

1921 – Jaymala Shiledar born, Indian Hindustani classical singer and stage actress, influential in reviving Marathi musical theatre

1923 – Kalamazoo MI ordinance bans dancers from gazing into each other’s eyes

1929 – Marie Severin born, American illustrator and comic book artist, known for her work for Marvel Comics and EC Comics, Will Eisner Comics Hall of Fame inductee

1933 – Dame Janet Baker born, British mezzo-soprano, noted for her acting ability,  performances in Italian operas and works by Benjamin Britten and Gustav Mahler

1938 – Fascist Italy: A ban preventing most Jewish teachers from working in Italian schools goes into effect

1944 – “Dumbarton Oaks” conference begins groundwork for the United Nations

1944 – Peter Weir born, Australian director; his credits include: Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Last Wave, Gallipoli, Witness, The Mosquito Coast, Dead Poets Society and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

1945 – Physicist Harry Daghlian is fatally irradiated in a criticality accident during an experiment with the Demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory

1945 – Celia Brayfield born, English novelist, non-fiction writer, and cultural commentator; author of Pearls, White Ice, Getting Home, and Heartswap

1957 – The USSR conducts a long-range test flight of the R-7 Semyorka, the first intercontinental ballistic missile

1959 – Hawaii becomes the 50^th U.S. state

1961 – Jomo Kenyatta, Kenyan political activist during the Mau Mau Rebellion, is released from jail after serving nine years

1961 – Motown releases its first #1 hit, “Please Mr. Postman” by The Marvelettes

1963 – Martial law declared in South Vietnam because of Buddhist anti-regime protests

1967 – Stéphane Charbonnier born, known as Charb, French satirical cartoonist and journalist; director of publication for Charlie Hebdo; murdered by Islamist terrorists

1968 – Laura Trevelyan born, BBC World News television journalist and anchor; BBC United Nations correspondent (2006-2009)

1972 – NASA orbiting astronomy observatory Copernicus is launched, a cooperative effort with the UK Science Research Council; the most successful of four OAO missions

1979 – Bolshoi Ballet Premier danseur Alexander Godunov defects to the U.S.

1983 – Ninoy Aquino Day * in the Philippines, the day of his assassination at the Manila International Airport, which has been renamed in his honor. Aquino, a former Philippine Senate member, and outspoken leader of the opposition to Ferdinand Marcos, was returning from three years of exile. His murder was the catalyst which turned opposition to the Marcos regime into a crusade, and thrust his widow, Corazon Aquino, into the political spotlight

1988 – Congress joint resolution proclaims August 21 National Senior Citizens Day *

1992 – An eleven-day siege begins at white separatist Randy Weaver’s cabin in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, when U.S. Marshalls exchange gunfire with Weaver family members

1993 – The Sleepless in Seattle soundtrack hits #1 on the Billboard LP chart

1996 – U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act makes getting and keeping health insurance easier

2001 – NATO announces it will send a peace-keeping force to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

2002 – Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf unilaterally amends Pakistani constitution, to extend his term in office and give himself power to dissolve parliament

2009 – The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America elects to lift a ban prohibiting sexually active gays and lesbians from serving as ministers

2016 – Closing ceremonies of the Summer Olympics (XXXI Olympiad) in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil; first Olympic Games held in South America, first held in a Portuguese-speaking country, and first summer games held entirely in the host country‘s winter season. Many ecological and environmental protection measures were introduced at the Rio Olympics, including using recycled materials in the Olympic medals

2017 – A solar eclipse path of totality will cross portions of 14 U.S. states, and a partial eclipse will be viewed across North and Central America; the last total eclipse in the contiguous U.S was in 1979

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