21 August 1770

James Cook formally claims eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales. James Cook (1728–1779) was a British explorer, navigator, and cartographer best…

21 August 1982

Lebanese Civil War: The first troops of a multinational force lands in Beirut to oversee the Palestine Liberation Organization’s withdrawal from Lebanon. The war ended…

21 August 1883

An F5 tornado strikes Rochester, Minnesota, leading to the creation of the Mayo Clinic. The creation of the Mayo Clinic is not directly linked to…

21 August 1991

Coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev collapses. [rdp-wiki-embed url=’https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Soviet_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat_attempt’]

21 August 1821

Jarvis Island is discovered by the crew of the ship, Eliza Frances. The island’s first known sighting by Europeans was on August 21, 1821 by…

21 August 1991

A coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev fails. Just three days after it began, the coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev collapses. Despite his success in…

21 August 1979

The Soviet ballet dancer Alexander Godunov defects to the United States. Alexander Godunov was a Russian-American ballet dancer and film actor, whose defection caused a…