On this day: January 21

Events on January 21

• 763 The Abbasid Caliphate crushed the Alid revolt when a rebel leader was mortally wounded in battle near Basra in present-day Iraq. Wikipedia
• 1525 The Swiss Anabaptist Movement is founded when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptize each other in the home of Manz's mother in Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union. Wikipedia
• 1535 Following the Affair of the Placards, the French king leads an anti-Protestant procession through Paris. Wikipedia
• 1789 The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth by William Hill Brown, is printed in Boston. Wikipedia
• 1793 French Revolution: After being found guilty of high treason by the National Convention, Louis XVI was guillotined in Paris. Wikipedia
• 1793 After being found guilty of treason by the French National Convention, Louis XVI of France is executed by guillotine. Wikipedia
• 1893 The Tati Concessions Land, formerly part of Matabeleland, is formally annexed to the Bechuanaland Protectorate, now Botswana. Wikipedia
• 1915 Kiwanis International is founded in Detroit. Wikipedia
• 1925 Albania declares itself a republic. Wikipedia
• 1932 Finland and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression treaty. Wikipedia
• 1941 Sparked by the murder of a German officer in Bucharest, Romania, the day before, members of the Iron Guard engage in a rebellion and pogrom killing 125 Jews. Wikipedia
• 1960 Little Joe 1B, a Mercury spacecraft, lifts off from Wallops Island, Virginia, with Miss Sam, a female rhesus monkey, on board. Wikipedia
• 1968 Vietnam War: The People's Army of Vietnam attacked Khe Sanh Combat Base, a U.S. Marines outpost in Quảng Trị province, South Vietnam, starting the Battle of Khe Sanh. Wikipedia
• 1968 Vietnam War, Battle of Khe Sanh: One of the most publicized and controversial battles of the war begins. Wikipedia
• 1972 Tripura, formerly part of the independent Twipra Kingdom, became a state of India. Wikipedia
• 1980 Iran Air Flight 291 crashes in the Alborz Mountains while on approach to Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran, Iran, killing 128 people. Wikipedia
• 1981 The DeLorean Motor Company completed the first production car of the DMC DeLorean at its factory in Northern Ireland. Wikipedia
• 2000 Ecuador: After the Ecuadorian Congress is seized by indigenous organizations, Col. Lucio Gutiérrez, Carlos Solorzano and Antonio Vargas depose President Jamil Mahuad. Gutierrez is later replaced by Gen. Carlos Mendoza, who resigns and allows Vice-President Gustavo Noboa to succeed Mahuad. Wikipedia
• 2004 NASA's MER-A (the Mars Rover Spirit) ceases communication with mission control. The problem lies in the management of its flash memory and is fixed remotely from Earth on February 6. Wikipedia
• 2005 In Belmopan, Belize, the unrest over the government's new taxes erupts into riots. Wikipedia
• 2009 Israel withdraws from the Gaza Strip, officially ending a three-week war it had with Hamas. However, intermittent fire by both sides continues in the weeks to follow. Wikipedia
• 2011 Demonstrations against alleged corruption in the Albanian government led to the killings of four protesters in Tirana by the Republican Guard. Wikipedia
• 2011 Anti-government demonstrations take place in Tirana, Albania. Four people die from gunshots, allegedly fired from armed police protecting the Prime Minister's office. Wikipedia
• 2014 Rojava conflict: The Jazira Canton declares its autonomy from the Syrian Arab Republic. Wikipedia
• 2017 Over 400 cities across America and 160+ countries worldwide participate in a large-scale women's march, including in Portland, on Donald Trump's first full day as President of the United States. Wikipedia
• 2017 Millions of people participated in the Women's March in Washington, D.C., and around the world to advocate for legislation and policies on human rights and other issues. Wikipedia

Born on January 21

• 1277 Galeazzo I Visconti, lord of Milan (died 1328) Wikipedia
• 1338 Charles V of France (died 1380) Wikipedia
• 1675 Duchess Sibylle of Saxe-Lauenburg, Margravine of Baden-Baden (died 1733) Wikipedia
• 1763 Augustin Robespierre, younger brother of French Revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre (died 1794) Wikipedia
• 1788 William Henry Smyth, Royal Navy officer, hydrographer, astronomer and numismatist (died 1865) Wikipedia
• 1824 Stonewall Jackson, American general (died 1863) Wikipedia
• 1829 Oscar II of Sweden (died 1907) Wikipedia
• 1869 Grigori Rasputin, Russian mystic (died 1916) Wikipedia
• 1883 Mathias Hynes, British tug of war competitor (died 1926) Wikipedia
• 1889 Edith Tolkien, wife and muse of J. R. R. Tolkien (died 1971) Wikipedia
• 1896 Paula Hitler, younger sister of Adolf Hitler (died 1960) Wikipedia
• 1905 Christian Dior, French fashion designer, founded Christian Dior S.A. (died 1957) Wikipedia
• 1912 Konrad Emil Bloch, German-American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2000) Wikipedia
• 1917 Erling Persson, H&M founder (died 2002) Wikipedia
• 1941 Plácido Domingo, Spanish tenor and conductor Wikipedia
• 1949 Trương Tấn Sang, Vietnamese politician and 7th President of Vietnam Wikipedia
• 1953 Paul Allen, American businessman and philanthropist, co-founded Microsoft (died 2018) Wikipedia
• 1956 Geena Davis, American actress and producer Wikipedia
• 1963 Hakeem Olajuwon, Nigerian-American basketball player Wikipedia
• 1989 Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Armenian footballer Wikipedia
• 1996 Marco Asensio, Spanish footballer Wikipedia
• 2005 IShowSpeed, American YouTuber and online streamer Wikipedia

Died on January 21

• 420 Yazdegerd I, king of the Sassanid Empire Wikipedia
• 1118 Pope Paschal II (born 1050) Wikipedia
• 1774 Mustafa III, Ottoman sultan (born 1717) Wikipedia
• 1775 Yemelyan Pugachev, Russian rebel (born 1742) Wikipedia
• 1789 Baron d'Holbach, French-German philosopher and author (born 1723) Wikipedia
• 1793 Louis XVI of France (born 1754) Wikipedia
• 1870 Alexander Herzen, Russian philosopher and author (born 1812) Wikipedia
• 1872 Franz Grillparzer, Austrian playwright and poet (born 1791) Wikipedia
• 1924 Vladimir Lenin, Russian lawyer and politician (born 1870) Wikipedia
• 1926 Camillo Golgi, Italian physician and pathologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1843) Wikipedia
• 1938 Georges Méliès, French actor, director, and producer (born 1861) Wikipedia
• 1950 George Orwell, British novelist, essayist, and critic (born 1903) Wikipedia
• 1959 Cecil B. DeMille, American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1881) Wikipedia
• 1994 Bassel al-Assad, Son of the former President of the Syrian Arab Republic Hafez al-Assad (born 1962) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Babinden (Bulgaria, Serbia) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Agnes Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Demiana (Coptic Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Fructuosus Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: John Yi Yun-il (one of The Korean Martyrs) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Meinrad of Einsiedeln Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: January 21 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Errol Barrow Day (Barbados) Wikipedia
• Flag Day (Quebec) Wikipedia
• Grandmother's Day (Poland) Wikipedia
• Lady of Altagracia Day (Dominican Republic) Wikipedia
• Lincoln Alexander Day (Canada) Wikipedia
• National Hugging Day (United States) Wikipedia
• Squirrel Appreciation Day Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “January 21” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.