On this day: November 21

Events on November 21

• 1386 Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur captured and sacked the Georgian capital Tbilisi and forced King Bagrat V to convert to Islam. Wikipedia
• 1620 The Mayflower Compact, the first governing document of the Plymouth Colony, was signed by 41 of the Mayflower's passengers while the ship was anchored in what is now Provincetown Harbor. Wikipedia
• 1676 The Danish astronomer Ole Rømer presents the first quantitative measurements of the speed of light. Wikipedia
• 1789 North Carolina ratifies the United States Constitution and is admitted as the 12th U.S. state. Wikipedia
• 1877 Thomas Edison announced his invention of the phonograph, a device able to record and play sound. Wikipedia
• 1894 First Sino-Japanese War: After capturing the Chinese city of Port Arthur, the Japanese army began a massacre of the city's soldiers and civilians. Wikipedia
• 1900 Claude Monet's paintings shown at Gallery Durand-Ruel in Paris. Wikipedia
• 1920 Irish War of Independence: On Bloody Sunday in Dublin, the IRA assassinated a group of British intelligence agents, and British forces killed 14 civilians at a Gaelic football match at Croke Park. Wikipedia
• 1922 Rebecca Latimer Felton became the first woman to serve in the United States Senate, albeit for only one day. Wikipedia
• 1945 Manzanar, a camp in California for the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, was closed. Wikipedia
• 1950 Two trains collided near Valemount, Canada, killing 21 people; the subsequent trial brought future prime minister John Diefenbaker to greater political attention. Wikipedia
• 1959 American disc jockey Alan Freed, who popularized the term rock and roll, was fired from WABC-AM for his role in the payola scandal. Wikipedia
• 1961 La Ronde, the first revolving restaurant in the United States, was inaugurated. Wikipedia
• 1962 The Chinese People's Liberation Army declares a unilateral ceasefire in the Sino-Indian War. Wikipedia
• 1964 The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, connecting Staten Island and Brooklyn in New York City, opened to traffic as the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time. Wikipedia
• 1970 Vietnam War: American forces raided the North Vietnamese Sơn Tây prison camp in an attempt to rescue 61 American POWs who were thought to be held there. Wikipedia
• 1974 Bombs exploded in two pubs in central Birmingham, England, killing 21 people and leading to the imprisonment of six people who were later exonerated. Wikipedia
• 1977 "God Defend New Zealand" became New Zealand's second national anthem, on equal standing with "God Save the King", which had been the traditional anthem since 1840. Wikipedia
• 1980 A fire broke out at the MGM Grand Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, killing 85 people and injuring 650 others. Wikipedia
• 1995 The Dayton Agreement is initialed at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, Ohio, ending three and a half years of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Wikipedia
• 2002 NATO invites Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia to become members. Wikipedia
• 2009 An explosion in a coal mine in Heilongjiang, China, killed 108 miners. Wikipedia
• 2012 A remote-controlled bomb exploded on a bus in Tel Aviv, Israel, injuring at least 28 people on board. Wikipedia
• 2013 Massive protests start in Ukraine after President Viktor Yanukovych suspended signing the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement. Wikipedia
• 2015 The Belgian government imposed a four-day security lockdown in Brussels based on information about potential terrorist attacks. Wikipedia
• 2017 Robert Mugabe formally resigns as President of Zimbabwe, after thirty-seven years in office. Wikipedia

Born on November 21

• 1694 Voltaire, French writer and philosopher (died 1778) Wikipedia
• 1768 Friedrich Schleiermacher, German theologian, philosopher, and scholar (died 1834) Wikipedia
• 1818 Lewis H. Morgan, American lawyer, anthropologist, and theorist (died 1881) Wikipedia
• 1840 Victoria, Princess Royal of England (died 1901) Wikipedia
• 1852 Francisco Tárrega, Spanish guitarist and composer (died 1909) Wikipedia
• 1854 Pope Benedict XV (died 1922) Wikipedia
• 1870 Alexander Berkman, Lithuanian-American activist and author (died 1936) Wikipedia
• 1898 René Magritte, Belgian painter (died 1967) Wikipedia
• 1902 Mikhail Suslov, Russian soldier, economist, and politician (died 1982) Wikipedia
• 1903 Isaac Bashevis Singer, Polish-American novelist and short story writer, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1991) Wikipedia
• 1924 Christopher Tolkien, English author and academic (died 2020) Wikipedia
• 1944 Harold Ramis, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2014) Wikipedia
• 1945 Goldie Hawn, American actress, singer, and producer Wikipedia
• 1948 Michel Suleiman, Lebanese general and politician, 16th President of Lebanon Wikipedia
• 1963 Nicollette Sheridan, English actress Wikipedia
• 1965 Björk, Icelandic singer-songwriter Wikipedia
• 1979 Vincenzo Iaquinta, Italian footballer Wikipedia
• 1984 Jena Malone, American actress and singer Wikipedia
• 1985 Jesús Navas, Spanish footballer Wikipedia
• 1985 Carly Rae Jepsen, Canadian singer-songwriter and actress Wikipedia
• 1989 Fabian Delph, English footballer Wikipedia
• 1994 Saúl Ñíguez, Spanish footballer Wikipedia

Died on November 21

• 615 Columbanus, Irish missionary and saint (born 543) Wikipedia
• 1325 Yury of Moscow, Prince of Moscow and Vladimir Wikipedia
• 1555 Georgius Agricola, German mineralogist, philologist, and scholar (born 1490) Wikipedia
• 1695 Henry Purcell, English organist and composer (born 1659) Wikipedia
• 1811 Heinrich von Kleist, German poet and author (born 1777) Wikipedia
• 1844 Ivan Krylov, Russian poet and playwright (born 1769) Wikipedia
• 1899 Garret Hobart, American lawyer and politician, 24th Vice President of the United States (born 1844) Wikipedia
• 1907 Paula Modersohn-Becker, German painter (born 1876) Wikipedia
• 1916 Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria (born 1830) Wikipedia
• 1970 C. V. Raman, Indian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1888) Wikipedia
• 1996 Abdus Salam, Pakistani-English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1926) Wikipedia
• 2000 Emil Zátopek, Czech runner (born 1922) Wikipedia
• 2006 Hassan Gouled Aptidon, Somali-Djiboutian politician, 1st President of Djibouti (born 1916) Wikipedia
• 2017 David Cassidy, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1950) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Armed Forces Day (Bangladesh) Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Amelberga of Susteren Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Digain Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Maurus of Parentium Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Pope Gelasius I Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Franciszka Siedliska Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Rufus of Rome (no. 7 in list) Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: William Byrd, John Merbecke and Thomas Tallis (Episcopal Church (USA)) Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: November 21 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• World Television Day (United Nations observance) Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “November 21” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/November 21” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “November 21” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for November 21 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.