On this day: November 21

Events on November 21

• 235 Pope Anterus succeeds Pontian as the nineteenth pope. Wikipedia
• 1386 Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur captured and sacked the Georgian capital Tbilisi and forced King Bagrat V to convert to Islam. Wikipedia
• 1386 Timur of Samarkand captures and sacks the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, taking King Bagrat V of Georgia captive. Wikipedia
• 1620 Plymouth Colony settlers sign the Mayflower Compact (November 11, O.S.) 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
• 1877 Thomas Edison announces his invention of the phonograph, a machine that can record and play sound. Wikipedia
• 1905 Albert Einstein's paper that leads to the mass–energy equivalence formula, E = mc², is published in the journal Annalen der Physik. Wikipedia
• 1916 World War I: Mines from SM U-73 sink HMHS Britannic, the largest ship lost in the war. Wikipedia
• 1918 The Flag of Estonia, previously used by pro-independence activists, is formally adopted as the national flag of the Republic of Estonia. Wikipedia
• 1922 Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia takes the oath of office, becoming the first female United States Senator. Wikipedia
• 1944 World War II: American submarine USS Sealion sinks the Japanese battleship Kongō and Japanese destroyer Urakaze in the Formosa Strait. Wikipedia
• 1945 Manzanar, a camp in California for the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, was closed. Wikipedia
• 1954 People's Action Party, an eventual dominative political party in Singapore, was established. Wikipedia
• 1961 "La Ronde" opens in Honolulu, the first revolving restaurant in the United States. Wikipedia
• 1964 Second Vatican Council: The third session of the Roman Catholic Church's ecumenical council closes. Wikipedia
• 1979 The United States Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, is attacked by a mob and set on fire, killing four. Wikipedia
• 1985 United States Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard is arrested for spying after being caught giving Israel classified information on Arab nations. He is subsequently sentenced to life in prison. Wikipedia
• 1992 A major tornado strikes the Houston, Texas area during the afternoon. Over the next two days the largest tornado outbreak ever to occur in the US during November spawns over 100 tornadoes. 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
• 2004 The Paris Club agrees to write off 80% (up to $100 billion) of Iraq's external debt. Wikipedia
• 2004 Dominica is hit by the most destructive earthquake in its history. The northern half of the island sustains the most damage, especially the town of Portsmouth. In neighboring Guadeloupe, one person is killed. Wikipedia
• 2006 Anti-Syrian Lebanese politician and government minister Pierre Gemayel is assassinated in suburban Beirut. Wikipedia
• 2013 Massive protests start in Ukraine after President Viktor Yanukovych suspended signing the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement. 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
• 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
• 1986 Colleen Ballinger, American YouTuber, comedian, actress, and singer 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, Somalian-Djiboutian politician, 1st President of Djibouti (born 1916) Wikipedia
• 2021 Jean-Pierre Schumacher, French Trappist monk and survivor of the Thibirine monks (born 1924) 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

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 2026-10-09 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.