August 21
1680
Pueblo Indians drove out the Spanish and took possession of Santa Fe, N.M.
1831
Nat Turner led an insurrection of slaves in Virginia.
1858
The famous debates between Senator Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln began in Illinois.
1911
The Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre museum in France by an Italian waiter, Vicenzo Perruggia.
1940
Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky died in Mexico City.
1945
Harry S. Truman announced the end of the Lend-Lease Program.
1959
Hawaii became the 50th state in the United States.
1983
Corazon Aquino’s husband Benigno, who was Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos’s chief political opponent, was assassinated.
1991
Latvia declared its independence from the Soviet Union.
Birthdays
Wilt Chamberlain
1936–1999, American basketball player, born in Philadelphia.
Philip II
king of France (1165)
Count Basie
jazz pianist (1904)
Archie Griffin
football running back (1954)