21st of August

It is the 233rd day of the year and 132 days are remaining.

1614 - Elizabeth Bathory dies at 54 years of age.  She was a countess of Hungarian nobility and has been accused of killing hundreds of girls, attributing to over 650 victims.

1680 - Pueblo Indians capture the city of Santa Fe from the Spanish during the Pueblo Revolt.

1754 - Banastre Tarleton, a British soldier who gained notoriety during the American Revolution as an outstanding leader of light cavalry and a ruthless fighter, is born. 

1831 - Nat Turner leads African slaves and free blacks in a rebellion in Virgina, that results in 56 white deaths and 55 black deaths.

1852 - Tlingit Indians destroy Fort Selkirk, Yukon Territory.

1863 - Lawrence, Kansas is destroyed by Confederate guerrillas known as Quantrill's Raiders.

1911 - The Mona Lisa is stolen by an employee of the Louvre in Paris, France.

1918 - The Second Battle of the Somme begins during the First World War.

1936 - Wilt Chamberlain, American basketball player and one of the most dominant players in history, is born.

1940 - Leon Trotsky, Russian Marxist revolutionary and the founder and first leader of the Red Army, is assassinated at his home in Mexico with an ice axe by a secret police agent.  He died as a result of severe brain damage and his life ended at the age of 60.

1942 - American forces defeat an attack by Imperial Japanese Army soldiers in the Battle of the Tenaru.

1952 - Joe Strummer, the British musician and singer of The Clash is born.

1959 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order proclaiming Hawaii the 50th state of the Union.

1963 - The Army of the Republic of Vietnam's Special Forces loyal to Ngo Dinh Nhu, brother of President Ngo Dinh Diem, vandalizes Buddhist pagodas across the country, arresting thousands and leaving an estimated hundreds dead.

1968 - James Anderson Jr., posthumously receives the first Medal of Honor to be awarded to an African American United States Marine.

1971 - George Jackson, a member of the Black Panther Party, co-founder of the Black Guerrilla Family prison gang, was shot to death by prison guards while trying to escape San Quentin Prison.

1986 - Carbon dioxide gas erupts from volcanic Lake Nyos in Cameroon, killing up to 1,800 people within a 20-kilometer range.

1991 - Latvia declares renewal of its full independence after the occupation of the Soviet Union.

2008 - American record producer Jerry Finn, best known for his groundbreaking work with Green Day, Blink-182, Rancid, Sum 41, Morrissey, AFI, Alkaline Trio, and MxPx, passes away at the age of 39.