Historical Events on November 21

  • 1620: Settlers at Plymouth Colony sign the Mayflower Compact.
  • 1676: Danish astronauts Ole Rømer quantifies the speed of light.
  • 1783: The first hot air balloon that flies without a tether is flown in Paris, France by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d’Arlandes.
  • 1789: North Carolina becomes the 12th United States’ State and ratifies the U.S Constitution.
  • 1861: Judah Benjamin is appointed as Confederate Secretary of War by Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
  • 1877: The invention of the phonograph is announced to the world by Thomas Edison.
  • 1905: Albert Einstein publishes the now famous article that leads to his formula E = mc² in the journal Annalen der Physik.
  • 1942: The completion of Alcan Highway is celebrated. However, this highway wouldn’t officially be able to be traveled by vehicles until the following year.
  • 1945: United Auto Workers demand a thirty-percent raise in wages and strike in ninety-two GM plants in fifty cities.
  • 1953: The Piltdown Man – once considered to be the most important hominid skull ever discovered, is determined by the National History Museum in London to be a hoax.
  • 2009: Over a hundred people are killed at a mine explosion in Heilongjiang, China.
  • 2012: Twenty-eight people are wounded after a bomb is tossed onto a Tel Aviv bus.
  • 2015: Due to potential terrorist attacks, the Belgium government puts into place a security lock-down on the city of Brussels which closed shops, public transportation and schools.

Famous Birthdays on November 21

  • French philosopher, playwright and historian, Voltaire is born in 1694.
  • American soldier and diarist Joseph Plumb Martin is born in 1760.
  • American baseball player and manager, Stan Musial is born in 1920.
  • American actor Joseph Campanella is born in 1924.
  • English author Christopher Tolkien is born in 1924.
  • Icelandic singer-songwriter Björk is born in 1965.
  • American author Rich Johnston is born in 1972.
  • American actress and singer, Rain Phoenix is born in 1972.