August 21

• 1680 - Pueblo Indians captured Santa Fe from Spanish during the Pueblo Revolt
• 1831 - Nat Turner leads slave revolt in Southampton County, Virginia
• 1852 - Tlingit Indians destroy Fort Selkirk, Yukon Territory
• 1858 - Lincoln-Douglas debates begin
• 1863 - Lawrence, Kansas destroyed by William Quantrill, Jesse and Frank James, the Younger Brothers, et. al.
• 1944 - Dumbarton Oaks Conference, prelude to the United Nations
• 1959 - Hawaii is admitted as the 50th U.S. state.
• 1971 - Black Panther George Jackson was shot and killed in the prison yard at California's San Quentin prison.
• 1986 - Toxic gas erupts from volcanic Lake Nyos in Cameroon, killing over 1700 people
• 1991 - Latvia declares its independence from the Soviet Union
• 1991 - Coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev collapses
• 1998 - The United States destroys a pharmaceutical plant (erroneously believed to be a chemical weapons plant) in Sudan
• 2001 - NATO decides to send a peace-keeping force to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
• 2001 - A sixth-century temple is discovered in central Mexico
• 2001 - The Red Cross announces that a famine is striking Tajikistan, and calls for international financial aid for Tajikistan and Uzbekistan
• 2002 - Jean Chrétien, Prime Minister of Canada, announced that he would not seek re-election and would resign within eighteen months

• 1165 - Philip II of France
• 1765 - William IV of the United Kingdom (d. 1837)
• 1811 - William Kelly, iron manufacturer, inventor (d. 1888)
• 1872 - Aubrey Beardsley, illustrator (d. 1898)
• 1904 - Count Basie (William Allen Basie), bandleader (d. 1984)
• 1906 - Fritz Freleng, movie animator
• 1920 - Christopher Robin Milne, propotype of the Christopher Robin in the Winnie the Pooh stories
• 1923 - Shimon Peres, Prime Minister of Israel
• 1924 - Jack Weston, actor (d. 1996)
• 1924 - Chris Scheknel, sports journalist
• 1928 - Art Farmer, trumpet player
• 1930 - Princess Margaret of the United Kingdom (d. 2002)
• 1932 - Melvin Van Peebles, actor, screenwriter
• 1936 - Wilt Chamberlain, Basketball Hall of Famer (d. 1999)
• 1938 - Kenny Rogers, singer, actor
• 1939 - Clarence Williams III, actor
• 1944 - Jackie DeShannon, singer
• 1956 - Kim Cattrall, actress
• 1959 - Jim McMahon, National Football League quarterback
• 1963 - Mohammed VI of Morocco
• 1967 - Carrie-Anne Moss, actress
• 1969 - Joseé Chouinard, Canadian figure skater

• 1153 - Bernard of Clairvaux, Christian theologian
• 1614 - Elizabeth Bathory, serial killer
• 1940 - Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary
• 1940 - Ernest Lawrence Thayer, poet
• 1947 - Ettore Bugatti, automobile manufacturer
• 1951 - Constant Lambert, composer
• 1978 - Charles Eames, American designer and architect
• 1983 - Benigno S. Aquino Jr., Philippine opposition leader
• 1988 - Ray Eames, American designer
• 1997 - Norris Bradbury, physicist
• 2003 - Wesley Willis, musician

• Roman Empire - Consualia, in honor of Consus, is held