12 History Lessons + 2 Births & 7 Deaths for July 21, 2025
Today’s History:
- 356 BC – The Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, is destroyed by arson in Ephesus.
- 1861 – The First Battle of Bull Run, the first major battle of the U.S. Civil War, is fought in Virginia.
- 1873 – Jesse James and his gang carry out the first successful train robbery in the American West.
- 1925 – The Scopes “Monkey” Trial ends in Tennessee; teacher John Scopes is found guilty of teaching evolution.
- 1944 – U.S. forces land on Guam in the Mariana Islands during World War II.
- 1954 – The Geneva Conference ends with the division of Vietnam into North and South.
- 1961 – Mercury-Redstone 4 (Liberty Bell 7) is launched, piloted by astronaut Gus Grissom.
- 1969 – Neil Armstrong becomes the first human to walk on the Moon, followed shortly by Buzz Aldrin.
- 1970 – The Aswan High Dam in Egypt is completed after 11 years of construction.
- 1983 – The world’s lowest natural temperature at ground level in an inhabited location is recorded at Vostok Station, Antarctica: −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F).
- 2007 – The final book of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is released.
- 2011 – NASA’s Space Shuttle program ends with the landing of Atlantis on mission STS-135.
Today’s Birthdays:
- 1957 – Jon Lovitz, actor (The Critic, SNL) (68)
- 1989 – Juno Temple, English actress (Ted Lasso, Atonement) (36)
Today’s Deaths:
- 1425 – Manuel II Palaiologos, Byzantine Emperor (66)
- 1796 – Robert Burns, Scottish poet (Auld Lang Syne) (37)
- 1899 – Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, former British Prime Minister (69)
- 1927 – Ferdinand I of Romania, King of Romania (62)
- 1998 – Alan Shepard, first American in space and fifth man to walk on the Moon (74)
- 2004 – Jerry Goldsmith, Oscar-winning composer (The Omen, Star Trek) (75)
- 2013 – Dennis Farina, actor and former Chicago cop (Law & Order, Snatch) (69)
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