Holidays Calendar for July 21, 2021

National Day is one of twelve public holidays in Belgium. It's annually observed on July 21 to celebrate the day, when Leopold of Saxe-Cobourg swore allegiance to the new Belgian constitution and became the first King of Belgium.

Guam annually celebrates Liberation Day on July 21. The date of the holiday is connected with the start of the Second Battle of Guam in July 1944.

No Pet Store Puppies Day is observed annually on July 21. This awareness campaign was created to raise awareness of horrible conditions at puppy mills and encourage people to adopt puppies from shelters or buy them from ethical breeders instead of shopping for puppies at the pet store.

The mass race riots, that occurred in Singapore in 1964, became the basis for creation of Racial Harmony Day. This holiday is celebrated in Singapore on July 21 to commemorate the innocent victims of the riots.

July 21 is the day when all diets go out of the window as it is National Junk Food Day. This is a perfect excuse to indulge in your guilty pleasures without pangs of conscience.

The majority of popular food-related holidays originated in the United States, but there are exception to this rule. For example, National Lamington Day, sometimes referred to as International Lamington Day or World Lamington Day, is celebrated in Australia in honor of the country’s iconic dessert.

National Hot Dog Day is an informal holiday in the United States celebrated every July. It was established by the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council. Hot Dog Day celebrates hot dogs as one of the staples of American cuisine.

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Legal Drinking Age Day is observed in the United States on July 21. It was created to raise awareness of the benefits of the minimum legal drinking age of 21 and encourage people to drink responsibly.

National Be Someone Day is observed annually on July 21 to raise awareness of child abuse and encourage people to learn its signs and report child abuse whenever they have reasonable suspicion.

 

This Day in History

  • 2012 Turkish adventurer Erden Eruç became the first person in history to complete a solo human-powered circumnavigation of the Earth.
  • 2011 STS-135, the final mission of the NASA Space Shuttle program, landed. NASA hosted an employee appreciation event on the occasion.
  • 2007 The seventh and final novel of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was released in the UK, the US and Canada.
  • 2006 Died: Ta Mok, Cambodian military chief and soldier who was a senior figure in the Khmer Rouge. He was best known as the Butcher.
  • 2004 Died: Jerry Goldsmith, American composer and conductor best known for his work in scoring. In 1976, he was awarded an Oscar for The Omen.
  • 2004 Died: Edward B. Lewis, American geneticist who was awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, sharing it with two scientists.
  • 1998 Died: Alan Shepard, American naval officer, aviator, test pilot, NASA astronaut and businessman. He was the second person to travel into space.
  • 1985 Born: Vanessa Lengies, Canadian actress, dancer and singer best known for her role as Roxanne Bojarski in American Dreams.
  • 1983 The world's lowest temperature in an inhabited location was recorded at the Vostok Station in Antarctica. It is −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F; 184.0 K).
  • 1978 Born: Josh Hartnett, American actor and producer known for his roles as Trip Fontaine in The Virgin Suicides and Daniel Walker in Pearl Harbor.
  • 1978 Born: Justin Bartha, American actor known for his roles as Riley Poole in the National Treasure franchise and Doug Billings in The Hangover trilogy.
  • 1977 Died: Lee Miller, American photographer. During World War II, she was an acclaimed war correspondent, covering many major events.
  • 1973 Born: Ali Landry, American actress and model. She is the winner of Miss USA 1996 and the Doritos Girl from the 1998 Super Bowl commercial.
  • 1970 The construction of the Aswan High Dam in Egypt was completed. It was a key objective of the government following the 1952 Revolution.
  • 1967 Died: Jimmie Foxx, American baseball first baseman. He was the second player in MLN to hit 500 career home runs, after Babe Ruth.
  • 1961 The second U.S. human spaceflight, Mercury-Redstone 4, took place. The spacecraft was piloted by astronaut Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom.
  • 1956 Born: Michael Connelly, American crime fiction writer whose best known characters are Mickey Haller and Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch.
  • 1954 The Geneva accords were issued, following the Geneva Conference. These agreements temporarily separated Vietnam into two zones.
  • 1951 Born: Robin Williams, American actor and comedian known for his roles in widely acclaimed films. In 1998, he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
  • 1948 Died: Arshile Gorky (born Vosdanig Manoug Adoian), Armenian-American painter who considerably influenced on Abstract Expressionism.
  • 1948 Born: Garry Trudeau, American cartoonist, best known for his Doonesbury comic strip, which earned him the prestigious Pulitzer Prize.
  • 1944 Died: Claus von Stauffenberg, German army officer who led the failed 20 July plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Führer of the Third Reich.
  • 1938 Died: Owen Wister, American writer who is widely regarded as the "father" of western fiction. His best known work is The Virginian.
  • 1899 Born: Ernest Hemingway, American writer and journalist whose best known forks include The Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls, A Farewell to Arms.
  • 1831 Leopold I became the first King of the Belgians following the independence of Belgium from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.
  • 1822 General Agustín de Iturbide was crowned as Emperor of the First Mexican Empire. Augustine of Mexico was forced to abdicate in 1823.
  • 1816 Born: Paul Reuter, German-English entrepreneur and journalist primarily remembered as the founder of the Reuters news agency.
  • 1796 Died: Robert Burns Scottish poet and lyricist who is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland. He wrote in the Scots language and in English.
  • 1620 Born: Jean Picard, French astronomer who was the first person to measure the size of the Earth to a reasonable degree of accuracy.
  • 365 The devastating Crete earthquake followed by a tsunami occurred in the Eastern Mediterranean, destroying nearly all towns in Crete.