July 21

356 BC – The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World in antiquity, is destroyed by arson.

1798 – Napoleon’s forces defeat an moslem Ottoman-Mamluk army near Cairo in the Battle of the Pyramids.

1861 –  At Manassas Junction, Virginia, the first major battle of the Civil War ends in a victory for the Confederate army.

1865 – In the town square of Springfield, Missouri, James ‘Wild Bill’ Hickok and Davis Tutt engage in what is regarded as the first western showdown gun fight with Hickok killing Tutt with a single shot.

1873 – At Adair, Iowa, Jesse James and the James–Younger Gang pull off the first successful train robbery in the U.S.

1904 – Louis Rigolly, a Frenchman, becomes the first man to break the 100 mph barrier on land, driving purpose built, 13.5-liter engine powered Gobron-Brillié racing car in Ostend, Belgium to 103.561 mph.

1907 – The Oregon Railway and Navigation Company’s passenger steamer SS Columbia sinks after colliding with the Metropolitan Redwood Lumber Company’s steam schooner San Pedro off Shelter Cove, California, killing 88 passengers and crew aboard Columbia

1919 – The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company’s dirigible Wingfoot Air Express crashes into the Illinois Trust and Savings Building in Chicago, killing 3 passengers and crew aboard and 10 people in the building.

1925 – In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes is found guilty of teaching evolution in his school class and fined $100.
Malcolm Campbell becomes the first man to exceed 150 mph on land, driving the Sunbeam 350HP at Pendine Sands in Wales, at a 2 way average speed of 150.33 mph

1944 – American troops land on Guam to retake it from the Japanese, starting a battle that will end on August 10.
In Berlin, 5 conspirators are executed for the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

1949 – The Senate ratifies the North Atlantic Treaty, creating NATO.

1952 – The 7.3 Mw  Kern County earthquake strikes Southern California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing 12 and injuring hundreds.

1954 – The Geneva Conference partitions Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam.

1959 – The U.S. government owned NS Savannah, the first nuclear powered cargo/passenger ship, is launched at Camden, New Jersey, as a showcase for President Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” initiative.

1961 – Mercury-Redstone 4 Mission astronaut Gus Grissom, piloting Liberty Bell 7 becomes the second American to go into space
Alaska Airlines Cargo Flight 779, a Douglas DC-6, crashes near Shemya Air Force Base in Shemya, Alaska killing all 6 crew aboard.

1969 – At 02:56 UTC, at Tranquility Base, astronaut Neil Armstrong leaves the Lunar Lander Eagle and becomes the first person to walk on the Moon. At 17:54 UTC, the Eagle lifts off from the Moon to redock with the Command Module Columbia at 21:35 UTC

1970 – After 11 years of construction, the Aswan High Dam in Egypt is completed.

1979 – Mohawk Jay Silverheels becomes the first Native American to have a star commemorated in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1983 – The world’s lowest temperature in an inhabited location is recorded at Vostok Station, Antarctica at −128.6 °F

2011 – NASA’s Space Shuttle program ends with the landing of Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-135.