21 Oct 1914
- Near Ypres, Belgium, British commanders ordered the troops to fall back in the evening.
21 Oct 1916
- The Austrian Prime Minister Karl Stürgkh was assassinated by Friedrich Adler, the son of the Socialists' leader. Adler was never brought to trial.
21 Oct 1919
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
- The work on carrier Eagle was paused as Chile negotiated with the United Kingdom to regain ownership of the ship still under construction, offering £1,500,000. The British Admiralty rejected the offer after calculating that it would cost £2,500,000 to convert the ship back to battleship configuration that Chile wanted to receive.
» In-depth article - Roderick Carr was removed from the active list of British Roayl Air Force.
» In-depth article
21 Oct 1929
- The Do X aircraft took its 70th test flight, breaking a record with 169 people on board.
» In-depth article
21 Oct 1937
- Spanish Republican-held stronghold of Gijón surrendered, allowing the whole northern coast of Spain to pass into Nationalist control. In Gijón harbor, the Spanish Republican destroyer Ciscar was sunk Nationalist aircraft.
» In-depth article
21 Oct 1938
- HMS Gurkha (L52) was commissioned into service with Commander F. R. Parham in command.
- Adolf Hitler issued the order to his top military commanders noting that German forces must be ready to seize the remainder of Czechoslovakia and Memel in Lithuania with minimal notice.
» In-depth article
- Japanese troops captured the city of Guangzhou in Southern China nearly unopposed. The city was afire from both heavy Japanese bombing in the previous few days as well as from fires set by the retreating Chinese troops.
» In-depth article - Japanese troops captured Chinese gunboat Yongji at Xinti, Hubei, China.
21 Oct 1939
- Germans began deporting Poles from Poznan to make the province "Germanic".
- The Uranium Advisory Committee in the United States, headed by Lyman Briggs of the National Bureau of Standards, met for the first time. The committee had a budget of US$6,000 at this time.
» In-depth article - British light cruiser HMS Orion and Canadian destroyer HMCS Saguenay located German tanker Emmy Friedrich in the Yucatan Channel, and began to move to intercept.
» In-depth article - Arthur Greiser was named the Gauleiter of Reichsgau Posen.
» In-depth article - Nobutake Kondo was named the deputy commander of the Navy General Staff.
» In-depth article
- General Erich von Manstein, Chief of Staff of Army Group A, obtained a copy of Plan Yellow whilst passing through Berlin, Germany on his way to set up Army Group A Headquarters at Koblenz. He found little to admire in the plan, considering it to be too much like the strategy of 1914, and even predicting that the advance would bog down at the same place – on the Somme River in France.
» In-depth article
21 Oct 1940
- Italian destroyers Manin, Sauro, Battisti, and Nullo attacked Allied convoy BN-7 in the Red Sea at 0219 hours. Nullo was damaged by HMS Kimberley and Australian sloop HMAS Yarra as the escorts counterattacked; she fled back towards Massawa, Italian East Africa and ran aground, but drew Kimberley close enough to the shore guns to hit the British ship, killing 3.
- British minesweeping trawler HMS Waveflower hit a mine and sank off Alderburgh, Suffolk, England; 15 were killed and 7 survived.
- British motor torpedo boat MTB-17 hit a mine and sank off Ostend, Belgium.
- German guns near Calais, France fired 6 shells at Dover, England, United Kingdom between 1400 and 1600 hours; only some of the shells detonated.
- Friedrich Ruge was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross medal.
» In-depth article
- Scirè departed La Spezia, Italy for Gibraltar with three manned torpedoes on board.
» In-depth article
- Between 1100 and 1400 hours, heavy fog limited Germans to small raids against southern England, United Kingdom and kept British fighters on the ground; as the result, bombs were successfully dropped on London, Lancashire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Sussex, and Kent; 1 Ju 88 bomber was lost. Overnight, London, Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton, Liverpool, and South Wales were bombed.
» In-depth article
21 Oct 1941
- Civilian ship Steel Architect was launched.
» In-depth article - Troops of the German 6.Armee captured Stalino in the Donets Basin in southern Ukraine.
- The cruisers HMS Aurora (Captain W. G. Agnew) and HMS Penelope (Captain A. D. Nicholl) arrived in Malta and with the destroyers HMS Lance and HMS Lively formed a small squadron known as Force K. For some reason Force K always seemed to go to sea on a Saturday.
- Soviet submarine M58 hit a mine laid by the Romanians and sank in the Black Sea near the opening of the Danube River, killing all 19 aboard.
- German submarine U-79 hit British gunboat HMS Gnat with a torpedo 30 miles northwest of Bardia, Libya at 0334 hours, blowing away 20 feet of her bow but caused no casualties. Gnat would be successfully towed back to Alexandria, Egypt where she would serve as a stationary anti-aircraft gun platform.
- German submarine U-123 damaged British armed merchant cruiser HMS Aurania with a torpedo 400 miles west of Ireland at 0428 hours; a lifeboat launched sank with 2 killed, 3 rescued by destroyer HMS Croome, and 1 captured by U-123; Aurania was escorting Allied convoy SL-89 and would be successfully towed to port for repairs. At 2200 hours, German submarine U-82 attacked the same convoy, sinking the ships Serbino (14 were killed, 51 survived) and Treverbyn (all 46 aboard were killed).
- British cruiser HMS Abdiel and destroyers HMS Napier, HMS Hasty, and HMS Decoy departed Alexandria, Egypt with supplies for Tobruk, Libya, returning with men of the Australian 9th Division in the early hours of the following day.
» In-depth article - A civilian on the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic spotted a submarine off its coast, but the report was not regarded as important. The submarine was most likely German submarine U-68, which would strike on the next day.
- German submarine U-106 departed Lorient, France.
- The Jager Report (issued on 1 Dec 1941) noted that 718 adult male, 1,063 adult female, and 586 children, all Jews, were killed in Vilnius, Lithuania for a total of 2,367 people.
» In-depth article
21 Oct 1942
- Captain and Surgeon Masato Honma became the new commanding officer of hospital ship Hikawa Maru.
» In-depth article
» Tabular Record of Movement - Prime Minister of South Africa Jan Smuts delivered a speech to both houses of the British Parliament: "The stage is set for the last, for the offensive".
- Iro Ilk was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.
» In-depth article - US Major General Mark Clark, aboard British submarine HMS Seraph (which was under disguise as an American submarine), began negotiations with Vichy French commanders in North Africa in preparation of Operation Torch.
» In-depth article - US Navy Admiral Ernest King notified commanders in the Pacific area commanders that the Joint Chiefs of Staff had agreed to strengthen the air forces in the South Pacific by 1 Jan 1943.
» In-depth article - ShCh-307 attacked an Axis convoy in the Gulf of Finland; both torpedoes missed.
» In-depth article
- Finnish submarine Vesihiisi sank Soviet submarine S-7 southwest of Aland Islands, Finland with one torpedo at 2041 hours; 44 were killed, 4 survived.
» In-depth article
21 Oct 1943
- Dudley Pound passed away.
» In-depth article - The keel of submarine Bugara was laid down.
» In-depth article - Captain Minegoro Kameyama was named the commanding officer of repair ship Akashi.
» In-depth article
» Tabular Record of Movement
- Naka departed Shanghai, China with 485 troops of Japanese 17th Division.
» In-depth article
» Tabular Record of Movement
- Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru arrived at Saigon, Indochina.
» In-depth article
» Tabular Record of Movement
- 1,007 Jews from the Westerbork camp in the Netherlands arrived at Auschwitz Concentration Camp in Poland. There were 87 children, 407 men and women under the age of 50 and 207 older people. After the selection 347 men and 170 women were registered. The other 409 were killed in the gas chambers.
» In-depth article
21 Oct 1944
See all photos dated 21 Oct 1944
- German troops surrendered at Aachen, Germany.
- Canadian troops captured Breskens, the Netherlands.
» In-depth article - German Jews who were previously protected by their Aryan spouses were now deported from Germany.
- The German RSHA office ordered that the Gestapo were given the permission to execute foreign laborers.
- USS Segundo arrived at Majuro Atoll, Marshall Islands, ending her first war patrol.
» In-depth article - Otto Skorzeny arrived at Wolfsschanze in East Prussia, Germany.
» In-depth article - HMAS Australia was hit by a special attack aircraft off the Philippine Islands; it was unsure whether this was a Japanese Army or Navy aircraft as both branches launched tokko attacks on this date.
» In-depth article - USS Chub was commissioned into service, Commander C. D. Rhymes, Jr. in command.
» In-depth article - USS Gunnel started her seventh war patrol.
» In-depth article
- Joseph Stilwell departed Chongqing, China in the afternoon for the United States via India.
» In-depth article
- British V Corps crossed the Savio River in Italy.
» In-depth article
- Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru arrived at Manila, Philippine Islands.
» In-depth article
» Tabular Record of Movement
- USS Astoria completed her repairs at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, California, United States.
» In-depth article
See all photos dated 21 Oct 1944
21 Oct 1945
Germany
Germany
- British engineers destroyed the U-Boat pens in Hamburg, Germany.
- Historical document written: Interrogation Nav 34, Commander Chikataka Nakajima
» In-depth article
21 Oct 1946
Photo(s) dated 21 Oct 1946
Photo(s) dated 21 Oct 1946
21 Oct 1987
Taiwan
Taiwan
- He Yingqin passed away at the Taipei Veterans General Hospital in Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China at 0730 hours.
» In-depth article
21 Oct 2007
Photo(s) dated 21 Oct 2007
Photo(s) dated 21 Oct 2007
Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis
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