Today in History: August 21, Nat Turner launches rebellion

Today is Friday, Aug. 21, the 233rd day of 2026. There are 132 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Aug. 21, 1831, Nat Turner launched a violent slave rebellion in Virginia, resulting in the deaths of at least 55 white people; scores of Black people were killed in retribution after the rebellion, and Turner was later executed.

Also on this date:

In 1858, the first of seven debates took place between Illinois senatorial contenders Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas.

In 1911, Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” was stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris. (It was recovered two years later in Italy.)

In 1944, the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and China opened talks at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington that helped pave the way for establishment of the United Nations.

In 1959, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a proclamation officially declaring Hawaii the 50th state.

In 1983, Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr. was assassinated as he exited an aircraft at Manila International Airport. (His widow, Corazon Aquino, would become president of the Philippines three years later.)

In 1991, a hard-line coup against Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev collapsed in the face of a popular uprising led by Russian Federation President Boris N. Yeltsin.

In 1992, an 11-day siege began at the cabin of white separatist Randy Weaver in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, as government agents tried to arrest Weaver for failing to appear in court on charges of selling two illegal sawed-off shotguns; on the first day of the siege, Weaver’s teenage son, Samuel, and Deputy U.S. Marshal William Degan were killed.

In 1993, in a serious setback for NASA, engineers lost contact with the Mars Observer spacecraft as it was about to reach the red planet on a $980 million mission.

In 2000, rescue efforts to reach the sunken Russian nuclear submarine Kursk ended with divers announcing that none of the 118 sailors had survived.

In 2010, Iranian and Russian engineers began loading fuel into Iran’s first nuclear power plant, which Moscow promised to safeguard to prevent material at the site from being used in any potential weapons production.

In 2015, a trio of Americans, U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Spencer Stone, National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos and college student Anthony Sadler, and a British businessman, Chris Norman, tackled and disarmed a Moroccan gunman on a high-speed train between Amsterdam and Paris.

In 2017, Americans witnessed their first full-blown coast-to-coast solar eclipse since World War I, with eclipse-watchers gathering along a path of totality extending 2,600 miles across the continent.

In 2020, a former police officer who became known as the Golden State Killer, Joseph James DeAngelo, told victims and family members in a Sacramento courtroom that he was “truly sorry” before he was sentenced to multiple life prison sentences for a decadelong string of rapes and murders.

Today’s Birthdays: Rock and Roll Hall of Famer James Burton is 87. Singer Jackie DeShannon is 85. Film director Peter Weir is 82. Football Hall of Famer Willie Lanier is 81. Actor Loretta Devine is 77. Two-time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin is 72. Actor Kim Cattrall is 70. Rock musician Serj Tankian (System of a Down) is 59. Actor Carrie-Anne Moss is 59. Google co-founder Sergei Brin is 53. Singer Kelis (kuh-LEES’) is 47. TV personality Brody Jenner is 43. Olympic gold medal sprinter Usain (yoo-SAYN’) Bolt is 40. Country singer Kacey Musgraves is 38. Soccer player Robert Lewandowski is 38. Actor Hayden Panettiere is 37. Comedian-singer-filmmaker Bo Burnham is 36. Actor Dallas Liu is 25.