On Aug. 21, 1831, Nat Turner launched a violent slave rebellion in Virginia.

In 1897, Ransom Eli Olds of Lansing, Michigan, founds Olds Motors Works—which will later become Oldsmobile.

In 1911, Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” was stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris.

In 1959, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed an executive order making Hawaii the 50th state.

In 1961, Jomo Kenyatta, leader of the Kenyan independence movement, is released by British colonial authorities after nearly nine years of imprisonment and detention.

Also in 1961, Tamla Records released the Marvelettes first single, ‘Please Mr. Postman’. The song went on to sell over a million copies and become the group’s biggest hit, reaching the top of both the Billboard Pop and R&B charts. The song is notable as the first Motown song to reach the No.1 position on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart.

In 1980, animal rights advocates Ingrid Newkirk and Alex Pacheco found People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. 

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.

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 2008, drummer Buddy Harman died of congestive heart failure, aged 79. Worked with Elvis Presley (‘Little Sister’), Patsy Cline (‘Crazy’), Roy Orbison (‘Pretty Woman’), Johnny Cash (‘Ring Of Fire’), Tammy Wynette (‘Stand By Your Man’). Harman was the first house drummer for The Grand Ole Opry and can be heard on over 18,000 recordings.

In 2013, legendary concert promoter Sid Bernstein, best known for booking The Beatles at Carnegie Hall and later Shea Stadium, died at the age of 95. Bernstein changed the American music scene in the 1960s by bringing The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Herman’s Hermits, The Moody Blues, and The Kinks to America. He was the first impresario to organise rock concerts at sports stadiums.

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