2 Ordibehesht 1379

Events

• 1782 (244 years ago) The city of Rattanakosin, now known internationally as Bangkok, is founded on the eastern bank of the Chao Phraya River by King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke.
• 1796 (230 years ago) War of the First Coalition: In the climax of the Montenotte Campaign, Napoleon Bonaparte decisively defeats the army of Piedmont at the Battle of Mondovi, leading to Piedmont's surrender a week later and decisively turning the Italian campaign in France's favor.
• 1809 (217 years ago) Two Austrian army corps are driven from Landshut by a First French Empire army led by Napoleon as two French corps to the north hold off the main Austrian army on the first day of the Battle of Eckmühl.
• 1918 (108 years ago) World War I: German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, better known as "The Red Baron", is shot down and killed over Vaux-sur-Somme in France.
• 1945 (81 years ago) World War II: Soviet forces south of Berlin at Zossen attack the German High Command headquarters.
• 1960 (66 years ago) Brasília, Brazil's capital, is officially inaugurated. At 09:30, the Three Powers of the Republic are simultaneously transferred from the old capital, Rio de Janeiro.
• 1967 (59 years ago) A tornado outbreak in Illinois, United States, kills over 50 and injures over 1,000. Belvidere sustains over 500 casualties as a violent tornado strikes the high school. Another tornado near Chicago causes another 500 casualties, devastating Oak Lawn.
• 1975 (51 years ago) Vietnam War: President of South Vietnam Nguyễn Văn Thiệu flees Saigon, as Xuân Lộc, the last South Vietnamese outpost blocking a direct North Vietnamese assault on Saigon, falls.

Births

• 1774 (252 years ago) Jean-Baptiste Biot, French physicist, astronomer, and mathematician (died 1862)
• 1816 (210 years ago) Charlotte Brontë, English novelist and poet (died 1855)
• 1864 (162 years ago) Max Weber, German economist and sociologist (died 1920)
• 1882 (144 years ago) Percy Williams Bridgman, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1961)
• 1915 (111 years ago) Anthony Quinn, Mexican-American actor (died 2001)
• 1926 (100 years ago) Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom and her other realms (died 2022)
• 1947 (79 years ago) Iggy Pop, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
• 1979 (47 years ago) James McAvoy, Scottish actor

Deaths

• 1109 (917 years ago) Anselm of Canterbury, Italian-English archbishop and saint (born 1033)
• 1142 (884 years ago) Peter Abelard, French philosopher and theologian (born 1079)
• 1699 (327 years ago) Jean Racine, French playwright and poet (born 1639)
• 1910 (116 years ago) Mark Twain, American novelist, humorist, and critic (born 1835)
• 1938 (88 years ago) Allama Muhammad Iqbal, Pakistani National philosopher and poet (born 1877)
• 1946 (80 years ago) John Maynard Keynes, English economist and philosopher (born 1883)
• 2016 (10 years ago) Prince, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor (born 1958)
• 2025 (a year ago) Pope Francis,

All 303 events, births and deaths of April 21