21 Aban 1479

Events

• 1940 (86 years ago) World War II: The Battle of Gabon ends as Free French Forces take Libreville, Gabon, and all of French Equatorial Africa from Vichy French forces.
• 1956 (70 years ago) Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia join the United Nations.
• 1971 (55 years ago) Vietnam War: As part of Vietnamization, U.S. President Richard Nixon sets February 1, 1972 as the deadline for the removal of another 45,000 American troops from Vietnam.
• 1975 (51 years ago) The Comoros joins the United Nations.
• 1977 (49 years ago) France conducts the Oreste nuclear test as 14th in the group of 29, 1975–78 French nuclear tests series.
• 1979 (47 years ago) Iran hostage crisis: In response to the hostage situation in Tehran, U.S. President Jimmy Carter orders a halt to all petroleum imports into the United States from Iran.
• 1999 (27 years ago) The 7.2 Mw Düzce earthquake shakes northwestern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). At least 845 people are killed and almost 5,000 are injured.
• 2017 (9 years ago) The 7.3 Mw Kermanshah earthquake shakes the northern Iran–Iraq border with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). At least 410 people are killed and over 7,000 are injured.

Births

• 1817 (209 years ago) Bahá'u'lláh, Persian spiritual leader, founded the Baháʼí Faith (died 1892)
• 1840 (186 years ago) Auguste Rodin, French sculptor and illustrator, created The Thinker (died 1917)
• 1842 (184 years ago) John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1919)
• 1866 (160 years ago) Sun Yat-sen, Chinese physician and politician, 1st President of the Republic of China (died 1925)
• 1929 (97 years ago) Grace Kelly, American actress, later Princess Grace of Monaco (died 1982)
• 1934 (92 years ago) Charles Manson, American cult leader (died 2017)
• 1948 (78 years ago) Hassan Rouhani, Iranian lawyer and politician; 7th President of Iran
• 1982 (44 years ago) Anne Hathaway, American actress

Deaths

• 607 (1419 years ago) Pope Boniface III,
• 1035 (991 years ago) Cnut the Great, Danish-English king (born c.995)
• 1865 (161 years ago) Elizabeth Gaskell, English author (born 1810)
• 1916 (110 years ago) Percival Lowell, American astronomer, mathematician, and author (born 1855)
• 1969 (57 years ago) Liu Shaoqi, Chinese politician, 2nd Chairman of the People's Republic of China (born 1898)
• 1981 (45 years ago) William Holden, American actor (born 1918)
• 1994 (32 years ago) Wilma Rudolph, American sprinter and educator (born 1940)
• 2018 (8 years ago) Stan Lee, American comic book writer, editor, and publisher (born 1922)

All 348 events, births and deaths of November 12