What is October 21?
{{calendar}} {{day}} == Events == === Up to 1900 === * [[686]] &ndash; [[Pope Conon|Conon]] becomes [[Pope]]. * [[1096]] &ndash; [[People's Crusade]]: The [[Turkey|Turkish]] [[army]] heavily defeats the [[People's Army of the West]]. * [[1097]] &ndash; [[First Crusade]]: The [[Siege of Antioch]] begins. * [[1209]] &ndash; [[Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor]] is crowned by [[Pope Innocent III]]. * [[1392]] &ndash; [[Emperor Kameyama]] of [[Japan]] abdicates the throne in favour of his arch-rival [[Emperor Go-Komatsu]]. * [[1512]] &ndash; [[Martin Luther]] joins the theological faculty at the [[University of Wittenberg]]. * [[1520]] &ndash; [[Ferdinand Magellan]] enters what is now known as the [[Magellan Strait]]. * [[1600]] &ndash; [[Tokugawa Ieyasu]] defeats the leaders of rival [[Japan]]ese clans in the [[Battle of Sekigahara]], which marks the beginning of the [[Tokugawa shogunate]], who in effect rule Japan until the mid-Nineteenth century. * [[1638]] &ndash; In [[England]], the [[church (building)|church]] at Widecombe-on-the-Moor is struck by [[lightning]] during an afternoon service, leading to new scientific research on lightning strikes. * [[1797]] &ndash; In [[Boston Harbor]], the 44-gun [[United States Navy]] frigate [[USS Constitution|USS ''Constitution'']] is launched. * [[1805]] &ndash; [[Napoleonic Wars]]: [[Battle of Trafalgar]] – a [[United Kingdom|British]] fleet led by Admiral [[Lord Nelson]] defeats a combined [[France|French]] and [[Spain|Spanish]] fleet off the coast of Spain under [[Pierre-Charles Villeneuve|Admiral Villeneuve]]. It signalled the virtual end of French maritime power and left Britain navally unchallenged until the twentieth century. * [[1805]] &ndash; [[Napoleonic Wars]]: Austrian [[Karl Freiherr Mack von Leiberich|General Mack]] surrendurs his army to the [[Grand Armee]] of [[Napoleon]] at [[Battle of Ulm|Ulm]], reaping [[Napoleon]] over 30,000 prisoners and inflicting 10,000 casualties on the losers. Ulm was considered to be one of Napoleon's finest hours. * [[1816]] &ndash; T