Daily List

Today in History, August 21st

On August 21, 1959, Hawaii became the 50th U.S. state. Plus Nat Turner's rebellion, the first Lincoln-Douglas debate and Dumbarton Oaks.

By Today in History Updated November 10, 2026 3 min read Sources checked

Published August 21, 2026 · Last updated November 10, 2026

August 21 is best known for 1959, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the proclamation admitting Hawaii as the 50th state. The date also marks the start of Nat Turner’s rebellion in 1831 and the first Lincoln-Douglas debate in 1858.

The big story: Hawaii becomes the 50th state (1959)

On August 21, 1959, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a proclamation making Hawaii the 50th state. The road there was long and not always pretty. Polynesian voyagers had settled the islands around the 8th century, and Captain James Cook became the first documented European visitor in 1778. Hawaii later became a constitutional monarchy. In 1893, American expatriates and sugar planters, backed by a few hundred U.S. Marines, overthrew Queen Liliuokalani, the islands’ last reigning monarch. A republic led by Sanford B. Dole followed, and the U.S. annexed Hawaii in 1898, once the Spanish-American War had shown how useful Pearl Harbor could be. It became a U.S. territory in 1900. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 bound the islands tightly to the American story. Statehood also meant a new flag: Eisenhower ordered a 50-star design, which became official on July 4, 1960.

More events on August 21

Year	What happened
1793	Dr. Benjamin Rush warned Philadelphia’s mayor that yellow fever was spreading. The epidemic killed about 5,000 people and drove the federal government out of the capital.
1831	Nat Turner, an enslaved preacher, launched a rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia, the largest slave revolt in U.S. history. A wave of restrictive laws followed, limiting enslaved people’s movement, gatherings and education.
1858	Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas held the first of seven debates in their race for a U.S. Senate seat from Illinois. Douglas kept the seat.
1863	Confederate guerrillas raided the abolitionist town of Lawrence, Kansas, killing about 150 men.
1897	Ransom E. Olds founded the Olds Motor Vehicle Company, the forerunner of Oldsmobile.
1944	The U.S., Britain, the Soviet Union and China opened talks at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C., sketching the plan for the United Nations.
1961	British authorities freed Kenyan independence leader Jomo Kenyatta after nearly nine years of imprisonment and detention.
1986	A sudden burst of carbon dioxide from Lake Nyos in Cameroon suffocated about 1,700 people and thousands of cattle.
2004	Michael Phelps collected his eighth medal of the Athens Olympics (six gold, two bronze), tying the record for most medals at a single Games.

Born on August 21

1904: Count Basie, jazz pianist and big-band leader, born William Basie in Red Bank, New Jersey.
1936: Wilt Chamberlain, basketball giant who once scored 100 points in an NBA game, born in Philadelphia.
1986: Usain Bolt, Jamaican sprinter and world record holder, born in Trelawny parish, Jamaica.