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Made for the 250thOn this day › July 21
What happened on July 21 in American history
July 21 is the 202nd day of the year (the 203rd in leap years). Patriot Compass has published 8 stories from July 21 spanning 1861 to 2024. Among them: in 1861, Green troops collide at Bull Run; the Union army breaks and runs for Washington; and in 1944, Marines and soldiers storm Guam's beaches, opening a three-week fight to retake it.
1861
Green troops collide at Bull Run; the Union army breaks and runs for Washington
Spectators drove out from the capital with picnic baskets to watch; they fled home in the same traffic jam as the soldiers.
1944
Marines and soldiers storm Guam's beaches, opening a three-week fight to retake it
Two and a half years after its surrender, the island is under American naval gunfire again.
1949Member story · 1776 Club
The Senate votes 82 to 13: America joins its first peacetime military alliance
Twelve nations bound themselves to treat an attack on one as an attack on all.
1959Member story · 1776 Club
Mamie Eisenhower christens the world's first nuclear cargo ship
The teardrop-hulled Savannah carries a swimming pool, a 74-megawatt reactor, and a president's argument for peaceful atoms.
1961Member story · 1776 Club
Grissom reaches space; his capsule sinks under him at splashdown
The hatch blows early, and Liberty Bell 7 goes to the bottom while a Navy helicopter fights to keep Grissom afloat.
1997
Old Ironsides sails again; Cronkite takes the helm off Marblehead
The 1797 frigate moves under her own canvas for the first time in 116 years, on sails paid for through a national campaign of citizen and student donations.
2011Member story · 1776 Club
Atlantis rolls to a stop; thirty years of shuttle flight ends before dawn
Four astronauts, the smallest crew since 1983, bring home the last shuttle mission after 4,848 orbits.
2024Member story · 1776 Club
Biden ends his reelection bid; hands the nomination to Harris
Twenty-four days after a debate that alarmed his own party, the president steps aside.
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