◆ On this day

August 21

4 sourced moments from August 21 in history: Nat Turner's Rebellion Began in Virginia (1831); The first commercial adding machine was patented (1888); The Mona Lisa became the world's most famous painting after it was stolen in 1911, plus 1 more.

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4 things happened on August 21

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1959 Geography · Countries

Hawaii became the 50th US state

A chain of Pacific islands 2,400 miles from the mainland completed the United States as we know it.

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1911 Culture & Arts · Art

The Mona Lisa became the world's most famous painting after it was stolen in 1911

A handyman walked out of the Louvre with Leonardo's portrait under his smock — and accidentally made it a global icon.

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1888 Technology · Inventions

The first commercial adding machine was patented

A frustrated bank clerk's invention tamed the drudgery of arithmetic and seeded a computing dynasty.

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1831 History · Modern

Nat Turner's Rebellion Began in Virginia

An enslaved preacher launched the deadliest slave revolt in US history, a single bloody day that hardened a nation toward civil war.

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