April 21 Birthday

Famous Birthdays on April 21

• Queen Elizabeth II (1926)

  Queen of the United Kingdom from 1952 to 2022, the longest-reigning monarch in British history.

• Charlotte Brontë (1816)

  English novelist known for Jane Eyre, published under the pseudonym Currer Bell.

• John Muir (1838)

  Scottish-American naturalist and writer whose advocacy helped establish Yosemite National Park and the modern conservation movement.

• Iggy Pop (1947)

  American singer known as a foundational figure of punk rock, particularly through his work with The Stooges.

This Day in History

• 753 — According to Roman tradition, the city of Rome was founded on this date in 753 BC by Romulus, an origin story still marked annually in Italy as the city's founding anniversary.

• 1836 — Texan forces under Sam Houston defeated the Mexican army at the Battle of San Jacinto, securing Texas independence.

• 1918 — German fighter pilot Manfred von Richthofen, known as the Red Baron, was killed in action over France during World War I.

• 2019 — A series of coordinated terrorist bombings struck churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, killing more than 250 people.

What April 21 Says About You

Queen Elizabeth II, born April 21, 1926, spent seven decades on the British throne, and the date of her actual birthday — distinct from the officially celebrated 'Trooping the Colour' birthday held in June for better weather — has long been marked in London with gun salutes in Hyde Park and at the Tower of London, a small but genuine piece of state ceremony attached to this specific calendar square. It's fitting company for a date whose oldest association, by Roman tradition, is the founding of Rome itself in 753 BC — a legendary origin date still marked annually in Italy as the city's birthday, even though the actual founding, if there was a single date at all, is lost to history predating reliable record-keeping. Charlotte Brontë, born in 1816, took a considerably less institutional route to significance, publishing Jane Eyre under a male pseudonym in 1847 after years of rejection, and helped open real space for women novelists writing with unapologetic emotional and moral seriousness. John Muir, born in 1838, spent decades advocating for the wilderness he'd walked through on foot, and his writing and lobbying directly shaped the creation of Yosemite National Park and the broader American conservation movement. Iggy Pop, born in 1947, took the date's throughline of institution-building in a considerably louder direction, helping invent the sound and stage presence that would define punk rock a generation before the genre had a name. History's other major entry for the date is the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836, where Texan forces under Sam Houston decisively defeated the Mexican army in a fight lasting less than 20 minutes, securing Texas independence. And in 1918, the German fighter pilot Manfred von Richthofen — the Red Baron, the most successful flying ace of World War I — was killed in action over France, ending one of the war's most famous individual combat careers. April 21 opens the second day of Taurus, and the sign's association with lasting institutions, whether a monarchy, a national park system, or an ancient city's founding myth, runs unusually cleanly through this date's history. The numerology attached to this day of the month is 3, generally read as a marker of expression and creativity, a fitting number for Brontë's and Iggy Pop's very different creative legacies. April's stone and flowers — diamond, daisy, sweet pea — close a date whose real history spans a legendary ancient founding to one of the 20th century's most famous wartime deaths. John Muir went on to found the Sierra Club in 1892, an organization that remains one of the most influential environmental advocacy groups in the United States today. Iggy Pop, born James Osterberg, took his stage name partly from a band called The Iguanas he'd played drums for as a teenager in Michigan.