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The 21st Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It was organized in Worcester, Massachusetts, and mustered into service on August 23, 1861. After fighting in the Battle of Roanoke Island and the Battle of New Bern, the 21st Massachusetts was attached to the Army of the Potomac and participated in several of the largest battles of the Civil War, including the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of Antietam and the Battle of Fredericksburg. The most devastating engagement of the war for the 21st was the Battle of Chantilly, fought on September 1, 1862, during which the unit suffered 35 percent casualties. From March 1863 to January 1864, the 21st served with Burnside in the Department of the Ohio, seeing action in Kentucky and eastern Tennessee. In May 1864, the regiment rejoined the Army of the Potomac, participating in Lt. Gen. Ulysses Grant's Overland Campaign and the Siege of Petersburg. The regiment was a favorite of Clara Barton, the famed battlefield nurse, who was also from Worcester County, Massachusetts. By the end of its three years of service, the 21st Massachusetts had been reduced from 1,000 men to fewer than 100. Those of the 21st who chose to re-enlist at the end of their initial three-year commitment were eventually consolidated with the 36th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry on October 21, 1864. (more...)

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July 21

• 356 BC – The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was destroyed in an act of arson by a man named Herostratus.
• 1831 – In Brussels, Leopold I (pictured) was inaugurated as the first King of the Belgians.
• 1925 – Creation–evolution controversy: High school biology teacher John T. Scopes was found guilty of violating Tennessee's Butler Act by teaching evolution in class.
• 1944 – World War II: American troops landed on Guam to liberate it from Japanese control.
• 1964 – Race riots began in Padang, Singapore, then part of Malaysia, during a Malay procession marking Muhammad's birthday, leaving 23 people killed, 450 people injured, significant damage to property and vehicles, and a government imposed 11-day curfew.
• 1995 – The Chinese People's Liberation Army began firing missiles into the waters north of Taiwan, starting the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis.

More anniversaries: July 20 – July 21 – July 22