This Day in History: April 21

On this day, April 21 ...

1926: Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II is born in Mayfair, London.

Also on this day:

• 1509: England’s King Henry VII dies; he is succeeded by his 17-year-old son, Henry VIII.
• 1789: John Adams is sworn in as the first vice president of the United States.
• 1836: An army of Texans led by Sam Houston defeat the Mexicans at San Jacinto, assuring Texas independence.

• 1910: Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, dies in Redding, Conn. at age 74.
• 1918: Manfred von Richthofen, the German ace known as the “Red Baron” who was believed to have downed 80 enemy aircraft during World War I, is himself shot down and killed while in action over France. He was 25.
• 1930: A fire breaks out inside the overcrowded Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus, killing 332 inmates.
• 1942: The first edition of  Albert Camus' “The Stranger” (L’Etranger) is published in Nazi-occupied Paris by Gallimard.
• 1975: With Communist forces closing in, South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu resigns after nearly 10 years in office and flees the country.
• 1976: Clinical trials of the swine flu vaccine begin in Washington, D.C.
• 1977: The musical play “Annie,” based on the “Little Orphan Annie” comic strip, opens on Broadway, beginning a run of 2,377 performances.
• 1998: Astronomers announce in Washington that they have discovered possible signs of a new family of planets orbiting a star 220 light-years away, the clearest evidence to date of worlds forming beyond our solar system.
• 2014: More than 30,000 people defiantly run the Boston Marathon a year after the deadly terrorist bombings.

• 2016: Prince, one of the most inventive and influential musicians of his time, is found dead at his home in suburban Minneapolis at age 57.