July 21 Birthday
On July 21, 1861, the first major battle of the Civil War was fought at Bull Run Creek near Manassas, Virginia. Both sides expected a quick victory — Northern civilians packed picnic lunches and rode out to watch. The Union army was pushed back in disorder, and the retreat became a rout as civilians fled alongside soldiers. The battle proved the war would be long and bloody. Confederate General Thomas Jackson earned the nickname "Stonewall" for holding his line. The Second Battle of Bull Run, fought a year later on almost the same ground, was also a Confederate victory. Ernest Hemingway, born this day in 1899, drove an ambulance in World War I, was wounded, fell in love with a nurse, and wrote A Farewell to Arms about it. He lived in Paris with Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald, covered the Spanish Civil War and World War II, and won the Nobel Prize in 1954. He survived two African plane crashes in two days. He shot himself in 1961, like his father before him. His writing style — short sentences, simple words, and unstated emotion — was a reaction against Victorian verbosity. People born on July 21 fall under the zodiac sign of Cancer. The birthstone is Ruby and the birth flower is Larkspur. Historical events on July 21 include 1861: First Battle of Bull Run — first major land battle of Civil War, 1925: Scopes Monkey Trial ends — John Scopes found guilty, 1970: Aswan High Dam in Egypt completed after eleven years of construction. Famous people born on July 21 include Ernest Hemingway (1899), Marshall McLuhan (1911), Cat Stevens (1948).