Major Mike | Today in History 08/21 (Nat Turner’s Slave Rebellion)

Illustration depicting American slave leader Nat Turner and his companions in a wooded area, 1831 (© Stock Montage/Getty Images)

(1831) Nat Turner leads a violent revolt against slavery

Acting on visions from God, Virginia plantation slave Nat Turner and seven supporters begin an armed insurrection that will last two days, rally at least 70 more recruits to the cause, result in the reported deaths of 60 whites, and end in Turner’s capture and hanging.

Nat Turner’s Rebellion was a slave rebellion that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831, led by Nat Turner. Rebel slaves killed from 55 to 65 people, at least 51 being white. The rebellion was put down within a few days, but Turner survived in hiding for more than two months afterwards. The rebellion was effectively suppressed at Belmont Plantation on the morning of August 23, 1831.

Start date: Aug 21, 1831
End date: Aug 23, 1831

19th Century woodcut depiction of the Southampton Insurrection. Note part of the upper part of this woodcut was later reused in 1835/1836 during the Seminole War
wiki/Nat_Turner’s_slave_rebellion

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(1831) Nat Turner leads a violent revolt against slavery.
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1968 | The USSR puts a chokehold on Czechoslovakia Prague Spring

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Today in History ^08/21/17

Czech protesters holding a Czechoslovak flag on Aug 21, 1968, as Soviet-led armies crush the so called Prague Spring reform (© LIBOR HAJSKY/AFP/Getty Images)

(1968) The USSR puts a chokehold on Czechoslovakia

Hopes for a freer society are brutally quashed as Warsaw Pact tanks and hundreds of thousands of troops thunder through the street of Prague, Czechoslovakia. Democratic reforms that began seven months earlier as the 'Prague Spring' are now crushed in the iron grip of Soviet domination.

The Prague Spring was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union after World War II. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, and continued until 21 August 1968 when the Soviet Union and other members of the Warsaw Pact invaded the country to halt the reforms.