The 202nd day of the year, the 203rd in a leap year

Born on 21 July

Every 21 July birthday from 1920 to 2026 was Cancer in UTC, and in most of the world. In 5 of those years the sun changed sign within hours of the date, and by the clocks somewhere far enough east or west of Greenwich it was 21 July when it happened; see below.

Star sign
CancerWater, cardinal, ruled by the Moon.
Birthstone
RubyThe same as on the 1912 list.
Birth flower
Larkspur, Water lilyUsually taken today to mean an open heart and purity.
Most common weekdays
Thursday and Tuesday16 times each between 1920 and 2026.
Where the sun stands on 21 July. The marked arc is every position it has held on 21 July, midnight to midnight UTC, in any year since 1920.

Your year

Without JavaScript, the pages for each birth year give the generation and Chinese animal for a birth on 21 July in any year.

Crossings within hours of 21 July

A date begins earlier east of Greenwich and later to the west, so in these years the sun changed sign on the day before or after in UTC, at a moment when clocks somewhere on earth already, or still, showed 21 July — worked out from the time zones in use at that moment, as the IANA time zone database records them. A birth there on 21 July that year could be either sign, and the calculator above works it out for your own time zone.

  • 2008: the sun entered Leo on 22 July, 10:55 UTC
  • 2012: the sun entered Leo on 22 July, 10:00 UTC
  • 2016: the sun entered Leo on 22 July, 09:30 UTC
  • 2020: the sun entered Leo on 22 July, 08:37 UTC
  • 2024: the sun entered Leo on 22 July, 07:44 UTC

Which weekday 21 July falls on

Across the 107 years from 1920 to 2026, 21 July falls on every day of the week: Thursday 16, Tuesday 16, Wednesday 15, Friday 15, Saturday 15, Monday 15, Sunday 15.

1991Sun
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2011Thu
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2015Tue
2016Thu
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2019Sun
2020Tue
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2022Thu
2023Fri
2024Sun
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2026Tue

Showing 21 July in the 36 most recent years. Every weekday →

How common a birthday 21 July is

In England and Wales, from 1995 to 2014, an average of 1,857 babies were born on 21 July in each year of the twenty, making it the joint 73rd most common of the 366 dates, where 26 September came first with 1,974 and 26 December last with 1,359.

Office for National Statistics, How popular is your birthday? Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. What a ranking like this can and cannot say →

Born on 21 July

18 people born on 21 July, from English Wikipedia's list of births on this day, chosen and ordered by how many Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects have a page about them.
NameYearsKnown for
Ernest Hemingway1899–1961American author and journalist
Robin Williams1951–2014American actor and comedian
Erling Haaland2000–Norwegian footballer
Marshall McLuhan1911–1980Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar
Pope Sixtus IV1414–1484pope of the Catholic Church from 1471 to 1484
Stefan Löfven1957–Swedish politician, Prime Minister of Sweden between 2014–2021
John Atta Mills1944–2012President of Ghana from 2009 to 2012
Cat Stevens1948–British musician
Charlotte Gainsbourg1971–French and British actress and singer
Josh Hartnett1978–American actor and producer
Rudolph A. Marcus1923–2026Canadian-American chemist
Don Knotts1924–2006American actor and stand-up comedian
Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle1693–1768Prime Minister of Great Britain
Lovis Corinth1858–1925German painter
Hans Fallada1893–1947German writer
Béla Tarr1955–2026Hungarian filmmaker and anarchist
Norman Jewison1926–2024Canadian film director, producer and actor
Juno Temple1989–British actress

Died on 21 July

12 people who died on 21 July, chosen and ordered the same way from Wikipedia's list of deaths on this day.
NameYearsKnown for
Robert Burns1759–1796Scottish poet and lyricist
Claus von Stauffenberg1907–1944German aristocrat, army officer and resistance fighter
Alan Shepard1923–1998American astronaut, first American in space, lunar explorer
Tony Bennett1926–2023American singer
Albert Luthuli1898–1967South African politician
Manuel II Palaiologos1350–1425Byzantine emperor
Jerry Goldsmith1929–2004American film composer
Robert G. Ingersoll1833–1899American lawyer, orator, and politician
Edward B. Lewis1918–2004American biologist
Lee Miller1907–1977American photographer and photojournalist
Basil Rathbone1892–1967English actor
E. L. Doctorow1931–2015novelist, editor, professor

Names are the titles of the English Wikipedia articles; years and the short descriptions are from Wikidata, which publishes under CC0, checked and corrected by hand where they needed it, and nothing is said about anybody beyond that. Ask for a removal.

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Every date in July