What happened to flags on 21 August
3 flags in the atlas carry this date. The sentence under each one is where that is written down, in its own article.
- Italy 1789
The first documented use of Italian national colours is dated 21 August 1789.
From Flag of Italy on Wikipedia, as it read on 2026-08-29
- United States 1959
The 50-star flag was ordered by then president Eisenhower on August 21, 1959, and was adopted in July 1960.
From Flag of the United States on Wikipedia, as it read on 2026-08-29
- Equatorial Guinea 1979
The coat of arms and accordingly the national flag were briefly changed from 1978 to 21 August 1979, during the presidency of Francisco Macías Nguema.
From Flag of Equatorial Guinea on Wikipedia, as it read on 2026-08-26
How a day gets onto this site
A flag is here because a sentence in its own English Wikipedia article puts it on this date, and that sentence is printed above. Nothing was worked out from a year, and nothing was written for the occasion. Every sentence names the article it came from and the version of that article it was read in, so you can go and check it.
The calendar is still short rather than full. A third of the year has no page here, because a flag only gets a day when a sentence in its article puts something on one, and plenty of articles never do. Nothing is invented to fill the gap.