August 21st, 1991:

In Moscow, a coup by hard-line communists against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev collapses.

Leading the popular uprising against the coup plotters: Boris Yeltsin, president of the Russian Federation.

Gorbachev returns to power, but the Soviet Union dissolves by the end of the year, effectively ending the Cold War.

1940:

In Mexico City, Leon Trotsky, the exiled Russian revolutionary, dies after an assassin drives an ice pick into his skull.

Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, Trotsky's longtime rival for power, is widely believed to have arranged the murder.

1831:

In Virginia, Nat Turner leads a slave rebellion, hoping to spark a massive slave uprising in the South.

Dozens of whites are killed before the violent revolt is quickly defeated. Turner is later captured, tried and hanged.

1959:

The American flag gets its 50th star, as President Dwight Eisenhower signs an executive order proclaiming Hawaii a state.

1904:

Count Basie, one of jazz music's greatest bandleaders, is born in Red Bank, New Jersey.

And, 1938:

Kenny Rogers, the country singer and songwriter with decades of hits, is born in Houston, Texas.

Today in History, August 21st,________, The Associated Press.