What happened on 21 September?

6 events from the Ever-When timeline, ranked by how much they mattered.

1. 1866 Born: H.G. Wells British author; pioneer of science fiction.
2. 1745 Battle of Prestonpans Guided through a marsh by a local sympathiser in the pre-dawn dark, the Highland charge breaks the government army in under fifteen minutes; its general, Cope, carries the news of
3. 1931 Britain abandons the gold standard After a summer of runs on the pound and a government split over dole cuts, Britain simply stops exchanging sterling for gold — 'nobody told us we could do that,' a former minister
4. 1993 1993 Russian constitutional crisis Yeltsin dissolves a defiant parliament; when deputies barricade themselves in the White House he sends in tanks to shell it, and a new presidential constitution follows.
5. 1937 The Hobbit Bilbo Baggins is bundled out of his hole on a dragon-hunt with thirteen dwarves — the Oxford philologist's children's book that opens the door to Middle-earth.
6. 1327 Murder of Edward II Deposed king allegedly murdered at Berkeley Castle by partisans of Isabella and Mortimer; mode of death legendarily savage.