21st August: 21

10 things you didn't know about the number 21.

1. 21 is the sum of the first six natural numbers (1+2+3+4+5+6=21)
2. 21 is the atomic number of Scandium, a silvery-white metallic chemical element with symbol Sc. It was discovered in 1879.
3. The Twenty-first Amendment repealed the Eighteenth Amendment, thereby ending Prohibition in the USA.
4. Illinois was the 21st state to join the United States.
5. 21 is the number of spots on a standard six-sided Dice.
6. A 21-gun salute is a customary gun salute performed by the firing of cannons or artillery as a military honour. The custom stems from naval tradition, where a warship would fire its cannons harmlessly out to sea, until all ammunition was spent, to show that it was disarmed, signifying no hostile intent. 21 guns came to be fired for heads of state, or in exceptional circumstances for head of government, with the number decreasing with the rank of the recipient of the honour.
7. 21 grams is the weight of the soul, according to research by Duncan MacDougall.
8. 21 is a variation of street basketball, in which each player, of which there can be any number, plays for himself, not as part of a team. The name comes from the requisite number of baskets.
9. 21 is the key value and highest-winning point total of the casino game of Blackjack.
10. In numerology, 21 represents perfection, the harmony of creation and the unity of the Trinity (3 x7).