{"id":4458,"canonical_url":"https://www.kudos365.com/today-in-history/events/1940ce-aug-21--4458","name":"1940 CE, August 21","year":1940,"era":"CE","month":8,"day":21,"url":"https://www.kudos365.com/today-in-history/events/1940ce-aug-21--4458","iso-date":"1940-08-21","precision":"year-month-day","description":"\u003cp\u003eRussian revolutionary, Leon Trotsky, dies in Mexico City after being fatally wounded with an ice axe the day before. His assassin, Ramon Mercader, was a Spanish communist and an agent of the secret police of the Soviet Union (NKVD). Mercader was imprisoned for 20 years in Mexico and he was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union medal, shortly after his release from prison. Trotsky was 60 years old when he died. He was exiled from the Soviet Union in 1927 and had been living in Mexico since 1936.\u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/trotsky_leon.shtml\"\u003e More\u003c/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","additional_details":"","photo":"https://k365fs.imgix.net/jMbFBeBlSKG8LOW6IbwK_Leon_Trotsky_(crop).jpg?auto=format,compress\u0026fit=clip\u0026max-w=1600","photo_width":413,"photo_height":590,"created_at":"2025-08-20T10:50:35-07:00","updated_at":"2025-08-20T12:00:44-07:00","breadcrumbs":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"August History","item":"https://www.kudos365.com/today-in-history/august"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"August 21","item":"https://www.kudos365.com/today-in-history/august-21"}]},"schema":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Thing","@id":"https://www.kudos365.com/today-in-history/events/1940ce-aug-21--4458#eventK365","name":"1940 CE, August 21","headline":"Russian revolutionary, Leon Trotsky, dies in Mexico City after being fatally wounded with an ice axe the... - 1940 CE","description":"Russian revolutionary, Leon Trotsky, dies in Mexico City after being fatally wounded with an ice axe the day before. His assassin, Ramon Mercader, was a...","url":"https://www.kudos365.com/today-in-history/events/1940ce-aug-21--4458","additionalType":"HistoricalEvent","inLanguage":"en","datePublished":"2025-08-20T10:50:35-07:00","dateModified":"2025-08-20T12:00:44-07:00","publisher":{"@id":"https://www.kudos365.com/#organizationK365"},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://k365fs.imgix.net/jMbFBeBlSKG8LOW6IbwK_Leon_Trotsky_(crop).jpg?auto=format,compress\u0026fit=clip\u0026max-w=1600","width":413,"height":590},"temporalCoverage":"1940-08-21","isPartOf":[{"@id":"https://www.kudos365.com/#websiteK365"},{"@type":"CollectionPage","@id":"https://www.kudos365.com/today-in-history/august","name":"What Happened in August History"},{"@type":"CollectionPage","@id":"https://www.kudos365.com/today-in-history/august-21#pageK365","name":"What Happened on August 21"}]}}