On this day: July 21

2016: Former NFL head coach Dennis Green dies at age 67 in San Diego following a heart attack. Green led the Minnesota Vikings to eight playoff appearances in his 10 seasons leading the team and then coached the Arizona Cardinals for three seasons. He also served as head coach for Northwestern and Stanford and served as an analyst for ESPN.

2015: American author E.L. Doctorow dies of complications from lung cancer at age 84 in New York City. He is best known for his award-winning works of historical fiction, including "Ragtime," "Billy Bathgate," "The March" and "World's Fair."

2011: NASA's Space Shuttle program ends with the morning landing of the space shuttle Atlantis at Kennedy Space Center in Florida to wrap up mission STS-135. The nearly 13-day mission, which delivered components to the international space station, was the 135th mission flown by the space shuttle program.

2007: The seventh and last book of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," is released globally in 93 countries. The book broke sales records as the fastest-selling book ever, a record it still holds today. It sold 15 million copies in its first 24 hours, including more than 11 million in the United States and United Kingdom alone, beating the previous record set by Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," which had sold nine million copies on its first day in 2005.

2002: WorldCom Inc. files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. At the time it was the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.

1998: Alan Shepard, the naval aviator and NASA astronaut who in 1961 became the second person, and the first American, to travel into space, dies of leukemia at age 74 in Pebble Beach, California. Shepard made his historic flight into space as part of Project Mercury and returned to space a decade later, commanding the Apollo 14 mission and becoming the fifth person to walk on the moon. After leaving NASA, the New Hampshire native became a successful businessman.

1990: Roger Waters stages a production of "The Wall" on the vacant terrain between Potsdamer Platz and the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall the year before. Among the artists who took part in the charity concert were Sinead O'Connor, Bryan Adams, Phil Collins and Cyndi Lauper.

1987: Guns N' Roses' debut album "Appetite for Destruction" is released. The album was a critical and financial success, eventually topping the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. It featured songs such as "It's So Easy," "Mr. Brownstone," "Welcome to the Jungle," "Sweet Child o' Mine" and "Paradise City."