October 21, 2008 (Tuesday)
- Global financial crisis of September–October 2008: Iceland's Kaupthing Bank fails to pay interest to its 50-billion-yen (US$493 million) bondholders in Japan. (Reuters)
- India wins the second test match of the 2008-09 Border-Gavaskar cricket test series against Australia at Mohali by 320 runs(Cricinfo)
- A trade route opens within Pakistan-administered Kashmir and India's Jammu and Kashmir state after a 60-year barrier. (BBC)
- A bomb blast in Imphal, India, kills 17 people and injures more than 30. The insurgency-racked Indian seven sisters have seen two major bomb blasts this month blamed on Islamists and Communist insurgents.