May 21 is the 141st day of the year (142nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 224 days remaining until the end of the year.
Events
- 878 – Syracuse, Italy is captured by the Muslim sultan of Sicily.
- 879 – Pope John VIII gives blessings to duke Branimir and to Croatian people, considered to be international recognition of Croatian state.
- 996 – Sixteen-year-old Otto III is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
- 1502 – The island of Saint Helena is discovered by the Portuguese navigator João da Nova.
- 1554 – A royal Charter is granted to Derby School in Derby, England.
- 1674 – The nobility elect John Sobieski King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania.
- 1725 – The Order of St. Alexander Nevsky is instituted in Russia by the empress Catherine I. It would later be discontinued and then reinstated by the Soviet government in 1942 as the Order of Alexander Nevsky.
- 1758 – Mary Campbell is abducted from her home in Pennsylvania by Lenape during the French and Indian War.
- 1809 – The first day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling between the Austrian army led by Archduke Charles and the French army led by Napoleon I of France sees the French attack across the Danube held.
- 1851 – Slavery is abolished in Colombia, South America.
- 1856 – Lawrence, Kansas is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces.
- 1863 – American Civil War: Siege of Port Hudson – Union forces begin to lay siege to the Confederate-controlled Port Hudson, Louisiana.
- 1864 – Russia declares an end to the Russian-Circassian War and many Circassians are forced into exile. The day is designated the Circassian Day of Mourning.
- 1871 – French troops invade the Paris Commune and engage its residents in street fighting. By the close of "Bloody Week" some 20,000 communards have been killed and 38,000 arrested.
- 1871 – Opening of the first rack railway in Europe, the Rigi-Bahnen on Mount Rigi.
- 1879 – War of the Pacific: Two Chilean ships blocking the harbor of Iquique (then belonging to Peru) battle two Peruvian vessels in the Battle of Iquique.
- 1881 – The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton.
- 1894 – The Manchester Ship Canal in England is officially opened by Queen Victoria, who knights its designer Sir Edward Leader Williams.
- 1904 – The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is founded in Paris.
- 1917 – The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is established through Royal Charter to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations military forces.
- 1917 – The Great Atlanta fire of 1917.
- 1924 – University of Chicago students Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr. murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a "thrill killing".
- 1927 – Charles Lindbergh touches down at Le Bourget Field in Paris, completing the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
- 1932 – Bad weather forces Amelia Earhart to land in a pasture in Derry, Northern Ireland, and she thereby becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
- 1934 – Oskaloosa, Iowa, becomes the first municipality in the United States to fingerprint all of its citizens.
- 1936 – Sada Abe is arrested after wandering the streets of Tokyo for days with her dead lover's severed genitals in her hand. Her story soon becomes one of Japan's most notorious scandals.
- 1937 – A Soviet station becomes the first scientific research settlement to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean.
- 1941 – World War II: 950 miles off the coast of Brazil, the freighter SS Robin Moor becomes the first American ship sunk by a German U-boat.
- 1946 – Physicist Louis Slotin is fatally irradiated in a criticality incident during an experiment with the Demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
- 1951 – The opening of the Ninth Street Show, otherwise known as the 9th Street Art Exhibition – a gathering of a number of notable artists, and the stepping-out of the post war New York avant-garde, collectively know as the New York School.
- 1958 – United Kingdom Postmaster General Ernest Marples announces that from December, subscriber trunk dialling will be introduced in the Bristol area.
- 1961 – American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out.
- 1966 – The Ulster Volunteer Force declares war on the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland.
- 1969 – Civil unrest in Rosario, Argentina, known as Rosariazo, following the death of a 15-year-old student.
- 1972 – Michelangelo's Pietà in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is damaged by a vandal, the mentally disturbed Hungarian geologist Laszlo Toth.
- 1979 – White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.
- 1981 – Irish Republican hunger strikers Raymond McCreesh and Patsy O’Hara die on hunger strike in Maze prison.
- 1991 – Former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a female suicide bomber near Madras.
- 1991 – Mengistu Haile Mariam, president of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, flees Ethiopia, effectively bringing the Ethiopian Civil War to an end.
- 1994 – The Democratic Republic of Yemen secedes from the Republic of Yemen.
- 1996 – The MV Bukoba sinks in Tanzanian waters on Lake Victoria, killing nearly 1000.
- 1996 – The Trappist Martyrs of Atlas are executed.
- 1998 – In Miami, Florida, five abortion clinics are hit by a butyric acid attacker.
- 1998 – Suharto, the Indonesian dictator who had ruled for 32 years, resigns.
- 2001 – French Taubira law officially recognizes the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity.
- 2003 – An earthquake hits northern Algeria killing more than 2,000 people.
- 2004 – Sherpa Pemba Dorjie climbs Mount Everest in 8 hours 10 minutes, breaking his rival Sherpa Lakpa Gelu's record from the previous year.
- 2006 – The Republic of Montenegro holds a referendum proposing independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. The Montenegrin people choose independence with a majority of 55%.
- 2006 – The Swedish ice hockey team Tre Kronor takes gold in the World Championship, becoming the first nation to hold both the World and Olympic titles separately in the same year.
- 2007 – The clipper Cutty Sark is badly damaged by fire in London, England.
Births
- 1471 – Albrecht Dürer, German painter (d. 1528)
- 1527 – King Philip II of Spain (d. 1598)
- 1653 – Eleonora Maria Josefa of Austria, queen consort of Poland and Lithuania (d. 1697)
- 1664 – Giulio Alberoni, Italian cardinal (d. 1754)
- 1688 – Alexander Pope, English poet (d. 1744)
- 1755 – Alfred Moore, American judge (d. 1810)
- 1763 – Joseph Fouché, French statesman (d. 1820)
- 1775 – Lucien Bonaparte, French politician, soldier and academic (d. 1840)
- 1780 – Elizabeth Fry, British social reformer (d. 1845)
- 1792 – Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis, French scientist (d. 1843)
- 1827 – William P. Sprague, American politician from Ohio (d. 1899)
- 1832 – Elizabeth Storrs Mead, American educator (d. 1917)
- 1835 – František Chvostek, Moravian physician (d. 1884)
- 1843 – Charles Albert Gobat, Swiss politician (d. 1914)
- 1844 – Henri Rousseau, French artist (d. 1910)
- 1850 – Giuseppe Mercalli, Italian volcanologist (d. 1914)
- 1851 – Léon Bourgeois, French statesman, Nobel laureate (d. 1925)
- 1853 – Jacques Marie Eugène Godefroy Cavaignac, French politician (d. 1905)
- 1860 – Willem Einthoven, Dutch inventor, Nobel laureate (d. 1927)
- 1863 – Archduke Eugen of Austria, Austrian field marshal (d. 1954)
- 1864 – Princess Stephanie of Belgium (d. 1945)
- 1873 – Hans Berger, German neuroscientist (d. 1941)
- 1878 – Glenn Curtiss, American aviation pioneer (d. 1930)
- 1880 – Tudor Arghezi, Romanian writer (d. 1967)
- 1884 – Manuel Pérez y Curis, Uruguayan poet (d. 1920)
- 1885 – Sophie of Schönburg-Waldenburg, wife of Prince William of Wied (d. 1936)
- 1898 – Armand Hammer, American physician (d. 1990)
- 1898 – Charles Léon Hammes, Luxembourgian lawyer and President of the European Court of Justice (d. 1967)
- 1901 – Horace Heidt, American band leader (d. 1986)
- 1901 – Sam Jaffe, American film producer (d. 2000)
- 1901 – Suzanne Lilar, Belgian essayist, novelist and playwright (d. 1992)
- 1902 – Earl Averill, baseball player (d. 1983)
- 1902 – Marcel Lajos Breuer, Hungarian-born architect (d. 1981)
- 1903 – Manly Wade Wellman, American author (d. 1986)
- 1904 – Robert Montgomery, American actor (d. 1981)
- 1904 – Fats Waller, American pianist (d. 1943)
- 1909 – François-Albert Angers, Quebec economist (d. 2003)
- 1912 – John Curtis Gowan, American psychologist (d. 1986)
- 1912 – Monty Stratton, baseball player (d. 1982)
- 1913 – Gina Bachauer, Greek pianist (d. 1976)
- 1916 – Tinus Osendarp, Dutch runner (d. 2002)
- 1916 – Harold Robbins, American novelist (d. 1997)
- 1917 – Raymond Burr, Canadian actor (d. 1993)
- 1918 – Dennis Day, American singer and comedian (d. 1988)
- 1920 – Anthony Steel, British actor (d. 2001)
- 1921 – Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist (d. 1989)
- 1923 – Armand Borel, Swiss mathematician (d. 2003)
- 1923 – Ara Parseghian, American football coach
- 1924 – Peggy Cass, American actress (d. 1999)
- 1926 – Robert Creeley, American poet (d. 2005)
- 1928 – Tom Donahue, American disc jockey (freeform radio) (d. 1975)
- 1930 – Malcolm Fraser, Australian politician
- 1933 – Maurice André, French trumpeter
- 1934 – Bengt I. Samuelsson, Swedish biochemist, Nobel laureate
- 1936 – Günter Blobel, German biologist, Nobel laureate
- 1939 – Heinz Holliger, Swiss musician
- 1941 – Martin Carthy, English musician
- 1941 – Ronald Isley, American singer (The Isley Brothers)
- 1941 – Bobby Cox, Manager of the Atlanta Braves (MLB)
- 1942 – Danny Ongais, American race car driver
- 1943 – Hilton Valentine, British guitarist (The Animals)
- 1944 – Mary Robinson, President of Ireland
- 1944 – Marcie Blane, American singer
- 1945 – Ernst Messerschmid, German astronaut
- 1947 – Bill Champlin, American singer
- 1947 – Jonathan Hyde, Australian-born actor
- 1948 – Leo Sayer, English musician
- 1951 – Al Franken, American comedian and politician
- 1952 – Mr. T, American actor
- 1954 – Marc Ribot, American musician
- 1955 – Paul Barber, British field hockey player
- 1955 – Stan Lynch, American drummer
- 1956 – Sean Kelly, Irish cyclist
- 1957 – Bruce Buffer, American Mixed Martial Arts Announcer
- 1957 – Nadine Dorries, British politician
- 1957 – Judge Reinhold, American actor
- 1957 – Renée Soutendijk, Dutch actress
- 1958 – Jefery Levy, American television director
- 1959 – Nick Cassavetes, American actor and director
- 1960 – Jeffrey Dahmer, American serial killer (d. 1994)
- 1960 – Kent Hrbek, American baseball player
- 1960 – Mohanlal, Indian actor
- 1963 – Richard Appel, American writer
- 1963 – Kevin Shields, Musician (My Bloody Valentine)
- 1964 – Danny Bailey, English footballer
- 1964 – Danny Lee Clark, American football player and American Gladiator "Nitro"
- 1964 – Nancy Daus, American professional wrestler (d. 2007)
- 1964 – Carolyn Lawrence, American actress
- 1966 – Lisa Edelstein, American actress
- 1967 – Chris Benoit, Canadian professional wrestler (d. 2007)
- 1968 – Julie Vega, Filipino child actress and singer (d. 1985)
- 1968 – Matthias Ungemach, German rower
- 1969 – Masayo Kurata, Japanese voice actress
- 1969 – Pierluigi Brivio, Italian footballer
- 1969 – Georgiy R. Gongadze, Ukrainian/Georgian journalist
- 1970 – Dorsey Levens, former American football player
- 1970 – Carl Veart, Australian former footballer
- 1972 – Adriano Cintra, Brazilian musician (CSS)
- 1972 – The Notorious B.I.G., American rapper (d. 1997)
- 1972 – Alesha Oreskovich, American model
- 1973 – Noel Fielding, British comedian
- 1974 – Fairuza Balk, American actress
- 1974 – Havoc, American rapper (Mobb Deep)
- 1975 – Lee Gaze, Welsh guitarist
- 1976 – Deron Miller, American rock musician
- 1976 – Kardinal Offishall, Canadian rapper
- 1977 – Quinton Fortune, South African footballer
- 1977 – Ricky Williams, American football player
- 1978 – Briana Banks, German/American pornographic actress
- 1978 – Adam Gontier, Canadian singer (Three Days Grace)
- 1978 – Jamaal Magloire, Canadian basketball player
- 1979 – Damián Ariel Álvarez, Argentinian footballer
- 1979 – Jesse Capelli, Canadian pornographic actress
- 1979 – Jamie Hepburn, Scottish politician
- 1979 – James Clancy Phelan, Australian novelist
- 1979 – Scott Smith, American mixed martial arts fighter
- 1980 – Chris Raab, American television personality
- 1981 – Belladonna, American pornographic actress
- 1981 – Josh Hamilton, American baseball player
- 1981 – Maximilian Mutzke, German singer
- 1981 – Edson Buddle, American soccer player
- 1984 – Lorena Ayala, Dutch/Spanish model
- 1984 – Brandon Fields, American football player
- 1985 – Mutya Buena, English singer (Sugababes)
- 1985 – Marco Carta, Italian singer
- 1985 – Kano, British rapper
- 1985 – Andrew Miller, American baseball player
- 1986 – Mario Mandžukić, Croatian footballer
- 1986 – Myra, American singer
- 1987 – Ashlie Brillault, American actress
- 1988 – Jonathan Howson, English footballer
- 1991 – Sarah Ramos, American actress
- 1992 – Olivia Olson, American singer and actress
- 1992 – Hutch Dano, American actor
- 1994 – Tom Daley, English diver
Deaths
- 987 – King Louis V of France (b. 967)
- 1254 – Conrad IV of Germany (b. 1228)
- 1481 – King Christian I of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden (b. 1426)
- 1512 – Pandolfo Petrucci, ruler of Siena (b. 1452)
- 1524 – Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, English soldier (b. 1443)
- 1542 – Hernando de Soto, Spanish explorer
- 1607 – John Rainolds, English scholar (b. 1549)
- 1639 – Tommaso Campanella, Italian theologian (b. 1568)
- 1647 – Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, Dutch poet (b. 1581)
- 1650 – James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, Scottish royalist (b. 1612)
- 1664 – Elizabeth Poole, Puritan businesswoman (b. 1588)
- 1670 – Niccolo Zucchi, Italian astronomer (b. 1586)
- 1686 – (N. S.) Otto von Guericke, German scientist (b. 1602)
- 1690 – John Eliot, English Puritan missionary (b. 1604)
- 1719 – Pierre Poiret, French mystic (b. 1646)
- 1724 – Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, English statesman (b. 1661)
- 1742 – Lars Roberg, Swedish physician (b. 1664)
- 1771 – Christopher Smart, English poet (b. 1722)
- 1786 – Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Swedish chemist (b. 1742)
- 1790 – Thomas Warton, English poet (b. 1728)
- 1844 – Giuseppe Baini, Italian composer (b. 1775)
- 1862 – John Drew, Irish-born American actor (b. 1827)
- 1879 – Arturo Prat, Chilean naval officer (b. 1848)
- 1894 – Emile Henry, French anarchist (b. 1872)
- 1894 – August Kundt, German physicist (b. 1839)
- 1895 – Franz von Suppé, Austrian composer (b. 1819)
- 1911 – Williamina Fleming, Scottish-born astronomer (b. 1857)
- 1915 – Leonid Gobyato, Russian general (b. 1875)
- 1919 – Yevgraf Fyodorov, Russian mathematician (b. 1853)
- 1920 – Venustiano Carranza, 54th President of Mexico (b. 1859)
- 1929 – Archibald Primrose, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1847)
- 1935 – Jane Addams, American social worker, Nobel laureate (b. 1860)
- 1949 – Klaus Mann, German writer (b. 1906)
- 1952 – John Garfield, American actor (b. 1913)
- 1956 – Harry Bensley, English rake and Adventurer (b. 1877)
- 1957 – Aleksandr Vertinsky, Russian singer (b. 1889)
- 1964 – James Franck, German-born physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1882)
- 1965 – Geoffrey de Havilland, British aircraft designer (b. 1882)
- 1970 – E. L. Grant Watson, Australian biologist (b. 1885)
- 1973 – Vaughn Monroe, American musician (b. 1911)
- 1981 – Patsy O'Hara, Irish hunger striker (b. 1957)
- 1981 – Raymond Mccreesh, Irish hunger striker (b. 1957)
- 1983 – Kenneth Clark, English art historian (b. 1903)
- 1984 – Ann Little, American actress (b. 1891)
- 1988 – Sammy Davis, Sr., American dancer (b. 1900)
- 1991 – Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India (b. 1944)
- 1995 – Les Aspin, American politician (b. 1938)
- 1996 – Paul Delph, American musician and producer (b. 1957)
- 1996 – Lash LaRue, American actor (b. 1917)
- 1999 – Karnail "Bugz" Pitts, American rapper (D12) (b. 1979)
- 2000 – Barbara Cartland, English author (b. 1901)
- 2000 – Sir John Gielgud, British actor (b. 1904)
- 2000 – Mark R. Hughes, American entrepreneur (b. 1956)
- 2002 – Niki de Saint Phalle, French artist (b. 1930)
- 2003 – Frank D. White, American politician (b. 1933)
- 2003 – Alejandro de Tomaso, Argentine-Italian racing driver and car manufacturer (b. 1928)
- 2005 – Howard Morris, American comic actor and director (b. 1919)
- 2006 – Spencer Clark, American racecar driver (b. 1987)
- 2006 – Katherine Dunham, American dancer (b. 1909)
- 2006 – Cherd Songsri, Thai film director (b. 1931)
- 2006 – Billy Walker, American singer (b. 1929)
Holidays and observances
Roman Catholic:
Eastern Orthodox
External links
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