May 21

is the 141st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (142nd in leap years). There are 224 days remaining.

Events

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.
1674 - John Sobieski is elected by the szlachta to be the King of Poland.
1725 - The Order of Alexander Nevsky was instituted in Russia by an empress Catherine I.
1758 - Mary Campbell is abducted from her home in Pennsylvania by Lenape during the French and Indian War.
1851 - Abolition of slavery 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.
1871 - French Government 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.
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.
1894 - 22-year-old French Anarchist Emile Henry is executed by guillotine.
1904 - Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) founded in Paris.
1917 - 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 touchs down at Le Bourget Field in Paris, completing the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
1932 - Amelia Earhart, because of bad weather, lands in a pasture in Derry, Northern Ireland, becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
1934 - Oskaloosa, Iowa, becomes the first municipality in the United States to fingerprint each 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 became one of Japan's most notorious scandals.
1941 - World War II: 950 miles off the coast of Brazil, the freighter SS Robin Moor becomes the first United States ship sunk by a German U-boat.
1945 - United States screen legend Humphrey Bogart marries actress Lauren Bacall.
1956 - Nuclear testing: In the Pacific Ocean, Bikini Atoll is nearly obliterated by the first airborne explosion of a hydrogen bomb.
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.
1972 - Michelangelo's Pietà, in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, is damaged by a vandal.
1979 - White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.
1980 - The Empire Strikes Back opens in theaters.
1981 - Pierre Mauroy becomes Prime Minister of France.
1991 - Former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a female suicide bomber near Madras.
1998 - At Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, Kipland Kinkel, suspended for bringing a gun to school, shoots a semi-automatic rifle into a room filled with students, killing 2 wounding 25 others after killing his parents at home.
1998 - Reproductive rights: In Miami, Florida, five abortion clinics are hit by a butyric acid attacker.
2000 - A chartered British Aerospace Jetstream 31 crashes near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, killing 19.
2001 - French Taubira law which officially recognize 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 Dorje climbs Mount Everest in 8 hours 10 minutes, breaking his rival Sherpa Lakpa Gelu's record from the previous year.
2004 - Stanislav Petrov is awarded the World Citizen Award for averting a potential World War III in 1983.
2005 - In Kiev, Ukraine, Greece wins the fiftieth Eurovision Song Contest with "My Number One" performed by Elena Paparizou.
2006 - The Republic of Montenegro holds a referendum proposing independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro.
2006 - The Swedish ice hockey team Tre Kronor takes gold in the World Championship and becomes the first nation to take gold in both the World Championship and Olympic games in ice hockey.

Births

1471 - Albrecht Dürer, German painter and graphic artist (d. 1528)
1527 - King Philip II of Spain (d. 1598)
1664 - Giulio Alberoni, Italian cardinal and statesman (d. 1754)
1688 - Alexander Pope, English poet (d. 1744)
1755 - Alfred Moore, American judge (d. 1810)
1763 - Joseph Fouché, French statesman (d. 1820)
1780 - Elizabeth Fry, British social reformer and philanthropist (d. 1845)
1792 - Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis, French scientist (d. 1843)
1843 - Charles Albert Gobat, Swiss politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1914)
1844 - Henri Rousseau, French artist (d. 1910)
1850 - Giuseppe Mercalli, Italian volcanologist (d. 1914)
1851 - Léon Bourgeois, French statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1925)
1853 - Jacques Marie Eugène Godefroy Cavaignac, French politician (d. 1905)
1860 - Willem Einthoven, Dutch inventor, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1927)
1863 - Archduke Eugen of Austria, Austrian field marshal (d. 1954)
1873 - Hans Berger, German neuroscientist (d. 1941)
1898 - Armand Hammer, American physician, entrepreneur, oil magnate, and art collector (d. 1990)
1901 - Horace Heidt, American band leader (d. 1986)
1901 - Sam Jaffe, American film producer (d. 2000)
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)
1912 - Monty Stratton, baseball player (d. 1982)
1916 - Tinus Osendarp, Dutch runner (d. 2002)
1916 - Harold Robbins, American novelist (d. 1997)
1917 - Raymond Burr, American actor (d. 1993)
1920 - Anthony Steel, British actor (d. 2001)
1921 - Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist and activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (declined) (d. 1989)
1923 - Armand Borel, Swiss mathematician (d. 2003)
1923 - Ara Parseghian, American football coach
1924 - Peggy Cass, American actress and comedienne (d. 1999)
1930 - Malcolm Fraser, 22nd Prime Minister of Australia
1933 - Maurice André, French trumpeter
1934 - Bengt I. Samuelsson, Swedish biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
1936 - Günter Blobel, German biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
1939 - Heinz Holliger, Swiss oboist and composer
1941 - Martin Carthy, English singer and guitarist
1941 - Ronald Isley, American singer (The Isley Brothers)
1943 - Hilton Valentine, British guitarist (The Animals)
1944 - Mary Robinson, President of Ireland
1944 - Marcie Blane, American singer
1945 - Ernst Messerschmid, German physicist and astronaut
1948 - Leo Sayer, English pop singer & musician
1951 - Al Franken, American comedian and author
1952 - Mr. T, (Birth Name Laurence Tureaud) American actor
1955 - Paul Barber, British field hockey player
1955 - Stan Lynch, American drummer
1957 - Judge Reinhold, American actor
1957 - Renée Soutendijk, Dutch actress
1959 - Nick Cassavetes, American actor and director
1960 - Jeffrey Dahmer, American serial killer (d. 1994)
1963 - Richard Appel, American writer and producer ("The Simpsons")
1964 - Danny Bailey, English footballer
1964 - Danny Lee Clark, American Gladiator "Nitro"
1967 - Chris Benoit, Canadian professional wrestler
1967 - Lisa Edelstein, American actress
1968 - Matthias Ungemach, German rower
1972 - The Notorious B.I.G., American musician (d. 1997)
1972 - Alesha Oreskovich, American model
1974 - Fairuza Balk, American Actress
1974 - Havoc, American rapper/producer (Mobb Deep)
1975 - Todd White, Canadian ice hockey player
1977 - Quinton Fortune, South African footballer
1977 - Ricky Williams, American football player
1978 - Briana Banks, German-American adult film star
1979 - Damian Ariel Álvarez, Argentinian footballer
1980 - Raab Himself, American actor
1981 - Belladonna, American pornographic actress
1981 - Max, German singer
1984 - Bria Myles, African-American Hip hop model
1985 - Kano, British rapper
1985 - Mutya Buena, British singer, formerly in Sugababes
1987 - Ashlie Brillault, American actress
1992 - Olivia Olson, American singer and actress

Deaths

987 - King Louis V of France
1254 - Conrad IV of Germany (b. 1228)
1481 - King Christian I of Denmark, Norway and Sweden (b. 1426)
1512 - Pandolfo Petrucci, ruler of Siena
1524 - Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, English soldier and statesman
1542 - Hernando de Soto, Spanish explorer
1607 - John Rainolds, English scholar and Bible translator (b. 1549)
1639 - Tommaso Campanella, Italian theologian, philosopher, and poet (b. 1568)
1647 - Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, Dutch poet and historian (b. 1581)
1650 - James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, Scottish royalist (b. 1612)
1664 - Elizabeth Poole, Puritan businesswoman
1670 - Niccolo Zucchi, Italian astronomer and physicist (b. 1586)
1690 - John Eliot, English Puritan missionary (b. 1604)
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)
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)
1929 - Archibald Primrose, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1847)
1935 - Jane Addams, American social worker, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1860)
1949 - Klaus Mann, German writer (b. 1906)
1952 - John Garfield, American actor (b. 1913)
1957 - Aleksandr Vertinsky, Russian singer (b. 1889)
1964 - James Franck, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1882)
1965 - Geoffrey de Havilland, British aircraft designer (b. 1882)
1970 - E. L. Grant Watson, Australian author and biologist (b. 1885)
1973 - Vaughn Monroe, Singer, trumpet player and big band leader (b. 1911)
1988 - Sammy Davis, Sr., American dancer (b. 1900)
1991 - Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India (b. 1944)
1996 - Lash LaRue, American actor (b. 1917)
1999 - Karnail Pitts, also known as Bugz, rapper for D12 (b. 1979)
2000 - Barbara Cartland, English author (b. 1901)
2000 - Sir John Gielgud, British actor (b. 1904)
2000 - Mark R. Hughes, American enterpreneur and a founder of Herbalife (b. 1956)
2002 - Niki de Saint Phalle, French artist (b. 1930)
2003 - Frank D. White, Governor of Arkansas (b. 1933)
2006 - Katherine Dunham, American dancer, choreographer, songwriter (b. 1909)
2006 - Spencer Clark, NASCAR driver, (b. 1987)
2006 - Billy Walker, country-music singer (b. 1929)

Gourt Home::Gourt :: May 21

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

Liturgical feasts

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