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MMXIII

May 21 in recent years
  2012 (Monday)
  2011 (Saturday)
  2010 (Friday)
  2009 (Thursday)
  2008 (Wednesday)
  2007 (Monday)
  2006 (Sunday)
  2005 (Saturday)
  2004 (Friday)
  2003 (Wednesday)

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 [edit]

• 293 – Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximian appoint Galerius as Caesar to Diocletian, beginning the period of four rulers known as the Tetrarchy.
• 878 – Syracuse, Italy, is captured by the Muslim sultan of Sicily.
• 879 – Pope John VIII gives blessings to Branimir of Croatia and to the Croatian people, considered to be international recognition of the Croatian state.
• 996 – Sixteen-year-old Otto III is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
• 1085 – The Swedish town of Helsingborg is founded.
• 1349 – Dušan's Code, the constitution of the Serbian Empire, is enacted by Dušan the Mighty.
• 1403 – Henry III of Castile sends Ruy González de Clavijo as ambassador to Timur to discuss the possibility of an alliance between Timur and Castile against the Ottoman Empire.
• 1502 – The island of Saint Helena is discovered by the Portuguese explorer João da Nova.
• 1554 – Queen Mary I grants a royal Charter to Derby School, as a grammar school for boys 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 Empress Catherine I. It would later be discontinued and then reinstated by the Soviet government in 1942 as the Order of Alexander Nevsky.
• 1758 – Ten-year-old Mary Campbell is abducted in Pennsylvania by Lenape during the French and Indian War. She is returned some six and a half years later.
• 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: The Union Army succeeds in closing off the last escape route from Port Hudson, Louisiana, in preparation for the coming siege.
• 1863 – Organization of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Battle Creek, Michigan.
• 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 in Washington, D.C..
• 1894 – The Manchester Ship Canal in England is officially opened by Queen Victoria, who later knights its designer Sir Edward Leader Williams.
• 1904 – The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is founded in Paris.
• 1911 – Mexican President Porfirio Díaz and the revolutionary Francisco Madero sign the Treaty of Ciudad Juárez to put an end to the fighting between the forces of both men, and thus concluding the initial phase of the Mexican Revolution.
• 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 causes $5.5 million in damages, destroying some 300 acres including 2,000 homes, businesses and churches, displacing about 10,000 people but leading to only one fatality (due to heart attack).
• 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, North Pole-1, becomes the first scientific research settlement to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean.
• 1939 – The Canadian National War Memorial is unveiled by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in Ottawa.
• 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 known as the New York School.
• 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.
• 1976 – The Yuba City bus disaster occurs in Martinez, California. 29 are killed making it the deadliest road accident in U.S. history.
• 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.
• 1981 – The Italian government releases the membership list of Propaganda Due, an illegal pseudo-Masonic lodge that was implicated in numerous Italian crimes and mysteries.
• 1982 – Falklands War: A British amphibious assault during Operation Sutton leads to the Battle of San Carlos.
• 1990 – The Democratic Republic of Yemen and North Yemen agree to merge into the Republic of Yemen.
• 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 unsuccessful attempts to secede from the Republic of Yemen; a war breaks out.
• 1996 – The ferry MV Bukoba sinks in Tanzanian waters on Lake Victoria, killing nearly 1,000.
• 1996 – The Trappist Martyrs of Atlas, kidnapped during the Algerian Civil War and held for two months, are found dead.
• 1998 – In Miami, Florida, five abortion clinics are hit by a butyric acid attacker.
• 1998 – President Soeharto of Indonesia resigns following the killing of students from Tri Sakti University earlier that week by security forces and growing mass protests in Jakarta against his ongoing corrupt rule.
• 2001 – French Taubira law is enacted, officially recognizing the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity.
• 2003 – An earthquake hits northern Algeria killing more than 2,000 people.
• 2005 – The tallest roller coaster in the world, Kingda Ka opens at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey.
• 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%.
• 2010 – JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, launches the solar-sail spacecraft IKAROS aboard an H-IIA rocket. The vessel would make a Venus flyby late in the year.
• 2012 – In Qafa e Vishës bus tragedy near Himara, Albania 13 students of Aleksandër Xhuvani University killed in bus crash.
• 2012 – A suicide bombing kills more than 120 people in Sana'a, Yemen.

Births [edit]

• 120 BC – Aurelia Cotta, mother of Julius Caesar (d. 54 BC)
• 1471 – Albrecht Dürer, German painter (d. 1528)
• 1527 – Philip II of Spain (d. 1598)
• 1653 – Eleanor of Austria, Queen of Poland (d. 1697)
• 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)
• 1775 – Lucien Bonaparte, French politician, soldier, and academic (d. 1840)
• 1780 – Elizabeth Fry, English philanthropist and reformer (d. 1845)
• 1790 – William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire, English politician (d. 1858)
• 1792 – Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis, French scientist (d. 1843)
• 1799 – Mary Anning, English paleontologist (d. 1847)
• 1827 – William P. Sprague, American politician (d. 1899)
• 1832 – Elizabeth Storrs Mead, American academic (d. 1917)
• 1835 – František Chvostek, Moravian physician (d. 1884)
• 1843 – Charles Albert Gobat, Swiss politician (d. 1914)
• 1844 – Henri Rousseau, French painter (d. 1910)
• 1850 – Giuseppe Mercalli, Italian vulcanologist (d. 1914)
• 1851 – Léon Bourgeois, French statesman, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1925)
• 1853 – Jacques Marie Eugène Godefroy Cavaignac, French politician (d. 1905)
• 1856 – José Batlle y Ordóñez, Uruguayan politician (d. 1929)
• 1860 – Willem Einthoven, Dutch physiologist; Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1927)
• 1863 – Archduke Eugen of Austria, Austrian field marshal (d. 1954)
• 1864 – Princess Stéphanie of Belgium (d. 1945)
• 1873 – Hans Berger, German neuroscientist (d. 1941)
• 1878 – Glenn Curtiss, American aviation engineer (d. 1930)
• 1880 – Tudor Arghezi, Romanian writer (d. 1967)
• 1884 – Manuel Pérez y Curis, Uruguayan poet (d. 1920)
• 1885 – Princess Sophie of Schönburg-Waldenburg (d. 1936)
• 1898 – Armand Hammer, American businessman and physician (d. 1990)
• 1898 – Charles Léon Hammes, Luxembourgian lawyer and jurist (d. 1967)
• 1901 – Manfred Aschner, German-Israeli microbiologist (d. 1989)
• 1901 – Horace Heidt, American pianist, bandleader, and radio host (d. 1986)
• 1901 – Sam Jaffe, American film producer and agent (d. 2000)
• 1901 – Suzanne Lilar, Belgian essayist and playwright (d. 1992)
• 1902 – Earl Averill, American baseball player (d. 1983)
• 1902 – Marcel Lajos Breuer, Hungarian architect and designer, designed the Ameritrust Tower (d. 1981)
• 1903 – Manly Wade Wellman, American writer (d. 1986)
• 1904 – Robert Montgomery, American actor (d. 1981)
• 1904 – Fats Waller, American singer, pianist, and composer (d. 1943)
• 1907 – John C. Allen, American roller coaster designer (d. 1979)
• 1909 – François-Albert Angers, Canadian economist (d. 2003)
• 1912 – John Curtis Gowan, American psychologist (d. 1986)
• 1912 – Monty Stratton, American baseball player (d. 1982)
• 1912 – Akiva Vroman, Dutch-Israeli geologist (d. 1989)
• 1913 – Gina Bachauer, Greek pianist and educator (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, actor, and comedian (d. 1988)
• 1920 – Anthony Steel, English actor (d. 2001)
• 1920 – Forrest White, American businessman, co-founder of the Music Man Company (d. 1994)
• 1920 – Bill Barber, American tuba player and educator (d. 2007)
• 1921 – Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist (d. 1989)
• 1921 – A.S. Douglas, English computer scientist and educator (d. 2010)
• 1923 – Vernon Biever, American photographer (d. 2010)
• 1923 – Armand Borel, Swiss mathematician (d. 2003)
• 1923 – Ara Parseghian, American football coach
• 1923 – Evelyn Ward, American actress (d. 2012)
• 1924 – Peggy Cass, American actress (d. 1999)
• 1926 – Robert Creeley, American poet (d. 2005)
• 1927 – Péter Zwack, Hungarian businessman and diplomat (d, 2012)
• 1928 – Tom Donahue, American disc jockey, producer, and promoter (d. 1975)
• 1929 – Alice Drummond, American actress
• 1929 – Larance Marable, American drummer
• 1930 – Tommy Bryant, American bassist (d. 1982)
• 1930 – Malcolm Fraser, Australian politician, 22nd Prime Minister of Australia
• 1932 – Billy Wright, American singer and fiddler (d. 1991)
• 1933 – Maurice André, French trumpeter (d. 2012)
• 1933 – Yevgeni Minaev, Soviet weightlifter (d. 1993)
• 1934 – Jocasta Innes, Chinese-English journalist and author (d. 2013)
• 1934 – Bengt I. Samuelsson, Swedish biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1935 – Terry Lightfoot, English clarinettist and bandleader
• 1936 – Günter Blobel, German biologist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1938 – Lee "Shot" Williams, American singer (d. 2011)
• 1939 – Heinz Holliger, Swiss oboist, composer, and conductor
• 1941 – Martin Carthy, English singer-songwriter, musician, producer, and actor (Steeleye Span, The Watersons, Waterson:Carthy, Brass Monkey, and Blue Murder)
• 1941 – Ronald Isley, American singer-songwriter, musician, producer, and actor (The Isley Brothers)
• 1941 – Bobby Cox, American baseball player and manager
• 1942 – Danny Ongais, American race car driver
• 1943 – Hilton Valentine, English guitarist and songwriter (The Animals)
• 1944 – Marcie Blane, American singer
• 1944 – Janet Dailey, American author
• 1944 – Mary Robinson, Irish politician, 7th President of Ireland
• 1945 – Ernst Messerschmid, German astronaut
• 1947 – Bill Champlin, American singer-songwriter, musician, and producer (Chicago and Sons of Champlin)
• 1947 – Jonathan Hyde, Australian actor
• 1948 – Elizabeth Buchan, English writer
• 1948 – Denis MacShane, Scottish politician
• 1948 – Leo Sayer, English singer-songwriter and musician
• 1951 – Al Franken, American actor and politician
• 1952 – Mr. T, American actor
• 1954 – Marc Ribot, American singer, musician, and composer (Bar Kokhba Sextet)
• 1954 – Janice Karman, American voice actress, singer, and producer, co-owner of Bagdasarian Productions
• 1954 – Stephen Betts, Scottish keyboardist, songwriter, and producer (Associates)
• 1955 – Paul Barber, English field hockey player
• 1955 – Stan Lynch, American drummer, songwriter, and producer (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers)
• 1957 – James Bailey, American basketball player
• 1957 – Bruce Buffer, American sportscaster
• 1957 – Nadine Dorries, English politician
• 1957 – Judge Reinhold, American actor
• 1957 – Renée Soutendijk, Dutch actress
• 1958 – Naeem Khan, Indian fashion designer
• 1958 – Jefery Levy, American 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
• 1960 – Jeffrey Toobin, American writer and analyst
• 1960 – Vladimir Salnikov, Russian swimmer
• 1962 – Richard Caputo, American author
• 1962 – David Crumb, American composer
• 1963 – Richard Appel, American writer
• 1963 – Kevin Shields, American-Irish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (My Bloody Valentine)
• 1963 – Dave Specter, American guitarist
• 1964 – Danny Bailey, English footballer
• 1964 – Danny Lee Clark, American football player
• 1964 – Nancy Benoit, American wrestler and agent (d. 2007)
• 1964 – Carolyn Lawrence, American actress
• 1966 – Lisa Edelstein, American actress
• 1967 – Chris Benoit, Canadian wrestler (d. 2007)
• 1967 – Blake Schwarzenbach, American singer and musician (Jawbreaker, Jets to Brazil, The Thorns of Life, and forgetters)
• 1968 – Ilmar Raag, Estonian film director
• 1968 – Julie Vega, Filipino actress, model, and singer (d. 1985)
• 1968 – Matthias Ungemach, German rower
• 1969 – Pierluigi Brivio, Italian footballer
• 1969 – Georgiy R. Gongadze, Ukrainian-Georgian journalist
• 1969 – Masayo Kurata, Japanese voice actress
• 1969 – George LeMieux, American politician
• 1970 – Dorsey Levens, American football player
• 1970 – Carl Veart, Australian footballer
• 1972 – Adriano Cintra, Brazilian musician and producer (CSS)
• 1972 – The Notorious B.I.G., American rapper (Junior M.A.F.I.A. and The Commission) (d. 1997)
• 1972 – Alesha Oreskovich, American model
• 1972 – Brett Tucker, Australian actor
• 1973 – Noel Fielding, English actor, writer, and musician
• 1973 – Stewart Cink, American golfer
• 1974 – Fairuza Balk, American actress
• 1974 – Havoc, American rapper, musician, and producer (Mobb Deep)
• 1975 – Lee Gaze, Welsh guitarist (Lostprophets)
• 1976 – Abderrahim Goumri, Moroccan runner (d. 2013)
• 1976 – Aditi Gowitrikar, Indian model, actress, and physician
• 1976 – Deron Miller, American singer-songwriter and musician (CKY, World Under Blood, and Foreign Objects)
• 1977 – Quinton Fortune, South African footballer
• 1977 – Michael Fuß, German footballer
• 1977 – Ricky Williams, American football player
• 1978 – Adam Gontier, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist (Three Days Grace and Big Dirty Band)
• 1978 – Jamaal Magloire, Canadian basketball player
• 1979 – Damián Ariel Álvarez, Argentinian footballer
• 1979 – Gaspard Augé, French DJ (Justice)
• 1979 – Briana Banks, German-American porn actress and model
• 1979 – Jamie Hepburn, Scottish politician
• 1979 – James Clancy Phelan, Australian novelist
• 1979 – Scott Smith, American mixed martial artist
• 1980 – Gotye, Australian singer-songwriter and musician (The Basics)
• 1980 – Morgan Benoit, American actor and martial artist
• 1980 – Chris Raab, American actor and stuntman
• 1981 – Craig Anderson, American ice hockey player
• 1981 – Edson Buddle, American footballer
• 1981 – Josh Hamilton, American baseball player
• 1981 – Maximilian Mutzke, German singer-songwriter and drummer
• 1982 – Brian Klemm, American singer and guitarist (Suburban Legends and Big D and the Kids Table)
• 1983 – Līga Dekmeijere, Latvian tennis player
• 1983 – Veloso, Brazilian footballer
• 1984 – Lorena Ayala, Dutch-Spanish model
• 1984 – Brandon Fields, American football player
• 1984 – Sara Goller, German volleyball player
• 1985 – Kano, English rapper, songwriter, producer, and actor
• 1985 – Mutya Buena, English singer-songwriter (Sugababes)
• 1985 – Marco Carta, Italian singer
• 1985 – Mark Cavendish, Manx cyclist
• 1985 – Isa Guha, English cricketer
• 1985 – Lucie Hradecká, Czech tennis player
• 1985 – Marie McCray, American porn actress and model
• 1985 – Andrew Miller, American baseball player
• 1985 – Alexander Dale Oen, Norwegian swimmer (d. 2012)
• 1986 – Mario Mandžukić, Croatian footballer
• 1986 – Myra, American singer and dancer
• 1986 – Alexander Noyes, American drummer (Honor Society)
• 1986 – Greg Stewart, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1988 – Park Gyuri, South Korean singer, pianist, and actress (Kara)
• 1988 – Jonathan Howson, English footballer
• 1989 – Emily Robins, New Zealand actress and singer
• 1989 – Hal Robson-Kanu, Welsh footballer
• 1991 – Sarah Ramos, American actress
• 1992 – Hutch Dano, American actor
• 1992 – Philipp Grüneberg, German footballer
• 1992 – Olivia Olson, American actress and singer
• 1994 – Tom Daley, English diver
• 1996 – Indy de Vroome, Dutch tennis player
• 1997 – Victoria Petryk, Ukrainian singer

Deaths [edit]

• 987 – Louis V of France (b. 967)
• 1237 – Olaf the Black, King of Mann and the Isles
• 1254 – Conrad IV of Germany (b. 1228)
• 1471 – Henry VI of England (b. 1421)
• 1481 – Christian I of Denmark (b. 1426)
• 1512 – Pandolfo Petrucci, Italian ruler (b. 1452)
• 1524 – Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, English soldier (b. 1443)
• 1542 – Hernando de Soto, Spanish explorer, first person to cross the Mississippi River (b. 1496 or 1497)
• 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 nobleman and soldier (b. 1612)
• 1664 – Elizabeth Poole, English-American settler and founder of Taunton, Massachusetts (b. 1588)
• 1670 – Niccolò Zucchi, Italian astronomer (b. 1586)
• 1686 – Otto von Guericke, German scientist (b. 1602)
• 1690 – John Eliot, English 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-American actor (b. 1827)
• 1879 – Arturo Prat, Chilean naval officer (b. 1848)
• 1894 – Émile Henry, French anarchist (b. 1872)
• 1894 – August Kundt, German physicist (b. 1839)
• 1895 – Franz von Suppé, Austrian composer (b. 1819)
• 1901 – Joseph Olivier, French rugby player (b. 1874)
• 1911 – Williamina Fleming, Scottish astronomer (b. 1857)
• 1915 – Leonid Gobyato, Russian general (b. 1875)
• 1919 – Yevgraf Fyodorov, Russian mathematician (b. 1853)
• 1920 – Venustiano Carranza, Mexican politician, 54th President of Mexico (b. 1859)
• 1925 – Hidesaburō Ueno, Japanese scientist, guardian of Hachikō (b. 1871)
• 1926 – Ronald Firbank, British author (b. 1886)
• 1929 – Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, English statesman, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1847)
• 1932 – Marcel Jacques Boulenger, French author and fencer (b. 1873)
• 1935 – Jane Addams, American social worker, activist, and author, co-founder of Hull House, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (b. 1860)
• 1949 – Klaus Mann, German writer (b. 1906)
• 1952 – John Garfield, American actor (b. 1913)
• 1956 – Harry Bensley, English businessman and adventurer (b. 1877)
• 1957 – Alexander Vertinsky, Russian actor, singer, composer, and poet (b. 1889)
• 1964 – James Franck, German physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1882)
• 1965 – Geoffrey de Havilland, English aircraft designer and engineer, designed the de Havilland Mosquito (b. 1882)
• 1970 – E. L. Grant Watson, English biologist and writer (b. 1885)
• 1973 – Vaughn Monroe, American baritone singer, trumpeter, bandleader, and actor (b. 1911)
• 1981 – Raymond McCreesh, Irish activist (b. 1957)
• 1981 – Patsy O'Hara, Irish activist (b. 1957)
• 1983 – Kenneth Clark, English historian (b. 1903)
• 1984 – Ann Little, American actress (b. 1891)
• 1988 – Sammy Davis, Sr., American dancer (b. 1900)
• 1991 – Lino Brocka, Filipino director (b. 1939)
• 1991 – Rajiv Gandhi, Indian politician, 6th Prime Minister of India (b. 1944)
• 1995 – Les Aspin, American politician (b. 1938)
• 1996 – Paul Delph, American singer-songwriter, musician, and producer (Zahara) (b. 1957)
• 1996 – Lash LaRue, American actor (b. 1917)
• 1998 – Robert Gist, American actor and film and television director (b. 1917)
• 1999 – Bugz, American rapper (D12) (b. 1979)
• 2000 – Barbara Cartland, English author (b. 1901)
• 2000 – John Gielgud, English actor (b. 1904)
• 2000 – Mark R. Hughes, American businessman, founder of Herbalife (b. 1956)
• 2002 – Niki de Saint Phalle, French artist and filmmaker (b. 1930)
• 2003 – Alejandro de Tomaso, Argentine-Italian race car driver and industrialist (b. 1928)
• 2003 – Frank D. White, American politician (b. 1933)
• 2005 – Howard Morris, American actor and director (b. 1919)
• 2006 – Spencer Clark, American race car driver (b. 1987)
• 2006 – Katherine Dunham, American dancer, director, educator, and author (b. 1909)
• 2006 – Cherd Songsri, Thai director (b. 1931)
• 2006 – Billy Walker, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1929)
• 2012 – Constantine of Irinoupolis, American-Ukrainian bishop (b. 1936)
• 2012 – Eddie Blazonczyk, American singer-songwriter and musician (b. 1941)
• 2012 – Otis Clark, American butler and preacher, survivor of the Tulsa race riot (b. 1903)
• 2012 – Roman Dumbadze, Georgian military commander (b. 1964)
• 2012 – Ezell Lee, American politician (b. 1938)
• 2012 – Juan Manuel Montero Vázquez, Spanish military surgeon (b. 1947)
• 2012 – Douglas Rodríguez, Cuban boxer (b. 1950)
• 2012 – Bill Stewart, American football coach (b. 1952)
• 2012 – Rodolfo Félix Valdés, Mexican politician, Governor of Sonora (b. 1926)

Holidays and observances [edit]

• Afro-Colombian Day (Colombia)
• Christian Feast Day:
  • Charles-Joseph-Eugene de Mazenod
  • Emperor Constantine I
  • Earliest day on which Corpus Christi can fall, while June 24 is the latest; held on Thursday after Trinity Sunday. (Roman Catholic Church)
  • Helena of Constantinople, also known as "Feast of the Holy Great Sovereigns Constantine and Helen, Equal-to-the-Apostles." (Eastern Orthodox Church)
  • May 21 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Circassian Day of Mourning (Circassians)
• Day of Patriots and Military (Hungary)
• Navy Day (Chile)
• Saint Helena Day, celebrates the discovery of Saint Helena in 1502.
• World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development (International)
• One of the festivals of Vejovis (Roman Empire)

External links [edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: May 21

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada

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