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May 21

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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.
1260 - Kublai Khan of the Mongol Empire sends his envoy Hao Jing and two other advisors to the Song Dynasty court of Emperor Lizong of Song; while attempting to negotiate with the Song in order to resolve their conflict, Hao Jing and his fellow emissaries are imprisoned by order of the high Chancellor of China, Jia Sidao.
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.
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 to be 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.
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 Émile Henry is executed by guillotine.
1904 - The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is founded in Paris.
1917 - The Great Atlanta fire of 1917 takes place.
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 thereby becoming 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.
1945 - Screen legend Humphrey Bogart marries actress Lauren Bacall.
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.
1969 - Civil unrest in Rosario, Argentina, aka 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.
1979 - White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.
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.
2004 - Stanislav Petrov is awarded the World Citizen Award for averting a potential World War III in 1983.
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 Cutty Sark is badly damaged by fire in London, England. She was the last surviving clipper, now there is none.

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 - Franti?ek 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, American 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
1952 - Mr. T, American actor
1954 - Marc Ribot, American musician
1955 - Paul Barber, British field hockey player
1955 - Stan Lynch, American drummer
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
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 - Jamaal Magloire, Canadian professional basketballer
1978 - Adam Gontier, Canadian singer Three Days Grace
1979 - Damián Ariel Álvarez, Argentinian footballer
1979 - Gaspard Augé, French musician
1979 - Jesse Capelli, Canadian pornographic actress
1979 - James Clancy Phelan, Australian novelist
1979 - Jamie Hepburn, Member of the Scottish Parliament
1979 - Scott Smith, mixed martial arts fighter
1980 - Chris Raab, American actor
1981 - Belladonna, American pornographic actress
1981 - Max, German singer
1981 - Josh Hamilton, Major League Baseball player
1984 - Brandon Fields, National Football League punter
1984 - Lorena Ayala, Spanish-Dutch model and beauty queen
1985 - Andrew Miller, Major League Baseball player
1985 - Kano, British rapper
1985 - Mutya Buena, English singer (ex-Sugababes)
1985 - Marco Carta, Italian singer
1986 - Myra, Mexican-American singer
1987 - Ashlie Brillault, American actress
1988 - Jonathan Howson, English footballer
1991 - Sarah Ramos, American actress
1992 - Olivia Olson, American singer and actress
1994 - Tom Daley, English diver