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This day in history

This day in history: 21 May

Events, births and deaths on this date, ordered by how many people look them up.

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Key facts

447 historical events, births and deaths are listed for 21 May.
Entries come from Wikipedia’s day pages and are ordered by page views.
2024: A stabbing spree on the Green line of the Taichung MRT injures four people, including the perpetrator.

Holidays and observances

Afro-Colombian Day (Colombia)

Christian feast day: Blessed Adílio Daronch and Manuel Gómez González

Christian feast day: Blessed Franz Jägerstätter

Christian feast day: Blessed Hemming of Turku

Christian feast day: Earliest day on which Corpus Christi can fall, while June 24 is the latest; held on Thursday after Trinity Sunday (often locally moved to Sunday). (Roman Catholic Church)

Christian feast day: Eugène de Mazenod

Christian feast day: Helena of Constantinople, also known as "Feast of the Holy Great Sovereigns Constantine and Helen, Equal-to-the-Apostles." (Eastern Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion)

Christian feast day: John Elliot (Episcopal Church)

Christian feast day: May 21 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Christian feast day: Saints of the Cristero War, including Christopher Magallanes

Circassian Day of Mourning (Circassians)

Day of Patriots and Military (Hungary)

Events

2024A stabbing spree on the Green line of the Taichung MRT injures four people, including the perpetrator.

2024The Greenfield tornado kills five and injures 35 across rural Iowa, United States. Wind speeds in excess of 480 kilometres per hour (300 mph) are estimated from measurements for the third time in history.

2017Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus perform their final show at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

2014Random killings occur on the Bannan Line of the Taipei MRT, killing four and injuring 24.

2012A bus accident near Himara, Albania kills 13 people and injures 21 others.

2012A suicide bombing kills more than 120 people in Sanaa, Yemen.

2011Radio broadcaster Harold Camping predicted that the world would end on this date.

2010JAXA, 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.

2006The Republic of Montenegro holds a referendum proposing independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro; 55% of Montenegrins vote for independence.

2005The tallest roller coaster in the world, Kingda Ka opens at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey.

2003The 6.8 Mw Boumerdès earthquake shakes northern Algeria with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). More than 2,200 people were killed and a moderate tsunami sank boats at the Balearic Islands.

2001French Taubira law is enacted, officially recognizing the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity.

2000Nineteen people are killed in a plane crash in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

1998In Miami, five abortion clinics are attacked by a butyric acid attacker.

1998President Suharto of Indonesia resigns following the killing of students from Trisakti University earlier that week by security forces and growing mass protests in Jakarta against his ongoing corrupt rule.

1996The ferry MV Bukoba sinks in Tanzanian waters on Lake Victoria, killing nearly 1,000.

1996The seven Trappist monks of Tibhirine who were abducted on March 27 are killed under uncertain circumstances.

1994The Democratic Republic of Yemen unsuccessfully attempts to secede from the Republic of Yemen; a war breaks out.

1992After 30 seasons Johnny Carson hosts his penultimate episode and last featuring guests (Robin Williams and Bette Midler) of The Tonight Show.

1991Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a female suicide bomber near Madras.

1991Mengistu Haile Mariam, president of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, flees Ethiopia, effectively bringing the Ethiopian Civil War to an end.

1988Margaret Thatcher holds her controversial Sermon on the Mound before the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

1982Falklands War: A British amphibious assault during Operation Sutton leads to the Battle of San Carlos.

1981The Italian government releases the membership list of Propaganda Due, an illegal pseudo-Masonic lodge that was implicated in numerous Italian crimes and mysteries.

1981Transamerica Corporation agrees to sell United Artists to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for $380 million after the box office failure of the 1980 film Heaven's Gate.

1979White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.

1976Twenty-nine people are killed in the Yuba City bus disaster in Martinez, California.

1972Michelangelo's Pietà in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is damaged by a vandal, the mentally disturbed Hungarian geologist Laszlo Toth.

1969Civil unrest in Rosario, Argentina, known as Rosariazo, following the death of a 15-year-old student.

1966The Ulster Volunteer Force declares war on the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland.

1961American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out.

1951The 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.

1946Physicist Louis Slotin is fatally irradiated in a criticality incident during an experiment with the demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

1939The Canadian National War Memorial is unveiled by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

1937A Soviet station, North Pole-1, becomes the first scientific research settlement to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean.

1936Sada Abe is arrested after wandering the streets of Tokyo for days with her dead lover's severed genitals in her handbag. Her story soon becomes one of Japan's most notorious scandals.

1934Oskaloosa, Iowa, becomes the first municipality in the United States to fingerprint all of its citizens.

1932Bad 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.

1927Charles Lindbergh touches down at Le Bourget Field in Paris, completing the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

1925The opera Doktor Faust, unfinished when composer Ferruccio Busoni died, is premiered in Dresden.

Born on this day

2007El Ma, Bulgarian singer-songwriter

2002Elena Huelva, Spanish cancer activist and influencer (died 2023)

1997Ivan De Santis, Italian footballer

1997Kevin Quinn, American actor and singer

1997Sisca Folkertsma, Dutch footballer

1997Viktoria Petryk, Ukrainian singer-songwriter

1996Indy de Vroome, Dutch tennis player

1996Josh Allen, American football player

1996Karen Khachanov, Russian tennis player

1995Diego Loyzaga, Filipino actor

1994Tom Daley, English diver

1993Grete Gaim, Estonian biathlete

1993Luke Garbutt, English footballer

1993Lynn Williams, American soccer player

1993Matías Kranevitter, Argentine footballer

1992Hutch Dano, American actor

1992Lisa Evans, Scottish footballer

1992Olivia Olson, American singer and actress

1992Philipp Grüneberg, German footballer

1991Guilherme, Brazilian footballer

1990Kierre Beckles, Barbadian athlete

1990Rene Krhin, Slovenian footballer

1989Emily Robins, New Zealand actress and singer

1989Hal Robson-Kanu, Welsh footballer

1988Claire Cashmore, English Paralympic swimmer

1988Jonny Howson, English footballer

1988Kaire Leibak, Estonian triple jumper

1988Park Gyu-ri, South Korean singer

1987Beau Falloon, Australian rugby league player

1986Eder Sánchez, Mexican race walker

1986Greg Stewart, Canadian ice hockey player

1986Mario Mandžukić, Croatian footballer

1986Matt Wieters, American baseball player

1986Myra, American singer and actress

1986Park Sojin, South Korean singer-songwriter and dancer

1985Alexander Dale Oen, Norwegian swimmer (died 2012)

1985Andrew Miller, American baseball player

1985Dušan Kuciak, Slovak footballer

1985Heath L'Estrange, Australian rugby league player

1985Isa Guha, English cricketer and sportscaster

Died on this day

2026Kyle Busch, American race car driver and owner (born 1985)

2025Gerry Connolly, American politician, U.S. Representative from Virginia's 11th congressional district (born 1950)

2024Jan A. P. Kaczmarek, Polish composer (born 1953)

2020Alan Merten, fifth President of George Mason University (born 1941)

2019Binyavanga Wainaina, Kenyan writer (born 1971)

2019Rik Kuypers, Belgian film director (born 1925)

2016Nick Menza, American drummer and songwriter (born 1964)

2015Annarita Sidoti, Italian race walker (born 1969)

2015Fred Gladding, American baseball player and coach (born 1936)

2015Jassem Al-Kharafi, Kuwaiti businessman and politician, 8th Kuwaiti Speaker of the National Assembly (born 1940)

2015Louis Johnson, American bass player and producer (born 1955)

2015Twinkle, English singer-songwriter (born 1948)

2014Alireza Soleimani, Iranian wrestler (born 1956)

2014Jaime Lusinchi, Venezuelan physician and politician, President of Venezuela (born 1924)

2014Johnny Gray, American baseball player (born 1926)

2014Tunku Annuar, Malaysian son of Badlishah of Kedah (born 1939)

2013Bob Thompson, American pianist and composer (born 1924)

2013Cot Deal, American baseball player and coach (born 1923)

2013Count Christian of Rosenborg, member of the Danish royal family (born 1942)

2013Dominique Venner, French journalist and historian (born 1935)

2013Frank Comstock, American trombonist, composer, and conductor (born 1922)

2013Leonard Marsh, American businessman, co-founded Snapple (born 1933)

2012Alan Thorne, Australian anthropologist and academic (born 1939)

2012Bill Stewart, American football player and coach (born 1952)

2012Constantine of Irinoupolis, Metropolitan of Irinoupolis and Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA (born 1936)

2012Douglas Rodríguez, Cuban boxer (born 1950)

2012Eddie Blazonczyk, American singer-songwriter (born 1941)

2012Otis Clark, American butler and preacher, survivor of the Tulsa race massacre (born 1903)

2012Roman Dumbadze, Georgian commander (born 1964)

2006Billy Walker, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1929)

Quote of the day

“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.”

Lao Tzu

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From Wikipedia’s on-this-day pages for this language, updated once a day and ordered by how often each article is read.

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