May 21

From TheBestLinks.com

May 21 is the 141st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (142nd in leap years). There are 224 days remaining.

Table of contents

1 Events

2 Births

3 Deaths

4 Holidays and observances

Events

996 - Sixteen year old Otto III is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
1674 - John Sobieski is elected by the nobility to be the King of Poland.
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: Naval battle of Iquique and Punta Gruesa. Chilean ships Esmeralda and Covadonga that are blocking the Iquique harbour fight against Peruvian vessels Huascar and Independencia. The Huascar sinks the Esmeralda and the Covadonga forces the Independencia to run aground. Chilean captain Arturo Prat dies.
1881 - The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton.
1894 - The Manchester Ship Canal is opened in England.
1924 - University of Chicago students Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr. murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a "thrill killing."
1927 - Charles Lindbergh completes the first solo non-stop transatlantic flight.
1932 - Amelia Earhart becomes 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 was apprehended 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 - American 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.
1961 - American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out.
1979 -- White Night riot in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.
1980 - Star Wars Episode V: 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 (who was 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.
2003 - An earthquake hits northern Algeria. More than 2,000 deaths.
2004 - Mountain climbing: Sherpa Pemba Dorje climbs Mount Everest in 8 hours 10 minutes breaking his rival Sherpa Lakpa Gelu's record from last year.
2004 - Stanislav Petrov is awarded the World Citizen Award for averting a potential World War III in 1983