| 996 |
|
Sixteen year old Otto III is crowned the Roman Emperor. |
| 1471 |
|
King Henry VI is killed in the Tower of London. Edward IV takes the throne. |
| 1506 |
|
Christopher Columbus dies. |
| 1536 |
|
The Reformation is officially adopted in Geneva, Switzerland. |
| 1620 |
|
Present-day Martha’s Vineyard is first sighted by Captain Bartholomew Gosnold. |
| 1790 |
|
Paris is divided into 48 zones. |
| 1832 |
|
The Democratic party holds its first national convention. |
| 1856 |
|
Lawrence, Kansas is captured and sacked by pro-slavery forces. |
| 1863 |
|
The siege of the Confederate Port Hudson, Louisiana, begins. |
| 1881 |
|
The American Red Cross is founded by Clara Barton. |
| 1927 |
|
Charles Lindbergh lands in Paris completing the first solo air crossing of the Atlantic. |
| 1940 |
|
British forces attack German General Rommel’s 7th Panzer Division at Arras, slowing his blitzkrieg of France. |
| 1941 |
|
The first U.S. ship, the S.S. Robin Moor, is sunk by a U-boat. |
| 1951 |
|
The U.S. Eighth Army counterattacks to drive the Communist Chinese and North Koreans out of South Korea. |
| 1961 |
|
Governor Patterson declares martial law in Montgomery, Alabama. |
| 1970 |
|
The U.S. National Guard mobilizes to quell disturbances at Ohio State University. |
| 1991 |
|
In Madras, India, a suicide bomber kills the former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi. |
|
Born on May 21 |
| 427 BC |
|
Plato, Greek philosopher. |
| 1527 |
|
Philip II, king of Spain and Portugal. |
| 1844 |
|
Henri Rousseau, French painter. |
| 1856 |
|
Grace Hoadley Dodge, philanthropist, helped organize the YWCA. |
| 1860 |
|
Willem Einthoven, physiologist, inventor of the electrocardiogram. |
| 1867 |
|
Frances Densmore, ethnomusicologist. |
| 1878 |
|
Glenn Hammond Curtiss, aviation pioneer. |
| 1898 |
|
Armand Hammer, American entrepeneur and industrialist. |
| 1902 |
|
Marcel Breuer, Hungarian-born architect. |
| 1909 |
|
Sister Maria Innocentia Hummel, artist. |
| 1917 |
|
Raymond Burr, actor (Perry Mason). |
| 1921 |
|
Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist. |
| 1926 |
|
Robert Creeley, poet. |
| 1944 |
|
Mary Bourke Robinson, first woman president of Ireland (1990-1997). |