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May 21 in History
Historical Events on May 21
293
Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximian appoint Galerius as Caesar to Diocletian, beginning the period of four rulers known as the Tetrarchy.
878
Syracuse, Sicily, is captured by the Muslim Aghlabids after a nine-month siege.
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.
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.
1554
Queen Mary I grants a royal charter to Derby School, as a grammar school for boys in Derby, England.
1659
In the Concert of The Hague, the Dutch Republic, the Commonwealth of England and the Kingdom of France set out their views on how the Second Northern War should end.
1660
The Battle of Long Sault concludes after five days in which French colonial militia, with their Huron and Algonquin allies, are defeated by the Iroquois Confederacy.
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 six and a half years later.
1792
Mount Unzen, near the city of Shimabara, Nagasaki, on the island of Kyūshū, Japan's southernmost main island, erupts, creating the deadliest Megatsunami that kills 14,524 people, as also a Pyroclastic flow in 1991.
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.
1864
Russia declares an end to the Russo-Circassian War and many Circassians are forced into exile. The day is designated the Circassian Day of Mourning.
1864
American Civil War: The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House ends.
1864
The Ionian Islands reunite with Greece.
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 the United Kingdom 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
President of Mexico 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, 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 handbag. 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. Twenty-nine 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
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.
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.
1992
After 30 seasons Johnny Carson hosted his penultimate episode and last featuring guests (Robin Williams and Bette Midler) of The Tonight Show.
1994
The Democratic Republic of Yemen unsuccessfully 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.
1998
In Miami, five abortion clinics are attacked by a butyric acid attacker.
1998
President 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.
2001
French Taubira law is enacted, officially recognizing the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity.
2003
The 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.
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; 55% of Montenegrins vote for independence.
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.
2011
Radio broadcaster Harold Camping predicted that the world would end on this date.
2012
A bus accident near Himara, Albania kills 13 people and injures 21 others.
2012
A suicide bombing kills more than 120 people in Sana'a, Yemen.
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