On this day: May 21

Events on May 21

• 879 Pope John VIII gives blessings to Branimir of Croatia and to the Croatian people, considered to be international recognition of the Croatian state. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 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 Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Wikipedia
• 1674 The nobility elect John Sobieski King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1792 A lava dome collapses on Mount Unzen, near the city of Shimbara on the Japanese island of Kyūshū, creating a deadly tsunami that killed nearly 15,000 people. Wikipedia
• 1799 The end of the Siege of Acre (1799): Napoleon Bonaparte abandons his siege of the Ottoman city of Acre after two months. This was the turning point of Bonaparte's Egyptian campaign and one of the first major defeats he suffered in his military career. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1864 American Civil War: The inconclusive Battle of Spotsylvania Court House in Virginia ended with combined Union and Confederate casualties totaling around 31,000. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1939 The Canadian National War Memorial is unveiled by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Wikipedia
• 1961 American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out. Wikipedia
• 1966 The Ulster Volunteer Force declares war on the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland. Wikipedia
• 1972 Michelangelo's Pietà in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is damaged by a vandal, the mentally disturbed Hungarian geologist Laszlo Toth. Wikipedia
• 1979 White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk. Wikipedia
• 1988 Margaret Thatcher holds her controversial Sermon on the Mound before the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. Wikipedia
• 1991 Mengistu Haile Mariam, president of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, flees Ethiopia, effectively bringing the Ethiopian Civil War to an end. Wikipedia
• 1994 The Democratic Republic of Yemen unsuccessfully attempts to secede from the Republic of Yemen; a war breaks out. Wikipedia
• 1996 The ferry MV Bukoba sinks in Tanzanian waters on Lake Victoria, killing nearly 1,000. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1998 In Miami, five abortion clinics are attacked by a butyric acid attacker. Wikipedia
• 2001 French Taubira law is enacted, officially recognizing the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 2024 The Greenfield tornado, estimated to have produced winds in excess of 309 miles per hour (497 km/h), moved across Iowa. Wikipedia
• 2024 The 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. Wikipedia

Born on May 21

• 1471 Albrecht Dürer, German painter, engraver, and mathematician (died 1528) Wikipedia
• 1527 Philip II of Spain, King of Spain, Portugal, England and Ireland (died 1598) Wikipedia
• 1688 (O.S.) Alexander Pope, English poet, essayist, and translator (died 1744) Wikipedia
• 1756 William Babington, Irish-born, English physician and mineralogist (died 1833) Wikipedia
• 1759 Joseph Fouché, French lawyer and politician (died 1820) Wikipedia
• 1792 Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis, French mathematician and engineer (died 1843) Wikipedia
• 1799 Mary Anning, English paleontologist (died 1847) Wikipedia
• 1843 Charles Albert Gobat, Swiss lawyer and politician, and Nobel Prize laureate (died 1914) Wikipedia
• 1843 Louis Renault, French jurist, educator, and Nobel Prize laureate (died 1918) Wikipedia
• 1844 Henri Rousseau, French painter (died 1910) Wikipedia
• 1851 Léon Bourgeois, French police officer and politician, 64th Prime Minister of France, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1925) Wikipedia
• 1860 Willem Einthoven, Indonesian-Dutch physician, physiologist, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1927) Wikipedia
• 1914 Romain Gary, French novelist, diplomat, film director, aviator (died 1980) Wikipedia
• 1921 Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1989) Wikipedia
• 1930 Malcolm Fraser, Australian politician, 22nd Prime Minister of Australia (died 2015) Wikipedia
• 1934 Bengt I. Samuelsson, Swedish biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2024) Wikipedia
• 1936 Günter Blobel, Polish-American biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2018) Wikipedia
• 1944 Mary Robinson, Irish lawyer and politician, President of Ireland Wikipedia
• 1960 Jeffrey Dahmer, American serial killer (died 1994) Wikipedia
• 1972 The Notorious B.I.G., American rapper (died 1997) Wikipedia
• 1986 Mario Mandžukić, Croatian footballer Wikipedia
• 2002 Elena Huelva, Spanish cancer activist and influencer (died 2023) Wikipedia

Died on May 21

• 987 Louis V, king of West Francia (born c. 966) Wikipedia
• 1471 Henry VI, king of England (born 1421) Wikipedia
• 1542 Hernando de Soto, Spanish-American explorer (born 1496) Wikipedia
• 1639 Tommaso Campanella, Italian astrologer, theologian, and poet (born 1568) Wikipedia
• 1686 Otto von Guericke, German physicist and inventor of the Magdeburg Hemispheres (born 1602) Wikipedia
• 1786 Carl Wilhelm Scheele, German-Swedish chemist and pharmacist (born 1742) Wikipedia
• 1925 Hidesaburō Ueno, Japanese agriculturalist, guardian of Hachikō (born 1871) Wikipedia
• 1929 Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1847) Wikipedia
• 1935 Jane Addams, American activist and author, co-founded Hull House, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1860) Wikipedia
• 1949 Klaus Mann, German-American novelist, playwright, and critic (born 1906) Wikipedia
• 1964 James Franck, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1882) Wikipedia
• 1973 Ivan Konev, Soviet Marshal and general (born 1897) Wikipedia
• 1991 Rajiv Gandhi, Indian politician, 6th Prime Minister of India (born 1944) Wikipedia
• 2025 Gerry Connolly, American politician, U.S. Representative from Virginia's 11th congressional district (born 1950) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Afro-Colombian Day (Colombia) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Adílio Daronch and Manuel Gómez González Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Franz Jägerstätter Wikipedia
• 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) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Eugène de Mazenod Wikipedia
• 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) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Hemming of Turku Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: John Elliot (Episcopal Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Saints of the Cristero War, including Christopher Magallanes Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: May 21 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Circassian Day of Mourning (Circassians) Wikipedia
• Day of Patriots and Military (Hungary) Wikipedia
• Independence Day, celebrates the Montenegrin independence referendum in 2006, celebrated until the next day. (Montenegro) Wikipedia
• International Tea Day (International) Wikipedia
• Navy Day (Chile) Wikipedia
• Saint Helena Day, celebrates the discovery of Saint Helena in 1502. (Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha) Wikipedia
• World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development (International) Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “May 21” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.