Historical Events on 21 May

Historical Events on 21 May

1260 - Kublai Khan of the Mongol Empire sends his envoy Hao Jing and two other advisors to the Song Dynasty court of Emperor Lizong of Song; while attempting to negotiate with the Song in order to resolve their conflict, Hao Jing and his fellow emissaries are im
1502 - The island of Saint Helena is discovered by the Portuguese navigator João da Nova.
1554 - A royal Charter is granted to Derby School in Derby, England.
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 the empress Catherine I. It would later be discontinued and then reinstated by the Soviet government in 1942 as the Order of Alexander Nevsky.
1758 - Mary Campbell is abducted from her home in Pennsylvania by Lenape during the French and Indian War.
1851 - Slavery is abolished in Colombia, South America.
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.
1864 - Russia declares an end to the Russian-Circassian War and many Circassians are forced into exile. The day is designated to be the Circassian Day of Mourning.
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.
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.
1894 - The Manchester Ship Canal in England is officially opened by Queen Victoria, who knights its designer Sir Edward Leader Williams.
1894 - 22-year-old French Anarchist Émile Henry is executed by guillotine.
1904 - The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is founded in Paris.
1917 - The Great Atlanta fire of 1917 takes place.
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 thereby becoming 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 hand. Her story soon becomes one of Japan's most notorious scandals.
1937 - A Soviet station becomes the first scientific research settlement to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean.
1941 - World War II: 950 miles off the coast of Brazil, the freighter SS Robin Moor becomes the first American ship sunk by a German U-boat.
1945 - Screen legend Humphrey Bogart marries actress Lauren Bacall.
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 know as the New York School.
1958 - United Kingdom Postmaster General Ernest Marples announces that from December, subscriber trunk dialling will be introduced in the Bristol area.
1961 - American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out.
1969 - Civil unrest in Rosario, Argentina, aka 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.
1979 - White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.
1991 - Mengistu Haile Mariam, president of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, flees Ethiopia, effectively bringing the Ethiopian Civil War to an end.
1991 - Former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a female suicide bomber near Madras.
1994 - The Democratic Republic of Yemen secedes from the Republic of Yemen.
1996 - The Trappist Martyrs of Atlas are executed.
1996 - The MV Bukoba sinks in Tanzanian waters on Lake Victoria, killing nearly 1000.
1998 - Suharto, the Indonesian dictator who had ruled for 32 years, resigns.
1998 - In Miami, Florida, five abortion clinics are hit by a butyric acid attacker.
2001 - French Taubira law officially recognizes the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity.
2003 - An earthquake hits northern Algeria killing more than 2,000 people.
2004 - Sherpa Pemba Dorjie climbs Mount Everest in 8 hours 10 minutes, breaking his rival Sherpa Lakpa Gelu's record from the previous year.
2004 - Stanislav Petrov is awarded the World Citizen Award for averting a potential World War III in 1983.
2006 - The Swedish ice hockey team Tre Kronor takes gold in the World Championship, becoming the first nation to hold both the World and Olympic titles separately in the same year.
2006 - The Republic of Montenegro holds a referendum proposing independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. The Montenegrin people choose independence with a majority of 55%.
2007 - The Cutty Sark is badly damaged by fire in London, England. She was the last surviving clipper, now there is none.
878 - Syracuse, Italy is captured by the Muslim sultan of Sicily.
879 - Pope John VIII gives blessings to duke Branimir and to Croatian people, considered to be international recognition of Croatian state.
996 - Sixteen-year-old Otto III is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.