About May 21

May 21, 2023 is the 141st day of the year 2023 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 224 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Sunday.

You can browse the full year calendar in case you need it.

MyFirstName.Rocks What no one tells you about your first name’s personality. Are there magical powers in your given name? Check out Owen’s personality today! (Sponsored links)

Taurus is the sun sign of a person born on this day. Emerald is the modern birthstone for this month. Sapphire is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.

According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 265 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.

What Happened On May 21

  • 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 the Croatian state.
  • 1502
    The island of Saint Helena is discovered by the Portuguese explorer João da Nova.
  • 1554
    A royal Charter is granted to Derby School as a grammar school for boys in Derby, England, by Queen Mary I.
  • 1674
    The nobility elect John Sobieski King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 1863
    Organization of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Battle Creek, Michigan.
  • 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 in Washington, D.C.
  • 1894
    The Manchester Ship Canal in England is officially opened by Queen Victoria, who later knights its designer Sir Edward Leader Williams.
  • 1917
    The Great Atlanta fire of 1917.
  • 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.
  • 1961
    American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out.
  • 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.
  • 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.

My Birthday Ninja Is this your birthday? Are you not curious to learn who shares your special day? Find out the May 21 famous birthdays and expand your knowledge today. (Sponsored link)



Share or Link to This Page: