About May 21
May 21, 2025 is the 141st day of the year 2025 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 224 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Wednesday.
You can browse the full year calendar in case you need it.
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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 272 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.
- 996 –Sixteen-year-old Otto III is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
- 1502 –The island of Saint Helena is discovered by the Portuguese explorer João da Nova.
- 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.
- 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.
- 1864 –Russia declares an end to the Russian-Circassian War and many Circassians are forced into exile. The day is designated the Circassian Day of Mourning.
- 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.
- 1924 –University of Chicago students Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr. murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a “thrill killing”.
- 1939 –The Canadian National War Memorial is unveiled by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in Ottawa.
- 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.
- 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.
- 1982 –Falklands War: British amphibious assault during Operation Sutton lead to the Battle of San Carlos.
- 1990 –Democratic Republic of Yemen and North Yemen agree to merge into the Republic of Yemen.
- 1998 –In Miami, Florida, five abortion clinics are hit by a butyric acid attacker.
- 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%.
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