Something to think about.Something to discover.Something to remember.Every day.
⌕ My Time Capsule
HISTORY & TIMELINE
21 May

A journey through
21 May in history

The story of 21 May runs from a sixteen-year-old king receiving the imperial crown in Rome in 996 to Montenegro voting to leave its union with Serbia in 2006. In between come a royal election on a Polish field, a doomed wooden warship off Iquique, the birth of the American Red Cross, a great canal for Manchester, the founding of world football’s governing body, two record Atlantic flights, a scientific camp on the Arctic ice, an attack on Michelangelo’s Pietà and the fall of an Indonesian strongman.

Begin the Timeline ↓ ← Back to Explore This Day
JUMP THROUGH TIME
II
THE MIDDLE AGES

Medieval History

Kingdoms, conflict, faith, power and the changing medieval world.

996
Otto III enthroned, from an illuminated gospel book made for him around 1000Otto III enthroned, from an illuminated gospel book made for him around 1000Image: Unknown author · Public domain
politics · Europe

A teenage king becomes emperor in Rome

On 21 May 996 the sixteen-year-old German king Otto III was crowned emperor in Rome. The man who placed the crown on his head was Pope Gregory V, Otto’s own cousin and former chaplain, whom the young king had just helped to the papal throne. It was an unusually close partnership between the two great powers of medieval Europe. Otto had been king since the age of three, with his mother Theophanu and grandmother Adelaide governing for him. As emperor he dreamed of reviving the glory of ancient Rome, setting up court in the city and styling himself a servant of the apostles. His reign was short: he died in 1002, aged just 21, without an heir.

Source: Britannica: Gregory V ↗
III
A CHANGING WORLD

Early Modern Era

Exploration, political change, scientific development and expanding global connections.

1674
Portrait of King Jan III SobieskiPortrait of King Jan III SobieskiImage: Attributed to Daniel Schultz / Possibly Andreas Stech · Public domain
politics · Europe

Poland’s nobles elect Jan Sobieski king

In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth kings were not born but chosen, by thousands of nobles gathered in a field near Warsaw. On the afternoon of 21 May 1674 the Bishop of Kraków proclaimed their choice: Jan Sobieski, the commander who had routed an Ottoman army at Chocim (Khotyn) the year before, would be King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. The war with the Ottomans delayed his coronation at Wawel in Kraków until early 1676. Sobieski’s greatest moment came in 1683, when he led the relief army that broke the Ottoman siege of Vienna. His summer palace at Wilanów, on the edge of Warsaw, is now a museum devoted to him.

Source: Museum of King Jan III’s Palace at Wilanów ↗
IV
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

The 1800s

Industry, empire, invention, reform and a century of enormous transformation.

1879
Painting of the sinking of the Esmeralda at the Battle of IquiquePainting of the sinking of the Esmeralda at the Battle of IquiqueImage: Thomas Somerscales · Public domain
world · Americas

Arturo Prat’s last stand at Iquique

Early in the War of the Pacific, the old Chilean wooden corvette Esmeralda was blockading the Peruvian port of Iquique when the ironclad Huáscar attacked on 21 May 1879. Captain Arturo Prat leapt aboard the enemy ship and was shot dead on its deck, and the Esmeralda was rammed and sunk with her flag still flying. Chile honours the battle each year as Navy Day.

Source: Armada de Chile: Combate Naval de Iquique, 21 de mayo de 1879 ↗
1881
The American Red Cross headquarters building in Washington, DCThe American Red Cross headquarters building in Washington, DCImage: Carol M. Highsmith · Public domain
world · Americas

Clara Barton founds the American Red Cross

On 21 May 1881 Clara Barton, the nurse known as the Angel of the Battlefield in the American Civil War, met with a small circle of supporters in Washington and founded the American Red Cross. She had seen the International Red Cross at work in Europe and campaigned for the United States to sign the Geneva Convention, which it did the following year. Barton led the society for 23 years.

Source: American Red Cross: Our History ↗
1894
A tanker on the Manchester Ship Canal in modern timesA tanker on the Manchester Ship Canal in modern timesImage: John Eyres · CC BY 2.0
world · Europe

Queen Victoria opens the Manchester Ship Canal

Ocean-going ships had been sailing to Manchester since New Year’s Day, but on 21 May 1894 Queen Victoria performed the official opening of the Manchester Ship Canal. Dug over six years at a cost of about 15 million pounds, the 36-mile waterway ran from Eastham on the Mersey to the heart of the city, turning an inland cotton town into one of Britain’s busiest ports.

Source: The National Archives: Queen Victoria opening the Manchester Ship Canal on 21st May, 1894 ↗
V
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The 1900s

War and peace, technological leaps, social change, politics, sport and popular culture.

1904
Robert Guérin, the French journalist who became FIFA's first presidentRobert Guérin, the French journalist who became FIFA’s first presidentImage: Unknown author · Public domain
sport · Global

FIFA is founded in a Paris back room

On 21 May 1904 delegates from France, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland met in a back room at 229 rue Saint-Honoré in Paris and founded the Fédération Internationale de Football Association. Their aim was simple: a single body to agree the rules of international matches. The French journalist Robert Guérin became its first president. England’s Football Association, which had given the game its rules in the first place, stayed out at first but joined the following year. FIFA staged its first World Cup in Uruguay in 1930 and now has more than 200 member associations, more than the United Nations has member states.

Source: FIFA: 120th anniversary of foundation in Paris ↗
1927
The Spirit of St. Louis, the aircraft Lindbergh flew to Paris, on display at the National Air and Space MuseumThe Spirit of St. Louis, the aircraft Lindbergh flew to Paris, on display at the National Air and Space MuseumImage: Ad Meskens, zie ook:vliegtuigen · CC BY-SA 3.0
world · Americas

Lindbergh lands in Paris after crossing the Atlantic alone

At 10.21pm Paris time on 21 May 1927 a small silver monoplane touched down at Le Bourget airfield. Its pilot, 25-year-old American airmail flyer Charles Lindbergh, had left New York 33 and a half hours earlier and flown about 3,600 miles without a stop and without a companion, the first person to do so across the Atlantic. A crowd estimated at more than 100,000 surged across the field to greet him, and souvenir hunters tore strips of fabric from the aircraft before French airmen rescued it. The flight won Lindbergh the $25,000 Orteig Prize and instant world fame. His plane, the Spirit of St. Louis, now hangs in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington.

Source: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: Spirit of St. Louis ↗
1932
Amelia Earhart, pictured in the 1930sAmelia Earhart, pictured in the 1930sImage: Underwood & Underwood (active 1880 – c. 1950)[1] · Public domain
world · Europe

Amelia Earhart lands in a Northern Irish field

Five years to the day after Lindbergh reached Paris, Amelia Earhart brought her red Lockheed Vega down in a farmer’s pasture at Culmore, near Londonderry, on 21 May 1932. She had taken off from Harbour Grace in Newfoundland about 15 hours earlier, battling ice, a leaking fuel tank and flames from a cracked exhaust, to become the first woman to fly the Atlantic alone.

Source: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: How Amelia Earhart raced to make history ↗
1937
Members of the 1937 Soviet North Pole expedition beside one of their aircraftMembers of the 1937 Soviet North Pole expedition beside one of their aircraftImage: К. Сабельников (Союзфото) · Public domain
science · Global

Scientists set up camp on the drifting Arctic ice

On 21 May 1937 a four-engined Soviet aircraft flown by Mikhail Vodopyanov landed on a thick ice floe about 20 kilometres from the North Pole. On board were the four men of North Pole-1, the world’s first research station built on the drifting sea ice: leader Ivan Papanin, oceanographer Pyotr Shirshov, astronomer and meteorologist Yevgeny Fyodorov and radio operator Ernst Krenkel. For 274 days they lived in a tent on the floe, measuring the depth of the ocean, the currents, the weather and the Earth’s magnetism, and radioing their results home. The ice carried them more than 2,000 kilometres south towards Greenland, where icebreakers took them off in February 1938. Russia now marks 21 May as Polar Explorer’s Day.

Source: Russian Geographical Society: Polar Explorer’s Day ↗
1972
Michelangelo's Pietà in St Peter's Basilica, Vatican CityMichelangelo’s Pietà in St Peter’s Basilica, Vatican CityImage: original file by Stanislav Traykov · CC BY 2.5
culture · Europe

Michelangelo’s Pietà is attacked with a hammer

Michelangelo carved the Pietà, Mary cradling the dead Christ across her lap, from a single block of Carrara marble when he was in his early twenties. It is the only work he ever signed. On 21 May 1972 a man named Laszlo Toth vaulted a rail in St Peter’s Basilica and struck the sculpture a dozen times with a geologist’s hammer, shouting that he was Jesus Christ. The blows broke off Mary’s left arm and damaged her face, nose and eyelid. Vatican restorers spent months reassembling the fragments, using marble dust and glue so skilfully that the repairs are almost invisible. When the Pietà went back on show it stood behind bulletproof glass, where it remains today.

Source: Britannica: Art Abuse, 11 Vandalized Works of Art ↗
1991
Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India 1984 to 1989Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India 1984 to 1989Image: Bart Molendijk / Anefo · CC BY-SA 3.0 nl
politics · Asia

Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated

On 21 May 1991 the former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was killed at an election rally in Sriperumbudur, near Madras (now Chennai), by a suicide bomber linked to Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers; 16 others died with him. Gandhi had become prime minister in 1984 after the assassination of his mother, Indira Gandhi. An Indian court later convicted 26 people over the plot.

Source: Britannica: Rajiv Gandhi ↗
1998
Suharto reads his resignation statement at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, 21 May 1998Suharto reads his resignation statement at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, 21 May 1998Image: Unknown photographer (Office of the Vice President of Indonesia) · Public domain
politics · Asia

Suharto steps down in Indonesia

On the morning of 21 May 1998 Suharto, president of Indonesia for 32 years, announced his resignation, and his vice-president B. J. Habibie was sworn in to replace him. The Asian financial crisis of 1997 had wrecked the value of the rupiah and exposed deep weaknesses in an economy long run for the benefit of a well-connected few. Student protests grew through the spring, and after soldiers shot dead demonstrators at Trisakti University in Jakarta on 12 May, the capital was swept by riots. With the army no longer behind him, Suharto had little choice. His fall opened the way to free elections and the era Indonesians call Reformasi.

Source: Britannica: Suharto ↗
VI
2000 TO TODAY

Modern Day

The events of recent decades that have already become part of the historical record.

2006
A map of the yes vote by municipality in Montenegro's 2006 independence referendumA map of the yes vote by municipality in Montenegro’s 2006 independence referendumImage: Furfur · CC BY-SA 4.0
politics · Europe

Montenegro votes for independence

On 21 May 2006 voters in Montenegro were asked whether their republic should leave the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, the last remnant of the old Yugoslavia. The European Union had set a high bar: independence needed at least 55 per cent of the vote. The result was 55.5 per cent in favour, on a turnout of about 86 per cent. International observers from the OSCE judged the vote to be broadly in line with democratic standards. Montenegro’s parliament declared independence on 3 June, Serbia accepted the outcome within days, and on 28 June the country joined the United Nations as its 192nd member state.

Source: OSCE/ODIHR: Montenegro Referendum, 21 May 2006 ↗
RESEARCH

Sources & Further Reading

Selected authoritative references supporting the events on this page.

WHY THESE MOMENTS?

Significance before volume

This page is not the longest possible list of events. It is a chronological journey through 21 May, where each entry is chosen for historical significance, human interest and reliability.

Facts are checked against authoritative museums, archives, universities and reference works. Where sources disagree, the page says so.

EXPLORED THE DEEPER STORY?

Return to the highlights of 21 May

Discover the lighter side of the date with famous birthdays, culture, firsts and lives remembered.

Explore This Day →
← PREVIOUS DAY20 May
HISTORY & TIMELINE21 May
NEXT DAY →22 May