Today In History [21st May, 2015]

A chronological timetable of historical events that occurred on this day in history. Historical facts of the day in the areas of military, politics, science, music, sports, arts, entertainment and more. Discover what happened today in history.

Today in History
May 21

996           Sixteen year old Otto III is crowned the Roman Emperor.
1471           King Henry VI is killed in the Tower of London. Edward IV takes the throne.
1506           Christopher Columbus dies.
1536           The Reformation is officially adopted in Geneva, Switzerland.
1620           Present-day Martha's Vineyard is first sighted by Captain Bartholomew Gosnold.
1790           Paris is divided into 48 zones.
1832           The Democratic party holds its first national convention.
1856           Lawrence, Kansas is captured and sacked by pro-slavery forces.
1863           The siege of the Confederate Port Hudson, Louisiana, begins.
1881           The American Red Cross is founded by Clara Barton.
1927           Charles Lindbergh lands in Paris completing the first solo air crossing of the Atlantic.
1940           British forces attack German General Rommel's 7th Panzer Division at Arras, slowing his blitzkrieg of France.
1941           The first U.S. ship, the S.S. Robin Moor, is sunk by a U-boat.
1951           The U.S. Eighth Army counterattacks to drive the Communist Chinese and North Koreans out of South Korea.
1961           Governor Patterson declares martial law in Montgomery, Alabama.
1970           The U.S. National Guard mobilizes to quell disturbances at Ohio State University.
1991           In Madras, India, a suicide bomber kills the former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi.

Born on May 21
427 BC           Plato, Greek philosopher.
1527           Philip II, king of Spain and Portugal.
1844           Henri Rousseau, French painter.
1856           Grace Hoadley Dodge, philanthropist, helped organize the YWCA.
1860           Willem Einthoven, physiologist, inventor of the electrocardiogram.
1867           Frances Densmore, ethnomusicologist.
1878           Glenn Hammond Curtiss, aviation pioneer.
1898           Armand Hammer, American entrepeneur and industrialist.
1902           Marcel Breuer, Hungarian-born architect.
1909           Sister Maria Innocentia Hummel, artist.
1917           Raymond Burr, actor (Perry Mason).
1921           Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist.
1926           Robert Creeley, poet.
1944           Mary Bourke Robinson, first woman president of Ireland (1990-1997).