What are the important events that happened on May 21? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.

May 21: Facts & Myths About This Day

May 21 is the 141^st 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.

Under the Julian calendar, this day is May 8, 2025 – a Wednesday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?

When this day started, 1,747,785,600 seconds has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.

Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘hectatetracontahenagon’ day.

Taurus is the zodiac 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.

The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,534 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.

May 21 Historical Events

• 879 –
  Pope John VIII gives blessings to duke Branimir and to Croatian people, considered to be international recognition of the Croatian state.
• 1758 –
  Mary Campbell is abducted from her home in Pennsylvania by Lenape during the French and Indian War.
• 1856 –
  Lawrence, Kansas is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces.
• 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.
• 1911 –
  Mexican President Porfirio Díaz and the revolutionary Francisco Madero sign the Treaty of Ciudad Juárez to put an end to the fighting between the forces of both men, and thus concluding the initial phase of the Mexican Revolution.
• 1932 –
  Bad weather forces Amelia Earhart to land in a pasture in Derry, Northern Ireland, and she thereby becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
• 1937 –
  A Soviet station becomes the first scientific research settlement to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean.
• 1961 –
  American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out.
• 1966 –
  The Ulster Volunteer Force declares war on the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland.
• 1969 –
  Civil unrest in Rosario, Argentina, known as Rosariazo, following the death of a 15-year-old student.

Who were born on May 21?

• 1471 –
  Albrecht Dürer, German painter (d. 1528)
• 1763 –
  Joseph Fouché, French statesman (d. 1820)
• 1916 –
  Harold Robbins, American novelist (d. 1997)
• 1923 –
  Ara Parseghian, American football coach
• 1923 –
  Evelyn Ward, American actress
• 1930 –
  Malcolm Fraser, Australian politician
• 1942 –
  Danny Ongais, American race car driver
• 1969 –
  Pierluigi Brivio, Italian footballer
• 1983 –
  Veloso, Brazilian footballer
• 1985 –
  Isa Guha, English cricketer

Who died on May 21?

• 1254 –
  King Conrad IV of Germany (b. 1228)
• 1481 –
  King Christian I of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden (b. 1426)
• 1524 –
  Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, English soldier (b. 1443)
• 1639 –
  Tommaso Campanella, Italian theologian (b. 1568)
• 1650 –
  James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, Scottish royalist (b. 1612)
• 1664 –
  Elizabeth Poole, English-born Puritan settler and founder of Taunton, Massachusetts (b. 1588)
• 1690 –
  John Eliot, English Puritan missionary (b. 1604)
• 1742 –
  Lars Roberg, Swedish physician (b. 1664)
• 1929 –
  Archibald Primrose, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1847)
• 1996 –
  Paul Delph, American singer, songwriter and producer (b. 1957)