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

• 1349 –
  Dušan’s Code, the constitution of the Serbian Empire, is enacted by Dušan the Mighty.
• 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.
• 1871 –
  Opening of the first rack railway in Europe, the Rigi-Bahnen on Mount Rigi.
• 1924 –
  University of Chicago students Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr. murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a “thrill killing”.
• 1946 –
  Physicist Louis Slotin is fatally irradiated in a criticality incident during an experiment with the Demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
• 1979 –
  White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.
• 1994 –
  The Democratic Republic of Yemen unsuccessful attempts to secede from Republic of Yemen; a war breaks out.
• 1996 –
  The Trappist Martyrs of Atlas are executed.
• 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%.

Who were born on May 21?

• 1884 –
  Manuel Pérez y Curis, Uruguayan poet (d. 1920)
• 1907 –
  John C. Allen, American roller coaster designer (d. 1979)
• 1916 –
  Tinus Osendarp, Dutch runner (d. 2002)
• 1929 –
  Alice Drummond, American actress
• 1939 –
  Heinz Holliger, Swiss oboist, composer and conductor
• 1945 –
  Ernst Messerschmid, German astronaut
• 1960 –
  Kent Hrbek, American baseball player
• 1967 –
  Lisa Edelstein, American actress
• 1970 –
  Carl Veart, Australian soccer player
• 1981 –
  Josh Hamilton, American baseball player

Who died on May 21?

• 1670 –
  Niccolò Zucchi, Italian astronomer (b. 1586)
• 1686 –
  Otto von Guericke, German scientist (b. 1602)
• 1929 –
  Archibald Primrose, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1847)
• 1949 –
  Klaus Mann, German writer (b. 1906)
• 1957 –
  Alexander Vertinsky, Russian poet, singer, composer, cabaret artist and actor (b. 1889)
• 1973 –
  Vaughn Monroe, American baritone singer, trumpeter and big band leader (b. 1911)
• 1983 –
  Kenneth Clark, English art historian (b. 1903)
• 2005 –
  Howard Morris, American comic actor and director (b. 1919)
• 2006 –
  Billy Walker, American singer (b. 1929)
• 2006 –
  Spencer Clark, American racecar driver (b. 1987)