Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/May 21
This is a list of selected May 21 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article or picture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
Staging area
Images
Use only ONE image at a time
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John III Sobieski, King of Poland -
John III Sobieski, King of Poland -
A boat on the Manchester Ship Canal -
Suharto (requires undeletion)
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Suharto -
Rioters outside San Francisco City Hall on May 21, 1979 -
Clara Barton -
title=Charles Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis -
Kingda Ka roller coaster
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Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| Navy Day in Chile; | refimprove |
| 996 – Pope Gregory V crowned Otto III as Holy Roman Emperor. | refimprove section |
| 1674 – John III Sobieski, elected by the szlachta, became the monarch of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. | unreferenced section |
| 1758 – French and Indian War: Ten-year-old Mary Campbell, taken captive from her Pennsylvania home by members of the Native American group Lenape, likely became the first white child to travel to the Connecticut Western Reserve. | refimprove, lead too short |
| 1879 – War of the Pacific: Two Peruvian ironclads led by Miguel Grau Seminario attempted to lift the blockade of Iquique by Chilean battleships under Arturo Prat at the Battle of Iquique. | refimprove |
| 1881 – Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross in Washington, D.C. | refimprove section |
| 1904 – The Fédération Internationale de Football Association, the international sport governing body of association football, was founded in Paris. | refimprove section |
| 1979 – Riots erupted in San Francisco after former Supervisor Dan White was only sentenced for voluntary manslaughter for the assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and openly gay Supervisor Harvey Milk. | misleading section |
| 1981 – The Italian government released the membership list of Propaganda Due, an illegal pseudo-Masonic lodge that had been implicated in numerous Italian crimes and mysteries. | refimprove section |
| 1982 – Falklands War: The United Kingdom began a major amphibious assault on the shores of San Carlos Water. | refimprove |
| 1996 – Algerian Civil War: The remains of seven French Trappist monks who had been kidnapped in Algeria nearly two months earlier were found. | most important part uses an unreliable source |
| 2006 – The Montenegrin independence referendum was held in Montenegro, with 55.5 percent of the voters favouring independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. | refimprove section |
| 2010 – The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launched IKAROS, the first spacecraft to successfully demonstrate solar sail technology in interplanetary space. | featured on December 8 |
Eligible
- 878 – Arab–Byzantine wars: The city of Syracuse was captured by the Aghlabids, during the Muslim conquest of Sicily.
- 1856 – A crowd of about 800 pro-slavery Americans ransacked the town of Lawrence, Kansas.
- 1863 – The Seventh-day Adventist Church, a Protestant denomination distinguished by its emphasis on the imminent second coming (Advent) of Jesus, was founded in Battle Creek, Michigan, U.S.
- 1864 – American Civil War: The Union and Confederate armies fought to a draw at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, with nearly 32,000 casualties combined.
- 1894 – The Manchester Ship Canal, linking Manchester in North West England to the Irish Sea, officially opened, becoming the world's largest navigation canal at the time.
- 1911 – Mexican president Porfirio Díaz and the revolutionary Francisco Madero signed the Treaty of Ciudad Juárez to end the fighting between the forces of both men, concluding the initial phase of the Mexican Revolution.
- 1917 – The Imperial War Graves Commission was established through royal charter to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of British Empire military forces.
- 1927 – Aboard the Spirit of St. Louis, American aviator Charles Lindbergh completed the first solo non-stop transatlantic flight, flying from Roosevelt Field near New York City to Paris–Le Bourget Airport.
- 1939 – King George VI and Queen Elizabeth dedicated Canada's National War Memorial in Ottawa.
- 1946 – Manhattan Project physicist Louis Slotin accidentally triggered a fission reaction at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and gave himself a lethal dose of hard radiation, making him the second victim of a criticality accident in history.
- 1991 – Former prime minister of India Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a suicide bomber in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu.
- 2005 – The world's tallest roller coaster, Kingda Ka, opened at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey, U.S.
- Born/died: Feng Dao (d. 954) | Óláfr Guðrøðarson (d. 1237) | Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk (d. 1524) | Rudolf Koller (b. 1828) | Tudor Arghezi (b. 1880) | Armand Hammer (b. 1898) | Linda Laubenstein (b. 1947) | Al Franken (b. 1951) | Nadine Dorries (b. 1957)
Richard Loeb (left) and Nathan Leopold (right)
- 1403 – King Henry III of Castile sent an embassy to the Timurid court to discuss a potential alliance against the Ottoman Empire.
- 1703 – English writer Daniel Defoe was imprisoned for seditious libel after publishing a pamphlet that was perceived to satirise the Tories.
- 1851 – The Congress of Colombia passed a law abolishing slavery in the country, to take effect at the beginning of the new year.
- 1924 – University of Chicago students Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb (both pictured) murdered a 14-year-old boy in a thrill killing out of a desire to commit a "perfect crime".
- 1998 – Indonesian president Suharto resigned following the collapse of support for his presidency amid economic and political crises.
- Tommaso Campanella (d. 1639)
- Harriet Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, Duchess of Sutherland (b. 1806)
- Leonidas Vasilikopoulos (b. 1932)