May 21 birthdays & history

Famous people born on May 21

• 1471Albrecht Dürer, German painter, engraver, and mathematician
• 1921Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1527Philip II of Spain, King of Spain, Portugal, England and Ireland
• 1860Willem Einthoven, Indonesian-Dutch physician, physiologist, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1986Mario Mandžukić, Croatian footballer
• 1844Henri Rousseau, French painter
• 1972The Notorious B.I.G., American rapper
• 1843Louis Renault, French jurist, educator, and Nobel Prize laureate
• 1914Romain Gary, French novelist, diplomat, film director, aviator
• 1799Mary Anning, English paleontologist

What happened on May 21

• 1864The Ionian Islands reunite with Greece.
• 1871Opening of the first rack railway in Europe, the Rigi Bahnen on Mount Rigi.
• 1894The Manchester Ship Canal in the United Kingdom is officially opened by Queen Victoria, who later knights its designer Sir Edward Leader Williams.
• 1932Bad 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.
• 1934Oskaloosa, Iowa, becomes the first municipality in the United States to fingerprint all of its citizens.
• 1937A Soviet station, North Pole-1, becomes the first scientific research settlement to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean.
• 1972Michelangelo's Pietà in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is damaged by a vandal, the mentally disturbed Hungarian geologist Laszlo Toth.
• 1981Transamerica Corporation agrees to sell United Artists to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for $380 million after the box office failure of the 1980 film Heaven's Gate.
• 1988Margaret Thatcher holds her controversial Sermon on the Mound before the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
• 1992After 30 seasons Johnny Carson hosts his penultimate episode and last featuring guests (Robin Williams and Bette Midler) of The Tonight Show.
• 2005The world's tallest roller coaster, Kingda Ka, opened at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey, U.S.
• 2006The Republic of Montenegro holds a referendum proposing independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro; 55% of Montenegrins vote for independence.

Also observed on May 21

• Afro-Colombian Day (Colombia)
• International Tea Day (International)
• World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development (International)