Sunday 21st of May 1471

King of England Henry VI of England dies of melancholy after hearing of his son Edward's death in the Battle of Tewkesbury at the age of 50 in Tower of London, London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Sunday 21st of May 1471

Painter and printmaker Albrecht Dürer is born in Nürnberg, Bayern, Germany.

Saturday 21st of May 1633

Composer Joseph Chabanceau de La Barre is born in Paris, VIe, Île-de-France, France.

Tuesday 21st of May 1844

Post-impressionist painter Henri Julien Félix Rousseau aka Le Douanier is born in Laval, Mayenne, France.

Thursday 21st of May 1903

President of Argentina Perdo Eugenio Aramburu is born in Río Cuarto, Córdoba, Argentina.

Tuesday 21st of May 1907

West German Ambassador to Guatemala Karl Borromäus Maria Heinrich Graf von Spreti is born in Schloss Kapfing, Landshut, Bayern, Germany.

Thursday 21st of May 1914

Victim of Neville Heath aka The Sadistic Romeo Margery Aimee Brownell Gardner is born as Margery Wheat in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

Sunday 21st of May 1916

Writer Harold Robbins is born as Harold Rubin in New York City, New York, United States.

Robbins later claimed to be a Jewish orphan who had been raised in a Catholic boys' home whereas in reality he was the son of well-educated Russian- and Polish-Jewish immigrants.

Tuesday 21st of May 1918

21-year-old Serial killer Earle Leonard Nelson aka The Gorilla Murderer assaults an unidentified girl in San Francisco, California, United States.

Saturday 21st of May 1921

24-year-old Serial killer Earle Leonard Nelson aka The Gorilla Murderer is sentenced for assault on 12-year-old Mary Summers and committed to Napa State Mental Hospital in San Francisco, California, United States.

Saturday 21st of May 1921

Nuclear physicist, Soviet dissident and human rights activist Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov is born in Moscow, Central Federal District, Russia.

Wednesday 21st of May 1924

Victim of Leopold & Loeb aka The Perfect Murderers Bobby Franks is kidnapped and murdered by Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb aka The Perfect Murderers at the age of 15 in Chicago, Illinois, United States.

Franks' body was dumped near Wolf Lake in Hammond, Indiana.

Saturday 21st of May 1927

25-year-old Aviation pioneer Charles Augustus Lindbergh aka The Lone Eagle lands after a 33 1⁄2 hour flight from New York in his 'Spirit of St. Louis' aircraft in Aéroport de Paris-Le Bourget, Le Bourget, Île-de-France, France.

It was the first successful nonstop transatlantic flight between New York City and Paris.

Saturday 21st of May 1932

35-year-old Aviation pioneer Amelia Mary Earhart becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, landing in Derry, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.

Friday 21st of May 1943

46-year-old Doctor and serial killer Marcel André Henri Félix Petiot aka The Triangular Chamber of Death Murderer is arrested by the French Gestapo, suspected of leading an escape-route for jews under the alias of 'Dr. Eugène' in 66 Rue de Caumartin, Paris, IXe, Île-de-France, France.

Monday 21st of May 1951

Serial killer Douglas Edward Gretzler is born in New York, Bronx, New York, United States.

Friday 21st of May 1954

Murderer Nathaniel Germany is executed by hanging at the age of 30 in Lansing Correctional Facility, 301 E Kansas Avenue, Lansing, Kansas, United States.

Saturday 21st of May 1960

Serial killer and cannibal Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer aka The Milwaukee Cannibal is born in Evangelical Deaconess Hospital, 1821 Grand Avenue, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States.

Tuesday 21st of May 1963

28-year-old Serial killer Joseph Kallinger aka The Shoemaker sets fire to the basement of a building he owns in 2039 East Fletcher Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

Kallinger collected 15.000,- $ on insurance money.

Tuesday 21st of May 1968

26-year-old Rolling Stone Brian Lewis Hopkins Jones is arrested for possession of cannabis in his apartment in London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

The jury found Jones guilty but the judge had sympathy for him, instead of jailing him he fined him £50 plus £105 in costs and told him: "For goodness sake, don't get into trouble again or it really will be serious".

Thursday 21st of May 1970

13-year-old Jutta Rahn is sexually assaulted and strangled by serial killer Joachim Kroll aka Jockel aka Der Ruhrkannibale in Breitscheid, Hösel, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

Rahn's 20-year-old neighbour Peter Schay is arrested on 8 June 1970 and charged with her murder. He spent 18 months in prison before he was acquitted on 12 November 1971 due to lack of evidence.

Sunday 21st of May 1972

17-year-old Billy Gene Baulch is tortured and strangled by serial killer Dean Corll aka The Candyman in 925 Schuler Street, Houston, Texas, United States.

He was strangled by Wayne Henley and buried at High Island Beach.

Sunday 21st of May 1972

34-year-old Geologist and art vandal László Tóth attacks Michelangelo's Pietà with a geologist's hammer in Basilica di San Pietro, Rome, Lazio, Italy.

With fifteen blows Tóth removed Mary's arm at the elbow, knocked off a chunk of her nose, and chipped one of her eyelids while shouting "I am Jesus Christ - risen from the dead". Toth was subdued by bystanders, including American sculptor Bob Cassilly, who was the first person to pull him away from the Pietà.

Tuesday 21st of May 1974

53-year-old Artist and pedagogue Joseph Heinrich Beuys starts his performance 'I like America and America likes Me' in René Block Gallery, 409 West Broadway, New York, Manhattan, New York, United States.

Wednesday 21st of May 1975

Start of the trial against Ulrike Meinhof, Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe as leaders of die Rote Armee Fraktion aka Baader-Meinhof Gruppe in Justizvollzugsanstalt Stammheim, Asperger Straße 60, Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Friday 21st of May 1976

The artificial respiration for 22-year-old Karen Ann Quinlan aka The Coma Girl is stopped in St Clare's Hospital, 25 Pocono Road, Denville, New Jersey, United States.

Quinlan lived in a persistent vegetative state until her death from complications from pneumonia on 11 June 1985.

Wednesday 21st of May 1980

42-year-old Wiener Aktionist Hermann Nitsch performs his 66. Aktion in Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main, Hessen, Germany.

Nitsch' 66. Aktion lasted three hours.

Thursday 21st of May 1981

Irish republican hunger striker Raymond McCreesh dies after 61 days of hungerstriking at the age of 24 in Maze Prison, Lisburn, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.

McCreesh was the third to die in the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike.

Thursday 21st of May 1981

Irish republican hunger striker Patsy O'Hara dies after 61 days of hungerstriking at the age of 24 in Maze Prison, Lisburn, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.

O'Hara was the fourth to die in the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike.

Saturday 21st of May 1988

32-year-old Rampage killer Marciano Contaoe shoots 11 people in a drunken rage in Manila, Metro Manila, Philippines.

Tuesday 21st of May 1996

Up to 1000 die in MV Bukoba ferry capsizing in Lake Victoria, Mwanza, Nigeria.

Abu Ubaidah al-Banshiri, who was then second in command of Al Qaeda, died in the disaster.

Wednesday 21st of May 1997

Murderer Bruce Edwin Callins is executed by lethal injection at the age of 37 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Thursday 21st of May 1998

16-year-old School shooter Kip Kinkel aka The Thurston High School Shooter kills two students and leaves 25 injured in a shooting spree in Thurston High School, 333 North 58th Street, Springfield, Oregon, United States.

The day before Kinkel was expelled from Thurston High School for being in possession of a loaded, stolen handgun. Back home he shot his 59-year-old father William and 57-year-old mother Faith to death. He went back to the school armed with two hunting knives, his rifle, a 9x19mm Glock 19 pistol, and a .22-caliber Ruger MK II pistol and 1.127 rounds of ammunition.

Friday 21st of May 1999

A passing S-Bahn train in Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

Sunday 21st of May 2000

Founder of Herbalife International Ltd Mark Reynolds Hughes dies of an accidental overdose of alcohol and Doxepin at the age of 44 in Malibu, California, United States.

Sunday 21st of May 2000

Actor John Arthur Gielgud dies of physical and psychological decline at the age of 96 in Wotton Underwood, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom.

Tuesday 21st of May 2002

Artist Niki Catherine-Marie-Agnès Fal de Saint Phalle dies of emphysema at the age of 72 in La Jolla, California, United States.

Sunday 21st of May 2023

An apartment building designed by Renaat Braem in Arenawijk, Antwerpen, Deurne, Antwerpen, Belgium.