History of 21 May
1904 – Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) was founded.
1906 – Louis H. Perlman received his patent for the demountable tire-carrying rim.
1922 – The cartoon, “On the Road to Moscow,” by Rollin Kirby won a Pulitzer Prize. It was the first cartoon awarded the Pulitzer.
1924 – Fourteen-year-old Bobby Franks was murdered in a “thrill killing” committed by Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb. The killers were students at the University of Chicago.
1927 – Charles A. Lindberg completed the first solo nonstop airplane flight across the Atlantic Ocean. The trip began May 20.
1929 – The first automatic electric stock quotation board was used by Sutro and Company of New York City.
1929 – William Henry Storey registered the trademark for the board game Sorry! in the U.K. (U.K. number 502898)
1934 – Oskaloosa, IA, became the first city in the U.S. to fingerprint all of its citizens.
1947 – Joe DiMaggio and five of his New York Yankee teammates were fined $100 because they had not fulfilled contract requirements to do promotional duties for the team.
1956 – The U.S. exploded the first airborne hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean over Bikini Atoll.
1961 – Governor Patterson declared martial law in Montgomery, AL.
1968 – The nuclear-powered U.S. submarine Scorpion, with 99 men aboard, was last heard from. The remains of the sub were later found on the ocean floor 400 miles southwest of the Azores.
1970 – The National Guard was mobilized to quell disturbances at Ohio State University.
1980 – The movie “The Empire Strikes Back” was released.
1982 – The British landed in the Falkland Islands and fighting began.
1991 – In Madras, India, the former prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi was killed by a bouquet of flowers that contained a bomb.
1998 – An expelled student, Kipland Kinkel, in Springfield, OR, killed 2 people and wounded 25 others with a semi-automatic rifle. Police also discovered that the boy had killed his parents before the rampage.
1998 – Microsoft and Sega announced that they are collaborating on a home video game system.
1998 – In Miami, FL, five abortion clinics were hit by a butyric acid-attacker.
1998 – President Suharto of Indonesia resigns following the killing of students from Trisakti University earlier that week by security forces and growing mass protests in Jakarta against his ongoing corrupt rule.
2001 – French Taubira law is enacted, officially recognizing the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity.
2003 – The 6.8 Mw Boumerdès earthquake shakes northern Algeria with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). More than 2,200 people were killed and a moderate tsunami sank boats at the Balearic Islands.
2005 – The tallest roller coaster in the world, Kingda Ka opens at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey.
2006 – The Republic of Montenegro holds a referendum proposing independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro; 55% of Montenegrins vote for independence.
2010 – JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, launches the solar-sail spacecraft IKAROS aboard an H-IIA rocket. The vessel would make a Venus flyby late in the year.
2011 – Radio broadcaster Harold Camping predicted that the world would end on this date.
2012 – A bus accident near Himara, Albania kills 13 people and injures 21 others.
2012 – A suicide bombing kills more than 120 people in Sana’a, Yemen.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Craig Anderson, American ice hockey player
- 1981 – Edson Buddle, American soccer player
- 1981 – Josh Hamilton, American baseball player
- 1981 – Maximilian Mutzke, German singer-songwriter
- 1981 – Anna Rogowska, Polish pole vaulter
- 1983 – Līga Dekmeijere, a Latvian tennis player
- 1983 – Davidson Araújo Maia, Brazilian footballer
- 1983 – Kaori Shimizu, Japanese voice actress, and singer
- 1984 – Brandon Fields, American football player
- 1984 – Sara Goller, German volleyball player
- 1984 – Syamsul Yusof, Malaysian actor, film director, scriptwriter, film producer, rapper and singer
- 1985 – Mutya Buena, English singer-songwriter
- 1985 – Alison Carroll, English gymnast, model, and actress
- 1985 – Mark Cavendish, Manx cyclist
- 1985 – Alexander Dale Oen, Norwegian swimmer (d. 2012)
- 1985 – Isa Guha, English cricketer
- 1985 – Lucie Hradecká, a Czech tennis player
- 1985 – Kano, English rapper, producer, and actor
- 1985 – Dušan Kuciak, Slovak footballer
- 1985 – Heath L’Estrange, Australian rugby league player
- 1985 – Andrew Miller, American baseball player
- 1986 – Mario Mandžukić, Croatian footballer
- 1986 – Myra, American singer, and actress
- 1986 – Alexander Noyes, American drummer
- 1986 – Eder Sánchez, Mexican race walker
- 1986 – Park Sojin, South Korean singer-songwriter, and dancer
- 1986 – Greg Stewart, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1987 – Beau Falloon, Australian rugby league player
- 1988 – Claire Cashmore, English swimmer
- 1988 – Park Gyu-Ri, South Korean singer
- 1988 – Jonny Howson, English footballer
- 1988 – Kaire Leibak, Estonian triple jumper
- 1989 – Emily Robins, New Zealand actress, and singer
- 1989 – Hal Robson-Kanu, English footballer
- 1990 – Rene Krhin, Slovenian footballer
- 1991 – Guilherme, Brazilian footballer
- 1992 – Hutch Dano, American actor
- 1992 – Philipp Grüneberg, German footballer
- 1992 – Olivia Olson, American singer, and actress
- 1993 – Grete Gaim, Estonian biathlete
- 1993 – Luke Garbutt, English footballer
- 1994 – Tom Daley, English diver
- 1995 – Katharina Andresen, Norwegian heiress, and equestrian
- 1995 – Diego Loyzaga, Filipino actor
- 1996 – Josh Allen, American footballer
- 1996 – Indy de Vroome, a Dutch tennis player
- 1996 – Karen Khachanov, a Russian tennis player
- 1997 – Ivan De Santis, Italian footballer
- 1997 – Sisca Folkertsma, Dutch footballer
- 1997 – Viktoria Petryk, Ukrainian singer-songwriter