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This Day On History
| Date | Description | Type |
|---|---|---|
| 21st of May 0293 | EVENT | Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximian appoint Galerius as Caesar to Diocletian, beginning the period of four rulers known as the Tetrarchy. |
| 21st of May 0878 | EVENT | Syracuse, Italy is captured by the Muslim sultan of Sicily. |
| 21st of May 0879 | EVENT | Pope John VIII gives blessings to duke Branimir and to Croatian people, considered to be international recognition of the Croatian state. |
| 21st of May 0996 | EVENT | Sixteen-year-old Otto III is crowned Holy Roman Emperor. |
| 21st of May 1502 | EVENT | The island of Saint Helena is discovered by the Portuguese explorer Joao da Nova. |
| 21st of May 1554 | EVENT | A royal Charter is granted to Derby School in Derby, England. |
| 21st of May 1674 | EVENT | The nobility elect John Sobieski King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. |
| 21st of May 1725 | EVENT | 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. |
| 21st of May 1758 | EVENT | Mary Campbell is abducted from her home in Pennsylvania by Lenape during the French and Indian War. |
| 21st of May 1809 | EVENT | The first day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling between the Austrian army led by Archduke Charles and the French army led by Napoleon I of France sees the French attack across the Danube held. |
| 21st of May 1851 | EVENT | Slavery is abolished in Colombia, South America. |
| 21st of May 1856 | EVENT | Lawrence, Kansas is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces. |
| 21st of May 1863 | EVENT | Organization of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Battle Creek, Michigan. |
| 21st of May 1863 | EVENT | American Civil War: Siege of Port Hudson : Union forces begin to lay siege to the Confederate-controlled Port Hudson, Louisiana. |
| 21st of May 1864 | EVENT | Russia declares an end to the Russian-Circassian War and many Circassians are forced into exile. The day is designated the Circassian Day of Mourning. |
| 21st of May 1871 | EVENT | Opening of the first rack railway in Europe, the Rigi-Bahnen on Mount Rigi. |
| 21st of May 1871 | EVENT | French troops invade the Paris Commune and engage its residents in street fighting. By the close of "Bloody Week" some 20,000 communards have been killed and 38,000 arrested. |
| 21st of May 1879 | EVENT | War of the Pacific: Two Chilean ships blocking the harbor of Iquique (then belonging to Peru) battle two Peruvian vessels in the Battle of Iquique. |
| 21st of May 1881 | EVENT | The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton. |
| 21st of May 1894 | EVENT | The Manchester Ship Canal in England is officially opened by Queen Victoria, who knights its designer Sir Edward Leader Williams. |
| 21st of May 1904 | EVENT | The Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is founded in Paris. |
| 21st of May 1911 | EVENT | Mexican President Porfirio Diaz and the revolutionary Francisco Madero sign the Treaty of Ciudad Juarez to put an end to the fighting between the forces of both men, and thus concluding the initial phase of the Mexican Revolution. |
| 21st of May 1917 | EVENT | The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is established through Royal Charter to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations military forces. |
| 21st of May 1917 | EVENT | The Great Atlanta fire of 1917. |
| 21st of May 1924 | EVENT | University of Chicago students Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr. murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a "thrill killing". |
| 21st of May 1927 | EVENT | Charles Lindbergh touches down at Le Bourget Field in Paris, completing the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. |
| 21st of May 1932 | EVENT | Bad 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. |
| 21st of May 1934 | EVENT | Oskaloosa, Iowa, becomes the first municipality in the United States to fingerprint all of its citizens. |
| 21st of May 1936 | EVENT | Sada Abe is arrested after wandering the streets of Tokyo for days with her dead lover's severed genitals in her hand. Her story soon becomes one of Japan's most notorious scandals. |
| 21st of May 1937 | EVENT | A Soviet station becomes the first scientific research settlement to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean. |
| 21st of May 1939 | EVENT | The Canadian National War Memorial is unveiled by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in Ottawa. |
| 21st of May 1946 | EVENT | Physicist Louis Slotin is fatally irradiated in a criticality incident during an experiment with the Demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory. |
| 21st of May 1951 | EVENT | The opening of the Ninth Street Show, otherwise known as the 9th Street Art Exhibition : a gathering of a number of notable artists, and the stepping-out of the post war New York avant-garde, collectively known as the New York School. |
| 21st of May 1958 | EVENT | United Kingdom Postmaster General Ernest Marples announces that from December, subscriber trunk dialling will be introduced in the Bristol area. |
| 21st of May 1961 | EVENT | American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out. |
| 21st of May 1966 | EVENT | The Ulster Volunteer Force declares war on the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland. |
| 21st of May 1969 | EVENT | Civil unrest in Rosario, Argentina, known as Rosariazo, following the death of a 15-year-old student. |
| 21st of May 1972 | EVENT | Michelangelo's Pieta in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is damaged by a vandal, the mentally disturbed Hungarian geologist Laszlo Toth. |
| 21st of May 1979 | EVENT | White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk. |
| 21st of May 1981 | EVENT | Irish Republican hunger strikers Raymond McCreesh and Patsy O'Hara die on hunger strike in Maze prison. |
| 21st of May 1982 | EVENT | Falklands War: British amphibious assault during Operation Sutton lead to the Battle of San Carlos. |
| 21st of May 1990 | EVENT | Democratic Republic of Yemen and North Yemen agree to merge into the Republic of Yemen. |
| 21st of May 1991 | EVENT | Former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a female suicide bomber near Madras. |
| 21st of May 1991 | EVENT | Mengistu Haile Mariam, president of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, flees Ethiopia, effectively bringing the Ethiopian Civil War to an end. |
| 21st of May 1994 | EVENT | The Democratic Republic of Yemen unsuccessful attempts to secede from Republic of Yemen; a war breaks out. |
| 21st of May 1996 | EVENT | The MV Bukoba sinks in Tanzanian waters on Lake Victoria, killing nearly 1,000. |
| 21st of May 1996 | EVENT | The Trappist Martyrs of Atlas are executed. |
| 21st of May 1998 | EVENT | In Miami, Florida, five abortion clinics are hit by a butyric acid attacker. |
| 21st of May 2001 | EVENT | French Taubira law officially recognizes the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity. |
| 21st of May 2003 | EVENT | An earthquake hits northern Algeria killing more than 2,000 people. |
| 21st of May 2005 | EVENT | The tallest roller coaster in the world, Kingda Ka opens at Six Flags Great Adventure. |
| 21st of May 2006 | EVENT | 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%. |
| 21st of May 1471 | BIRTHDAY | Albrecht Durer, German painter (d. 1528) |
| 21st of May 1527 | BIRTHDAY | King Philip II of Spain (d. 1598) |
| 21st of May 1653 | BIRTHDAY | Eleonora Maria Josefa of Austria (d. 1697) |
| 21st of May 1664 | BIRTHDAY | Giulio Alberoni, Italian cardinal (d. 1754) |
| 21st of May 1688 | BIRTHDAY | Alexander Pope, English poet (d. 1744) |
| 21st of May 1755 | BIRTHDAY | Alfred Moore, American judge (d. 1810) |
| 21st of May 1763 | BIRTHDAY | Joseph Fouche, French statesman (d. 1820) |
| 21st of May 1775 | BIRTHDAY | Lucien Bonaparte, French politician, soldier and academic (d. 1840) |
| 21st of May 1780 | BIRTHDAY | Elizabeth Fry, British social reformer (d. 1845) |
| 21st of May 1792 | BIRTHDAY | Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis, French scientist (d. 1843) |
| 21st of May 1827 | BIRTHDAY | William P. Sprague, American politician (d. 1899) |
| 21st of May 1832 | BIRTHDAY | Elizabeth Storrs Mead, American educator (d. 1917) |
| 21st of May 1835 | BIRTHDAY | Frantisek Chvostek, Moravian physician (d. 1884) |
| 21st of May 1843 | BIRTHDAY | Charles Albert Gobat, Swiss politician (d. 1914) |
| 21st of May 1844 | BIRTHDAY | Henri Rousseau, French artist (d. 1910) |
| 21st of May 1850 | BIRTHDAY | Giuseppe Mercalli, Italian vulcanologist (d. 1914) |
| 21st of May 1851 | BIRTHDAY | Leon Bourgeois, French statesman, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (d. 1925) |
| 21st of May 1853 | BIRTHDAY | Jacques Marie Eugene Godefroy Cavaignac, French politician (d. 1905) |
| 21st of May 1856 | BIRTHDAY | Jose Batlle y Ordonez, Uruguayan politician (d. 1929) |
| 21st of May 1860 | BIRTHDAY | Willem Einthoven, Dutch physiologist; Nobel laureate (d. 1927) |
| 21st of May 1863 | BIRTHDAY | Archduke Eugen of Austria, Austrian field marshal (d. 1954) |
| 21st of May 1864 | BIRTHDAY | Princess Stephanie of Belgium (d. 1945) |
| 21st of May 1873 | BIRTHDAY | Hans Berger, German neuroscientist (d. 1941) |
| 21st of May 1878 | BIRTHDAY | Glenn Curtiss, American aviation engineer (d. 1930) |
| 21st of May 1880 | BIRTHDAY | Tudor Arghezi, Romanian writer (d. 1967) |
| 21st of May 1884 | BIRTHDAY | Manuel Perez y Curis, Uruguayan poet (d. 1920) |
| 21st of May 1885 | BIRTHDAY | Sophie of Schonburg-Waldenburg, wife of William, Prince of Albania (d. 1936) |
| 21st of May 1898 | BIRTHDAY | Armand Hammer, American businessman and physician (d. 1990) |
| 21st of May 1898 | BIRTHDAY | Charles Leon Hammes, Luxembourgian lawyer and jurist (d. 1967) |
| 21st of May 1901 | BIRTHDAY | Manfred Aschner, German-born Israeli microbiologist (d. 1989) |
| 21st of May 1901 | BIRTHDAY | Horace Heidt, American band leader (d. 1986) |
| 21st of May 1901 | BIRTHDAY | Suzanne Lilar, Belgian essayist and playwright (d. 1992) |
| 21st of May 1901 | BIRTHDAY | Sam Jaffe, American film producer (d. 2000) |
| 21st of May 1902 | BIRTHDAY | Earl Averill, American baseball player (d. 1983) |
| 21st of May 1902 | BIRTHDAY | Marcel Lajos Breuer, Hungarian-born architect (d. 1981) |
| 21st of May 1903 | BIRTHDAY | Manly Wade Wellman, American writer (d. 1986) |
| 21st of May 1904 | BIRTHDAY | Robert Montgomery, American actor (d. 1981) |
| 21st of May 1904 | BIRTHDAY | Fats Waller, American pianist (d. 1943) |
| 21st of May 1907 | BIRTHDAY | John C. Allen, American roller coaster designer (d. 1979) |
| 21st of May 1909 | BIRTHDAY | Francois-Albert Angers, Quebec economist (d. 2003) |
| 21st of May 1912 | BIRTHDAY | Monty Stratton, American baseball player (d. 1982) |
| 21st of May 1912 | BIRTHDAY | John Curtis Gowan, American psychologist (d. 1986) |
| 21st of May 1912 | BIRTHDAY | Akiva Vroman, Dutch-born Israeli geologist (d. 1989) |
| 21st of May 1913 | BIRTHDAY | Gina Bachauer, Greek pianist (d. 1976) |
| 21st of May 1916 | BIRTHDAY | Harold Robbins, American novelist (d. 1997) |
| 21st of May 1916 | BIRTHDAY | Tinus Osendarp, Dutch runner (d. 2002) |
| 21st of May 1917 | BIRTHDAY | Raymond Burr, Canadian actor (d. 1993) |
| 21st of May 1918 | BIRTHDAY | Dennis Day, American singer and comedian (d. 1988) |
| 21st of May 1920 | BIRTHDAY | Anthony Steel, British actor (d. 2001) |
| 21st of May 1920 | BIRTHDAY | Forrest White, American musical instruments industry executive (d. 1994) |
| 21st of May 1921 | BIRTHDAY | Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist (d. 1989) |
| 21st of May 1921 | BIRTHDAY | A.S. Douglas, British computer scientist (d. 2010) |
| 21st of May 1923 | BIRTHDAY | Armand Borel, Swiss mathematician (d. 2003) |
| 21st of May 1923 | BIRTHDAY | Ara Parseghian, American football coach |
| 21st of May 1923 | BIRTHDAY | Vernon Biever, American photographer (d. 2010) |
| 21st of May 1924 | BIRTHDAY | Peggy Cass, American actress (d. 1999) |
| 21st of May 1926 | BIRTHDAY | Robert Creeley, American poet (d. 2005) |
| 21st of May 1928 | BIRTHDAY | Tom Donahue, American disc jockey (d. 1975) |
| 21st of May 1929 | BIRTHDAY | Alice Drummond, American actress |
| 21st of May 1930 | BIRTHDAY | Malcolm Fraser, Australian politician |
| 21st of May 1933 | BIRTHDAY | Maurice Andre, French trumpeter |
| 21st of May 1933 | BIRTHDAY | Yevgeni Minaev, Soviet weightlifter (d. 1993) |
| 21st of May 1934 | BIRTHDAY | Bengt I. Samuelsson, Swedish biochemist, Nobel laureate |
| 21st of May 1936 | BIRTHDAY | Gunter Blobel, German biologist, Nobel laureate |
| 21st of May 1939 | BIRTHDAY | Heinz Holliger, Swiss oboist, composer and conductor |
| 21st of May 1941 | BIRTHDAY | Martin Carthy, English folk singer and guitarist |
| 21st of May 1941 | BIRTHDAY | Ronald Isley, American singer (The Isley Brothers) |
| 21st of May 1941 | BIRTHDAY | Bobby Cox, American baseball manager and former player |
| 21st of May 1942 | BIRTHDAY | Danny Ongais, American race car driver |
| 21st of May 1943 | BIRTHDAY | Hilton Valentine, British guitarist (The Animals) |
| 21st of May 1944 | BIRTHDAY | Marcie Blane, American singer |
| 21st of May 1944 | BIRTHDAY | Mary Robinson, President of Ireland |
| 21st of May 1945 | BIRTHDAY | Ernst Messerschmid, German astronaut |
| 21st of May 1947 | BIRTHDAY | Jonathan Hyde, Australian-born actor |
| 21st of May 1947 | BIRTHDAY | Bill Champlin, American singer |
| 21st of May 1948 | BIRTHDAY | Leo Sayer, English singer and songwriter |
| 21st of May 1951 | BIRTHDAY | Al Franken, American comedian and politician, junior senator of Minnesota |
| 21st of May 1952 | BIRTHDAY | Mr. T, American actor |
| 21st of May 1954 | BIRTHDAY | Marc Ribot, American guitarist and composer |
| 21st of May 1955 | BIRTHDAY | Paul Barber, British field hockey player |
| 21st of May 1955 | BIRTHDAY | Stan Lynch, American drummer (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) |
| 21st of May 1957 | BIRTHDAY | Nadine Dorries, British Conservative politician |
| 21st of May 1957 | BIRTHDAY | Bruce Buffer, American Mixed Martial Arts announcer |
| 21st of May 1957 | BIRTHDAY | Judge Reinhold, American actor |
| 21st of May 1957 | BIRTHDAY | Renee Soutendijk, Dutch actress |
| 21st of May 1958 | BIRTHDAY | Jefery Levy, American television director |
| 21st of May 1959 | BIRTHDAY | Nick Cassavetes, American actor and director |
| 21st of May 1960 | BIRTHDAY | Jeffrey Toobin, American writer and political analyst |
| 21st of May 1960 | BIRTHDAY | Kent Hrbek, American baseball player |
| 21st of May 1960 | BIRTHDAY | Jeffrey Dahmer, American serial killer |
| 21st of May 1960 | BIRTHDAY | Mohanlal, Indian actor |
| 21st of May 1960 | BIRTHDAY | Vladimir Salnikov, Russian swimmer |
| 21st of May 1962 | BIRTHDAY | Richard Caputo, American Author |
| 21st of May 1963 | BIRTHDAY | Richard Appel, American writer |
| 21st of May 1963 | BIRTHDAY | Kevin Shields, American-born Irish vocalist and guitarist (My Bloody Valentine) |
| 21st of May 1964 | BIRTHDAY | Danny Bailey, English footballer |
| 21st of May 1964 | BIRTHDAY | Danny Lee Clark, American football player |
| 21st of May 1964 | BIRTHDAY | Nancy Benoit, American professional wrestler (d. 2007) |
| 21st of May 1964 | BIRTHDAY | Carolyn Lawrence, American actress |
| 21st of May 1967 | BIRTHDAY | Chris Benoit, Canadian professional wrestler (d. 2007) |
| 21st of May 1967 | BIRTHDAY | Lisa Edelstein, American actress |
| 21st of May 1967 | BIRTHDAY | Blake Schwarzenbach, American musician (Jawbreaker, Jets to Brazil) |
| 21st of May 1968 | BIRTHDAY | Julie Vega, Filipino child actress and singer (d. 1985) |
| 21st of May 1968 | BIRTHDAY | Matthias Ungemach, German rower |
| 21st of May 1969 | BIRTHDAY | Pierluigi Brivio, Italian footballer |
| 21st of May 1969 | BIRTHDAY | Masayo Kurata, Japanese voice actress |
| 21st of May 1969 | BIRTHDAY | George LeMieux, American politician |
| 21st of May 1969 | BIRTHDAY | Georgiy R. Gongadze, Ukrainian/Georgian journalist |
| 21st of May 1970 | BIRTHDAY | Carl Veart, Australian soccer player |
| 21st of May 1970 | BIRTHDAY | Dorsey Levens, American football player |
| 21st of May 1972 | BIRTHDAY | Adriano Cintra, Brazilian musician (CSS) |
| 21st of May 1972 | BIRTHDAY | The Notorious B.I.G., American rapper (d. 1997) |
| 21st of May 1972 | BIRTHDAY | Alesha Oreskovich, American model |
| 21st of May 1973 | BIRTHDAY | Noel Fielding, British comedian |
| 21st of May 1974 | BIRTHDAY | Havoc, American rapper (Mobb Deep) |
| 21st of May 1974 | BIRTHDAY | Fairuza Balk, American actress |
| 21st of May 1975 | BIRTHDAY | Lee Gaze, Welsh guitarist (Lostprophets) |
| 21st of May 1976 | BIRTHDAY | Deron Miller, American singer, guitarist and songwriter (CKY) |
| 21st of May 1976 | BIRTHDAY | Aditi Gowitrikar, Indian model, actress and physician |
| 21st of May 1976 | BIRTHDAY | Kardinal Offishall, Canadian rapper |
| 21st of May 1977 | BIRTHDAY | Quinton Fortune, South African footballer |
| 21st of May 1977 | BIRTHDAY | Ricky Williams, American football player |
| 21st of May 1977 | BIRTHDAY | Michael Fuss, German footballer |
| 21st of May 1978 | BIRTHDAY | Adam Gontier, Canadian singer (Three Days Grace) |
| 21st of May 1978 | BIRTHDAY | Jamaal Magloire, Canadian basketball player |
| 21st of May 1979 | BIRTHDAY | James Clancy Phelan, Australian novelist |
| 21st of May 1979 | BIRTHDAY | Damian Ariel Alvarez, Argentinian footballer |
| 21st of May 1979 | BIRTHDAY | Gaspard Auge, French DJ |
| 21st of May 1979 | BIRTHDAY | Briana Banks, German-American pornographic actress and model |
| 21st of May 1979 | BIRTHDAY | Jamie Hepburn, Scottish politician |
| 21st of May 1979 | BIRTHDAY | Scott Smith, American mixed martial arts fighter |
| 21st of May 1980 | BIRTHDAY | Chris Raab, American television personality |
| 21st of May 1981 | BIRTHDAY | Edson Buddle, American footballer |
| 21st of May 1981 | BIRTHDAY | Maximilian Mutzke, German singer and drummer |
| 21st of May 1981 | BIRTHDAY | Josh Hamilton, American baseball player |
| 21st of May 1982 | BIRTHDAY | Brian Klemm, American guitarist and vocalist (Suburban Legends) |
| 21st of May 1983 | BIRTHDAY | Veloso, Brazilian footballer |
| 21st of May 1984 | BIRTHDAY | Brandon Fields, American football player |
| 21st of May 1984 | BIRTHDAY | Sara Goller, German beach volleyball player |
| 21st of May 1984 | BIRTHDAY | Lorena Ayala, Dutch/Spanish model |
| 21st of May 1985 | BIRTHDAY | Marco Carta, Italian singer |
| 21st of May 1985 | BIRTHDAY | Mark Cavendish, Manx cyclist |
| 21st of May 1985 | BIRTHDAY | Mutya Buena, English singer (Sugababes) |
| 21st of May 1985 | BIRTHDAY | Kano, British rapper |
| 21st of May 1985 | BIRTHDAY | Isa Guha, English cricketer |
| 21st of May 1985 | BIRTHDAY | Marie McCray, American adult actress |
| 21st of May 1985 | BIRTHDAY | Alexander Dale Oen, Norwegian swimmer |
| 21st of May 1985 | BIRTHDAY | Andrew Miller, American baseball player |
| 21st of May 1986 | BIRTHDAY | Mario Mandzukic, Croatian footballer |
| 21st of May 1986 | BIRTHDAY | Alexander Noyes, American drummer (Honor Society) |
| 21st of May 1986 | BIRTHDAY | Myra, American singer |
| 21st of May 1988 | BIRTHDAY | Jonathan Howson, English footballer |
| 21st of May 1988 | BIRTHDAY | Park Gyuri, Korean singer/actress/disc jockey |
| 21st of May 1991 | BIRTHDAY | Sarah Ramos, American actress |
| 21st of May 1992 | BIRTHDAY | Hutch Dano, American actor |
| 21st of May 1992 | BIRTHDAY | Olivia Olson, American singer and actress |
| 21st of May 1994 | BIRTHDAY | Tom Daley, English diver and Olympian |
| 21st of May 0987 | DEATH | King Louis V of France (Born 967) |
| 21st of May 1254 | DEATH | King Conrad IV of Germany (Born 1228) |
| 21st of May 1481 | DEATH | King Christian I of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden (Born 1426) |
| 21st of May 1512 | DEATH | Pandolfo Petrucci, ruler of Siena (Born 1452) |
| 21st of May 1524 | DEATH | Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, English soldier (Born 1443) |
| 21st of May 1542 | DEATH | Hernando de Soto, Spanish explorer (Born 1496 or 1497) |
| 21st of May 1607 | DEATH | John Rainolds, English scholar (Born 1549) |
| 21st of May 1639 | DEATH | Tommaso Campanella, Italian theologian (Born 1568) |
| 21st of May 1647 | DEATH | Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, Dutch poet (Born 1581) |
| 21st of May 1650 | DEATH | James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, Scottish royalist (Born 1612) |
| 21st of May 1664 | DEATH | Elizabeth Poole, English-born Puritan settler and founder of Taunton, Massachusetts (Born 1588) |
| 21st of May 1670 | DEATH | Niccolo Zucchi, Italian astronomer (Born 1586) |
| 21st of May 1686 | DEATH | Otto von Guericke, German scientist (Born 1602) |
| 21st of May 1690 | DEATH | John Eliot, English Puritan missionary (Born 1604) |
| 21st of May 1719 | DEATH | Pierre Poiret, French mystic (Born 1646) |
| 21st of May 1724 | DEATH | Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, English statesman (Born 1661) |
| 21st of May 1742 | DEATH | Lars Roberg, Swedish physician (Born 1664) |
| 21st of May 1771 | DEATH | Christopher Smart, English poet (Born 1722) |
| 21st of May 1786 | DEATH | Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Swedish chemist (Born 1742) |
| 21st of May 1790 | DEATH | Thomas Warton, English poet (Born 1728) |
| 21st of May 1844 | DEATH | Giuseppe Baini, Italian composer (Born 1775) |
| 21st of May 1862 | DEATH | John Drew, Irish-born American actor (Born 1827) |
| 21st of May 1879 | DEATH | Arturo Prat, Chilean naval officer (Born 1848) |
| 21st of May 1894 | DEATH | August Kundt, German physicist (Born 1839) |
| 21st of May 1894 | DEATH | Emile Henry, French anarchist (Born 1872) |
| 21st of May 1895 | DEATH | Franz von Suppe, Austrian composer (Born 1819) |
| 21st of May 1911 | DEATH | Williamina Fleming, Scottish-born astronomer (Born 1857) |
| 21st of May 1915 | DEATH | Leonid Gobyato, Russian general (Born 1875) |
| 21st of May 1919 | DEATH | Yevgraf Fyodorov, Russian mathematician (Born 1853) |
| 21st of May 1920 | DEATH | Venustiano Carranza, 54th President of Mexico (Born 1859) |
| 21st of May 1929 | DEATH | Archibald Primrose, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (Born 1847) |
| 21st of May 1935 | DEATH | Jane Addams, American social worker, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (Born 1860) |
| 21st of May 1949 | DEATH | Klaus Mann, German writer (Born 1906) |
| 21st of May 1952 | DEATH | John Garfield, American actor (Born 1913) |
| 21st of May 1956 | DEATH | Harry Bensley, English rake and adventurer (Born 1877) |
| 21st of May 1957 | DEATH | Alexander Vertinsky, Russian poet, singer, composer, cabaret artist and actor (Born 1889) |
| 21st of May 1964 | DEATH | James Franck, German-born physicist, Nobel laureate (Born 1882) |
| 21st of May 1965 | DEATH | Geoffrey de Havilland, British aircraft designer (Born 1882) |
| 21st of May 1970 | DEATH | E. L. Grant Watson, English biologist and writer (Born 1885) |
| 21st of May 1973 | DEATH | Vaughn Monroe, American baritone singer, trumpeter and big band leader (Born 1911) |
| 21st of May 1981 | DEATH | Patsy O'Hara, Irish hunger striker (Born 1957) |
| 21st of May 1981 | DEATH | Raymond McCreesh, Irish hunger striker (Born 1957) |
| 21st of May 1983 | DEATH | Kenneth Clark, English art historian (Born 1903) |
| 21st of May 1984 | DEATH | Ann Little, American actress (Born 1891) |
| 21st of May 1988 | DEATH | Sammy Davis, Sr., American dancer (Born 1900) |
| 21st of May 1991 | DEATH | Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India (Born 1944) |
| 21st of May 1991 | DEATH | Lino Brocka, Filipino movie Director (Born 1939) |
| 21st of May 1995 | DEATH | Les Aspin, American politician (Born 1938) |
| 21st of May 1996 | DEATH | Paul Delph, American singer, songwriter and producer (Born 1957) |
| 21st of May 1996 | DEATH | Lash LaRue, American actor (Born 1917) |
| 21st of May 1999 | DEATH | Karnail "Bugz" Pitts, American rapper (D12) (Born 1979) |
| 21st of May 2000 | DEATH | Sir John Gielgud, British actor (Born 1904) |
| 21st of May 2000 | DEATH | Mark R. Hughes, American entrepreneur (Born 1956) |
| 21st of May 2000 | DEATH | Barbara Cartland, English author (Born 1901) |
| 21st of May 2002 | DEATH | Niki de Saint Phalle, French sculptor, painter and filmmaker (Born 1930) |
| 21st of May 2003 | DEATH | Alejandro de Tomaso, Argentine-Italian racing driver and car manufacturer (Born 1928) |
| 21st of May 2003 | DEATH | Frank D. White, American politician (Born 1933) |
| 21st of May 2005 | DEATH | Howard Morris, American comic actor and director (Born 1919) |
| 21st of May 2006 | DEATH | Cherd Songsri, Thai film director (Born 1931) |
| 21st of May 2006 | DEATH | Spencer Clark, American racecar driver (Born 1987) |
| 21st of May 2006 | DEATH | Billy Walker, American singer (Born 1929) |
| 21st of May 2006 | DEATH | Katherine Dunham, American dancer (Born 1909) |