On this day in History - May 21

• 427 adC - Plato was born (d. 0347 BC). Greek philosopher/ Nascimento de Platão. Filósofo grego.
• 0878 - Syracuse is captured by the Muslim sultan of Sicily.
• 0879 - Pope John VIII gives blessings to duke Branimir and to Croatian people, considered to be international recognition of Croatian state
• 0987 - King Louis V of France dies.
• 0996 - Sixteen-year-old Otto III is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
• 1254 - Conrad IV of Germany dies (b. 1228).
• 1260 - Kublai Khan of the Mongol Empire sends his envoy Hao Jing and two other advisors to the Chinese Song Dynasty court of Emperor Lizong of Song; while attempting to negotiate with the Song in order to resolve their conflict, Hao Jing and his fellow emissaries were imprisoned by order of the high Chinese chancellor, Jia Sidao.
• 1471 - Albrecht Dürer was born (†1528). German painter and graphic artist
• 1471 - King Henry VI of England dies (also date of death possibly 22 May) (b. 1421)
• 1481 - King Christian I of Denmark dies (b. 1426). Norway and Sweden.
• 1502 - The island of Saint Helena is discovered by the Portuguese navigator João da Nova.
• 1512 - Pandolfo Petrucci dies. Ruler of Siena
• 1524 - Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk dies. English soldier
• 1527 - King Philip II of Spain, I of Portugal, was born in Valladolid (d. 1598).
• 1542 - Hernando de Soto dies (b. c. 1496). Spanish explorer.
• 1554 - Royal Charter of Derby School at Derby, England
• 1607 - John Rainolds dies (b. 1549). English scholar.
• 1619 - Hieronymus Fabricius ab Aquapendente dies (b. 20 May 1537). Italian surgeon, an outstanding Renaissance anatomist who helped found modern embryology.
• 1639 - Tommaso Campanella dies (b. 1568). Italian theologian, philosopher and poet.
• 1647 - Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft dies (b. 1581). Dutch poet and historian.
• 1650 - James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose dies (b. 1612). Scottish royalist.
• 1653 - Eleonora Maria Josefa of Austria was born (d. 1697). Queen consort of Poland and Lthuania.
• 1664 - Giulio Alberoni was born (d. 1754). Italian cardinal and statesman.
• 1664 - Elizabeth Poole dies. Puritan businesswoman.
• 1670 - Niccolo Zucchi dies (b. 1586). Italian astronomer and physicist.
• 1674 - John Sobieski is elected by the nobility to be the King of Poland.
• 1686 - (N. S.) Otto von Guericke dies (b. 1602). German scientist.
• 1688 - Alexander Pope was born (†1744). English poet.
• 1690 - John Eliot dies (b. 1604). English Puritan missionary.
• 1707 - Francisco Salzillo was born. Spanish sculptor.
• 1719 - Pierre Poiret dies (b. 1646). French mystic.
• 1724 - Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer dies (b. 1661). English statesman.
• 1725 - The Order of Alexander Nevsky was instituted in Russia by an empress Catherine I
• 1736 - Francis Egerton Bridgewater was born (d. 8 Mar 1803). (Earl) Founder of British inland navigation, whose canal, built from his estates at Worsley to the city of Manchester, is called the Bridgewater canal.
• 1740 - Gasparo Pacchiarotti was born (d. 1821). Italian soprano.
• 1742 - Lars Roberg dies (b. 1664). Swedish physician.
• 1755 - Alfred Moore was born (d. 1810). American judge.
• 1758 - Mary Campbell is abducted from her home in Pennsylvania by Lenape during the French and Indian War.
• 1763 - Joseph Fouché was born (d. 1820). French stateaman.
• 1771 - Christopher Smart dies (b. 1722). English poet.
• 1775 - Lucien Bonaparte was born (d. 1840). French politician, soldier and academic.
• 1780 - Elizabeth Fry was born (d. 1845). British social reformer and philanthropist.
• 1786 - Carl Wilhelm Scheele dies (b. 1742). Swedish chemist.
• 1790 - Thomas Warton dies (b. 1728). English poet.
• 1792 - Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis was born (d. 1843). French engineer and mathematician who first described the Coriolis force, an effect of motion on a rotating body, of paramount importance to meteorology, ballistics, and oceanography
• 1799 - Mary Anning was born (d. 9 Mar 1847). English fossil collector who made her first significant discovery at the age of 11 or 12 (sources differ on the details), when she found a complete skeleton of an Ichthyosaurus, from the Jurassic period.
• 1815 - William Nicholson dies (b. 1753). English chemist who discovered the electrolysis of water (2 May 1800), the first observation of a chemical reaction caused by electricity. I
• 1826 - Georg von Reichenbach dies (b. 24 Aug 1772). German maker of astronomical instruments who introduced the meridian, or transit, circle, a specially designed telescope for measuring both the time when a celestial body is directly over the meridian (the longitude of the instrument) and the angle of the body at meridian passage
• 1827 - William P. Sprague was born (d. 1899). American politician from Ohio.
• 1832 - Elizabeth Storrs Mead was born (d. 1917). American educator.
• 1834 - Charles Albert Gobat was born. Swiss politician. Nobel Prize for Peace - 1902.
• 1835 - František Chvostek was born (d. 1884). Moravian physician.
• 1839 - Nils Christofer Dunér was born (d. 10 Nov 1914). Swedish astronomer who studied the rotational period of the Sun
• 1839 - Albert Glatigny was born († 16 Abr 1873). French poet and dramatist.
• 1843 - Charles Albert Gobat was born (d. 1914). Swiss politician.
• 1843 - Louis Renault was born. French jurist. Nobel Prize for Peace -1907.
• 1844 - Henri Rousseau was born († 1910). French artist.
• 1844 - Giuseppe Baini dies (b. 1775). Italian composer.
• 1845 - Charles Edwin Bessey was born (d. 25 Feb 1915). American botanist who created the first U.S. undergraduate botanical experimental laboratory at Iowa State University, where he held several positions (1870-84) and inaugurated the systematic study of plant morphology in the U.S
• 1847 - Francisco Aguilar Barquero was born. President of Costa Rica (1919-1920).
• 1850 - Gustav Lindenthal was born (d. 31 Jul 1935). Austrian-born American civil engineer known for designing Hell Gate Bridge across New York City's East River.
• 1850 - Giuseppe Mercalli was born (d. 1914). Italian volcanologist.
• 1851 - Léon Bourgeois was born. French politician. Nobel Prize for Peace -1920.
• 1851 - Abolition of slavery in Colombia, South America.
• 1853 - First public aquarium: the Aquatic Vivarium, the world's first public aquarium, was opened in Regent's Park, London, the inspiration of an English self-taught naturalist, Philip Henry Gosse, who wrote popular illustrated books on nature, and especially marine biolog
• 1853 - Jacques Marie Eugène Godefroy Cavaignac was born (d. 1905). French politician.
• 1856 - Lawrence, Kansas is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces.
• 1858 - Édouard (-Jean-Baptiste) Goursat was born (d. 25 Nov 1936). French mathematician and theorist whose contribution to the theory of functions, pseudo- and hyperelliptic integrals, and differential equations influenced the French school of mathematics.
• 1860 - Willem Einthoven was born (d. 1927). Dutch inventor, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• 1862 - John Drew dies (b. 1827). Irish-born American actor.
• 1863 - American Civil War: Siege of Port Hudson - Union forces begin to lay siege to the Confederate-controlled Port Hudson, Louisiana.
• 1863 - Archduke Eugen of Austria was born (d. 1954). Austrian field marshal.
• 1864 - is the day of completion of Russian-Caucasus war (the day of mourning of Circassian people).
• 1864 - Princess Stephanie of Belgium was born (d. 1945).
• 1865 - Christian Jürgensen Thomsen dies (b. 29 Dec 1788). Danish archaeologist whose designation of the Stone, Iron and Bronze Ages became widely accepted.
• 1866 - Edward Charles Jeffrey was born (d. 19 Apr 1952). Canadian-American botanist who worked on the morphology and phylogeny of vascular plants.
• 1870 - William C. Coleman was born (d. 2 Nov 1957). American inventor and industrialist.
• 1871 - French Government 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.
• 1873 - Hans Berger was born (d. 1941). German neuroscientist who recorded the first human electroencephalogram (EEG)
• 1874 - Juan Manuel Ferrari was born. Uruguyan sculptor.
• 1878 - Glenn Curtiss was born (d. 1930). American aviation pioneer.
• 1879 - War of the Pacific: Two Chilean ships blocking the harbor of Iquique, Chile battle 2 Peruvian vessels, the Huáscar and the Independencia in the Naval battle of Iquique. The Huascar sinks one Chilean ship, while the other Chilean ship, the Covadonga, forces the Independencia to run aground.
• 1879 - Arturo Prat Chacón dies (b.1848). Chilean naval officer
• 1880 - Tudor Arghezi was born (d. 1967). Romanian writer.
• 1881 - The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton.
• 1885 - Sophie of Schönburg-Waldenburg was born (d. 1936). Wife of Prince William of Wied.
• 1889 - Gaston Planté dies (b. 22 Apr 1834). French physicist who produced the first electric storage battery, or accumulator, in 1859. In an improved form, his invention is widely used in automobiles.
• 1894 - The Manchester Ship Canal, England is officially opened by Queen Victoria, who knights its designer Sir Edward Leader Williams.
• 1894 - 22 year old French Anarchist Emile Henry is executed by guillotine.
• 1894 - Emile Henry dies (b. 1872). French anarchist.
• 1894 - August Kundt dies (b. 1839). German physicist.
• 1895 - Lázaro Cardenas was born. President of Mexico
• 1895 - Franz von Suppé dies (b. 1819). Austrian composer.
• 1897 - Arturo Prat dies. Chilean naval officer
• 1898 - Armand Hammer was born (d. 1990). Physician, entrepreneur, oil magnate, and art collector.
• 1898 - Charles Léon Hammes was born (d. 1967). Luxembourgian lawyer and President of the European Court of Justice.
• 1901 - Horace Heidt was born (d. 1986). American band leader.
• 1901 - Sam Jaffe was born (d. 2000). American film producer
• 1901 - Suzanne Lilar was born (d. 1992). Belgian essayist, novelist and playwright.
• 1902 - Earl Averill was born (d. 1983). Baseball Hall of Famer.
• 1902 - Marcel Lajos Breuer was born (d. 1981). Hungarian-born architect.
• 1903 - Manly Wade Wellman was born (d. 1986). American author.
• 1904 - Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) founded in Paris.
• 1904 - Robert Montgomery was born (d. 1981). American actor.
• 1904 - Fats Waller was born (d. 1943). American pianist.
• 1909 - François-Albert Angers was born (d. 2003). Quebec economist.
• 1911 - Williamina Fleming dies (b. 1857). Astronomer.
• 1911 - Bernardo Pinheiro Correia de Melo dies (b. 27 May 1855). Portuguese noble (Conde de Arnoso).
• 1911 - Williamina Fleming dies (b. 1857). Scottish-born American astronomer who pioneered in the classification of stellar spectra.
• 1912 - John Curtis Gowan was born (d. 1986). American psychologist.
• 1912 - Monty Stratton was born (d. 1982). Major League Baseball pitcher.
• 1913 - Gina Bachauer was born (d. 1976). Greek pianist.
• 1915 - Leonid Gobyato dies (b. 1875). Russian general.
• 1916 - Harold Robbins was born (d. 1997). American novelist.
• 1916 - Tinus Osendarp was born (d. 2002). Dutch sprinter.
• 1917 - Raymond Burr was born (d. 1993). American actor.
• 1917 - Great Atlanta fire of 1917.
• 1918 - Dennis Day was born (d. 1988). American singer and comedian.
• 1919 - Yevgraf Fyodorov dies (b. 1853). Russian mathematician.
• 1920 - Anthony Steel was born (d. 2001). British actor.
• 1921 - Andrei Sakharov was born (†1989). Physicist and human rights activist, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Peace - 1989
• 1921 - Venestiano Carranza is assassinated (b. 1859). President of Mexico.
• 1922 - Robert A. Good was born (d. 13 Jun 2003). American surgeon, a pioneer of modern immunology who performed the world's first successful human bone marrow transplant (1968) from his sister to a 4-month-old baby boy with an inherited immune disorder.
• 1923 - Ara Parseghian was born. American football coach.
• 1923 - Armand Borel was born (d. 2003). Swiss mathematician
• 1924 - University of Chicago students Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr. murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a "thrill killing."
• 1924 - Peggy Cass was born (d. 1999). American actress.
• 1926 - Robert Creeley was born (d. 2005). American poet.
• 1927 - Charles Lindbergh touchs down at Le Bourget Field in Paris, completing the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
• 1928 - Hideyo Noguchi dies. Japanese bacteriologist.
• 1928 - D. António Ribeiro was born. Cardinal-Patriarch of Lisbon
• 1928 - Tom Donahue was born (d. 1975). American FM disc jockey (pioneer, freeform radio).
• 1928 - Lucinda Simões dies. Portuguese actress.
• 1928 - Hideyo Noguchi dies (b. 24 Nov 1876). Japanese bacteriologist who first discovered Treponema pallidum, the causative agent of syphilis, in the brains of persons suffering from paresis
• 1929 - Heinz Holliger was born. Swiss oboe player
• 1929 - Archibald Primrose dies (b. 1847). Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• 1929 - Rodolfo Amadeo Lanciani dies (b. 1 Jan 1847). Italian archaeologist, who was an authority on the ancient topography of Ostia and Rome.
• 1930 - Malcolm Fraser was born. 22nd Prime Minister of Australia
• 1932 - Gabriele Wohmann was born. Author
• 1932 - Amelia Earhart, because of bad weather, lands in a pasture in Derry, Northern Ireland, becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
• 1933 - Maurice André was born. French trumpeter.
• 1934 - Oskaloosa, Iowa becomes the first municipality in the United States to fingerprint each of its citizens.
• 1934 - Bengt I. Samuelsson was born. Swedish biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• 1935 - Hisako Matsubara was born. Japanese novelist.
• 1935 - As «sociedades secretas» existentes em Portugal são ilegalizadas, sendo a principal a Maçonaria.
• 1935 - Jane Addams dies (b. 1860). American social worker, Nobel laureate
• 1935 - Hugo (Marie) de Vries dies (b. 16 Feb 1848). Dutch botanist and geneticist who introduced the experimental study of organic evolution
• 1936 - 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 became one of Japan's most notorious scandals.
• 1936 - Günter Blobel was born. German biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• 1937 - a Soviet station becomes the first scientific research settlement to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean.
• 1939 - Realiza-se em Lisboa o 1.º Congresso da Mocidade Portuguesa. O congresso terminará em 28 de Maio.
• 1939 - Heinz Holliger was born. Swiss oboist and composer
• 1940 - António Vitorino D'Almeida was born in Lisbon. Portuguese composer, conductor, actor, film director (A Culpa - 1980). One of the most important figures of Portuguese culture, awarded the prestigious Ordem do Infante D.Henrique (Grã Cruz) by President Jorge Sampaio (June 10th 2005).
• 1941 - World War II: 950 miles off the coast of Brazil, the freighter SS Robin Moor becomes the first United States ship sunk by a German U-boat.
• 1941 - Martin Carthy was born. Singer and guitarist
• 1941 - Ronald Isley was born. American singer (The Isley Brothers)
• 1942 - Danny Ongais was born. American race car driver
• 1943 - Hilton Valentine was born. British guitarist (The Animals)
• 1944 - Mary Robinson was born. President of Ireland
• 1944 - Marcie Blane was born. American singer
• 1945 - American screen legend Humphrey Bogart marries actress Lauren Bacall.
• 1945 - Eduardo Geada was born. Portuguese film director.
• 1945 - Ernst Messerschmid was born. German astronaut.
• 1947 - Tetsu Katayama becomes Prime- Minister of Japan.
• 1947 - Bill Champlin was born. American singer
• 1947 - Jonathan Hyde was born. Australian-born actor.
• 1948 - Sri Lanka becomes member of Food and Agriculture Organization - FAO
• 1948 - Leo Sayer was born. English musician
• 1949 - Klaus Mann dies (b. 1906). German writer.
• 1951 - Opening of the Ninth Street Show otherwise known as the 9th Street Art Exhibition was a gathering of a number of notable artists, and it was the stepping-out of the post war New York avant-garde, collectively know as the New York School.
• 1951 - Al Franken was born. American comedian and author.
• 1952 - Mr. T (Laurence Tureaud) was born. American actor.
• 1952 - John Garfield dies (b. 1913). American actor.
• 1954 - Marc Ribot was born. American musician.
• 1955 - Paul Barber was born. British field hockey player
• 1955 - Stan Lynch was born. American drummer.
• 1956 - Nuclear testing: In the Pacific Ocean, Bikini Atoll is nearly obliterated by the first airborne explosion of a hydrogen bomb.
• 1956 - Judge Reinhold was born. American actor
• 1957 - Renée Soutendijk was born. Dutch actress.
• 1957 - Bruce Buffer was born. American Mixed Martial Arts Announcer.
• 1957 - Nadine Dorries was born. British politician.
• 1957 - Aleksandr Vertinsky dies (b. 1889). Russian singer.
• 1958 - United Kingdom Postmaster General Ernest Marples announces that from December, Subscriber Trunk Dialling will be introduced in the Bristol area.
• 1958 - José Antonio Oría is elected President of Academia Argentina de Letras.
• 1959 - Nick Cassavetes was born. American actor and director
• 1960 - Jeffrey Dahmer was born (d. 1994). American serial killer.
• 1960 - Kent Hrbek was born. American professional baseball player
• 1961 - American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out.
• 1963 - Kevin Shields was born. Musician (My Bloody Valentine).
• 1963 - Richard Appel was born. American writer and producer ("The Simpsons").
• 1964 - Danny Bailey was born. English footballer.
• 1964 - Danny Lee Clark was born. American football player.
• 1964 - Nancy Daus was born (d. 2007). American professional wrestler.
• 1964 - Carolyn Lawrence was born. American actress.
• 1964 - James Franck dies (b. 1882). German-born physicist, Nobel Prize for Physics laureate in 1925 with Gustav Hertz for research on the excitation and ionization of atoms by electron bombardment that verified the quantized nature of energy transfer.
• 1965 - Geoffrey de Havilland dies (b. 1882). British aircraft designer.
• 1965 - Celebra-se pela primeira vez em Portugal o 'Dia do Bibliotecário'.
• 1965 - Em Portugal, foi extinta a Sociedade Portuguesa de Autores, por decreto do Ministério da Educação.
• 1965 - Geoffrey de Havilland dies (b. 1882). British aircraft designer.
• 1966 - Lisa Edelstein was born. American actress.
• 1967 - Chris Benoit was born. Canadian professional wrestler.
• 1968 - Pete Townshend of The Who married dress designer Karen Astley.
• 1968 - Julie Vega was born (d. 1985). Filipino child actress and singer.
• 1968 - Matthias Ungemach was born. German rower.
• 1969 - Masayo Kurata was born. Japanese voice actress.
• 1969 - Pierluigi Brivio was born. Italian footballer.
• 1970 - Dorsey Levens was born. Former American football player.
• 1970 - Carl Veart was born. Australian soccer player.
• 1970 - E. L. Grant Watson dies (b. 1885). Austrian biologist.
• 1972 - Michelangelo's Pietà, in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, is damaged by a vandal.
• 1972 - Adriano Cintra was born. Brazilian musician (CSS)
• 1972 - The Notorious B.I.G. was born (d. 1997). American musician.
• 1972 - Alesha Oreskovich was born. American model. See here Alesha Oreskovich picture
• 1973 - Noel Fielding was born. British comedian.
• 1973 - Vaughn Monroe dies (b. 1911). American musician.
• 1974 - Fairuza Balk was born. American actress.
• 1974 - Havoc was born. American rapper (Mobb Deep).
• 1974 - Fernando Almeida (Fernando Almeida Soares) was born in Rio de Janeiro. Brazilian actor.
• 1974 - Maria Fernanda Cândido was born. Brazilian actress.
• 1975 - Lee Gaze was born. Welsh guitarist
• 1976 - Deron Miller was born. American rock musician.
• 1976 - Kardinal Offishall was born. Canadian rapper.
• 1977 - Paloma Duarte was born. Brazilian actress.
• 1977 - Quinton Fortune was born. South African footballer.
• 1977 - Ricky Williams was born. American football player.
• 1977 - Carlos Lacerda dies. Brazilian politician and journalist.
• 1978 - Briana Banks was born. German-American adult film actress.
• 1978 - Jamaal Magloire was born. Canadian professional basketballer
• 1978 - Adam Gontier was born. Lead singer of Canadian band Three Days Grace
• 1979 - White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.
• 1979 - Damian Ariel Álvarez was born. Argentinian footballer.
• 1979 - Jamie Hepburn was born. Member of the Scottish Parliament.
• 1979 - Jesse Capelli was born. Canadian pornographic actress.
• 1979 - Scott Smith was born. Mixed martial arts fighter.
• 1980 - Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back opens in theaters.
• 1980 - Love Canal: President Carter declared a state of emergency at Love Canal in Niagra Falls, New York.
• 1980 - Chris Raab was born. American actor
• 1981 - Pierre Mauroy becomes Prime Minister of France.
• 1981 - Max was born. German singer.
• 1981 - Belladonna was born. American pornographic actress.
• 1981 - Patsy O'Hara dies (b. 1957). Irish hunger striker.
• 1981 - Raymond Mccreesh dies (b. 1957). Irish hunger striker.
• 1983 - David Bowie went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Let's Dance', his second US No.1, also a No.1 in the UK.
• 1983 - Michael Jackson's album 'Thriller' went back to No.1 for the third time on the UK charts and stayed at the top for another five weeks.
• 1984 - Phillip Gargiulo was born. American artist.
• 1984 - Brandon Fields was born. National Football League punter.
• 1984 - Lorena Ayala was born. Spanish-Dutch model and beauty queen.
• 1984 - Bria Myles was born. American model.
• 1984 - Ann Little dies (b. 1891). American actress.
• 1985 - Andrew Miller was born. Major League Baseball player.
• 1985 - Kano was born. British rapper.
• 1985 - Mutya Buena was born. English singer (ex-Sugababes).
• 1985 - Marco Carta was born. Italian singer.
• 1985 - Julie Vega dies (b. 1968). Philippine actress.
• 1986 - Myra was born. Mexican-American singer.
• 1987 - Ashlie Brillault was born. American actress.
• 1987 - Archie Fairley Carr dies (b. 16 June 1909). American biologist who was recognized as the foremost authority on turtles.
• 1988 - Jonathan Howson was born. English footballer.
• 1988 - Sammy Davis, Sr. dies (b. 1900). American dancer and actor.
• 1991 - Former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a female suicide bomber near Madras.
• 1991 - Mengistu Haile Mariam, president of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, flees Ethiopia, effectively bringing the Ethiopian Civil War to an end.
• 1991 - Rajiv Gandhi dies (b. 1944). Former prime minister of India.
• 1992 - Olivia Olson was born. American singer and actress
• 1994 - Manchester United Football Club scored an UK No.1 single with 'Come On You Reds'.
• 1994 - Robert Reynolds of The Mavericks married country singer Trish Yearwood.
• 1994 - The Democratic Republic of Yemen secedes from the Republic of Yemen.
• 1996 - The MV Bukoba sinks in Tanzanian waters on Lake Victoria, killing nearly 1000.
• 1996 - The Trappist Martyrs of Atlas are executed.
• 1996 - Paul Delph dies (b. 1957). American musician and producer.
• 1996 - Lash LaRue dies (b. 1917). American actor.
• 1998 - At Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, Kipland Kinkel, suspended for bringing a gun to school, shoots a semi-automatic rifle into a room filled with students, killing 2 wounding 25 others after killing his parents at home.
• 1998 - In Miami, Florida, five abortion clinics are hit by a butyric acid attacker.
• 1998 - Ipatinga Futebol Clube is founded in Ipatinga, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
• 1998 - Soeharto, Indonesian dictator who had been ruling for 32 years, resigned.
• 1998 - EXPO 98 is inaugurated in Lisbon, Portugal / Inaugurada oficialmente a Exposição Mundial de Lisboa (EXPO - 98).
• 1998 - Reproductive rights: In Miami, Florida, five abortion clinics are hit by a butyric acid attacker.
• 1999 - Karnail "Bugz" Pitts dies (b. 1979). American rapper (D12) .
• 2000 - A chartered British Aerospace Jetstream 31 crashes near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, killing 19.
• 2000 - Billie Piper went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Day & Night.'
• 2000 - Sir John Gielgud dies (b. 1904). British actor.
• 2000 - Barbara Cartland dies (b. 1901). English author.
• 2000 - Mark R. Hughes dies (b. 1956). American entrepreneur.
• 2001 - French Taubira law which officially recognize the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity.
• 2002 - Umberto Bindi dies. Italian composer.
• 2002 - Niki de Saint Phalle dies (b. 1930). French artist.
• 2003 - An earthquake hits northern Algeria, killing more than 2,000 people.
• 2003 - Alejandro de Tomaso dies (b. 1928). Argentine-Italian racing driver and car manufacturer.
• 2003 - Frank D. White dies (b. 1933). American politician, governor of Arkansas.
• 2004 - Sherpa Pemba Dorje climbs Mount Everest in 8 hours 10 minutes, breaking his rival Sherpa Lakpa Gelu's record from the previous year.
• 2004 - Stanislav Petrov is awarded the World Citizen Award for averting a potential orld War III in 1983.
• 2004 - A Espanha completa a retirada de seus soldados do Iraque.
• 2005 - In Kiev, Ukraine, Greece wins the fiftieth Eurovision Song Contest with "My Number One" performed by Elena Paparizou.
• 2005 - Howard Morris dies (b. 1919). American comic actor and director.
• 2006 - The Republic of Montenegro holds a referendum proposing independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro.Montenegrin people voted it's independence from Serbian and Montenegro on referendum, by the majority of 55%
• 2006 - The Swedish ice hockey team Tre Kronor takes gold in the World Championship and becomes the first nation to take gold in both the World Championship and Olympic games in ice hockey.
• 2006 - Katherine Dunham dies (b. 1909). American dancer.
• 2006 - Billy Walker dies (b. 1929). American singer.
• 2006 - Cherd Songsri dies (b. 1931). Thai film director.
• 2006 - Spencer Clark dies (b. 1987). American racecar driver.
• Saint Helena Day is celebrated on the Island of Saint Helena, to celebrate its discovery in 1502 (by Portuguese João Nova)
• Navy Day (Día de las Glorias Navales) in Chile.
• Circassian Memorial Day to mourn the losses in the Russian-Caucasus war.
• Dia de la Afrocolombianidad marks the abolition of slavery in Colombia.
• Independence Day is celebrated in Montenegro.
• Dia da Cachaça (Brasil). Criado em Minas Gerais pela Lei N° 1.949/2001, corresponde ao início da safra de cana-de-açúcar nesse estado brasileiro.