41st year - Nr 141 Thursday, 21 May 2026

BIRTH(+)FACT(᙮)DEATH(-)
41st year - Nr 141 Thursday, 21 May 2026

21 May / Today's 38 Events:

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(+) 555 years ago Sunday 21st of May 1471 Painter and printmaker Albrecht Dürer is born in Nürnberg, Bayern, Germany.

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(-) 555 years ago 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.

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(+) 393 years ago Saturday 21st of May 1633 Composer Joseph Chabanceau de La Barre is born in VIe, Paris, Île-de-France, France.

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(+) 182 years ago Tuesday 21st of May 1844 Post-impressionist painter Henri Julien Félix Rousseau aka Le Douanier is born in Laval, Mayenne, France.

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(+) 123 years ago Thursday 21st of May 1903 President of Argentina Perdo Eugenio Aramburu is born in Río Cuarto, Córdoba, Argentina.

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(+) 119 years ago 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.

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(+) 112 years ago Thursday 21st of May 1914 Victim of Neville Heath aka The Sadistic Romeo Margery Aimee Brownell Gardner, originally Margery Wheat is born in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

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(+) 110 years ago He Was not an Orphan Sunday 21st of May 1916 Writer Harold Robbins, originally Harold Rubin is born 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.

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(x) 108 years ago 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.

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(x) 105 years ago 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.

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(+) 105 years ago Saturday 21st of May 1921 Nuclear physicist, Soviet dissident and human rights activist Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov is born in Moscow, Central Federal District, Russia.

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(-) 102 years ago 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.

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(x) 99 years ago 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.

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(x) 94 years ago 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.

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(x) 83 years ago 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, IXe, Paris, Île-de-France, France.

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(+) 75 years ago Monday 21st of May 1951 Serial killer Douglas Edward Gretzler is born in Bronx, New York, New York, United States.

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(-) 72 years ago 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.

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(+) 66 years ago 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.

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(x) 63 years ago Tuesday 21st of May 1963 28-year-old Serial killer Joseph Kallinger, originally Joseph Lee Brenner III 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.

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(x) 58 years ago 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".

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(-) 56 years ago Thursday 21st of May 1970 Jutta Rahn is sexually assaulted and strangled by serial killer Joachim Kroll aka Jockel aka Der Ruhrkannibale in Hösel, Breitscheid, 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.

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(x) 54 years ago He Rose from the Dead with a Hammer 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.

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(-) 54 years ago Sunday 21st of May 1972 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.

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(x) 52 years ago He Was a Pioneer of Likes 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, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States.

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(x) 51 years ago 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.

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(x) 50 years ago She Kept Breathing 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.

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(x) 46 years ago 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.

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(-) 45 years ago Thursday 21st of May 1981 Irish republican hunger striker Patsy O'Hara, originally Pádraig Ó hEadhra 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.

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(-) 45 years ago Thursday 21st of May 1981 Irish republican hunger striker Raymond McCreesh, originally Réamonn Mac Raois 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.

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(x) 38 years ago Saturday 21st of May 1988 32-year-old Rampage killer Marciano Contaoe shoots 11 people in a drunken rage in Manila, Metro Manila, Philippines.

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(x) 30 years ago 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.

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(-) 29 years ago 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.

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(x) 28 years ago He Had no Other Choice 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.

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27 years ago The Eyes had it Friday 21st of May 1999 A passing S-Bahn train in Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

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(-) 26 years ago He Was HerbaDead 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.

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(-) 26 years ago 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.

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(-) 24 years ago 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.

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3 years ago The Eyes had it Sunday 21st of May 2023 An apartment building designed by Renaat Braem in Arenawijk, Deurne, Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium.

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