Date·Lore

On This Day · The 141st day of the year

May 21

May 21 carries 10 recorded events spanning between 1703 and 2024. Daniel Defoe is imprisoned on charges of seditious libel.

♊ZodiacGemini ◈BirthstoneEmerald ❀Birth flowerLily of the Valley

Compiled & reviewed by · Last reviewed July 13, 2026

What happened on May 21?

May 21 is the 141st day of the year. It marks 10 notable events in history, dated between 1703 and 2024. Famous people born on May 21 include Andrei Sakharov, Sara Goller and Albrecht Dürer.

The shape of the day

May 21's record stretches 321 years, from 1703 to 2024. Its center of gravity is the 20th century, and conflict is a recurring thread.

Gemini is the sign for May 21 — read more on the Gemini page, or see May's birthstone & birth flower.

Released on May 21

Movies, games, albums & shows

2026

  • Game Luna Abyss
  • Game Psyvariar 3
  • Game Yoshi and the Mysterious Book
  • Movie Deool Band 2
  • Game Zero Parades: For Dead Spies
  • Game Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus II
  • TV The Boroughs
  • Movie Ladies First
  • Movie Colony
  • Movie Drishyam 3
  • Movie Tuner

2025

  • Game Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
  • Game Monster Train 2
  • Game JDM: Japanese Drift Master

2024

  • Game Senua's Saga: Hellblade II
  • Game XDefiant

2022

  • Movie Top Gun: Maverick

Release data from TMDB & IGDB.

Events

10 notable moments
  1. 1703

    Daniel Defoe

    Daniel Defoe is imprisoned on charges of seditious libel.

  2. 1863

    American Civil War

    American Civil War: The Union Army succeeds in closing off the last escape route from Port Hudson, Louisiana, in preparation for the coming siege.

  3. 1917

    Commonwealth War Graves Commission

    The Imperial War Graves Commission is established through royal charter to mark, record, and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of the British Empire's military forces.

  4. 1924

    University of Chicago

    University of Chicago students Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr. murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a "thrill killing".

  5. 1925

    Doktor Faust

    The opera Doktor Faust, unfinished when composer Ferruccio Busoni died, is premiered in Dresden.

  6. 1927

    Charles Lindbergh

    Charles Lindbergh touches down at Le Bourget Field in Paris, completing the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

  7. 1998

    Suharto

    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.

  8. 2005

    Roller coaster

    The tallest roller coaster in the world, Kingda Ka opens at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey.

  9. 2014

    2014 Taipei Metro attack

    Random killings occur on the Bannan Line of the Taipei MRT, killing four and injuring 24.

  10. 2024

    Greenfield tornado

    The Greenfield tornado kills five and injures 35 across rural Iowa, United States. Wind speeds in excess of 480 kilometres per hour (300 mph) are estimated from measurements for the third time in history.

Famous birthday twins

Born on May 21

Andrei Sakharov

b. 1921

Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate

Sara Goller

b. 1984

German volleyball player

Albrecht Dürer

b. 1471

German painter, engraver, and mathematician

Lucie Hradecká

b. 1985

Czech tennis player

José Batlle y Ordóñez

b. 1856

Uruguayan journalist and politician, President of Uruguay

Eleonore of Austria, Queen of Poland

b. 1653

Queen of Poland , Duchess of Lorraine

Philip II of Spain

b. 1527

King of Spain and Portugal

Chris Benoit

b. 1967

Canadian professional wrestler

Deaths

  • 2012Douglas Rodríguez (boxer)
  • 1991Rajiv Gandhi
  • 1964James Franck
  • 1932Marcel Boulenger
  • 1686Otto von Guericke
  • 1542Hernando de Soto

Holidays & observances

  • —Afro-Colombian Day (Colombia)
  • —Christian feast day: Blessed Adílio Daronch and Manuel Gómez González
  • —Christian feast day: Blessed Franz Jägerstätter
  • —Christian feast day: Earliest day on which Corpus Christi can fall, while June 24 is the latest; held on Thursday after Trinity Sunday (often locally moved to Sunday). (Roman Catholic Church)
  • —Christian feast day: Eugène de Mazenod
  • —Christian feast day: Helena of Constantinople, also known as "Feast of the Holy Great Sovereigns Constantine and Helen, Equal-to-the-Apostles." (Eastern Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion)
  • —Christian feast day: Blessed Hemming of Turku
  • —Christian feast day: John Elliot (Episcopal Church)

Historical facts, event summaries, and biographical lines above are adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license. DateLore adds curation, structure, and original editorial commentary. DateLore is not affiliated with the Wikimedia Foundation.

About the author

Roman Tailor compiles and reviews every date on DateLore. He's the writer and editor behind the site's editorial essays and the day-by-day almanac. Corrections and questions are welcome — read more about DateLore or get in touch.

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