On this day in history

May 21

8 births · 5 deaths · 1 events

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Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

2008 UEFA Champions League Final

18 years ago

Born this day

1471

Albrecht Dürer

Would be 555

Oldest record

555th

Albrecht Dürer

birth anniversary

Famous births8

1471 · 555 yrs

Albrecht Dürer

Albrecht Dürer ( DURE-ər, German:; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528), sometimes spelled in English as Durer or Duerer, was a German painter, printmaker, and theorist of the German Renaissance.

ArtWould be 555

Photo: Albrecht Dürer · Public domain

1527 · 499 yrs

Philip II of Spain

Philip II (21 May 1527 – 13 September 1598), sometimes known in Spain as Philip the Prudent (Spanish: Felipe el Prudente), was King of Spain from 1556, King of Portugal from 1580, and King of Naples and Sicily from 1554 until his death in 1598.

RoyaltyWould be 499

Photo: Sofonisba Anguissola · Public domain

1688 · 338 yrs

Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century.

LiteratureWould be 338

Photo: Michael Dahl · Public domain

1860 · 166 yrs

Willem Einthoven

Willem Einthoven (21 May 1860 – 29 September 1927) was a Dutch medical doctor and physiologist. He invented the first practical electrocardiograph (ECG or EKG) in 1895 and received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1924 for it ("for the discovery of the mechanism of the electrocardiogram").

ScienceWould be 166

Photo: Unknown author · CC BY 4.0

1921 · 105 yrs

Andrei Sakharov

Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov (Russian: Андрей Дмитриевич Сахаров; 21 May 1921 – 14 December 1989) was a Soviet physicist and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, which he was awarded in 1975 for emphasizing human rights around the world.

ScienceWould be 105

Photo: Vladimir Fedorenko / Владимир Федоренко · CC BY-SA 3.0

1944 · 82 yrs

Mary Robinson

Mary Therese Winifred Robinson (née Bourke; born 21 May 1944) is an Irish politician who served as the president of Ireland from December 1990 to September 1997. She was the country's first female president.

PoliticsAge 82

Photo: Nationaal Comité 4 en 5 mei · Attribution

1955 · 71 yrs

Sergei Shoigu

Sergei Kuzhugetovich Shoigu (born 21 May 1955) is a Russian politician and military officer who has served as secretary of the Security Council since 2024. He served as Minister of Defence of Russia from 2012 to 2024.

PoliticsAge 71

Photo: Пресс-служба Президента Российской Федерации · CC BY 4.0

1986 · 40 yrs

Mario Mandžukić

Mario Mandžukić (Croatian pronunciation:; born 21 May 1986) is a Croatian football coach and a former player who was most recently an assistant coach for the Croatian national team. As a player, he played as a forward and was known for his aggressiveness, defensive contribution, and aerial prowess.

SportsAge 40

Photo: Антон Зайцев · CC BY-SA 3.0

Famous deaths5

1471 · 555 yrs

Henry VI of England

Henry VI (6 December 1421 – 21 May 1471) was King of England from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and claimant to the French throne from 1422 to 1453 under the terms of the Treaty of Troyes.

RoyaltyWould be 604

Photo: anonymous · Public domain

1639 · 387 yrs

Tommaso Campanella

Tommaso Campanella (Italian:; 5 September 1568 – 21 May 1639), baptized Giovanni Domenico Campanella, was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, theologian, astrologer, and poet. Campanella was prosecuted by the Roman Inquisition for heresy in 1594 and was confined to house arrest for two years.

ReligionWould be 458

Photo: Francesco Cozza · Public domain

1786 · 240 yrs

Carl Wilhelm Scheele

Carl Wilhelm Scheele (German:, Swedish:; 9 December 1742 – 21 May 1786) was a German-Swedish pharmaceutical chemist. Scheele discovered oxygen (although Joseph Priestley published his findings first), and identified the elements molybdenum, tungsten, barium, nitrogen, and chlorine, among others.

ScienceWould be 283

Photo: Unidentified painter · Public domain

1964 · 62 yrs

James Franck

James Franck (German:; 26 August 1882 – 21 May 1964) was a German–American physicist who shared the 1925 Nobel Prize in Physics with Gustav Hertz "for their discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom." Franck completed his doctorate in 1906 and his habilitation in 1911 at the Frederick…

ScienceWould be 144

Photo: Unknown author · Public domain

1991 · 35 yrs

Rajiv Gandhi

Rajiv Ratna Gandhi (20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was an Indian aircraft pilot and politician who served as the prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989 for two terms. He took office after the assassination of his mother, then–prime minister Indira Gandhi, to become the youngest Indian prime minister at the age of 40.

PoliticsWould be 82

Photo: Bart Molendijk / Anefo · CC BY-SA 3.0 nl

Events1

2008 · 18 yrs

2008 UEFA Champions League Final

The 2008 UEFA Champions League final was a football match that took place on 21 May 2008 at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia, to determine the winner of the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League.

Sports

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