A birthday on the globe
21 May on the globe: what happened in the world on this day, and who was born
For 21 May, the English Wikipedia lists 77 events and 256 births. 40 of the events stand at their places as rays of light; eight more are dashed circles, where the sentence links only to a country or a sea. The taller the ray, the longer ago it happened. The people born that day come further down, as blue points.
A birthday, yours or someone else’s:
Turn it into a greetingScroll: the globe turns to each place
The day you were born, on the globe.
Three things from your day
Scroll: your day first, then 21 May through the years
The Earth on 21 May
The picture on the globe was assembled by NASA from satellite photographs taken in May 2004: the snow, the ice and the green are those of the month.
On 21 May the Sun passes straight overhead at noon along the parallel of 20.2° north. In London, the day lasts about 15 hours 55 minutes.
Beyond 70° north the Sun no longer sets; beyond 70° south it no longer rises.
The line between day and night is tilted on the globe exactly as on this day of the year. On the dark side you can see the lights of towns.
Britain & Ireland · Derby School
1554
Queen Mary I grants a royal charter to Derby School, as a grammar school for boys in Derby, England.
On the map: Derby School.
Also on the day’s list of Wikipedia in Spanish.
Europe · Ionian Islands
1864
The Ionian Islands reunite with Greece.
On the map: Ionian Islands.
Also on the day’s list of Wikipedia in Spanish.
Europe · Rigi
1871
Opening of the first rack railway in Europe, the Rigi Bahnen on Mount Rigi.
On the map: Rigi.
Also on the day’s list of Wikipedia in Spanish.
Europe · Paris–Le Bourget Airport
1927
Charles Lindbergh touches down at Le Bourget Field in Paris, completing the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
On the map: Paris–Le Bourget Airport.
Asia · Church of St. Mary of Blachernae
1347
Coronation of John VI Kantakouzenos as Byzantine Emperor by patriarch Isidore I of Constantinople at the Church of St. Mary of Blachernae.
On the map: Church of St. Mary of Blachernae.
Asia · Palmyra
2015
Islamic State militants entered the ancient city of Palmyra.
On the map: Palmyra.
Also on the day’s list of Wikipedia in Chinese.
North America · Dansville, Livingston County, New York
1881
The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton in Dansville, New York.
On the map: Dansville, Livingston County, New York.
North America · Oskaloosa, Iowa
1934
Oskaloosa, Iowa, becomes the first municipality in the United States to fingerprint all of its citizens.
On the map: Oskaloosa, Iowa.
North America · Kingda Ka
2005
The tallest roller coaster in the world, Kingda Ka opens at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey.
On the map: Kingda Ka.
21 May
What the other Wikipedias remember#
For these years the English list has nothing on this day. The events below come from the same day’s lists on Wikipedia in Romanian, Chinese and Spanish and were translated for this page.
From Wikipedia in Romanian · Moscow
1712
The capital of Russia is moved by Tsar Peter I from Moscow to St Petersburg.
On the map: Moscow.
Translated from the list on Wikipedia in Romanian.
From Wikipedia in Chinese · Statue of Liberty
1884
The installation of the Statue of Liberty in the United States is completed.
On the map: Statue of Liberty.
Translated from the list on Wikipedia in Chinese.
From Wikipedia in Spanish · Moscow
1963
In Moscow, Lomonosov University awards Fidel Castro an honorary doctorate (doctor honoris causa).
On the map: Moscow.
Translated from the list on Wikipedia in Spanish.
The article on Wikipedia in Spanish: Universidad Estatal de Moscú
From Wikipedia in Spanish · Mount Everest
2004
On the border between Nepal and China, the Nepalese sherpa Pemba Dorji breaks the record for climbing Mount Everest, with a new time of 8 hours and 10 minutes from base camp, more than two hours faster than the previous record.
On the map: Mount Everest.
Translated from the list on Wikipedia in Spanish.
From Wikipedia in Spanish · San Mamés Stadium
2025
At the San Mamés stadium in Bilbao (Basque Country), in the final of the 2024-2025 UEFA Europa League, the English side Tottenham Hotspur beats the English side Manchester United 1-0 thanks to a goal by the Welshman Brennan Johnson, who thereby ends a run of 17 consecutive years without titles.
On the map: San Mamés Stadium.
Translated from the list on Wikipedia in Spanish.
21 May
Born on 21 May#
The English Wikipedia lists 256 births for this day. The blue points are the birthplaces of 60 of these people: those written about in the most Wikipedia editions, where Wikidata gives a place of birth.
Born on 21 May
1471
Albrecht Dürer, German painter, engraver, and mathematician (died 1528)
Place of birth: Nuremberg.
Born on 21 May
1921
Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1989)
Place of birth: Moscow.
Born on 21 May
1860
Willem Einthoven, Indonesian-Dutch physician, physiologist, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1927)
Place of birth: Semarang.
Born on 21 May
1986
Mario Mandžukić, Croatian footballer
Place of birth: Slavonski Brod.
Born on 21 May
1844
Henri Rousseau, French painter (died 1910)
Place of birth: Laval.
Born in Britain and Ireland
1799
Mary Anning, English paleontologist (died 1847)
Place of birth: Lyme Regis.
Born in Britain and Ireland
1994
Tom Daley, English diver
Place of birth: Plymouth.
Born in Britain and Ireland
1985
Mark Cavendish, Manx cyclist
Place of birth: Douglas.
21 May
Number one in the charts that week
At the cinema
An animal recorded that day
The record can be seen in GBIF, which brings together wildlife records from around the world.
All your birthdays
The weather that day
Data: Met Office Hadley Centre (HadCET); NOAA (GHCN-Daily, Mauna Loa).
Above the Earth
Sources: Jonathan McDowell, GCAT (launches); GFZ Potsdam (Kp index). Days are counted in Universal Time.
Football that day
International matches played that day:
Source: the “International football results” dataset kept by Mart Jürisoo (CC0).
Also that day
The earthquake’s page at the USGS
Source: the USGS catalogue. The day is counted in Universal Time (UTC).
In those days
Make a link for someone
Type the name, pick the day and the year of birth. The link opens straight on their day, with their name in the greeting.
The link carries the name, date and place typed here; anyone who gets it can see them.
Put another birthday beside it
Your mother’s, your child’s, a friend’s: the two days appear side by side.
Below: 21 May through the years.
The whole globe of the day
Drag the globe to turn it. Touch a ray or a point to read what happened there.
Everything Wikipedia lists for 21 May
The list is the English Wikipedia’s, in its own wording, as it stood in October 2026. 29 events have no place on the map: the sentence links to no place with coordinates, only to places too wide to mark, or to several countries.
- 293
Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximian appoint Galerius as Caesar to Diocletian, beginning the period of four rulers known as the Tetrarchy.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Diocletian - 878
Syracuse, Sicily, is captured by the Muslim Aghlabids after a nine-month siege.
Europe · Syracuse, SicilyWikipedia: Siege of Syracuse - 879
Pope John VIII gives blessings to Branimir of Croatia and to the Croatian people, considered to be international recognition of the Croatian state.
Europe · CroatiaWikipedia: Pope John VIII - 996
Sixteen-year-old Otto III is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor - 1138
The Crusades: The siege of Shaizar ended, and the Emir of Shaizar became a vassal of the Byzantine Empire.
Asia · Byzantine EmpireWikipedia: Crusades - 1294
Coronation of Michael IX Palaiologos as Byzantine Emperor.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Michael IX Palaiologos - 1347
Coronation of John VI Kantakouzenos as Byzantine Emperor by patriarch Isidore I of Constantinople at the Church of St. Mary of Blachernae.
Asia · Church of St. Mary of BlachernaeWikipedia: John VI Kantakouzenos - 1349
Dušan's Code, the constitution of the Serbian Empire, is enacted by Dušan the Mighty.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Dušan's Code - 1403
Henry III of Castile sends Ruy González de Clavijo as ambassador to Timur to discuss the possibility of an alliance between Timur and Castile against the Ottoman Empire.
Asia · Ottoman EmpireWikipedia: Henry III of Castile - 1424
Coronation of James I of Scotland at Scone.
no place on the mapWikipedia: James I of Scotland - 1554
Queen Mary I grants a royal charter to Derby School, as a grammar school for boys in Derby, England.
Britain & Ireland · Derby SchoolWikipedia: Mary I - 1659
In the Concert of The Hague, the Dutch Republic, the Commonwealth of England and the Kingdom of France set out their views on how the Second Northern War should end.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Concert of The Hague - 1660
The Battle of Long Sault concludes after five days in which French colonial militia, with their Huron and Algonquin allies, are defeated by the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.
North America · Saint-André-d'ArgenteuilWikipedia: Battle of Long Sault - 1674
The nobility elect John Sobieski King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania.
Europe · LithuaniaWikipedia: Szlachta - 1703
Daniel Defoe is imprisoned on charges of seditious libel.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Daniel Defoe - 1725
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.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky - 1758
Ten-year-old Mary Campbell is abducted in Pennsylvania by Lenape during the French and Indian War. She is returned six and a half years later.
North America · PennsylvaniaWikipedia: Lenape - 1792
A lava dome collapses on Mount Unzen, near the city of Shimbara on the Japanese island of Kyūshū, creating a deadly tsunami that killed nearly 15,000 people.
Asia · 1792 Unzen landslide and tsunamiWikipedia: 1792 Unzen landslide and tsunami - 1799
The end of the Siege of Acre (1799): Napoleon Bonaparte abandons his siege of the Ottoman city of Acre after two months. This was the turning point of Bonaparte's Egyptian campaign and one of the first major defeats he suffered in his military career.
Asia · Siege of AcreWikipedia: Siege of Acre - 1809
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.
Europe · Battle of Aspern–EsslingWikipedia: Battle of Aspern–Essling - 1851
Slavery in Colombia is abolished.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Slavery in Colombia - 1856
Lawrence, Kansas is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces.
North America · Sacking of LawrenceWikipedia: Sacking of Lawrence - 1863
American Civil War: The Union Army succeeds in closing off the last escape route from Port Hudson, Louisiana, in preparation for the coming siege.
North America · Battle of Plains StoreWikipedia: American Civil War - 1864
American Civil War: The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House ends.
North America · Battle of Spotsylvania Court HouseWikipedia: Battle of Spotsylvania Court House - 1864
Russia declares an end to the Russo-Circassian War and many Circassians are forced into exile. The day is designated the Circassian Day of Mourning.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Russo–Circassian War - 1864
The Ionian Islands reunite with Greece.
Europe · Ionian IslandsWikipedia: Ionian Islands - 1871
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.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Paris Commune - 1871
Opening of the first rack railway in Europe, the Rigi Bahnen on Mount Rigi.
Europe · RigiWikipedia: Rack railway - 1879
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.
Latin America · Battle of IquiqueWikipedia: Battle of Iquique - 1881
The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton in Dansville, New York.
North America · Dansville, Livingston County, New YorkWikipedia: American Red Cross - 1894
The Manchester Ship Canal in the United Kingdom is officially opened by Queen Victoria, who later knights its designer Sir Edward Leader Williams.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Manchester Ship Canal - 1904
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is founded in Paris.
no place on the mapWikipedia: FIFA - 1911
President of Mexico Porfirio Díaz and the revolutionary Francisco Madero sign the Treaty of Ciudad Juárez to put an end to the fighting between the forces of both men, concluding the initial phase of the Mexican Revolution.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Mexican Revolution - 1917
The Great Atlanta fire of 1917 causes $5.5 million in damages, destroying some 300 acres including 2,000 homes, businesses and churches, displacing about 10,000 people but leading to only one fatality (due to heart attack).
no place on the mapWikipedia: Great Atlanta fire of 1917 - 1917
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.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Commonwealth War Graves Commission - 1924
University of Chicago students Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr. murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a "thrill killing".
North America · University of ChicagoWikipedia: University of Chicago - 1925
The opera Doktor Faust, unfinished when composer Ferruccio Busoni died, is premiered in Dresden.
Europe · SemperoperWikipedia: Semperoper - 1927
Charles Lindbergh touches down at Le Bourget Field in Paris, completing the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
Europe · Paris–Le Bourget AirportWikipedia: Charles Lindbergh - 1932
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.
Britain & Ireland · DerryWikipedia: Amelia Earhart - 1934
Oskaloosa, Iowa, becomes the first municipality in the United States to fingerprint all of its citizens.
North America · Oskaloosa, IowaWikipedia: Oskaloosa, Iowa - 1936
Sada Abe is arrested after wandering the streets of Tokyo for days with her dead lover's severed genitals in her handbag. Her story soon becomes one of Japan's most notorious scandals.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Sada Abe - 1937
A Soviet station, North Pole-1, becomes the first scientific research settlement to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Drifting ice station - 1939
The Canadian National War Memorial is unveiled by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
North America · National War MemorialWikipedia: National War Memorial - 1946
Physicist Louis Slotin is fatally irradiated in a criticality incident during an experiment with the demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
North America · Los Alamos National LaboratoryWikipedia: Demon core - 1951
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.
North America · 9th Street Art ExhibitionWikipedia: New York School - 1961
American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out.
North America · AlabamaWikipedia: Civil rights movement - 1966
The Ulster Volunteer Force declares war on the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland.
Britain & Ireland · Northern IrelandWikipedia: Ulster Volunteer Force - 1969
Civil unrest in Rosario, Argentina, known as Rosariazo, following the death of a 15-year-old student.
Latin America · RosarioWikipedia: Rosariazo - 1972
Michelangelo's Pietà in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is damaged by a vandal, the mentally disturbed Hungarian geologist Laszlo Toth.
Europe · St. Peter's BasilicaWikipedia: Pietà - 1976
Twenty-nine people are killed in the Yuba City bus disaster in Martinez, California.
North America · Yuba City bus disasterWikipedia: Yuba City bus disaster - 1979
White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.
North America · San FranciscoWikipedia: White Night riots - 1981
The Italian government releases the membership list of Propaganda Due, an illegal pseudo-Masonic lodge that was implicated in numerous Italian crimes and mysteries.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Propaganda Due - 1981
Transamerica Corporation agrees to sell United Artists to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for $380 million after the box office failure of the 1980 film Heaven's Gate.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Transamerica Corporation - 1982
Falklands War: A British amphibious assault during Operation Sutton leads to the Battle of San Carlos.
Latin America · Falklands WarWikipedia: Falklands War - 1988
Margaret Thatcher holds her controversial Sermon on the Mound before the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Margaret Thatcher - 1991
Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a female suicide bomber near Madras.
Asia · Assassination of Rajiv GandhiWikipedia: Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi - 1991
Mengistu Haile Mariam, president of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, flees Ethiopia, effectively bringing the Ethiopian Civil War to an end.
Africa · EthiopiaWikipedia: Ethiopian Civil War - 1992
After 30 seasons Johnny Carson hosts his penultimate episode and last featuring guests (Robin Williams and Bette Midler) of The Tonight Show.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Johnny Carson - 1994
The Democratic Republic of Yemen unsuccessfully attempts to secede from the Republic of Yemen; a war breaks out.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Yemeni civil war - 1996
The ferry MV Bukoba sinks in Tanzanian waters on Lake Victoria, killing nearly 1,000.
no place on the mapWikipedia: MV Bukoba - 1996
The seven Trappist monks of Tibhirine who were abducted on March 27 are killed under uncertain circumstances.
Africa · Murder of the monks of TibhirineWikipedia: Murder of the monks of Tibhirine - 1998
In Miami, five abortion clinics are attacked by a butyric acid attacker.
North America · MiamiWikipedia: Miami - 1998
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.
Asia · Trisakti shootingsWikipedia: Trisakti shootings - 2000
Nineteen people are killed in a plane crash in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
North America · 2000 Executive Airlines British Aerospace Jetstream crashWikipedia: 2000 Executive Airlines British Aerospace Jetstream crash - 2001
French Taubira law is enacted, officially recognizing the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Christiane Taubira - 2003
The 6.8 Mw Boumerdès earthquake shakes northern Algeria with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). More than 2,200 people were killed and a moderate tsunami sank boats at the Balearic Islands.
Africa · 2003 Boumerdès earthquakeWikipedia: 2003 Boumerdès earthquake - 2005
The tallest roller coaster in the world, Kingda Ka opens at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey.
North America · Kingda KaWikipedia: Roller coaster - 2006
The Republic of Montenegro holds a referendum proposing independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro; 55% of Montenegrins vote for independence.
no place on the mapWikipedia: 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum - 2010
JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, launches the solar-sail spacecraft IKAROS aboard an H-IIA rocket. The vessel would make a Venus flyby late in the year.
no place on the mapWikipedia: JAXA - 2011
Radio broadcaster Harold Camping predicted that the world would end on this date.
no place on the mapWikipedia: 2011 end times prediction - 2012
A bus accident near Himara, Albania kills 13 people and injures 21 others.
Europe · Qafa e Vishës bus accidentWikipedia: Qafa e Vishës bus accident - 2012
A suicide bombing kills more than 120 people in Sanaa, Yemen.
Asia · 2012 Unity Day parade rehearsal bombingWikipedia: 2012 Unity Day parade rehearsal bombing - 2014
Random killings occur on the Bannan Line of the Taipei MRT, killing four and injuring 24.
Asia · 2014 Taipei Metro attackWikipedia: 2014 Taipei Metro attack - 2015
Islamic State militants entered the ancient city of Palmyra.
Asia · PalmyraWikipedia: Islamic State - 2017
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus perform their final show at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus - 2024
A stabbing spree on the Green line of the Taichung MRT injures four people, including the perpetrator.
Asia · TaichungWikipedia: 2024 Taichung MRT attack - 2024
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.
North America · Greenfield tornadoWikipedia: Greenfield tornado
What the other Wikipedias remember
For these years the English list has nothing on this day. The events below come from the same day’s lists on Wikipedia in Romanian, Chinese and Spanish and were translated for this page.
- 1712
The capital of Russia is moved by Tsar Peter I from Moscow to St Petersburg.
- 1884
The installation of the Statue of Liberty in the United States is completed.
- 1963
In Moscow, Lomonosov University awards Fidel Castro an honorary doctorate (doctor honoris causa).
Europe · MoscowTranslated from the list on Wikipedia in SpanishWikipedia: Universidad Estatal de Moscú - 2004
On the border between Nepal and China, the Nepalese sherpa Pemba Dorji breaks the record for climbing Mount Everest, with a new time of 8 hours and 10 minutes from base camp, more than two hours faster than the previous record.
- 2025
At the San Mamés stadium in Bilbao (Basque Country), in the final of the 2024-2025 UEFA Europa League, the English side Tottenham Hotspur beats the English side Manchester United 1-0 thanks to a goal by the Welshman Brennan Johnson, who thereby ends a run of 17 consecutive years without titles.
Who was born on 21 May
In order of how many Wikipedia editions have an article about each. The first 60 of 256 are shown.
- 1471
Albrecht Dürer, German painter, engraver, and mathematician (died 1528)
NurembergWikipedia: Albrecht Dürer - 1688
(O.S.) Alexander Pope, English poet, essayist, and translator (died 1744)
- 1921
Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1989)
- 1527
Philip II of Spain, King of Spain, Portugal, England and Ireland (died 1598)
Palacio de PimentelWikipedia: Philip II of Spain - 1944
Mary Robinson, Irish lawyer and politician, President of Ireland
BallinaWikipedia: Mary Robinson - 1860
Willem Einthoven, Indonesian-Dutch physician, physiologist, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1927)
SemarangWikipedia: Willem Einthoven - 1986
Mario Mandžukić, Croatian footballer
Slavonski BrodWikipedia: Mario Mandžukić - 1844
Henri Rousseau, French painter (died 1910)
- 1843
Charles Albert Gobat, Swiss lawyer and politician, and Nobel Prize laureate (died 1914)
TramelanWikipedia: Charles Albert Gobat - 1972
The Notorious B.I.G., American rapper (died 1997)
BrooklynWikipedia: The Notorious B.I.G. - 1960
Jeffrey Dahmer, American serial killer (died 1994)
MilwaukeeWikipedia: Jeffrey Dahmer - 1843
Louis Renault, French jurist, educator, and Nobel Prize laureate (died 1918)
- 1914
Romain Gary, French novelist, diplomat, film director, aviator (died 1980)
VilniusWikipedia: Romain Gary - 1759
Joseph Fouché, French lawyer and politician (died 1820)
Le PellerinWikipedia: Joseph Fouché - 1792
Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis, French mathematician and engineer (died 1843)
- 1799
Mary Anning, English paleontologist (died 1847)
Lyme RegisWikipedia: Mary Anning - 1851
Léon Bourgeois, French police officer and politician, 64th Prime Minister of France, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1925)
former 9th arrondissement of ParisWikipedia: Léon Bourgeois - 1936
Günter Blobel, Polish-American biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2018)
NiegosławiceWikipedia: Günter Blobel - 1895
Lázaro Cárdenas, Mexican general, president (1934–1940) and father of Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas (died 1970)
Jiquilpan de JuárezWikipedia: Lázaro Cárdenas - 1959
Abdulla Yameen, Maldivian politician, 6th President of the Maldives
- 1994
Tom Daley, English diver
PlymouthWikipedia: Tom Daley - 1849
Édouard-Henri Avril, French painter (died 1928)
- 1930
Malcolm Fraser, Australian politician, 22nd Prime Minister of Australia (died 2015)
- 1966
Lisa Edelstein, American actress and playwright
- 1934
Bengt I. Samuelsson, Swedish biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2024)
HalmstadWikipedia: Bengt I. Samuelsson - 1952
Mr. T, American actor and wrestler
ChicagoWikipedia: Mr. T - 1967
Chris Benoit, Canadian professional wrestler (died 2007)
MontrealWikipedia: Chris Benoit - 1985
Mark Cavendish, Manx cyclist
DouglasWikipedia: Mark Cavendish - 1775
Lucien Bonaparte, French soldier and politician (died 1840)
AjaccioWikipedia: Lucien Bonaparte - 1902
Marcel Breuer, Hungarian-American architect and academic, designed the Ameritrust Tower (died 1981)
- 1904
Fats Waller, American singer-songwriter and pianist (died 1943)
- 1980
Gotye, Belgian-Australian singer-songwriter
BrugesWikipedia: Gotye - 1917
Raymond Burr, Canadian-American actor and director (died 1993)
New WestminsterWikipedia: Raymond Burr - 1989
Hal Robson-Kanu, Welsh footballer
- 1975
Marc-Vivien Foé, Cameroonian footballer (died 2003)
Nkolo IIWikipedia: Marc-Vivien Foé - 1916
Harold Robbins, American author and screenwriter (died 1997)
New York CityWikipedia: Harold Robbins - 1864
Princess Stéphanie of Belgium (died 1945)
Brussels metropolitan areaWikipedia: Princess Stéphanie of Belgium - 1951
Al Franken, American actor, screenwriter, and politician
ManhattanWikipedia: Al Franken - 1990
Rene Krhin, Slovenian footballer
MariborWikipedia: Rene Krhin - 1880
Tudor Arghezi, Romanian journalist, author, and poet (died 1967)
BucharestWikipedia: Tudor Arghezi - 1959
Nick Cassavetes, American actor, director, and screenwriter
New York CityWikipedia: Nick Cassavetes - 1974
Fairuza Balk, American actress
Point Reyes StationWikipedia: Fairuza Balk - 1996
Karen Khachanov, Russian tennis player
- 1902
Anatole Litvak, Ukrainian-American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1974)
- 1904
Robert Montgomery, American actor and director (died 1981)
- 1978
Briana Banks, German-American porn actress and model
MunichWikipedia: Briana Banks - 1932
Inese Jaunzeme, Latvian javelin thrower and surgeon (died 2011)
PļaviņasWikipedia: Inese Jaunzeme - 1976
Stuart Bingham, English snooker player
BasildonWikipedia: Stuart Bingham - 1985
Lucie Hradecká, Czech tennis player
- 1948
Jonathan Hyde, Australian-English actor
BrisbaneWikipedia: Jonathan Hyde - 1958
Curtis T. McMullen, American mathematician, 1998 Fields medalist
BerkeleyWikipedia: Curtis T. McMullen - 1977
Quinton Fortune, South African international footballer and coach
Cape TownWikipedia: Quinton Fortune - 1653
Eleonore of Austria, Queen of Poland (died 1697)
- 1960
Vladimir Salnikov, Russian swimmer
Saint PetersburgWikipedia: Vladimir Salnikov - 1969
Georgiy Gongadze, Georgian-Ukrainian journalist and director (died 2000)
TbilisiWikipedia: Georgiy Gongadze - 1780
Elizabeth Fry, English prison reformer, philanthropist and Quaker (died 1845)
NorwichWikipedia: Elizabeth Fry - 1856
José Batlle y Ordóñez, Uruguayan journalist and politician, President of Uruguay (died 1929)
MontevideoWikipedia: José Batlle y Ordóñez - 1957
Judge Reinhold, American actor and producer
WilmingtonWikipedia: Judge Reinhold - 1993
Matías Kranevitter, Argentine footballer
San Miguel de TucumánWikipedia: Matías Kranevitter - 1801
Princess Sophie of Sweden, Swedish princess (died 1865)
StockholmWikipedia: Princess Sophie of Sweden
What is celebrated on 21 May
- 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)
- Christian feast day: Saints of the Cristero War, including Christopher Magallanes
- Christian feast day: May 21 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Circassian Day of Mourning (Circassians)
- Day of Patriots and Military (Hungary)
- Independence Day, celebrates the Montenegrin independence referendum in 2006, celebrated until the next day. (Montenegro)
- International Tea Day (International)
A greeting link for someone
Type a name and, if you like, the year of birth. The link opens with a greeting, and beside each event it says how old the person turned that day, or how many years before their birth it happened.
The name and the year go only into the link you send.
All 366 days
How the globe is made
Where the events come from
Each edition of this page uses the day’s list from Wikipedia in its own language: Romanian, English, Spanish, Chinese. The lists are written by volunteers and differ from one edition to the next; the text of each event is Wikipedia’s, with a link to the article. A row that appears twice in a list is shown once. The lists have not been checked event by event: they are Wikipedia’s, mistakes included.
For events before 1582, and for countries that moved to the Gregorian calendar later (Britain in 1752, Russia in 1918), the same day may be counted Old Style in one list and New Style in another.
The chapter “What the other Wikipedias remember” adds up to five events a day from the lists of the other three editions, only for years in which the English list has nothing on that day. They were translated for this page, passed the same filters as the tour, and are not counted among the events of the English list.
How an event gets onto the map
The place comes from Wikidata. If the sentence links to the article about the event itself (a battle, an opening, an earthquake), dated to the same year, the ray stands on its coordinates or on those of its location. Otherwise it stands on the first place the sentence links to: a town, a building, a mountain, an island. This second step can be wrong: sometimes the sentence only mentions the place. That is why the page says, under each event, which place the ray stands on.
When the sentence links to a single state or province, or to a single sea, lake or desert larger than 5,000 km², the globe shows a dashed circle, not a ray. The circle has the area Wikidata gives, with its radius kept between 1.2° and 16°, or a radius of 4.5° when Wikidata gives no area; it says only that the sentence links to that place. Organisations, ships, spacecraft, museum objects, rivers, mountain ranges, languages and continents are never used as places. When a sentence names several states and no exact place, the event stays in the list only.
What the height means
The height of a ray shows how many years have passed, on a logarithmic scale: 10 years, 100 years and 1,000 years are equal steps apart; anything older than about 2,600 years has the tallest ray. The colour runs from pale yellow for recent years to violet for antiquity.
Where the tour stops
In each region the tour stops at up to three events (five in Britain and Ireland), chosen mainly by three things: whether Wikipedia’s editors put the event in the “On this day” box of their main page (the English, Spanish and Chinese editions), how many Wikipedia editions have an article about it, and how many of the four lists include it. Events whose sentence or article is about a war, an attack, a crime or a disaster are left out of the tour; they stay in the whole list, in Wikipedia’s wording. The filter is a list of words and a list of Wikidata types, so it can miss some.
The tour of births names the people with articles in the most editions and leaves aside those whom the list or Wikidata describes as rulers, politicians, commanders, leaders of movements or criminals; they stay in the list.
The Earth and the Sun
The daytime images are NASA’s Blue Marble Next Generation mosaics, one for each month of 2004; the night side is Black Marble 2016. The tilt of the line between day and night is computed for the day; the hour is chosen so that the place being read is in daylight. The latitude where the Sun stands overhead is the average of the four years of the leap cycle; in a given year it can differ by up to 0.4°.
The day you were born
The number ones come from the weekly lists on Wikipedia: Billboard for the United States (from 1940; the Hot 100 from August 1958), the UK Singles Chart (from November 1952), Los 40 Principales for Spain (from July 1966) and, for Romania, the Romanian Top 100 and Airplay 100 (2001–2021, with missing weeks). The page shows the chart of the week in which the day of birth falls, with its date; Billboard and the UK chart are dated at the end of their week. For Romania before 2001 and for China these sources have no weekly chart.
The films are those that reached cinemas in the United States up to ten days before or three days after that day (some of them in a few cinemas at first), from the English Wikipedia’s yearly lists (from 1968), in order of how many editions have an article about them. The events “in those days” are the ones on the neighbouring days’ lists that carry the year of birth, passed through the same filter as the tour.
The day of birth, year included
The Moon, the star sign and the constellation are worked out by the page itself, for noon Universal Time on the day. The lit part of the Moon is rounded and can differ by a few per cent from that at the hour of birth. The sign follows the usual zodiac of twelve equal parts starting at the March equinox; the constellation is the one the Sun actually stood in front of, by the borders set by the International Astronomical Union, and within a day of a border the page does not name it. When the Sun changes sign while it is that day anywhere on Earth, the page gives the moment of crossing, rounded to ten minutes and accurate to within about a quarter of an hour, and the clock time in a few cities, with the time zone and summer time of that year.
The year in the Chinese calendar is the one your device’s own calendar gives for the date, checked against the Hong Kong Observatory’s tables. “All your birthdays” uses the same sources as the rest of the chapter for the same day in every year since the birth: the temperature, well-known launches that took place on that very day, matches of the teams the edition follows, snow deeper than 10 cm and strong geomagnetic storms. The three things at the top and the four on the picture are chosen in a fixed order (the song, the animal, a full Moon, a well-known launch before an ordinary earthquake); on the picture you can change them.
When the link carries a year of birth, the page adds a few things about that exact day. The weather is the Met Office’s Central England temperature record and the readings from New York’s Central Park; the “usual high” is the average of the daily highs of 1961–1990 for that date, with two days either side. The carbon dioxide figure is the monthly mean at the Mauna Loa observatory, where measurements begin in March 1958.
The earthquake is the one with the largest magnitude in the USGS catalogue for that day, counted in Universal Time. Before the 1960s the catalogue has gaps even above magnitude 5.5, so in the older years many days have no earthquake. The page gives only the magnitude and the place: the country the epicentre falls in or, when the epicentre is at sea within 300 km of a coast, the nearest country; farther out, only the ocean.
The launches are those that reached orbit or left for the Moon and the planets, from Jonathan McDowell’s GCAT catalogue. If nothing left that day, the page shows the nearest launch within three days before or after, and says how many days away it was. The geomagnetic storm appears only when the Kp index reached at least 5 in one of the day’s eight three-hour intervals.
The animal comes from GBIF: an observation made by a person (the animal seen or heard, or its tracks), dated to that exact day, with coordinates and a CC0 or CC BY licence. Only a few hundred well-known species are searched (mammals, birds, turtles, butterflies); of those noted that day, mammals and species with articles in many Wikipedia editions come first; birds noted almost every day, and species used recently, wait their turn. Observations dated 1 January are left out, because records without a day are often filed there. An observation shows that the animal was recorded there, not how many animals there were.
The matches are those between national teams. Only matches of England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, Canada and Australia are shown, along with those at the big final tournaments. The picture to send is drawn in the page from the day’s globe and the facts above, and stays on your device until you send it.
Sources
- Events, births and holidays: the day’s page on Wikipedia, text under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Coordinates, places of birth and the number of editions: Wikidata (CC0).
- The Earth by day: NASA Blue Marble Next Generation. The Earth by night: NASA Black Marble 2016.
- Borders and regions: Natural Earth.
- World population and births per year: UN World Population Prospects 2024.
- Charts and films: Wikipedia’s lists for Billboard, the UK Singles Chart, Los 40 Principales, Romanian Top 100, Airplay 100 and American films by year (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Weather: Met Office Hadley Centre, HadCET (Open Government Licence) and NOAA GHCN-Daily, New York Central Park. Carbon dioxide: NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory, Mauna Loa.
- Earthquakes: the USGS catalogue. Launches: Jonathan McDowell, GCAT (CC BY). Kp index: GFZ Potsdam (CC BY 4.0). Matches: International football results, Mart Jürisoo (CC0).
- Animal observations: GBIF, with a link to each record; species names come from Wikidata.