Thursday, May 21, 2026 Text is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 licence.

Today's Anniversary – Thursday, May 21


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Births

* 1973 Noel Fielding English artist, comedian and actor.
* 1972 The Notorious B.I.G. Rapper.
* 1960 Jeffrey Dahmer Notorious American serial killer, necrophiliac and cannibal, who murdered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991.
* 1957 Tony Hayward Chief Executive of oil and energy company BP Group, taking over from John Browne, Baron Browne of Madingley on 1 May 2007.
* 1952 Mr. T Actor principally known for his roles in the 1980s television series The A-Team and as boxer James Clubber Lang in the 1982 film Rocky III.
* 1951 Al Franken Junior United States Senator from Minnesota.
* 1937 Mengistu Haile Mariam Communist leader of Ethiopia (1974-1991) during the Ethiopian Civil War, and the most prominent member of the Derg, the military junta responsible for the deposition of Haile Selassie.
* 1930 Malcolm Fraser Australian politician and 22nd Prime Minister of Australia, came to power in the circumstances of the dismissal of the Whitlam government.
* 1921 Andrei Sakharov Eminent Soviet-Russian nuclear physicist, dissident and human rights activist.
* 1832 James Hudson Taylor Christian missionary to China in the Methodist tradition, and founder of the China Inland Mission (renamed as Overseas Missionary Fellowship, OMF International in 1964).
* 1806 Isaac McLellan Author and poet, some of whose work has achieved notability by republication in anthologies.
* 1769 John Hookham Frere English diplomat and author.
* 1759 Joseph Fouche French statesman and Minister of Police under Napoleon Bonaparte.
* 1688 Alexander Pope Considered one of the greatest English poets of the eighteenth century.
* 1527 Philip II of Spain King of Spain.
* 1471 Albrecht Durer German painter and printmaker.

Deaths

† 2000 John Gielgud English actor, director, and producer.
† 2000 Barbara Cartland English writer, and one of the most successful authors of romance novels of all time, specialising in historical love themes.
† 1983 Eric Hoffer American writer on social and political philosophies.
† 1983 Kenneth Clark English author, museum director, broadcaster and one of the most famous art historians of his generation.
† 1973 Ivan Konev Soviet military commander, who led Red Army forces on the Eastern Front during World War II, liberated much of Eastern Europe from occupation by the Axis Powers, and helped in the capture of Germany's capital, Berlin.
† 1949 Klaus Mann German writer, and the son of German writer Thomas Mann.
† 1947 Flora Thompson English author and poet, most well-known for her semi-autobiographical trilogy, Lark Rise to Candleford.
† 1944 Rene Daumal French writer, philosopher and poet.
† 1935 Jane Addams American social reformer.
† 1929 Archibald Primrose Rosebery British Liberal statesman and Prime Minister, also known as Archibald Primrose (1847–1851) and Lord Dalmeny (1851–1868).
† 1926 Ronald Firbank English novelist and playwright.
† 1894 August Kundt German physicist.
† 1790 Thomas Warton British Poet Laureate from 1785 until his death.
† 1771 Christopher Smart Otherwise known as "Kit Smart", "Kitty Smart", and "Jack Smart", was an English poet.
† 1650 James Graham Scottish nobleman and soldier, who initially joined the Covenanters in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, but subsequently supported King Charles I as the English Civil War developed.
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