On this day...Historic events that happened on May 21st

Near Bikini Atoll, in the Pacific, the United States carries out a test by detonating the first hydrogen bomb that can be transported by air, the Shot Redwing-Cherokee.

In the service of Portugal, the navigator João da Nova discovered the island of Saint Helena in the central-southern Atlantic, which became famous in the following centuries as it became the place of Napoleon's last exile.

It was on May 21, 1927 when Charles Lindbergh made the first non-stop Atlantic flight, starting from New York and landing in Paris.

Five years later, on May 21, 1932, Amelia Earhart repeated Lindbergh's non-stop Atlantic crossing, starting, however, from Newfoundland, Canada, and reaching Londonderry, Northern Ireland. She was the first woman in history to achieve this.

Albrecht Dürer, a famous Renaissance painter and engraver and one of the most important artists in the history of art, was born in Nuremberg, Germany. Among his main works, we remember “The Four Horsemen” and “Self-portrait with Fur” (in the photo).

Photo: Albrecht Dürer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

On 21 May 1904, the Frenchman Robert Guérin and the Dutchman Carl A. Wilhelm Hirschmann gathered in Paris the delegates of eight federations (France, Holland, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark and Germany) and founded FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association).

In 1972 the news of the damage caused with a hammer by the Hungarian geologist László Tóth to one of the most famous works of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome: Michelangelo's Pietà caused a great stir.

In the photo: the moment of Tóth's arrest

In 1979, for the first time in its history, the USSR opened its doors to a Western artist. Elton John was authorized by the Soviet government to hold a series of concerts in Leningrad, the first of which took place on May 21st.

In 1991, in Madras, India, the eldest son of Indira and Feroze Gandhi was killed by a terrorist: the former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi (pictured).

In 2003, Algeria was the scene of a tragic 6.8 magnitude earthquake that took the lives of over 230o people. It was one of the most serious and devastating earthquakes to hit North Africa.

On 21 May 2006, with 55.5% of the votes in favour, a referendum established the independence of Montenegro from the Confederation of Serbia and Montenegro.

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