ON MAY 21 ...

In 1471, painter and printmaker Albrecht Durer was born in Nuremberg, Germany.

In 1542 Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto died while searching for gold along the Mississippi River.

In 1832 the first Democratic National Convention got under way, in Baltimore.

In 1840 New Zealand was declared a British colony.

In 1881 Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross.

In 1904 jazz musician, singer and composer Thomas “Fats” Waller was born in New York.

In 1921 physicist and Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975, was born in Moscow.

In 1924 14-year-old Bobby Franks was murdered in a “thrill killing” committed by Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb, two students at the University of Chicago.

In 1927 Charles Lindbergh landed his Spirit of St. Louis near Paris, completing the first solo airplane flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

In 1956 the United States exploded the first airborne hydrogen bomb over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. In 1959 the musical “Gypsy” opened on Broadway.

In 1960 serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was born in Milwaukee.

In 1968 the nuclear-powered U.S. submarine Scorpion, with 99 men aboard, was last heard from. (The remains of the sub were later found on the ocean floor 400 miles southwest of the Azores.)

In 1973 the rapper known as the Notorious B.I.G. and Biggie Smalls was born Christopher Wallace in New York.

In 1979 former San Francisco City Supervisor Dan White was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the slayings of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk.

In 1980 Ensign Jean Marie Butler became the first woman to graduate from a U.S. service academy as she accepted her degree and commission from the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn.

In 1991 former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a suicide bomber.

In 1998, in the wake of deadly anti-government protests, Indonesia President Suharto stepped down after 32 years in power and was succeeded by Vice President B.J. Habibie. Also in 1998 teen gunman Kip Kinkel opened fire inside Thurston High School in Springfield, Ore., killing two students, a day after killing his parents. (Kinkel was sentenced to 112 years in prison for the slayings.) Also in 1998 Frank and Shirley Capaci of Streamwood, Ill., announced they were the holders of a winning Powerball ticket worth $195 million.

In 1999 Susan Lucci won a Daytime Emmy Award for best actress on her 19th try.

In 2000 “Dancer in the Dark” won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Also in 2000 actor Sir John Gielgud died in Buckinghamshire, England; he was 96. Also in 2000 romance novelist Barbara Cartland died near Hatfield, England; she was 98.

In 2003 Christine Todd Whitman resigned as Environmental Protection Agency administrator. Also in 2003 the most devastating earthquake to hit Algeria in two decades killed at least 2,200 people. Also in 2003 Ruben Studdard edged Clay Aiken to win the second “American Idol” competition on Fox.

In 2004 the UN Security Council approved a peacekeeping force of 5,600 troops for Burundi to help the African nation finally end a 10-year civil war. Also in 2004 Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors Corp., struggling to survive, announced it would cut 11,000 jobs.

In 2006 Iraq’s new prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, promised to use “maximum force” if necessary to end the brutal insurgent and sectarian violence racking his country.

In 2012 a suicide bomber killed about 100 and wounded hundreds in Sanaa, Yemen, during rehearsals for a military parade.

In 2014 a Cairo court sentenced former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to three years in prison for plundering the state treasury.

In 2016 U.S. special operations forces launched a drone strike that killed Taliban leader Mullah Mansour in a remote town in Pakistan.

In 2017 Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus performed its last shows at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y., ending 146 years as “The Greatest Show on Earth.”