On this day, May 21

1868 Ulysses S. Grant was nominated for president by the Republican national convention in Chicago.

1932 Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, landing in Northern Ireland about 15 hours after leaving Newfoundland.

1937 Pennsylvania Gov. George Howard Earle III signed a bill to create a turnpike commission to issue $50 million to $65 million in bonds to finance construction of an “all-weather” toll highway from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg.

1972 Michelangelo’s Pieta, on display at the Vatican, was damaged by a hammerwielding man who shouted he was Jesus Christ.

1974 The home-rule charter for Allegheny County was defeated in the primary.

1979 Former San Francisco Supervisor Dan White was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the slayings of Mayor George Moscone and openly gay Supervisor Harvey Milk. Outrage over the verdict sparked rioting. White was sentenced to seven years and eight months in prison. He ended up serving five years and committed suicide in 1985.

1990 Mayer DeRoy, a 30-year veteran police officer, became the new Pittsburgh Police chief.

2009 A 66-year-old woman with terminal cancer became the first person to die under Washington state’s new assisted-suicide law.

Some items are from Stefan Lorant’s “Pittsburgh: The Story of an American City” (digital.library.pitt.edu/chronology).