Alexander Pope
21 May 1688 – 30 May 1744
English poet who translated Homer’s Iliad in 1715. » more

Elizabeth Fry
21 May 1780 – 12 October 1845
English social and prison reformer. » more

Henri Rousseau
21 May 1844 – 2 September 1910
French Post-Impressionist artist. Paintings can be seen in the Musée d’Orsay, Paris; Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Metropolitan Museum of Art & Museum of Modern Art, New York; TATE Modern, London. » more

Willem Einthoven
21 May 1860 – 29 September 1927
Dutch scientist who perfected the ECG (electrocardiogram) in 1903. » more

Glenn Curtiss
21 May 1878 – 23 July 1930
American aviation entrepreneur. » more

Alexander Douglas
21 May 1921 – 29 April 2010
English computer scientist who invented the first graphical computer game in 1952, ‘OXO’ (noughts and crosses). » more

Ernst Messerschmid
21 May 1945
German astronaut, flew with the first German Spacelab mission D-1 in 1985. » more

Today’s Quote
Choose your pleasures for yourself, and do not let them be imposed upon you.
 … Lord Chesterfield (1694 – 1773)

Today’s No. 1 Hit
1962 – Stranger on the Shore by Acker Bilk.

Today’s events
21 May 1871 – Inauguration of ‘rack railway’ on Mount Rigi, Switzerland – enabling trains to travel steep inclines.
21 May 1894 – Opening of the Manchester Ship Canal in England, designed by Edward Williams.
21 May 1904 – FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) established in Paris.
21 May 1914 – Inauguration of Greyhound Bus Lines, established in Alice, Minnesota, America.
21 May 1927 – The first non-stop Atlantic flight completed by Charles Lindbergh.
21 May 1979 – Elton John becomes the first pop singer to perform in Russia.