Today is Wednesday, May 21, the 141st day of 2025
with 224 to follow.
The moon is waning. Morning stars are Mars, Mercury, Neptune, Saturn and Venus. Evening stars are Jupiter and Mars.
On this date in history:
In 1832, the first Democratic Party national convention convened in Baltimore.
In 1856, Lawrence, Kan., was burned by pro-slavery forces.
In 1881, Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross.
In 1924, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb kidnapped and killed Bobby Franks, 13, of Chicago, in a "thrill killing" that was often called "the crime of the century." They were given life sentences. Loeb was killed in prison; Leopold was paroled after serving 33 years.
In 1927, Charles Lindbergh landed the Spirit of St. Louis in Paris, completing the first non-stop solo flight across the Atlantic in 33 1/2 hours.
In 1932, five years to the day after Charles Lindbergh ended his historic flight, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic from Newfoundland, Canada, to Ireland. She completed her flight in 13 1/2 hours.
In 1988, Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev, in an effort to consolidate power, sacked the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan after bloody nationalist demonstrations over the disputed region of Nagorno Karabakh.
In 1960, the first of what would become a series of earthquakes that lasted through early June rattled just south of Santiago, Chile. The so-called Valdivia earthquake the next day was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded with a magnitude of between 9.4 and 9.6 on the richter scale. Up to 7,000 people died in the temblors.
In 1991, former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated while campaigning.
In 2003, an earthquake near Algiers, Algeria, killed more than 2,200 people and injured another 10,000.
In 2019, Jokha Alharthi became the first Arabic writer to win the Man Booker International Prize for her novel Celestial Bodies.
In 2020, actor Lori Loughlin and husband fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in connection with a college admissions cheating scandal. They each served jail time.
In 2024, a British passenger flying Singapore Airlines died and 71 more were injured when a flight from London to Singapore encountered severe turbulence. The pilot declared an emergency and diverted the plane to Bangkok.
