today.nukz.net: Almanac May 21

Fats Waller (May 21, 1904 – December 15, 1943), born Thomas Wright Waller, was a jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer. Waller was one of the most popular performers of his era, finding critical and commercial success in his homeland and in Europe. He was also a prolific songwriter and many songs he wrote or co-wrote are still popular, such as "Honeysuckle Rose", "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Squeeze Me". Fellow pianist and composer Oscar Levant dubbed Waller "the black Horowitz". Waller composed many novelty swing tunes in the 1920s and 1930s and sold them for relatively small sums. When the compositions became hits, other songwriters claimed them as their own. Many standards are alternatively and sometimes controversially attributed to Waller.

Events

293 – Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximian appoint Galerius as Caesar to Diocletian, beginning the period of four rulers known as the Tetrarchy.
878 – Syracuse, Italy, is captured by the Muslim sultan of Sicily.
879 – Pope John VIII gives blessings to Branimir of Croatia and to the Croatian people, considered to be international recognition of the Croatian state.
996 – Sixteen-year-old Otto III is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
1349 – Dušan's Code, the constitution of the Serbian Empire, is enacted by Dušan the Mighty.
1502 – The island of Saint Helena is discovered by the Portuguese explorer João da Nova.
1554 – Queen Mary I grants a royal Charter to Derby School, as a grammar school for boys in Derby, England.
1674 – The nobility elect John Sobieski King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania.
1725 – The Order of St. Alexander Nevsky is instituted in Russia by Empress Catherine I. It would later be discontinued and then reinstated by the Soviet government in 1942 as the Order of Alexander Nevsky.
1758 – Ten-year-old Mary Campbell is abducted in Pennsylvania by Lenape during the French and Indian War. She is returned some six and a half years later.
1809 – The first day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling between the Austrian army led by Archduke Charles and the French army led by Napoleon I of France sees the French attack across the Danube held.
1851 – Slavery is abolished in Colombia, South America.
1856 – Lawrence, Kansas is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces.
1863 – American Civil War: The Union Army succeeds in closing off the last escape route from Port Hudson, Louisiana, in preparation for the coming siege.
1863 – Organization of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Battle Creek, Michigan.
1864 – Russia declares an end to the Russian-Circassian War and many Circassians are forced into exile. The day is designated the Circassian Day of Mourning.
1871 – French troops invade the Paris Commune and engage its residents in street fighting. By the close of "Bloody Week", some 20,000 communards have been killed and 38,000 arrested.
1871 – Opening of the first rack railway in Europe, the Rigi-Bahnen on Mount Rigi.
1879 – War of the Pacific: Two Chilean ships blocking the harbor of Iquique (then belonging to Peru) battle two Peruvian vessels in the Battle of Iquique.
1881 – The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton in Washington, D.C..
1894 – The Manchester Ship Canal in England is officially opened by Queen Victoria, who later knights its designer Sir Edward Leader Williams.
1904 – The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is founded in Paris.
1911 – Mexican President Porfirio Díaz and the revolutionary Francisco Madero sign the Treaty of Ciudad Juárez to put an end to the fighting between the forces of both men, and thus concluding the initial phase of the Mexican Revolution.
1917 – The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is established through Royal Charter to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations military forces.
1917 – The Great Atlanta fire of 1917 causes $5.5 million in damages, destroying some 300 acres including 2,000 homes, businesses and churches, displacing about 10,000 people and leading to only fatality (due to heart attack).
1924 – University of Chicago students Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr. murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a "thrill killing".
1927 – Charles Lindbergh touches down at Le Bourget Field in Paris, completing the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
1932 – Bad weather forces Amelia Earhart to land in a pasture in Derry, Northern Ireland, and she thereby becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
1934 – Oskaloosa, Iowa, becomes the first municipality in the United States to fingerprint all of its citizens.
1936 – Sada Abe is arrested after wandering the streets of Tokyo for days with her dead lover's severed genitals in her hand. Her story soon becomes one of Japan's most notorious scandals.
1937 – A Soviet station, North Pole-1, becomes the first scientific research settlement to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean.
1939 – The Canadian National War Memorial is unveiled by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in Ottawa.
1946 – Physicist Louis Slotin is fatally irradiated in a criticality incident during an experiment with the Demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
1951 – The opening of the Ninth Street Show, otherwise known as the 9th Street Art Exhibition – a gathering of a number of notable artists, and the stepping-out of the post war New York avant-garde, collectively known as the New York School.
1961 – American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out.
1966 – The Ulster Volunteer Force declares war on the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland.
1969 – Civil unrest in Rosario, Argentina, known as Rosariazo, following the death of a 15-year-old student.
1972 – Michelangelo's Pietà in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is damaged by a vandal, the mentally disturbed Hungarian geologist Laszlo Toth.
1976 – The Yuba City bus disaster occurs in Martinez, California. 29 are killed making it the deadliest road accident in U.S. history.
1979 – White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.
1981 – Irish Republican hunger strikers Raymond McCreesh and Patsy O'Hara die on hunger strike in Maze prison.
1981 – The Italian government releases the membership list of Propaganda Due, an illegal pseudo-Masonic lodge that was implicated in numerous Italian crimes and mysteries.
1982 – Falklands War: A British amphibious assault during Operation Sutton leads to the Battle of San Carlos.
1990 – The Democratic Republic of Yemen and North Yemen agree to merge into the Republic of Yemen.
1991 – Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a female suicide bomber near Madras.
1991 – Mengistu Haile Mariam, president of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, flees Ethiopia, effectively bringing the Ethiopian Civil War to an end.
1994 – The Democratic Republic of Yemen unsuccessful attempts to secede from the Republic of Yemen; a war breaks out.
1996 – The ferry MV Bukoba sinks in Tanzanian waters on Lake Victoria, killing nearly 1,000.
1996 – The Trappist Martyrs of Atlas, kidnapped during the Algerian Civil War and held for two months, are found dead.
1998 – In Miami, Florida, five abortion clinics are hit by a butyric acid attacker.
2001 – French Taubira law is enacted, officially recognizing the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity.
2003 – An earthquake hits northern Algeria killing more than 2,000 people.
2005 – The tallest roller coaster in the world, Kingda Ka opens at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey.
2006 – The Republic of Montenegro holds a referendum proposing independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. The Montenegrin people choose independence with a majority of 55%.
2010 – JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, launches the solar-sail spacecraft IKAROS aboard an H-IIA rocket. The vessel would make a Venus flyby late in the year.

Births

1471 – Albrecht Dürer, German painter (d. 1528)
1527 – King Philip II of Spain (d. 1598)
1653 – Eleonora Maria Josefa of Austria (d. 1697)
1664 – Giulio Alberoni, Italian cardinal (d. 1754)
1688 – Alexander Pope, English poet (d. 1744)
1755 – Alfred Moore, American judge (d. 1810)
1763 – Joseph Fouché, French statesman (d. 1820)
1775 – Lucien Bonaparte, French politician, soldier and academic (d. 1840)
1780 – Elizabeth Fry, British social reformer (d. 1845)
1792 – Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis, French scientist (d. 1843)
1799 – Mary Anning, British fossil collector and paleontologist (d. 9 March 1847).
1827 – William P. Sprague, American politician (d. 1899)
1832 – Elizabeth Storrs Mead, American educator (d. 1917)
1835 – František Chvostek, Moravian physician (d. 1884)
1843 – Charles Albert Gobat, Swiss politician (d. 1914)
1844 – Henri Rousseau, French artist (d. 1910)
1850 – Giuseppe Mercalli, Italian vulcanologist (d. 1914)
1851 – Léon Bourgeois, French statesman, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (d. 1925)
1853 – Jacques Marie Eugène Godefroy Cavaignac, French politician (d. 1905)
1856 – José Batlle y Ordóñez, Uruguayan politician (d. 1929)
1860 – Willem Einthoven, Dutch physiologist; Nobel laureate (d. 1927)
1863 – Archduke Eugen of Austria, Austrian field marshal (d. 1954)
1864 – Princess Stephanie of Belgium (d. 1945)
1873 – Hans Berger, German neuroscientist (d. 1941)
1878 – Glenn Curtiss, American aviation engineer (d. 1930)
1880 – Tudor Arghezi, Romanian writer (d. 1967)
1884 – Manuel Pérez y Curis, Uruguayan poet (d. 1920)
1885 – Sophie of Schönburg-Waldenburg, wife of William, Prince of Albania (d. 1936)
1898 – Armand Hammer, American businessman and physician (d. 1990)
1898 – Charles Léon Hammes, Luxembourgian lawyer and jurist (d. 1967)
1901 – Manfred Aschner, German-born Israeli microbiologist (d. 1989)
1901 – Horace Heidt, American band leader (d. 1986)
1901 – Sam Jaffe, American film producer (d. 2000)
1901 – Suzanne Lilar, Belgian essayist and playwright (d. 1992)
1902 – Earl Averill, American baseball player (d. 1983)
1902 – Marcel Lajos Breuer, Hungarian-born architect (d. 1981)
1903 – Manly Wade Wellman, American writer (d. 1986)
1904 – Robert Montgomery, American actor (d. 1981)
1904 – Fats Waller, American pianist (d. 1943)
1907 – John C. Allen, American roller coaster designer (d. 1979)
1909 – François-Albert Angers, Quebec economist (d. 2003)
1912 – John Curtis Gowan, American psychologist (d. 1986)
1912 – Monty Stratton, American baseball player (d. 1982)
1912 – Akiva Vroman, Dutch-born Israeli geologist (d. 1989)
1913 – Gina Bachauer, Greek pianist (d. 1976)
1916 – Tinus Osendarp, Dutch runner (d. 2002)
1916 – Harold Robbins, American novelist (d. 1997)
1917 – Raymond Burr, Canadian actor (d. 1993)
1918 – Dennis Day, American singer and comedian (d. 1988)
1920 – Anthony Steel, British actor (d. 2001)
1920 – Forrest White, American musical instruments industry executive (d. 1994)
1920 – Bill Barber, American jazz tuba player(d. 2007)
1921 – Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist (d. 1989)
1921 – A.S. Douglas, British computer scientist (d. 2010)
1923 – Armand Borel, Swiss mathematician (d. 2003)
1923 – Ara Parseghian, American football coach
1923 – Vernon Biever, American photographer (d. 2010)
1923 – Evelyn Ward, American actress
1924 – Peggy Cass, American actress (d. 1999)
1926 – Robert Creeley, American poet (d. 2005)
1928 – Tom Donahue, American disc jockey (d. 1975)
1929 – Alice Drummond, American actress
1929 – Larance Marable, American jazz drummer
1930 – Malcolm Fraser, Australian politician
1930 – Tommy Bryant, American jazz double-bassist (d. 1982)
1932 – Billy Wright, American jump blues singer (d. 1991)
1933 – Maurice André, French trumpeter (d. 2012)
1933 – Yevgeni Minaev, Soviet weightlifter (d. 1993)
1934 – Bengt I. Samuelsson, Swedish biochemist, Nobel laureate
1935 – Terry Lightfoot, British clarinettist and bandleader
1936 – Günter Blobel, German biologist, Nobel laureate
1938 – Lee "Shot" Williams, American blues singer (d. 2011)
1939 – Heinz Holliger, Swiss oboist, composer and conductor
1941 – Martin Carthy, English folk singer and guitarist
1941 – Ronald Isley, American singer (The Isley Brothers)
1941 – Bobby Cox, American baseball manager and former player
1942 – Danny Ongais, American race car driver
1943 – Hilton Valentine, British guitarist (The Animals)
1944 – Marcie Blane, American singer
1944 – Mary Robinson, President of Ireland
1945 – Ernst Messerschmid, German astronaut
1947 – Bill Champlin, American singer
1947 – Jonathan Hyde, Australian-born actor
1948 – Leo Sayer, English singer and songwriter
1948 – Elizabeth Buchan, née Oakleigh-Walker, English writer
1951 – Al Franken, American comedian and politician, junior senator of Minnesota
1952 – Mr. T, American actor
1954 – Marc Ribot, American guitarist and composer
1954 – Janice Karman, American film producer, record producer, singer, and voice artist
1954 – Stephen Betts, keyboardist for the Associates
1955 – Paul Barber, British field hockey player
1955 – Stan Lynch, American drummer (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers)
1957 – James Bailey, American basketball player
1957 – Bruce Buffer, American Mixed Martial Arts announcer
1957 – Nadine Dorries, British Conservative politician
1957 – Judge Reinhold, American actor
1957 – Renée Soutendijk, Dutch actress
1958 – Jefery Levy, American television director
1959 – Nick Cassavetes, American actor and director
1960 – Jeffrey Dahmer, American serial killer (d. 1994)
1960 – Kent Hrbek, American baseball player
1960 – Mohanlal, Indian actor
1960 – Jeffrey Toobin, American writer and political analyst
1960 – Vladimir Salnikov, Russian swimmer
1962 – Richard Caputo, American Author
1962 – David Crumb, American Composer, son of the American composer George Crumb
1963 – Richard Appel, American writer
1963 – Kevin Shields, American-born Irish vocalist and guitarist (My Bloody Valentine)
1963 – Dave Specter, American Chicago blues and jazz guitarist
1964 – Danny Bailey, English footballer
1964 – Danny Lee Clark, American football player
1964 – Nancy Benoit, American professional wrestler (d. 2007)
1964 – Carolyn Lawrence, American actress
1967 – Lisa Edelstein, American actress
1967 – Chris Benoit, Canadian professional wrestler (d. 2007)
1967 – Blake Schwarzenbach, American musician (Jawbreaker, Jets to Brazil)
1968 – Julie Vega, Filipino child actress and singer (d. 1985)
1968 – Matthias Ungemach, German rower
1969 – Pierluigi Brivio, Italian footballer
1969 – Georgiy R. Gongadze, Ukrainian/Georgian journalist
1969 – Masayo Kurata, Japanese voice actress
1969 – George LeMieux, American politician
1970 – Dorsey Levens, American football player
1970 – Carl Veart, Australian soccer player
1972 – Adriano Cintra, Brazilian musician (CSS)
1972 – The Notorious B.I.G., American rapper (d. 1997)
1972 – Alesha Oreskovich, American model
1973 – Noel Fielding, British comedian
1973 – Stewart Cink, American golfer
1974 – Fairuza Balk, American actress
1974 – Havoc, American rapper (Mobb Deep)
1975 – Lee Gaze, Welsh guitarist (Lostprophets)
1976 – Aditi Gowitrikar, Indian model, actress and physician
1976 – Deron Miller, American singer, guitarist and songwriter (CKY)
1977 – Quinton Fortune, South African footballer
1977 – Michael Fuß, German footballer
1977 – Ricky Williams, American football player
1978 – Adam Gontier, Canadian singer (Three Days Grace)
1978 – Jamaal Magloire, Canadian basketball player
1979 – Damián Ariel Álvarez, Argentinian footballer
1979 – Gaspard Augé, French DJ
1979 – Briana Banks, German-American pornographic actress and model
1979 – Jamie Hepburn, Scottish politician
1979 – James Clancy Phelan, Australian novelist
1979 – Scott Smith, American mixed martial arts fighter
1980 – Chris Raab, American television personality
1980 – Gotye, Australian Musician
1981 – Craig Anderson, American ice hockey player
1981 – Edson Buddle, American footballer
1981 – Josh Hamilton, American baseball player
1981 – Maximilian Mutzke, German singer and drummer
1982 – Brian Klemm, American guitarist and vocalist (Suburban Legends)
1983 – Veloso, Brazilian footballer
1984 – Lorena Ayala, Dutch/Spanish model
1984 – Brandon Fields, American football player
1984 – Sara Goller, German beach volleyball player
1985 – Mutya Buena, English singer (Sugababes)
1985 – Marco Carta, Italian singer
1985 – Mark Cavendish, Manx cyclist
1985 – Isa Guha, English cricketer
1985 – Lucie Hradecká, Czech tennis player
1985 – Kano, British rapper
1985 – Marie McCray, American adult actress
1985 – Andrew Miller, American baseball player
1985 – Alexander Dale Oen, Norwegian swimmer (d. 2012)
1986 – Mario Mandžukic, Croatian footballer
1986 – Myra, American singer
1986 – Alexander Noyes, American drummer (Honor Society)
1986 – Greg Stewart, Canadian ice hockey player
1988 – Park Gyuri, Korean singer/actress/disc jockey
1988 – Jonathan Howson, English footballer
1989 – Hal Robson-Kanu, Welsh footballer
1991 – Sarah Ramos, American actress
1992 – Hutch Dano, American actor
1992 – Philipp Grüneberg, German footballer
1992 – Olivia Olson, American singer and actress
1994 – Tom Daley, English diver and Olympian

Deaths

987 – King Louis V of France (b. 967)
1237 – Olaf the Black, King of Mann and the Isles
1254 – King Conrad IV of Germany (b. 1228)
1471 – King Henry VI of England (b. 1421)
1481 – King Christian I of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden (b. 1426)
1512 – Pandolfo Petrucci, ruler of Siena (b. 1452)
1524 – Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, English soldier (b. 1443)
1542 – Hernando de Soto, Spanish explorer (b. 1496 or 1497)
1607 – John Rainolds, English scholar (b. 1549)
1639 – Tommaso Campanella, Italian theologian (b. 1568)
1647 – Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, Dutch poet (b. 1581)
1650 – James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, Scottish royalist (b. 1612)
1664 – Elizabeth Poole, English-born Puritan settler and founder of Taunton, Massachusetts (b. 1588)
1670 – Niccolò Zucchi, Italian astronomer (b. 1586)
1686 – Otto von Guericke, German scientist (b. 1602)
1690 – John Eliot, English Puritan missionary (b. 1604)
1719 – Pierre Poiret, French mystic (b. 1646)
1724 – Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, English statesman (b. 1661)
1742 – Lars Roberg, Swedish physician (b. 1664)
1771 – Christopher Smart, English poet (b. 1722)
1786 – Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Swedish chemist (b. 1742)
1790 – Thomas Warton, English poet (b. 1728)
1844 – Giuseppe Baini, Italian composer (b. 1775)
1862 – John Drew, Irish-born American actor (b. 1827)
1879 – Arturo Prat, Chilean naval officer (b. 1848)
1894 – Emile Henry, French anarchist (b. 1872)
1894 – August Kundt, German physicist (b. 1839)
1895 – Franz von Suppé, Austrian composer (b. 1819)
1911 – Williamina Fleming, Scottish-born astronomer (b. 1857)
1915 – Leonid Gobyato, Russian general (b. 1875)
1919 – Yevgraf Fyodorov, Russian mathematician (b. 1853)
1920 – Venustiano Carranza, 54th President of Mexico (b. 1859)
1925 – Hidesaburo Ueno, Japanese agricultural scientist and guardian of Hachiko (b. 1871)
1929 – Archibald Primrose, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1847)
1935 – Jane Addams, American social worker, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (b. 1860)
1949 – Klaus Mann, German writer (b. 1906)
1952 – John Garfield, American actor (b. 1913)
1956 – Harry Bensley, English rake and adventurer (b. 1877)
1957 – Alexander Vertinsky, Russian poet, singer, composer, cabaret artist and actor (b. 1889)
1964 – James Franck, German-born physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1882)
1965 – Geoffrey de Havilland, British aircraft designer (b. 1882)
1970 – E. L. Grant Watson, English biologist and writer (b. 1885)
1973 – Vaughn Monroe, American baritone singer, trumpeter and big band leader (b. 1911)
1981 – Raymond McCreesh, Irish hunger striker (b. 1957)
1981 – Patsy O'Hara, Irish hunger striker (b. 1957)
1983 – Kenneth Clark, English art historian (b. 1903)
1984 – Ann Little, American actress (b. 1891)
1988 – Sammy Davis, Sr., American dancer (b. 1900)
1991 – Lino Brocka, Filipino movie Director (b. 1939)
1991 – Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India (b. 1944)
1995 – Les Aspin, American politician (b. 1938)
1996 – Paul Delph, American singer, songwriter and producer (b. 1957)
1996 – Lash LaRue, American actor (b. 1917)
1999 – Karnail "Bugz" Pitts, American rapper (D12) (b. 1979)
2000 – Barbara Cartland, English author (b. 1901)
2000 – Sir John Gielgud, British actor (b. 1904)
2000 – Mark R. Hughes, American entrepreneur (b. 1956)
2002 – Niki de Saint Phalle, French sculptor, painter and filmmaker (b. 1930)
2003 – Alejandro de Tomaso, Argentine-Italian racing driver and car manufacturer (b. 1928)
2003 – Frank D. White, American politician (b. 1933)
2005 – Howard Morris, American comic actor and director (b. 1919)
2006 – Spencer Clark, American racecar driver (b. 1987)
2006 – Katherine Dunham, American dancer (b. 1909)
2006 – Cherd Songsri, Thai film director (b. 1931)
2006 – Billy Walker, American singer (b. 1929)