Portal:United States/Anniversaries/May/May 21
- 1881 – The American Red Cross (logo pictured) is established by Clara Barton.
- 1934 – Oskaloosa, Iowa, becomes the first municipality in the United States to fingerprint each of its citizens.
- 1863 – The Seventh-day Adventist Church is organized in Battle Creek, Michigan.
- 1956 – In the Pacific Ocean, Bikini Atoll is nearly obliterated by the first airborne explosion of a hydrogen bomb.
- 1961 – Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out as part of the civil rights movement.
- 1979 – In San Francisco the White Night riots break out following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.
On this day for the United States
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Events
- 1758 – Mary Campbell is abducted from her home in Pennsylvania by Lenape during the French and Indian War.
- 1856 – Lawrence, Kansas is captured and burned by pro–slavery forces.
- 1863 – American Civil War: Siege of Port Hudson – Union forces begin to lay siege to the Confederate–controlled Port Hudson, Louisiana.
- 1881 – The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton.
- 1917 – Great Atlanta fire of 1917.
- 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 – Amelia Earhart, because of bad weather, lands in a pasture in Derry, Northern Ireland, becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
- 1934 – Oskaloosa, Iowa, becomes the first municipality in the United States to fingerprint each of its citizens.
- 1941 – World War II: 950 miles off the coast of Brazil, the freighter SS Robin Moor becomes the first United States ship sunk by a German U-boat.
- 1945 – United States screen legend Humphrey Bogart marries actress Lauren Bacall.
- 1951 – opening of the Ninth Street Show otherwise known as the 9th Street Art Exhibition was a gathering of a number of notable artists, and it was the stepping–out of the post war New York avant-garde, collectively known as the New York School.
- 1956 – Nuclear testing: Shot Redwing–Cherokee is successfully detonated at Bikini Atoll at the Pacific Proving Grounds in the Marshall Islands. With a yield of 3.8 megatons, it is the first aircraft deliverable hydrogen bomb tested by the United States.
- 1961 – American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out.
- 1979 – White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.
- 1998 – In Miami, Florida, five abortion clinics are hit by a butyric acid attacker.