Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

May 21

1985
Patti Jorgenson Frustaci delivers seven babies, three of which survived. She had been taking fertility drugs.

1980
First woman to graduate from a U.S. service academy: Jean Marie Butler graduates from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.

1972
Michelangelo's Pieta (statue of the Virgin Mary holding Christ in her lap) is attacked by a man with a hammer screaming "I am Jesus Christ!" He smashed her face and broke off her left arm.

1950
Plucked alive: The sudden drop in pressure caused by a tornado passing over a chicken coop in Linslade, England plucks the feathers off the chickens. The chickens survived.

1945
World War II: German Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler is captured by the British. He committed suicide two days later.

1932
First solo transatlantic flight by a woman: Amelia Earhart arrives in Ireland, after having departed from Newfoundland the previous day.

1927
First solo transatlantic flight: Charles A. Lindbergh, in The Spirit of St. Louis, arrives in Paris. He had departed from New York the previous day.

1881
American Red Cross Society is founded, with Clara Barton as president.

1738
Charles Wesley experiences his evangical conversion. He and his brother John founded the Methodist Church.

1957
Judge Reinhold (Edward Ernest Reinhold, Jr), American actor. Film: Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Beverly Hills Cop (1984), and Ruthless People (1986).

1952
Mr. T (Lawrence Tero), American actor. TV: The A-Team (B.A. Baracus). "I pity the fool."

1948
Leo Sayer (Gerard Hugh Sayer), British singer. Music: The Show Must Go On (1973, #1), You Make Me Feel Like Dancing (1976, #1), and When I Need You (1976, #1).

1941
Ronald Isley, American Grammy-winning singer, with the Isley Brothers. Music: Twist and Shout (1962), This Old Heart of Mine (1966), and It's Your Thing (1970, Grammy).

1926
Rick Jason, American actor. TV: Combat (Lt. Gil Hanley).

1917     d. 1993
Raymond Burr (William Stacey Burr), Canadian-born American Emmy-winning actor. Film: Godzilla (1954, the American reporter). TV: Ironside (title role) and Perry Mason (title role).

1898     d. 1990
Armand Hammer, American businessman, president of Occidental Petroleum Corporation and founder of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda Co.

1878     d. 1930
Glenn Curtiss, American aviation pioneer. He won the Scientific American prize for the first airplane flight of one kilometer (1908), opened the first U.S. flying school (1909), and invented the flying boat (1912).

1873     d. 1941
Hans Berger, German psychiatrist. Invented the electroencephalograph (1929), which is used to record brain waves.

1527     d. 1598
Philip II, King of Spain, Naples, and Sicily (1556-98), and King of Portugal (1580-98). His armada was destroyed after attacking England (1588), giving rule of the seas to England.

1471     d. 1528
Albrecht Dürer, German Renaissance artist. His series of Apocalypse woodcuts became the first book published by an artist from their own work (1498).

2005     b. 1919
Howard Morris, American comedian.  TV: Sid Caesar's sidekick and the rock-throwing Ernest T. Bass of The Andy Griffith Show.

2002     b. 1917
Joe Cobb, American actor, appeared in 86 Our Gang films as Fat Joe.

2000     b. 1901
Dame Barbara Cartland, British romance novelist. Her more than 600 books - sometimes written at a rate of one every two weeks - have sold over 600 million copies.

1995     b. 1938
Les Aspin, American politician, U.S. Congressman (1971-93, Wisconsin), U.S. Secretary of Defense (1993-94). He established the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy on homosexuality in the military.

1993     b. 1912
John Frost, British World War II hero, he was portrayed by Sir Anthony Hopkins in the 1977 movie A Bridge to Far.

1992     b. circa 1968
Mrithi, Rwandan mountain gorilla who starred in the movie Gorillas in the Mist (1988). He was shot and killed by armed troops in the battle between the Rwandan government and the Rwandese Patriotic Party.

1973     b. 1912
Vaughn Monroe (Wilton Monroe), American singer, bandleader. Music: Racing With the Moon and Ghost Riders in the Sky (1949).

1690     b. 1604
John Eliot, American Apostle to the Indians, first Protestant minister to dedicate himself to converting American Indians, wrote the first book printed in an Indian language (1653), and translated the Bible into the Indian Language (1661-63). He also co-edited of the Bay Psalm Book (1640), the first book printed in America in English.

1542     b. circa 1496
Ferdinando de Soto, explorer.

1471     b. 1421
Henry VI, King of England (1422-61, 1470-71).

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