Now & Then
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MAY 21
1502: The South Atlantic island of St Helena was discovered by Portuguese explorer Joao de Nova. 1840: New Zealand was declared a colony of Britain.
1884: The Statue of Liberty was finished, work having been begun by Auguste Bartholdi in about 1874 in Paris.
1894: The 35-mile Manchester Ship Canal was formally opened by Queen Victoria.
1904: The football federation Fifa was founded in Paris to improve international control of the game. 1916: Daylight saving, advocated by William Willett, was introduced in Britain.
1927: Charles “Lucky” Lindbergh, United States airmail pilot, became the first to fly the Atlantic solo from Roosevelt Field, Long Island, New York to Le Bourget airfield, Paris, in 33 hours.
1966: Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) beat Henry Cooper to retain world heavyweight boxing title.
1982: British troops landed at Port San Carlos on Argentineheld Falkland Islands. Destroyer HMS Ardent sank with the loss of 22 lives. In an air battle as liner Canberra was strafed, 17 Argentine planes were shot down.
1983: Five people were injured and several arrested when demonstrators protesting against Nazi storm-troopers’ reunion in Bad Hersfeld, West Germany, clashed with neo-nazis and riot police.
1989: Students occupying Tiananmen Square in Peking rejected the government ultimatum to leave.
1990: Three gunmen killed top Islamic religious leader in Kashmir and police opened fire on mourners, killing 59.
1990: The Labour Party warned members not to support the Allbritain Anti-poll Tax Federation, calling it a Militant front organisation.
1992: Peace returned to Bangkok after four days in which police and soldiers fought with prodemocracy protesters.
1993: President Carlos Andres Perez of Venezuela was ordered to stand trial on corruption charges. 1995: Iran indicated that the sixyear “death sentence” on author Salman Rushdie could be lifted. 1998: In Miami, Florida, five abortion clinics were hit by a butyric acid attacker.
2001: French Taubira law officially recognised the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity.
2003: An earthquake hit northern Algeria, killing more than 2,000 people.
2005: The tallest roller coaster in the world, Kingda Ka, opened at Six Flags Great Adventure, in New Jersey, United States.
2006: The Republic of Montenegro held a referendum proposing independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. The Montenegrin people chose independence with a majority of 55 per cent.
2011: The Rapture was predicted to take place.
2014: Ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was jailed for three years by a court in Cairo after being found guilty of embezzlement. 2016: Hibernian defeated Rangers 3-2 in the Scottish Cup final, ending a 114-year wait since the Edinburgh club previously won the trophy in 1902.
BIRTHDAYS
Mutya Buena, English singer (Sugababes), 39; Nick Cassavetes, American actor, 65; Tom Daley, Olympic diver, 30; Noel Fielding, English comedian and actor, 51; Andrew Neil, editor, Sunday Times 1983-94, The Scotsman 19962005 and broadcaster, 75; Rosalind Plowright OBE, British mezzosoprano, 75; Mary Robinson, president of Republic of Ireland 1990-7, United Nations high commissioner for Human Rights 1997-2002, 80.
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1471 Albrecht Dürer, German artist and engraver; 1688: Alexander Pope, poet; 1780 Elizabeth Fry, philanthropist and prison reformer; 1904 Thomas “Fats” Waller, jazz pianist, singer, and composer; 1921 Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist. Deaths: 1471 King Henry VI (murdered in the Tower of London); 1929 Lord Rosebery, Liberal prime minister; 1965 Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, aircraft designer; 1983 Kenneth Clark, art historian; 2000 Barbara Cartland, romantic novelist; 2000 Sir John Gielgud, actor.