Important Events From This day in History – 21 May

Today in History

• 1991 Former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi, is assassinated

  The attacker was a woman suspected of having ties to the Tamil Tigers, a separatist militant organization in Sri Lanka. At least 14 people were killed in the suicide bombing.

• 1979 Violent clashes follow the lenient sentencing for Harvey Milk’s murderer

  Milk, the first openly gay politician in the United States, was shot and killed alongside San Francisco Mayor George Moscone. Dan White, the assassin, was convicted only of voluntary manslaughter, sparking the White Night Riots.

• 1951 The 9th Street Show opens in New York

  The groundbreaking art exhibition, which featured works by artists such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, is regarded as the birthplace of the artistic avant-garde known as the New York School.

• 1932 Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic

  The disappearance of a US aviatress on an attempted round-the-world flight five years later is one of the most debated unsolved mysteries in aviation history.

• 1904 FIFA, the world governing body of association football, is founded

  The Fédération Internationale de Football Association is in charge of organizing the World Cup, which is one of the most watched sporting events in the world.