Today in History - History - May 21st

1725The Order of St. Alexander Nevsky is instituted in Russia by the empress Catherine I. It would later be discontinued and then reinstated by the Soviet government in 1942 as the Order of Alexander Nevsky.

1978Nancy Lopez wins LPGA Coca-Cola Golf Classic

1881American Red Cross founded by Clara Barton

198935th Mazda LPGA Championship won by Nancy Lopez

1809Battle of Aspern-Essling: Austrian archduke Karl beats Napoleon

1938Don Bradman scores 143 Austalia v Surrey, 198 mins, 11 fours

1927Aviator Charles Lindbergh, in the Spirit of St Louis, lands in Paris after first solo air crossing of Atlantic

1969After 9,015 at bats Hank Aaron is lifted for a pinch hitter, Mike Lum, who doubled in a 15-3 victory over NY Mets

19321st transatlantic solo flight by a woman (Amelia Earhart) lands in Ireland

1972Michelangelo's Pietà in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is damaged by a vandal.

120 BCAurelia Cotta, mother of Julius Caesar

1780Elizabeth Fry, Quaker minister/prison reformer/nurse

1921Andrei Sakharov, Moscow, physicist, human rights worker (Nobel '75)

1904Fats Waller, [Thomas Wright], jazz singer/composer (Ain't Misbehavin')

1952Mr. T, [Lawrence Tureaud], Chicago, American actor (A-Team, Rocky III, T & T)

1688Alexander Pope, London, English poet (Rape of the Lock, translation of Homer) (d.1744)

1960Jeffrey Dahmer, West Allis Wisconsin, American serial killer (Milwaukee Cannibal)

1940Tony Sheridan, Norwich, Norfolk, singer-songwriter and guitarist, (d. 2013)

1994ABC Sports President Roone Arledge (62) weds third wife Gigi Shaw

1999NFL legend Deion Sanders (31) weds model Pilar Biggers in Paradise Island, Bahamas

1944Actor Burgess Meredith (36) weds actress Paulette Goddard (33) at David O Selznick's Beverly Hills home

1945Director Akira Kurosawa (35) weds actress Yoko Yaguchi (23)

1542Hernando de Soto, dies while searching for gold, near Mississippi River

1935Jane Addams, a founder of ACLU (Nobel 1973), dies at 65