This Day In European History
21st May
Events993: Holy Roman Emperor Otto III is crowned.
1358: The Jacquerie uprising begins.
1553: The dying King Edward VI of England names fifteen year old Lady Jane Grey as the next monarch, partly because he is young, she is a Protestant like him (the original heir was Catholic) and partly at the urging of John Dudley, who promptly marries his son to her.
1662: King Charles II of England marries Catherine of Braganza.
1853: England's first public aquarium opens.
1871: 'Bloody Week' begins in France: the Paris Commune falls after fighting between government troops and rebels kills over 20,000.
Births
1471: Albrecht Dürer, German artist.
1527: King Philip II of Spain.
1664: Guilio Alberoni, Italian Statesman.
1688: Alexander Pope, English writer.
1780: Elizabeth Fry, British prison reformer.
1792: Gustave-Gaspard Coriolis, French engineer.
1844: Henri Rousseau, French writer.
1860: William Einthoven, Dutch physiologist.
Deaths
1471: King Henry VI of England, murdered.
1542: Hernando de Soto, Spanish explorer.
1639: Tommaso Campanella, Italian philosopher.
1650: James Graham, Scottish royalist general, hanged.
1786: Karl Wilhelm Scheele, Swedish chemist.
1789: John Hawkins, English writer.
1790: Thomas Warton, English poet laureate.
1810: Charles Genevieve d'Eon, French spy.
1845: August Schlegel, German critic.
