May 21

May 21

The Preakness Stakes horse race at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland

HISTORICAL ROYAL EVENTS

293   Roman Emperors Diocletian & Maximian appoint Galerius as Caesar to Diocletian, beginning the period of four rulers known as the Tetrarchy.
879   Pope John VIII gives blessings to Duke Branimir and to the Croatian people, considered to be international recognition of the Croatian state.
996   Sixteen-year-old Otto III is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.

1674   The nobility elect Jan Sobieski as King Jan III Sobieski of Poland & Grand Duke of Lithuania.

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

1894   The Manchester Ship Canal in England is officially opened by Queen Victoria, who knights its designer Sir Edward Leader Williams.
1939   The Canadian National War Memorial is unveiled by King George VI & Queen Elizabeth in Ottawa.


HISTORICAL ROYAL BIRTHS

1527   King Felipe II of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily (and while married to Queen Mary I of England he was King of England & Ireland) (d.1598)

1653   Eleanor Maria Josefa of Austria, Queen consort of Poland, Grand Duchess consort of Lithuania (d.1697)
1863   Archduke Eugen of Austria, Prince of Hungary & Bohemia (d.1954)

1864   Princess Stephanie of Belgium, Archduchess of Austria, Crown Princess of Austria, Hungary & Bohemia, Princess of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha, Duchess of Saxony  (d.1945)

1885   Princess Sophie of Schonburg-Waldenburg, Princess of Albania (d.1936)

DEATHS

985   King Louis V of France
1254   King Conrad IV of Germany
1481   King Christian I of Denmark, Norway, & Sweden
1512   Pandolfo Petrucci, ruler of Siena