21/05/10

Otto III became Holy Roman Emperor at the age of 16 in 996.  French troops invaded the Paris Commune in 1871, beginning La Semaine Sanglante.  By the end of the week, 20,000 communards were dead and another 38,000 had been arrested.  In 1924, two University of Chicago students, Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, killed 14 year old Bobby Franks for the thrill of committing "the perfect crime."  In 1994, the MV Bukoba sank in Lake Victoria, killing nearly 1000 people.  An earthquake in Algeria killed around 2000 people in 2003.

Born today:  Albrech Dürer (1471-1528), Alexander Pope (1688-1744), Henri Rousseau (1844-1910), Fats Waller (1904-1943) and Leo Sayer (1948)

Today is the Circassian Day of Mourning in the northern Caucasus.