This Day In History - May 21

1881 American Red Cross founded

Humanitarians Clara Barton and Adolphus Solomons found the American National Red Cross, in Washington, D.C. The American Red Cross was established to provide humanitarian aid to victims of wars and natural disasters working with the International Red Cross.

Barton. who was born in Massachusetts in 1821, worked with the sick and wounded during the American Civil War, became known as the "Angel of the Battlefield" for her tireless dedication. In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln commissioned her to search for lost prisoners of war, and with the extensive history records she had compiled during the war she succeeded in identifying thousands of the Union dead at the Andersonville prisoner-of-war camp.

Barton was also present in Europe in 1870 when the Franco-Prussian War broke out. She went behind the German lines to work for the International Red Cross. In 1873, she returned to the United States, and four years later she organized an American branch of the International Red Cross.

The American Red Cross received its first U.S. federal charter in 1900. Barton headed the organization into her 80s and died in 1912.

Other Items of Note in History on May 21

1539: Black Spanish explorer Estevan is reported killed

1542: De Soto dies in the American wilderness

1758: Lenape Indians abduct Mary Campbell from western Pennsylvania

1863: The Siege of Port Hudson begins

1898: Armand Hammer is born 1901: First speed limit law is enacted 1910: Serialization of Colette's The Vagabond begins

1911: Second Moroccan Crisis

1924: Leopold and Loeb gain national attention

1927: Lindbergh lands in Paris

American pilot Charles Lindbergh makes history landing at Le Bourget Field in Paris, successfully completing the first solo, nonstop transatlantic flight and first ever nonstop flight between New York to Paris. His single-engine monoplane, The Spirit of St. Louis, had flown from Roosevelt Field in New York 33 1/2 hours before.

1932: Earhart completes transatlantic flight

1940: Nazis kill "unfit" people in East Prussia

A "special unit" carries out its mission-and murders more than 1,500 hospital patients in East Prussia.

1945: Bogart and Bacall marry

1950: Fangio wins first Grand Prix

1955: Chuck Berry records "Maybellene"

1960: Huge earthquake hits Chile

1978: Nancy Lopez wins her first Coca-Cola Classic

1988: Gorbachev consolidates power

1992: Long Island Lolita is arrested

1996: A veteran's flashback defense doesn't hold up in court

1969: Military spokesman defends "Hamburger Hill"