SNGF: Exploring Your Grandfather's Birthdate

Tonight's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge posted by Randy Seaver at the GeneaMusings blog is to:
1. Find the Day of the Week one of your Grandfathers was born;
2. List five events that occurred on the day and month of your Grandfather's birth;
3. List five famous people who were born on the same day as your Grandfather;
4. Give your answers in a blog post.

My paternal grandfather, Harold Herbert SHARP, was born in Oquawka, Henderson County, Illinois on 21 May 1893. I never met the man and didn't even know his name until a number of years after my father, his second son, had died.

21 May 1893 was a Sunday (according to http://www.infoplease.com/calendar ). I guess that means that Harold should have been "full of grace," but he died from alcoholism, so either the date or poem is wrong.

According to http://historyorb.com, the following events occurred on May 21st:

• 1602    Martha's Vineyard was first sighted by Captain Bartholomew Gosnold
• 1804    Lewis and Clark expedition began
• 1832    first Democratic National Convention was held in Baltimore
• 1846    first steamship arrived in Hawaii
• 1881    American Red Cross was founded by Clara Barton

Famous people who were born on 21 May include (according to historyorb.com):

• 1527    Phillip II, King of Spain (1556-98) & Portugal (1580-98)
• 1780    Elizabeth Fry, Quaker minister/prison reformer/nurse
• 1843    Charles-Albert Gobat, Tramelan, Switzerland, Swiss politician, recipient of the 1902 Nobel Peace Prize
• 1843    Louis Renault, French lawyer  [namesake of my first car???]
• 1917    Dennis Day, Irish tenor/comedian/Jack Benny Show guest

I have to admit that I recognized very few of the names of people born on May 21st. There were also several Civil War generals on both sides and many inventors and artists that I've never heard of.