IN 1521, the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who organized the Spanish expedition to the East Indies, reached the Philippines. By April 27, he was killed by Lapu-Lapu in the Battle of Mactan. This year, we will celebrate the Quincentennial Commemorations in the Philippines, the 500th anniversary of the Victory at Mactan and the 500th anniversary of the Philippine part in the first circumnavigation of the world.
In 1621, the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony and Wampanoags held a three-day harvest feast, later regarded as the First Thanksgiving. On February 21, Rebecca Nurse, a Massachusetts colonist, was born, later executed as a witch in 1692. Tamblot, a babaylan from Bohol, started the Tamblot Uprising gainst Spanish oppression.
In 1721, the deadliest outbreak of smallpox in the history of Boston started in April. On November 2, the Romanov Peter The Great was proclaimed the first Emperor of All the Russias. On December 29, Madame de Pompadour, the mistress of King Louis XV of France, was born.
In 1821, US President James Monroe was sworn in for his second term on March 5. On May 5, Emperor Napoleon died in exile in Saint Helena. George IV was crowned king of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Born this year were French writer Gustave Flaubert (December 12), Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky (November 11) and French fashion designer Louis Vuitton (August 21).
In 1921, Albert Einstein won the Nobel Prize for Physics. Spanish Premier Eduardo Dato e Iradier was assassinated (March 8). Ellis Island was placed under quarantine due to Typhus Outbreak (May 18). The death penalty was abolished in Sweden (June 3). The Communist Party of China was founded, and the first BCG vaccination against tuberculosis was given to a newborn child in Paris (July 1). Margaret Gorman, 16, won a beauty pageant in Atlantic City, making her the first Miss America (September 8). A massacre in Lisbon included Portuguese Prime Minister António Granjo (October 19).
On May 31 to June 1, 1921 was the Tulsa Massacre, when white residents attacked black residents and businesses in Tulsa, Oklahoma. On January 6, 2021, white supremacists stormed the US Capitol.
On July 29, 1921, Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of the Nazi Party in Germany. Thankfully, Donald Trump, of German descent and with a similar despotic tendency, will step down as president in January 20, 2021.
Patricia Highsmith, Betty Friedan, Carol Channing, Gianni Agnelli, Simone Signoret, Satyajit Ray, Suharto, Jane Russell, Nancy Reagan, Eunice Kennedy, John Glenn, Esther Williams, Alex Haley, Benjamin Bradlee, Yves Montand, Princess Fawzia Fuad of Egypt, Michael I of Romania were all born in 1921.
Also: screen siren Lana Turner (February 8), whose name was adapted by Lana del Rey and name-checked by Madonna in Vogue. She was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for 1957’s Peyton Place.
And acclaimed Scottish actress Deborah Kerr (September 30), who holds the record for most best actress most nominations without winning: 1950’s Edward, My Son; 1954’s From Here to Eternity; 1957’s The King and I; 1958’s Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison; 1959’s Separate Tables; 1961’s The Sundowners. She was given an Honorary Oscar in 1994.
French fashion designers Louis Féraud (February 13) and Guy Laroche (July 16) were also born in 1921. The brand’s Fall/Winter Transform 2020/2021 Homemade Collection by Richard Rene features 12 vintage pieces Guy Laroche recuperated and photographed. “The idea is the contemporary transformation of vintage garments using exclusively the materials already available in the house,” says its Instagram post.
Gucci, the luxury fashion house with product lines include handbags, ready-to-wear, shoes and accessories, makeup, fragrances, and home decoration, was founded in 1921 by Guccio Gucci in Florence, Tuscany. Alessandro Michele has been its creative director since 2015. But its heydays were in 1995 to 2004 when Tom Ford was its creative designer. During WWII, Gucci supplied boots for the Italian infantry.
Way before she was a Nazi collaborator, Coco Chanel launched her Chanel No. 5 perfume, a “scent that would appeal to the flapper and celebrate the liberated feminine spirit of the 1920s,” in 1921. “I present my dress collections on the fifth of May, the fifth month of the year and so we will let this sample number five keep the name it has already, it will bring good luck,” Tilar J. Mazzeo (2010) quoted Mademoiselle in The Secret of Chanel No. 5: The Biography of a Scent. Coco herself was the first face for the campaign ads in 1937. The current muse is Oscar winner Marion Cotillard. In April 1952, Marilyn Monroe was asked by Life magazine, “What do you wear to bed?” She replied, “Chanel No. 5.”
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, will turn 100 on June 10 this year. He is part of the most fascinating royal families: the Mountbatten-Windsors and the Romanovs. He and his wife Elizabeth II are great-great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria, Elizabeth descended from Victoria’s eldest son, King Edward VII, while Philip descended from Victoria’s second daughter, Princess Alice. They are also descended from King Christian IX of Denmark. Philip is a direct descendant of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia via his paternal grandmother Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia. His maternal grandmother, Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, was a sister of Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse), wife of Emperor Nicholas II. Philip’s DNA helped identify the remains of the Romanovs massacred in 1971. He is currently portrayed by Tobias Menzies in The Crown on Netflix.
The fashion icon Iris Apfel will be the most celebrated centenarian come August 29. Mattel created a Barbie doll in her image in 2018, the oldest woman such honor was given. At 97, she was signed as a model by IMG, the global agency that also owns Miss Universe. “Who’s the real rare fashion bird of fashion?” She asked her 1.6 million followers on Instagram. You are, Iris. You are.