February 21
is the 52nd day of the year in the
Gregorian Calendar. There are 313 days remaining, 314 in
leap years.
*
362 -
Athanasius returns to
Alexandria.
*
1440 - The
Prussian Confederation is formed.
*
1543 -
Battle of Wayna Daga - A combined army of
Ethiopian and
Portuguese troops defeated a
Muslim army led by
Ahmed Gragn.
*
1613 -
Mikhail I is elected unanimously as
Tsar by a
national assembly, beginning the
Romanov dynasty of
Imperial Russia .
*
1743 - The premiere in
London of
George Frideric Handel's
oratorio, "
Samson".
*
1804 - The first self-propelling
steam locomotive makes its outing at the
Pen-y-Darren ironworks in
Wales.
*
1842 -
John J. Greenough patents the
sewing machine.
*
1848 -
Karl Marx publishes the
Communist Manifesto.
*
1874 - The
Oakland Daily Tribune publishes its first
newspaper.
*
1875 -
Jeanne Calment was born, going on to live for 122 years 164 days, the
longest confirmed lifespan for any human being in history.
*
1878 - The first
telephone book is issued in
New Haven, Connecticut.
*
1885 - The newly completed
Washington Monument is dedicated.
*
1893 -
Thomas Edison receives two
U.S. patents for a "
Cut Out for Incandescent Electric Lamps" and for a "
Stop Device"
*
1916 -
World War I: In
France the
Battle of Verdun begins.
*
1925 -
The New Yorker publishes its first issue.
*
1937 - Initial flight of the first successful
flying car,
Waldo Waterman's Arrowbile.
* 1937 - The
League of Nations bans foreign national "
volunteers" in the
Spanish Civil War.
*
1947 - In
New York City Edwin Land demonstrates the first "
instant camera", the
Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the
Optical Society of America.
*
1948 -
NASCAR is incorporated.
*
1952 -
Language Martyrs' Day, marking language-revolution in the then
East Pakistan (currently, the independent state of
People's Republic of
Bangladesh).
* 1952 - The
government of
Winston Churchill abolishes
Identity Cards in the
UK to "set the people free".
* 1952 - In
East Pakistan (Present
Bangladesh) Police opened fire on a procession of students, who demended to establish
Bangla as the
State Language, killing four people and starting a country-wide protest which led to the independence of
Bangladesh in
1971. 21st February was later declared as "
International Mother Language Day" by
UNESCO.
*
1953 -
Francis Crick and
James D. Watson discover the structure of the
DNA molecule.
*
1960 -
Cuban leader
Fidel Castro nationalizes all businesses in
Cuba.
*
1965 -
Malcolm X is assassinated at the
Audubon Ballroom in
New York City by members of the
Nation of Islam.
*
1970 -
Swissair Flight 330: A mid-air bomb explosion and subsequent crash kills 38 passengers and nine crew members near
Zürich,
Switzerland.
*
1971 - The
Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at
Vienna.
*
1972 -
President Richard Nixon visits the
People's Republic of China to normalize
Sino-American relations.
* 1972 - The
Soviet unmanned
spaceship Luna 20 lands on the
Moon.
*
1973 - Over the
Sinai Desert,
Israeli
fighter aircraft shoot down a
Libyan Airlines jet killing 108.
*
1974 - The long-running
Japanese
comic strip "
Sazae-san" publishes its final installment in the
Asahi Shimbun.
* 1974 - The last
Israeli soldiers leave the west bank of the
Suez Canal in carrying out a truce with
Egypt.
*
1975 -
Watergate scandal: Former
United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former
White House aides
H. R. Haldeman and
John Ehrlichman are sentenced to prison.
*
1981 -
Charles Rocket, portraying the gunshot victim in a
Saturday Night Live parody of the "
Who Shot J.R." plot on the program
Dallas, said, "I'd like to know who the fuck did it," during the live feed of the "goodnights" segment. Afterward, everyone except
Eddie Murphy and
Joe Piscopo was fired.
*
1986 -
Nintendo released
The Legend of Zelda for the
Famicom in
Japan.
* 1986 -
Metallica released their 3rd album
Master of Puppets.
*
1988 -
Jimmy Swaggart, on his own
televangelism program being taped in
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, confesses that he is guilty of an unspecified sin and will be temporarily leaving the pulpit.
*
1995 -
Serkadji prison mutiny in
Algeria; 4 guards and 96 prisoners killed in a day and a half.
* 1995 -
Ibrahim Ali, a 17 years-old
Comorian living in France, is murdered by three far right
National Front activists.
* 1995 -
Steve Fossett lands in
Leader, Saskatchewan,
Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the
Pacific Ocean in a
balloon.
*
2000 -
David Letterman returns to
The Late Show over a month after having an emergency quintuple
heart bypass surgery.
*
2003 - Over 100 concert goers in Rhode Island
die in a fire during a performance of the rock band
Great White.
*
2004 - The first
European political party organization, the
European Greens, is established in
Rome.
*
2006 - New York City mayor
Michael Bloomberg unveils a brand new sign on the corner of West 66th Street called Peter Jennings Way in honor of the late
ABC News anchor
Peter Jennings.
*
1484 - Elector
Joachim I of Brandenburg (d.
1535)
*
1556 -
Sethus Calvisius, German calendar reformer (d.
1615)
*
1621 -
Rebecca Nurse, American accused witch (d.
1692)
*
1675 -
Franz Xaver Josef von Unertl, Bavarian politician (d.
1750)
*
1688 - Queen
Ulrike Eleonora of Sweden (d.
1741)
*
1705 -
Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke, British naval officer (d.
1781)
*
1721 -
John McKinly, American physician (d.
1796)
*
1723 -
Louis-Pierre Anquetil, French historian (d.
1808)
*
1728 - Tsar
Peter III of Russia, husband of
Catherine the Great (d.
1762)
*
1791 -
Carl Czerny, Austrian composer (d.
1857)
*
1801 -
John Henry Newman, English Catholic cardinal (d.
1890)
*
1821 -
Charles Scribner, American publisher (d.
1871)
*
1836 -
Léo Delibes, French composer (d.
1891)
*
1844 -
Charles-Marie Widor, French composer (d.
1937)
*
1865 -
John Haden Badley, English school founder (d.
1967)
*
1867 -
Otto Hermann Kahn, German millionaire (d.
1934)
*
1876 -
Pyotr Konchalovsky, Russian painter (d.
1956)
*
1880 -
Waldemar Bonsels, German writer (d.
1952)
*
1885 -
Sacha Guitry, Russian dramatist (d.
1957)
*
1893 -
Celia Lovsky, Russian-born actress (d.
1979)
* 1893 -
Andrés Segovia, Spanish guitarist (d.
1987)
*
1895 -
Carl Peter Henrik Dam Danish biochemist,
Nobel laureate (d.
1976)
*
1903 -
Fairfax M. Cone, American advertising executive (d.
1977)
* 1903 -
Anaïs Nin, French writer (d.
1977)
*
1907 -
W. H. Auden, English poet (d.
1973)
*
1910 -
Douglas Bader, British pilot (d.
1982)
* 1910 -
Carmine Galante, Italian-born gangster (d.
1979)
*
1910 -
Eddie Waring, British sports commentator (d.
1986)
*
1915 -
Ann Sheridan, American actress (d.
1967)
*
1917 -
Lucille Bremer, American actress (d.
1996)
*
1924 -
Robert Mugabe first
President of Zimbabwe*
1925 -
Sam Peckinpah, American director (d.
1984)
*
1927 -
Erma Bombeck, American humorist (d.
1996)
* 1927 -
Hubert de Givenchy, French fashion designer
*
1929 -
Roberto "Chespirito" Carlos Bolanõs, Mexican actor
*
1933 -
Nina Simone, American singer (d.
2003)
*
1934 -
Rue McClanahan, American actress
*
1936 -
Barbara Jordan, American politician (d.
1996)
*
1937 - King
Harald V of Norway* 1937 -
Gary Lockwood, American actor
*
1940 -
John Lewis, American politician
*
1941 -
James Wong, Hong Kong composer (d.
2004)
*
1942 -
Margarethe von Trotta, German actor
*
1943 -
David Geffen, American record producer
*
1946 -
Tyne Daly, American actress
* 1946 -
Anthony Daniels, British actor
* 1946 -
Alan Rickman, English actor
*
1947 -
Olympia Snowe, American politician
* 1947 -
Victor Sokolov, Russian journalist (d.
2006)
*
1949 -
Jerry Harrison, American musician (
Talking Heads)
*
1951 -
Vince Welnick, musician, musician (
The Grateful Dead)
*
1953 -
Christine Ebersole, American actress
* 1953 -
William Petersen, American actor
*
1955 -
Sir Steven Fayburgh, British diplomat
* 1955 -
Kelsey Grammer, American actor
*
1958 -
Jake Burns, Irish singer (
Stiff Little Fingers}
* 1958 -
Mary Chapin Carpenter, American singer
* 1958 -
Alan Trammell, baseball player and manager
*
1961 -
Davey Allison, American race car driver (d.
1993)
* 1961 -
Christopher Atkins, American actor
* 1961 -
Martha Hackett, American actress
* 1961 -
Chuck Palahniuk, American writer
* 1961 -
Bertha Faye, American wrestler (d.
2001)
*
1962 -
Jim Starr, American gladiator
*
1962 -
Vanessa Feltz, British television presenter
* 1962 -
David Foster Wallace, American writer
*
1963 -
William Baldwin, American actor
*
1967 -
Leroy Burrell, American runner
*
1969 -
Eric Wilson, American musician (
Sublime)
*
1969 -
James Dean Bradfield, Welsh musician (
Manic Street Preachers)
*
1970 -
Michael Slater, Australian cricketer
*
1972 -
Seo Taiji, Korean musician
*
1974 -
Iván Campo, Spanish footballer
* 1974 -
Roberto Heras, Spanish cyclist
*
1975 -
Affirmed, American race horse (d.
2001)
*
1976 -
Ryan Smyth, Canadian hockey player
*
1977 -
Steve Francis, American basketball player
* 1977 -
Kevin Rose, American television host
* 1977 -
Chad Hutchinson, baseball and football player
*
1979 -
Pascal Chimbonda, French footballer
* 1979 -
Carlito, Puerto Rican wrestler
* 1979 -
Lonnie Ford, American football player
* 1979 -
Jennifer Love Hewitt, American actress
*
1983 -
Braylon Edwards, American football player
*
1984 -
Andrew Ellis, New Zealand rugby union player
*1984 -
David Odonkor, German footballer
*
1986 -
Charlotte Church, Welsh singer
*
1987 -
Anthony Walker, British murder victim (d.
2005)
*
1987 -
Ellen Page, Canadian actress
*
1437 - King
James I of Scotland (b.
1394)
*
1471 -
John of Rokycan, Czech Catholic archbishop (c.
1396)
*
1513 -
Pope Julius II (b.
1443)
*
1543 -
Ahmed Gragn, Sultan of Adal (c.
1506)
*
1554 -
Hieronymus Bock, German botanist (b.
1498)
*
1595 -
Robert Southwell, English poet (c.
1561)
*
1668 -
John Thurloe, English Puritan spy (b.
1616)
*
1677 -
Baruch Spinoza, Dutch philosopher (b.
1632)
*
1715 -
Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore, Governor of the Province of Maryland (b.
1637)
*
1788 -
Johann Georg Palitzsch, German astronomer (b.
1723)
*
1824 -
Eugène de Beauharnais, son of
Napoleon's wife, Josephine (b.
1781)
*
1846 -
Emperor Ninko of Japan, (b.
1800)
*
1862 -
Justinus Kerner, German poet (b.
1786)
*
1901 -
George Francis FitzGerald, Irish mathematician (b.
1851)
*
1926 -
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Dutch physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1853)
*
1938 -
George Ellery Hale, American astronomer (b.
1868)
*
1941 -
Frederick Banting, Canadian physician, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b.
1891)
*
1944 -
Ferenc Szisz, Hungarian-born race car driver (b.
1873)
*
1945 -
Eric Liddell, Scottish runner (b.
1902)
*
1965 -
Malcolm X, American black activist (b.
1925)
*
1967 -
Charles Beaumont, American writer (b.
1929)
*
1968 -
Howard Walter Florey, Australian-born pharmocologist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b.
1898)
*
1972 -
Bronislava Nijinska, Polish-Russian ballet dancer (b.
1891)
*
1974 -
Tim Horton, Canadian hockey player (b.
1905)
*
1984 -
Michail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov, Russian writer,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1905)
*
1991 - Dame
Margot Fonteyn, English ballet dancer (b.
1919)
*
1994 -
Luis Donaldo Colosio, Mexican politician (b.
1948)
*
1996 -
Morton Gould, American composer (b.
1913)
*
1999 -
Gertrude B. Elion, American scientist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b.
1918)
* 1999 -
Wilmer David Mizell, baseball player (b.
1930)
*
2002 -
John Thaw, English actor (b.
1942)
* 2002 -
Harold Furth, Austrian-born physicist (b.
1939)
*
2004 -
John Charles, Welsh footballer (b.
1931)
* 2004 -
Guido Molinari, Canadian artist (b.
1933)
*
2005 -
Ara Berberian, American opera singer (b.
1930)
* 2005 -
Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Cuban novelist (b.
1929)
* 2005 -
Eugene Scott, American religious broadcaster (b.
1929)
*
Language Martyrs' Day - A day celebrated by
Bengali speaking people for gaining right of
mother tongue.
*
International Mother Language Day (
UNESCO).
Liturgical feasts
*
Catholicism - Feast day of
Saint Peter Damiani.
*
Saint Pepin of Landen *
Saint Randoald*
BBC: On This Day *
The New York Times: On This Day*
On This Day in CanadaFebruary 20 -
February 22 -
January 21 -
March 21 --
listing of all days
