February 21
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February 21 is the 52nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 313 days remaining until the end of the year (314 in leap years).
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Events [change]
- 362 – Athanasius returns to Alexandria.
- 1245 - Bishop Thomas, the first-known Bishop of Finland, is granted resignation after confessing to torture and forgery.
- 1431 – The trial of Joan of Arc begins.
- 1440 – The Prussian Confederation is formed.
- 1543 – Battle of Wayna Daga – Combined army of Ethiopian and Portuguese troops defeat 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.
- 1808 - Without a previous declaration of war, Russian troops enter then-Swedish territory in Eastern Finland, starting the Finnish War, which later results in Russia taking control of Finland.
- 1842 – John J. Greenough patents the sewing machine.
- 1848 – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish the Communist Manifesto.
- 1858 - Corinth, Greece, is destroyed by an earthquake. The city is rebuilt 6 kilometers away.
- 1874 – The Oakland Daily Tribune publishes its first newspaper.
- 1875 – Jeanne Calment was born. She then went 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".
- 1902 - Harvey Cushing carries the first brain surgery.
- 1907 - British passenger ship Berlin sinks in a storm in the harbor of Hoek van Holland, Netherlands, killing 128 people.
- 1913 - Ioannina is incorporated into the Greek state after the Balkan Wars.
- 1916 – World War I: In France the Battle of Verdun begins.
- 1918 - The last-surviving Carolina Parakeet dies in Cincinnati Zoo, making the species extinct.
- 1919 - German socialist Kurt Eisner is assassinated.
- 1921 - The Republic of Georgia's first Constitution is adopted.
- 1921 - Persian Prime Minister Fathollah Akbar Sepahdar is removed from power in a coup.
- 1925 – The New Yorker publishes its first issue.
- 1937 – Initial flight of the first successful flying car, Waldo Waterman's Arrowbile; League of Nations banned foreign national "volunteers" in the Spanish Civil War.
- 1945 - World War II: Japanese Kamikaze planes sink the escort carrier USS Bismarck Sea and damage the USS Saratoga.
- 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 – Churchill government in the UK abolishes Identity Cards to "set the people free".
- 1953 – Francis Crick and James D. Watson discover the structure of the DNA molecule.
- 1958 - The peace symbol, commissioned by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, is designed and completed by Gerald Holtom.
- 1960 – Cuban leader Fidel Castro nationalizes all businesses in Cuba.
- 1960 - The first Olympic biathlon is held, during the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California. Over 20 kilometers, Sweden's Klas Lestander becomes the first Olympic champion in this event.
- 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.
- 1976 - The first Winter Paralympics are held in Ornskoldsvik, Sweden.
- 1988 – Jimmy Swaggart, on his own televangelism program being tapped 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 – Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.
- 1995 - Jeanne Calment reaches the age of 120 years, the first person known to have reached this age.
- 2000 – David Letterman returns to The Late Show over a month after having an emergency quintuple heart bypass surgery.
- 2003 – Over 100 concert goers 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.
- 2005 - A series of avalanches kill over 100 people in Kashmir.
- 2006 – The United Kingdom's biggest-ever cash robbery is carried out at a depot in Kent, England.
- 2007 - Then-Prime Minister of Italy Romano Prodi attempts to resign, but his resignation is rejected by President of Italy Giorgio Napolitano.
- 2012 - EU finance ministers reach an agreement on a 30 billion-Euro bailout for Greece.
- 2013 - A bombing in Damascus, Syria, kills at least 53 people.
Births [change]
- 1397 - Isabella of Portugal, Duchess of Burgundy (d. 1471)
- 1484 - Elector Joachim I of Brandenburg (d. 1535)
- 1556 - Sethus Calvisius, German composer, chronicler and astronomer (d. 1615)
- 1723 - Louis-Pierre Anquetil, French historian (d. 1808)
- 1728 - Tsar Peter III of Russia (d. 1762)
- 1779 - Friedrich Carl von Savigny, German jurist and historian (d. 1861)
- 1783 - Princess Catherine of Wuerttemberg, Queen Consort of Westphalia (d. 1835)
- 1791 - John Mercer, English dye and fabric chemist (d. 1866)
- 1791 – Carl Czerny, Austrian composer (d. 1857)
- 1794 – Antonio López de Santa Anna, President of Mexico (d. 1876)
- 1801 - John Henry Newman, English theologian and cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church (d. 1890)
- 1817 - Jose Zorilla y Moral, Spanish dramatist (d. 1893)
- 1836 - Leo Delibes, French composer (d. 1891)
- 1860 - Goscombe John, Welsh sculptor (d. 1952)
- 1865 - John Haden Badley, English school founder (d. 1967)
- 1867 - Otto Hermann Kahn, German millionaire (d. 1934)
- 1875 – Jeanne Calment, French supercentenarian, officially the longest-lived human on record (d. 1997)
- 1876 - Pyotr Konchalovsky, Russian painter (d. 1956)
- 1876 - Joseph Meister, first person to be inoculated against Rabies (d. 1940)
- 1878 - Mirra Alfassa, Indian spiritual leader (d. 1973)
- 1880 – Waldemar Bonsels, German writer (d. 1952)
- 1882 - William Jeremiah Tuttle, American freestyle swimmer and water polo player (d. 1930)
- 1887 - Korechika Anami, Japanese general (d. 1945)
- 1888 - Clemence Dane, British novelist and playwright (d. 1965)
- 1893 – Andres Segovia, Spanish Guitarist (d. 1987)
- 1895 – Henrik Dam, Danish chemist, won the 1943 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1976)
- 1900 - Madeleine Renaud, French theatre actress (d. 1994)
- 1903 - Anais Nin, French writer (d. 1977)
- 1907 – W. H. Auden, British poet (d. 1973)
- 1909 – Hans Erni, Swiss painter and sculptor
- 1910 – Douglas Bader, British fighter pilot (d. 1982)
- 1913 - Roger Laurent, Belgian racing driver (d. 1997)
- 1914 – Ilmari Juutilainen, Finnish fighter pilot (d. 1999)
- 1915 - Ann Sheridan, American actress (d. 1967)
- 1917 - Lucille Bremer, American actress (d. 1996)
- 1919 - Kehat Shorr, Israeli shooting coach (d. 1972)
- 1921 - John Rawls, American philosopher (d. 2002)
- 1921 - Zdenek Miler, Czech animator (d. 2011)
- 1924 – Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe
- 1925 – Sam Peckinpah, American film director (d. 1984)
- 1927 – Erma Bombeck, American writer and humorist (d. 1996)
- 1927 – Hubert de Givenchy, French fashion designer
- 1927 - Pierre Mercure, Canadian musician and composer (d. 1966)
- 1933 – Nina Simone, American singer and musician (d. 2003)
- 1934 – Rue McClanahan, American actress (d. 2010)
- 1935 - Mark McManus, Scottish actor (d. 1994)
- 1936 – Barbara Jordan, American politician (d. 1996)
- 1937 – King Harald V of Norway
- 1937 - Jilly Cooper, English novelist
- 1937 - Gary Lockwood, American actor
- 1938 - Bobby Charles, American singer-songwriter (d. 2010)
- 1938 – Lester Bird, Antiguan politician, former Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda
- 1940 - John Lewis, American politician and civil rights activist
- 1942 – Margarethe von Trotta, German film director
- 1942 - Magnus Linklater, Scottish newspaper editor
- 1943 - David Geffen, American record producer
- 1945 - Paul Newton, British musician (Uriah Heep)
- 1945 – Walter Momper, German politician, former Mayor of Berlin
- 1946 - Tyne Daly, American actress
- 1946 - Anthony Daniels, British actor
- 1946 – Alan Rickman, British actor
- 1947 - Victor Sokolov, Russian journalist (d. 2006)
- 1947 – Olympia Snowe, American politician, former United States Senator for Maine
- 1949 - Ronnie Hellstrom, Swedish footballer
- 1949 - Jerry Harrison, American musician
- 1950 - Hakan Nesser, Swedish writer
- 1951 - Vince Welnick, American musician
- 1952 - Jean Jacques Burnell, British musician
- 1953 - William Petersen, American actor
- 1954 - Ivo Van Damme, Belgian athlete (d. 1976)
- 1955 – Kelsey Grammer, American actor
- 1958 - Jack Coleman, American actor
- 1958 - Alan Trammell, American baseball player and manager
- 1961 - Christopher Atkins, American actor
- 1962 - Vanessa Feltz, British television presenter
- 1962 - Chuck Palahniuk, American writer
- 1962 - David Foster Wallace, American writer (d. 2008)
- 1963 - William Baldwin, American actor
- 1964 - Mark Kelly, American astronaut
- 1964 - Scott Kelly, American astronaut
- 1964 - Jane Tomlinson, British cancer campaigner (d. 2007)
- 1969 - James Dean Bradfield, Welsh musician (Manic Street Preachers)
- 1969 - Tony Meola, American footballer
- 1969 - Chen Wei, Chinese dissident
- 1973 - Heri Joensen, Faroese musician
- 1973 - Brian Rolston, American ice hockey player
- 1974 - Ivan Campo, Spanish footballer
- 1976 – Michael McIntyre, British comedian
- 1979 – Pascal Chimbonda, French footballer
- 1979 – Jennifer Love Hewitt, American actress
- 1980 – Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, King of Bhutan
- 1981 - Jun Kaname, Japanese actor
- 1982 - Andre Barrett, American basketball player
- 1984 - Andreas Seppi, Italian tennis player
- 1984 – David Odonkor, German footballer
- 1985 – Georgios Samaras, Greek footballer
- 1986 - Prince Amedeo of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este
- 1986 – Charlotte Church, Welsh singer and TV presenter
- 1987 – Ellen Page, Canadian actress
- 1987 - Ashley Greene, American model and actress
- 1988 - Matthias de Zordo, Spanish footballer
- 1989 - Josh Walker, English footballer
- 1989 – Corbin Bleu, American actor
- 1990 - Mattias Tedenby, Swedish ice hockey player
- 1990 - David Addy, Ghanaian footballer
- 1992 – Phil Jones, British footballer
- 1996 - Sophie Turner, English actress
Deaths [change]
- 1437 – King James I of Scotland (b. 1394)
- 1513 – Pope Julius II (b. 1443)
- 1543 – Ahmed Gragn, Sultan of Adal
- 1554 - Hieronymus Bock, German botanist (b. 1498)
- 1677 - Baruch Spinoza, Dutch philosopher (b. 1632)
- 1715 - Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore, Governor of the province of Maryland (b. 1637)
- 1730 - Pope Benedict XIII (b. 1649)
- 1788 - Johann Georg Palitzsch, German astronomer (b. 1723)
- 1821 - Georg Friedrich von Martens, German diplomat (b. 1756)
- 1824 – Eugène de Beauharnais, son of Napoleon Bonaparte's wife, Josephine (b. 1781)
- 1846 - Emperor Ninko of Japan (b. 1800)
- 1861 - Lars Levi Laestadius, Swedish missionary (b. 1800)
- 1862 - Justinus Kerner, German poet (b. 1786)
- 1894 - Gustave Caillebotte, French painter (b. 1848)
- 1900 - Charles Piazzi Smyth, Scottish astronomer (b. 1819)
- 1901 - George Francis Fitzgerald, Irish mathematician (b. 1851)
- 1919 – Kurt Eisner, Bavarian socialist (b. 1867)
- 1926 – Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Dutch physicist (b. 1853)
- 1934 - Augusto Nicolas Calderon Sandino, Nicaraguan revolutionary (b. 1895)
- 1938 – George Ellery Hale, American astronomer (b. 1868)
- 1941 – Frederick Banting, Canadian doctor, won the 1923 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, (b. 1891)
- 1944 – Ferenc Szisz, Hungarian-born French race car driver (b. 1873)
- 1945 – Eric Liddell, Scottish runner (b. 1902)
- 1958 - Duncan Edwards, English footballer (b. 1936)
- 1965 – Malcolm X, American civil rights activist (b. 1925)
- 1967 – Charles Beaumont, American writer (b. 1929)
- 1968 – Howard Walter Florey, Australian pharmacologist (b. 1898)
- 1972 - Zhang Guohua, Chinese general and politician (b. 1914)
- 1972 - Bronislava Nijinska, Polish-Russian ballet dancer (b. 1891)
- 1974 – Tim Horton, Canadian hockey player (b. 1930)
- 1982 - Gershom Scholem, German-born Israeli Jewish philosopher (b. 1897)
- 1984 – Michail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov, Russian novelist (b. 1905)
- 1986 - Shigechiyo Izumi, Japanese centenarian, previously thought to have been the oldest man ever (b. probably in 1890)
- 1987 - Noel Odell, British mountaineer (b. 1890)
- 1991 – Dame Margot Fonteyn, British ballet dancer (b. 1919)
- 1995 – Calder Willingham, writer (b. 1922)
- 1996 – Morton Gould, American composer (b. 1913)
- 1997 – Josef Posipal, German footballer (b. 1927)
- 1999 - Walter Lini, 1st Prime Minister of Vanuatu (b. 1939)
- 1999 – Ilmari Juutilainen, Finnish fighter pilot (b. 1914)
- 1999 – Gertrude B. Elion, American scientist (b. 1918)
- 2002 – John Thaw, British actor (b. 1942)
- 2003 - Eddie Thomson, Scottish footballer (b. 1947)
- 2004 – John Charles, Welsh footballer (b. 1931)
- 2005 - Ara Berberian, American opera singer (b. 1930)
- 2008 - Sunny Lowry, first British woman to swim across the English Channel (b. 1911)
- 2008 - Sufi Abu Taleb, Egyptian politician (b. 1925)
- 2008 – Emmanuel Sanon, Haitian footballer (b. 1951)
Observances [change]
- International Mother Language Day
- Language Movement Day (Bangladesh)
- Biikebrennen (Northern Schleswig-Holstein)
