February 21

Events

362 - Athanasius returns to Alexandria

1431 - The trial of Joan of Arc begins.

1440 - The Prussian Confederation is formed.

1543 - Battle of Wayna Daga - A combined army of Ethiopian and Portugal|Portuguese troops defeated a Muslim army led by Ahmed Gragn.

1613 - Michael I of Russia|Mikhail I is elected unanimously as Tsar by a Zemsky Sobor|national assembly, beginning the Romanov dynasty of Imperial Russia .

1743 - The premiere in London of George Frideric Handel's oratorio, "Samson (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 Tribune|Oakland Daily Tribune'' publishes its first newspaper.

1875 - Jeanne Calment was born, going on to live for 122 years 164 days, the Supercentenarian|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|Waldo Waterman's Waterman Arrowbile|Arrowbile

1937 - The League of Nations bans foreign national "Unlawful combatant|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".

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 of the United States|President Richard Nixon visits the People's Republic of China to normalize Sino-American relations.

1972 - The Soviet Union|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.

1986 - ''The Legend of Zelda'' was released for the Famicom Disk System in Japan.//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 - 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 with David Letterman|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.

Births

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 and President of Delaware (d. 1796)

1723 - Louis-Pierre Anquetil, French historian (d. 1808)

1728 - Tsar Peter III of Russia, husband of Catherine II of Russia|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 organist and composer (d. 1937)

1865 - John Haden Badley, English author and school founder (d. 1967)

1867 - Otto Hermann Kahn, German millionaire and benefactor (d. 1934)

1880 - Waldemar Bonsels, German writer (d. 1952)

1885 - Sacha Guitry, Russian dramatist, writer, director, and actor (d. 1957)

1893 - Celia Lovsky, Russian-born actress (d. 1979)

1893 - Andrés Segovia, Spanish guitarist (d. 1987)

1895 - Carl Peter Henrik Dam Danish biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (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)

1915 - Ann Sheridan, American actress (d. 1967)

1917 - Lucille Bremer, American actress (d. 1996)

1925 - Sam Peckinpah, American director (d. 1984)

1924 - Robert Mugabe first President of Zimbabwe

1927 - Erma Bombeck, American humorist (d. 1996)

1927 - Hubert de Givenchy, French fashion designer

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

1941 - James Wong, Hong Kong composer (d. 2004)

1942 - Margarethe von Trotta, French actor, film director, and writer

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

1949 - Jerry Harrison, American musician

1953 - Christine Ebersole, American actress

1953 - William Petersen, American actor

1955 - Kelsey Grammer, American actor

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

1963 - William Baldwin, American actor

1967 - Leroy Burrell, American sprinter

1969 - Eric Wilson, American musician (Sublime (band)|Sublime)

1970 - Michael Slater, Australian cricketer

1972 - Seo Taiji, Korean musician

1974 - Ivan Campo, Spanish footballer

1974 - Roberto Heras, Spanish cyclist

1975 - Affirmed, American race horse (d. 2001)

1977 - Kevin Rose, American television host

1979 - Pascal Chimbonda, French footballer

1979 - Jennifer Love Hewitt, American actress and singer

1983 - Braylon Edwards, American football player

1986 - Charlotte Church, Welsh singer

Deaths

1437 - King James I of Scotland (b. 1394)

1471 - John of Rokycan, Czech Catholic archbishop

1513 - Pope Julius II (b. 1443)

1543 - Ahmed Gragn, Sultan of Adal

1554 - Hieronymus Bock, German botanist

1595 - Robert Southwell, English poet

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 Josephine de Beauharnais|Napoleon's wife, Josephine (b. 1781)

1846 - Emperor Ninko of Japan, (b. 1800)

1862 - Justinus Kerner, German poet (b. 1786)

1926 - Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics|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)

1974 - Tim Horton, Canadian hockey player (b. 1905)

1984 - Michail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov, Russian writer, Nobel Prize in Literature|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)

2002 - John Thaw, English actor (b. 1942)

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)

Holidays and observances

Language Martyrs' Day - A day celebrated by Bengali speaking people for gaining right of mother tongue.

International Mother Language Day (UNESCO)

Catholicism - Feast day of St Peter Damian.

Presidents' Day in the United States (2005)

Family Day in Alberta (2005)

External links

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/21

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20050221.html ---- February 20 - February 22 - January 21 - March 21 -- historical anniversaries|listing of all days