February 21 is the 52nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 313 days remaining, 314 in leap years.

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 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 "The 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 - 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 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 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)
• 1875 - Jeanne Calment, supercentenarian (d. 1997)
• 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
• 1929 - Roberto "Chespirito" Carlos Bolanõs, Mexican actor, writer, comedian, and songwriter
• 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 - Sir Steven Fayburgh KCMG, British diplomat
• 1958 - Jake Burns, Northern Ireland 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
• 1963 - William Baldwin, American actor
• 1967 - Leroy Burrell, American sprinter
• 1969 - Eric Wilson, American musician (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 - Steve Francis, NBA Basketball player
• 1977 - Kevin Rose, American television host
• 1979 - Pascal Chimbonda, French footballer
• 1979 - Lonnie Ford, Arena Football League fullback/linebacker
• 1979 - Jennifer Love Hewitt, American actress and singer
• 1983 - Braylon Edwards, American football player
• 1986 - Charlotte Church, Welsh singer
• 1987 - Anthony Walker, British student (d. 2005)

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 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 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 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)
• 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)

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.