February 21 is the 52nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 313 days remain until the end of the year (314 in leap years).
452 or 453 – Severianus, Bishop of Scythopolis, is martyred in Palestine 1613 – Mikhail I is unanimously elected Tsar by a national assembly, beginning the Romanov dynasty of Imperial Russia.
1797 – A force of 1,400 French soldiers invaded Britain at Fishguard in support of the Society of United Irishmen. They were defeated by 500 British reservists.
1804 – The first selfpropelling steam locomotive makes its outing at the Pen-y-Darren Ironworks in Wales.
1828 – Initial issue of the Cherokee Phoenix is the first periodical to use the Cherokee syllabary invented by Sequoyah.
1842 – John Greenough is granted the first U.S. patent for the sewing machine.
1848 – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto.
1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Valverde is fought near Fort Craig in New Mexico Territory.
1885 – The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated.
1916 – World War I: In France, the Battle of Verdun begins.
1921 – Constituent Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Georgia adopts the country's first constitution.
1921 – Rezā Shāh takes control of Tehran during a successful coup. 1925 – The New Yorker publishes its first issue.
1945 – World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, 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 – The British government, under Winston Churchill, abolishes identity cards in the UK to 'set the people free'.
1972 – United States President Richard Nixon visits China to normalize Sino-American relations. 1974 – The last Israeli soldiers leave the west bank of the Suez Canal pursuant to 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.
2022 – In the Russo-Ukrainian crisis Russian President Vladimir Putin declares the Luhansk People's Republic and Donetsk People's Republic as independent from Ukraine, and moves troops into the region. The action is condemned by the United Nations.
Born on this Date: 1621 – Rebecca Nurse, Massachusetts colonist, executed as a witch (d. 1692) 1728 – Peter III of Russia (d. 1762) 1821 – Charles Scribner I, American publisher, founded Charles Scribner's Sons (d. 1871) 1893 – Andrés Segovia, Spanish guitarist (d. 1987) 1924 – Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwean educator and politician, 2nd President of Zimbabwe (d. 2019) 1927 – Erma Bombeck, American journalist and author (d. 1996 1937 – Harald V of Norway 1943 – David Geffen, American businessman, co-founded DreamWorks and Geffen Records 1946 – Alan Rickman, English actor and director (d. 2016) 1955 – Kelsey Grammer, American actor, singer, and producer 1958 – Mary Chapin Carpenter, American singer-songwriter and guitarist 1963 – William Baldwin, American actor 1978 – Erick Barkley, American basketball player 1979 – Jennifer Love Hewitt, American actress and producer Died on this date:
4 AD – Gaius Caesar, Roman consul and grandson of Augustus (b. 20 BC) 1184 – Minamoto no Yoshinaka, Japanese shōgun (b. 1154) 1437 – James I of Scotland (b. 1394; assassinated) 1513 – Pope Julius II (b. 1443) 1590 – Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick, English nobleman and general (b. 1528) 1730 – Pope Benedict XIII (b. 1649) 1846 – Emperor Ninkō of Japan (b. 1800) 1965 – Malcolm X, American minister and activist (b. 1925)