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This day in history

This day in history: 21 February

Events, births and deaths on this date, ordered by how many people look them up.

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Born on this day · Died on this day176 · 81

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Key facts

298 historical events, births and deaths are listed for 21 February.
Entries come from Wikipedia’s day pages and are ordered by page views.
2022: In the prelude to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine 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 condem

Holidays and observances

Armed Forces Day (South Africa)

Birthday of King Harald V (Norway)

Christian feast day: February 21 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Christian feast day: Felix of Hadrumetum

Christian feast day: Pepin of Landen

Christian feast day: Peter Damian

Christian feast day: Randoald of Grandval

Father Lini Day (Vanuatu)

International Mother Language Day (UNESCO)

Language Movement Day (Bangladesh)

The first day of the Birth Anniversary of Fifth Druk Gyalpo, celebrated until February 23. (Bhutan)

The first day of the Musikahan Festival, celebrated until February 27. (Tagum City, Philippines)

Events

2022In the prelude to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine 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 condem

2013At least 17 people are killed and 119 injured following several bombings in the Indian city of Hyderabad.

1995Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.

1994Aldrich Ames is arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for selling national secrets to the Soviet Union in Arlington County, Virginia.

1975Watergate scandal: Former United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are sentenced to prison.

1974The last Israeli soldiers leave the west bank of the Suez Canal pursuant to a truce with Egypt.

1973Over the Sinai Desert, Israeli fighter aircraft shoot down Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 jet killing 108 people.

1972The Soviet uncrewed spaceship Luna 20 lands on the Moon.

1972United States President Richard Nixon visits China to normalize Sino-American relations.

1971The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.

1958The CND symbol, aka peace symbol, commissioned by the Direct Action Committee in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, is designed and completed by Gerald Holtom.

1952The Bengali language movement protests occur at the University of Dhaka in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

1952The British government, under Winston Churchill, abolishes identity cards in the UK to "set the people free".

1948NASCAR is incorporated.

1947In New York City, Edwin Land demonstrates the first "instant camera", the Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.

1945World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, Japanese kamikaze planes sink the escort carrier USS Bismarck Sea and damage the USS Saratoga.

1945World War II: the Brazilian Expeditionary Force defeat the German forces in the Battle of Monte Castello on the Italian front.

1937The League of Nations bans foreign national "volunteers" in the Spanish Civil War.

1929In the first battle of the Warlord Rebellion in northeastern Shandong against the Nationalist government of China, a 24,000-strong rebel force led by Zhang Zongchang was defeated at Zhifu by 7,000 NRA troops.

1925The New Yorker publishes its first issue.

1921Constituent Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Georgia adopts the country's first constitution.

1921Rezā Shāh takes control of Tehran during a successful coup.

1919German socialist Kurt Eisner is assassinated. His death results in the establishment of the Bavarian Soviet Republic and parliament and government fleeing Munich, Germany.

1918The last Carolina parakeet dies in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo.

1916World War I: In France, the Battle of Verdun begins.

1913Ioannina is incorporated into the Greek state after the Balkan Wars.

1896An Englishman raised in Australia, Bob Fitzsimmons, fights an Irishman, Peter Maher, in an American promoted event which technically takes place in Mexico, winning the 1896 World Heavyweight Championship in boxing.

1885The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated.

1878The first telephone directory is issued in New Haven, Connecticut.

1874The Oakland Daily Tribune publishes its first edition.

1862American Civil War: Battle of Valverde is fought near Fort Craig in New Mexico Territory.

1861Mariehamn, the capital city of Åland, is founded.

1848Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto.

1842John Greenough is granted the first U.S. patent for the sewing machine.

1828Initial issue of the Cherokee Phoenix is the first periodical to use the Cherokee syllabary invented by Sequoyah.

1808Without a previous declaration of war, Russian troops cross the border to Sweden at Abborfors in eastern Finland, thus beginning the Finnish War, in which Sweden will lose the eastern half of the country (i.e. Finland) to Russia.

1804The first self-propelling steam locomotive makes its outing at the Pen-y-Darren Ironworks in Wales.

1797A force of 1,400 French soldiers invade Britain at Fishguard in support of the Society of United Irishmen. They were defeated by 500 British reservists.

1613Mikhail I is unanimously elected Tsar by a national assembly, beginning the Romanov dynasty of Imperial Russia.

1440The Prussian Confederation is formed.

Born on this day

2007Leeseo, South Korean singer

1999Metawin Opas-iamkajorn, Thai actor and singer

1996Noah Rubin, American tennis player

1996Sophie Turner, English actress

1994Hayley Orrantia, American actress and singer-songwriter

1994Tang Haochen, Chinese tennis player

1994Wendy, South Korean singer

1993Davy Klaassen, Dutch footballer

1993Steve Leo Beleck, Cameroonian footballer

1992Phil Jones, English footballer

1991Devon Travis, American baseball player

1991Ji So-yun, South Korean footballer

1991Joe Alwyn, English actor

1991Riyad Mahrez, Algerian footballer

1991Solar, South Korean singer, songwriter and actress

1990Mattias Tedenby, Swedish ice hockey player

1989Corbin Bleu, American actor, model, dancer, film producer and singer-songwriter

1989Federico Fernández, Argentine footballer

1989Ian Cole, American ice hockey player

1989Jake Muzzin, Canadian ice hockey player

1988Donté Greene, American basketball player

1987Ashley Greene, American actress

1987Elliot Page, Canadian actor

1987Eniola Aluko, English footballer

1986Charlotte Church, Welsh singer-songwriter and actress

1985Georgios Samaras, Greek footballer

1984Andrew Ellis, New Zealand rugby player

1984David Odonkor, German footballer

1984James Wisniewski, American ice hockey player

1984Marco Paoloni, Italian footballer

1983Braylon Edwards, American football player

1983Franklin Gutiérrez, Venezuelan baseball player

1983Mélanie Laurent, French actress

1982Andre Barrett, American basketball player

1982Chantal Claret, American singer-songwriter

1982Tebogo Jacko Magubane, South African DJ and producer

1981Tsuyoshi Wada, Japanese baseball player

1980Brad Fast, Canadian ice hockey player

1980Brendan Sexton III, American actor

1980Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, 5th King of Bhutan

Died on this day

2026Rondale Moore, American football player (born 2000)

2025Clint Hill, American Secret Service agent (born 1932)

2025Lynne Marie Stewart, American actress (born 1946)

2024John Bahnsen, United States Army brigadier general and decorated veteran of the Vietnam War (born 1934)

2021Kevin Dann, Australian rugby league player (born 1958)

2021Mireya Arboleda, Colombian classical pianist (born 1928)

2019Peter Tork, American musician and actor (born 1942)

2019Stanley Donen, American film director (born 1924)

2018Billy Graham, American evangelist (born 1918)

2017Jeanne Martin Cissé, Guinean teacher and politician (born 1926)

2016Eric Brown, Scottish-English captain and pilot (born 1919)

2015Aleksei Gubarev, Russian general, pilot, and astronaut (born 1931)

2015Clark Terry, American trumpet player, composer, and educator (born 1920)

2015Sadeq Tabatabaei, Iranian journalist and politician (born 1943)

2014Cornelius Schnauber, German–American historian, playwright, and academic (born 1939)

2014Héctor Maestri, Cuban-American baseball player (born 1935)

2014Matthew Robinson, Australian snowboarder (born 1985)

2013Hasse Jeppson, Swedish footballer (born 1925)

2012H. M. Darmstandler, American general (born 1922)

2011Bernard Nathanson, American physician and activist (born 1926)

2011Dwayne McDuffie, American author and screenwriter, co-founded Milestone Media (born 1962)

2008Ben Chapman, American actor (born 1928)

2005Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Cuban author, screenwriter, and critic (born 1929)

2005Zdzisław Beksiński, Polish painter, photographer, and sculptor (born 1929)

2004John Charles, Welsh footballer and manager (born 1931)

2002John Thaw, English actor and producer (born 1942)

1999Gertrude B. Elion, American biochemist and pharmacologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1918)

1999Ilmari Juutilainen, Finnish soldier and pilot (born 1914)

1999Wilmer Mizell, American baseball player and politician (born 1930)

1996Morton Gould, American pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1913)

Quote of the day

“He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.”

Lao Tzu

Questions people ask

Where do the entries come from?

From Wikipedia’s on-this-day pages for this language, updated once a day and ordered by how often each article is read.

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