February 21
(Redirected from 21 February)
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).
Events
Up to 1900
- 4 - Gaius Caesar, heir to Augustus Caesar
- 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)
- 1572 - Cho Shik, Korean poet and scholar (b. 1501)
- 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 – 1950
- 1903 - Anaïs Nin, French writer (d. 1977)
- 1903 - Raymond Queneau, French writer (d. 1976)
- 1907 – W. H. Auden, British poet (d. 1973)
- 1909 – Hans Erni, Swiss painter and sculptor (d. 2015)
- 1910 – Douglas Bader, British fighter pilot (d. 1982)
- 1913 - Roger Laurent, Belgian racing driver (d. 1997)
- 1914 – Ilmari Juutilainen, Finnish fighter pilot (d. 1999)
- 1914 - Park Su-geun, South Korean painter (d. 1965)
- 1915 - Godfrey Brown, British athlete (d. 1995)
- 1915 - Ann Sheridan, American actress (d. 1967)
- 1917 - Lucille Bremer, American actress (d. 1996)
- 1917 - Tadd Dameron, American pianist and composer (d. 1965)
- 1917 - Otto Kittel, German World War II flying ace (d. 1945)
- 1919 - Kehat Shorr, Israeli shooting coach (d. 1972)
- 1921 - John Rawls, American philosopher (d. 2002)
- 1921 - Zdenek Miler, Czech animator (d. 2011)
- 1921 - Antonio Maria Javierre Ortas, Spanish cardinal (d. 2007)
- 1924 – Robert Mugabe, former President of Zimbabwe (d. 2019)
- 1924 - Silvano Piovanelli, Italian cardinal (d. 2016)
- 1925 - Tom Gehrels, Dutch-American astronomer (d. 2011)
- 1925 - Jack Ramsay, American basketball coach (d. 2014)
- 1925 – Sam Peckinpah, American movie director (d. 1984)
- 1927 – Erma Bombeck, American writer and humorist (d. 1996)
- 1927 – Hubert de Givenchy, French fashion designer (d. 2018)
- 1927 - Pierre Mercure, Canadian musician and composer (d. 1966)
- 1929 - Chespirito, Mexican actor, director and screenwriter (d. 2014)
- 1933 – Nina Simone, American singer and musician (d. 2003)
- 1934 – Rue McClanahan, American actress (d. 2010)
- 1935 - Mark McManus, Scottish actor (d. 1994)
- 1935 - Jean Pelletier, 37th Mayor of Quebec City
- 1936 – Barbara Jordan, American politician (d. 1996)
- 1937 – King Harald V of Norway
- 1937 - Ron Clarke, Australian athlete and politician (d. 2015)
- 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 (d. 2020)
- 1942 – Margarethe von Trotta, German movie director
- 1942 - Magnus Linklater, Scottish newspaper editor
- 1943 - David Geffen, American record producer
- 1944 - Kitty Winn, American actress
- 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 (d. 2016)
- 1947 - Victor Sokolov, Russian journalist (d. 2006)
- 1947 – Olympia Snowe, American politician, former United States Senator for Maine
- 1947 - Marcel Paquet, Belgian philosopher (d. 2014)
- 1948 - Bill Slayback, American baseball player (d. 2015)
- 1949 - Larry Drake, American actor (d. 2016)
- 1949 - Ronnie Hellström, Swedish footballer
- 1949 - Jerry Harrison, American musician
- 1950 - Hakan Nesser, Swedish writer
1951 – 2000
- 1952 – Language Martyrs' Day, marking language-revolution in the then East Pakistan through Bengali Language Movement (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.
From 2001
- 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)
- 2013 - Bruce Millan, British politician (b. 1927)
- 2013 - Bob Godfrey, British animator (b. 1921)
- 2014 - Sakis Boulas, Greek singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1954)
- 2014 - Georgette Rejewski, Dutch actress (b. 1910)
- 2014 - Francesco Di Giacomo, Italian singer (b. 1947)
- 2014 - Stanley Brotman, American federal judge (b. 1924)
- 2014 - Matthew Robinson, Australian Paralympic snowboarder (b. 1985)
- 2015 - Clark Terry, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1920)
- 2015 - Sadeq Tabatabaei, Iranian politician (b. 1943)
- 2016 - Eric Brown, Scottish test pilot (b. 1919)
- 2017 - Kenneth Arrow, American economist (b. 1921)
- 2017 - Douglas Coe, American religious leader (b. 1928)
- 2017 - Desmond Connell, Irish cardinal (b. 1926)
- 2017 - Cosmo Haskard, Irish-born British Governor of the Falkland Islands (b. 1916)
- 2017 - Bengt Gustavsson, Swedish footballer (b. 1928)
- 2017 - Jeanne Martin Cissé, Guinean teacher and politician (b. 1926)
- 2017 - Brunella Bovo, Italian actress (b. 1932)
- 2017 - Ion Croitoru, Canadian professional wrestler (b. 1963)
- 2017 - Edwin Kessler, American atmospheric scientist (b. 1928)
- 2018 - Billy Graham, American evangelist (b. 1918)
- 2018 - Emma Chambers, English actress (b. 1964)
- 2019 - Peter Tork, American keyboardist (The Monkees) (b. 1942)
Births
1951 – 1975
- 1951 - Vince Welnick, American musician
- 1952 - Jean-Jacques Burnel, British musician
- 1952 - Vitaly Churkin, Russian diplomat (d. 2017)
- 1952 - Igor Levitin, Russian political figure
- 1953 - William Petersen, American actor
- 1953 - Christine Ebersole, American singer
- 1954 - Ivo Van Damme, Belgian athlete (d. 1976)
- 1954 - Rudolf Simek, Austrian philologist
- 1955 – Kelsey Grammer, American actor
- 1956 - Ha Jin, Chinese-American writer
- 1957 - Nikolay Rastorguyev, Russian singer
- 1958 - Mary Chapin Carpenter, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1958 - Jack Coleman, American actor
- 1958 - Alan Trammell, American baseball player and manager
- 1960 - Steve Wynn, American singer-songwriter
- 1960 - Plamen Oresharski, 52nd Prime Minister of Bulgaria
- 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 - Huw Higginson, British actor
- 1964 - Mark Kelly, American astronaut
- 1964 - Scott Kelly, American astronaut
- 1964 - Jane Tomlinson, British cancer campaigner (d. 2007)
- 1965 - Steve Lee, Sound effects wrangler and film historian
- 1967 - Leroy Burrell, American athlete
- 1969 - James Dean Bradfield, Welsh musician (Manic Street Preachers)
- 1969 - Tony Meola, American footballer
- 1969 - Chen Wei, Chinese dissident
- 1970 - Michael Slater, Australian cricketer
- 1973 - Heri Joensen, Faroese musician
- 1973 - Brian Rolston, American ice hockey player
- 1974 - Ivan Campo, Spanish footballer
- 1974 - Roberto Heras, Spanish cyclist
From 1976
- 1976 – Michael McIntyre, British comedian
- 1977 - Steve Francis, American basketball player
- 1979 – Pascal Chimbonda, French footballer
- 1979 - Shane Gibson, American guitarist (d. 2014)
- 1979 – Jennifer Love Hewitt, American actress
- 1979 - Jordan Peele, American actor, director and screenwriter
- 1980 – Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, King of Bhutan
- 1980 - Tiziano Ferro, Italian singer-songwriter and producer
- 1981 - Jun Kaname, Japanese actor
- 1982 - Andre Barrett, American basketball player
- 1983 - Lusine Gevorkyan, Russian-Armenian singer
- 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
- 1987 - Carlos Carmona, Chilean footballer
- 1987 - Eniola Aluko, English footballer
- 1987 - Tuppence Middleton, English actress
- 1988 - Matthias de Zordo, Spanish footballer
- 1989 - Josh Walker, English footballer
- 1989 – Corbin Bleu, American actor
- 1989 - Kristin Herrera, American actress
- 1989 - Scout Taylor-Compton, American actress
- 1990 - Mattias Tedenby, Swedish ice hockey player
- 1990 - David Addy, Ghanaian footballer
- 1991 - Riyad Mahrez, Algerian footballer
- 1992 – Phil Jones, British footballer
- 1996 - Sophie Turner, English actress
- 2001 - Isabella Acres, American actress
Deaths
1901 – 2000
- 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)
- 1980 - Mario Lanzi, Italian athlete (b. 1914)
- 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)
- 1989 - Alex Thepot, French footballer (b. 1906)
- 1991 – Dame Margot Fonteyn, British ballet dancer (b. 1919)
- 1994 - Johannes Steinhoff, German pilot and commander (b. 1913)
- 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)
Observances
- International Mother Language Day
- Language Movement Day (Bangladesh)
- Biikebrennen in Northern Schleswig-Holstein (Germany) and Southern Jutland (Denmark)