Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index February 21 is the 52nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 313 days remaining, 314 in leap years. Table of contents 1 Events 2 Births 3 Deaths 4 Holidays and observances Events 1431 - The trial of Joan of Arc begins. 1804 - The first self-propelling steam engine or steam locomotive makes its outing at the Pen-y-Darren ironworks in Wales, it was built by Richard Trevithick. 1842 - John J. Greenough patents the sewing machine. 1848 - Karl Marx publishes the Communist Manifesto. 1874 - The Oakland Daily Tribune publishes its first newspaper. 1878 - First telephone book issued in New Haven, Connecticut. 1885 - The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated. 1893 - Thomas Edison received two U.S. patents. The first was for a "Cut Out for Incandescent Electric Lamps" and another for a "Stop Device" (No. 491,992-3). Also No. 492,150 for "Process of Coating Conductors for Incandescent Lamps." 1916 - World War I: In France the Battle of Verdun begins. 1925 - The New Yorker publishes its first issue. 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. 1953 - Francis Crick and James Watson discovered the structure of the DNA molecule. 1960 - Cuban leader Fidel Castro nationalizes all businesses in Cuba. 1965 - Malcolm X is assassinated at his mosque in New York City by Black Muslims. 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. 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. 1988 - On his own televangelism program being tapped in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Jimmy Swaggart confesses that he is guilty of an unspecified sin and will be will be temporarily leaving the pulpit. 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 over a month after having an emergency quintuple heart bypass surgery. Births 1728 - Peter III, Tsar or Russia, husband of Catherine the Great († 1762) 1791 - John Mercer, chemist and industrialist († 1866) 1844 - Charles-Marie Widor, organist and composer († 1937) 1867 - Otto Hermann Kahn, millionaire and benefactor († 1934) 1880 - Waldemar Bonsels, writer († 1952) 1885 - Sacha Guitry, dramatist, writer, director, actor († 1957) 1893 - Andrés Segovia, musician († 1987) 1895 - Henrik Carl Peter Dam Danish biochemist, winner of the 1943 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine († 1976) 1903 - Anaïs Nin, writer († 1977) 1907 - W. H. Auden, English poet († 1973) 1925 - Sam Peckinpah, director († 1984) 1924 - Robert Mugabe First Prime Minister of Zimbabwe 1927 - Erma Bombeck, writer, humorist († 1996) 1927 - Hubert de Givenchy, fashion designer 1933 - Nina Simone, singer 1936 - Barbara Jordan, American politician from Texas († 1996) 1937 - King Harald V of Norway 1942 - Margarethe von Trotta, actor, film director, writer 1943 - David Geffen, producer 1946 - Tyne Daly, actress 1946 - Alan Rickman, actor 1953 - William Petersen, actor 1958 - Mary Chapin Carpenter, singer 1961 - Davey Allison, automobile racer († 1993) 1961 - Chuck Palahniuk, writer 1962 - David Foster Wallace, American author 1963 - William Baldwin, actor 1979 - Jennifer Love Hewitt, actress, singer 1986 - Charlotte Church, singer Deaths 1513 - Pope Julius II 1824 - Eugène de Beauharnais, son of Napoleon's wife, Josephine 1965 - Malcolm X, Black Muslim Movement activist 1967 - Charles Beaumont, writer 1991 - Dame Margot Fonteyn, ballet dancer 1995 - Calder Willingham, writer 2002 - John Thaw, actor Holidays and observances International Mother Language Day (UNESCO) Catholicism - Feast day of St Peter Damian. See Also: February 20 - February 22 - January 21 - March 21 -- listing of all days January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.