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There are many events that happened on this date in history. Here are just a few of them!

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).

EVENTS

1245 – Thomas, the first known Bishop of Finland, is granted resignation after confessing to torture and forgery.

1804 – The first self-propelling 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.

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

1885 – The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated.

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

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.

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

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.

BIRTHS

1621 – Rebecca Nurse, Massachusetts colonist, executed as a witch (d. 1692)

1728 – Peter III of Russia (d. 1762)

1867 – Otto Hermann Kahn, German banker and philanthropist (d. 1934)

1875 – Jeanne Calment, French super-centenarian, oldest verified person ever (d. 1997)

1909 – Hans Erni, Swiss painter, sculptor, and illustrator (d. 2015)

1910 – Douglas Bader, English captain and pilot (d. 1982)

1925 – Sam Peckinpah, American director and screenwriter (d. 1984)

1927 – Erma Bombeck, American journalist and author (d. 1996)

1933 – Nina Simone, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 2003)

1934 – Rue McClanahan, American actress (d. 2010)

1937 – Gary Lockwood, American actor

1943 – David Geffen, American businessman, co-founded DreamWorks and Geffen Records

1946 – Tyne Daly, American actress and singer

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

1964 – Mark Kelly, American astronaut and politician

1964 – Scott Kelly, American astronaut

1976 – Michael McIntyre, English comedian, actor and television presenter

1986 – Charlotte Church, Welsh singer-songwriter and actress

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

DEATHS

1918 – Incas, last known Carolina parakeet (h. fl. 1885)

1965 – Malcolm X, American minister and activist (b. 1925)

1967 – Charles Beaumont, American author and screenwriter (b. 1929)

1985 – Louis Hayward, South African-American actor (b. 1909)

1986 – Helen Hooven Santmyer, American novelist (b. 1895)

2008 – Ben Chapman, American actor (b. 1928)

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

2018 – Billy Graham, American evangelist (b. 1918)

2019 – Stanley Donen, American film director (b. 1924)

2019 – Peter Tork, American musician and actor (b. 1942)

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