On This Day in History for February 21

Events 1 - 100 of 149

• 362 Athanasius returns to Alexandria.

• 1245 Thomas, the first known Bishop of Finland, is granted resignation after having confessed to torture and forgery

• 1440 The Prussian Confederation is formed.

• 1574 Spanish garrison of Middelburg, Netherlands, surrenders
• 1583 Groningen, Netherlands, begins using Gregorian calendar
• 1598 Boris Godunov crowned Tsar of Russia
• 1613 Michael Romanov, son of Patriarch of Moscow, elected first Russian Tsar of the house of Romanov
• 1673 Michiel A de Ruyter appointed lt-admiral-general of Dutch fleet
• 1675 Prince Willem III appointed viceroy of Gelderland
• 1746 Jacobite Rising 1745: British forces surrender Inverness Castle to Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobite forces
• 1764 John Wilkes thrown out of English House of Commons for "Essay on Women"
• 1777 British ambassador Joseph Yorke demands dismissal of Governor John de Graaff for saluting US flag
• 1782 US Congress resolves establishment of a US mint


• 1792 US Congress passes Presidential Succession Act
• 1795 Freedom of worship established in France under constitution
• 1797 Trinidad, West Indies, surrenders to British
• 1804 1st locomotive, Richard Trevithick's, runs for the 1st time, along the tramway of the Penydarren Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales
• 1821 Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire begins
• 1828 1st American Indian newspaper in US, "Cherokee Phoenix", published
• 1842 1st known sewing machine patented in US, John Greenough, Washington, D.C.
• 1846 1st US woman telegrapher, Sarah G Bagley, Lowell, Massachusetts

• 1853 US authorizes minting of $3 gold pieces
• 1857 Congress outlaws foreign currency as legal tender in US
• 1857 US issues flying eagle cents
• 1858 Edwin T Holmes installs 1st electric burglar alarm (Boston, Massachusetts)
• 1861 Steeple of Chichester Cathedral collapses despite the desperate efforts of 70 workmen
• 1861 Navaho indians elect Herrero Grande as chief
• 1862 Confederate Constitution & presidency are declared permanent
• 1862 Texas Rangers win Confederate victory at Battle of Valverde, Confederate Arizona (now New Mexico)
• 1864 -22] Battle at Okolona, Mississippi
• 1864 1st US Catholic parish church for blacks dedicated, Baltimore
• 1866 Lucy B Hobbs (Taylor) becomes 1st US woman to earn a DDS degree

• 1874 Oakland Daily Tribune begins publication
• 1878 World's 1st telephone directory issued, 50 subscribers (New Harbor, Connecticut)
• 1882 NYC's 24 hour race begins, winner with most mileage in 24 hours


• 1883 2nd French government of Ferry begins
• 1885 Washington Monument dedicated (Washington, D.C.)
• 1887 1st US bacteriology laboratory opens (Brooklyn)
• 1887 Oregon becomes 1st US state to make Labor Day a holiday

• 1901 In Cuba, the constitutional delegates adopt a constitution much like that of the USA
• 1902 Dr Harvey Cushing, 1st US brain surgeon, performs his 1st brain operation
• 1903 Cornerstone laid for US army war college, Washington, D.C.
• 1904 National Ski Association forms in Ishpeming Mich
• 1907 SS Berlin sinks off the Hook of Holland (142 dead)
• 1909 John Galsworthy's "Strife" premieres in London
• 1910 John Galsworthy's "Justice" premieres in London
• 1911 Gustav Mahler conducts his last concerto (Berceuse élégique)
• 1914 Bai Lang ("White Wolf") troops attack Zhanjiang, China
• 1914 In a secret meeting of civil and military leaders, Russian Foreign Minister Sazonov convinces them to support a plan for seizing the straits, controlled by Turkey, that block access to the Mediterranean
• 1915 Russian 20th Army corps surrenders to the German 10th Army after being surrounded
• 1916 World War I: Battle of Verdun begins, leads to an estimated 1 million casualties
• 1917 British troopship SS Mendi sinks off Isle of Wight, 646 die
• 1917 Train near Chirurcha, Romania, catches fire & explodes; hundreds die
• 1918 Australians chase Turkish troop out of Jericho, Dutch Palestine
• 1918 The last Carolina parakeet dies in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo
• 1919 German National Meeting accepts Anschluss: incorporation of Austria
• 1919 Revolutionary strike in Barcelona
• 1920 Darius Milhaud & Jean Cocteau's ballet, premieres in Paris
• 1921 Constituent Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Georgia adopts the country's first constitution
• 1921 The London Conference on the Near East begins: the issue is the Allies' 1920 Treaty of Sevres, which had given part of Turkish Asia Minor to Greece
• 1922 Airship "Rome" explodes at Hampton Roads, Virginia; 34 die
• 1922 Britain declares Egypt a sovereign state
• 1922 WHK-AM in Cleveland, Ohio begins radio transmissions
• 1922 Irish Nationalist Eamon De Valera calls a convention of the Sinn Fein, declaring the Republican Government the only legitimate one in all Ireland
• 1925 1st issue of "New Yorker" magazine published
• 1925 Mass meeting of SPD's Reichsbanner Black-Red-Gold in Magdeburg
• 1930 Marc Connelly's "Green Pastures" premieres in NYC
• 1931 Alka Seltzer introduced
• 1932 Andre Tardieu becomes Premier of France
• 1932 Camera exposure meter patented, WN Goodwin
• 1934 Nicaraguan patriot Augusto Cesar Sandino assassinated by National Guard
• 1937 Initial flight of the first successful flying car, Waldo Waterman's Arrowbile.
• 1937 The League of Nations bans foreign national "volunteers" in the Spanish Civil War.
• 1939 Belgian government of Pierlot forms
• 1941 Omar Bradley is promoted to the rank of brigadier general
• 1942 US female Figure Skating championship won by Jane Vaughn
• 1942 US male Figure Skating championship won by Bobby Specht
• 1943 Dutch RC bishops protest against persecution of Jews
• 1945 Dutch Archbishop of Utrecht Johannes de Jong calls for help with war casualties following the Nazi occupation of Netherlands from the allies
• 1945 Operation Veritable: British Army captures Goch from Germany, forcing German retreat away from the Rhineland
• 1945 US 10th Armour division overthrows Orscholz line
• 1946 Anti-British demonstrations in Egypt

• 1947 Whipper Billy Watson beats Bill Longson, to become wrestling champ
• 1951 SC House urges "Shoeless Joe" Jackson be reinstated
• 1952 Bangladesh Martyrs Day (martyrs of Bengali Language Movement)
• 1953 "Maggie" closes at National Theater NYC after 5 performances
• 1958 Egypt-Syria as United Arab Republic elect Nasser president (99.9% vote)
• 1961 Friedrich Durrenmatt's "Die Physiker" premieres in Zurich
• 1961 Gabon adopts constitution
• 1961 Mercury-Atlas 2 reentry Test reaches 172 km
• 1962 Minister De Pous confirms natural gas reserves in Groningen, Netherlands
• 1963 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

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• 1417 Louis IX, Duke of Bayern (University of Ingolstadt)
• 1484 Joachim I Nestor, elector (Brandenburg, Constitution)
• 1675 Franz Xaver Josef von Unertl, Bavarian politician (d. 1750)
• 1684 Justus van Effen, writer/founder (Holland Spectator)
• 1705 Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke, British naval officer (d. 1781)
• 1710 Willem van Haren, Frisian nobleman/poet (Human Life)
• 1723 Louis-Pierre Anquetil, French historian (d. 1808)
• 1728 Peter III, Kiel Germany, Russian Tsar (1762) and husband of Catherine the Great
• 1730 Charles L Fournier, Flemish writer/painter
• 1744 Eise J Eisinga, Frisia, built planetarium Franeker
• 1779 Friedrich C von Savigny, German lawyer
• 1783 Fyodor Petrovich Tolstoy, Russian painter (VP: Imperial Academy of Arts 1828-68), born in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire (d. 1873)
• 1783 Princess Catharina of Württemberg, Queen consort of Westphalia (d. 1835)
• 1785 Karl A Varnhagen von Ense, German officer/author (Die Sterner)
• 1794 Antonio López de Santa Anna, President of Mexico who dominated Mexican history in the first half of the 19th century, born in Xalapa, Veracruz (d. 1876)
• 1800 John Henry Winder, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1865)
• 1801 John Henry Newman, England, cardinal/author (Dream of Gerontius)
• 1802 George Douglas Ramsay, Brevet Major general (Union Army), born in Dumfries, Virginia (d. 1882)
• 1805 David Tod, US diplomat/(Gov-R-Ohio, 1861-63)
• 1815 Ernest Meissonier, French painter/sculptor
• 1817 Jose Zorrilla y Moral, Vallodolid Spain, poet/dramatist (El rey Loco)
• 1829 Johnson Hagood, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1898)
• 1852 [James] Burner Matthews, US playwright/critic (NY Times)
• 1855 Alice Freeman Palmer, educator (Hall of Fame)
• 1856 Hendrik P Berlage, architect (Stock exchange Amsterdam)
• 1857 Jules de Trooz, baron/premier of Belgium (1907)
• 1860 Karel Matěj Čapek-Chod, Czech journalist (d. 1927)
• 1860 Goscombe John, Welsh sculptor (d. 1952)
• 1865 John Haden Badley, English school founder (d. 1967)
• 1875 Jeanne Louise Calment, French world's oldest woman (d. 1997 at 122)
• 1876 Pyotr Konchalovsky, Russian painter (d. 1956)
• 1877 Jacob D du Toit [Totius], South African poet/theologist
• 1878 Mirra Richard [The Mother], French-born Indian spiritual leader (Sri Aurobindo), born in Paris, France (d. 1973)
• 1880 Waldemar Bonsels, German writer (d. 1952)
• 1888 Willem Banning, Dutch theologist/sociologist (Religious Build Up)
• 1888 Clemence Dane, British novelist and playwright (d. 1965)
• 1889 Felix Aylmer, British actor (Anastasia, Hamlet, Iron Duke, Macbeth, St Joan), born in Corsham, Wiltshire, England (d. 1979)
• 1895 Carl Peter Henrik Dam Danish biochemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1976)
• 1896 Sylvain Poons, Dutch cabaret performer (Blue Jackets)
• 1902 Arthur D Nock, English/US historian (St Paul)
• 1902 John Smallenbroek, Dutch minister of Internal Affairs [or 1909]
• 1903 Raymond Queneau, [M Presle], French author (Un Enfant a Dit)
• 1903 Fairfax M. Cone, American advertising executive (d. 1977)
• 1903 Anaïs Nin, French writer (d. 1977)
• 1907 Wystan Hugh Auden, American poet (Age of Anxiety-Pulitzer 1948)
• 1909 Hans Erni, Swiss painter and sculptor, born in Lucerne, Switzerland (d. 2015)
• 1909 Helen O Dickens, [Henderson], US physician/gynaecologist
• 1910 Douglas R S Bader, British pilot (WWII)
• 1910 Carmine Galante, Italian-born gangster (d. 1979)
• 1912 Patrick Murphy, English multi-millionaire
• 1913 Glenn M Anderson, (Rep-D-CA, 1969- )
• 1914 Hermanus P "Piet" Mulder, Dutch journalist (Parool/VARA)
• 1917 Victor G M Marijnen, Dutch premier (1963-65)

• 1926 Hans Andreus, [Johan W van der Zant], Dutch poet (Animal Language)

• 1929 Henry Kloss, American audio engineer (acoustic loudspeaker), born in Altoona, Pennsylvania (d. 2002)
• 1930 Elizabeth Adams, madame
• 1935 Jean Pelletier, French Canadian political operative
• 1936 Barbara Jordan, (Rep-D-Tx, 1972-78), born in Houston, Texas
• 1938 Beryl F Anthony Jr, (Rep-D-CA, 1979- )
• 1940 John Lewis, American politician (Rep-D-Georgia) and prominent civil rights leader (Big Six), born in Troy, Alabama
• 1941 Charlie Shelburne, English earl/large landowner
• 1943 Roberto Faenza, director (Cop Killers, Corrupt)
• 1944 Herman de Coninck, Flemish writer/poet (Impossible Work)
• 1946 Tricia Nixon Cox, Richard Milhaus' daughter (or 0202)
• 1946 Vito Rizzuto, Sicilian-born alleged mafia boss
• 1947 Olympia J Snowe, (Rep-R-ME, 1979- )
• 1947 Victor Sokolov, Russian journalist (d. 2006)
• 1950 Sahle-Work Zewde, Ethiopian diplomat, President of Ethiopia (2018-), born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
• 1958 Jake Steinfeld, exercise expert (Body by Jake)
• 1962 Chuck Palahniuk, American writer
• 1962 David Foster Wallace, American writer
• 1964 Mark E Kelly, Lt USN/astronaut, born in Orange, New Jersey
• 1964 Jane Tomlinson, British cancer campaigner (d. 2007)

• 1969 Tony Meola, American footballer
• 1983 Daniel Ek, Swedish CEO and co-founder of Spotify, born in Stockholm, Sweden
• 1985 Bob Burton, American speedcuber
• 1986 Amedeo, Belgian son of princess Astrid/arch duke Lorenz

• 556 Maximianus van Ravenna, bishop (Basilica S Stefano), dies

• 1471 John of Rokycan, Czech Catholic archbishop

• 1554 Hieronymus Bock, German doctor (founder of modern botany), dies
• 1595 Robert Southwell, English Jesuit/poet, hanged
• 1624 Dirck van Baburen, Dutch painter (Sepulture), dies at about 28
• 1648 Christian IV, king of Denmark/Norway, dies
• 1653 Adriaen Pauw, master of Heemstede/Dutch Grand Pensionary, dies at 71
• 1668 John Thurloe, English Puritan spy (b. 1616)
• 1677 [Benedictus] Baruch Spinoza, philosopher, dies at 44
• 1684 Pieter van den Abeelen, Dutch medallist/jeweller, dies at about 75
• 1689 Isaacus Vossius, Dutch [Isaac Vos], librarian, dies
• 1711 Joan van Hoorn, gov-gen of Neth-Indies (1707-09), dies at 57
• 1715 Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore, Governor of the Province of Maryland, dies at 77
• 1730 Benedict XIII, [Pietro F Orsini], Pope (1724-30), dies at 81
• 1788 Johann Georg Palitzsch, German astronomer (b. 1723)
• 1788 Johann Georg Palitzsch, German astronomer, 1st saw Halley's comet on return, dies at 64
• 1803 Edward Despard, last person drawn & quartered in England
• 1821 Georg Friedrich von Martens, German diplomat (b. 1756)
• 1823 Charles Wolfe, Irish poet, dies at 31
• 1824 Eugène de Beauharnais, stepson of NapoleonI (son of Alexandre de Beauharnais and Joséphine Tascher de la Pagerie), dies at 42
• 1846 Emperor Ninko of Japan (b. 1800)
• 1861 Lars Levi Laestadius, Swedish botanist and founder of Laestadianism, dies at 61
• 1862 Justinus A C Kerner, German family doctor/poet/writer, dies at 75
• 1862 Nathaniel Gordon is hanged in NYC for engaging in the slave trade, the only slave trader in US history to be convicted and executed under the Piracy Law of 1820
• 1862 Justinus Kerner, German physician and medical writer (first detailed description of botulism), dies at 75
• 1864 Jeffery Forrest, US Confederate brigadier general, dies in battle
• 1866 Stephen Elliott, Jr., Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies at 35
• 1872 Pavel P Gagarin, Russian monarch/politician, dies at 82
• 1879 Peter P van Bosse, Dutch liberal minister of Finance, dies at 69
• 1894 Gustave Caillebotte, French shipbuilding designer/painter, dies at 45
• 1899 Sir George Bowen, British provincial governor and 5th Governor of New Zealand (1868-73), dies at 77
• 1901 George Francis FitzGerald, Irish mathematician (b. 1851)
• 1908 Harriet Hosmer, American neoclassical sculptor, dies at 77
• 1919 Habibullah Khan, Emir of Afghanistan (1901-19), murdered at 46
• 1919 Karl von Hohenzollern, Prince of Belgium, dies
• 1919 Kurt Eisner, premier Bayern (soc), murdered at 51
• 1919 Mary Edwards Walker, American surgeon and feminist, only woman awarded Medal of Honor (US Civil War), dies at 86
• 1920 Jacinta Marto, witness of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima (b. 1910)
• 1926 Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Dutch physicist (liquid helium, Nobel 1913), dies at 72
• 1938 George Ellery Hale, American astronomer (discovery of magnetic fields in sunspot), dies at 69

• 1946 José Streel, Belgian World War II collaborator (b. 1911)
• 1949 Tan Malaka, Indonesian philosopher and founder (Indonesian Communist), executed at 49
• 1961 Blaise Cendrars [Frederic Sauser-Hall], Swiss poet, dies at 73
• 1961 Frederick McKinley Jones, American inventor (developments in refrigeration), dies of lung cancer at 67

• 1966 Paul Comtois, French Canadian politician, dies at 70
• 1967 Charles Beaumont, American writer (b. 1929)

• 1971 Robert Manry, American copy editor of the Cleveland newspaper editor who sailed the Atlantic (Tinkerbelle), dies of a heart attack at 52
• 1972 Eugène Tisserant, French Catholic candinal (b. 1884)
• 1978 Mieczysław Żywczyński, Polish historian and priest (b. 1901)
• 1984 Michail A Sholochov, Russian writer (Ocean Don, Nobel 1965), dies
• 1984 Mikhail Sholokhov, Soviet writer (And Quiet Flows the Don, Nobel 1965), dies at 78
• 1985 Eric Herfst, Dutch cabaret performer (Floris), dies at 47
• 1986 Shigechiyo Izumi, Japanese sugarcane farmer, once thought to be the world's oldest man ever but now disputed (b. 1865)
• 1986 Helen Hooven Santmyer, American writer (b. 1895)
• 1992 Franc Holden, British astronomer (Binary Stars), dies
• 1992 William S Magginetti, dies at 98
• 1994 Frederick Edward Nicklin, architect, dies at 68
• 1994 William Elgin Swinton, child Psychiatrist, dies at 54
• 1995 Robert Bolt, British playwright (Doctor Zhivago, Bounty), dies at 70
• 1996 H. L. Gold, American sci-fi writer and editor, dies at 81
• 1996 Jean Burroughs, educationalist, dies at 67
• 1996 Terence Edward Armstrong, polar geographer, dies at 75
• 1997 Kenneth Rowntree, painter, dies at 81
• 1997 Michael Hollings, British Catholic priest/crusader, dies at 75

• 2002 Harold Furth, Austrian-American physicist, dies at 72
• 2002 A. L. [Audrey] Barker, English writer, dies at 83
• 2004 Guido Molinari, Canadian painter, dies at 70
• 2005 Gérard Bessette, Quebec novelist and poet (b. 1920)
• 2005 Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Cuban novelist (b. 1929)
• 2008 Sunny Lowry, First British woman to swim the English Channel (b. 1911)
• 2011 Bernard Nathanson, American abortionist turned pro-life activist (b. 1926)
• 2012 Baron Hooson [Hugh Emlyn], British politician and peer, dies at 86
• 2012 Colin Ireland, British 'Gay Slayer' serial killer, dies at 57
• 2012 John Michuki, Kenyan politician, dies from heart attack at 79
• 2012 Barney Rosset, American publisher and free speech advocate, dies at 89
• 2012 Eiko Ishioka, Japanese Costume designer, dies from pancreatic cancer at 74
• 2017 Kenneth Arrow, American economist, (Nobel Prize 1972), dies at 95

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