On this day in History - Feb. 21

• 0362 - Athanasius returns to Alexandria.
• 1173 Pope Alexander III canonizes Thomas Becket Absp of Canterbury .
• 1397 - Isabel de Portugal, nasce, duquesa de Borgonha.
• 1431 - The trial of Joan of Arc begins.
• 1440 - The Prussian Confederation was formed.
• 1513 - Julius II, [Giuliano dellea Rovere], Pope (1503-13), dies at 69.
• 1513 - Pope Julius II [Giuliano dellea Rovere] dies, (b. 1443) .
• 1613- Mikhail I was elected unanimously as Tsar by a national assembly, beginning the Romanov dynasty of Imperial Russia .
• 1677 - Muere Baruch Spinosa, filósofo de ascendencia española.
• 1688- Reigning Queen Ulrike Eleonora of Sweden (d. 1741) .
• 1728 - Peter III, Tsar of Russia, husband of Catherine the Great (d. 1762) .
• 1743 - The premiere in London of George Frideric Handel's oratorio, Samson.
• 1764 - John Wilkes thrown out of Engl House of Commons for "Essay on Women" .
• 1791 - John Mercer was born (d. 30 Nov 1866). English chemist and industrialist who invented the mercerisation process for treating cotton which is still in use today and was a pioneer in colour photography.
• 1794 - Nace Antonio López de Santa Anna, político mexicano.
• 1795 - A constituição do Diretório estabelece a liberdade de culto na França revolucionária.
• 1795 - Francisco Manuel da Silva, nasce no Rio de Janeiro, compositor brasileiro (m. 1865).
• 1804 - The first self-propelling steam locomotive makes its outing at the Pen-y-Darren ironworks in Wales.
• 1813 - Las fuerzas del general Manuel Belgrano vencen a las realistas del general Tristán en la batalla de Salta.
• 1817 - Nace José Zorrilla, poeta y dramaturgo español.
• 1822 - Guatemala se une voluntariamente a México.
• 1824 - Eugène de Beauharnais, dies, son of Napoleon's wife, Josephine (b. 1781) .
• 1837 - Rosalia de Castro, Spanish writer (Canteres Gallegos, Follas Novas) .
• 1842 - John J. Greenough patents the sewing machine.
• 1844 - Charles-Marie Widor, was born, organist and composer (d. 1937) .
• 1848 - Karl Marx publishes the Communist Manifesto.
• 1852 - Joaquín Acosta dies (b. 29 Dec 1799). Colombian scientist who in 1834 attempted a scientific survey of his country between Socorro and the Magdalena River.
• 1858 - Un fuerte temblor destruye la ciudad griega de Corinto.
• 1866 - August von Wassermann was born (d. 16 Mar 1925). German bacteriologist whose discovery of a universal blood-serum test for syphilis helped extend the basic tenets of immunology to diagnosis.
• 1867 - Otto Hermann Kahn, was born in Manheim, millionaire and benefactor (d. 1934) .
• 1872 - Pavel P Gagarin, Russian monarch/politician, dies at 82.
• 1920 - Afonso de Bragança, Duque do Porto morre em Nápoles.
• 1874 - The Oakland Daily Tribune publishes its first newspaper.
• 1875 - Jeanne Calment was born. She then went on to live for 122 years 164 days, the longest confirmed lifespan for any human being in history (d. 1997).
• 1876 - Constantin Brancusi was born, Romanian sculptor .
• 1880 - Waldemar Bonsels, was born, German writer (d. 1952) .
• 1878 - First telephone book issued in New Haven, Connecticut.
• 1885 - The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated.
• 1885 - Sacha Guitry, was born, dramatist, writer, director, actor (d. 1957) .
• 1892 - Harry Stack Sullivan was born (d. 14 Jan 1949). U.S. psychiatrist who developed a theory of psychiatry based on interpersonal relationships.
• 1893 - Celia Lovsky was born in Vienne, Austria (d. 12. Oct. 1979) actress .
• 1893 - Andrés Segovia, was born, Spanish guitarist (d. 1987) .
• 1893 - Thomas Edison received two U.S. patents for a "Cut Out for Incandescent Electric Lamps" and for a "Stop Device" .
• 1895 - Henrik Carl Peter Dam was born, Danish biochemist, winner of the 1943 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1976).
• 1896 - Guerra de Cuba: los insurrectos cubanos son derrotados en el lugar conocido por Ojo de Agua.
• 1901 - La Asamblea Constituyente cubana promulga la primera Constitución del país.
• 1903 - Anaïs Nin, was born, writer (Winter of Artifice, House of Incense) (d. 1977) .
• 1907 - W. H. Auden, was born, English poet (d. 1973).
• 1907 - Fuerzas nicaragüenses se apoderan de varias poblaciones hondureñas y acorralan al presidente Manuel Bonilla.
• 1916 - World War I: In France the Battle of Verdun begins.
• 1925 - The New Yorker publishes its first issue.
• 1925 - Sam Peckinpah, was born in Fresno California, film director (Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs) (d. 1984) .
• 1924 - Robert Mugabe was born, First Prime Minister of Zimbabwe .
• 1926 - Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, morte de, físico holandés, premio Nobel de Física en 1913.
• 1927 - Erma Bombeck, was born, writer, humorist (d. 1996).
• 1927 - Hubert de Givenchy, was born in Beauvais France, fashion designer.
• 1929 - Chespirito, nace, escritor e actor mexicano.
• 1929 - El Gobierno francés niega el asilo político a León Trotski.
• 1929 - Acuerdo fronterizo entre Chile y Perú.
• 1933 - Nina Simone, [Eunice Waymon], was born, singer (d. 2003) .
• 1934 - Rue McClanahan, was born in Healdton Okla, actress (Maude, Golden Girls).
• 1934 - Detención y asesinato del líder guerrillero nicaraguense Augusto César Sandino.
• 1936 - Barbara Jordan, was born, American politician from Texas (d. 1996) .
• 1937 - King Harald V of Norway was born.
• 1937 - Gary Lockwood, was born in Van Nuys Cal. , actor (2001, Survival Zone, Lieutenant).
• 1937 - Following the failed assassination attempt (19 February) on the Italian Viceroy General, Rudolfo Graziani, two thousand Ethiopians are detained for questioning.
• 1938 - George Ellery Hale, dies, astronomer .
• 1941 - Frederick Grant Banting, morte de, médico canadiano, premio Nobel de Medicina em 1923, partilhado com Charles H. Best- extracção de insulina do pancreas.
• 1941 - James Wong, was born, the famous composer of Hong Kong (d. November 23, 2004).
• 1942 - Margarethe von Trotta, was born in Berlin, actor, film director, writer.
• 1943 - David Geffen, was born in Brooklyn New York, record producer (Geffin, Asylum).
• 1945 - Eric Liddell, Scottish runner dies. Golden medal and Olimpic record 47.6 s in 400m Olympics Paris 1924 ("Charriots of Fire").
• 1945 - Conferencia, en México, de los países de la Unión Panamericana, a excepción de Argentina y El Salvador, en la que se acuerda la creación de la Liga de las Naciones Americanas.
• 1946 - Tyne Daly, was born in Madison Wisc, actress (Cagney & Lacey, Angel Unchained)
• 1946 - Alan Rickman, was born in Hammersmith, London, England, UK, actor (Robin Hood Prince of Thieves).
• 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.
• 1949 - Una emisora de Quito transmite "La guerra de los mundos", de Wells, y causa el mismo pánico que en Nueva York diez años antes.
• 1952 - Language Martyrs' Day, marking language-revolution in the then East Pakistan (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 discovered the structure of the DNA molecule.
  1953 - William Petersen, was born, actor (Return to Lonesome Dove) .
• 1958 - Mary Chapin Carpenter, was born in Princeton NJ, country vocalist (This Shirt).
• 1958 - Gamal Abdel Nasser is made president of the United Arab Republic (which was formed by the joining of Egypt and Syria on 1 February 1958).
• 1960 - Cuban leader Fidel Castro nationalizes all businesses in Cuba.
• 1961 - Gabon adopts constitution.
• 1961 - Davey Allison, was born, automobile racer (d. 1993).
• 1961 - Chuck Palahniuk, was born Pasco, Washington, USA writer.
• 1962 - David Foster Wallace, was born, American author.
• 1963 - William Baldwin, was born, actor.
• 1965 - Malcolm X is assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City by members of the Nation of Islam.
• 1965 - Malcolm X, Black Muslim Movement activist (b. 1925).
• 1967 - Charles Beaumont, dies, writer (b. 1929).
• 1968 - Howard Walter Florey dies (b. 24 Sep 1898). Australian pathologist who, with Ernst Boris Chain, isolated and purified penicillin (discovered in 1928 by Sir Alexander Fleming) for general clinical use. For this research Florey, Chain, and Fleming shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1945.
• 1970 - Swissair Flight 330: All nine crew members and 38 passengers were killed due to the explosion of a bomb in the rear of the plane when it crashed near Zurich, Switzerland.
• 1970 - Em Portugal a União Nacional decide transformar-se na Acção Nacional Popular (ANP).
• 1972 - Seo Taiji, was born, Korean pop musician .
• 1972 - President Richard Nixon visits the People's Republic of China to normalize Sino-American relations (became the first American President to visit China) .
• 1972 - The Soviet unmanned spaceship Luna 20 lands on the Moon.
• 1973 -Israeli jets shoot down a Libyan Boeing 727 airliner over the Sinai desert, killing 74 passengers and crew. Israel's Defence Minister, General Moshe Dayan, makes a public statement: "There is no reason to feel guilty".
• 1974 - Yugoslavia adopts constitution .
• 1974 - The long-running Japanese comic strip Sazae-san published 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.
• 1974 - Roberto Heras, was born, Spanish cyclist .
• 1975 - Affirmed, was born, race horse (d. 2001) .
• 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 - Portugal reconhece oficialmente a República Popular de Angola.
• 1979 - Jennifer Love Hewitt, was born, actress, singer .
• 1980 - Hanni Wenzel is 1st Liechtensteiner to win Olymp gold (giant slalom) .
• 1984 - Muere Mijail Sholojov, escritor soviético, Premio Nóbel de Literatura 1965.
• 1984 - Fernando Remacha, muere, compositor español .
• 1985 -Nathan Pritikin dies (b. 29 Aug 1915). Scientist and nutritionist. Pritikin believed that moderate exercise combined with a diet low in fat and high in unrefined arbohydrates reversed his own heart disease discovered in the late 1950's.
• 1986 - Charlotte Church, was born, Welsh soprano singer.
• 1987 - Evandro Cavalcanti, advogado dos trabalhadores rurais de Pernambuco é assinado. Seu enterro se torna um acto pró-reforma agrária no País.
• 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 temporarily leaving the pulpit.
• 1990 - 32nd Grammy Awards: Wind Beneath My Wings, Nick of Time wins .
• 1991 - Dame Margot Fonteyn, [Peggy Hookham] dies (b. 1919) ballet dancer .
• 1993 - Sergei Bubka pole vaults world record indoor (6.15 m) .
• 1994 - Comandos paquistaneses invadem a embaixada afegã em Islamabad, matando três pistoleiros afegãos que mantinham cinco estudantes e um professor como reféns.
• 1994 - Luis Donaldo Colosio, dies, Mexican politician.
• 1994 - Refrigerator - The Whirlpool Corporation began production of an energy efficient refrigerator that did not use freon. It had an efficiency 25% better than the U.S. law required. By removing freon, the destructive effect on ozone in the atmosphere by that chemical was eliminated.
• 1995 - Calder Willingham, dies, writer.
• 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.
• 1996 - Soyuz TM-23, launched into orbit.
• 1997 - Jeanne Calment, considerada a pessoa mais velha do mundo, comemora seu aniversário de 122 anos na França.
• 1997 - El atleta etíope Haile Grabieselassie bate la plusmarca de 5.000 metros en pista cubierta con 12:59.04.
• 1999 - Gertrude Belle Elion dies (b. 23 Jan 1918). American biochemist and pharmacologist who (with colleague George H. Hitchings), was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1988.
• 2000 - David Letterman returns to The Late Show over a month after having an emergency quintuple heart bypass surgery.
• 2002 -It was confirmed that Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was dead, allegedly murdered by Islamic militants.
• 2002 - John Thaw, dies, actor (b. 1942) .
• 2003 - Over 100 concert goers die in a fire during a performance of the rock band Great White.
• 2004 - The first European political party organization, the European Greens, is established in Rome.
• 2004 - Guido Molinari, dies, Canadian abstract artist .
• 2004 - John Charles, dies, Welsh football player.