Today In History, 21 February

Historical Events On This Day

In 1613, Mikhail I was elected Tsar of Russia, starting the Romanov dynasty.
In 1804, the first self-propelling steam locomotive was debuted by British mining engineer and inventor Richard Trevithick.
In 1916, one of World War I’s deadliest and longest battles, the Battle of Verdun, began with a German offensive.
In 1921, an Iranian military officer and politician Reza Shah led a successful coup and became the first shah of the House of Pahlavi of the Imperial State of Iran.
In 1965, Malcolm X, an American activist, black nationalist and Islamic leader, was assassinated by members of the Nation of Islam.
In 1972, US President Richard Nixon visited the People’s Republic of China, ending the 21-year estrangement between the countries.
In 1995, American businessman and aviator Steve Fossett became the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.
In 1999, the Lahore Declaration was signed on the use of nuclear weapons between India’s Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistan’s Nawaz Sharif.

In 1948, the American auto racing sanctioning and operating company NASCAR was founded by Bill France Sr.
In 1980, Liechtenstein became the smallest country to produce an Olympic champion when Hanni Wenzel won the women’s giant slalom at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics.

In 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published “The Communist Manifesto” in London.
In 1925, the popular American weekly magazine The New Yorker published its first issue.
In 2003, American political commentator Bill Maher’s talk show “Real Time with Bill Maher” debuted on HBO.

Sr No	Death Year	Personality
1	1677	Baruch Spinoza, Dutch philosopher who believed that “the sum of the natural and physical laws of the universe and certainly not an individual entity or creator”
2	1741	Jethro Tull, English agriculturist and writer who invented the seed drill
3	1829	Kittur Chennamma, Indian queen of Kittur and a folk hero in Karnataka who fought the British East India Company
4	1941	Frederick Banting, Canadian physician and scientist who won the Nobel Prize with John Macleod for discovering insulin
5	1965	Malcolm X, American human rights activist and Black nationalist who served as the spokesman for the Nation of Islam
6	1999	Gertrude B. Elion, American biochemist and drug researcher who developed treatments for leukemia and herpes

Sr No	Birth Year	Personality
1	1899	Suryakant Tripathi Nirala, Indian poet, essayist and story-writer considered one of the greatest writers of Hindi literature
2	1924	Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who ruled the country as a dictator for nearly four decades
3	1933	Nina Simone, American singer and civil rights activist who created music in various genres like classical, folk, gospel, blues, jazz, R&B and pop
4	1946	Alan Rickman, English actor known for his versatility and intense performances as iconic characters Hans Gruber in Die Hard and Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series
5	1961	Abhijit Banerjee, Indian economist and Nobel Laureate
6	1962	David Foster Wallace, American author known for his best-selling and one of the greatest novels of the century, Infinite Jest
7	1962	Chuck Palahniuk, American novelist best known for writing the books Fight Club and Choke
8	1979	Jordan Peele, American actor, writer and filmmaker known for his comedic roles and directing the blockbuster horror films Get Out and Up
9	1980	Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, Druk Gyalpo of the Kingdom of Bhutan, the fifh king
10	1987	Elliot Page, Canadian actor who rose to fame for his performances in Juno, Inception and Hard Candy
11	1996	Sophie Turner, English actress best known for playing Sansa Stark on the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones