Today in History – February 21 in History
What happened on this day in history – February 21 in History
| 1595 | The Jesuit poet Robert Southwell is hanged for “treason” being a Catholic. | |
| 1631 | Michael Romanov, son of the Patriarch of Moscow, is elected Russian Tsar. | |
| 1744 | The British blockade of Toulon is broken by 27 French and Spanish warships attacking 29 British ships. | |
| 1775 | As troubles with Great Britain increase, colonists in Massachusetts vote to buy military equipment for 15,000 men. | |
| 1797 | Trinidad, West Indies surrenders to the British. | |
| 1828 | The first issue of the Cherokee Phoenix is printed, both in English and in the newly invented Cherokee alphabet. | |
| 1849 | In the Second Sikh War, Sir Hugh Gough’s well placed guns win a victory over a Sikh force twice the size of his at Gujerat on the Chenab River, assuring British control of the Punjab for years to come. | |
| 1862 | The Texas Rangers win a Confederate victory in the Battle of Val Verde, New Mexico. | |
| 1878 | The world’s first telephone book is issued by the New Haven Connecticut Telephone Company containing the names of its 50 subscribers. | |
| 1885 | The Washington Monument is dedicated in Washington, D.C. | |
| 1905 | The Mukden campaign of the Russo-Japanese War, begins. | |
| 1916 | The battle of Verdun begins with an unprecedented German artillery barrage of the French lines. | |
| 1940 | The Germans begin construction of a concentration camp at Auschwitz. | |
| 1944 | Hideki Tojo becomes chief of staff of the Japanese army. | |
| 1949 | Nicaragua and Costa Rica sign a friendship treaty ending hostilities over their borders. | |
| 1951 | The U. S. Eighth Army launches Operation Killer, a counterattack to push Chinese forces north of the Han River in Korea. | |
| 1956 | A grand jury in Montgomery, Alabama indicts 115 in a Negro bus boycott. | |
| 1960 | Havana places all Cuban industry under direct control of the government. | |
| 1965 | El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcom X) is assassinated in front of 400 people. | |
| 1972 | Richard Nixon arrives in Beijing, China, becoming the first U.S. president to visit a country not diplomatically recognized by the U.S. | |
| 1974 | A report claims that the use of defoliants by the U.S. has scarred Vietnam for a century. | |
| Born on February 21 | ||
| 1794 | Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Mexican Revolutionary. | |
| 1801 | John Henry Newman, English theologian and writer. | |
| 1821 | Charles Scribner, founded the publishing firm which became Charles Scribner’s Sons and also founded Scribner’s magazine. | |
| 1893 | Andés Segovia, Spanish classical guitarist. | |
| 1907 | W.H. Auden, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet (The Age of Anxiety). | |
| 1920 | Robert S. Johnson, American World War II fighter ace who shot down 27 German planes. | |
| 1927 | Erma Bombeck, author and humorist (The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank). | |