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On this day in History Archives
 
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21 February, 2008
Champ Car merges into Indycar, reuniting American open-wheel racing for the first time since 1995.
21 February, 2007
Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi resigns from office. His resignation is rejected by the President of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano.
21 February, 2004
The first European political party organization, the European Greens, is established in Rome.
21 February, 1995
Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.
21 February, 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.
21 February, 1974
The last Israeli soldiers leave the west bank of the Suez Canal pursuant to a truce with Egypt.
21 February, 1973
Over the Sinai Desert, Israeli fighter aircraft shoot down a Libyan Airlines jet killing 108.
21 February, 1972
President Richard Nixon visits the Peoples Republic of China to normalize Sino-American relations.
21 February, 1972
The Soviet unmanned spaceship Luna 20 lands on the Moon.
21 February, 1971
The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.
21 February, 1970
Swissair Flight 330: A mid-air bomb explosion and subsequent crash kills 38 passengers and nine crew members near Zürich, Switzerland.
21 February, 1965
Malcolm X is assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City by members of the Nation of Islam.
21 February, 1960
Cuban leader Fidel Castro nationalizes all businesses in Cuba.
21 February, 1958
The Peace symbol is designed and completed by Gerald Holtom, commissioned by Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment.
21 February, 1953
Francis Crick and James D. Watson discover the structure of the DNA molecule.
21 February, 1952
The British government, under Winston Churchill, abolishes identity cards in the UK to "set the people free".
21 February, 1952
In Dhaka, East Pakistan (present Bangladesh) police open fire on a procession of students that was demanding the establishment of Bengali as the official language, killing four people and starting a country-wide protest which led to the recognition of Bengali as one of the national languages of Pakistan. The day was later declared as "International Mother Language Day" by UNESCO.
21 February, 1948
NASCAR is incorporated.
21 February, 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.
21 February, 1945
World War II: Japanese Kamikaze planes sink the escort carrier Bismarck Sea and damage the Saratoga.
21 February, 1937
Initial flight of the first successful flying car, Waldo Watermans Arrowbile.
21 February, 1937
The League of Nations bans foreign national "volunteers" in the Spanish Civil War.
21 February, 1925
The New Yorker publishes its first issue.
21 February, 1919
Kurt Eisner, German socialist, is assassinated. His death results in the establishment of the Bavarian Soviet Republic and parliament and government fleeing Munich, Germany.
21 February, 1918
The last Carolina parakeet dies in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo.
21 February, 1916
World War I: In France, the Battle of Verdun begins.
21 February, 1912
Ioannina is incorporated into the Greek state after the Balkan Wars.
21 February, 1893
Thomas Edison receives two U.S. patents for a "Cut Out for Incandescent Electric Lamps" and for a "Stop Device"
21 February, 1885
The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated.
21 February, 1878
The first telephone book is issued in New Haven, Connecticut.
21 February, 1874
The Oakland Daily Tribune publishes its first newspaper.
21 February, 1848
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish the Communist Manifesto.
21 February, 1842
John Greenough is granted the first U.S. patent for the sewing machine.
21 February, 1804
The first self-propelling steam locomotive makes its outing at the Pen-y-Darren ironworks in Wales.
21 February, 1743
The premiere of George Frideric Handels oratorio, "Samson" takes place in London.
21 February, 1613
Mikhail I is elected unanimously as Tsar by a national assembly, beginning the Romanov dynasty of Imperial Russia.
21 February, 1543
Battle of Wayna Daga - A combined army of Ethiopian and Portuguese troops defeats a Muslim army led by Ahmed Gragn.
21 February, 1440
The Prussian Confederation is formed.
21 February, 1245
Thomas, the first known Bishop of Finland, is granted resignation after having confessed to torture and forgery.
21 February, 362
Athanasius returns to Alexandria.

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