February 21

February 21 is the 52nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 313 days remaining, 314 in leap years.

Events:

1804 - The first self-propelling steam engine or steam locomotive made its outing at the Pen-y-Darren ironworks. The machine was designed by Richard Trevithick. The engine was able to pull a load of 15 tons at a speed of about 5 mph. However, adhesion was a problem as the iron wheels slipped on the iron rails.
1893 - Thomas A. Edison received two U.S. patents. The first was for a "Cut Out for Incandescent Electric Lamps" and another for a "Stop Device" (No. 491,992-3). Also No. 492,150 for "Process of Coating Conductors for Incandescent Lamps."
1953 - Francis Crick and James Watson discovered the structure of the DNA molecule
1960 - Cuban leader Fidel Castro nationalizes all businesses in Cuba.
1965 - Malcolm X assassinated
1972 - US President Richard Nixon goes to China, to help improve relations.

Births:

1728 - Peter III, tsar and husband of Katharina II (+ 1762]])
1791 - John Mercer, chemist and industrialist (+ 1866)
1844 - Charles-Marie Widor, organist and composer (+ 1937)
1880 - Waldemar Bonsels, writer (+ 1952)
1885 - Sacha Guitry, dramatist and writer (+ 1957)
1895 - Henrik Carl Peter Dam was a Danish biochemist who, with Edward A. Doisy, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1943 for research into antihemorrhagic substances and the discovery of vitamin K (1939).
1904 - Alexei Nikolayevich Kosygin, chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR 1964-1980 (+ 1980)
1907 - W.H Auden, English poet
1924 - Robert Mugabe First Prime Minister of Zimbabwe
1933 - Nina Simone
1942 - Margarethe von Trotta, actor, film director, and screeplay writer

Deaths:

Holidays and observances:

See Also: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December