February 21 in History

February 21 is the 52nd day of the year. There are 314 days remaining until the end of the year.

February 21 is International Mother Language Day (UNESCO)

• 1804 – The first self-propelling steam locomotive made its debut in Wales.
• 1842 – John Greenough was granted the first United States patent for the sewing machine.
• 1848 – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published the Communist Manifesto.
• 1874 – The Oakland Daily Tribune published its first newspaper.
• 1878 – The first telephone book was issued in New Haven, Connecticut. 
• 1885 – The newly completed Washington Monument was dedicated.
• 1918  – The last Carolina Parakeet died in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo.
• 1925  – The New Yorker published its first issue. 
• 1947 – In New York City, Edwin Land demonstrated the first "instant camera,” the Polaroid Land Camera. 
• 1952 – The British government, under Winston Churchill, abolished identity cards in the United Kingdom to "set the people free.”
• 1953 – Francis Crick and James D. Watson discovered the structure of the DNA molecule. 
• 1965 – Malcolm X was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City by members of the Nation of Islam.
• 1972 – US President Richard Nixon visited the People’s Republic of China to normalize Sino-American relations.
• 1974 – The last Israeli soldiers leave the west bank of the Suez Canal pursuant to a truce with Egypt.
• 1995 – Steve Fossett became the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.
• 2004 – The first European political party, the European Greens, was established in Rome.