February 21......

February 21 is the 52nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 313 (314 in leap years) days remaining in the year on this date.

{Disclaimer: I have attempted to give credit to the many different sources that I get entries. Any failure to do so is unintentional. Any statement enclosed by brackets like these are the opinion of the blogger, A Proud Liberal.}

EVENTS

● 362 - Athanasius returns to Alexandria.

● 1109 - Death of Anselm of Canterbury, 76, priest and theologian. Best remembered for his 1099 classic, "Cur Deus Homo" ("Why God Became Man"), Anselm is regarded as the most original thinker in the Catholic Church since Augustine. His most often quoted saying was: 'I believe, in order that I may understand.'

● 1173 - Pope Alexander III canonized Thomas Becket (1118-70). As Archbishop of Canterbury, Becket had been martyred three years earlier on orders of English King Henry II a former friend until Becket was elevated to Archbishop in 1162.

● 1431 - England begins trial against Joan of Arc

● 1440 - The Prussian Confederation is formed.

● 1543 - Battle of Wayna Daga - A combined army of Ethiopian and Portuguese troops defeated a Muslim army led by Ahmed Gragn.

● 1564 - Philip II routes cardinal Granvelle to Franche-Comté

● 1574 - Spanish garrison of Middelburg Netherlands surrenders

● 1583 - Groningen Netherlands begins using Gregorian calendar

● 1598 - Boris Godunov crowned tsar

● 1613 - Mikhail I is elected unanimously as Tsar by a national assembly, beginning the Romanov dynasty of Imperial Russia .

● 1673 - Michiel A de Ruyter appointed Lieutenant-Admiral-General of Dutch fleet

● 1675 - Prince Willem III appointed viceroy of Gelderland

● 1743 - The premiere in London of George Frideric Handel's oratorio, "Samson".

● 1673 - Michiel A de Ruyter appointed Lieutenant-Admiral-General of Dutch fleet

● 1675 - Prince Willem III appointed viceroy of Gelderland

● 1795 - Freedom of worship was established in France under the constitution that came out of the French Revolution of 1789.

● 1804 - The first self-propelling steam locomotive makes its outing at the Pen-y-Darren ironworks in Wales.

● 1828 - Premier issue of the "Cherokee Phoenix" published. First U.S. newspaper in a native language, it uses the Cherokee syllabary, developed by Sequoyah, who assigned symbols to 86 Cherokee syllables. The Phoenix will appear weekly until May 1834.

● 1835 - U.S. Senate accepts treaty by which Potawatomi, Ottowa, and Chippewa cede land (including that of the town of Chicago) to U.S. government.

● 1842 - John Greenough is granted the first U.S. patent for the sewing machine.

● 1846 - 1st US woman telegrapher, Sarah G Bagley, Lowell MA

● 1848 - Former President John Quincy Adams suffered a stroke on the floor of the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. He died two days later.

● 1848 - Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish the Communist Manifesto.

● 1853 - US authorizes minting of $3 gold pieces

● 1857 - US issues flying eagle cents

● 1857 - Congress outlaws foreign currency as legal tender in US

● 1858 - Edwin T Holmes installs 1st electric burglar alarm (Boston MA)

● 1861 - Navaho Indians elect Herrero Grande as chief

● 1862 - Texas Rangers win Confederate victory at Battle of Val Verde, New Mexico

● 1862 - Confederate Constitution & Presidency are declared permanent

● 1864 - 1st US Catholic parish church for blacks dedicated, Baltimore MD

● 1864 - Battle at Okolonam MS

● 1866 - Lucy B Hobbs (Taylor) becomes 1st US woman to earn a DDS (dental) degree

● 1874 - Benjamin Disraeli replaces William Gladstone as English premier

● 1874 - The Oakland Daily Tribune publishes its first newspaper.

● 1875 - Jeanne Calment was born, going on to live for 122 years 164 days, the longest confirmed lifespan for any human being in history.

● 1878 - The first telephone book is issued in New Haven, Connecticut.

● 1883 - 2nd French government of Ferry begins

● 1885 - The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated.

● 1887 - Oregon becomes 1st US state to make Labor Day a holiday

● 1887 - 1st US bacteriology laboratory opens (Brooklyn)

● 1893 - Andres Segovia, the Spanish musician who established the guitar as an important concert instrument, was born.

● 1893 - Thomas Edison receives two U.S. patents for a "Cut Out for Incandescent Electric Lamps" and for a "Stop Device"

● 1895 - North Carolina Legislature, adjourns for day to mark death of Frederick Douglass

● 1902 - Dr Harvey Cushing, 1st US brain surgeon, does his 1st brain operation

● 1903 - Cornerstone laid for US army war college, Washington DC

● 1907 - Poet W.H. Auden was born in York, England.

● 1907 - SS Berlin sinks off Hoek van Holland Netherlands (142 dead)

● 1914 - White Wolf troops attack Zhanjiang China

● 1915 - 20th Russian Army corps surrenders

● 1916 - Battle of Verdun (WWI) begins (1 million casualties) The battle ended on December 18, 1916 with a French victory over Germany.

● 1917 - British Mendi sinks off Isle of Wight, 627 die

● 1917 - Train near Chirurcha Romania catches fire & explodes; 100s die

● 1918 - Australians chase Turkish troop out of Jericho, Dutch Palestine

● 1918 - The last Carolina parakeet dies in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo.

● 1919 - In Munich, the socialist Kurt Eisner, principal in the Bavarian revolution and president of the Republic of Councils, is assassinated by extremists. The Central Council of the Republic declares a general strike and state of siege.

● 1919 - German National Meeting accepts Anschluss incorporation of Austria

● 1919 - Revolutionary strike in Barcelona

● 1922 - Airship Rome explodes at Hampton Roads Virginia; 34 die

● 1922 - Great Britain grants Egypt independence

● 1925 - Mass meeting of SPD's Reichsbanner Black-Red-Gold in Magdeburg

● 1925 - The New Yorker publishes its first issue.

● 1931 - Alka Seltzer introduced

● 1932 - Camera exposure meter patented, WN Goodwin

● 1932 - André Tardieu becomes premier of France

● 1934 - Twelve hundred assembly line workers at the Racine, Wisconsin Nash automobile plant go on strike. Plants in Milwaukee and Kenosha, with another 3,400, follow. After eight weeks of federal mediation, all workers receive raises of up to 17 percent, and unions at each plant win sole bargaining rights.

● 1934 - Augusto Cesar Sandino, hero of Nicaraguan independence, and his aides assassinated in Managua by Somoza's National Guard.

● 1936 - Birth of Barbara Jordan, African-American who was first congresswoman from the Deep South (1972-78).

● 1937 - Initial flight of the first successful flying car, Waldo Waterman's Arrowbile.

● 1937 - The League of Nations bans foreign national "volunteers" in the Spanish Civil War.

● 1939 - Belgian government of Pierlot forms

● 1941 - US Senate accepts Omar Bradley's demotion to Brigadier-General

● 1943 - Dutch Roman Catholic bishops protest against persecution of Jews

● 1943 - German offensive at Western Dorsalgebergte Tunisia

● 1945 - Death of Eric Liddell, 43, Scottish Olympic champion runner. Later a missionary to China, Liddell was captured by the Japanese during WWII and died of a brain tumor while still imprisoned. (His college running days were portrayed in the 1981 British film, "Chariots of Fire.")

● 1945 - Archbishop De Jong calls for help with war casualties

● 1945 - British Army captures Goch

● 1945 - US 10th Armour division overthrows Orscholz line

● 1945 - World War II: Japanese Kamikaze planes sink escort carrier Bismarck Sea and damage the Saratoga.

● 1946 - Anti-British demonstrations in Egypt

● 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.

● 1948 - NASCAR is incorporated.

● 1951 - South Carolina House urges "Shoeless Joe" Jackson be reinstated

● 1952 - Language Martyrs' Day, marking language-revolution in the then East Pakistan (currently, the independent state of People's Republic of Bangladesh).

● 1952 - The government of Winston Churchill abolishes Identity Cards (instituted in 1939) in the UK to "set the people free".

● 1952 - In East Pakistan (Present Bangladesh) Police opened fire on a procession of students, who demanded to establish Bangla as the State Language, killing four people and starting a country-wide protest which led to the independence of Bangladesh in 1971. 21st February was later declared as "International Mother Language Day" by UNESCO.

● 1953 - Francis Crick and James D. Watson discover the structure of the DNA molecule.

● 1956 - After suffering legal harassments and personal threats, Martin Luther King Jr. is indicted on conspiracy charges in Montgomery bus boycott.

● 1958 - Egypt-Syria as UAR elect Nasser President (99.9% vote)

● 1960 - Cuban leader Fidel Castro nationalizes all businesses in Cuba.

● 1961 - Mercury-Atlas 2 reentry test reaches 172 km

● 1961 - Gabon adopts constitution

● 1962 - J. Edgar Hoover wins a George Washington Award from the Freedom Foundation for "the most outstanding individual contribution to American freedom during 1961." Hoover also won the award in 1958. Don't know which dress he wore.

● 1962 - Minister De Pous confirms natural gas reserves in Groningen Netherlands

● 1963 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1965 - Black nationalist leader shot dead; Controversial black leader Malcolm X, who once called for a "blacks-only" state in the US, has been assassinated.

● 1966 - Indonesia's President Sukarno fires General Nasution

● 1968 - 150,000 demonstrate against leftist students in West-Berlin

● 1969 - 1st launching of heavy N-1 rocket at Baikonur Kazachstan (explodes)

● 1970 - Pathet Lao conquerors Xieng Khuang & Muong Suy

● 1970 - Swissair Flight 330: A mid-air bomb explosion and subsequent crash kills 38 passengers and nine crew members near Zürich, Switzerland.

● 1971 - International march in support of arrested Spanish conscientious objector Pepe Beunza leaves Geneva, Switzerland, for Spain.

● 1971 - More than 3,000 from U.S. and Canada protest at Blaine (Wash.) border crossing against oil tanker traffic between Alaska and Puget Sound.

● 1971 - The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.

● 1971 - Series of tornadoes cuts through Mississippi & Louisiana killing 117

● 1972 - Pres. Richard Nixon visits Communist China as American bombers carry out saturation bombing raids against the National Liberation Front in South Vietnam. The cordial welcome given Nixon by the Chinese Stalinists was a rebuke to North Vietnam and the NLF, China's supposed allies. By opening diplomatic relations with Beijing, the U.S. hoped to isolate the NLF and pressure it into accepting a negotiated deal to end the war in Vietnam, while preserving imperialist interests in the region.

● 1972 - Beginning of the trial of Fr. Philip Berrigan and six other nonviolent activists (The "Harrisburg Seven") in Harrisburg, PA for an alleged plot to kidnap Henry Kissinger. Proceedings later end in a mistrial. Trial against Kissinger still pending.

● 1972 - The Soviet unmanned spaceship Luna 20 lands on the Moon.

● 1973 - Over the Sinai Desert, Israeli fighter aircraft shoot down a Libyan Airlines jet killing 108.

● 1974 - The long-running Japanese comic strip "Sazae-san" publishes its final installment in the Asahi Shimbun.

● 1974 - The last Israeli soldiers leave the west bank of the Suez Canal in carrying out a truce with Egypt.

● 1974 - Silver hits record $5.965 an ounce in London

● 1974 - Yugoslavia adopts constitution

● 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.

● 1975 - John Lennon's "Rock 'n' Roll" album is released

● 1975 - Former U.S. Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman were sentenced to 2 1/2 to 8 years in prison for their roles in the Watergate cover-up.

● 1976 - Cardinal Willebrands installed as archbishop of Utrecht

● 1977 - 74 Unification Church couples wed in New York NY

● 1979 - Japan launches Hakucho x-ray satellite & Corsa-B (550/580 km)

● 1981 - Japan launches Hinotori satellite to study solar flares (580/640 k)

● 1981 - NASA launches Comstar D-4

● 1981 - "Yorkshire Ripper" Peter Sutcliffe, murderer of 13 women, captured

● 1981 - Charles Rocket, portraying the gunshot victim in a Saturday Night Live parody of the "Who Shot J.R." plot on the program Dallas, said, "I'd like to know who the fuck did it," during the live feed of the "goodnights" segment. Afterward, everyone except Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo was fired.

● 1986 - Nintendo releases The Legend of Zelda.

● 1986 - AIDS patient Ryan White returns to classes at Western Middle School

● 1987 - Syrian army marches into Beirut

● 1988 - During a live TV broadcast, televangelist Jimmy Swaggart (age 52) admitted to visiting a prostitute, then announced he would be leaving his ministry for an unspecified length of time. (Defrocked in April by the Assemblies of God, he was ordered to stay off TV for a year, but returned after only three months)

● 1989 - U.S. President Bush called Ayatollah Khomeini's death warrant against "Satanic Verses" author Salman Rushdie "deeply offensive to the norms of civilized behavior."

● 1989 - US bust Chinese heroin ring, capture record 820 lbs heroin ($1 billion street value)

● 1991 - USSR announces Iraq agrees to a proposal to end Persian Gulf War US calls the plan unacceptable

● 1994 - Government officials and Zapatistas begin peace talks in Chiapas, Mexico.

● 1995 - RAF-pilot Jo Salter is 1st woman to fly in a tornado

● 1995 - Serkadji prison mutiny in Algeria; 4 guards and 96 prisoners killed in a day and a half.

● 1995 - Ibrahim Ali, a 17-year-old Comorian living in France, is murdered by three far right National Front activists.

● 1995 - Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.

● 1996 - Soyuz TM-23, launched into orbit

● 1997 - Bridgewater Three freed; Three men jailed 18 years ago for the murder of 13-year-old paper boy Carl Bridgewater are released after their convictions are ruled unsafe.

● 1997 - STS 82 (Discovery 22) lands

● 1999 - India's Prime Minister Atal Bihair Vajpayee concluded two days of meeting with Pakistan's Prime Minister Mohammad Nowaz Sharif.

● 2000 - David Letterman returns to The Late Show over a month after having an emergency quintuple heart bypass surgery.

● 2001 - Ban follows foot-and-mouth outbreak; The European Commission bans all British milk, meat and livestock exports following the UK's first outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease for two decades.

● 2002 - The State Department declared that Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was dead, a month after he'd been abducted by Islamic extremists in Pakistan.

● 2003 - Over 100 concert goers in Rhode Island die in a fire during a performance of the rock band Great White.

● 2004 - The first European political party organization, the European Greens, is established in Rome.

● 2006 - President George W. Bush endorsed the takeover of shipping operations at six major U.S. seaports by a state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates, and pledged to veto any bill Congress might approve to block the agreement.

● 2006 - New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg unveils a brand new sign on the corner of West 66th Street called Peter Jennings Way in honor of the late ABC News anchor Peter Jennings.

BIRTHS

● 1484 - Elector Joachim I of Brandenburg (d. 1535)

● 1556 - Sethus Calvisius, German calendar reformer (d. 1615)

● 1621 - Rebecca Nurse, American accused witch (d. 1692)

● 1675 - Franz Xaver Josef von Unertl, Bavarian politician (d. 1750)

● 1688 - Queen Ulrike Eleonora of Sweden (d. 1741)

● 1705 - Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke, British naval officer (d. 1781)

● 1721 - John McKinly, American physician (d. 1796)

● 1723 - Louis-Pierre Anquetil, French historian (d. 1808)

● 1728 - Tsar Peter III of Russia, husband of Catherine the Great (d. 1762)

● 1779 - Friedrich Karl von Savigny, German jurist and legal scholar (d. 1861)

● 1791 - Carl Czerny, Austrian composer (d. 1857)

● 1794 - Antonio Lopez Santa Anna, Mexican army officer, statesman and politician (d. 1876)

● 1801 - John Henry Newman, English Catholic cardinal (d. 1890)

● 1821 - Charles Scribner, American publisher (d. 1871)

● 1823 - Pierre Laffitte, French philosopher (d. 1903)

● 1836 - Léo Delibes, French composer (d. 1891)

● 1844 - Charles-Marie Widor, French composer (d. 1937)

● 1860 - Karel Matěj Čapek-Chod, Czech journalist (d. 1927)

● 1865 - John Haden Badley, English school founder (d. 1967)

● 1867 - Otto Hermann Kahn, German millionaire (d. 1934)

● 1875 - Jeanne Calment, French supercentenarian, also the oldest woman ever (d. 1997)

● 1876 - Constantin Brancusi, Romanian abstract sculptor (d. 1957)

● 1876 - Pyotr Konchalovsky, Russian painter (d. 1956)

● 1880 - Waldemar Bonsels, German writer (d. 1952)

● 1885 - Sacha Guitry, Russian dramatist (d. 1957)

● 1892 - Harry Stack Sullivan, American psychiatrist and teacher (d. 1949)

● 1893 - Celia Lovsky, Russian-born actress (d. 1979)

● 1893 - Andrés Segovia, Spanish guitarist (d. 1987)

● 1895 - Carl Peter Henrik Dam Danish biochemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1976)

● 1903 - Tom Yawkey, American sportsman and owner of the Boston Red Sox (1933-76) (d. 1976)

● 1903 - Fairfax M. Cone, American advertising executive (d. 1977)

● 1903 - Anaïs Nin, French writer (d. 1977)

● 1907 - W. H. Auden, English poet (d. 1973)

● 1910 - Douglas Bader, British pilot (d. 1982)

● 1910 - Carmine Galante, Italian-born gangster (d. 1979)

● 1910 - Eddie Waring, British sports commentator (d. 1986)

● 1915 - Ann Sheridan, American actress (d. 1967)

● 1917 - Lucille Bremer, American actress (d. 1996)

● 1924 - Robert Mugabe first President of Zimbabwe

● 1925 - Sam Peckinpah, American director (d. 1984)

● 1927 - Erma Bombeck, American humorist (d. 1996)

● 1927 - Hubert de Givenchy, French fashion designer

● 1929 - Roberto "Chespirito" Carlos Bolanõs, Mexican actor

● 1933 - Bob Rafelson, Director

● 1933 - Nina Simone, American singer (d. 2003)

● 1934 - Rue McClanahan, American actress (''The Golden Girls'')

● 1935 - Mark McManus, Scottish actor (d. 1994)

● 1936 - Barbara Jordan, American politician (d. 1996)

● 1937 - King Harald V of Norway

● 1937 - Gary Lockwood, American actor

● 1940 - Peter McEnery, Actor

● 1940 - John Lewis, American politician

● 1941 - James Wong, Hong Kong composer (d. 2004)

● 1942 - Margarethe von Trotta, German actor

● 1943 - David Geffen, American record producer

● 1946 - Tyne Daly, American actress (''Judging Amy,'' ''Cagney and Lacey'')

● 1946 - Anthony Daniels, British actor (C-3PO in the"Star Wars" films)

● 1946 - Alan Rickman, English actor

● 1946 - Tricia Nixon Cox, Daughter of President Nixon

● 1946 - Bob Ryan, Boston sports columnist

● 1947 - Olympia Snowe, American politician

● 1947 - Victor Sokolov, Russian journalist (d. 2006)

● 1949 - Jerry Harrison, American musician (Talking Heads)

● 1949 - Ronnie Hellström, Swedish footballer

● 1951 - Vince Welnick, musician, musician (The Grateful Dead)

● 1953 - Christine Ebersole, American actress

● 1953 - William Petersen, American actor (''C.S.I.'')

● 1955 - Sir Steven Fayburgh, British diplomat

● 1955 - Kelsey Grammer, American actor (''Fraiser'')

● 1958 - Jake Burns, Irish singer (Stiff Little Fingers)

● 1958 - Mary Chapin Carpenter, American singer

● 1958 - Jack Coleman, American actor

● 1958 - Alan Trammell, baseball player and manager

● 1961 - Davey Allison, American race car driver (d. 1993)

● 1961 - Christopher Atkins, American actor

● 1961 - Martha Hackett, American actress

● 1961 - Ranking Roger, Rock singer (General Public, English Beat)

● 1961 - Chuck Palahniuk, American writer

● 1961 - Bertha Faye, American wrestler (d. 2001)

● 1962 - Jim Starr, American gladiator

● 1962 - Vanessa Feltz, British television presenter

● 1962 - David Foster Wallace, American writer

● 1963 - William Baldwin, American actor

● 1967 - Michael Ward, Rock musician (Wallflowers)

● 1967 - Leroy Burrell, American runner

● 1969 - Corey Harris, Blues guitarist

● 1969 - Eric Wilson, American musician (Sublime)

● 1969 - James Dean Bradfield, Welsh musician (Manic Street Preachers)

● 1970 - Eric Heatherly, Country singer

● 1970 - Eric Wilson, Rock musician (Sublime)

● 1970 - Michael Slater, Australian cricketer

● 1972 - Seo Taiji, Korean musician

● 1973 - Tad Kinchla, Rock musician (Blues Traveler)

● 1974 - Iván Campo, Spanish footballer

● 1974 - Roberto Heras, Spanish cyclist

● 1975 - Affirmed, American race horse (d. 2001)

● 1976 - Ryan Smyth, Canadian hockey player

● 1977 - Steve Francis, American basketball player

● 1977 - Kevin Rose, American television host and Internet entrepreneur

● 1977 - Chad Hutchinson, baseball and football player

● 1978 - Park Eun-hye, South Korean actress

● 1979 - Pascal Chimbonda, French footballer

● 1979 - Carly "Carlito" Colón, Puerto Rican professional wrestler

● 1979 - Lonnie Ford, American football player

● 1979 - Jennifer Love Hewitt, American actress ("Ghost Whisperer")

● 1980 - Brad Fast, Canadian ice hockey player

● 1983 - Braylon Edwards, American football player

● 1984 - Andrew Ellis, New Zealand rugby union player

● 1984 - David Odonkor, German footballer

● 1986 - Charlotte Church, Welsh singer

● 1987 - Anthony Walker, British murder victim (d. 2005)

● 1987 - Ellen Page, Canadian actress

● 1988 - Daniel Rose, English footballer

● 1989 - Kristin Herrera, American actress

● 1989 - Corbin Bleu, American actor ("High School Musical")

DEATHS

● 1437 - King James I of Scotland (b. 1394)

● 1471 - John of Rokycan, Czech Catholic archbishop

● 1513 - Pope Julius II (b. 1443)

● 1543 - Ahmed Gragn, Sultan of Adal

● 1554 - Hieronymus Bock, German botanist (b. 1498)

● 1595 - Robert Southwell, English Jesuit priest and poet (executed)

● 1668 - John Thurloe, English Puritan spy (b. 1616)

● 1677 - Baruch Spinoza, Dutch philosopher (b. 1632)

● 1715 - Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore, Governor of the Province of Maryland (b. 1637)

● 1788 - Johann Georg Palitzsch, German astronomer (b. 1723)

● 1824 - Eugène de Beauharnais, son of Napoleon's wife, Josephine (b. 1781)

● 1846 - Emperor Ninko of Japan (b. 1800)

● 1862 - Justinus Kerner, German poet (b. 1786)

● 1901 - George Francis FitzGerald, Irish mathematician (b. 1851)

● 1926 - Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1853)

● 1938 - George Ellery Hale, American astronomer (b. 1868)

● 1941 - Frederick Banting, Canadian physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1891)

● 1944 - Ferenc Szisz, Hungarian-born race car driver (b. 1873)

● 1945 - Eric Liddell, Scottish runner (b. 1902)

● 1946 - José Streel, Belgian World War II collaborator (b. 1911)

● 1965 - Malcolm X, American black activist (b. 1925)

● 1967 - Charles Beaumont, American writer (b. 1929)

● 1968 - Howard Walter Florey, Australian-born pharmocologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1898)

● 1972 - Bronislava Nijinska, Polish-Russian ballet dancer (b. 1891)

● 1974 - Tim Horton, Canadian hockey player (b. 1930)

● 1984 - Michail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov, Russian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)

● 1986 - Helen Hooven Santmyer, American writer (b. 1895)

● 1986 - Shigechiyo Izumi, Japanese sugarcane farmer, also the world's oldest man ever (b. 1865)

● 1989 - Alex Thépot, French footballer (b. 1906)

● 1991 - Dame Margot Fonteyn, English ballet dancer (b. 1919)

● 1994 - Luis Donaldo Colosio, Mexican politician (b. 1948)

● 1996 - Morton Gould, American composer (b. 1913)

● 1999 - Gertrude B. Elion, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1918)

● 1999 - Wilmer David Mizell, baseball player (b. 1930)

● 2002 - John Thaw, English actor (b. 1942)

● 2002 - Harold Furth, Austrian-born physicist (b. 1939)

● 2004 - John Charles, Welsh footballer (b. 1931)

● 2004 - Guido Molinari, Canadian artist (b. 1933)

● 2005 - Ara Berberian, American opera singer (b. 1930)

● 2005 - Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Cuban novelist (b. 1929)

● 2005 - Eugene Scott, American religious broadcaster (b. 1929)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Avitus II of Clermont
● St. Felix of Metz
● St. Gundebert
● St. Paterius
● St. Peter Damiani, bishop of Ostia, confessor/doctor
● St. Peter the Scribe
● St. Randoald
● St. Robert Southwell, English Jesuit, martyr
● St. Severian
● St. Valerius
● St. Verulus and Companions
● Bl. Pepin of Landen

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for February 8 (Civil Date: February 21)
● Great-Martyr Theodore Stratelites ("the General") and Prophet Zachariah.
● St. Sabbas II, Archbishop of Serbia.
● Martyrs Nicephorus and Stephen.
● Martyrs Philadelphus and Polycarp.
● St. Macarius, Bishop of Paphus.
● St. Pergetus.

● Christian:
● Bl. Noel

● Language Martyrs' Day - A day celebrated by Bengali speaking people for gaining right of mother tongue.

● International Mother Language Day (UNESCO).

● Bangladesh : Bangladesh Martyrs Day/National Mourning Day (1952)

● There Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
● World : Brotherhood Day (1934) - ( Sunday )
● US : Presidents' Day (formerly Washington's Birthday)-legal holiday - ( Monday )


Click on this LINK to see original Wikipedia list with many having links with details.

Additional facts taken from:

On this day in the New York Times

The BBC’s Take on the day

On This Day Website

Geov Parrish's this Day in Radical History, things that happened on this day that you never had to memorize in school.

Scope Systems Any Day Website

Roman Catholic Saint of the Day

Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar

Permanent Backlink to Post