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