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1878
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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.