History Events on February 21

Athanasius returns to Alexandria.

#Athanasius_of_Alexandria

The last Israeli soldiers leave the west bank of the Suez Canal pursuant to a truce with Egypt.

#Suez_Canal

The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated.

#Washington_Monument

In the first battle of the Warlord Rebellion in northeastern Shandong against the Nationalist government of China, a 24,000-strong rebel force led by Zhang Zongchang was defeated at Zhifu by 7,000 NRA troops.

#Warlord_Rebellion_in_northeastern_Shandong

The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.

#Convention_on_Psychotropic_Substances

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.

#Watergate_scandal

Without a previous declaration of war, Russian troops cross the border to Sweden at Abborfors in eastern Finland, thus beginning the Finnish War, in which Sweden will lose the eastern half of the country (i.e. Finland) to Russia.

#Finnish_War

At least 17 people are killed and 119 injured following several bombings in the Indian city of Hyderabad.

#2013_Hyderabad_blasts

United States President Richard Nixon visits the People's Republic of China to normalize Sino-American relations.

#Richard_Nixon

The British government, under Winston Churchill, abolishes identity cards in the UK to "set the people free".

#Winston_Churchill

Lucy Hobbs Taylor becomes the first American woman to graduate from dental school.

#Lucy_Hobbs_Taylor

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

#Sewing_machine

The first telephone directory is issued in New Haven, Connecticut.

#Telephone_directory

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

#Carolina_parakeet

World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, Japanese kamikaze planes sink the escort carrier USS Bismarck Sea and damage the USS Saratoga.

#World_War_II

Constituent Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Georgia adopts the country's first constitution.

#Constituent_Assembly_of_Georgia

The Soviet unmanned spaceship Luna 20 lands on the Moon.

#Soviet_Union

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

#Steam_locomotive

German socialist Kurt Eisner is assassinated. His death results in the establishment of the Bavarian Soviet Republic and parliament and government fleeing Munich, Germany.

#Kurt_Eisner

A force of 1,400 French soldiers invaded Britain at Fishguard in support of the Society of United Irishmen. They were defeated by 500 British reservists.

#Battle_of_Fishguard

American Civil War: Battle of Valverde is fought near Fort Craig in New Mexico Territory.

#American_Civil_War

Initial issue of the Cherokee Phoenix is the first periodical to use the Cherokee syllabary invented by Sequoyah.

#Cherokee_Phoenix

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto.

#Karl_Marx

The Prussian Confederation is formed.

#Prussian_Confederation

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

#Steve_Fossett

An Englishman raised in Australia, Bob Fitzsimmons, fought an Irishman, Peter Maher, in an American promoted event which technically took place in Mexico, winning the 1896 World Heavyweight Championship in boxing.

#Bob_Fitzsimmons

Ioannina is incorporated into the Greek state after the Balkan Wars.

#Ioannina

World War II: the Brazilian Expeditionary Force defeat the German forces in the Battle of Monte Castello on the Italian front.

#World_War_II

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

#League_of_Nations

World War I: In France, the Battle of Verdun begins.

#World_War_I

Over the Sinai Desert, Israeli fighter aircraft shoot down Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 jet killing 108 people.

The CND symbol, aka peace symbol, commissioned by the Direct Action Committee in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, is designed and completed by Gerald Holtom.

The Bengali Language Movement protests occur at the University of Dhaka in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

NASCAR is incorporated.

In New York City, Edwin Land demonstrates the first "instant camera", the Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.

The New Yorker publishes its first issue.

Rez? Sh?h takes control of Tehran during a successful coup.

The Oakland Daily Tribune publishes its first edition.

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

Thomas, the first known Bishop of Finland, is granted resignation after confessing to torture and forgery.