On this day: 21 February
Events, births and deaths on 21 February. Every date is checked against Wikidata.
Years ago today
1 year ago2025
- Deaths · Clint Hill
- Deaths · Khalil Fong
- Deaths · Lynne Marie Stewart
10 years ago2016
- Deaths · Eric Melrose Brown
100 years ago1926
- Deaths · Heike Kamerlingh Onnes
1000 years ago1026
Nothing recorded for that year.
Events · 9
- 1808Finnish War — 1808–1809 war between Russia and Sweden
- 1916Battle of Verdun — 1916 battle on the Western Front during the First World War
- 1921Iranian events of 1921 — Coup d'état in Persia, 1921
- 1925The New Yorker — American weekly magazine since 1925
- 1965assassination of Malcolm X — killing on February 21, 1965
- 1971Convention on Psychotropic Substances — UN treaty on recreational drugs
- 1973Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 — aviation accident
- 1987TSMC — semiconductor foundry company headquartered in Taiwan
- 20132013 Hyderabad blasts — bomb blasts in the city of Hyderabad, India
Births · 60
- 1609Raimondo, Prince Montecuccoli — politician and military commander of the Holy Roman Empire (1609-1680)
- 1779Friedrich Carl von Savigny — German jurist (1779-1861)
- 1791Carl Czerny — Austrian composer and pianist (1791-1857)
- 1794
- 1801John Henry Newman — English cleric and cardinal (1801–1890)
- 1817José Zorrilla — Spanish poet, writer, fighter (1817–1893)
- 1836Léo Delibes — French composer (1836–1891)
- 1844Charles-Marie Widor — French organist and composer (1844–1937)
- 1858Michael Roger Oldfield Thomas — British mammalogist (1858–1929)
- 1875Jeanne Calment — French supercentenarian, person with the longest confirmed lifespan (1875–1997)
- 1885Sacha Guitry — French playwright and filmmaker (1885-1957)
- 1893Andrés Segovia — Spanish guitarist (1893–1987)
- 1895Henrik Dam — Danish biochemist and physiologist (1895-1976)
- 1903Anaïs Nin — French-born American author (1903–1977)
- 1903Raymond Queneau — French novelist and poet (1903–1976)
- 1907W. H. Auden — British-American poet (1907–1973)
- 1915Ann Sheridan — American actress (1915-1967)
- 1921John Rawls — American philosopher, philosophy teacher
- 1921Zdeněk Miler — Czech animator and illustrator (1921–2011)
- 1924Robert Mugabe — 2nd President of Zimbabwe from 1987 to 2017
- 1925Sam Peckinpah — American film director (1925–1984)
- 1933Nina Simone — American singer, songwriter and pianist and civil rights activist (1933–2003)
- 1934Rue McClanahan — American actress and comedian (1934-2010)
- 1936Barbara Jordan — American politician (1936-1996)
- 1937Harald V of Norway — King of Norway from 1991 to 2026 (1937–2026)
Deaths · 60
- 4(Julian date)Gaius Caesar — eldest son of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia the Elder, Emperor Augustus' only daughter, also adopted by Augustus as his own child
- 1184(Julian date)Minamoto no Yoshinaka — 12th century samurai
- 1437(Julian date)James I of Scotland — King of Scots from 1406 to 1437
- 1513(Julian date)Julius II — pope of the Catholic Church from 1503 to 1513 (1443–1513)
- 1543Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi — 16th century Somali Imam and General of the Adal Sultanate
- 1554(Julian date)
- 1595Robert Southwell — English Jesuit and poet (1561–1595)
- 1677Benedictus de Spinoza — Dutch philosopher (1632–1677)
- 1730Benedict XIII — pope of the Catholic Church from 1724 to 1730
- 1788Johann Georg Palitzsch — German astronomer (1723-1788)
- 1821Georg Friedrich von Martens — German jurist and diplomat
- 1824Eugène de Beauharnais — French statesman and military officer (1781–1824)
- 1829Kittur Chennamma — Indian freedom fighter, warrior queen
- 1846Emperor Ninkō — emperor of Japan (1800-1846)
- 1862Justinus Kerner — German poet and medical writer (1786-1862)
- 1894Gustave Caillebotte — French painter (1848–1894)
- 1919Kurt Eisner — German politician and journalist (1867-1919)
- 1926Heike Kamerlingh Onnes — Dutch physicist, Nobel prize winner (1853-1926)
- 1934Augusto César Sandino — Nicaraguan revolutionary leader (1895–1934)
- 1936Shin Chae-ho — Korean historian (1880–1936)
- 1938George Ellery Hale — American astronomer (1868-1938)
- 1941Frederick Banting — Canadian medical scientist and doctor (1891-1941)
- 1944Ferenc Szisz — Grand Prix Driver (1873-1944)
- 1945Eric Liddell — Scottish athlete, sprinter, Olympian, Protestant missionary (1902-1945)
- 1958Duncan Edwards — English footballer (1936-1958)
Dates verified against Wikidata (CC0). Titles and descriptions come from Wikidata.