February 21 in history — What Happened Today in History

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.

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

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

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.

The New Yorker publishes its first issue.

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

Rezā Shāh takes control of Tehran during a successful coup.

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

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

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

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

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

The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated.

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

The Oakland Daily Tribune publishes its first edition.

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

Mariehamn, the capital city of Åland, is founded.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Ji So-yun, South Korean footballer

Solar, South Korean singer, songwriter and actress

Devon Travis, American baseball player

Mattias Tedenby, Swedish ice hockey player

Corbin Bleu, American actor, model, dancer, film producer and singer-songwriter

Ian Cole, American ice hockey player

Federico Fernández, Argentine footballer

Jake Muzzin, Canadian ice hockey player

Donté Greene, American basketball player

Eniola Aluko, English footballer

Ashley Greene, American actress

Elliot Page, Canadian actor

Charlotte Church, Welsh singer-songwriter and actress

Sadeq Tabatabaei, Iranian journalist and politician (born 1943)

Clark Terry, American trumpet player, composer, and educator (born 1920)

Héctor Maestri, Cuban-American baseball player (born 1935)

Matthew Robinson, Australian snowboarder (born 1985)

Cornelius Schnauber, German–American historian, playwright, and academic (born 1939)

Hasse Jeppson, Swedish footballer (born 1925)

H. M. Darmstandler, American general (born 1922)

Dwayne McDuffie, American author and screenwriter, co-founded Milestone Media (born 1962)

Bernard Nathanson, American physician and activist (born 1926)

Ben Chapman, American actor (born 1928)

Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Cuban author, screenwriter, and critic (born 1929)

Zdzisław Beksiński, Polish painter, photographer, and sculptor (born 1929)

John Charles, Welsh footballer and manager (born 1931)