1734 Georgia's founder, James Oglethorpe (see below) established the first Masonic Lodge within Georgia on February 21, 1734. Now known as Solomon's Lodge No. 1, F. & A. M, it is the oldest continuously operating English Masonic Lodge in the Western Hemisphere.
1741 English agricultural pioneer Jethro Tull died on February 21, 1741. Tull developed the seed drill, a machine for sowing cereals and other seeds in 1701. Before Tull's invention, people sowed seeds by scattering them by hand. Tull's machine could plant several rows of seeds at regular intervals, which meant that less seed was wasted. His invention was the first step in the use of machines in British agriculture.
1804 Built by Cornish inventor Richard Trevithick, the first self-propelling steam locomotive made its debut outing on February 21, 1804. Trevithick took the world into the railway age when his seven-tonne locomotive hauled 10 tonnes of iron, 70 passengers, and five wagons from the Pen-y-darren ironworks, near Merthyr Tydfil, to Abercynon in South Wales., reaching a top speed of almost 5mph during its nine-mile journey.
1807 Future US President, Martin Van Buren married his childhood sweetheart, shy, blue-eyed Hannah Hoes on February 21, 1807 at the home of the bride's sister in Catskill, New York. They had five children together: Abraham, John, Martin Jr., Smith, and Winfield Scott. He always called her "Jannetje", a Dutch pet form of Johanna. Hannah contracted tuberculosis and died on February 5, 1819 at age 35 and Van Buren never remarried.
1808 Russia invaded Sweden on February 21, 1808. The war resulted in Sweden losing control over Finland, which it had held since 1157. There is still a golf course in which half the holes are in Sweden and the other half in Finland.
1828 The inaugural issue of the Cherokee Phoenix, the first newspaper in a Native American language, was published on February 21, 1828. The paper continued until 1834. The Cherokee Phoenix was revived in the later 20th century, and today it publishes both as a monthly broadsheet in Tahlequah, Oklahoma and internet versions.
1848 The Communist Manifesto by communist theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels was first published on February 21, 1848. The Manifesto was written over 6–7 weeks. Although Engels is credited as co-writer, the final draft was penned exclusively by Marx. Initially ignored in the writers' native Germany, The Communist Manifesto became one of the world's most influential political tracts.
1858 Augustus Pope was awarded a patent for the “development of an electromagnetic alarm” in 1853. He then sold his patent for US$1500 to Edwin Holmes, a manufacturer of ladies’ hoop skirts in Boston Massachusetts who was a far better publicist. Holmes installed the first burglar alarm on February 21, 1858. By 1877, Holmes had established the first network of alarms monitored by a central station in New York and sent his son, Edwin Thomas Holmes, to copy this system in Boston.
1869 On February 21, 1869, Queen Ranavalona II of Madagascar and her court converted to Christianity. She officially declared Christianity as the state religion of Madagascar, making it the first African kingdom to adopt Christianity as the official religion. Queen Ranavalona invited Christian missionaries, primarily from the London Missionary Society, to help in the spread of Christianity.
1875 Jeanne Calment was born on February 21, 1875. She had the longest confirmed age span in history, living to the age of 122 years, 164 days. Calment lived in Arles, France for her entire life, and outlived both her daughter and grandson.
1910 English pilot Douglas Bader was born on February 21, 1910 in St John's Wood, London, to Frederick Roberts Bader, a civil engineer, and his wife Jessie. Douglas attended St Edward's School where he received his secondary education. Fellow RAF night fighter and bomber pilot Guy Gibson also attended the same school. In 1928, Bader joined the RAF as an officer cadet at the Royal Air Force College Cranwell in rural Lincolnshire. He came 19th out of 21 in his class examinations.
1741 English agricultural pioneer Jethro Tull died on February 21, 1741. Tull developed the seed drill, a machine for sowing cereals and other seeds in 1701. Before Tull's invention, people sowed seeds by scattering them by hand. Tull's machine could plant several rows of seeds at regular intervals, which meant that less seed was wasted. His invention was the first step in the use of machines in British agriculture.
1804 Built by Cornish inventor Richard Trevithick, the first self-propelling steam locomotive made its debut outing on February 21, 1804. Trevithick took the world into the railway age when his seven-tonne locomotive hauled 10 tonnes of iron, 70 passengers, and five wagons from the Pen-y-darren ironworks, near Merthyr Tydfil, to Abercynon in South Wales., reaching a top speed of almost 5mph during its nine-mile journey.
1807 Future US President, Martin Van Buren married his childhood sweetheart, shy, blue-eyed Hannah Hoes on February 21, 1807 at the home of the bride's sister in Catskill, New York. They had five children together: Abraham, John, Martin Jr., Smith, and Winfield Scott. He always called her "Jannetje", a Dutch pet form of Johanna. Hannah contracted tuberculosis and died on February 5, 1819 at age 35 and Van Buren never remarried.
1808 Russia invaded Sweden on February 21, 1808. The war resulted in Sweden losing control over Finland, which it had held since 1157. There is still a golf course in which half the holes are in Sweden and the other half in Finland.
1848 The Communist Manifesto by communist theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels was first published on February 21, 1848. The Manifesto was written over 6–7 weeks. Although Engels is credited as co-writer, the final draft was penned exclusively by Marx. Initially ignored in the writers' native Germany, The Communist Manifesto became one of the world's most influential political tracts.
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| Communist Manifesto 1st edition |
1858 Augustus Pope was awarded a patent for the “development of an electromagnetic alarm” in 1853. He then sold his patent for US$1500 to Edwin Holmes, a manufacturer of ladies’ hoop skirts in Boston Massachusetts who was a far better publicist. Holmes installed the first burglar alarm on February 21, 1858. By 1877, Holmes had established the first network of alarms monitored by a central station in New York and sent his son, Edwin Thomas Holmes, to copy this system in Boston.
1869 On February 21, 1869, Queen Ranavalona II of Madagascar and her court converted to Christianity. She officially declared Christianity as the state religion of Madagascar, making it the first African kingdom to adopt Christianity as the official religion. Queen Ranavalona invited Christian missionaries, primarily from the London Missionary Society, to help in the spread of Christianity.
1875 Jeanne Calment was born on February 21, 1875. She had the longest confirmed age span in history, living to the age of 122 years, 164 days. Calment lived in Arles, France for her entire life, and outlived both her daughter and grandson.
1910 English pilot Douglas Bader was born on February 21, 1910 in St John's Wood, London, to Frederick Roberts Bader, a civil engineer, and his wife Jessie. Douglas attended St Edward's School where he received his secondary education. Fellow RAF night fighter and bomber pilot Guy Gibson also attended the same school. In 1928, Bader joined the RAF as an officer cadet at the Royal Air Force College Cranwell in rural Lincolnshire. He came 19th out of 21 in his class examinations.
1916 At 7:12 a.m. on the morning of February 21, 1916, a shot from a German Krupp 38-centimeter long-barreled gun strikes a cathedral in Verdun, France, beginning the Battle of Verdun, which would stretch on for 10 months and become the longest conflict of World War I.
1918 The Carolina Parakeet was a species of parrot that was native to the eastern and midwestern United States. It was a brightly colored bird, with a green body, a yellow head, and a orange-red face. Unfortunately, the Carolina Parakeet went extinct in the early 20th century. The last known wild specimen was shot in 1904, and the last captive Carolina parakeet, Incas, died at the Cincinnati Zoo on February 21, 1918, in the same cage as Martha, the last passenger pigeon.
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| By Huub Veldhuijzen van Zanten/Naturalis Biodiversity Center, |
1924 President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe was born February 21, 1924. He became the President of Zimbabwe in 1987. When Shimon Peres stepped down as Israel’s president in July 2014, Mugabe assumed the mantle of the world’s oldest head of state. On November 15, 2017, President Robert Mugabe was placed under house arrest as Zimbabwe's military took control in a coup. He resigned the Presidency a week later.
1926 Swedish actress Greta Garbo made her U.S. screen debut on February 21, 1926 with the opening of her first American film The Torrent. Garbo's performance in the romantic drama was well-received by both audiences and critics, and it helped to establish her as a major star in the years to come. Garbo went on to become one of the most famous and celebrated actresses of the 20th century, starring in classic films such as Anna Karenina, Ninotchka, and Camille.
1931 The first recorded aircraft hijack took place on February 21, 1931, in Arequipa, Peru. Byron Richards, flying a Ford Tri-Motor, was approached on the ground by armed revolutionaries. He refused to fly them anywhere and after a 10-day standoff, Richards was informed that the revolution was successful and he could go in return for flying one group member to Lima.
1947 Edwin Land demonstrated the first "instant camera", the Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America on February 21, 1947 in New York City. Land was inspired by his daughter, Jennifer, who asked why she had to wait so long to see her holiday snaps. The first instant Polaroid cameras went on sale in a Boston department store for $89.75 ($900 in today’s money) on November 26, 1948. All 57 had sold by the end of the day.
1948 NASCAR was founded on February 21, 1948 by Bill France Sr. and several other race car drivers. Originally there were three divisions. Modifieds, Roadsters and Strictly Stock. NASCAR is an acronym which stands for "National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing." It is the governing body of stock car racing in the United States.
1952 American missionary Jim Elliot arrived in Ecuador on February 21, 1952, with the purpose of evangelizing Ecuador's Quechua Indians. He first stayed in Quito, and then moved to the jungle taking up residence at the Shandia mission station. In early January 1956 Jim Elliot was among the five young men who became martyrs when they were speared to deathy the isolated ‘Auca’ Indians.
1958 The peace symbol, commissioned by Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, was designed and completed by Gerald Holtom on February 21, 1958. Holtom explained that the symbol superimposed the semaphore letters “N” and “D” over each other.
1964 24,000 rolls of Beatles wallpaper were flown to the United States on February 21, 1964 as Beatlemania took off. The wallpaper, which featured the faces of John, Paul, George, and Ringo, was manufactured by the British wallpaper company, John Line & Sons, and was in high demand in the US after the Beatles' successful appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964. The shipment of wallpaper was valued at around $200,000, and it was quickly sold out in stores across the country.
1986 The Legend of Zelda is a fantasy action-adventure video game franchise created by Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka and first released on February 21, 1986. It was the first console game with a save function that enabled players to stop playing and then resume later.
2012 President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the first president of the Republic of Yemen, resigned in 2012. After President Saleh stepped down, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi was formally elected president on February 21, 2012 in a one-candidate election. Hadi was overthrown by Houthi revolutionaries in January 2015.
2016 When ‘Grumpy Gertie’, the local goose in the Hertfordshire, England, village of Sandon was found dead, presumed shot, on February 21, 2016, a £275,000 reward was pledged to find the culprit. Tests later revealed Gertie was a gander that had died of natural causes.
2018 The evangelist Billy Graham died at his home in North Carolina at the age of 99, on February 21, 2018. He'd had Parkinson's disease since 1992. Billy Graham held more than 400 crusades in 185 countries and territories across six continents — reaching 215 million people, according to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
1952 American missionary Jim Elliot arrived in Ecuador on February 21, 1952, with the purpose of evangelizing Ecuador's Quechua Indians. He first stayed in Quito, and then moved to the jungle taking up residence at the Shandia mission station. In early January 1956 Jim Elliot was among the five young men who became martyrs when they were speared to deathy the isolated ‘Auca’ Indians.
1958 The peace symbol, commissioned by Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, was designed and completed by Gerald Holtom on February 21, 1958. Holtom explained that the symbol superimposed the semaphore letters “N” and “D” over each other.
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| Peace symbol |
1964 24,000 rolls of Beatles wallpaper were flown to the United States on February 21, 1964 as Beatlemania took off. The wallpaper, which featured the faces of John, Paul, George, and Ringo, was manufactured by the British wallpaper company, John Line & Sons, and was in high demand in the US after the Beatles' successful appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964. The shipment of wallpaper was valued at around $200,000, and it was quickly sold out in stores across the country.
1986 The Legend of Zelda is a fantasy action-adventure video game franchise created by Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka and first released on February 21, 1986. It was the first console game with a save function that enabled players to stop playing and then resume later.
2012 President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the first president of the Republic of Yemen, resigned in 2012. After President Saleh stepped down, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi was formally elected president on February 21, 2012 in a one-candidate election. Hadi was overthrown by Houthi revolutionaries in January 2015.
2016 When ‘Grumpy Gertie’, the local goose in the Hertfordshire, England, village of Sandon was found dead, presumed shot, on February 21, 2016, a £275,000 reward was pledged to find the culprit. Tests later revealed Gertie was a gander that had died of natural causes.
2018 The evangelist Billy Graham died at his home in North Carolina at the age of 99, on February 21, 2018. He'd had Parkinson's disease since 1992. Billy Graham held more than 400 crusades in 185 countries and territories across six continents — reaching 215 million people, according to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
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