What Happened On This Day – February 21
1972 U.S. President Richard Nixon embarks on his historic visit to China
The first visit of a U.S. President in China was an important step in normalizing relations between the two countries.
1958 The peace symbol is designed by Gerald Holtom
The symbol was commissioned by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and combines the semaphore symbols for the letters N and D - an abbreviation of “Nuclear Disarmament”.
1878 The world's first telephone book is issued in New Haven, Connecticut
The directory consisted of a single piece of cardboard and comprised 50 numbers.
1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish “The Communist Manifesto”
“Das Kommunistische Manifest” outlined the sociopolitical worldview today called “Marxism” and was translated from German into over 100 languages.
1804 The world's first railway journey takes place in Wales
The first full-scale steam locomotive, built by Richard Trevithick, travelled from the Pen-y-darren ironworks near Merthyr Tydfil to Abercynon.
Births On This Day – February 21
1946 Alan Rickman
English actor
1933 Nina Simone
American singer-songwriter, pianist
1924 Robert Mugabe
Zimbabwean politician, 2nd President of Zimbabwe
1907 W. H. Auden
English/American poet
1791 Carl Czerny
Austrian pianist, composer
Deaths On This Day – February 21
1965 Malcolm X
American minister, activist
1949 Tan Malaka
Indonesian educator, activist
1941 Frederick Banting
Canadian physician, Nobel Prize laureate
1934 Augusto César Sandino
Nicaraguan rebel leader
1677 Baruch Spinoza
Dutch philosopher
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