Portal:United States/Anniversaries/February/February 21
- 1885 – The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated.
- 1925 – The New Yorker publishes its first issue.
- 1948 – NASCAR is incorporated.
- 1953 – Francis Crick and James D. Watson discover the structure of the DNA molecule.
- 1965 – Malcolm X is assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City by members of the Nation of Islam.
- 1972 – President Richard Nixon visits the People's Republic of China to normalize Sino-American relations (pictured).
On this day for the United States
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Events
- 1842 - John Greenough is granted the first U.S. patent for the sewing machine.
- 1874 - The Oakland Daily Tribune publishes its first newspaper.
- 1878 - The first telephone book is issued in New Haven, Connecticut.
- 1885 - The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated.
- 1893 - Thomas Edison receives two U.S. patents for a "Cut Out for Incandescent Electric Lamps" and for a "Stop Device".
- 1918 - The last Carolina parakeet dies in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo.
- 1925 - The New Yorker publishes its first issue.
- 1937 - Initial flight of the first successful flying car, Waldo Waterman's Arrowbile.
- 1945 - World War II: Japanese Kamikaze planes sink escort carrier Bismarck Sea and damage the Saratoga.
- 1947 - In New York City Edwin Land demonstrates the first "instant camera", the Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.
- 1948 - NASCAR is incorporated.
- 1953 - Francis Crick and James D. Watson discover the structure of the DNA molecule.
- 1965 - Malcolm X is assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City by members of the Nation of Islam.
- 1972 - President Richard Nixon visits the People's Republic of China to normalize Sino-American relations.
- 1975 - 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.
- 1995 - Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.
Births
- 1721 - John McKinly, American physician (d. 1796)
- 1821 - Charles Scribner, American publisher (d. 1871)
- 1903 - Fairfax M. Cone, American advertising executive (d. 1977)
- 1915 - Ann Sheridan, American actress (d. 1967)
- 1917 - Lucille Bremer, American actress (d. 1996)
- 1925 - Sam Peckinpah, American director (d. 1984)
- 1927 - Erma Bombeck, American humorist (d. 1996)
- 1933 - Nina Simone, American singer (d. 2003)
- 1934 - Rue McClanahan, American actress
- 1936 - Barbara Jordan, American politician (d. 1996)
- 1937 - Gary Lockwood, American actor
- 1940 - John Lewis, American politician
- 1943 - David Geffen, American record producer
- 1945 - D'Anna Fortunato, American mezzo-soprano
- 1946 - Tyne Daly, American actress
- 1947 - Johnny Echols, American musician (Love)
- 1947 - Olympia Snowe, American politician
- 1949 - Jerry Harrison, American musician (Talking Heads)
- 1951 - Vince Welnick, American musician (The Grateful Dead) (d. 2006)
- 1953 - Christine Ebersole, American actress
- 1953 - William Petersen, American actor
- 1955 - Kelsey Grammer, American actor
- 1958 - Mary Chapin Carpenter, American singer
- 1958 - Jack Coleman, American actor
- 1958 - Alan Trammell, baseball player and manager
- 1960 - Steve Wynn, American singer (The Dream Syndicate)
- 1961 - Davey Allison, American race car driver (d. 1993)
- 1961 - Christopher Atkins, American actor
- 1961 - Martha Hackett, American actress
- 1961 - Bertha Faye, American wrestler (d. 2001)
- 1962 - Chuck Palahniuk, American writer
- 1962 - David Foster Wallace, American writer
- 1963 - William Baldwin, American actor
- 1964 - Mark and Scott Kelly, American astronauts and identical twins
- 1967 - Leroy Burrell, American runner
- 1969 - Tony Meola, American footballer
- 1969 - Eric Wilson, American musician (Sublime)
- 1975 - Chris (CP) Powell, American columnist
- 1977 - Steve Francis, American basketball player
- 1977 - Chad Hutchinson, baseball and football player
- 1977 - Kevin Rose, American television host and Internet entrepreneur
- 1978 - Nicole Parker, American actress
- 1979 - Lonnie Ford, American football player
- 1979 - Jennifer Love Hewitt, American actress
- 1983 - Braylon Edwards, American football player
- 1985 - Bob Burton, American speedcuber
- 1989 - Corbin Bleu, American actor and singer
- 1989 - Kristin Herrera, American actress
Deaths
- 1715 - Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore, Governor of the Province of Maryland (b. 1637)
- 1938 - George Ellery Hale, American astronomer (b. 1868)
- 1965 - Malcolm X, American black activist (b. 1925)
- 1967 - Charles Beaumont, American writer (b. 1929)
- 1982 - Murray the K, American impresario and disc jockey (b. 1922)
- 1986 - Helen Hooven Santmyer, American writer (b. 1895)
- 1996 - Morton Gould, American composer (b. 1913)
- 1999 - Gertrude B. Elion, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1918)
- 2005 - Ara Berberian, American opera singer (b. 1930)
- 2005 - Eugene Scott, American religious broadcaster (b. 1929)