21st February

EVENTS:

• 1804 – The first self-propelling steam locomotive makes its outing at the Pen-y-Darren Ironworks in Wales.
• 1848 – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto.
• 1878 – The first telephone directory is issued in New Haven, Connecticut.
• 1921 – Constituent Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Georgia adopts the country’s first constitution.
• 1952 – The Bengali Language Movement protests occur at the University of Dhaka in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
• 1972 – The Soviet unmanned spaceship Luna 20 lands on the Moon.
• 2013 – At least 17 people are dead and 119 injured following several bombings in the Indian city of Hyderabad.
• 2022 – In the Russo-Ukrainian crisis Russian President Vladimir Putin declares the Luhansk People’s Republic and Donetsk People’s Republic as independent from Ukraine, and moves troops into the region. The action is condemned by the United Nations.

BIRTHS:

• 1894 – Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar, Indian chemist and academic (d. 1955)
• 1895 – Henrik Dam, Danish biochemist and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1976)
• 1896 – Suryakant Tripathi ‘Nirala’, Indian poet and author (d. 1961)
• 1924 – Thelma Estrin, American computer scientist and engineer (d. 2014)
• 1970 – Michael Slater, Australian cricketer and sportscaster
• 1983 – Braylon Edwards, American football player
• 1985 – Jamaal Westerman, American football player
• 1989 – Josh Walker, English footballer

HOLIDAYS and OBSERVANCES:

• Armed Forces Day (South Africa)
• Birthday of King Harald V (Norway)
• International Mother Language Day (UNESCO)
• Language Movement Day (Bangladesh)