FEB 21
- 1437 - James I, King of Scotland (1406-37), murdered in a coup attempt (age 42).
- 1916 - WWI: Battle of Verdun, with a German offensive, resulted in estimated 1+ million casualties. It was the longest battle of the entire war (lasted 9 months).
- 1917 - British troopship SS Mendi sank off Isle of Wight, 646 died.
- 1924 - Birthday: Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwean revolutionary, Prime Minister of Zimbabwe (1980-87) and 1st black President of Zimbabwe (1988-2017), born in Harare, Zimbabwe.
- 1925 - 1st issue of "New Yorker" magazine published.
- 1941 - Frederick Banting, Canadian physician, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, died in a plane crash at 49.
- 1965 - Malcolm X (human rights activist & Muslim minister) shot dead by Nation of Islam followers at Audubon Ballroom in New York City.
- 1968 - Howard Florey, Australian pathologist and pharmacologist who purified penicillin (Nobel 1945), died at 69.
- 1972 - Richard Nixon became the first US President to visit China and met Chinese leader Mao Zedong in Beijing.
- 1973 - Israeli fighters shot a Libyan aircraft, killed 108 people.
- 1974 - Yugoslavia adopted its constitution.
- 1974 - Tim Horton, Canadian hockey player and co-founder of Tim Hortons, died in a car crash (age 44).
- 1999 - Gertrude B. Elion, American biochemist & drug researcher (developed leukemia and herpes drug treatments - Nobel 1988) died at 81.
- 2013 - Syria: 80+ people killed in a series of bombings in Damascus.
- 2013 - India: 21 people are killed in a series of bombings in Hyderabad.
- 2014 - 11 people were killed after a Libyan Air Force plane crashed in Tunisia.
- 2014 - Ukraine: Police in Kiev opened fire on protesters: 27 killed and around 570 injured.
- 2016 - Syria: Bombings in Homs and Damascus killed 140+ people.
- 2018 - Myanmar: Laykyun Sekkya, the world's 3rd tallest statue at 116 meters depicting Gautama Buddha completed in Khatakan Taung.
- 2021 - Australia: Novak Dokoovic won 9th Australian title (defeated Daniil Medvedev of Russia).
- 2022 - COVID19: Queen Elizabeth tested positive for coronavirus.