1245 – Bishop Thomas, the 1st known Bishop of Finland, was granted resignation on the 21st February 1224, after confessing to torture and forgery.

1804 – The 1st self-propelling steam locomotive made its outing on the 21st February 1804, at the Pen-y-Darren Ironworks in Wales.

1842 – John Greenough was granted the 1st U.S. patent for the sewing machine on the 21st February 1842.

1848 – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto on the 21st February 1848.

1874 – The Oakland Daily Tribune published its 1st edition on the 21st February 1874.

1878 – The 1st telephone book was issued on the 21st February 1878, in New Haven, Connecticut.

1885 – The newly completed Washington Monument was dedicated on the 21st February 1885.

1925 – The New Yorker published its 1st issue on the 21st February 1925.

1947 ~ Edwin Land demonstrated the 1st instant camera on the 21st February 1947. The Polaroid Land Camera was demonstrated to a meeting of the Optical Society of America in New York City.

1948 – NASCAR was incorporated on the 21st February 1948.

1952 – The British government, under Winston Churchill, abolished identity cards in the UK on the 21st February 1952, to set the people free.

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 the 21st February 1958.

1965 – Malcolm X was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom on the 21st February 1965, in New York City by members of the Nation of Islam.

1970 – Swissair Flight 330: A mid-air bomb explosion and subsequent crash killed 38 passengers and 9 crew members near Zürich, Switzerland on the 21st February 1970.

1971 – The Convention on Psychotropic Substances was signed at Vienna on the 21st February 1971.

1972 – The Soviet unmanned spaceship Luna 20 landed on the Moon on the 21st February 1972.

1973 – Over the Sinai Desert, Israeli fighter aircraft shot down Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 jet on the 21st February 1973, killing 108 people.

1995 – Steve Fossett landed in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the 1st person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon on the 21st February 1995.