February 21 birthdays & history

Famous people born on February 21

• 1989Corbin Bleu, American actor, model, dancer, film producer and singer-songwriter
• 1924Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwean educator and politician, 2nd President of Zimbabwe
• 1907W. H. Auden, English-American poet, playwright, and composer
• 1946Alan Rickman, English actor and director
• 1903Anaïs Nin, French-American essayist and memoirist
• 1933Nina Simone, American singer-songwriter and pianist
• 1921John Rawls, American philosopher and academic
• 1987Elliot Page, Canadian actor
• 1991Riyad Mahrez, Algerian footballer
• 1875Jeanne Calment, French super-centenarian, oldest verified person ever

What happened on February 21

• 1804The first self-propelling steam locomotive makes its outing at the Pen-y-Darren Ironworks in Wales.
• 1828The inaugural issue of the Cherokee Phoenix, the first newspaper in a Native American language, was published.
• 1842John Greenough is granted the first U.S. patent for the sewing machine.
• 1848Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto.
• 1861Mariehamn, the capital city of Åland, is founded.
• 1866Lucy Hobbs Taylor became the first woman to receive a doctorate from a dental college.
• 1874The Oakland Daily Tribune publishes its first edition.
• 1878The first telephone directory is issued in New Haven, Connecticut.
• 1885The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated.
• 1921Constituent Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Georgia adopts the country's first constitution.
• 1925The New Yorker publishes its first issue.
• 1947In New York City, Edwin Land demonstrates the first "instant camera", the Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.

Also observed on February 21

• Armed Forces Day (South Africa)
• Birthday of King Harald V (Norway)
• Father Lini Day (Vanuatu)
• Language Movement Day (Bangladesh)
• International Mother Language Day (UNESCO)
• The first day of the Birth Anniversary of Fifth Druk Gyalpo, celebrated until February 23. (Bhutan)