Calendar date · February

What happened on February 21

On February 21, 1245: Thomas, the first known Bishop of Finland, is granted resignation after confessing to torture and forgery.

Events

41

across history

Notable births

50

Notable deaths

50

Zodiac

Pisces

Featured moment · 1245

Thomas, the first known Bishop of Finland, is granted resignation after confessing to torture and forgery.

Thomas was the third bishop of Finland, and is the first known one. Little is known of his activities. After admitting to having committed several crimes, he resigned in 1245.

People

Born on February 21

Leeseo 2007– South Korean singer (born 2007)
Metawin Opas-iamkajorn 1999– Thai actor (born 1999)
Noah Rubin 1996– American tennis player (born 1996)
Sophie Turner 1996– British actress (born 1996)
Tang Haochen 1994– Chinese tennis player
Hayley Orrantia 1994– American actress and musician (born 1994)
Wendy 1994– South Korean singer (born 1994)
Steve Leo Beleck 1993– Cameroonian footballer
Davy Klaassen 1993– Dutch footballer (born 1993)
Show 9 more — notable births on February 21
Phil Jones 1992– English footballer
Joe Alwyn 1991– English actor (born 1991)
Riyad Mahrez 1991– Algerian footballer (born 1991)
Ji So-yun 1991– South Korean footballer (born 1991)
Solar 1991– South Korean singer (born 1991)
Devon Travis 1991– American baseball player (born 1991)
Mattias Tedenby 1990– Swedish ice hockey player
Corbin Bleu 1989– American actor (born 1989)
Ian Cole 1989– American ice hockey player (born 1989)

People

Died on February 21

Rondale Moore American football player (2000–2026)
Clint Hill U.S. Secret Service agent (1932–2025)
Lynne Marie Stewart American actress (1946–2025)
John Bahnsen United States Army general (1934–2024)
Mireya Arboleda Colombian classical pianist (1928–2021)
Kevin Dann Australian rugby league footballer (1958–2021)
Stanley Donen American film director and choreographer (1924–2019)
Peter Tork American musician and actor (1942–2019)
Billy Graham American Baptist evangelist (1918–2018)
Show 9 more — notable deaths on February 21
Jeanne Martin Cissé Politician from Guinea (1926–2017)
Eric Brown Royal Navy test pilot, author (1920–2016)
Aleksei Gubarev Soviet general, pilot and cosmonaut (1931–2015)
Sadeq Tabatabaei Iranian diplomat (1943-2015)
Clark Terry American swing and bebop trumpeter (1920–2015)
Héctor Maestri Cuban baseball player (1935-2014)
Matthew Robinson Australian snowboarder (1985–2014)
Cornelius Schnauber German–American historian, playwright, and academic (born 1939)
Hasse Jeppson Swedish footballer (1925–2013)

Timeline

Every February 21 on record

  1. 1245 Thomas, the first known Bishop of Finland, is granted resignation after confessing to torture and forgery.

    First known bishop of Finland (died 1248)

    Thomas was the third bishop of Finland, and is the first known one. Little is known of his activities. After admitting to having committed several crimes, he resigned in 1245.

  2. 1440 The Prussian Confederation is formed.

    Organization of Prussian nobles in opposition to the Teutonic Order (1440-66)

    The Prussian Confederation was an organization formed on 21 February 1440 at Marienwerder by a group of 53 nobles and clergy and 19 cities in Prussia, to oppose the arbitrariness of the Teutonic Knights. It was based on an earlier similar organization, the Lizard Union established in 1397 by the nobles of Chełmno Land.

  3. 1613 Mikhail I is unanimously elected Tsar by a national assembly, beginning the Romanov dynasty of Imperial Russia.

    Tsar of Russia from 1613 to 1645

    Michael I was Tsar of all Russia from 1613 after being elected by the Zemsky Sobor of 1613 until his death in 1645. He was the first tsar of the House of Romanov, which succeeded the House of Rurik following the Time of Troubles.

  4. 1797 A force of 1,400 French soldiers invade Britain at Fishguard in support of the Society of United Irishmen. They were defeated by 500 British reservists.

    Part of the War of the First Coalition (1797)

    The Battle of Fishguard was a military invasion of Great Britain by Revolutionary France during the War of the First Coalition. The brief campaign, on 22–24 February 1797, is the most recent landing on British soil by a hostile foreign force and thus is often referred to as the "last invasion of mainland Britain".

  5. 1804 The first self-propelling steam locomotive makes its outing at the Pen-y-Darren Ironworks in Wales.

    Railway locomotive that produces its pulling power through a steam engine

    A steam locomotive is a type of locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material to heat water in the locomotive's boiler to the point where it becomes gaseous and its volume increases 1,600 to 1,700 times. Functionally, it is a self-propelled steam engine on wheels.

  6. 1808 Without a previous declaration of war, Russian troops cross the border to Sweden at Abborfors in eastern Finland, thus beginning the Finnish War, in which Sweden will lose the eastern half of the country (i.e. Finland) to Russia.
  7. 1828 Initial issue of the Cherokee Phoenix is the first periodical to use the Cherokee syllabary invented by Sequoyah.
  8. 1842 John Greenough is granted the first U.S. patent for the sewing machine.
  9. 1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto.
  10. 1861 Mariehamn, the capital city of Åland, is founded.
  11. 1862 American Civil War: Battle of Valverde is fought near Fort Craig in New Mexico Territory.
  12. 1874 The Oakland Daily Tribune publishes its first edition.
  13. 1878 The first telephone directory is issued in New Haven, Connecticut.
  14. 1885 The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated.
  15. 1896 An Englishman raised in Australia, Bob Fitzsimmons, fights an Irishman, Peter Maher, in an American promoted event which technically takes place in Mexico, winning the 1896 World Heavyweight Championship in boxing.
Show 15 earlier entries from February 21
  1. 1913 Ioannina is incorporated into the Greek state after the Balkan Wars.
  2. 1916 World War I: In France, the Battle of Verdun begins.
  3. 1918 The last Carolina parakeet dies in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo.
  4. 1919 German socialist Kurt Eisner is assassinated. His death results in the establishment of the Bavarian Soviet Republic and parliament and government fleeing Munich, Germany.
  5. 1921 Constituent Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Georgia adopts the country's first constitution.
  6. 1921 Rezā Shāh takes control of Tehran during a successful coup.
  7. 1925 The New Yorker publishes its first issue.
  8. 1929 In the first battle of the Warlord Rebellion in northeastern Shandong against the Nationalist government of China, a 24,000-strong rebel force led by Zhang Zongchang was defeated at Zhifu by 7,000 NRA troops.
  9. 1937 The League of Nations bans foreign national "volunteers" in the Spanish Civil War.
  10. 1945 World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, Japanese kamikaze planes sink the escort carrier USS Bismarck Sea and damage the USS Saratoga.
  11. 1945 World War II: the Brazilian Expeditionary Force defeat the German forces in the Battle of Monte Castello on the Italian front.
  12. 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.
  13. 1948 NASCAR is incorporated.
  14. 1952 The British government, under Winston Churchill, abolishes identity cards in the UK to "set the people free".
  15. 1952 The Bengali language movement protests occur at the University of Dhaka in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

Around the world

Holidays on February 21

Keep going

More to explore

The zodiac sign covering February 21 Pisces Browse the calendar Every day in February Browse the calendar Every day in February