February 23

February 29 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

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February 29, also known as leap day or leap year day, is a date added to most years that are divisible by 4, such as 2016, 2020, and 2024. A leap day is added in various solar calendars (calendars based on the Earth’s revolution around the Sun), including the Gregorian calendar standard in most of the world. Lunisolar calendars (whose months are based on the phases of the Moon) instead add a leap or intercalary month

In the Gregorian calendar, years that are divisible by 100, but not by 400, do not contain a leap day. Thus, 1700, 1800, and 1900 did not contain a leap day; neither will 2100, 2200, and 2300. Conversely, 1600 and 2000 did and 2400 will. Years containing a leap day are called leap years. Years not containing a leap day are called common years. In the Chinese calendar, this day will only occur in years of the monkey, dragon, and rat.

A leap day is observed because the Earth’s period of orbital revolution around the Sun takes approximately six hours longer than 365 whole days. A leap day compensates for this lag, realigning the calendar with the Earth’s position in the Solar System; otherwise, seasons would occur later than intended in the calendar year. The Julian calendar used in Christendom until the 16th century added a leap day every four years; but this rule adds too many days (roughly three every 400 years), making the equinoxes and solstices shift gradually to earlier dates. By the 16th century the vernal equinox had drifted to March 11, so the Gregorian calendar was introduced both to shift it back by omitting several days, and to reduce the number of leap years via the aforementioned century rule to keep the equinoxes more or less fixed and the date of Easter consistently close to the vernal equinox.

Leap days can present a particular problem in computing known as the leap year bug when February 29 is not handled correctly in logic that accepts or manipulates dates. For example, this has happened with ATMs and Microsoft’s cloud system Azure.

Leap years

Although most modern calendar years have 365 days, a complete revolution around the Sun (one solar year) takes approximately 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds (or, for simplicity’s sake, approximately 365 days and 6 hours, or 365.25 days) .An extra 23 hours, 15 minutes, and 4 seconds thus accumulates every four years (again, for simplicity’s sake, approximately an extra 24 hours, or 1 day, every four years), requiring that an extra calendar day be added to align the calendar with the Sun’s apparent position. Without the added day, in future years the seasons would occur later in the calendar, eventually leading to confusion about when to undertake activities dependent on weather, ecology, or hours of daylight.

Solar years are actually slightly shorter than 365 days and 6 hours (365.25 days), which had been known since the 2nd century BC when Hipparchus stated that it lasted 365 + 1/4 − 1/300 days, but this was ignored by Julius Caesar and his astronomical adviser Sosigenes. The Gregorian calendar corrected this by adopting the length of the tropical year stated in three medieval sources, the Alfonsine tables, De Revolutionibus, and the Prutenic Tables, truncated to two sexagesimal places, 365 14/60 33/3600 days or 365 + 1/4 − 3/400 days or 365.2425 days. The length of the tropical year in 2000 was 365.24217 mean solar daysAdding a calendar day every four years, therefore, results in an excess of around 44 minutes every four years, or about 3 days every 400 years. To compensate for this, three days are removed every 400 years. The Gregorian calendar reform implements this adjustment by making an exception to the general rule that there is a leap year every four years. Instead, a year divisible by 100 is not a leap year unless that year is also divisible by 400. This means that the years 1600, 2000, and 2400 are leap years, while the years 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200, 2300, and 2500 are not leap years.

Modern (Gregorian) calendar

The Gregorian calendar repeats itself every 400 years, which is exactly 20,871 weeks including 97 leap days (146,097 days). Over this period, February 29 falls on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday 13 times; Friday and Saturday 14 times; and Monday and Wednesday 15 times. Except for a century mark that is not a multiple of 400, consecutive leap days fall in order Sunday, Friday, Wednesday, Monday, Saturday, Thursday, Tuesday, and repeats again.

Early Roman calendar

Adding a leap day (after 23 February) shifts the commemorations in the 1962 Roman Missal.

Main article: Roman calendar

The calendar of the Roman king Numa Pompilius had only 355 days (even though it was not a lunar calendar) which meant that it would quickly become unsynchronized with the solar year. An earlier Roman solution to this problem was to lengthen the calendar periodically by adding extra days to February, the last month of the year. February consisted of two parts, each with an odd number of days. The first part ended with the Terminalia on the 23rd, which was considered the end of the religious year, and the five remaining days formed the second part. To keep the calendar year roughly aligned with the solar year, a leap month, called Mensis Intercalaris (“intercalary month”), was added from time to time between these two parts of February. The (usual) second part of February was incorporated in the intercalary month as its last five days, with no change either in their dates or the festivals observed on them. This followed naturally because the days after the Ides (13th) of February (in an ordinary year) or the Ides of Intercalaris (in an intercalary year) both counted down to the Kalends of March (i.e. they were known as “the nth day before the Kalends of March”). The Nones (5th) and Ides of Intercalaris occupied their normal positions.

The third-century writer Censorinus says:

When it was thought necessary to add (every two years) an intercalary month of 22 or 23 days, so that the civil year should correspond to the natural (solar) year, this intercalation was in preference made in February, between Terminalia [23rd]and Regifugium [24th].

Julian reform

Main article: Julian calendar

The set leap day was introduced in Rome as a part of the Julian reform in the 1st century BCE. As before, the intercalation was made after February 23. The day following the Terminalia (February 23) was doubled, forming the “bis sextum“—literally ‘twice sixth’, since February 24 was ‘the sixth day before the Kalends of March’ using Roman inclusive counting (March 1 was the Kalends of March and was also the first day of the calendar year). Inclusive counting initially caused the Roman priests to add the extra day every three years instead of four; Augustus was compelled to omit leap years for a few decades to return the calendar to its proper position. Although there were exceptions, the first day of the bis sextum (February 24) was usually regarded as the intercalated or “bissextile” day since the 3rd century CE. February 29 came to be regarded as the leap day when the Roman system of numbering days was replaced by sequential numbering in the late Middle Ages, although this has only been formally enacted in Sweden and Finland. In Britain, the extra day added to leap years remains notionally the 24th, although the 29th remains more visible on the calendar.

Born on February 29

A person born on February 29 may be called a “leapling”, a “leaper”, or a “leap-year baby”. Some leaplings celebrate their birthday in non-leap years on either February 28 or March 1, while others only observe birthdays on the authentic intercalary date, February 29.

Legal status: The effective legal date of a leapling’s birthday in non-leap years varies between jurisdictions.

In the United Kingdom and its former colony Hong Kong, when a person born on February 29 turns 18, they are considered to have their birthday on March 1 in the relevant year.

In New Zealand, a person born on February 29 is deemed to have their birthday on February 28 in non-leap years, for the purposes of Driver Licensing under §2(2) of the Land Transport (Driver Licensing) Rule 1999. The net result is that for drivers aged 75, or over 80, their driver licence expires at the end of the last day of February, even though their birthday would otherwise fall on the first day in March in non-leap years. Otherwise, New Zealand legislation is silent on when a person born on February 29 has their birthday, although case law would suggest that age is computed based on the number of years elapsed, from the day after the date of birth, and that the person’s birth day then occurs on the last day of the year period. This differs from English common law where a birthday is considered to be the start of the next year, the preceding year ending at midnight on the day preceding the birthday. While a person attains the same age on the same day, it also means that, in New Zealand, if something must be done by the time a person attains a certain age, that thing can be done on the birthday that they attain that age and still be lawful.

In Taiwan, the legal birthday of a leapling is February 28 in common years:

If a period fixed by weeks, months, and years does not commence from the beginning of a week, month, or year, it ends with the ending of the day which proceeds the day of the last week, month, or year which corresponds to that on which it began to commence. But if there is no corresponding day in the last month, the period ends with the ending of the last day of the last month.

Thus, in England and Wales or in Hong Kong, a person born on February 29 will have legally reached 18 years old on March 1. If they were born in Taiwan they legally become 18 on February 28, a day earlier.

In the United States, according to John Reitz, a professor of law at the University of Iowa, there is no “… statute or general rule that has anything to do with leap day.” Reitz speculates that “March 1 would likely be considered the legal birthday in non-leap years of someone born on leap day,”using the same reasoning as described for the United Kingdom and Hong Kong. However, for the purposes of Social Security, a person attains the next age the day before the anniversary of birth. Therefore, Social Security would recognize February 28 as the change in age for leap year births, not March 1

In fiction

There are many instances in children’s literature where a person’s claim to be only a quarter of their actual age turns out to be based on counting only their leap-year birthdays.

A similar device is used in the plot of Gilbert and Sullivan’s 1879 comic opera The Pirates of Penzance: as a child, Frederic was apprenticed to a band of pirates until his 21st birthday. Having passed his 21st year, he leaves the pirate band and falls in love. However, since he was born on February 29, his 21st birthday will not arrive until he is eighty-eight (since 1900 was not a leap year), so he must leave his fiancée and return to the pirates.

Since 1967, February 29 has been the official birthday of Superman, but not Clark Kent.

February 29 in History

  • 1504 – Christopher Columbus uses his knowledge of a lunar eclipse that night to convince Jamaican natives to provide him with supplies.
  • 1644 – Abel Tasman’s second Pacific voyage begins.
  • 1704 – Queen Anne’s War: French forces and Native Americans stage a raid on Deerfield, Massachusetts Bay Colony, killing 56 villagers and taking more than 100 captive.
  • 1712 – February 29 is followed by February 30 in Sweden, in a move to abolish the Swedish calendar for a return to the Julian calendar.
  • 1720 – Ulrika Eleonora, Queen of Sweden abdicates in favour of her husband, who becomes King Frederick I on March 24.
  • 1752 – King Alaungpaya founds Konbaung Dynasty, the last dynasty of Burmese monarchy.
  • 1768 – Polish nobles form the Bar Confederation.
  • 1796 – The Jay Treaty between the United States and Great Britain comes into force, facilitating ten years of peaceful trade between the two nations.
  • 1864 – American Civil War: Kilpatrick–Dahlgren Raid fails: Plans to free 15,000 Union soldiers being held near Richmond, Virginia are thwarted.
  • 1892 – St. Petersburg, Florida is incorporated.
  • 1912 – The Piedra Movediza (Moving Stone) of Tandil falls and breaks.
  • 1916 – Tokelau is annexed by the United Kingdom.
  • 1916 – Child labor: In South Carolina, the minimum working age for factory, mill, and mine workers is raised from 12 to 14 years old.
  • 1920 – Czechoslovak National Assembly adopts the Constitution.
  • 1936 – February 26 Incident in Tokyo ends.
  • 1940 – 12th Academy Awards: For her performance as “Mammy” in Gone with the Wind, Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African American to win an Academy Award.
  • 1940 – Finland initiates Winter War peace negotiations.
  • 1940 – In a ceremony held in Berkeley, California, physicist Ernest Lawrence receives the 1939 Nobel Prize in Physics from Sweden’s Consul General in San Francisco.
  • 1944 – World War II: The Admiralty Islands are invaded in Operation Brewer led by American General Douglas MacArthur.
  • 1960 – The 5.7 Mw  Agadir earthquake shakes coastal Morocco with a maximum perceived intensity of X (Extreme), destroying Agadir, and leaving 12,000 dead and another 12,000 injured.
  • 1972 – Vietnam War: Vietnamization: South Korea withdraws 11,000 of its 48,000 troops from Vietnam.
  • 1980 – Gordie Howe of the Hartford Whalers makes NHL history as he scores his 800th goal.
  • 1984 – Pierre Trudeau announces his retirement as Liberal Party leader and Prime Minister of Canada.
  • 1988 – South African archbishop Desmond Tutu is arrested along with one hundred other clergymen during a five-day anti-apartheid demonstration in Cape Town.
  • 1988 – Svend Robinson becomes the first member of the House of Commons of Canada to come out as gay.
  • 1992 – First day of Bosnia and Herzegovina independence referendum.
  • 1996 – Faucett Flight 251 crashes in the Andes; all 123 passengers and crew die.
  • 1996 – Siege of Sarajevo officially ends.
  • 2000 – Second Chechen War: Eighty-four Russian paratroopers are killed in a rebel attack on a guard post near Ulus Kert.
  • 2004 – Jean-Bertrand Aristide is removed as President of Haiti following a coup.
  • 2008 – The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence decides to withdraw Prince Harry from a tour of Afghanistan “immediately” after a leak leads to his deployment being reported by foreign media.
  • 2008 – Misha Defonseca admits to fabricating her memoir, Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years, in which she claims to have lived with a pack of wolves in the woods during the Holocaust.
  • 2012 – Tokyo Skytree construction is completed. It is the tallest tower in the world, 634 meters high, and the second-tallest artificial structure on Earth, next to Burj Khalifa.

Births on February 29

  • 1468 – Pope Paul III (d. 1549)
  • 1528 – Albert V, Duke of Bavaria (d. 1579)
  • 1528 – Domingo Báñez, Spanish theologian (d. 1604)
  • 1572 – Edward Cecil, 1st Viscount Wimbledon (d. 1638)
  • 1576 – Antonio Neri, Florentine priest and glassmaker (d. 1614)
  • 1640 – Benjamin Keach, Particular Baptist preacher and author whose name was given to Keach’s Catechism (d. 1704)
  • 1692 – John Byrom, English poet and educator (d. 1763)
  • 1724 – Eva Marie Veigel, Austrian-English dancer (d. 1822)
  • 1736 – Ann Lee, English-American religious leader, founded the Shakers (d. 1784)
  • 1792 – Gioachino Rossini, Italian composer (d. 1868)
  • 1812 – James Milne Wilson, Scottish-Australian soldier and politician, 8th Premier of Tasmania (d. February 29, 1880)
  • 1828 – Emmeline B. Wells, American journalist, poet, and activist (d. 1921)
  • 1836 – Dickey Pearce, American baseball player and manager (d. 1908)
  • 1852 – Frank Gavan Duffy, Irish-Australian lawyer and judge, 4th Chief Justice of Australia (d. 1936)
  • 1860 – Herman Hollerith, American statistician and businessman, co-founded the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (d. 1929)
  • 1876 – William Stewart, Scottish footballer
  • 1884 – Richard S. Aldrich, American lawyer and politician (d. 1941)
  • 1892 – Augusta Savage, American sculptor (d. 1962)
  • 1896 – Morarji Desai, Indian civil servant and politician, 4th Prime Minister of India (d. 1995)
  • 1896 – William A. Wellman, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1975)
  • 1904 – Jimmy Dorsey, American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader (d. 1957)
  • 1904 – Pepper Martin, American baseball player and manager (d. 1965)
  • 1908 – Balthus, French-Swiss painter and illustrator (d. 2001)
  • 1908 – Dee Brown, American historian and author (d. 2002)
  • 1908 – Alf Gover, English cricketer and coach (d. 2001)
  • 1908 – Louie Myfanwy Thomas, Welsh writer (d. 1968)
  • 1916 – Dinah Shore, American singer and actress (d. 1994)
  • 1916 – James B. Donovan, American lawyer (d. 1970)
  • 1916 – Leonard Shoen, founder of U-Haul Corp. (d. 1999)
  • 1920 – Fyodor Abramov, Russian author and critic (d. 1983)
  • 1920 – Arthur Franz, American actor (d. 2006)
  • 1920 – James Mitchell, American actor and dancer (d. 2010)
  • 1920 – Michèle Morgan, French-American actress and singer (d. 2016)
  • 1920 – Howard Nemerov, American poet and academic (d. 1991)
  • 1920 – Rolland W. Redlin, American lawyer and politician (d. 2011)
  • 1924 – David Beattie, New Zealand judge and politician, 14th Governor-General of New Zealand (d. 2001)
  • 1924 – Carlos Humberto Romero, Salvadoran politician, President of El Salvador (d. 2017)
  • 1924 – Al Rosen, American baseball player and manager (d. 2015)
  • 1928 – Joss Ackland, English actor
  • 1928 – Jean Adamson, British writer and illustrator
  • 1928 – Vance Haynes, American archaeologist, geologist, and author
  • 1928 – Seymour Papert, South African mathematician and computer scientist, co-created the Logo programming language (d. 2016)
  • 1932 – Gene H. Golub, American mathematician and academic (d. 2007)
  • 1932 – Masten Gregory, American race car driver (d. 1985)
  • 1932 – Reri Grist, American soprano and actress
  • 1932 – Jaguar, Brazilian cartoonist
  • 1932 – Gavin Stevens, Australian cricketer
  • 1936 – Jack Lousma, American colonel, astronaut, and politician
  • 1936 – Henri Richard, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2020)
  • 1936 – Alex Rocco, American actor (d. 2015)
  • 1936 – Nh. Dini, Indonesian writer (d. 2018)
  • 1940 – Sonja Barend, Dutch talk show host
  • 1940 – Bartholomew I of Constantinople
  • 1940 – William H. Turner, Jr., American horse trainer
  • 1944 – Ene Ergma, Estonian physicist and politician
  • 1944 – Dennis Farina, American police officer and actor (d. 2013)
  • 1944 – Nicholas Frayling, English priest and academic
  • 1944 – Phyllis Frelich, American actress (d. 2014)
  • 1944 – Steve Mingori, American baseball player (d. 2008)
  • 1944 – Paolo Eleuteri Serpieri, Italian author and illustrator
  • 1944 – Lennart Svedberg, Swedish ice hockey player (d. 1972).
  • 1948 – Hermione Lee, English author, critic, and academic
  • 1948 – Manoel Maria, Brazilian footballer
  • 1948 – Patricia A. McKillip, American author
  • 1948 – Henry Small, American-born Canadian singer
  • 1952 – Sharon Dahlonega Raiford Bush, American journalist and producer
  • 1952 – Tim Powers, American author and educator
  • 1952 – Raisa Smetanina, Russian cross-country skier
  • 1952 – Bart Stupak, American police officer and politician
  • 1956 – Jonathan Coleman, English-Australian radio and television host
  • 1956 – Bob Speller, Canadian businessman and politician, 30th Canadian Minister of Agriculture
  • 1956 – Aileen Wuornos, American serial killer (d. 2002)
  • 1960 – Lucian Grainge, English businessman
  • 1960 – Khaled, Algerian singer-songwriter
  • 1960 – Richard Ramirez, American serial killer (d. 2013)
  • 1964 – Dave Brailsford, English cyclist and coach
  • 1964 – Lyndon Byers, Canadian ice hockey player and radio host
  • 1964 – Mervyn Warren, American tenor, composer, and producer
  • 1968 – Chucky Brown, American basketball player and coach
  • 1968 – Pete Fenson, American curler and sportscaster
  • 1968 – Naoko Iijima, Japanese actress and model
  • 1968 – Bryce Paup, American football player and coach
  • 1968 – Howard Tayler, American author and illustrator
  • 1968 – Eugene Volokh, Ukrainian-American lawyer and educator
  • 1968 – Frank Woodley, Australian actor, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1972 – Mike Pollitt, English footballer and coach
  • 1972 – Sylvie Lubamba, Italian showgirl
  • 1972 – Antonio Sabàto, Jr., Italian-American model and actor
  • 1972 – Pedro Sánchez, Prime Minister of Spain
  • 1972 – Dave Williams, American singer (d. 2002)
  • 1972 – Saul Williams, American singer-songwriter
  • 1972 – Pedro Zamora, Cuban-American activist and educator (d. 1994)
  • 1976 – Vonteego Cummings, American basketball player
  • 1976 – Gehad Grisha, Egyptian soccer referee
  • 1976 – Katalin Kovács, Hungarian sprint kayaker
  • 1976 – Terrence Long, American baseball player
  • 1976 – Ja Rule, American rapper and actor
  • 1980 – Çağdaş Atan, Turkish footballer and coach
  • 1980 – Chris Conley, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1980 – Patrick Côté, Canadian mixed martial artist
  • 1980 – Simon Gagné, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1980 – Rubén Plaza, Spanish cyclist
  • 1980 – Peter Scanavino, American actor
  • 1980 – Clinton Toopi, New Zealand rugby league player
  • 1980 – Taylor Twellman, American soccer player and sportscaster
  • 1984 – Rica Imai, Japanese model and actress
  • 1984 – Cullen Jones, American swimmer
  • 1984 – Nuria Martínez, Spanish basketball player
  • 1984 – Adam Sinclair, Indian field hockey player
  • 1984 – Rakhee Thakrar, English actress
  • 1984 – Dennis Walger, German rugby player
  • 1984 – Cam Ward, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1984 – Mark Foster, American singer, songwriter and musician
  • 1988 – Lena Gercke, German model and television host
  • 1988 – Benedikt Höwedes, German footballer
  • 1988 – Brent Macaffer, Australian Rules footballer
  • 1988 – Bobby Sanguinetti, American ice hockey player
  • 1988 – Milan Melindo, Filipino boxer
  • 1992 – Sean Abbott, Australian cricketer
  • 1992 – Ben Hampton, Australian rugby league player
  • 1992 – Eric Kendricks, American football player
  • 1992 – Caitlin EJ Meyer, American actress
  • 1996 – Nelson Asofa-Solomona, New Zealand rugby league player
  • 1996 – Reece Prescod, British sprinter
  • 1996 – Claudia Williams, New Zealand tennis player
  • 2000 – Ferran Torres, Spanish footballer

Deaths on February 29

  • 468 – Pope Hilarius
  • 992 – Oswald of Worcester, Anglo-Saxon archbishop and saint (b. 925)
  • 1212 – Hōnen, Japanese monk, founded Jōdo-shū (b. 1133)
  • 1460 – Albert III, Duke of Bavaria-Munich (b. 1401)
  • 1528 – Patrick Hamilton, Scottish Protestant reformer and martyr (b. 1504)
  • 1592 – Alessandro Striggio, Italian composer and diplomat (b. 1540)
  • 1600 – Caspar Hennenberger, German pastor, historian and cartographer (b. 1529)
  • 1604 – John Whitgift, English archbishop and academic (b. 1530)
  • 1740 – Pietro Ottoboni, Italian cardinal (b. 1667)
  • 1744 – John Theophilus Desaguliers, French-English physicist and philosopher (b. 1683)
  • 1792 – Johann Andreas Stein, German piano builder (b. 1728)
  • 1820 – Johann Joachim Eschenburg, German historian and critic (b. 1743)
  • 1848 – Louis-François Lejeune, French general, painter and lithographer (b. 1775)
  • 1852 – Matsudaira Katataka, Japanese daimyō (b. 1806)
  • 1868 – Ludwig I of Bavaria (b. 1786)
  • 1880 – James Milne Wilson, Scottish-Australian soldier and politician, 8th Premier of Tasmania (b. February 29, 1812)
  • 1908
    • Pat Garrett, American sheriff (b. 1850)
    • John Hope, 1st Marquess of Linlithgow, Scottish-Australian politician, 1st Governor-General of Australia (b. 1860)
  • 1920 – Ernie Courtney, American baseball player (b. 1875)
  • 1928
    • Adolphe Appia, Swiss architect and theorist (b. 1862)
    • Ina Coolbrith, American poet and librarian (b. 1841)
  • 1940 – E. F. Benson, English archaeologist and author (b. 1867)
  • 1944 – Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, Finnish lawyer, judge and politician, 3rd President of Finland (b. 1861)
  • 1948
    • Robert Barrington-Ward, English lawyer and journalist (b. 1891)
    • Rebel Oakes, American baseball player and manager (b. 1883)
  • 1952 – Quo Tai-chi, Chinese politician and diplomat, Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations (b. 1888)
  • 1956 – Elpidio Quirino, Filipino lawyer and politician, 6th President of the Philippines (b. 1890)
  • 1960
    • Melvin Purvis, American police officer and FBI agent (b. 1903)
    • Walter Yust, American journalist and author (b. 1894)
  • 1964 – Frank Albertson, American actor and singer (b. 1909)
  • 1968
    • Lena Blackburne, American baseball player, coach and manager (b. 1886)
    • Tore Ørjasæter, Norwegian poet and educator (b. 1886)
  • 1972 – Tom Davies, American football player and coach (b. 1896)
  • 1976 – Florence P. Dwyer, American politician (b. 1902)
  • 1980
    • Yigal Allon, Israeli general and politician, Prime Minister of Israel (b. 1918)
    • Gil Elvgren, American painter and illustrator (b. 1914)
  • 1984 – Ludwik Starski, Polish screenwriter and songwriter (b. 1903)
  • 1988 – Sidney Harmon, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1907)
  • 1992 – Ruth Pitter, English poet and author (b. 1897)
  • 1996
    • Wes Farrell, American singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1939)
    • Ralph Rowe, American baseball player, coach and manager (b. 1924)
  • 2000 – Dennis Danell, American guitarist (b. 1961)
  • 2004
    • Kagamisato Kiyoji, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 42nd Yokozuna (b. 1923)
    • Jerome Lawrence, American playwright and author (b. 1915)
    • Harold Bernard St. John, Barbadian lawyer and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Barbados (b. 1931)
    • Lorrie Wilmot, South African cricketer (b. 1943)
  • 2008
    • Janet Kagan, American author (b. 1946)
    • Erik Ortvad, Danish painter and illustrator (b. 1917)
    • Akira Yamada, Japanese scholar and philosopher (b. 1922)
  • 2012
    • Roland Bautista, American guitarist (b. 1951)
    • Davy Jones, English singer, guitarist and actor (b. 1945)
    • Sheldon Moldoff, American illustrator (b. 1920)
    • P. K. Narayana Panicker, Indian social leader (b. 1930)
  • 2016
    • Wenn V. Deramas, Filipino director and screenwriter (b. 1966)
    • Gil Hill, American police officer, actor and politician (b. 1931)
    • Josefin Nilsson, Swedish singer (b. 1969)
    • Louise Rennison, English author (b. 1951)
    • Mumtaz Qadri, Pakistani assassin (b. 1985)

Holidays and observances on February 29

  • As a Christian feast day:
    • Auguste Chapdelaine (one of the Martyr Saints of China)
    • Oswald of Worcester (in leap year only)
    • Saint John Cassian
    • February 29 in the Orthodox church
  • The fourth day of Ayyám-i-Há (Bahá’í Faith) (observed on this date only if Bahá’í Naw-Rúz falls on March 21)
  • Rare Disease Day (in leap years; celebrated in common years on February 28)
  • Bachelor’s Day (Ireland, United Kingdom)

Folk traditions

There is a popular tradition known as Bachelor’s Day in some countries allowing a woman to propose marriage to a man on February 29If the man refuses, he then is obliged to give the woman money or buy her a dress. In upper-class societies in Europe, if the man refuses marriage, he then must purchase 12 pairs of gloves for the woman, suggesting that the gloves are to hide the woman’s embarrassment of not having an engagement ring. In Ireland, the tradition is supposed to originate from a deal that Saint Bridget struck with Saint Patrick.

In the town of Aurora, Illinois, single women are deputized and may arrest single men, subject to a four-dollar fine, every February 29.

In Greece, it is considered unlucky to marry on a leap day.

February 24 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

by

For superstitious reasons, when the Romans began to intercalate to bring their calendar into line with the solar year, they chose not to place their extra month of Mercedonius after February but within it. February 24 — known in the Roman calendar as “the sixth day before the Kalends of March” — was replaced by the first day of this month since it followed Terminalia, the festival of the Roman god of boundaries. After the end of Mercedonius, the rest of the days of February were observed and the new year began with the first day of March. The overlaid religious festivals of February were so complicated that Julius Caesar opted not to change it at all during his 46 bc calendar reform. The extra day of his system’s leap years was located in the same place as the old intercalary month but he opted to ignore it as a date. Instead, the sixth day before the Kalends of March was simply said to last for 48 hours and all the other days continued to bear their original names. (The Roman practice of inclusive counting initially caused the priests in charge of the calendar to add the extra hours every three years instead of every four and Augustus was obliged to omit them for a span of decades until the system was back to where it should have been.) When the extra hours finally began to be reckoned as two separate days instead of a doubled sixth (“bissextile”) one, the leap day was still taken to be the one following hard on the February 23 Terminalia. Although February 29 has been popularly understood as the leap day of leap years since the beginning of sequential reckoning of the days of months in the late Middle Ages, in Britain and most other countries, no formal replacement of February 24 as the leap day of the Julian and Gregorian calendars has occurred. The exceptions include Sweden and Finland, who enacted legislation to move the day to February 29. This custom still has some effect around the world, for example with respect to name days in Hungary.

February 24 in History

  • 484 – King Huneric of the Vandals replaces Nicene bishops with Arian ones, and banishes some to Corsica.
  • 1303 – Battle of Roslin, of the First War of Scottish Independence.
  • 1386 – King Charles III of Naples and Hungary is assassinated at Buda.
  • 1525 – A Spanish-Austrian army defeats a French army at the Battle of Pavia.
  • 1538 – Treaty of Nagyvárad between Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I and King John Zápolya of Hungary and Croatia.
  • 1582 – With the papal bull Inter gravissimas, Pope Gregory XIII announces the Gregorian calendar.
  • 1607 – L’Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi, one of the first works recognized as an opera, receives its première performance.
  • 1711 – The London première of Rinaldo by George Frideric Handel, the first Italian opera written for the London stage.
  • 1739 – Battle of Karnal: The army of Iranian ruler Nader Shah defeats the forces of the Mughal emperor of India, Muhammad Shah.
  • 1803 – In Marbury v. Madison, the Supreme Court of the United States establishes the principle of judicial review.
  • 1809 – London’s Drury Lane Theatre burns to the ground, leaving owner Richard Brinsley Sheridan destitute.
  • 1821 – Final stage of the Mexican War of Independence from Spain with Plan of Iguala.
  • 1822 – The first Swaminarayan temple in the world, Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Ahmedabad, is inaugurated.
  • 1826 – The signing of the Treaty of Yandabo marks the end of the First Anglo-Burmese War.
  • 1831 – The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, the first removal treaty in accordance with the Indian Removal Act, is proclaimed. The Choctaws in Mississippi cede land east of the river in exchange for payment and land in the West.
  • 1848 – King Louis-Philippe of France abdicates the throne.
  • 1854 – A Penny Red with perforations was the first perforated postage stamp to be officially issued for distribution.
  • 1863 – Arizona is organized as a United States territory.
  • 1868 – Andrew Johnson becomes the first President of the United States to be impeached by the United States House of Representatives. He is later acquitted in the Senate.
  • 1875 – The SS Gothenburg hits the Great Barrier Reef and sinks off the Australian east coast, killing approximately 100, including a number of high-profile civil servants and dignitaries.
  • 1881 – China and Russia sign the Sino-Russian Ili Treaty.
  • 1895 – Revolution breaks out in Baire, a town near Santiago de Cuba, beginning the Cuban War of Independence, that ends with the Spanish–American War in 1898.
  • 1916 – The Governor-General of Korea establishes a clinic called Jahyewon in Sorokdo to segregate Hansen’s disease patients.
  • 1917 – World War I: The U.S. ambassador Walter Hines Page to the United Kingdom is given the Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany pledges to ensure the return of New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona to Mexico if Mexico declares war on the United States.
  • 1918 – Estonian Declaration of Independence.
  • 1920 – Nancy Astor becomes the first woman to speak in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom following her election as a Member of Parliament (MP) three months earlier.
  • 1920 – The Nazi Party (NSDAP) was founded by Adolf Hitler in the Hofbräuhaus beer hall in Munich, Germany
  • 1942 – The Battle of Los Angeles: A false alarm led to an anti-aircraft barrage that lasted into the early hours of February 25.
  • 1942 – An order-in-council passed under the Defence of Canada Regulations of the War Measures Act gives the Canadian federal government the power to intern all “persons of Japanese racial origin”.
  • 1944 – Merrill’s Marauders: The Marauders begin their 1,000-mile journey through Japanese-occupied Burma.
  • 1945 – Egyptian Premier Ahmad Mahir Pasha is killed in Parliament after reading a decree.
  • 1946 – Colonel Juan Perón, founder of the political movement that became known as Peronism, is elected to his first term as President of Argentina.
  • 1949 – The Armistice Agreements are signed, to formally end the hostilities of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
  • 1968 – Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive is halted; South Vietnam recaptures Hué.
  • 1971 – The All India Forward Bloc holds an emergency central committee meeting after its chairman, Hemantha Kumar Bose, is killed three days earlier. P.K. Mookiah Thevar is appointed as the new chairman.
  • 1976 – The current constitution of Cuba is formally proclaimed.
  • 1978 – The Yuba County Five disappear in California. Four of their bodies are found four months later.
  • 1980 – The United States Olympic hockey team completes its Miracle on Ice by defeating Finland 4–2 to win the gold medal.
  • 1981 – The 6.7 Ms Gulf of Corinth earthquake affected Central Greece with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). Twenty-two people were killed, 400 were injured, and damage totaled $812 million.
  • 1983 – A special commission of the United States Congress condemns the Japanese American internment during World War II.
  • 1984 – Tyrone Mitchell perpetrates the 49th Street Elementary School shooting in Los Angeles, killing two children and injuring 12 more.
  • 1989 – United Airlines Flight 811, bound for New Zealand from Honolulu, rips open during flight, blowing nine passengers out of the business-class section.
  • 1991 – Gulf War: Ground troops cross the Saudi Arabian border and enter Iraq, thus beginning the ground phase of the war.
  • 1996 – Two civilian airplanes operated by the Miami-based group Brothers to the Rescue are shot down in international waters by the Cuban Air Force.
  • 1999 – China Southwest Airlines Flight 4509, a Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft, crashes on approach to Wenzhou Longwan International Airport in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China. All 61 people on board are killed.
  • 2004 – The 6.3 Mw Al Hoceima earthquake strikes northern Morocco with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). At least 628 people are killed, 926 are injured, and up to 15,000 are displaced.
  • 2006 – Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declares Proclamation 1017 placing the country in a state of emergency in attempt to subdue a possible military coup.
  • 2007 – Japan launches its fourth spy satellite, stepping up its ability to monitor potential threats such as North Korea.
  • 2008 – Fidel Castro retires as the President of Cuba and the Council of Ministers after 32 years. He remains as head of the Communist Party for another three years.
  • 2015 – A Metrolink train derails in Oxnard, California following a collision with a truck, leaving more than 30 injured.
  • 2016 – Tara Air Flight 193, a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft, crashed, with 23 fatalities, in Solighopte, Myagdi District, Dhaulagiri Zone, while en route from Pokhara Airport to Jomsom Airport.

Births on February 24

  • 1103 – Emperor Toba of Japan (d. 1156)
  • 1304 – Ibn Battuta, Moroccan jurist
  • 1413 – Louis, Duke of Savoy (d. 1465)
  • 1463 – Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Italian philosopher (d. 1494)
  • 1494 – Johan Friis, Danish statesman (d. 1570)
  • 1500 – Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1558)
  • 1536 – Pope Clement VIII (d. 1605)
  • 1545 – John of Austria (d. 1578)
  • 1553 – Cherubino Alberti, Italian engraver and painter (d. 1615)
  • 1557 – Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1619)
  • 1593 – Henry de Vere, 18th Earl of Oxford, English soldier and courtier (d. 1625)
  • 1595 – Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski, Polish author and poet (d. 1640)
  • 1604 – Arcangela Tarabotti, Venetian nun and feminist (d. 1652)
  • 1619 – Charles Le Brun, French painter and theorist (d. 1690)
  • 1622 – Johannes Clauberg, German theologian and philosopher (d. 1665)
  • 1709 – Jacques de Vaucanson, French engineer (d. 1782)
  • 1721 – John McKinly, Irish-American physician and politician, 1st Governor of Delaware (d. 1796)
  • 1723 – John Burgoyne, English general and politician (d. 1792)
  • 1736 – Charles Alexander, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach (d. 1806)
  • 1743 – Joseph Banks, English botanist and explorer (d. 1820)
  • 1762 – Charles Frederick Horn, German-English composer and educator (d. 1830)
  • 1767 – Rama II of Siam (d. 1824)
  • 1774 – Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge (d. 1850)
  • 1786 – Martin W. Bates, American lawyer and politician (d. 1869)
  • 1786 – Wilhelm Grimm, German anthropologist, author, and academic (d. 1859)
  • 1788 – Johan Christian Dahl, Norwegian-German painter (d. 1857)
  • 1827 – Lydia Becker, English-French activist (d. 1890)
  • 1831 – Leo von Caprivi, German general and politician, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1899)
  • 1835 – Julius Vogel, English-New Zealand journalist and politician, 8th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1899)
  • 1836 – Winslow Homer, American painter and illustrator (d. 1910)
  • 1837 – Rosalía de Castro, Spanish poet (d. 1885)
  • 1842 – Arrigo Boito, Italian journalist, author, and composer (d. 1918)
  • 1848 – Andrew Inglis Clark, Australian engineer, lawyer, and politician (d. 1907)
  • 1852 – George Moore, Irish author, poet, and playwright (d. 1933)
  • 1868 – Édouard Alphonse James de Rothschild, French financier and polo player (d. 1949)
  • 1869 – Zara DuPont, American suffragist (d. 1946)
  • 1874 – Honus Wagner, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 1955)
  • 1877 – Rudolph Ganz, Swiss pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1972)
  • 1877 – Ettie Rout, Australian-New Zealand educator and activist (d. 1936)
  • 1885 – Chester W. Nimitz, American admiral (d. 1966)
  • 1885 – Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Polish author, poet, and painter (d. 1939)
  • 1890 – Marjorie Main, American actress (d. 1975)
  • 1896 – Richard Thorpe, American director and screenwriter (d. 1991)
  • 1898 – Kurt Tank, German pilot and engineer (d. 1983)
  • 1900 – Irmgard Bartenieff, German-American dancer and physical therapist, leading pioneer of dance therapy (d. 1981)
  • 1903 – Vladimir Bartol, Italian-Slovene author and playwright (d. 1967)
  • 1908 – Telford Taylor, American general, lawyer, and historian (d. 1998)
  • 1909 – August Derleth, American anthologist and author (d. 1971)
  • 1914 – Ralph Erskine, English-Swedish architect, designed The Ark and Byker Wall (d. 2005)
  • 1914 – Weldon Kees, American author, poet, painter, and pianist (d. 1955)
  • 1915 – Jim Ferrier, Australian golfer (d. 1986)
  • 1919 – John Carl Warnecke, American architect (d. 2010)
  • 1921 – Abe Vigoda, American actor (d. 2016)
  • 1922 – Richard Hamilton, English painter and academic (d. 2011)
  • 1922 – Steven Hill, American actor (d. 2016)
  • 1924 – Hal Herring, American football player and coach (d. 2014)
  • 1924 – Erik Nielsen, Canadian lawyer and politician, 3rd Deputy Prime Minister of Canada (d. 2008)
  • 1925 – Bud Day, American colonel and pilot, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 2013)
  • 1927 – Emmanuelle Riva, French actress (d. 2017)
  • 1929 – Kintaro Ohki, South Korean wrestler (d. 2006)
  • 1930 – Barbara Lawrence, American model and actress (d. 2013)
  • 1931 – Dominic Chianese, American actor and singer
  • 1931 – Brian Close, English cricketer and coach (d. 2015)
  • 1932 – Michel Legrand, French pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 2019)
  • 1932 – Zell Miller, American sergeant and politician, 79th Governor of Georgia (d. 2018)
  • 1932 – John Vernon, Canadian-American actor (d. 2005)
  • 1933 – Judah Folkman, American physician and biologist (d. 2008)
  • 1933 – Ali Mazrui, Kenyan-American political scientist, philosopher, and academic (d. 2014)
  • 1933 – David “Fathead” Newman, American saxophonist and composer (d. 2009)
  • 1934 – Bettino Craxi, Italian lawyer and politician, 45th Prime Minister of Italy (d. 2000)
  • 1934 – Johnny Hills, English footballer, full-back
  • 1934 – Renata Scotto, Italian soprano
  • 1935 – Ryhor Baradulin, Belarusian poet, essayist, and translator (d. 2014)
  • 1936 – Guillermo O’Donnell, Argentine political scientist (d. 2011)
  • 1938 – James Farentino, American actor (d. 2012)
  • 1938 – Phil Knight, American businessman and philanthropist, co-founded Nike, Inc.
  • 1939 – Jamal Nazrul Islam, Bangladeshi physicist and cosmologist (d. 2013)
  • 1940 – Pete Duel, American actor (d. 1971)
  • 1940 – Jimmy Ellis, American boxer (d. 2014)
  • 1940 – Denis Law, Scottish footballer and sportscaster
  • 1941 – Joanie Sommers, American singer and actress
  • 1942 – Colin Bond, Australian race car driver
  • 1942 – Paul Jones, English singer, harmonica player, and actor
  • 1942 – Joe Lieberman, American lawyer and politician
  • 1942 – Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Indian philosopher, theorist, and academic
  • 1943 – Kent Haruf, American novelist (d. 2014)
  • 1943 – Gigi Meroni, Italian footballer (d. 1967)
  • 1943 – Pablo Milanés, Cuban singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1943 – Terry Semel, American businessman
  • 1944 – Nicky Hopkins, English keyboard player (d. 1994)
  • 1944 – Ivica Račan, Croatian lawyer and politician, 7th Prime Minister of Croatia (d. 2007)
  • 1945 – Barry Bostwick, American actor and singer
  • 1946 – Grigory Margulis, Russian mathematician and academic
  • 1947 – Mike Fratello, American basketball player, coach, and sportscaster
  • 1947 – Rupert Holmes, English-American singer-songwriter and playwright
  • 1947 – Edward James Olmos, American actor and director
  • 1948 – Jayalalithaa, Indian actress and politician, 16th Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu (d. 2016)
  • 1948 – Walter Smith, Scottish footballer and manager
  • 1948 – Tim Staffell, English singer and guitarist
  • 1948 – Dennis Waterman, English actor
  • 1950 – Steve McCurry, American photographer and journalist
  • 1951 – David Ford, Northern Irish social worker and politician
  • 1951 – Derek Randall, English cricketer
  • 1951 – Debra Jo Rupp, American actress
  • 1951 – Helen Shaver, Canadian actress and director
  • 1951 – Laimdota Straujuma, Latvian economist and politician, 12th Prime Minister of Latvia
  • 1953 – Anatoli Kozhemyakin, Soviet footballer (d. 1974)
  • 1954 – Plastic Bertrand, Belgian singer-songwriter and producer
  • 1954 – Judith Ortiz Cofer, Puerto Rican American award-winning author (d. 2016)
  • 1954 – Aurora Levins Morales, Puerto Rican Jewish writer and activist
  • 1954 – Sid Meier, Canadian-American game designer and programmer, created the Civilization series
  • 1954 – Mike Pickering, English DJ and saxophonist
  • 1955 – Steve Jobs, American businessman, co-founded Apple Inc. and Pixar (d. 2011)
  • 1955 – Eddie Johnson, American basketball player
  • 1955 – Alain Prost, French race car driver
  • 1956 – Judith Butler, American philosopher, theorist, and author
  • 1956 – Eddie Murray, American baseball player and coach
  • 1956 – Paula Zahn, American journalist and producer
  • 1958 – Sammy Kershaw, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1958 – Mark Moses, American actor
  • 1959 – Beth Broderick, American actress and director
  • 1959 – Mike Whitney, Australian cricketer and television host
  • 1963 – Prince Carlo, Duke of Castro
  • 1963 – Mike Vernon, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1963 – Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Gujarati family, most versatile filmmaker of Hindi cinema.
  • 1964 – Russell Ingall, British-Australian race car driver and sportscaster
  • 1965 – Paul Gruber, American football player
  • 1965 – Jane Swift, American businesswoman and politician, Governor of Massachusetts
  • 1966 – Billy Zane, American actor and producer
  • 1967 – Brian Schmidt, Australian astrophysicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
  • 1968 – Mitch Hedberg, American comedian and actor (d. 2005)
  • 1969 – Kim Seung-woo, South Korean actor
  • 1970 – Jeff Garcia, American football player and coach
  • 1970 – Neil Sullivan, English born Scottish international footballer, goalkeeper and coach
  • 1970 – Jonathan Ward, American actor
  • 1971 – Josh Bernstein, American anthropologist, explorer, and author
  • 1971 – Pedro de la Rosa, Spanish race car driver
  • 1971 – Brian Savage, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
  • 1972 – Teodor Currentzis, Greek conductor and composer
  • 1972 – Manon Rhéaume, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
  • 1973 – Stubby Clapp, Canadian baseball player and coach
  • 1973 – Chris Fehn, American drummer
  • 1973 – Alexei Kovalev, Russian ice hockey player and pilot
  • 1974 – Chad Hugo, American keyboard player, songwriter, and producer
  • 1974 – Mike Lowell, American baseball player and sportscaster
  • 1974 – Bonnie Somerville, American actress
  • 1975 – Ashley MacIsaac, Canadian singer-songwriter and fiddler
  • 1976 – Crista Flanagan, American actress and screenwriter
  • 1976 – Zach Johnson, American golfer
  • 1976 – Bradley McGee, Australian cyclist and coach
  • 1976 – Matt Skiba, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1976 – Marco Campos, Brazilian Formula 3000 race car driver (d. 1995)
  • 1977 – Jason Akermanis, Australian footballer and coach
  • 1977 – Bronson Arroyo, American baseball player and singer
  • 1977 – Floyd Mayweather, Jr., American boxer
  • 1978 – Gary, South Korean rapper and producer
  • 1978 – Shinya, Japanese drummer and songwriter
  • 1978 – John Nolan, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1978 – DeWayne Wise, American baseball player
  • 1978 – Leon Constantine, English footballer
  • 1980 – Shinsuke Nakamura, Japanese wrestler and mixed martial artist
  • 1981 – Felipe Baloy, Panamanian footballer
  • 1981 – Lleyton Hewitt, Australian tennis player
  • 1981 – Mauro Rosales, Argentinian footballer
  • 1981 – Mohammad Sami, Pakistani cricketer
  • 1982 – Nick Blackburn, American baseball player
  • 1982 – Emanuel Villa, Argentinian footballer
  • 1982 – Klára Koukalová, Czech tennis player
  • 1982 – Fala Chen, Chinese actress and singer
  • 1984 – Corey Graves, American wrestler and sportscaster
  • 1985 – Nakash Aziz, Indian playback singer and music composer
  • 1987 – Kim Kyu-jong, South Korean singer, dancer, and actor
  • 1988 – Mathieu Baudry, French footballer
  • 1989 – Trace Cyrus, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1991 – Madison Hubbell, American ice dancer
  • 1991 – Semih Kaya, Turkish footballer
  • 1996 – Royce Freeman, American football player

Deaths on February 24

  • 616 – Æthelberht of Kent (b. 560)
  • 951 – Liu Yun, Chinese governor (jiedushi)
  • 1018 – Borrell, bishop of Vic
  • 1114 – Thomas, archbishop of York
  • 1386 – Charles III of Naples (b. 1345)
  • 1496 – Eberhard I, Duke of Württemberg (b. 1445)
  • 1525 – Jacques de La Palice, French nobleman and military officer (b. 1470)
  • 1525 – Guillaume Gouffier, seigneur de Bonnivet, French soldier (b. c. 1488)
  • 1525 – Richard de la Pole, last Yorkist claimant to the English throne (b. 1480)
  • 1563 – Francis, Duke of Guise (b. 1519)
  • 1580 – Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel, English nobleman (b. 1511)
  • 1588 – Johann Weyer, Dutch physician and occultist (b. 1515)
  • 1666 – Nicholas Lanier, English composer and painter (b. 1588)
  • 1685 – Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Carlisle, English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Cumberland (b. 1629)
  • 1704 – Marc-Antoine Charpentier, French composer (b. 1643)
  • 1714 – Edmund Andros, English courtier and politician, 4th Colonial Governor of New York (b. 1637)
  • 1721 – John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby, English poet and politician, Lord President of the Council (b. 1648)
  • 1732 – Francis Charteris, Scottish soldier (b. 1675)
  • 1777 – Joseph I of Portugal (b. 1714)
  • 1785 – Carlo Buonaparte, Corsican lawyer and politician (b. 1746)
  • 1799 – Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, German physicist and academic (b. 1742)
  • 1810 – Henry Cavendish, French-English physicist and chemist (b. 1731)
  • 1812 – Étienne-Louis Malus, French physicist and mathematician (b. 1775)
  • 1815 – Robert Fulton, American engineer (b. 1765)
  • 1825 – Thomas Bowdler, English physician and philanthropist (b. 1754)
  • 1856 – Nikolai Lobachevsky, Russian mathematician and academic (b. 1792)
  • 1876 – Joseph Jenkins Roberts, American-Liberian politician, 1st President of Liberia (b. 1809)
  • 1879 – Shiranui Kōemon, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 11th Yokozuna (b. 1825)
  • 1910 – Osman Hamdi Bey, Greek archaeologist and painter (b. 1842)
  • 1914 – Joshua Chamberlain, American general and politician, 32nd Governor of Maine (b. 1828)
  • 1925 – Hjalmar Branting, Swedish journalist and politician, 16th Prime Minister of Sweden, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1860)
  • 1927 – Edward Marshall Hall, English lawyer and politician (b. 1858)
  • 1929 – André Messager, French pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1853)
  • 1930 – Hermann von Ihering, German-Brazilian zoologist (b. 1850)
  • 1953 – Robert La Follette Jr., American politician, senator of Wisconsin (b. 1895)
  • 1953 – Gerd von Rundstedt, German field marshal (b. 1875)
  • 1967 – Mir Osman Ali Khan, Last Nizam of Hyderabad State (b. 1886)
  • 1970 – Conrad Nagel, American actor (b. 1897)
  • 1974 – Margaret Leech, American historian and author (b. 1895)
  • 1975 – Hans Bellmer, German artist (b. 1902)
  • 1975 – Nikolai Bulganin, Russian marshal and politician, 6th Premier of the Soviet Union (b. 1895)
  • 1978 – Alma Thomas, American painter and educator (b.1891)
  • 1982 – Virginia Bruce, American actress (b. 1910)
  • 1986 – Rukmini Devi Arundale, Indian Bharatnatyam dancer (b. 1904)
  • 1986 – Tommy Douglas, Scottish-Canadian minister and politician, 7th Premier of Saskatchewan (b. 1904)
  • 1990 – Tony Conigliaro, American baseball player (b. 1945)
  • 1990 – Malcolm Forbes, American sergeant and publisher (b. 1917)
  • 1990 – Sandro Pertini, Italian journalist and politician, 7th President of Italy (b. 1896)
  • 1990 – Johnnie Ray, American singer-songwriter and pianist (b. 1927)
  • 1991 – John Daly, American journalist and game show host (b. 1914)
  • 1991 – George Gobel, American actor (b. 1919)
  • 1991 – Webb Pierce, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1921)
  • 1993 – Danny Gallivan, Canadian sportscaster (b. 1917)
  • 1993 – Bobby Moore, English footballer and manager (b. 1941)
  • 1994 – Jean Sablon, French singer and actor (b. 1906)
  • 1994 – Dinah Shore, American actress and singer (b. 1916)
  • 1998 – Antonio Prohías, Cuban-American cartoonist (b. 1921)
  • 1998 – Henny Youngman, English-American comedian and violinist (b. 1906)
  • 1999 – Andre Dubus, American short story writer, essayist, and memoirist (b. 1936)
  • 2001 – Theodore Marier, American composer and educator, founded the Boston Archdiocesan Choir School (b. 1912)
  • 2001 – Claude Shannon, American mathematician, cryptographer, and engineer (b. 1916)
  • 2002 – Leo Ornstein, Ukrainian-American pianist and composer (b. 1893)
  • 2004 – John Randolph, American actor (b. 1915)
  • 2005 – Coşkun Kırca, Turkish diplomat, journalist and politician (b. 1927)
  • 2006 – Octavia E. Butler, American author and educator (b. 1947)
  • 2006 – Don Knotts, American actor and comedian (b. 1924)
  • 2006 – John Martin, Canadian broadcaster, co-founded MuchMusic (b. 1947)
  • 2006 – Dennis Weaver, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1924)
  • 2007 – Bruce Bennett, American shot putter and actor (b. 1906)
  • 2007 – Damien Nash, American football player (b. 1982)
  • 2008 – Larry Norman, American singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1947)
  • 2010 – Dawn Brancheau, senior animal trainer at SeaWorld (b. 1969)
  • 2011 – Anant Pai, Indian author and illustrator (b. 1929)
  • 2012 – Agnes Allen, American baseball player and therapist (b. 1930)
  • 2012 – Oliver Wrong, English nephrologist and academic (b. 1925)
  • 2013 – Virgil Johnson, American singer (b. 1935)
  • 2013 – Con Martin, Irish footballer and manager (b. 1923)
  • 2014 – Franny Beecher, American guitarist (b. 1921)
  • 2014 – Alexis Hunter, New Zealand-English painter and photographer (b. 1948)
  • 2014 – Carlos Páez Vilaró, Uruguayan painter and sculptor (b. 1923)
  • 2014 – Harold Ramis, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1944)
  • 2015 – Mefodiy, Ukrainian metropolitan (b. 1949)
  • 2015 – Rakhat Aliyev, Kazakh politician and diplomat (b. 1962)
  • 2016 – Peter Kenilorea, Solomon Islands politician, 1st Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands (b. 1943)
  • 2016 – Nabil Maleh, Syrian director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1936)
  • 2016 – George C. Nichopoulos, American soldier and physician (b. 1927)
  • 2018 – Sridevi, Indian actress (b. 1963)
  • 2020 – Katherine Johnson, American physicist and mathematician (b. 1918)

Holidays and observances on February 24

  • Christian feast day:
    • Blessed Ascensión Nicol y Goñi
    • Lindel Tsen and Paul Sasaki (Anglican Church of Canada)
    • Modest (bishop of Trier)
    • Sergius of Cappadocia
    • February 24 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Dragobete (Romania)
  • Engineer’s Day (Iran)
  • Flag Day in Mexico
  • Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Estonia from the Russian Empire in 1918; the Soviet period is considered to have been an illegal annexation.
  • National Artist Day (Thailand)

February 23 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

by
  • 303 – Roman emperor Diocletian orders the destruction of the Christian church in Nicomedia, beginning eight years of Diocletianic Persecution.
  • 532 – Byzantine emperor Justinian I orders the building of a new Orthodox Christian basilica in Constantinople – the Hagia Sophia.
  • 1455 – Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed with movable type.
  • 1554 – Mapuche forces, under the leadership of Lautaro, score a victory over the Spanish at the Battle of Marihueñu in Chile.
  • 1653 – The Ballet Royal de la Nuit is first performed at the Salle du Petit-Bourbon in Paris
  • 1739 – At York Castle, the outlaw Dick Turpin is identified by his former schoolteacher. Turpin had been using the name Richard Palmer.
  • 1778 – American Revolutionary War: Baron von Steuben arrives at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania to help to train the Continental Army.
  • 1820 – Cato Street Conspiracy: A plot to murder all the British cabinet ministers is exposed.
  • 1836 – Texas Revolution: The Siege of the Alamo (prelude to the Battle of the Alamo) begins in San Antonio, Texas.
  • 1847 – Mexican–American War: Battle of Buena Vista: In Mexico, American troops under future president General Zachary Taylor defeat Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna.
  • 1854 – The official independence of the Orange Free State is declared.
  • 1861 – President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington, D.C., after the thwarting of an alleged assassination plot in Baltimore, Maryland.
  • 1870 – Reconstruction Era: Post-U.S. Civil War military control of Mississippi ends and it is readmitted to the Union.
  • 1883 – Alabama becomes the first U.S. state to enact an anti-trust law.
  • 1885 – Sino-French War: French Army gains an important victory in the Battle of Đồng Đăng in the Tonkin region of Vietnam.
  • 1886 – Charles Martin Hall produced the first samples of aluminium from the electrolysis of aluminium oxide, after several years of intensive work. He was assisted in this project by his older sister, Julia Brainerd Hall.
  • 1887 – The French Riviera is hit by a large earthquake, killing around 2,000.
  • 1898 – Émile Zola is imprisoned in France after writing J’Accuse…!, a letter accusing the French government of antisemitism and wrongfully imprisoning Captain Alfred Dreyfus.
  • 1900 – Second Boer War: During the Battle of the Tugela Heights, the first British attempt to take Hart’s Hill fails.
  • 1903 – Cuba leases Guantánamo Bay to the United States “in perpetuity”.
  • 1905 – Chicago attorney Paul Harris and three other businessmen meet for lunch to form the Rotary Club, the world’s first service club.
  • 1909 – The AEA Silver Dart makes the first powered flight in Canada and the British Empire.
  • 1917 – First demonstrations in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The beginning of the February Revolution (March 8 in the Gregorian calendar).
  • 1927 – U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs a bill by Congress establishing the Federal Radio Commission (later replaced by the Federal Communications Commission) which was to regulate the use of radio frequencies in the United States.
  • 1927 – German theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg writes a letter to fellow physicist Wolfgang Pauli, in which he describes his uncertainty principle for the first time.
  • 1934 – Leopold III becomes King of Belgium.
  • 1941 – Plutonium is first produced and isolated by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg.
  • 1942 – World War II: Japanese submarines fire artillery shells at the coastline near Santa Barbara, California.
  • 1943 – A fire breaks out at Saint Joseph’s Orphanage, County Cavan, Ireland, killing 35 children and one adult.
  • 1943 – Greek Resistance: The United Panhellenic Organization of Youth is founded in Greece.
  • 1944 – The Soviet Union begins the forced deportation of the Chechen and Ingush people from the North Caucasus to Central Asia.
  • 1945 – World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, a group of United States Marines reach the top of Mount Suribachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag.
  • 1945 – World War II: The 11th Airborne Division, with Filipino guerrillas, free all 2,147 captives of the Los Baños internment camp, in what General Colin Powell later would refer to as “the textbook airborne operation for all ages and all armies.”
  • 1945 – World War II: The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by combined Filipino and American forces.
  • 1945 – World War II: Capitulation of German garrison in Poznań. The city is liberated by Soviet and Polish forces.
  • 1945 – World War II: The German town of Pforzheim is annihilated in a raid by 379 British bombers.
  • 1947 – International Organization for Standardization is founded.
  • 1954 – The first mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine begins in Pittsburgh.
  • 1966 – In Syria, Ba’ath Party member Salah Jadid leads an intra-party military coup that replaces the previous government of General Amin al-Hafiz, also a Baathist.
  • 1974 – The Symbionese Liberation Army demands $4 million more to release kidnap victim Patty Hearst.
  • 1980 – Iran hostage crisis: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini states that Iran’s parliament will decide the fate of the American embassy hostages.
  • 1981 – In Spain, Antonio Tejero attempts a coup d’état by capturing the Spanish Congress of Deputies.
  • 1983 – The United States Environmental Protection Agency announces its intent to buy out and evacuate the dioxin-contaminated community of Times Beach, Missouri.
  • 1987 – Supernova 1987a is seen in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
  • 1991 – In Thailand, General Sunthorn Kongsompong leads a bloodless coup d’état, deposing Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan.
  • 1998 – In the United States, tornadoes in central Florida destroy or damage 2,600 structures and kill 42 people.
  • 1999 – Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan is charged with treason in Ankara, Turkey.
  • 2007 – A train derails on an evening express service near Grayrigg, Cumbria, England, killing one person and injuring 88. This results in hundreds of points being checked over the UK after a few similar accidents.
  • 2008 – A United States Air Force B-2 Spirit bomber crashes on Guam, marking the first operational loss of a B-2.
  • 2010 – Unknown criminals pour more than 2​1⁄2 million liters of diesel oil and other hydrocarbons into the river Lambro, in northern Italy, sparking an environmental disaster.
  • 2012 – A series of attacks across Iraq leave at least 83 killed and more than 250 injured.
  • 2017 – The Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army captures Al-Bab from ISIL.
  • 2019 – Atlas Air Flight 3591, a Boeing 767 freighter, crashes into Trinity Bay near Anahuac, Texas, killing all three people on board.

Births on February 23

  • 1417 – Pope Paul II (d. 1471)
  • 1417 – Louis IX, Duke of Bavaria (d. 1479)
  • 1443 – Matthias Corvinus, Hungarian king (d. 1490)
  • 1529 – Onofrio Panvinio, Italian historian (d. 1568)
  • 1539 – Henry XI of Legnica, thrice Duke of Legnica (d. 1588)
  • 1539 – Salima Sultan Begum, Empress of the Mughal Empire (d. 1612)
  • 1583 – Jean-Baptiste Morin, French mathematician, astrologer, and astronomer (d. 1656)
  • 1592 – Balthazar Gerbier, Dutch painter (d. 1663)
  • 1633 – Samuel Pepys, English diarist and politician (d. 1703)
  • 1646 – Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, Japanese shōgun (d. 1709)
  • 1680 – Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, Canadian politician, 2nd Colonial Governor of Louisiana (d. 1767)
  • 1685 – George Frideric Handel, German-English organist and composer (d. 1759)
  • 1723 – Richard Price, Welsh-English minister and philosopher (d. 1791)
  • 1744 – Mayer Amschel Rothschild, German banker and businessman (d. 1812)
  • 1792 – José Joaquín de Herrera, Mexican politician and general. President three times (1844–1854) (d. 1854)
  • 1831 – Hendrik Willem Mesdag, Dutch painter (d. 1915)
  • 1840 – Carl Menger, Austrian economist and educator (d. 1921)
  • 1842 – Karl Robert Eduard von Hartmann, German philosopher and author (d. 1906)
  • 1850 – César Ritz, Swiss businessman, founded The Ritz Hotel, London and Hôtel Ritz Paris (d. 1918)
  • 1868 – W. E. B. Du Bois, American sociologist, historian, and activist (d. 1963)
  • 1868 – Anna Hofman-Uddgren, Swedish actress, singer, and director (d. 1947)
  • 1873 – Liang Qichao, Chinese journalist, philosopher, and scholar (d. 1929)
  • 1874 – Konstantin Päts, Estonian lawyer and politician, 1st President of Estonia (d. 1956)
  • 1878 – Kazimir Malevich, Ukrainian painter and theorist (d. 1935)
  • 1883 – Karl Jaspers, German-Swiss psychiatrist and philosopher (d. 1969)
  • 1883 – Guy C. Wiggins, American painter (d. 1962)
  • 1889 – Musidora, French actress and director (d. 1957)
  • 1889 – Cyril Delevanti, English-American actor (d. 1975)
  • 1889 – Victor Fleming, American director, cinematographer, and producer (d. 1949)
  • 1889 – John Gilbert Winant, American captain, pilot, and politician, 60th Governor of New Hampshire (d. 1947)
  • 1892 – Kathleen Harrison, English actress (d. 1995)
  • 1892 – Agnes Smedley, American journalist and writer (d. 1950)
  • 1894 – Harold Horder, Australian rugby league player and coach (d. 1978)
  • 1899 – Erich Kästner, German author and poet (d. 1974)
  • 1899 – Norman Taurog, American director and screenwriter (d. 1981)
  • 1904 – Terence Fisher, English director and screenwriter (d. 1980)
  • 1904 – William L. Shirer, American journalist and historian (d. 1993)
  • 1908 – William McMahon, Australian lawyer and politician, 20th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1988)
  • 1915 – Jon Hall, American actor and director (d. 1979)
  • 1915 – Paul Tibbets, American general and pilot (d. 2007)
  • 1919 – Johnny Carey, Irish footballer and manager (d. 1995)
  • 1920 – Paul Gérin-Lajoie, Canadian lawyer and politician (d. 2018)
  • 1923 – Rafael Addiego Bruno, Uruguayan jurist and politician, President of Uruguay (d. 2014)
  • 1923 – Harry Clarke, English international footballer, defender (d. 2000)
  • 1923 – Ioannis Grivas, Greek judge and politician, 176th Prime Minister of Greece (d. 2016)
  • 1923 – Dante Lavelli, American football player (d. 2009)
  • 1923 – Clarence D. Lester, African-American fighter pilot (d.1986)
  • 1923 – Mary Francis Shura, American author (d. 1991)
  • 1924 – Allan McLeod Cormack, South-African-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
  • 1925 – Louis Stokes, American lawyer and politician (d. 2015)
  • 1927 – Régine Crespin, French soprano and actress (d. 2007)
  • 1928 – Hans Herrmann, German race car driver
  • 1928 – Vasily Lazarev, Russian colonel, physician, and astronaut (d. 1990)
  • 1929 – Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow (d. 2008)
  • 1929 – Elston Howard, American baseball player and coach (d. 1980)
  • 1930 – Paul West, English-American author, poet, and academic (d. 2015)
  • 1931 – Tom Wesselmann, American painter and sculptor (d. 2004)
  • 1932 – Majel Barrett, American actress and producer (d. 2008)
  • 1937 – Tom Osborne, American football player, coach, and politician
  • 1938 – Sylvia Chase, American broadcast journalist (d. 2019)
  • 1938 – Paul Morrissey, American director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1938 – Diane Varsi, American actress (d. 1992)
  • 1940 – Peter Fonda, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2019)
  • 1940 – Jackie Smith, American football player
  • 1941 – Ron Hunt, American baseball player
  • 1943 – Fred Biletnikoff, American football player and coach
  • 1943 – Bobby Mitchell, American golfer (d. 2018)
  • 1944 – Bernard Cornwell, English author and educator
  • 1944 – Florian Fricke, German keyboard player and composer (d. 2001)
  • 1944 – Johnny Winter, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 2014)
  • 1945 – Allan Boesak, South African cleric and politician
  • 1946 – Rusty Young, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1947 – Pia Kjærsgaard, Danish politician, Speaker of the Danish Parliament
  • 1947 – Anton Mosimann, Swiss chef and author
  • 1948 – Bill Alexander, English director and producer
  • 1948 – Trevor Cherry, English footballer (d. 2020)
  • 1948 – Steve Priest, English singer-songwriter and bass player
  • 1949 – César Aira, Argentinian author and translator
  • 1949 – Marc Garneau, Canadian engineer, astronaut, and politician
  • 1950 – Rebecca Goldstein, American philosopher and author
  • 1951 – Eddie Dibbs, American tennis player
  • 1951 – Debbie Friedman, American singer-songwriter of Jewish melodies (d. 2011)
  • 1951 – Ed “Too Tall” Jones, American football player and boxer
  • 1951 – Patricia Richardson, American actress
  • 1952 – Brad Whitford, American guitarist and songwriter
  • 1953 – Kenny Bee, Hong Kong singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
  • 1953 – Satoru Nakajima, Japanese race car driver
  • 1954 – Rajini Thiranagama, Sri Lankan physician and academic (d. 1989)
  • 1954 – Viktor Yushchenko, Ukrainian captain and politician, 3rd President of Ukraine
  • 1955 – Howard Jones, English singer-songwriter
  • 1955 – Flip Saunders, American basketball player and coach (d. 2015)
  • 1956 – Sandra Osborne, Scottish politician
  • 1958 – David Sylvian, English singer-songwriter
  • 1959 – Clayton Anderson, American engineer and astronaut
  • 1959 – Nick de Bois, English politician
  • 1959 – Ian Liddell-Grainger, Scottish soldier and politician
  • 1959 – Linda Nolan, Irish singer and actress
  • 1960 – Naruhito, Emperor of Japan
  • 1962 – Michael Wilton, American guitarist
  • 1963 – Bobby Bonilla, American baseball player
  • 1963 – Radosław Sikorski, Polish journalist and politician, 11th Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland
  • 1964 – John Norum, Norwegian guitarist and songwriter
  • 1965 – Michael Dell, American businessman
  • 1965 – Helena Suková, Czech-Monacan tennis player
  • 1967 – Steve Stricker, American golfer
  • 1967 – Chris Vrenna, American drummer, songwriter, and producer
  • 1969 – Michael Campbell, New Zealand golfer
  • 1969 – Martine Croxall, English journalist and television news presenter
  • 1969 – Daymond John, American fashion designer and businessman, founded FUBU
  • 1970 – Niecy Nash, American actress and producer
  • 1971 – Carin Koch, Swedish golfer
  • 1971 – Melinda Messenger, English model and television host
  • 1971 – Joe-Max Moore, American soccer player
  • 1972 – Alessandro Sturba, Italian footballer
  • 1972 – Rondell White, American baseball player
  • 1973 – Jeff Nordgaard, American-Polish basketball player
  • 1974 – Herschelle Gibbs, South African cricketer
  • 1974 – Robbi Kempson, South African rugby player
  • 1975 – Michael Cornacchia, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1975 – Ryan McCourt, Canadian artist
  • 1976 – Scott Elarton, American baseball player and coach
  • 1976 – Kelly Macdonald, Scottish actress
  • 1976 – Jeff O’Neill, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
  • 1977 – Kristina Šmigun-Vähi, Estonian skier
  • 1978 – Residente, Puerto Rican-American singer-songwriter
  • 1978 – Dan Snyder, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2003)
  • 1979 – S. E. Cupp, American journalist and author
  • 1981 – Gareth Barry, English footballer
  • 1981 – Josh Gad, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1981 – Charles Tillman, American football player
  • 1982 – Adam Hann-Byrd, American actor and screenwriter
  • 1983 – Mido, Egyptian footballer, striker, manager and sportscaster
  • 1983 – Aziz Ansari, American comedian, actor, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1983 – Emily Blunt, English actress
  • 1986 – Emerson Conceição, Brazilian footballer
  • 1986 – Skylar Grey, American singer-songwriter
  • 1986 – Kazuya Kamenashi, Japanese singer-songwriter and actor
  • 1986 – Jerod Mayo, American football player
  • 1986 – Ola Svensson, Swedish singer-songwriter
  • 1987 – Ab-Soul, American rapper
  • 1987 – Theophilus London, Trinidadian-American singer-songwriter and producer
  • 1987 – Zak Kirkup, Member of the Parliament of Western Australia
  • 1988 – Nicolás Gaitán, Argentinian footballer
  • 1989 – Evan Bates, American ice dancer
  • 1989 – Jérémy Pied, French footballer
  • 1990 – Kevin Connauton, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1990 – Terry Hawkridge, English footballer
  • 1990 – Marco Scandella, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1992 – Casemiro, Brazilian footballer
  • 1992 – Kyriakos Papadopoulos, Greek footballer
  • 1993 – Chris Grevsmuhl, Australian rugby league player
  • 1994 – Dakota Fanning, American actress
  • 1995 – Andrew Wiggins, Canadian basketball player
  • 1996 – D’Angelo Russell, American basketball player
  • 1997 – Jamal Murray, Canadian basketball player

Deaths on February 23

  • 715 – Al-Walid I, Umayyad caliph (b. 668)
  • 908 – Li Keyong, Shatuo military governor during the Tang Dynasty in China (b. 856)
  • 943 – Herbert II, Count of Vermandois, (b. 884)
  • 943 – David I, prince of Tao-Klarjeti (Georgia)
  • 1011 – Willigis, German archbishop (b. 940)
  • 1100 – Emperor Zhezong of Song (b. 1076)
  • 1270 – Isabel of France (b. 1225)
  • 1447 – Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (b. 1390)
  • 1447 – Pope Eugene IV (b. 1383)
  • 1464 – Emperor Yingzong of Ming (b. 1427)
  • 1473 – Arnold, Duke of Gelderland (b. 1410)
  • 1526 – Diego Colón, Spanish Viceroy of the Indies (b. c. 1479)
  • 1554 – Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, English politician, Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire (b. 1515)
  • 1603 – Andrea Cesalpino, Italian philosopher, physician, and botanist (b. 1519)
  • 1603 – Franciscus Vieta, French mathematician (b. 1540)
  • 1620 – Nicholas Fuller, English politician (b. 1543)
  • 1704 – Georg Muffat, French organist and composer (b. 1653)
  • 1766 – Stanisław Leszczyński, Polish king (b. 1677)
  • 1781 – George Taylor, Irish-American blacksmith and politician (b. 1716)
  • 1792 – Joshua Reynolds, English painter and academic (b. 1723)
  • 1821 – John Keats, English poet (b. 1795)
  • 1848 – John Quincy Adams, American politician, 6th President of the United States (b. 1767)
  • 1855 – Carl Friedrich Gauss, German mathematician, astronomer, and physicist (b. 1777)
  • 1859 – Zygmunt Krasiński, Polish poet and playwright (b. 1812)
  • 1879 – Albrecht von Roon, Prussian soldier and politician, 10th Minister President of Prussia (b. 1803)
  • 1897 – Woldemar Bargiel, German composer and educator (b. 1828)
  • 1900 – Ernest Dowson, English poet, novelist, and short story writer (b. 1867)
  • 1908 – Friedrich von Esmarch, German surgeon and academic (b. 1823)
  • 1918 – Adolphus Frederick VI, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (b. 1882)
  • 1930 – Horst Wessel, German SA officer (b. 1907)
  • 1931 – Nellie Melba, Australian soprano and actress (b. 1861)
  • 1934 – Edward Elgar, English composer and academic (b. 1857)
  • 1944 – Leo Baekeland, Belgian-American chemist and engineer (b. 1863)
  • 1946 – Tomoyuki Yamashita, Japanese general (b. 1885)
  • 1948 – John Robert Gregg, Irish-American publisher and educator (b. 1866)
  • 1955 – Paul Claudel, French poet and playwright (b. 1868)
  • 1965 – Stan Laurel, English actor and comedian (b. 1890)
  • 1969 – Madhubala, Indian actress and producer (b. 1933)
  • 1969 – Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, 2nd King of Saudi Arabia (b. 1902)
  • 1973 – Dickinson W. Richards, American physician and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1895)
  • 1974 – Harry Ruby, American composer and screenwriter (b. 1895)
  • 1976 – L. S. Lowry, English painter (b. 1887)
  • 1979 – W. A. C. Bennett, Canadian businessman and politician, 25th Premier of British Columbia (b. 1900)
  • 1983 – Herbert Howells, English organist and composer (b. 1892)
  • 1990 – José Napoleón Duarte, Salvadoran engineer and politician, President of El Salvador (b. 1925)
  • 1995 – James Herriot, English veterinarian and author (b. 1916)
  • 1997 – Tony Williams, American drummer, composer, and producer (b. 1945)
  • 1998 – Philip Abbott, American actor and director (b. 1924)
  • 1999 – The Renegade, American wrestler (b. 1965)
  • 2000 – Ofra Haza, Israeli singer-songwriter and actress (b. 1957)
  • 2000 – Stanley Matthews, English footballer and manager (b. 1915)
  • 2003 – Howie Epstein, American bass player, songwriter, and producer (b. 1955)
  • 2003 – Robert K. Merton, American sociologist and academic (b. 1910)
  • 2004 – Vijay Anand, Indian director, producer, screenwriter, and actor (b. 1934)
  • 2004 – Sikander Bakht, Indian politician, Indian Minister of External Affairs (b. 1918)
  • 2006 – Telmo Zarra, Spanish footballer (b. 1921)
  • 2007 – John Ritchie, English footballer (b. 1941)
  • 2008 – Janez Drnovšek, Slovenian economist and politician, 2nd President of Slovenia (b. 1950)
  • 2008 – Paul Frère, Belgian race car driver and journalist (b. 1917)
  • 2010 – Orlando Zapata, Cuban plumber and activist (b. 1967)
  • 2011 – Nirmala Srivastava, Indian religious leader, founded Sahaja Yoga (b. 1923)
  • 2012 – William Raggio, American lawyer and politician (b. 1926)
  • 2012 – David Sayre, American physicist and mathematician (b. 1924)
  • 2012 – Kazimierz Żygulski, Polish sociologist and activist (b. 1919)
  • 2013 – Eugene Bookhammer, American soldier and politician, 18th Lieutenant Governor of Delaware (b. 1918)
  • 2013 – Joseph Friedenson, Holocaust survivor, Holocaust historian, Yiddish writer, lecturer and editor (b. 1922)
  • 2013 – Julien Ries, Belgian cardinal (b. 1920)
  • 2013 – Lotika Sarkar, Indian lawyer and academic (b. 1945)
  • 2014 – Alice Herz-Sommer, Czech-English Holocaust survivor, pianist and educator (b. 1903)
  • 2014 – Roger Hilsman, American soldier, academic, and politician (b. 1919)
  • 2015 – James Aldridge, Australian-English journalist and author (b. 1918)
  • 2015 – Rana Bhagwandas, Pakistani lawyer and judge, Chief Justice of Pakistan (b. 1942)
  • 2015 – W. E. “Bill” Dykes, American soldier and politician (b. 1925)
  • 2016 – Peter Lustig, German television host and author (b. 1937)
  • 2016 – Jacqueline Mattson, American baseball player (b. 1928)
  • 2019 – Katherine Helmond, American actress (b. 1929)

Holidays and observances on February 23

  • Christian feast day:
    • Polycarp of Smyrna
    • Serenus the Gardener
    • February 23 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • The Emperor’s Birthday, birthday of Naruhito, the current Emperor of Japan (Japan)
  • Mashramani-Republic Day (Guyana)
  • Meteņi (Latvia)
  • National Day (Brunei)
  • Red Army Day or Day of Soviet Army and Navy in the former Soviet Union, also held in various former Soviet republics:
    • Defender of the Fatherland Day (Russia)
    • Defender of the Fatherland and Armed Forces day (Belarus)
    • Armed Forces Day (Tajikistan) (Tajikistan)

February 21 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

by
  • 1245 – Thomas, the first known Bishop of Finland, is granted resignation after confessing to torture and forgery.
  • 1440 – The Prussian Confederation is formed.
  • 1613 – Mikhail I is unanimously elected Tsar by a national assembly, beginning the Romanov dynasty of Imperial Russia.
  • 1797 – A force of 1,400 French soldiers invaded Britain at Fishguard in support of the Society of United Irishmen. They were defeated by 500 British reservists.
  • 1804 – The first self-propelling steam locomotive makes its outing at the Pen-y-Darren Ironworks in Wales.
  • 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.
  • 1828 – Initial issue of the Cherokee Phoenix is the first periodical to use the Cherokee syllabary invented by Sequoyah.
  • 1842 – John Greenough is granted the first U.S. patent for the sewing machine.
  • 1848 – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto.
  • 1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Valverde is fought near Fort Craig in New Mexico Territory.
  • 1866 – Lucy Hobbs Taylor becomes the first American woman to graduate from dental school.
  • 1874 – The Oakland Daily Tribune publishes its first edition.
  • 1878 – The first telephone directory is issued in New Haven, Connecticut.
  • 1885 – The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated.
  • 1896 – An Englishman raised in Australia, Bob Fitzsimmons, fought an Irishman, Peter Maher, in an American promoted event which technically took place in Mexico, winning the 1896 World Heavyweight Championship in boxing.
  • 1913 – Ioannina is incorporated into the Greek state after the Balkan Wars.
  • 1916 – World War I: In France, the Battle of Verdun begins.
  • 1918 – The last Carolina parakeet dies in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo.
  • 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.
  • 1921 – Constituent Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Georgia adopts the country’s first constitution.
  • 1921 – Rezā Shāh takes control of Tehran during a successful coup.
  • 1925 – The New Yorker publishes its first issue.
  • 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.1934 – Augusto Sandino is executed.
  • 1937 – The League of Nations bans foreign national “volunteers” in the Spanish Civil War.
  • 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.
  • 1945 – World War II: the Brazilian Expeditionary Force defeat the German forces in the Battle of Monte Castello on the Italian front.
  • 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.
  • 1948 – NASCAR is incorporated.
  • 1952 – The British government, under Winston Churchill, abolishes identity cards in the UK to “set the people free”.
  • 1952 – The Bengali Language Movement protests occur at the University of Dhaka in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
  • 1958 – The CND symbol, aka peace symbol, commissioned by the Direct Action Committee in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, is designed and completed by Gerald Holtom.
  • 1965 – Malcolm X is assassinated while giving a talk at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem.
  • 1971 – The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.
  • 1972 – United States President Richard Nixon visits the People’s Republic of China to normalize Sino-American relations.
  • 1972 – The Soviet unmanned spaceship Luna 20 lands on the Moon.
  • 1973 – Over the Sinai Desert, Israeli fighter aircraft shoot down Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 jet killing 108 people.
  • 1974 – The last Israeli soldiers leave the west bank of the Suez Canal pursuant to a truce with Egypt.
  • 1975 – Watergate scandal: Former United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are sentenced to prison.
  • 1995 – Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.
  • 2013 – At least 17 people are killed and 119 injured following several bombings in the Indian city of Hyderabad.

Births on February 21

  • 921 – Abe no Seimei, Japanese astrologer (d. 1005)
  • 1397 – Isabella of Portugal (d. 1471)
  • 1462 – Joanna la Beltraneja, princess of Castile (d. 1530)
  • 1484 – Joachim I Nestor, Elector of Brandenburg (d. 1535)
  • 1498 – Ralph Neville, 4th Earl of Westmorland, English Earl (d. 1549)
  • 1541 – Philipp V, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg (d. 1599)
  • 1556 – Sethus Calvisius, German astronomer, composer, and theorist (d. 1615)
  • 1559 – Nurhaci, Manchu emperor (d. 1626)
  • 1609 – Raimondo Montecuccoli, Italian military commander (d. 1680)
  • 1621 – Rebecca Nurse, Massachusetts colonist, executed as a witch (d. 1692)
  • 1705 – Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke, English admiral and politician (d. 1781)
  • 1728 – Peter III of Russia (d. 1762)
  • 1783 – Catharina of Württemberg (d. 1835)
  • 1788 – Francis Ronalds, British scientist, inventor and engineer who was knighted for developing the first working electric telegraph (d. 1873)
  • 1791 – Carl Czerny, Austrian pianist and composer (d. 1857)
  • 1794 – Antonio López de Santa Anna, Mexican general and politician, 8th President of Mexico (d. 1876)
  • 1801 – John Henry Newman, English cardinal (d. 1890)
  • 1817 – José Zorrilla, Spanish poet and playwright (d. 1893)
  • 1821 – Charles Scribner I, American publisher, founded Charles Scribner’s Sons (d. 1871)
  • 1836 – Léo Delibes, French pianist and composer (d. 1891)
  • 1844 – Charles-Marie Widor, French organist and composer (d. 1937)
  • 1860 – Goscombe John, Welsh-English sculptor and academic (d. 1952)
  • 1865 – John Haden Badley, English author and educator, founded the Bedales School (d. 1967)
  • 1867 – Otto Hermann Kahn, German banker and philanthropist (d. 1934)
  • 1875 – Jeanne Calment, French super-centenarian, oldest verified person ever (d. 1997)
  • 1878 – Mirra Alfassa, French-Indian spiritual leader (d. 1973)
  • 1881 – Kenneth J. Alford, English soldier, bandmaster, and composer (d. 1945)
  • 1885 – Sacha Guitry, Russian-French actor, director, and playwright (d. 1957)
  • 1887 – Korechika Anami, Japanese general and politician, 54th Japanese Minister of War (d. 1945)
  • 1888 – Clemence Dane, English author and playwright (d. 1965)
  • 1892 – Harry Stack Sullivan, American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst (d. 1949)
  • 1893 – Celia Lovsky, Austrian-American actress (d. 1979)
  • 1893 – Andrés Segovia, Spanish guitarist (d. 1987)
  • 1894 – Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar, Indian chemist and academic (d. 1955)
  • 1895 – Henrik Dam, Danish biochemist and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1976)
  • 1896 – Nirala, Indian poet and author (d. 1961)
  • 1900 – Jeanne Aubert, French singer and actress (d. 1988)
  • 1902 – Arthur Nock, English theologian and academic (d. 1963)
  • 1903 – Anaïs Nin, French-American essayist and memoirist (d. 1977)
  • 1903 – Raymond Queneau, French poet and author (d. 1976)
  • 1907 – W. H. Auden, English-American poet, playwright, and composer (d. 1973)
  • 1909 – Hans Erni, Swiss painter, sculptor, and illustrator (d. 2015)
  • 1910 – Douglas Bader, English captain and pilot (d. 1982)
  • 1912 – Arline Judge, American actress and singer (d. 1974)
  • 1914 – Ilmari Juutilainen, Finnish soldier and pilot (d. 1999)
  • 1914 – Zachary Scott, American actor (d. 1965)
  • 1914 – Jean Tatlock, American psychiatrist and physician (d. 1944)
  • 1915 – Claudia Jones, Trinidad-British journalist and activist (d. 1964)
  • 1915 – Ann Sheridan, American actress and singer (d. 1967)
  • 1915 – Anton Vratuša, Prime Minister of Slovenia (1978–1980) (d. 2017)
  • 1917 – Lucille Bremer, American actress and dancer (d. 1996)
  • 1917 – Tadd Dameron, American pianist and composer (d. 1965)
  • 1921 – John Rawls, American philosopher and academic (d. 2002)
  • 1921 – Richard T. Whitcomb, American aeronautical engineer (d. 2009)
  • 1924 – Thelma Estrin, American computer scientist and engineer (d. 2014)
  • 1924 – Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwean educator and politician, 2nd President of Zimbabwe (d. 2019)
  • 1924 – Dorothy Blum, American computer scientist and cryptanalyst (d. 1980)
  • 1925 – Sam Peckinpah, American director and screenwriter (d. 1984)
  • 1925 – Jack Ramsay, American basketball player, coach, and sportscaster (d. 2014)
  • 1927 – Erma Bombeck, American journalist and author (d. 1996)
  • 1929 – Chespirito, Mexican actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2014)
  • 1933 – Nina Simone, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 2003)
  • 1934 – Rue McClanahan, American actress (d. 2010)
  • 1935 – Richard A. Lupoff, American author
  • 1936 – Barbara Jordan, American lawyer and politician (d. 1996)
  • 1937 – Ron Clarke, Australian runner and politician, Mayor of the Gold Coast (d. 2015)
  • 1937 – Harald V of Norway
  • 1938 – Bobby Charles, American singer-songwriter (d. 2010)
  • 1938 – Kel Tremain, New Zealand rugby player (d. 1992)
  • 1940 – Peter Gethin, English race car driver (d. 2011)
  • 1940 – John Lewis, American activist and politician
  • 1942 – Tony Martin, Trinidadian-American historian and academic (d. 2013)
  • 1942 – Margarethe von Trotta, German actress, director, and screenwriter
  • 1943 – David Geffen, American businessman, co-founded DreamWorks and Geffen Records
  • 1945 – Maurice Bembridge, English golfer
  • 1946 – Tyne Daly, American actress and singer
  • 1946 – Anthony Daniels, English actor and producer
  • 1946 – Alan Rickman, English actor and director (d. 2016)
  • 1946 – Bob Ryan, American journalist and author
  • 1947 – Johnny Echols, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1947 – Olympia Snowe, American politician
  • 1948 – Bill Slayback, American baseball player and singer (d. 2015)
  • 1949 – Frank Brunner, American illustrator
  • 1949 – Jerry Harrison, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
  • 1949 – Ronnie Hellström, Swedish footballer
  • 1950 – Larry Drake, American actor (d. 2016)
  • 1951 – Vince Welnick, American keyboard player (d. 2006)
  • 1952 – Jean-Jacques Burnel, English bass player, songwriter, and producer
  • 1952 – Vitaly Churkin, Russian diplomat, former Ambassador of Russia to the United Nations (d. 2017)
  • 1953 – Christine Ebersole, American actress and singer
  • 1953 – William Petersen, American actor and producer
  • 1954 – Christina Rees, British politician
  • 1955 – Kelsey Grammer, American actor, singer, and producer
  • 1958 – Jake Burns, Northern Irish singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1958 – Mary Chapin Carpenter, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1958 – Kim Coates, Canadian actor
  • 1958 – Alan Trammell, American baseball player, coach, and manager
  • 1959 – José María Cano, Spanish singer-songwriter and painter
  • 1960 – Plamen Oresharski, Bulgarian economist and politician, 52nd Prime Minister of Bulgaria
  • 1960 – Steve Wynn, American singer-songwriter
  • 1961 – Christopher Atkins, American actor and businessman
  • 1962 – Chuck Palahniuk, American novelist and journalist
  • 1962 – David Foster Wallace, American novelist, short story writer, and essayist (d. 2008)
  • 1963 – William Baldwin, American actor
  • 1963 – Ranking Roger, English singer-songwriter and musician (d. 2019)
  • 1963 – Greg Turner, New Zealand golfer
  • 1964 – Mark Kelly, American captain, pilot, and astronaut
  • 1964 – Scott Kelly, American captain, pilot, and astronaut
  • 1965 – Mark Ferguson, Australian journalist
  • 1967 – Leroy Burrell, American runner and coach
  • 1967 – Sari Essayah, Finnish athlete and politician
  • 1969 – James Dean Bradfield, Welsh singer-songwriter and guitarist (Manic Street Preachers)
  • 1969 – Aunjanue Ellis, American actress and producer
  • 1969 – Petra Kronberger, Austrian skier
  • 1969 – Tony Meola, American soccer player and manager
  • 1969 – Cathy Richardson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1970 – Michael Slater, Australian cricketer and sportscaster
  • 1970 – Eric Wilson, American bass player and drummer
  • 1971 – Pierre Fulke, Swedish golfer
  • 1972 – Seo Taiji, South Korean singer-songwriter
  • 1973 – Heri Joensen, Faroese singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1973 – Brian Rolston, American ice hockey player and coach
  • 1974 – Iván Campo, Spanish footballer
  • 1975 – Scott Miller, Australian swimmer
  • 1976 – Ryan Smyth, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1976 – Michael McIntyre, English comedian, actor and television presenter
  • 1977 – Jonathan Safran Foer, American novelist
  • 1977 – Steve Francis, American basketball player
  • 1977 – Owen King, American author
  • 1977 – Kevin Rose, American businessman and television host, founded Digg
  • 1978 – Kumail Nanjiani, Pakistani-American stand-up comedian, actor, writer and podcast host
  • 1979 – Pascal Chimbonda, Guadeloupean-French footballer, defender
  • 1979 – Shane Gibson, American guitarist (stOrk and Jonathan Davis and the SFA) (d. 2014)
  • 1979 – Jennifer Love Hewitt, American actress and producer
  • 1979 – Carly Colón, Puerto Rican professional wrestler
  • 1979 – Jordan Peele, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1980 – Brad Fast, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1980 – Tiziano Ferro, Italian singer-songwriter and producer
  • 1980 – Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, 5th King of Bhutan
  • 1980 – Justin Roiland, American animator, writer and voice actor
  • 1981 – Floor Jansen, Dutch singer, songwriter, and vocal coach
  • 1982 – Andre Barrett, American basketball player
  • 1982 – Chantal Claret, American singer-songwriter
  • 1982 – Tebogo Jacko Magubane, South African DJ and producer
  • 1983 – Braylon Edwards, American football player
  • 1983 – Franklin Gutiérrez, Venezuelan baseball player
  • 1983 – Mélanie Laurent, French actress
  • 1984 – Andrew Ellis, New Zealand rugby player
  • 1984 – David Odonkor, German footballer
  • 1984 – Marco Paoloni, Italian footballer
  • 1984 – James Wisniewski, American ice hockey player
  • 1985 – Georgios Samaras, Greek footballer
  • 1985 – Jamaal Westerman, American football player
  • 1986 – Charlotte Church, Welsh singer-songwriter and actress
  • 1987 – Ellen Page, Canadian actress
  • 1989 – Corbin Bleu, American actor, model, dancer, film producer and singer-songwriter
  • 1990 – Mattias Tedenby, Swedish ice hockey player
  • 1991 – Joe Alwyn, English actor
  • 1991 – Riyad Mahrez, Algerian footballer
  • 1991 – Ji So-yun, South Korean footballer
  • 1991 – Devon Travis, American baseball player
  • 1991 – Suppasit Jongcheveevat, Thai actor
  • 1993 – Steve Leo Beleck, Cameroonian footballer
  • 1993 – Davy Klaassen, Dutch footballer
  • 1993 – Masaki Suda, Japanese actor
  • 1994 – Tang Haochen, Chinese tennis player
  • 1994 – Charalampos Mavrias, Greek footballer
  • 1996 – Sophie Turner, English actress

Deaths on February 21

  • 4 AD – Gaius Caesar, Roman consul and grandson of Augustus (b. 20 BC)
  • 675 – Randoald of Grandval, prior of the Benedictine monastery of Grandval
  • 1184 – Minamoto no Yoshinaka, Japanese shōgun (b. 1154)
  • 1267 – Baldwin of Ibelin, Seneschal of Cyprus
  • 1437 – James I of Scotland (b. 1394; assassinated)
  • 1471 – Jan Rokycana, Czech bishop and theologian (b. 1396)
  • 1513 – Pope Julius II (b. 1443)
  • 1543 – Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi, Somalian general (b. 1507)
  • 1554 – Hieronymus Bock, German botanist and physician (b. 1498)
  • 1572 – Cho Shik, Korean poet and scholar (d. 1501)
  • 1590 – Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick, English nobleman and general (b. 1528)
  • 1595 – Robert Southwell, English priest and poet (b. 1561)
  • 1677 – Baruch Spinoza, Dutch philosopher and scholar (b. 1632)
  • 1715 – Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore, English politician (b. 1637)
  • 1730 – Pope Benedict XIII (b. 1649)
  • 1821 – Georg Friedrich von Martens, German jurist and diplomat (b. 1756)
  • 1824 – Eugène de Beauharnais, French general (b. 1781)
  • 1829 – Kittur Chennamma, Indian queen and freedom fighter (b. 1778)
  • 1846 – Emperor Ninkō of Japan (b. 1800)
  • 1862 – Justinus Kerner, German poet and physician (b. 1786)
  • 1888 – William Weston, English-Australian politician, 3rd Premier of Tasmania (b. 1804)
  • 1891 – James Timberlake, American lieutenant and police officer (b. 1846)
  • 1919 – Kurt Eisner, German journalist and politician, Minister-President of Bavaria (b. 1867)
  • 1926 – Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Dutch physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1853)
  • 1934 – Augusto César Sandino, Nicaraguan rebel leader (b. 1895)
  • 1938 – George Ellery Hale, American astronomer and academic (b. 1868)
  • 1941 – Frederick Banting, Canadian physician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1891)
  • 1944 – Ferenc Szisz, Hungarian-French race car driver (b. 1873)
  • 1945 – Eric Liddell, Scottish rugby player and runner (b. 1902)
  • 1946 – José Streel, Belgian journalist (b. 1911)
  • 1958 – Duncan Edwards, English footballer (b. 1936)
  • 1965 – Malcolm X, American minister and activist (b. 1925; assassinated)
  • 1967 – Charles Beaumont, American author and screenwriter (b. 1929)
  • 1968 – Howard Florey, Australian pathologist and pharmacologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1898)
  • 1972 – Zhang Guohua, Chinese general and politician (b. 1914)
  • 1972 – Bronislava Nijinska, Russian-American dancer and choreographer (b. 1891)
  • 1972 – Eugène Tisserant, French cardinal (b. 1884)
  • 1974 – Tim Horton, Canadian ice hockey player and businessman, co-founded Tim Hortons (b. 1930)
  • 1980 – Alfred Andersch, German-Swiss author (b. 1914)
  • 1982 – Gershom Scholem, German-Israeli historian and philosopher (b. 1897)
  • 1984 – Mikhail Sholokhov, Russian novelist and short story writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
  • 1985 – Louis Hayward, South African-American actor (b. 1909)
  • 1986 – Helen Hooven Santmyer, American novelist (b. 1895)
  • 1991 – Dorothy Auchterlonie Green, Australian poet, critic, and academic (b. 1915)
  • 1993 – Inge Lehmann, Danish seismologist and geophysicist (b. 1888)
  • 1994 – Johannes Steinhoff, German general and pilot (b. 1913)
  • 1996 – Morton Gould, American pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1913)
  • 1999 – Gertrude B. Elion, American biochemist and pharmacologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)
  • 1999 – Ilmari Juutilainen, Finnish soldier and pilot (b. 1914)
  • 1999 – Wilmer Mizell, American baseball player and politician (b. 1930)
  • 2002 – John Thaw, English actor and producer (b. 1942)
  • 2004 – John Charles, Welsh footballer and manager (b. 1931)
  • 2005 – Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Cuban author, screenwriter, and critic (b. 1929)
  • 2005 – Zdzisław Beksiński, Polish painter, photographer, and sculptor (b. 1929)
  • 2008 – Ben Chapman, American actor (b. 1928)
  • 2011 – Dwayne McDuffie, American author and screenwriter, co-founded Milestone Media (b. 1962)
  • 2011 – Bernard Nathanson, American physician and activist (b. 1926)
  • 2012 – H. M. Darmstandler, American general (b. 1922)
  • 2013 – Hasse Jeppson, Swedish footballer (b. 1925)
  • 2014 – Héctor Maestri, Cuban-American baseball player (b. 1935)
  • 2014 – Matthew Robinson, Australian snowboarder (b. 1985)
  • 2014 – Cornelius Schnauber, German–American historian, playwright, and academic (b. 1939)
  • 2015 – Aleksei Gubarev, Russian general, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1931)
  • 2015 – Sadeq Tabatabaei, Iranian journalist and politician (b. 1943)
  • 2015 – Clark Terry, American trumpet player, composer, and educator (b. 1920)
  • 2016 – Eric Brown, Scottish-English captain and pilot (b. 1919)
  • 2017 – Jeanne Martin Cissé, Guinean teacher and politician (b. 1926)
  • 2018 – Billy Graham, American evangelist (b. 1918)
  • 2019 – Stanley Donen, American film director (b. 1924)
  • 2019 – Peter Tork, American musician and actor (b. 1942)

Holidays and observances on February 21

  • Armed Forces Day (South Africa)
  • Birthday of King Harald V (Norway)
  • Christian feast day:
    • Felix of Hadrumetum
    • Pepin of Landen
    • Peter Damian
    • Randoald of Grandval
    • February 21 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • 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)
  • The first day of the Musikahan Festival, celebrated until February 27. (Tagum City, Philippines)
  • Feralia (Ancient Rome)