TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2018

On this day in history:

1802 - Matthew Flinders’ tragic encounter with dangerous waters leads to the naming of Cape Catastrophe, South Australia.

1802 - John Murray discovers Corio Bay, site of present-day Geelong in Victoria.

1804 - The first self-propelled locomotive on rails was demonstrated in Wales.

1842 - John J. Greenough patented the sewing machine. 1848 - The Communist Manifesto was published by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

1916 - During World War I, the Battle of Verdun began in France. The battle ended on December 18, 1916 with a French victory over Germany.

1925 - The first issue of The New Yorker was published.

1950 - The first International Pancake Race was held in Liberal, Kansas.

1965 - Malcolm X was assassinated in New York City at the age of 39 by assassins identified as Black Muslims.

1971 - The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.

1972 - United States President Richard Nixon visits the People’s Republic of China to normalise 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.

1999 - India’s Prime Minister Atal Bihair Vajpayee concluded two days of meeting with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Mohammad Nowaz Sharif.

2013 - At least 17 people are killed and 119 injured following several bombings in the Indian city of Hyderabad.