TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2020

On this day in history:

1804 - The first self-propelled locomotive on rails was demonstrated in Wales. 1802 - John Murray arrives in Corio Bay, site of present-day Geelong in Victoria.

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

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.

1947 - The first Polaroid camera is demonstrated by Edwin Land.

1965 - Malcolm X was assassinated in New York City at the age of 39 by assassins identified as Black Muslims. 1973 - Israeli fighter planes shot down a Libyan Airlines jet over the Sinai Desert. More than 100 people were killed.

1988 - In the US, TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart confessed to his congregation that he was guilty of an unspecified sin. He announced that he was leaving the pulpit temporarily. Swaggart had been linked to an admitted prostitute.

1999 - India’s Prime Minister Atal Bihair Vajpayee concluded two days of meeting with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Mohammad Nowaz Sharif. 2001 - British milk, meat and livestock exports are banned in the wake of the UK’s first outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease for 20 years.