Feb 21 in History
1613 — Mikhail Fyodorovich Romanov is elected tsar of Russia. Mikhail I is crowned on July 21, the day before his 17th birthday, and reigns until his death on July 23 1645. Thus begins the rule of the House of Romanov that lasts unti l 1917.
1804 — The first steam-hauled railway journey takes place as a Richard Trevithick locomotive hauls a train along the tramway from the Pen-y-darren Ironworks, near Merthyr Tydfil, to Abercynon in South Wales. 1858 — Dr Walter Rubusana, co-founder of the
South African Native National Congress, which later becomes the African National Congress, is born at Mnandi, Somerset East district, Cape Colony.
1896 — Boxer Bob Fitzsimmons, 32, (born in England, raised in New Zealand and turned pro in Australia) beats Irishman Peter Maher in Coahuila de Zaragoza, Mexico, in an American-promoted event to win a disputed version of the world heavyweight championship. On March 17 1897, in Carson City, Nevada, he knocks out American Jim Corbett, the recognised champion, to become the first threedivision world champion and lightest heavyweight champion at 74.84kg (Guinness World Records).
1917 — The SS Mendi, carrying 823 men of the 5th Battalion of the South African Native Labour Corps (SANLC), is accidentally rammed by the cargo ship SS Darro in thick fog and sinks 19km south of the Isle of Wight in the English Channel. The men were on their way from Cape Town, via Lagos and Plymouth, to Le Havre, France, to serve as essential labour support in World War 1. The tragedy claims the lives of 616 SANLC members (607 blacks and nine whites) and 30 crew.
1924 — Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe (1987-2017), is born at the Kutama Mission village in Southern Rhodesia’s Zvimba District.
1927 — Count Hubert (James Marcel Taffin) de Givenchy, fashion designer for the rich and famous (like Audrey Hepburn’s “little black dress” in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”), is born in Beauvais, France. 1952 — Four people are shot dead during the Bengali Language Movement protests — over the exclusion of Bengali as an official language in the newly created (in 1947) Pakistan — which started at the University of Dhaka in East Bengal. Bengali is included (alongside Urdu) on February 29 1956. Bangladesh declares independence from Pakistan on March 26 1971.
1965 — Malcolm X, 39, (born Malcolm Little), African American Muslim minister and human rights activist, is shot dead in front of 400 people at the Audubon Ballroom, NYC, by three Nation of Islam members. 1967 — Ford recalls 217,000 cars for inspection of their power brakes or power steering.