Today In History

Today is Tuesday, Feb. 21, the 52nd day of 2017. There are 313 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

› 1947: Inventor Edwin H. Land publicly demonstrated his Polaroid Land camera, which used self-developing film to produce a black-andwhite photograph in 60 seconds.

ON THIS DATE

› 1613: Mikhail Romanov, 16, was unanimously chosen by Russia’s national assembly to be czar, beginning a dynasty that would last three centuries.

› 1885: The Washington Monument was dedicated.

› 1945: During the World War II Battle of Iwo Jima, the escort carrier USS Bismarck Sea was sunk by kamikazes with the loss of 318 men.

› 1958: The USS Gudgeon (SS-567) became the first American submarine to complete a roundthe-world cruise, eight months after departing from Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.

› 1965: Black Muslim leader and civil rights activist Malcolm X, 39, was shot to death inside Harlem’s Audubon Ballroom in New York by assassins identified as members of the Nation of Islam. (Three men were convicted of murder and imprisoned; all were eventually paroled.)

› 1972: President Richard M. Nixon began his historic visit to China as he and his wife, Pat, arrived in Beijing.

› 1992: Kristi Yamaguchi of the United States won the gold medal in ladies’ figure skating at the Albertville Olympics; Midori Ito of Japan won the silver, Nancy Kerrigan of the U.S. the bronze.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe is 93. U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., is 77. Film/music company executive David Geffen is 74. Actress Tyne Daly is 71. Tricia Nixon Cox is 71. Actor Kelsey Grammer is 6 2. Country singer Mary Chapin Carpenter is 59. Actor Kim Coates is 59. Actor Jack Coleman is 59. Blues musician Corey Harris is 48. Country singer Eric Heatherly is 47. Rock musician Eric Wilson is 47. Rock musician Tad Kinchla (Blues Traveler) is 44. Comedian-actor Jordan Peele (TV: “Key and Peele”) is 38. Actor Brendan Sexton III is 37. Singer Charlotte Church is 31. Actress Ashley Greene is 30. Actress Ellen Page is 30. Actor Corbin Bleu is 28. Actress Hayley Orrantia is 23. Actress Sophie Turner is 21.