Royals choose name for boy tied to history

LONDON — Britain’s Princess Eugenie and husband Jack Brooksbank have named their baby boy August Philip Hawke Brooksbank, Buckingham Palace said Saturday.

The baby — a ninth great-grandchild for Queen Elizabeth II — was born Feb. 9 at London’s Portland Hospital.

Eugenie, 30, is the younger daughter of Prince Andrew and Sarah, Duchess of York and a granddaughter of the queen. The baby, who weighed 8 pounds, 1 ounce, is her first child and is 11th in line to the British throne.

Eugenie said on Instagram that the baby is named after his great-greatgreat-great-great-grandfather Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who had Augustus as a middle name.

One of his middle names pays tribute to Eugenie’s grandfather, Prince Philip. The queen’s 99-yearold husband is in a London hospital where he was admitted on Tuesday after feeling ill. Hawke is a Brooksbank family name.

The baby is not expected to get a royal title and will be known as Master August Brooksbank.

Eugenie married 35-year-old Brooksbank, a businessman, in October 2018 at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.

Eugenie posted a picture on Instagram of the couple holding their son, who is swaddled in a blue blanket with a matching cap.

“Thank you for so many wonderful messages. Our hearts are full of love for this little human, words can’t express,” she wrote, adding that the photo was taken “by our wonderful midwife.”

The queen and Prince Philip have two more great-grandchildren on the way. Both Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and Princess Anne’s daughter Zoe Tindall are due to give birth this year.

The child of Meghan and husband Prince Harry will become eighth in line to the throne after elder brother Archie and will push August down to 12th in the succession.

Today is Sunday, Feb. 21, the 52nd day of 2021. There are 313 days left in the year. Highlight in history

On Feb. 21, 1965,

minister 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.)

On this date 1862,

In Nathaniel Gordon became the first and only American slavetrader to be executed under the U.S. Piracy Law of 1820 as he was hanged in New York.

In 1885, the Washington Monument was dedicated.

In 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.

In 1964, the first shipment of U.S. wheat purchased by the Soviet Union arrived in the port of Odessa.

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

In 1995, Chicago adventurer Steve Fossett became the first person to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean by balloon, landing in Leader, Saskatchewan.

In 2005, President George W. Bush, in Belgium for a NATO summit, scolded Russia for backsliding on democracy and urged Mideast allies to take difficult steps for peace.

In 2010, the United States stunned Canada 5-3 to advance to the Olympic men’s hockey quarterfinals in Vancouver.

Today’s birthdays

Actor Anthony Daniels is 75. Actor Kelsey Grammer is 66. Country singer Mary Chapin Carpenter is 63. Comedian-actor Jordan Peele is 42.