TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Monday, Feb. 21.
Today’s highlight:
On Feb. 21, 1975, former Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman were sentenced to 2½ to 8 years in prison for their roles in the Watergate cover-up (each ended up serving 1½ years).
On this date:
In1 437, James I, King of Scots, was assassinated; his 6-year-old son succeeded him as James II.
In 1885, the Washington Monument was dedicated.
In 1911, composer Gustav Mahler, despite a fever, conducted the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall in what turned out to be his final concert (he died the following May).
In 1964, the first shipment of U.S. wheat purchased by the Soviet Union arrived in the port of Odessa.
In 1965, minister and civil rights activist Malcolm X, 39, was shot to death inside Harlem’s Audubon Ballroom in New York. (Three men identified as members of the Nation of Islam were convicted of murder and imprisoned; all were eventually paroled. The convictions of two of the men were dismissed in November 2021; prosecutors said new evidence had undermined the case against them.)
In 1972, President Richard M. Nixon began his historic visit to China as he and his wife, Pat, arrived in Beijing.
In 1973, Israeli fighter planes shot down Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 over the Sinai Desert, killing all but five of the 113 people on board.
In 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.
In 1995, Chicago adventurer Steve Fossett became the first person to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean by balloon, landing in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada.
In 2018, the Rev. Billy Graham, a confidant of presidents and the most widely heard Christian evangelist in history, died at his North Carolina home; he was 99.
In 2019, teachers in Oakland, California, went on strike in the latest in a wave of teacher activism that had included walkouts in Denver, Los Angeles and West Virginia.
In 2020, a temporary truce between the United States and the Taliban in Afghanistan took effect, setting the stage for the two sides to sign a peace deal the following week.
Ten years ago: The 17-nation eurozone approved a $170 billion bailout for Greece, which received the news with a mixture of relief and foreboding.
Five years ago: President Donald Trump condemned recent threats against Jewish community centers in the U.S. as “painful reminders” of lingering prejudice and evil; the president also denounced “bigotry, intolerance and hatred in all of its very ugly forms” during his first visit to the new Smithsonian Black history museum.
One year ago: Hospitals across the southern United States grappled with ruptured water pipes and patient transfers as the region carried on with efforts to recover from the winter weather that paralyzed parts of the nation. Police in Liberty, New York, said an expectant father was killed when a device he was building for a gender reveal party exploded.