On this day, Feb. 21

1885 The Washington Monument was dedicated.

1939 Army engineers recommended a $207 million BeaverYoungstown canal with a “dead end” at Youngstown, Ohio. Pittsburgh civic and business interests immediately mobilized to continue their 20-year fight for a canal extending to Lake Erie. 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.

1977 President Jimmy Carter named Pittsburgh Mayor Pete Flaherty deputy U.S. attorney general.

2007 Pittsburgh was chosen for US Airways’ $25 million flight operations control center, which would employ 600 people. Some items are from Stefan Lorant’s “Pittsburgh: The Story of an American City” (digital.library.pitt.edu/chronology).

— Compiled by Rick Nowlin Today’s birthdays: Movie director Bob Rafelson, 88. Actor Gary Lockwood, 84. Actor Peter McEnery, 81. Actor Tyne Daly, 75. Actor Anthony Daniels, 75. Former first daughter Tricia Nixon Cox, 75. Former Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, R-Maine, 74. Actor Christine Ebersole, 68. Actor William Petersen, 68. Actor Kelsey Grammer, 66. Singer/guitarist Larry Campbell, 66. Country singer Mary Chapin Carpenter, 63. Actor Kim Coates, 63. Actor Christopher Atkins, 60. Actor William Baldwin, 58. Rock musician Eric Wilson, 51. Rock musician Tad Kinchla (Blues Traveler), 48. Actor Jennifer Love Hewitt, 42. Comedian-actor Jordan Peele, 42.5. Actor Ashley Greene, 34. Actor Elliot Page, 34. Actor Corbin Bleu, 32. Actor Sophie Turner, 25.

Thought for today: “You owe it to us all to get on with what you’re good at.”