TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Friday, Feb. 21, the 52nd day of 2020. There are 314 days left in the year.

Today’s highlight in history

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 2 1⁄2 to eight years in prison for their roles in the Watergate cover-up. (Each ended up serving a year and a half.)

On this date

In 1945, during the Battle of Iwo Jima, the escort carrier USS Bismarck Sea was sunk by kamikazes with the loss of 318 men.

In 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.)

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

In 1992, Kristi Yamaguchi 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

. Film/music company executive David Geffen is 77. Actress Tyne Daly is 74. Tricia Nixon Cox is 74. Actor William Petersen is 67. Actor Kelsey Grammer is 65. Country singer Mary Chapin Carpenter is 62. Actor Christopher Atkins is 59. Actor William Baldwin is 57. Actress Jennifer Love Hewitt is 41. Comedian-actor Jordan Peele is 41.