Under Tuesday, February 21, the book of history records, among other things:
1388: The so-called Great Dortmund Feud begins with the sending of the Feudbrief by Kurköln to Dortmund. In addition to the Archbishop of Cologne, more than 40 other territorial lords of the imperial city declared the feud.
1613: In Russia, Mikhail Fyodorovich Romanov assumes the title of tsar following his election. He becomes the founder of the Romanov dynasty.
1808: Russian troops cross the Swedish border in today’s Finland without a declaration of war. With the beginning of the war, Tsar Alexander I fulfills an agreement made with the French Emperor Napoleon in Tilsit. An attack was planned in case the Swedish king Gustav IV Adolf maintained his alliance with Great Britain, which he did.
1828: The Cherokee Phoenix, the first newspaper published by Native Americans, appears in New Echota, the capital of the Cherokee nation. The place is now located in the US state of Georgia.
1848: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish the Communist Manifesto.
1848: In Paris, the government of King Louis Philippe’s ban on an electoral reform banquet sparked public protests that escalated into the February Revolution and the overthrow of the monarchy.
1858: An earthquake destroys the Greek city of Corinth. It will then be rebuilt six kilometers away.
1878: The world’s first telephone directory is published in New Haven, Connecticut.
1903: The US House of Representatives passes the Presidential Protections Act, known as the Anarchist Act.
1913: A group of German sexologists led by Magnus Hirschfeld and Iwan Bloch founded the “Medical Society for Sexology and Eugenics” in Berlin with the aim of counteracting the taboo on sexuality and promoting sexual education.
1918: German troops invade Estonia.
1918: Jericho, defended by Turkish troops, is taken by Australian soldiers.
1933: After a meeting between Hitler and Göring and German industrialists and bankers, the NSDAP was given three million Reichsmarks for the early Reichstag elections (March 5).
1948: During the Austria negotiations of the Allies at the level of the Deputy Foreign Ministers in London’s Lancaster House, the Soviet Union reduced its claims regarding German property from 800 million to 350 million dollars.
1948: Government crisis in Czechoslovakia: The Social Democrats reject an offer by the Communists to replace the previous five-party coalition with a left-wing two-party alliance. The ministers of the People’s Party, the left-liberal People’s Socialists and the Slovak Democrats announce their resignation. In Prague, the communists organize mass demonstrations with around 80,000 participants.
1958: Otto Habsburg-Lorraine, the eldest son of the last Austrian Emperor Charles I, who lives in Bavaria, makes his “first” declaration of renunciation (declaration of commitment to the Republic and the provisions of the Habsburg Laws of 1919). A possible entry of the Habsburgs triggers fierce internal political quarrels.
1963: An earthquake in the Libyan city of Barce kills more than 260 people.
1968: The first post-war German luxury liner, the “Hamburg”, built for 800 passengers, was launched in Hamburg.
1973: Israeli warplanes shoot down a Libyan airliner over Sinai: 106 dead.
1983: On the initiative of the governing SPÖ, the National Council decides to dissolve it prematurely. The new elections on April 24 bring the loss of the absolute SPÖ majority following twelve years and cause Federal Chancellor Bruno Kreisky to resign.
1988: Independent multi-millionaire Georgios Vassiliou, backed by the left, defeats incumbent Spyros Kyprianou in Cyprus presidential election.
2003: Croatia applies for EU membership.
2008: The singer Rihanna gets her own holiday on her home island of Barbados, the so-called Rihanna Day.
2018: The previous Vice President Brigitte Bierlein becomes the first woman to head the Constitutional Court. She succeeds President Gerhart Holzinger, who has retired for reasons of age.
birthdays: Peter III von Romanow-Holstein-Gottorp, Russian Tsar (husband of Catherine II) (1728-1762); Andrés Segovia, Spanish guitarist (1893-1987); Dorothea Neff, Austria Actress (1903-1986); Raymond Queneau, French writer (1903-1976); Anaïs Nin, US writer (1903-1977); Hans Ertl, German cameraman and explorer (1908-2000); Nina Simone, US jazz singer (1933-2003); William Baldwin, US actor (1963).
days of death: Pope Julius II (Giuliano della Rovere) (1443-1513); George Hale, US astronomer (1868-1938); Johann Jacobs, German entrepreneur (1869-1958); Erwin Rosen, German writer (1876-1923); Lord Howard W. Florey, British pathologist and biochemist; Nobel Prize 1968 (1898-1968); Anthony Asquith, British film director (according to other sources February 20) (1902-1968); Billy Graham, US preacher (1918-2018); Gerhard Zimmer, Austria sports presenter (1939-2013); Ulrich Pleitgen, German actor (1946-2018).
name days: Petrus, German, Eleonora, Gunthilde, Damian, Randoald, Zacharias, Irene, Georg, Leodegar, Theodor.