Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

February 21

1989
Iran-Contra Affair: Trials begin.

1975
Watergate: Former U.S. attorney general John Mitchell and former White House aids H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman are each sentenced to 30 months in prison for their involvement in the Watergate cover-up.

1972
Pres. Nixon begins his "Journey for Peace," an eight day visit to China, making him the first U.S. president to visit China.

1956
The Conqueror: The film called the worst film of the 50's is released.  It starred John Wayne (as Genghis Khan), Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorehead, and Pedro Armendáriz.  Shot downwind of an above-ground nuclear test site, it has been blamed for the cancer deaths of its stars and many of the rest of the cast and crew.

1925
The New Yorker magazine is first published.

1885
Washington Monument: Dedication ceremonies are held for the first national monument to honor George Washington.

1853
The minting of three-dollar gold pieces is authorized by congress.

1961
Christopher Atkins, actor. Film: The Blue Lagoon (1980).

1956
Kelsey Grammer, American actor. TV: Cheers (Dr. Frasier Crane) and Frasier (title role).

1950
Robert "Bobo" Armstrong, American cartoonist, creator of Mickey Rat, and author of The Official Coach Potato Handbook (1983).

1947
Tyne Daly, American Emmy-winning actress, Lacey of Cagney & Lacey.

1939
Richard Beymer, American actor. TV: Twin Peaks (Benjamin Horne).

1934
Rue McClanahan, American Emmy-winning actress, Blanche of The Golden Girls.

1927
Erma Louise Bombeck, columnist, author.

1925     d. 1984
Sam Peckinpah, American film director. Film: Ride the High Country (1962), The Wild Bunch (1969), Straw Dogs (1971), and The Osterman Weekend (1983).

1875
Jeanne Louise Calment, French centenarian, world's oldest living person. (source: Guinness Book of World Records)

1866     d. 1925
August von Wassermann, German bacteriologist. He developed the Wassermann test for syphilis (1906).

1795     d. 1876
Santa Anna, Mexican president (1833-35, 1841-45, 1846-47, 1853-55) and general. He led the Mexican army against the Alamo (1836).

1986     b. 1865
Shigechiyo Izumi, Japanese centenarian, lived to be the world's oldest person, 120 years 237 days. (source: Guinness Book of World Records)

1968     b. 1898
Sir Howard Walter Florey, Australian-born British physician, won a Nobel prize (1945) for his work with Alexander Fleming in developing penicillin.

1965     b. 1925
Malcolm X (Malcolm Little), American civil rights leader. While in prison he converted to the Muslim Nation of Islam (1946) and preached that all whites were of the devil. He was assassinated by the members of the Nation of Islam after breaking from them in 1964.

1956     b. 1853
Heike Onnes, Dutch Nobel-winning physicist, first to liquefy helium (1908), and coined the term "super-conductivity" after discovering the drop in electrical resistance exhibited by solids at extremely low temperatures.

1941     b. 1891
Sir Frederick Grant Banting, Canadian Nobel-winning scientist. He and Charles Best discovered insulin (1921) for which he shared the Nobel Prize with Dr. J.J.R. MacLeod.

1941     b. 1880
Frank J. "Fiddler" Corridon, American baseball pitcher. He is credited with inventing the spitball (1904).

1919     b. 1832
Mary Edwards Walker, American physician, women's rights leader. She was the first female surgeon in the U.S. Army (1864), and the only woman to receive the Medal of Honor (1865); although it was revoked in 1916 and then reinstated in 1977. In 1897 she established a women's colony called "Adamless Eden."

1851     b. 1797
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, English author. Writings: Frankenstein (1818). She was the wife of poet Percy Bysshe Shelly.

1513     b. 1443
Julius II, Italian religious leader, 216th Pope (1503-13). He laid the first stone of St. Peter's and was a supporter of the artists Raphael and Michelangelo.

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