^B{^#!16!21 February^N! Feast day of St Robert Southwell, St Peter Damian, St George of Amastris, and St Germanus of Granfel.
^B{1804^B} British engineer Richard Trevithick demonstrated the first steam engine to run on rails. ^B{1916^B} The Battle of Verdun began (it continued until 16th December). ^B{1931^B} The ^I{New Statesman^I} was first published. ^B{1960^B} All private businesses in Cuba nationalized by Fidel Castro. ^B{1972^B} US president Richard Nixon arrived in Beijing on a visit intended to improve US-Chinese relations. ^B{1989^B} Czech writer Vaclav Havel jailed for anti-government demonstrations.
^B{^I{^#!14!Born ^N}Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Mexican revolutionary and dictator, ^B{1794^B}; John Henry Newman, English cardinal and theologian, ^B{1801^B}; W H Auden, English poet, ^B{1907^B}; Robert Mugabe, first prime minister of Zimbabwe, ^B{1924^B}; Nina Simone US singer, ^B{1934^B}; Jilly Cooper, English novelist and journalist, ^B{1937^B}.
^B{^I{^#!14!Died ^N}Robert Southwell, English poet and Jesuit martyr, ^B{1595^B}; Jethro Tull, English agriculturalist, ^B{1741^B}; Nikolai Gogol, Russian novelist and dramatist, ^B{1852^B}; George Ellery Hale, US astronomer, ^B{1938^B}; Malcolm X, US Black Muslim leader, shot dead at a meeting, ^B{1965^B}; Howard Walter Florey, Australian pathologist who developed penicillin, ^B{1968^B}; Margot Fonteyn, English ballet dancer, ^B{1991^B}.
