Famous Birthdays on February 21

February 21 has 176 recorded notable births across history, from 921 to 2007. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.

Antonio López de Santa Anna

1794 — Antonio López de Santa Anna

Mexican general and politician, 8th President of Mexico (died 1876)

By · — Wikipedia

Famous Birthdays 176 source records 921 – 2007 Pisces

Major events on February 21

See what else happened on this day in history.

  1. 1952 The British government, under Winston Churchill, abolishes identity cards in the UK to "set the people free". Source
  2. 1925 The New Yorker publishes its first issue. Source

Did you know about Antonio López de Santa Anna

Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón, often known as Santa Anna, was a Mexican general, politician, and caudillo who served as the eighth president of Mexico on multiple occasions between 1833 and 1855.

Did you know about Claudia Jones

As a child, she migrated with her family to the United States, where she became a Communist political activist, feminist and Black nationalist, adopting the name Jones as "self-protective disinformation".

Did you know about Solar

Solar released her first extended play 容: Face with its lead single "Honey" on March 16, 2022.

Did you know about Bob Rafelson

Other films he produced as part of BBS include two of the most significant films of the era, Easy Rider (1969) and The Last Picture Show (1971).

Did you know about Braylon Edwards

Braylon Edwards was a unanimous All-American playing college football for the Michigan Wolverines, winning the Biletnikoff Award in 2004.

More major people born on February 21

Notable people are ranked by substantive profile depth and public notability.

1915 Claudia Jones

Claudia Jones

Trinidad-British journalist and activist (died 1964)
Claudia Vera Jones was a Trinidad and Tobago-born journalist and activist. As a child, she migrated with her family to the United States, where she became a Communist political activist, feminist and Black nationalist, adopting the name Jones as "self-protective disinformation". Due to the political persecution of Communists in the US, she was deported in 1955 and subsequently lived in the United Kingdom. Upon arriving in the UK, she immediately joined the Communist Party of Great Britain and would remain a member for the rest of her life. In 1958, she founded Britain's first major Black newspaper, the West Indian Gazette (1958–1965), and from 1959 she organised a series of indoor Caribbean carnivals that have been cited as an influence on what became the Notting Hill Carnival, the second-largest annual carnival in the world.
Wikipedia source
1991 Solar

Solar

South Korean singer, songwriter and actress
Kim Yong-sun, known professionally as Solar (솔라), is a South Korean singer, songwriter, and actress signed under RBW. She is the leader and main vocalist of girl group Mamamoo and its sub-unit Mamamoo+. She made her solo debut with the single "Spit It Out" on April 23, 2020. She released her first extended play 容: Face with its lead single "Honey" on March 16, 2022. Solar ventured into musical acting through the musical Mata Hari for its 2022 production. Solar will make her film debut with a role as Mi-yeon in horror film The Cursed. Solar also made her debut in Taiwan with a Chinese single "Floating Free" on June 11, 2025.
Wikipedia source
1933 Bob Rafelson

Bob Rafelson

American film director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2022)
Robert Jay Rafelson was an American film director, writer, and producer. He is regarded as one of the key figures in the founding of the New Hollywood movement of the 1970s. Among his best-known films as a director include those made as part of the company he co-founded, Raybert/BBS Productions, Five Easy Pieces (1970) and The King of Marvin Gardens (1972) as well as acclaimed later films, The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981) and Mountains of the Moon (1990). Other films he produced as part of BBS include two of the most significant films of the era, Easy Rider (1969) and The Last Picture Show (1971). Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces and The Last Picture Show were all chosen for inclusion in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry. He was also one of the creators of the pop group and TV series The Monkees with BBS partner Bert Schneider. His first wife was the production designer Toby Carr Rafelson.
Wikipedia source
1983 Braylon Edwards

Braylon Edwards

American football player
Braylon Jamel Edwards is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL). He was a unanimous All-American playing college football for the Michigan Wolverines, winning the Biletnikoff Award in 2004. He is the all-time leader for the University of Michigan in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns. He was also the first wide receiver in Big Ten Conference history to record three consecutive 1,000-yard seasons and only the third to do so in NCAA Division I-A. He was selected by the Cleveland Browns with the third overall pick in the 2005 NFL draft. He also played in the NFL for the New York Jets, San Francisco 49ers, and Seattle Seahawks.
Wikipedia source
1987 Eniola Aluko

Eniola Aluko

English footballer
Eniola "Eni" Aluko is a British-Nigerian football executive, football broadcaster and former professional player, who played as a winger and striker. Aluko has been a broadcaster for live football on ITV, BT Sport, Amazon Prime and Fox Sports in the US, including men's Premier League and Women's Super League matches since 2014. She was the first female footballer to make an appearance on Match of the Day in 2014. She was the first sporting director for Angel City FC of the American National women's soccer league and held the position of sporting director at Aston Villa W.F.C. from January 2020 to June 2021.
Wikipedia source
1942 Margarethe von Trotta

Margarethe von Trotta

German actress, director, and screenwriter
Margarethe von Trotta is a German film director, screenwriter, and actress. She has been referred to as a "leading force" of the New German Cinema movement. Von Trotta's extensive body of work has won awards internationally. She was married to and collaborated with director Volker Schlöndorff. Although they made a successful team, von Trotta felt she was seen as secondary to Schlöndorff. Subsequently, she established a solo career for herself and became "Germany's foremost female film director, who has offered the most sustained and successful female variant of Autorenkino in postwar German film history". Certain aspects of von Trotta's work have been compared to Ingmar Bergman's features from the 1960s and 1970s.
Wikipedia source
1946 Bob Ryan

Bob Ryan

American journalist and author
Robert P. Ryan is an American sportswriter, formerly with The Boston Globe, and author. He has been described as "the quintessential American sportswriter" and a basketball guru, and is well known for his coverage of the sport including his famous stories covering the Boston Celtics in the 1970s. After graduating from Boston College, Ryan started as a sports intern for the Globe on the same day as Peter Gammons, and later worked with other notable Globe sportswriters Will McDonough and Leigh Montville. In early 2012, Ryan announced his retirement from sports writing after 44 years, effective at the conclusion of the 2012 Summer Olympics. His final column in the Globe was published August 12, 2012.
Wikipedia source
1989 Jake Muzzin

Jake Muzzin

Canadian ice hockey player
Jacob Muzzin is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman and current member of the Player Development department for the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League (NHL). He previously had played 12 seasons in the NHL for the Los Angeles Kings and Maple Leafs. Originally drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2007 NHL entry draft, Muzzin went unsigned and returned to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) as an overage player. There he served as team captain and won the Max Kaminsky Trophy as the top defenceman in the OHL. As a free agent, Muzzin signed with the Kings in 2010, winning a Stanley Cup with the team in 2014. Muzzin was traded to Toronto during the 2018–19 season, where he played parts of five seasons. After a spinal injury suffered in 2022 resulted in his placement on long-term injured reserve, Muzzin joined the Maple Leafs' front office as a professional scout in 2023.
Wikipedia source
1860 Goscombe John

Goscombe John

Welsh-English sculptor and academic (died 1952)
Sir William Goscombe John was a Welsh sculptor known for his many public memorials. As a sculptor, John developed a distinctive style of his own while respecting classical traditions and forms of sculpture. He gained national attention with statues of eminent Victorians in London and Cardiff and subsequently, after both the Second Boer War and World War I, created a large number of war memorials. These included the two large group works, The Response 1914 in Newcastle upon Tyne and the Port Sunlight War Memorial which are considered the finest sculptural ensembles on any British monument. Although as a young man he adopted the first name Goscombe, taken from the name of a village in Gloucestershire near his mother's home, he was actively engaged with his native Wales and Welsh culture throughout his career.
Wikipedia source
1973 Brian Rolston

Brian Rolston

American ice hockey player and coach
Brian Lee Rolston is an American former professional ice hockey player who most recently played for the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League (NHL). He won a Stanley Cup with the New Jersey Devils in 1995, and the World Cup of Hockey in 1996 playing for the United States. Rolston has represented the U.S. three times in Olympic competition for ice hockey. In the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, he won the silver medal. Rolston was born in Flint, Michigan, but grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He has served as head coach of the Little Caesars 2001 hockey club as well as assisting with the Little Caesars 2005 team.
Wikipedia source
1949 Ronnie Hellström

Ronnie Hellström

Swedish footballer (died 2022)
Folke Ronnie Wallentin Hellström was a Swedish professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He represented Hammarby IF and 1. FC Kaiserslautern during a career that spanned between 1966 and 1984. He was considered one of the world's best goalkeepers in the 1970s. In 1988, he played one Allsvenskan game for GIF Sundsvall following an injury crisis. As a full international between 1968 and 1980, he won 77 caps for the Sweden national team and represented his country at the 1970, 1974, and 1978 FIFA World Cups. He was awarded Guldbollen as Sweden's best footballer of the year in both 1971 and 1978.
Wikipedia source
1979 Jennifer Love Hewitt

Jennifer Love Hewitt

American actress and producer
Jennifer Love Hewitt is an American actress, singer, producer and director. Hewitt began her career as a child, appearing in national television commercials before joining the cast of the Disney Channel series Kids Incorporated (1989–1991), which won her a Young Artist Award. After appearing in the film Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993), she had a career breakthrough with the Fox teen drama Party of Five (1995–1999) and became known as a scream queen for her role as Julie James in the horror film I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and two of its three sequels.
Wikipedia source
1989 Corbin Bleu

Corbin Bleu

American actor, model, dancer, film producer and singer-songwriter
Corbin Bleu Reivers is an American actor and singer. He began acting professionally in the late 1990s before rising to prominence in the late 2000s for his leading role as Chad Danforth in the High School Musical trilogy (2006–2008). Songs from the films also charted worldwide, with the song "I Don't Dance" peaking inside the Top 70 of the Billboard Hot 100. During this time, he also starred in the Disney Channel Original Movie Jump In! (2007) and the film To Write Love on Her Arms (2015). He competed in the 17th season of Dancing with the Stars.
Wikipedia source
1935 Richard A. Lupoff

Richard A. Lupoff

American author (died 2020)
Richard Allen Lupoff was an American science-fiction and mystery author, who also wrote humor, satire, nonfiction and reviews. In addition to his two dozen novels and more than 40 short stories, he also edited science-fantasy anthologies. He was an expert on the writing of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and had an equally strong interest in H. P. Lovecraft. He also co-edited the non-fiction anthology All in Color For a Dime, which has been described as "the very first published volume dedicated to comic book criticism"; as well as its sequel, The Comic-Book Book.
Wikipedia source
1952 Vitaly Churkin

Vitaly Churkin

Russian diplomat, former Ambassador of Russia to the United Nations (died 2017)
Vitaly Ivanovich Churkin was a Russian diplomat. He served as Russia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 2006 until his death in 2017. Previously he was Ambassador-at-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation (2003–2006), Ambassador to Canada (1998–2003), Ambassador to Belgium and Liaison Ambassador to NATO and WEU (1994–1998), Deputy Foreign Minister and Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation to the talks on Former Yugoslavia (1992–1994), and Director of the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR/Russian Federation (1990–1992).
Wikipedia source
1885 Sacha Guitry

Sacha Guitry

Russian-French actor, director, and playwright (died 1957)
Alexandre-Pierre Georges "Sacha" Guitry was a French stage actor, film actor, director, screenwriter, and playwright of the boulevard theatre. He was the son of a leading French actor, Lucien Guitry, and followed his father into the theatrical profession. He became known for his stage performances, particularly in boulevardier roles. He was also a prolific playwright, writing 115 plays throughout his career. He was married five times, always to rising actresses whose careers he furthered. Probably his best-known wife was Yvonne Printemps to whom he was married between 1919 and 1932.
Wikipedia source
1946 Alan Rickman

Alan Rickman

English actor and director (died 2016)
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman was an English actor. He was renowned for his stage and screen roles and for his deep and distinctive voice. He received various accolades, including a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and an Actor Award, in addition to nominations for two Tony Awards and a Laurence Olivier Award. In 2009, The Guardian named him one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination. Rickman died of pancreatic cancer on 14 January 2016, at the age of 69.
Wikipedia source
1955 Kelsey Grammer

Kelsey Grammer

American actor, singer, and producer
Allen Kelsey Grammer is an American actor and comedian. He gained fame for his role as the Harvard-educated Boston psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane on the NBC sitcom Cheers (1984–1993) and its spin-off Frasier. With more than 20 years on air, this is one of the longest-running roles played by a single live-action actor in primetime television history. He has received numerous accolades including a total of six Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, two Satellite Awards, two People's Choice Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Tony Award.
Wikipedia source
1977 Steve Francis

Steve Francis

American basketball player
Steven D'Shawn Francis is an American former professional basketball player. He was selected with the second overall pick of the 1999 NBA draft and was named co-NBA Rookie of the Year in his first season. He was a three-time NBA All-Star while playing for the Houston Rockets. Francis also played for the Orlando Magic and New York Knicks, finishing his career with the Beijing Ducks of the Chinese Basketball Association. He was known for his crossover dribble, driving ability, and flashy dunks. He was given the nickname Stevie Franchise.
Wikipedia source

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