Did you know
However, Charles left Maryland for England in 1684 and would never return
Notable Deaths on February 21
81 people
4 – 2026
February 21 has seen 81 notable figures pass away throughout recorded history — from 4 – 2026. Below are the most significant names who died on this date.
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
1715 — Charles Calvert
3rd Baron Baltimore, English politician (born 1637)
Did you know
Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore was an English colonial administrator
Did you know
He inherited the province of Maryland in 1675 upon the death of his father, Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore
Did you know
He had been his father's Deputy Governor since 1661 when he arrived in the colony at the age of 24
Did you know
The events following the Glorious Revolution in England in 1688 would cost Calvert his title to Maryland; in 1689 the royal charter to the colony was withdrawn, leading to direct rule by the British Crown
Roman consul and grandson of Augustus (born 20 BC)
The 0s began on January 1, AD 1 and ended on December 31, AD 9, covering the first nine years of the Common Era.
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4
prior of the Benedictine monastery of Grandval
Saint Randoald was prior of the Benedictine Moutier-Grandval Abbey under Germanus of Granfelden. He is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic church.
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675
Japanese shōgun (born 1154)
Minamoto no Yoshinaka , also known as Kiso Yoshinaka , was a Japanese samurai lord mentioned in the epic poem The Tale of the Heike. A member of the Minamoto clan, he was a cousin and later rival of shogun Minamoto no…
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1184
archbishop of Tarentaise and crusader
Aymon de Briançon was a Burgundian nobleman and Carthusian monk who served as the archbishop of Tarentaise from around 1175 until his death. From 1186, he was a prince of the Holy Roman Empire. He took part in the Third…
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1211
Seneschal of Cyprus
Baldwin of Ibelin was the fourth of five sons of John I of Beirut and his second wife Melisende of Arsuf.
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1267
James I was King of Scots from 1406 to 1437. The youngest of three sons, he was born in Dunfermline Abbey to King Robert III and his wife Annabella Drummond. His older brother David, Duke of Rothesay died under…
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1437
Czech bishop and theologian (born 1396)
Jan Rokycana was a Czech Hussite theologian in the Kingdom of Bohemia and a key figure of the Bohemian Reformation.
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1471
Pope Julius II was head of the Catholic Church and leader of the Papal States from 1503 to his death, in February 1513.
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1513
Somalian general (born 1507)
Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi was the Imam of the Adal Sultanate from 1527 to 1543. Commonly named Ahmed Gragn in Amharic and Gurey in Somali, both meaning the left-handed, he led the invasion and conquest of Abyssinia…
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1543
German botanist and physician (born 1498)
Hieronymus Bock was a German botanist, physician, and Lutheran minister who began the transition from medieval botany to the modern scientific worldview by arranging plants by their relation or resemblance. The standard…
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1554
1572
3rd Earl of Warwick, English nobleman and general (born 1528)
Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick, KG was an English nobleman and general, and an elder brother of Queen Elizabeth I's favourite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Their father was John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland,…
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1590
English priest and poet (born 1561)
Robert Southwell, SJ, also Saint Robert Southwell, was an English Catholic priest of the Jesuit Order. He was also an author of Christian poetry in Elizabethan English, and a clandestine missionary in Elizabethan…
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1595
Dutch philosopher and scholar (born 1632)
Baruch (de) Spinoza, also known under his Latinized pen name Benedictus de Spinoza, was a philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, who was born and lived in the Dutch Republic. A forerunner of the Age of Enlightenment,…
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1677
Pope Benedict XIII, born Pietro Francesco Orsini and later called Vincenzo Maria Orsini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 29 May 1724 to his death in February 1730.
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1730
German jurist and diplomat (born 1756)
Georg Friedrich von Martens was a German jurist and diplomat. Educated at the universities of Göttingen, Regensburg and Vienna, he became professor of jurisprudence at Göttingen in 1783 and was ennobled in 1789. He was…
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1821
French general (born 1781)
Eugène Rose de Beauharnais was a French statesman and military officer who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Through the second marriage of his mother, Joséphine de Beauharnais, he was the stepson…
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1824
Indian queen and freedom fighter (born 1778)
Chennamma of Kittur was the Queen of the princely state of Kittur in present-day Karnataka. She led a rebellious armed resistance against the British East India Company, in order to retain control over her dominion. She…
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1829
Emperor Ninkō was the 120th emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession. Ninkō's reign spanned the years from 1817 until his death in 1846, and saw further deterioration of the power of the ruling…
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1846
German poet and physician (born 1786)
Justinus Andreas Christian Kerner was a German poet, practicing physician, and medical writer. He gave the first detailed description of botulism.
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1862
English-Australian politician, 3rd Premier of Tasmania (born 1804)
William Pritchard Weston was the third Premier of Tasmania.
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1888
American lieutenant and police officer (born 1846)
James H. Timberlake was an American law enforcement officer, Civil War soldier, farmer and rancher who served as a deputy U.S. marshal for the Western District of Missouri. Timberlake is best known for being the chief…
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1891
1918
German journalist and politician, Minister-President of Bavaria (born 1867)
Kurt Eisner was a German politician, revolutionary, journalist, and theatre critic. As a socialist journalist, he organized the socialist revolution that overthrew the Wittelsbach monarchy in Bavaria in November 1918,…
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1919
Dutch physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1853)
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes was a Dutch experimental physicist who became the first to liquefy helium, cooling it to near 1.5 kelvin (K). For this work, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1913.
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1926
Nicaraguan rebel leader (born 1895)
Augusto César Sandino was a Nicaraguan revolutionary, founder of the militant group EDSN, and leader of a rebellion between 1927 and 1933 against the United States occupation of Nicaragua. Despite being referred to as a…
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1934
American astronomer and academic (born 1868)
George Ellery Hale was an American astrophysicist best known for his discovery of magnetic fields in sunspots. He was also a key figure in the planning and construction of several world-leading telescopes: the 40-inch…
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1938
Canadian physician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1891)
Sir Frederick Grant Banting was a Canadian pharmacologist, orthopedist, and field surgeon. For his co-discovery of insulin and its therapeutic potential, Banting was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine…
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1941
Hungarian-French racing driver (born 1873)
Ferenc Szisz, was a Hungarian racing driver and the winner of the first Grand Prix motor racing event on a Renault AK 90CV on 26 June, 1906.
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1944
Scottish rugby player and runner (born 1902)
Eric Henry Liddell was a Scottish sprinter, rugby player and a Christian missionary. Born in Tianjin, China to Scottish missionary parents, he attended a boarding school near London, spending time when possible with his…
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1945
Belgian journalist (born 1911)
Lucien Alphonse Joseph "José" Streel was a Belgian journalist and supporter of Rexism. Streel was an important figure in the early years of the movement, when he was the main political philosopher of Rexism as an…
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1946
American composer (born 1881)
Fannie Charles Dillon was an American pianist, music educator and composer.
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1947
English footballer (born 1936)
Duncan Edwards was an English footballer who played as a left-half for Manchester United and the England national team. He was one of the Busby Babes, the young United team formed under manager Matt Busby in the…
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1958
1965
American author and screenwriter (born 1929)
Charles Beaumont was an American author of speculative fiction, including short stories in the horror and science fiction subgenres. He is remembered as a writer of classic Twilight Zone episodes, such as "The Howling…
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1967
Australian pathologist and pharmacologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1898)
Howard Walter Florey, Baron Florey of Adelaide and Marston, was an Australian pharmacologist and pathologist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Ernst Chain and Sir Alexander Fleming "for…
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1968
Chinese general and politician (born 1914)
Zhang Guohua was a Chinese lieutenant general and a politician, serving during the invasion of Tibet and the Sino-Indian War and later as a Chinese Communist Party Committee Secretary for the Tibet Autonomous Region.
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1972
Russian-American dancer and choreographer (born 1891)
Bronislava Nijinska was a Russian ballet dancer of Polish origin, and an innovative choreographer. She came of age in a family of traveling, professional dancers.
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1972
French cardinal (born 1884)
Eugène-Gabriel-Gervais-Laurent Tisserant was a French prelate and cardinal of the Catholic Church. Elevated to the cardinalate in 1936, Tisserant was a prominent and long-time member of the Roman Curia.
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1972
Canadian ice hockey player and businessman, co-founded Tim Hortons (born 1930)
Miles Gilbert "Tim" Horton was a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman who played 24 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL). He spent the majority of his career playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs, later…
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1974
German-Swiss author (born 1914)
Alfred Hellmuth Andersch was a German writer, publisher, and radio editor. The son of a conservative East Prussian army officer, he was born in Munich, Germany, and died in Berzona, Ticino, Switzerland. Martin Andersch,…
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1980
German-Israeli historian and philosopher (born 1897)
Gershom Scholem was an Israeli philosopher and historian. Widely regarded as the founder of modern academic study of the Kabbalah, Scholem was appointed the first professor of Jewish mysticism at Hebrew University of…
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1982
Russian novelist and short story writer, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1905)
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov was a Russian novelist and winner of the 1965 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is known for writing about life and fate of Don Cossacks during the Russian Revolution, the civil war and the…
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1984
South African-American actor (born 1909)
Louis Charles Hayward was a South African-born, British-American actor.
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1985
American novelist (born 1895)
Helen Hooven Santmyer was an American writer, educator, and librarian. She is primarily known for her best-selling epic "...And Ladies of the Club", published when she was in her 80s.
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1986
Australian poet, critic, and academic (born 1915)
Dorothy Auchterlonie was an English-born Australian academic, literary critic and poet.
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1991
1991
Danish seismologist and geophysicist (born 1888)
Inge Lehmann was a Danish seismologist and geophysicist who is known for her discovery in 1936 of the solid inner core that exists within the molten outer core of the Earth. She also discovered the seismic discontinuity…
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1993
German general and pilot (born 1913)
Johannes "Macky" Steinhoff was a Luftwaffe fighter ace during World War II, German general, and NATO official. He was one of very few Luftwaffe pilots who survived to fly operationally through the whole of the war…
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1994
English dramatist (born 1924)
Robert Oxton Bolt was an English playwright and a screenwriter, known for writing the screenplays for Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, and A Man for All Seasons, the latter two of which won him the Academy Award for…
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1995
American pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1913)
Morton Gould was an American composer, conductor, arranger, and pianist.
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1996
American biochemist and pharmacologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1918)
Gertrude "Trudy" Belle Elion was an American biochemist and pharmacologist, who shared the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with George H. Hitchings and Sir James Black for their use of innovative methods of…
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1999
Finnish soldier and pilot (born 1914)
Eino Ilmari "Illu" Juutilainen was a fighter pilot of the Ilmavoimat, and the top scoring non-German fighter pilot of all time. The top flying ace of the Finnish Air Force, he led all Finnish pilots in score against…
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1999
American baseball player and politician (born 1930)
Wilmer David "Vinegar Bend" Mizell Sr. was an American baseball player and politician. From 1952 to 1962, he was a left-handed pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Mets of Major League…
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1999
2002
Welsh footballer and manager (born 1931)
William John Charles was a Welsh footballer who played at centre-forward and centre-back. Best known for his time at Leeds United and Juventus, he was rated by many as the greatest all-round footballer ever to come…
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2004
Cuban author, screenwriter, and critic (born 1929)
Guillermo Cabrera Infante was a Cuban novelist, essayist, translator, screenwriter, and critic; in the 1950s he used the pseudonym G. Caín, and used Guillermo Cain for the screenplay of the cult classic film Vanishing…
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2005
Polish painter, photographer, and sculptor (born 1929)
Zdzisław Beksiński was a Polish painter, photographer, and sculptor.
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2005
American actor (born 1928)
Benjamin F. Chapman Jr. was an American actor best known as playing the Gill-man on land in the 1954 horror film Creature from the Black Lagoon.
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2008
American author and screenwriter, co-founded Milestone Media (born 1962)
Dwayne Glenn McDuffie was an American writer of comic books and television. He co-founded the pioneering minority-owned-and-operated comic book company Milestone Media, which focused on underrepresented minorities in…
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2011
American physician and activist (born 1926)
Bernard N. Nathanson was an American physician, abortion rights advocate turned anti-abortion activist, and a prominent figure in the abortion debate in the United States. He was originally a co-founder in 1969 of the…
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2011
American general (born 1922)
Harry Max Darmstandler was an American Air Force major general who was special assistant to the chief of staff for B-1 Matters, Headquarters, United States Air Force, Washington, D.C. In this capacity, he coordinated…
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2012
Swedish footballer (born 1925)
Hans Olof "Hasse" Jeppson was a Swedish professional footballer who played as a striker. He was known for his impressive goals to games ratio at several clubs, and represented Kungsbacka IF) Örgryte, Djurgården,…
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2013
Cuban-American baseball player (born 1935)
Héctor Anibal Maestri Garcia was a Cuban-born Major League Baseball pitcher. Maestri was one of nine ballplayers to have appeared for both of the 20th century, American League Washington Senators franchises, and one of…
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2014
Australian snowboarder (born 1985)
Matthew John Robinson was an Australian Paralympic snowboarder who died as a result of a snowboarding accident at La Molina, Spain.
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2014
German–American historian, playwright, and academic (born 1939)
Professor Cornelius Schnauber was a German-born scholar, historian, playwright, biographer, and educator. At the time of his death, he was emeritus associate professor of German at the University of Southern California…
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2014
Russian general, pilot, and astronaut (born 1931)
Aleksei Aleksandrovich Gubarev was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on two space flights: Soyuz 17 and Soyuz 28.
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2015
Iranian journalist and politician (born 1943)
Sadegh Tabatabaei was an Iranian writer, journalist, TV host, university professor at the University of Tehran and politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister from 1979 to 1980. He was also Deputy Minister of the…
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2015
American trumpet player, composer, and educator (born 1920)
Clark Virgil Terry Jr. was an American swing and bebop trumpeter, a pioneer of the flugelhorn in jazz, and a composer and educator.
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2015
Scottish-English captain and pilot (born 1919)
Captain Eric Melrose "Winkle" Brown,, Hon FRAeS was a British Royal Navy officer and test pilot who flew 487 types of aircraft, more than anyone else in history.
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2016
Guinean teacher and politician (born 1926)
Jeanne Martin Cissé was a Guinean teacher and nationalist politician who served as ambassador to the United Nations and in 1972 was the first woman to serve as President of the United Nations Security Council. She…
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2017
American evangelist (born 1918)
William Franklin Graham Jr. was an American evangelist, ordained Southern Baptist minister, and civil rights advocate, whose broadcasts and world tours featuring live sermons became well known in the mid-to-late 20th…
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2018
American film director (born 1924)
Stanley Donen was an American film director and choreographer. He received the Honorary Academy Award in 1998, and the Career Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2004. Four of his films have been inducted into…
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2019
American musician and actor (born 1942)
Peter Halsten Thorkelson, better known by his stage name Peter Tork, was an American musician and actor. He was best known as the bass guitarist and keyboardist of the Monkees and co-star of the NBC television series of…
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2019
Colombian classical pianist (born 1928)
María Mireya Arboleda Cadavid was a Colombian classical pianist and teacher.
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2021
Australian rugby league player (born 1958)
Kevin George Dann was an Australian professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1970s and 1980s. He played his entire club football career with the Penrith Panthers, as a fullback.
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2021
United States Army brigadier general and decorated veteran of the Vietnam War (born 1934)
John C. "Doc" Bahnsen Jr. was a United States Army brigadier general and decorated veteran of the Vietnam War.
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2024
American Secret Service agent (born 1932)
Clinton J. Hill was a United States Secret Service agent who served under five U.S. presidents, from Dwight D. Eisenhower to Gerald Ford. Hill is best known for his act of bravery on November 22, 1963, when President…
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2025
American actress (born 1946)
Lynne Marie Stewart was an American actress, widely known for her performance as Miss Yvonne, "the Most Beautiful Woman in Puppet Land." She originated the role in the 1981 stage show, The Pee-wee Herman Show. She…
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2025
American football player (born 2000)
Rondale DaSean Moore was an American professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Purdue Boilermakers, where he was named a consensus…
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2026
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February 21 in the Blog
The Battle of Orsha - February 21, 1514
1514 Battle of Orsha, Orsha, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, witness a pivotal clash
Read the full storyNotable deaths
Who died on February 21?
Charles Calvert — English colonial administrator (1637–1715)
FeaturedCharles Calvert
Death year1715
Known forHe inherited the province of Maryland in 1675 upon the death of his father, Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore
Deaths on this date81 (4 – 2026)
Explore February 21
Jump between the main pages for this date to compare events, people, and the daily quiz.
Also on February 21 in History
2022
In the prelude to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine Russian President Vladimir Putin declares the Luhansk People's Republic and Donetsk People's Republic as independent from Ukraine, and moves troops into the region. The action is condemned by the United Nations. Wikipedia →
2013
At least 17 people are killed and 119 injured following several bombings in the Indian city of Hyderabad. Wikipedia →
1995
See all events on February 21
Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon. Wikipedia →
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