What happened on 21 February?

8 events from the Ever-When timeline, ranked by how much they mattered.

1. 1916 Battle of Verdun Ten-month French-German bloodbath; symbol of WWI's industrial slaughter.
2. 1972 Nixon visits China U.S. president meets Mao Zedong; ends two decades of diplomatic estrangement.
3. 1804 Trevithick's first steam locomotive Hauled iron from Penydarren ironworks in South Wales — the first working railway steam locomotive.
4. 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948 Communist Party seizes power in Prague — Iron Curtain falls across Czechoslovakia.
5. 1893 Born: Andres Segovia Spanish guitarist who established the classical guitar as a concert instrument.
6. 1933 Born: Nina Simone American singer, pianist and civil-rights icon.
7. 1917 Sinking of the SS Mendi The troopship carrying men of the South African Native Labour Contingent sinks after a collision in fog off the Isle of Wight; more than 600 die.
8. 1965 Assassination of Malcolm X Malcolm X is shot dead at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan.