Feb 21 1803
Edward Despard and six co-conspirators were hanged, drawn, and quartered at Horsemonger Lane Gaol for plotting to assassinate England's King George III and to destroy the Bank of England. He is the last person to suffer this punishment.
Feb 21 1885
America's greatest phallic symbol, the Washington Monument, is dedicated by President Chester A. Arthur. The shaft towers over 555 into the air, and sports an aluminum foreskin.
Feb 21 1916
Start of the Battle of Verdun, which in nine months yielded 975,000 casualties and almost no change in the front line. It is the bloodiest battle in history, and often the one remarked as having the "highest density of dead per square yard."
Feb 21 1931
The first attempted hijacking of an airplane occurs when revolutionary soldiers in Peru seize a Ford Tri-motor and demand pilots drop propaganda leaflets over the capital, Lima.
Feb 21 1965
Malcolm X assassinated in a Manhattan ballroom, probably by fellow black muslims.
Feb 21 1972
Nixon visits Red China, fulfilling the Vulcan proverb.
Feb 21 1988
Television evangelist Jimmy Swaggart of the Assemblies of God, with tears streaming down his face, confesses sinning with a prostitute in a Louisiana hotel room. A second scandal with yet another prostitute emerges in 1991, further killing his evangelical career.