Friday 21st of February 1513

216th Pope Julius II dies of fever at the age of 70 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

Sunday 21st of February 1677

Philosopher Baruch Spinoza dies of silicosis at the age of 45 in Den Haag, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands.

Tuesday 21st of February 1730

245th Pope Benedictus XIII dies of silicosis at the age of 80 in Vatican City, Rome, Lazio, Italy.

Monday 21st of February 1848

30-year-old Economist and revolutionary communist Karl Heinrich Marx and Friedrich Engels publish the Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei in London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Saturday 21st of February 1903

Writer Anaïs Nin known for Delta of Venus is born as Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Île-de-France, France.

Saturday 21st of February 1903

Ida Launer is killed, cut to pieces and eaten by serial killer and cannibal Karl Denke aka Papa Denke in Teichstraße 10, Münsterberg, Niederschlesien, Germany.

According to Denke's well kept diaries Launer was his first victim. He even painstakingly noted his victim's weight.

Sunday 21st of February 1904

Soviet statesman Alexei Nikolayevich Kosygin is born in St. Petersburg, Northwestern Federal District, Russia.

Thursday 21st of February 1907

142 die in SS Berlin shipwreck in Hoek van Holland, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands.

Monday 21st of February 1910

Mobster and boss of the Bonanno crime family Carmine Galante aka The Cigar aka Lilo is born in New York, East Harlem, New York, United States.

Galante was rarely seen without a cigar, leading to the nickname 'The Cigar' and 'Lilo' (a Sicilian term for cigar).

Saturday 21st of February 1925

Inauguration of a monument in memory of the victims of 46-year-old Serial killer Fritz Friedrich Heinrich Karl Haarmann aka Der Hannover Werwolf in Stadtfriedhof Stocken, Abteilung 49D/189-192, Hannover, Niedersachsen, Germany.

Saturday 21st of February 1925

Film director Sam David Samuel Peckinpah aka The Picasso of Violence is born in Fresno, California, United States.

Saturday 21st of February 1925

Murderer Ronald Joseph Ryan is born as Ronald Edmond Thompson in The Royal Women's Hospital, 20 Flemington Rd, Carlton, Victoria, Australia.

Friday 21st of February 1930

Murderess Eva Dugan is executed by hanging at the age of 52 in Arizona State Prison Complex, 1305 E Butte Avenue, Florence, Arizona, United States.

At the end of the drop the snap of the rope decapitated Dugan, sending her head rolling to a stop at the feet of the spectators. The grisly scene caused five witnesses (two women and three men) to faint. Dugan has the distinction of being the only woman to be executed by hanging in Arizona. Although convicted for the murder of her employer Andrew J. Mathis, some sources claim Dugan was married five times and killed all of her husbands.

Tuesday 21st of February 1933

Singer, songwriter, musician and civil rights activist Nina Simone aka The High Priestess of Soul is born as Eunice Kathleen Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina, United States.

Tuesday 21st of February 1956

Mass murderer Cevdet Yılmaz is born in Boğazlıyan, Yozgat, Turkey.

Sunday 21st of February 1965

Revolutionary black activist Malcolm X aka El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz is shot in the chest with a sawed-off shotgun at the age of 40 in Audubon Ballroom, 3940 Broadway, New York City, New York, United States.

Two other men charged the stage firing semi-automatic handguns. Malcolm X was pronounced dead at 3:30 pm, shortly after arriving at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. The autopsy identified 21 gunshot wounds to the chest, left shoulder, arms and legs, including ten buckshot wounds from the initial shotgun blast. One gunman, Nation of Islam member Talmadge Hayer aka Thomas Hagan was beaten by the crowd before police arrived. Witnesses identified the other gunmen as Nation members Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson.

Monday 21st of February 1972

Eight members of the die Rote Armee Fraktion aka Baader-Meinhof Gruppe rob the Hypo-Bank of 285.000 marks in Ludwigshafen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany.

Wednesday 21st of February 1973

105 die in Libyan Arab Airlines Boeing 727-224 Flight 114 crash in Ismailiya, Sinai Peninsula, Egypt.

Libyan Arab Airline Flight 114 was lost and entered Israeli-controlled airspace over the Sinai Peninsula, where it was intercepted by two Israeli F-4 Phantom IIs, and was shot down after refusing to co-operate. There were six survivors.

Tuesday 21st of February 1984

45-year-old Marta Mikhailovna Ryabenko is stabbed to death and her nipples and uterus cut away by serial killer Andrei Chikatilo aka The Rostov Ripper in Park of Aviators, Rostov, Rostov Oblast, Russia.

Ryabenko was Chikatilo's oldest victim, a vagabond and an alcoholic.

Tuesday 21st of February 1995

Double murderer Samuel Christopher Hawkins is executed by lethal injection at the age of 52 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Thursday 21st of February 2002

A metal stairway in a school, location of an international exhibition of contemporary art in Brugge, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Tuesday 21st of February 2012

Serial killer Colin Ireland aka The Gay Slayer dies of pulmonary fibrosis at the age of 58 in Wakefield Prison, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom.