Anniversaries 21 February

Birth

Shah Waliullah Dehlawi16

Indian muslim scholar 1703–1762

William Falconer5

British writer 1732–1769

Elizabeth Willing Powel1

American socialite and women letter writer 1743–1830

John Henry Newman37

English cleric and cardinal 1801–1890

Marie Bilders-van Bosse5

painter from the Netherlands 1837–1900

Jeanne Calment8

French supercentenarian who had the longest confirmed human… 1875–1934

The Mother41

spiritual collaborator of Sri Aurobindo 1878–1973

Waldemar Bonsels2

German writer 1880–1952

Sacha Guitry5

French dramatist and playwright 1885–1957

Henri Peyre4

American linguist 1901–1988

Raymond Queneau2

French poet 1903–1976

Anaïs Nin278

writer of novels, short stories, and erotica 1903–1977

W. H. Auden122

Anglo-American poet 1907–1973

Aron Brand Auraban1

Israeli physician 1910–1977

Douglas Bader8

British World War II flying ace 1910–1982

John Rawls63

American political philosopher 1921–2002

Pierre Hadot22

French historian and philosopher 1922–2010

Robert Mugabe29

former President of Zimbabwe 1924–2019

Sam Peckinpah2

American film director and screenwriter 1925–1984

Erma Bombeck64

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope… 1927–1996

Nina Simone7

American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil r… 1933–2003

Barbara Jordan9

American politician 1936–1996

Harald V of Norway8

King of Norway 1937

John Lewis (civil rights leader)11

American politician and civil rights leader 1940

Kitty Winn1

American actress 1943

David Geffen1

American record executive, film producer, theatrical produc… 1943

Kenichi Ohmae10

Japanese academic 1943

Sander Gilman3

American historian 1944

Anthony Daniels2

English actor 1946

Alan Rickman5

English film, television and stage actor 1946–2016

Olympia Snowe8

United States Senator from Maine 1947

Elizabeth Aston1

English writer 1948–2016

Sahle-Work Zewde1

President of Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia 1950

Jeff Shaara1

American writer 1952

Kelsey Grammer1

American actor, comedian, producer, director, writer, voice… 1955

Ha Jin1

Chinese-American novelist, short story writer and poet 1956

David D. Levine20

science fiction writer 1961

Chuck Palahniuk555

American novelist, essayist 1962

David Foster Wallace185

American fiction writer and essayist 1962–2008

Karl Lauterbach2

German politician and Federal Minister of Health 1963

Albert Bryan1

Governor of the United States Virgin Islands 1968

James Dean Bradfield1

Welsh musician, lead singer and guitarist of the Manic Stre… 1969

Bret Weinstein4

biologist, professor, public intellectual 1969

Randy Blythe5

American musician 1971

Jacob M. Appel27

American author, bioethicist, physician, lawyer and social … 1973

Michael McIntyre15

British comedian 1976

Jonathan Safran Foer262

Novelist 1977

Bryan Lee O'Malley18

Artist 1979

Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck2

King of Bhutan 1980

Darrell Edward Brooks1

American rapper and suspect of 2021 Waukesha parade attack 1982

Katie McGrath2

Irish actress 1983

Ellen Page15

Canadian actress 1987

Corbin Bleu7

American actor, model, dancer, producer, and singer-songwri… 1989

Death

James I of Scotland6

King of Scots 1394–1437

Pope Julius II2

pope from 1503 to 1513 1443–1513

Robert Southwell20

English Jesuit 1561–1595

Baruch Spinoza210

Dutch philosopher 1632–1677

Robert Hall15

British Baptist pastor 1764–1831

Charles Wolfe6

Irish poet 1791–1823

Nikolai Gogol39

Russian writer 1809–1852

Constant Troyon2

French painter 1810–1865

Helen Hooven Santmyer1

American novelist 1895–1986

Augusto Sandino1

Nicaraguan revolutionary 1895–1934

Gershom Scholem7

German-born Israeli philosopher and historian 1897–1982

Mary Lasker1

American health activist and founder of Lasker Awards 1900–1994

Mikhail Sholokhov6

Soviet writer 1905–1984

Gertrude B. Elion3

American biochemist and pharmacologist 1918–1999

Billy Graham32

American Christian evangelist 1918–2018

Margot Fonteyn6

English ballerina 1919–1991

Kenneth Arrow37

American economist 1921–2017

Desmond Leslie10

British pilot, film maker, writer, and musician 1921–2001

Robert Bolt13

English playwright 1924–1995

Malcolm X180

American human rights activist 1925–1965

Frank Delaney4

Irish writer and journalist 1942–2017