Unix Timestamp: 1235174400
Saturday, February 21. 2009, 12:00:00 AM UTC

Greek government debt crisis: Eurozone finance ministers reach an agreement on a second, €130-billion Greekbailout.

The United States Navy shoots down USA 193, a spy satellite in a decaying orbit, over the Pacific Ocean. //www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8UUFA002show_article=1 (AP via Breitbart.com) Officials believe the targeted hydrazine fuel tank was destroyed, and no longer poses a threat. //www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,331642,00.html (FoxNews.com) //dodvclips.mil/index.jsp?auto_band=xrf=svfr_story=FRd250959rf/ (U.S. DoD video)

A Santa Barbara Airlines Flight 518 is reported missing in Venezuela with 46 people on board. //afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i5ASDt26gu6-twig3Kx4hyWw6UGw (AFP via Google News)

Early results from Iran's parliamentary elections show conservative candidates get victory over reformists. //www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=06732116-6501-40F2-840311BDA8B8F897title=Early%20Results%20Show%20Huge%20Victory%20for%20Conservatives%20in%20Iranian%20Election (VOA)

Prime Minister Tony Blair is under pressure from British human rights groups and MPs because of the government's sweeping powers under the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act, which have allowed the detention of 14 foreign terrorist suspects in the UK at what has been described as 'Britain's Guantanamo Bay'. //news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=493598 (The Independent)

Michael Jordan makes NBA history when he scores 43 points for the Washington Wizards versus the New Jersey Nets, becoming the first player over 40 years old to score 40 or more points in a game, and leading the Wizards to a 89–86 win.

UNESCO holds the inaugural celebration of International Mother Language Day.

The Albertinkatu shootings in Helsinki, Finland: Three men are killed and 1 wounded at a shooting range.

King Fahd of Saudi Arabia announces his medical recovery in the national press and assumes power again from his brother, Crown Prince Abdullah.

The United Nations Security Council approves Resolution 743 to send a UNPROFOR peacekeeping force to Yugoslavia.

Electrical workers in Mexico City find the remains of the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in the middle of the city.

Watergate scandal: Former United States Attorney GeneralJohn N. Mitchell, and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, are sentenced to between 30 months and 8 years in prison.

Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 (Boeing 727) is shot down by Israeli fighter aircraft over the Sinai Desert, after the passenger plane is suspected of being an enemy military plane. Only 5 (1 crew member and 4 passengers) of 113 survive.

The Soviet unmanned spaceship "Luna 20" lands on the Moon.

February 28 – U.S. President Richard M. Nixon makes an unprecedented 8-day visit to the People's Republic of China and meets with Mao Zedong.

Aldershot bombing: An Official IRA bomb kills 7 in Aldershot, England.

A Lufthansa plane is hijacked and taken to Aden. Passengers are released after a ransom of 16 million German marks is agreed.

The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.

Construction begins on the Boğaziçi Bridge crossing the Bosphorus in Istanbul.

frican-American Muslim minister and human rights activist Malcolm X was assassinated.

An earthquake destroys the village of Barce, Libya, killing 900.

Female suffrage is enacted in Iran.

Juan Bosch takes office as the 41st president of the Dominican Republic.

Arturo Frondizi is elected president of Argentina.

A peace symbol is designed and completed by Gerald Holtom, commissioned by the Caign for Nuclear Disarmament, in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment.

Cuban rebels kidnap five-time world driving chion Juan Manuel Fangio, releasing him 28 hours later.

In Dhaka, East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh) police open fire on a procession of students, killing 4 people and starting a country-wide protest which leads to the recognition of Bengali as one of the national languages of Pakistan. The day is later declared International Mother Language Day by UNESCO.

Cunard liner RMS Aquitania arrives at the scrapyard in Faslane at the end of a 36 year career, the longest of any in the 20th Century.

The stock car racing series Nascar is founded by Bill France Sr. and William France, Sr.

In New York City, Edwin Land demonstrates the first instant camera, his Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.

The last V-2-rocket is launched from Peenemünde.

Sit-down strikes are outlawed by the Supreme Court of the United States.

The Golden Gate International Exposition opens in San Francisco, California.

March ndash The 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine ends.

The United Kingdom and France recognize Franco's government.

Borley Rectory in England is destroyed by fire.

March ndash The first issue of "Detective Comics" is published in the United States. Twenty-seven issues later, "Detective Comics" introduces Batman. The magazine goes on to become the longest continually published comic book in American history it is still published .

The League of Nations Non-Intervention Committee prohibits foreign nationals from fighting in the Spanish Civil War.

Augusto César Sandino is assassinated in Managua by the National Guard.

Peruvian revolutionaries hijack a Ford Trimotor aeroplane and demand that the pilot drop propaganda leaflets over Lima.

"The New Yorker" magazine publishes its first issue.

The island province of Marinduque in the Philippines archipelago is founded.

The last captive Carolina Parakeet (the last breed of parrot native to the eastern United States) dies at the Cincinnati Zoo.

WWI: The Battle of Verdun begins in France.

Springhill, Nova Scotia suffers a serious mining disaster.

United States PresidentChester A. Arthur dedicates the Washington Monument.

The "Oakland Daily Tribune" publishes its first newspaper.

American Civil War: Battle of Valverde fought near Fort Craig in New Mexico Territory.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish the Communist Manifesto.

Chumash Revolt of 1824 begins against the Spanish presence in The Californias.

Great Stock Exchange Fraud in London.

Finnish War: Russian troops cross the border into Finland without a declaration of war.

The Cornishman Richard Trevithick's newly-built Penydarren steam locomotive operates on the Merthyr Tramroad between Penydarren in Merthyr Tydfil and Abercynon in South Wales, following several trials since February 13, the world's first locomotive to work on rails.

February ndash The 1804 Haiti Massacre, an ethnic cleansing, eradicates the white population on Haiti it is not stopped until 22 April.

John Wedgwood founds the Royal Horticultural Society.ref name=Pocket On This Day

Thomas Charles is instrumental in founding the British and Foreign Bible Society.

Edward Despard and six others are hanged and beheaded for plotting to assassinate King George III of the United Kingdom and to destroy the Bank of England.

26 ndash Seven Years' War ndash At the Battle of Carrickfergus in the north of Ireland, a force of French troops under the command of privateerFrançois Thurot captures and holds the town and castle of Carrickfergus before retiring the force is defeated (and Thurot killed) in a naval action in the Irish Sea on February 28.

George Frideric Handel's oratorio, "Samson" premieres in London .

May ndash Nicolaus Copernicus publishes "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" in Nuremberg. In it, he denies the geocentric model and says all planets revolve around the sun. Copernicus dies on the 24th at the age of 70.

March ndash King Gustav Vasa's troops crush the forces of Swedish peasant rebel Nils Dacke in battle, ending the uprising. Dacke escapes but is captured and killed in the summer.

Battle of Wayna Daga: A joint Ethiopian-Portuguese force of 8,500 under Emperor Gelawdewos, defeats Imam Ahmad Gran's army of over 14,000, ending the Ethiopian–Adal War.

The Prussian Confederation is formed.

Athanasius returns to Alexandria and convenes a council at which he appeals for unity among Christians who differ in terminology, but emperor Julian orders Athanasius to leave Alexandria. He will remain in exile in Upper Egypt until after Julian's death next year.