On this day: 21 February Highlights in history :
1613 - Michael Romanov, son of the patriarch of Moscow, is elected czar of Russia, thus founding the House of Romanov.
1657 - 
Jan van Riebeeck allots ground beyond the Liesbeeck River to the first Free Burghers of the Cape.
1795 - 
Dutch surrender Ceylon - now Sri Lanka - to British;
also in 1795 - 
freedom of worship is established in France.
1838 - 
American Samuel Morse gives the first public demonstration of the telegram in 
New York.
1842 - The Boers of Natalia send a solemn protest to the governor of the Cape of Good Hope, Sir George Napier, against the occupation of any part of their country by British troops and declare themselves free from any responsibility for possible consequences.
1849 - 
British forces defeat Sikhs at Gujrat in India.
1858 - 
Walter Benson Rubusana (1858 - 1936)-Theologian, educationist and political leader - born at Mnandi, near Somerset East. Rubusana was admitted to Lovedale, the Free Church of Scotland mission school on the banks of the Tyhume River. Studied for Cape Teachers' Certificate, passing with distinction in 1878. He was elected as member of the Cape Provincial Council for Tembuland in 1910, becoming the first black member of the council, and served until 1914. Click here for more
1866 - 
Lucy B Hobbs becomes the first American woman to graduate from dental school, the Ohio College of Dental Surgery in Cincinnati.
1877 - Jacob du Toit (Totius) - Afrikaans poet and theologian- is born at Paarl.
1878 - 
First United States telephone directory is issued, by the District Telephone Co of New Haven, Connecticut.
1885 - 
US President Chester A Arthur dedicates the Washington Monument.
1916 - 
Battle of Verdun in France begins with a massive German artillery bombardment. It is the longest and bloodiest battle of World War I, with more than one million killed.
1919 - Bavarian Premier Kurt Risner is assassinated in Munich.
1921 - 
Brigadier Reza Khan overthrows Iranian government in military coup and later becomes shah.
1922 - 
British protectorate in Egypt ends.
1925 - The New Yorker magazine makes its debut.
1934 - 
French troops combat Berbers in South West Morocco.
1947 - King George VI opens the South African Parliament.
1963 - 
Soviet Union warns US that an American attack on Cuba will mean world war.
1965 - Former Black Muslim leader Malcolm X is shot and killed by assassins identified as Black Muslims as he was about to address a rally in New York City.
1972 - 
US President Richard M Nixon arrives in 
Beijing for a weeklong visit that paves the road for normalised American-China relations.
1975 - 
A 32-member UN Commission on Human Rights, in Geneva, accuses Israel of violating "basic norms of international law" in Arab territories it occupies.
Also in 1975 - Dr Nic Diederichs is elected South African president in succession to Jim Fouche.
1986 - South African government opens "whites only" downtown districts of Johannesburg and Durban to all races in the first break with apartheid policy of segregated business areas.
1989 - 
Islamic rebels fire rockets into Afghanistan capital of Kabul, killing one person and injuring three others;
Also in 1989 - 
playwright Vaclav Havel is convicted for his role in an offically banned rally in Czechoslovakia.
1992 - For the first time since the Communist revolution of 1949, China welcomes foreigners back to its Shanghai stock market. Also in 1992 - The Supreme Council for Sport in Africa gives permission for South Africa to return to Pan-African and international sport.
1993 - 
A UN relief convoy brings food and medicine to the besieged eastern Bosnian town of Zepa.
1994 - 
Commandos storm the Afghan embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, freeing five schoolboys and killing three Afghan gunmen who had held them hostage for nearly 40 hours in a demand for money and food.
1995 - 
The US and Mexico agree on the terms of a $20bn rescue package for Mexico
1996 - 
In Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, police fire into a carnival crowd after a man pulls out a gun near a float. Two people are killed and more than 50 injured.
1997 - 
Belgrade's first non-Communist government in a half-century takes office and elects opposition leader Zoran Djindjic mayor of the Yugoslav capital.
1998 - 
The US advises its citizens to leave Iraq, in expectation of new airstrikes.
1999 - 
The party of general Olusegun Obasanjo narrowly wins in Nigeria's legislative elections, giving him the edge in an upcoming presidential election and signaling a return to democracy.
2000 - In a clear endorsement of moderate President Mohammed Khatami, voters reject Iran's hard-liners, giving reformists the largest number of seats in parliament.
2001 - More than 1,000 people watch as two women convicted of prostitution are hanged in southern Kandahar, the headquarters of the Taliban. The women, also convicted of "corrupting society", are executed in the sports stadium.
2002 - US and Pakistani officials confirm that Daniel Pearl, correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, kidnapped a month earlier in Karachi, has been killed by his captors.
2005 - 
Tens of thousands march through Beirut in the biggest anti-Syrian protest in Lebanese history amid signals that Syria will soon begin withdrawing its troops
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