21 February 1663

After accidentally straying into the airspace of the Israeli-occupied Sinai Peninsula, Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 was shot down by two Israeli fighter aircraft, killing 108 of the 113 people on board.

A number of student protesters demanding the establishment of Bengali as an official language were killed by police in Dhaka, East Pakistan.

Nanjing decade: In the first battle of the Warlord Rebellion in northeastern Shandong against the Nationalist government of China, a 24,000-strong rebel force led by Zhang Zongchang was defeated at Zhifu by 7,000 NRA troops.

Bavarian socialist Kurt Eisner, who had organized the German Revolution that overthrew the Wittelsbach monarchy and established Bavaria as a republic, was assassinated.

Lucy Hobbs Taylor (pictured) became the first woman to receive a doctorate from a dental college.

American Civil War: The Confederate Army began an attempt to gain control of the Southwest with a major victory in the Battle of Valverde.

The inaugural issue of the Cherokee Phoenix, the first newspaper in a Native American language, was published.

Jacobite rising of 1745: The siege of Inverness ended with British forces surrendering to the Jacobite army.

King James I of Scotland was murdered at Perth in a failed coup by his uncle and former ally Walter Stewart, Earl of Atholl.

In the prelude to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine Russian President Vladimir Putin declares the Luhansk People's Republic and Donetsk People's Republic as independent from Ukraine, and moves troops into the region. The action is condemned by the United Nations.

At least 17 people are killed and 119 injured following several bombings in the Indian city of Hyderabad.

Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.

Aldrich Ames is arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for selling national secrets to the Soviet Union in Arlington County, Virginia.

Watergate scandal: Former United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are sentenced to prison.

The last Israeli soldiers leave the west bank of the Suez Canal pursuant to a truce with Egypt.

Over the Sinai Desert, Israeli fighter aircraft shoot down Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 jet killing 108 people.

United States President Richard Nixon visits China to normalize Sino-American relations.

The Soviet uncrewed spaceship Luna 20 lands on the Moon.

The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.

The CND symbol, aka peace symbol, commissioned by the Direct Action Committee in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, is designed and completed by Gerald Holtom.

The British government, under Winston Churchill, abolishes identity cards in the UK to "set the people free".

The Bengali language movement protests occur at the University of Dhaka in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

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

World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, Japanese kamikaze planes sink the escort carrier USS Bismarck Sea and damage the USS Saratoga.