◆ On this day

February 21

4 sourced moments from February 21 in history: The First Railway Journey Hauled Iron, Not Passengers (1804); Marx and Engels publish The Communist Manifesto (1848); Edwin Land demonstrates the instant camera (1947), plus 1 more.

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4 things happened on February 21

newest first ↓

1965 History · Modern

Malcolm X assassinated in Harlem

The fiery civil rights leader was gunned down mid-speech at Harlem's Audubon Ballroom, his pregnant wife and daughters watching from the front rows.

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1947 Technology · Inventions

Edwin Land demonstrates the instant camera

Land photographed a roomful of optical scientists and, sixty seconds later, peeled away a finished portrait—photography without a darkroom.

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1848 Society & Economy · Politics & Law

Marx and Engels publish The Communist Manifesto

A slim anonymous pamphlet printed in London opened with class struggle and closed with a call to arms that would echo for a century.

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1804 Technology · Transportation

The First Railway Journey Hauled Iron, Not Passengers

On a Welsh tramroad in 1804, a hissing engine dragged ten tons of iron and seventy curious riders into the railway age.

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