Today in History - History - February 21st

1991Neil Simon's "Lost in Yonkers," premieres in NYC

1874Benjamin Disraeli succeeds William Gladstone as British premier

1965Rights activist Malcolm X is shot dead by Nation of Islam followers at Audubon Ballroom in New York

1969Ted Williams signs 5-year contract to manage Wash Senators

1953F Crick & J Watson discover structure of DNA-molecule

2014US President Barack Obama meets with the Dalai Lama

1431Joan of Arc's first day of interrogation during her trial for heresy

1986Tennis star Jimmy Connors fined $20,000 & suspended for 10 weeks

1173Pope Alexander III canonizes Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury

2003Bill Maher's political talk show "Real Time with Bill Maher" debuts on HBO

1946Alan Rickman, actor (Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, Harry Potter)

1924Robert Mugabe, president (Zimbabwe, 1988- )

1975Cincinnati Reds catcher Johnny Bench (27) weds Vickie Chesser in Cincinnati, Ohio

1807US President Martin Van Buren (24) weds highschool sweetheart Hannah Hoes (23) in Catskill, New York

1988Actor Dudley Moore (53) weds actress Brogan Lane at the Little Chapel of the West in Las Vegas

1952Actress Elizabeth Taylor (19) marries for the 2nd time to actor Michael Wilding (39)

1965Malcolm X, [Little], black Moslem leader and human rights activist, assassinated in NYC at 39

1941Frederick Banting, Canadian physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1891)

1513Julius II, [Giuliano dellea Rovere], Pope (1503-13), dies at 69

1437King James I of Scotland dies at 42

1974Tim Horton, Canadian hockey player and co-founder of Tim Hortons, dies in a car crash at 44

1968Howard Florey, pharmacologist/Pathologist, Nobel Prize Laureate, dies at 69