Today in History - History - February 21st

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

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

1173Pope Alexander III canonizes Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury

1972Richard Nixon becomes 1st US president to visit China

1975John Lennon releases "Rock 'n' Roll" album

2014US President Barack Obama meets with the Dalai Lama

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

1874Benjamin Disraeli succeeds William Gladstone as British premier

1895NC Legislature, adjourns for day to mark death of Frederick Douglass

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

1979Jennifer Love Hewitt, actress (Sarah Reeves-Party of Five)

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

1954Actor Leonard Nimoy (22) weds actress Sandra Zober

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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