Malcolm X, who preached concepts of racial pride and black nationalism in the US, was assassinated during a lecture he was giving at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights by members of his former organization Nation of Islam. The posthumous release of The Autobiography of Malcolm X made him an ideological hero.
Other notable events on February 21st:
In 1972, US President Richard Nixon visits China, ending a 21-year estrangement between the two countries.

In 1958, the peace symbol is designed by Gerald Holtom. It is meant to symbolize an abbreviation of “Nuclear Disarmament” by using semaphore symbols of the letters N and D.

In 1925, the American weekly magazine The New Yorker is published for the first time.

In 1848, The Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, is first published.

Malcom X/ Library of Congress