Check out This Date in History for February 21, in MainStream’s daily look at significant progressive, intersectional historical events.
1431: The three-month interrogation of Joan of Arc, the 19-year-old French spiritualist and military leader who was eventually burned at the stake for heresy and cross-dressing, begins. Joan first sought to lead France against England when she was 16 and led soldiers to several victories, but eventually fell out of favor with the French monarchy and people for dressing like a man and refusing several orders of the court.
Clockwise from top left: Ingred Berman as Joan of Arc in the 1948 film of the same name; the Cherokee Phoenix masthead; Generals Charles Q. Brown and Lisa Franchetti; the ice skates of Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi; and the late Malcolm X
1828: The Cherokee Phoenix, the first-ever Native American newspaper, begins printing. It’s also the first newspaper published in a native language, featuring three columns in Cherokee. Although it stopped publishing after the Cherokee removal to Oklahoma, the Phoenix is revived in the late 20th century and continues today.
1848: The Communist Manifesto is published by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Written for a Communist group in London, the Manifesto is an outline of the beliefs of socialists at the time and of Marx’s beliefs about history.
1863: The U.S. government forces the entire Winnebago (Ho Chunk) tribe to leave Minnesota, leading to the deaths of at least 550 tribe members. The Winnebago had already been forced to relocate to Minnesota from their original Illinois home by the expanding U.S. government; prior to their official ejection to a barren area of South Dakota, The Winnebago and many other Native American tribes had faced constant attacks from the “Knights of the Forest,” Ku Klux Klan-related group that had declared its mission to remove all indigenous people from Minnesota.
1864: Amerca’s first-ever Black Catholic Parish, St. Francis Xavier, is dedicated in Baltimore, Md. The congregation originated with Black Catholic refugees from Haiti, and became popular with free Black people in Baltimore.
1903: New York City police raid the Ariston Bathhouse in the first-ever known police raid on a gay establishment. Of the 78 men apprehended, 36 were arrested, 12 were charged with sodomy and seven were sentenced to prison.
1916: The Germans attack the French in the Battle of Verdun, the nine-month battle known as the longest and bloodiest battle of World War 1. More than 400,000 were injured, and 300,000 killed. The French eventually defeated the Germans in the battle, but six French villages were destroyed. The Verdun area of France to this day remains filled with unexploded munitions and is undevelopable.
Kristi Yamaguchi’s gold medal-winning skate in 1992.
1965: Civil Rights leader Malcolm X is assassinated by a member of the Nation of Islam. Malcolm X found the Nation of Islam in prison and served as their spokesman for 12 years, but left after several public disagreements. Malcolm X began receiving death threats from the Nation in the year before his death.
1992: Kristi Yamaguchi is the first Asian American to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics. She wins the gold for ladies’ singles figure skating. Yamaguchi retires from competing after her win, but continues as a professional figure skater for over a decade
2025: Several top military leaders are removed by the Trump Administration, including top U.S. general Charles Q. Brown and Navy chief Admiral Lisa Franchetti. President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says these are part of “anti-DEI” efforts in the military; Brown is the second Black man in his position and Franchetti is the first woman in hers.
Photos courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
