This Day in History: Richard Nixon became the first serving U.S. president to visit China

The following are some of the major events to have occurred on February 21:

1919 – International Socialist and Bavarian Premier Herr Kurt Eisner shot and killed.

1948 – NASCAR founded in Daytona Beach, Florida.

1972 – Richard Nixon became the first serving U.S. president to visit China, ending over two decades of Sino-U.S. enmity.

1989 – Czech dissident playwright Vaclav Havel was jailed by Prague’s communist authorities for incitement and obstruction. After the fall of communism, he became his country’s president.

1995 – Adventurer Steve Fossett ends record-breaking balloon trip across Pacific in Canada.

1999 – NATO prepares for possible attacks on Serbia.

2002 – U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl confirmed dead after kidnapping in Pakistan.

2002 – U.S. President George W. Bush visited China exactly 30 years after Nixon’s landmark trip.

2003 – Singer Bono honoured by Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

2013 – Two bicycle bombs explode in Hyderabad market, killing at least 11 people.

2014 – World’s largest vegetable mosaic in Indian state of Punjab.

(Reuters)