Template:On this day - February 21

José Zorrilla

• 1521 – In Spain, the comunero army under the command of Juan de Padilla besieges the town of Torrelobatón and its castle.
• 1714 – By a Royal Decree of Philip V, the various Spanish naval forces are renamed the Royal Navy.
• 1794 – Birth of Antonio López de Santa Anna, Mexican politician and military officer, president on 11 occasions (d. 1876).
• 1807 – In Spain (with the authorization of Pope Pius VII), the sale is agreed of "the seventh part of the estates belonging to the churches, monasteries, convents, communities, foundations and any other ecclesiastical persons, including the patrimonial property of the four Military Orders and that of Saint John of Jerusalem" to relieve the distressing situation of the public Treasury.
• 1809 – In Zaragoza, the Defense Junta capitulates to the French army after several months of siege and more than fifty thousand dead.
• 1811 – In Chile (in the context of its independence), a free trade treaty is promulgated, replacing the Regulation of Free Trade of 1778, and which in practice means coming to depend on the British Empire.
• 1813 – Death of José de Viera y Clavijo, Spanish priest, historian, biologist and writer (b. 1731).
• 1817 – Birth of José Zorrilla, Spanish poet and playwright, author of Don Juan Tenorio (d. 1893).
• 1819 – Spain cedes to the United States the territories of Oregon and Florida by the Adams–Onís Treaty.
• 1833 – Death of Josefa Amar y Borbón, Spanish educator and writer (b. 1749).
• 1910 – In Spain, King Alfonso XIII signs a pardon decree for most of those convicted for the events of the Tragic Week of Barcelona.
• 1915 – In Mexico, General Venustiano Carranza orders the arrest of numerous Mexican and foreign priests; the latter are ordered to leave the country under Article 33 of the Federal Constitution of the United Mexican States of 1857.
• 1920 – In Spain, the government of Manuel Allendesalazar Muñoz resigns.
• 1920 – The Argentine inventor Raúl Pateras Pescara patents the first viable helicopter in history.
• 1924 – General Miguel Primo de Rivera closes the Ateneo de Madrid in Spain and banishes Miguel de Unamuno after stripping him of his chair at the University of Salamanca.
• 1934 – In Nicaragua, Augusto César Sandino, Francisco Estrada and Juan Pablo Umanzor are murdered on the orders of Anastasio Somoza García, then head of the National Guard, with the complicity of army officers.
• 1936 – In Spain, General Franco is dismissed as Chief of the Army General Staff, after which he is transferred to the Canary Islands.
• 1942 – In Uruguay, a coup d'état takes place that means General Alfredo Baldomir stays on as president.
• 1958 – In Ifni (present-day Morocco), the second phase of the Ifni War begins.
• 1960 – In Cuba, the government of Fidel Castro nationalizes all companies, placing all production processes under state control.
• 1978 – In Mexico City, workers of the Compañía de Luz y Fuerza del Centro discover the monolith known as "La Coyolxauhqui", opening a new stage of research that would lead to the discovery of the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan.
• 2005 – Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Cuban writer and screenwriter, winner of the Cervantes Prize in 1997, dies in London (b. 1929).
• 2016 – A constitutional referendum is held in Bolivia to allow a new re-election of President Evo Morales; it is rejected with 51% of the votes.
• 2023 – The United States Department of State approves the extradition to Peru of former president Alejandro Toledo.