On This Day: February 21st

In the prelude to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine Russian President Vladimir Putin declares the Luhansk People's Republic and Donetsk People's Republic as independent from Ukraine, and moves troops into the region. The action is condemned by the United Nations.

At least 17 people are killed and 119 injured following several bombings in the Indian city of Hyderabad.

Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.

Aldrich Ames is arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for selling national secrets to the Soviet Union in Arlington County, Virginia.

Watergate scandal: Former United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are sentenced to prison.

The last Israeli soldiers leave the west bank of the Suez Canal pursuant to a truce with Egypt.

Over the Sinai Desert, Israeli fighter aircraft shoot down Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 jet killing 108 people.

United States President Richard Nixon visits China to normalize Sino-American relations.

The Soviet uncrewed spaceship Luna 20 lands on the Moon.

The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.