On this day in history - February 21

What Happened On This Day – February 21

• 1972 U.S. President Richard Nixon embarks on his historic visit to China

  The first visit of a U.S. President in China was an important step in normalizing relations between the two countries.

• 1958 The peace symbol is designed by Gerald Holtom

  The symbol was commissioned by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and combines the semaphore symbols for the letters N and D - an abbreviation of “Nuclear Disarmament”.

• 1878 The world's first telephone book is issued in New Haven, Connecticut

  The directory consisted of a single piece of cardboard and comprised 50 numbers.

• 1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish “The Communist Manifesto”

  “Das Kommunistische Manifest” outlined the sociopolitical worldview today called “Marxism” and was translated from German into over 100 languages.

• 1804 The world's first railway journey takes place in Wales

  The first full-scale steam locomotive, built by Richard Trevithick, traveled from the Pen-y-darren ironworks near Merthyr Tydfil to Abercynon.