Reuters historical calendar - February 21

LONDON, Feb 20 (Reuters) Following are some of the major events to have occurred on February 21 since 1900: 1916 - In World War One, the German army launched an attack on the French fortress at Verdun. The epic battle lasted until December 18, causing 434,000 German and 543,000 French casualties.

1918 - The Australian cavalry captured the city of Jericho in what was then Jordan.

1944 - In World War Two, Japanese Field Marshal Hajime Sugiyama was replaced as Chief of the Imperial Army General Staff by General Hideki Tojo, the prime minister.

1947 - The first instant camera, the Polaroid, was demonstrated by inventor Edwin Herbert Land in New York.

1965 - Black nationalist leader Malcolm X (Malcolm Little) was murdered in New York as he was about to address a meeting of his Afro-American Unity Organisation.

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

1973 - A Libyan Boeing 727 was shot down over an Israeli military airfield, killing 104 passengers.

1975 - Three of Nixon's aides were jailed for obstructing the course of justice in the Watergate affair.

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.

2002 - US President George W Bush visited China exactly 30 years after Nixon's landmark trip.

REUTERS SY KN1037