Wail al-Shehri (1973–2001) was one of five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 11, which was flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Center as part of the September 11 attacks. He and his younger brother Waleed joined an Al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan in March 2000. They were chosen, along with other Saudis, to participate in the attacks. Shehri returned to Saudi Arabia in October 2000 to obtain a clean passport and went back to Afghanistan before arriving in the United States in early June 2001. He stayed in motels in the Boynton Beach area of south Florida. On September 5, 2001, Shehri traveled to Boston and checked into a motel with his brother. Six days later, he arrived early in the morning at Boston's Logan International Airport and boarded American Airlines Flight 11. Shehri, his brother and three other hijackers deliberately crashed the airliner into the North Tower at 8:46 a.m. ( Full article...)

• ... that it was reportedly Elizabeth Willing Powel (pictured) who asked Benjamin Franklin whether the United States was to be "a republic or a monarchy", to which he responded: "A republic ... if you can keep it"?
• ... that the specific name of Pterophorus pentadactyla, commonly known as the white plume moth, comes from the Greek for 'five fingers'?
• ... that Dutch baritone John Bröcheler first sang concerts including world premieres, but was "discovered" for opera in a role of Donizetti's Maria Stuarda alongside Joan Sutherland?
• ... that although veneration of the dead is often considered blasphemy in Islam, Sukarno's grave in Blitar receives tens of thousands of Javanese Muslims each year seeking his spiritual blessing?
• ... that Ephraim Bacon, a leader of the American Colonization Society expedition that founded Liberia, fled to Barbados after coming down with a fever?
• ... that Super Lemon Haze is an award-winning cannabis strain that commonly exhibits limonene, an organic compound also found in lemons?
• ... that researcher Heejung Kim found that the influence of the oxytocin receptor gene OXTR on social behavior depends on cultural context?
• ... that Mexican indigenous radio station La Voz de los Chontales returns today after being silent for more than 30 years?

• Shootings in Hanau, Germany, leave eleven people dead and five others wounded.
• The Irish general election concludes with no party holding a majority of seats in Dáil Éireann (chamber pictured).
• South Korean film Parasite wins four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Bong Joon-ho.
• A mass shooting in Korat, Thailand, leaves 30 people dead and more than 50 others injured.

February 21: Language Movement Day in Bangladesh ( 1952); Carnival begins in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2020); Maha Shivaratri (Hinduism, 2020)

• 1245 – Pope Innocent IV accepted the resignation of Thomas, the first known bishop of Finland, after he confessed to torture and forgery.
• 1437 – King James I of Scotland was murdered at Perth in a failed coup by his uncle and former ally Walter Stewart, Earl of Atholl.
• 1952 – A number of student protesters demanding the establishment of Bengali as an official language were killed by police in Dhaka, East Pakistan.
• 1965 – Black nationalist Malcolm X (pictured) was assassinated while giving a speech in New York City's Audubon Ballroom.
• 1973 – After accidentally straying into Israeli-occupied airspace, Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 was shot down by two Israeli fighter aircraft, killing 108 of the 113 people on board.

Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi (d. 1543) · Léo Delibes (b. 1836) · Ellen Page (b. 1987)