FEBRUARY 21 — 1965 Malcolm X assassinated; 2004 U.S. permits Red Cross to visit Saddam Hussein in custody; 1885 Washington Monument dedicated; 2009 Rihanna thanks fans for support over Chris Brown abuse
FEBRUARY 21
1965 – Malcolm X is shot to death by the Nation of Islam.
Malcolm Little was born in Nebraska May 19, 1925. His father was a Baptist preacher and advocate of the Black Nationalist, a civil rights group.
His family moved when Malcolm was Lansing, Mich. Upon getting death threats from the Ku Klux Klan. Regardless of the move, the threats continued, and his father’s body was found laying across train tracks. Malcolm’s mother would be institutionalized as a result and the children would be split up. Malcolm grew up in an orphanage, then moved to Boston and was sent to prison for burglary.
This is where he converted to the so-called religion of peace, and changed his last name from Little to the letter X to signify his lost African roots. He joined the Nation of Islam an grew tremendously in popularity through the newspaper and radio communications. He learned that his mentor, Elijah Mohammad, was a fraud as he had extra marital affairs, which go against the teachings of the Nation of Islam.
When Malcolm famously mentioned that regarding the assassination of John F Kennedy that he didn’t realize the chickens would come home to roost so quickly, he was suspended by the NOI by Elijah Mohammed, yet Malcolm believed that he was being suspended because he was growing too powerful for Mohammad to handle.
Malcolm X made a Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca where he realized that racism, not the white race itself, was the greatest enemy of African Americans. He and Elijah Mohammad grew further apart, and while speaking on February 21 at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights in New York City, three assassins from the Nation of Islam rushed onstage and shot Malcolm 15 times at close range.
In 1992, his popularity was recharged when Spike Lee released the Oscar nominated movie about him.
2004 – US Permits Red Cross to visit Saddam Hussein for the first time since his capture the previous December.
The Red Cross was able to tour the facilities where he was being detained and check up on Saddam’s physical and mental health, make sure he was getting food and water, that sort of thing. However the organization declined to release any details.
1885 – Washington monument is dedicated. It was first proposed before George Washington was even president. It’s a 555 foot high marble obelisk was originally desinged by Robert Mills on July 4, 1848. Work began on the monument but soon the American Civil War ad broken out and plans to build were hn hold until America’s first hundredth birthday in 1876. It remains to be the largest structure in Washington DC. In 2011 an earthquake measuring 5.8 rocked the monument, wich peole inside no less. Luckily no one was seriously hut and the monument went under way with a $15M restoration.
1953 — 2009, Rihanna issued a statement thanking fans for their support after an alleged assault by her R&B singer boyfriend Chris Brown, but the singer declined to comment on a leaked photograph which appeared to show her with facial injuries. The Los Angeles Police Department had launched an internal investigation and asked for the public’s help in finding the person who leaked the photograph.