Today’s Highlights

On Feb. 21, 1965, civil rights activist Malcolm X, 39, was shot to death inside Harlem’s Audubon Ballroom in New York. Three men identified as members of the Nation of Islam were convicted of murder and imprisoned; all were eventually paroled.

On this date

1885: President Chester Arthur dedicated the Washington Monument.

1911: Composer Gustav Mahler, despite a fever, conducted the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall in what turned out to be his final concert.

1916: The Battle of Verdun, the longest battle of World War I, began in northeastern France.

1972: President Richard M. Nixon began a historic visit to China, where he met with Chinese leader Mao Zedong.

1973: Israeli fighter planes shot down Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 over the Sinai Desert, killing all but five of the 113 people on board.

1975: Former Attorney General John N. Mitchell, former White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman, and former White House Domestic Affairs Adviser John D. Ehrlichman were sentenced to 2 1/2 to 8 years in prison for their roles in the Watergate cover-up.

1992: Kristi Yamaguchi of the United States won the gold medal in women’s figure skating at the Albertville Winter Olympics; Midori Ito of Japan won the silver, Nancy Kerrigan of the U.S. the bronze.

Today’s birthdays

Actor Kelsey Grammer is 70. Country musician Mary Chapin Carpenter is 67. Actor Jennifer Love Hewitt is 46. Filmmaker-comedian Jordan Peele is 46. Actor Sophie Turner is 29.