What happened this day in history - February 21

1804 - British engineer Richard Trevithick demonstrated the first steam engine to run on rails.

1858 - The first electronic burglar alarm was installed, in Boston USA.

1931 - The New Statesman was published for the first time.

1952 - Identity cards were scrapped in Britain.

1956 - The Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme was set up.

1964 - £10 notes were issued for the first time since World War II.

1965 - Controversial black activist Malcolm X was assassinated at a meeting in New York.

1994 - Parliament voted to reduce the age of consent for homosexual men from 21 to 18.

1995 - Steve Fossett landed in Canada, becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.

1995: The RAF presented Flight Lieutenant Jo Sauter as their first female bomber pilot.

2001 - The European Commission banned all British milk, meat and livestock exports following the UK’s first outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease for 20 years.