February 21

Baruch Spinoza, the Amsterdam-born philosopher whose 'Ethics' shaped modern rationalism, died in The Hague at age 44.

Gershom Scholem, who founded the modern academic study of Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism, died in Jerusalem.

Shah Waliullah Dehlawi, the Delhi scholar and reformer who rendered the Qur'an into Persian, was born near Delhi.

Mirra Alfassa, the collaborator of Sri Aurobindo who directed the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, was born in Paris.

Billy Graham, the American evangelist who preached to audiences on six continents, died at his home in Montreat, North Carolina.

Edwin Land demonstrated the first instant camera to the Optical Society of America in New York, producing a finished photograph within about a minute of pressing the shutter.