About the day » Thursday February 21, 1878Calender converter

• Albert Booi, Zwollerkerspel, Zwolle, Overijssel, Netherlands
• Aaltje Ton, Beets
• Aart Paul Labots, Arnhem, Gelderland, Nederland († 1956)
• Anna Catharina Janssens, Tilburg
• Adriana Petronella Maria Verkooijen, Oosterhout, Noord-Brabant, Nederland († 1933)
• Albert Kluiter, Veele, Vlagtwedde, Groningen, Netherlands († 1949)
• Adrianus Gerardus Petrus van Gerwen, Tilburg, Noord-Brabant, Nederland († 1965)
• Angelina Clementine Tempst, Hoevenen
• Albertus van Duijl, Maastricht († 1949)
• Albert Jacobs Scheffer, Blankenham

• Aaltjen Gerrits Fidder (84), Nunspeet
• Anna Colflesh (82), Lower Merion, Montgomery, Pennsylvania, United States
• Aaltje Witteveen (60), harderwijk, Gelderland, Netherlands
• Aaltje Witteveen (60), Hierden
• Abraham Berkhout (0), Vlaardingen
• Agatha Maria KERKVLIET (44), Leiden
• Adriaan de Blok (15), Middelburg
• Aalt van den Pol (54), Esveld, Gelderland, Nederland
• Aaltje Blaauw (64), Apeldoorn {GE}
• Abraham Berkhout (0)

• 1865 » John Haden Badley, English author and educator, founded the Bedales School († 1967)
• 1867 » Otto Hermann Kahn, German banker and philanthropist († 1934)
• 1875 » Jeanne Calment, French super-centenarian, oldest verified person ever († 1997)
• 1878 » Mirra Alfassa, French-Indian spiritual leader († 1973)
• 1881 » Kenneth J. Alford, English soldier, bandmaster, and composer († 1945)
• 1885 » Sacha Guitry, Russian-French actor, director, and playwright († 1957)
• 1887 » Korechika Anami, Japanese general and politician, 54th Japanese Minister of War († 1945)
• 1888 » Clemence Dane, English author and playwright († 1965)
• 1892 » Harry Stack Sullivan, American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst († 1949)
• 1893 » Celia Lovsky, Austrian-American actress († 1979)

• 1821 » Georg Friedrich von Martens, German jurist and diplomat (b. 1756)
• 1824 » Eugène de Beauharnais, French general (b. 1781)
• 1829 » Kittur Chennamma, Indian queen and freedom fighter (b. 1778)
• 1846 » Emperor Ninkō of Japan (b. 1800)
• 1862 » Justinus Kerner, German poet and physician (b. 1786)
• 1888 » William Weston, English-Australian politician, 3rd Premier of Tasmania (b. 1804)
• 1891 » James Timberlake, American lieutenant and police officer (b. 1846)
• 1919 » Kurt Eisner, German journalist and politician, Minister-President of Bavaria (b. 1867)
• 1926 » Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Dutch physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1853)
• 1934 » Augusto César Sandino, Nicaraguan rebel leader (b. 1895)

• Koning Willem III (Huis van Oranje-Nassau) was from 1849 till 1890 sovereign of the Netherlands (also known as Koninkrijk der Nederlanden)
• In The Netherlands , there was from November 3, 1877 to August 20, 1879 the cabinet Kappeijne van de Coppello, with Mr. J. Kappeijne van de Coppello (liberaal) as prime minister.
• The Netherlands had about 4.0 million citizens.
• January 28 » Yale Daily News becomes the first independent daily college newspaper in the United States.
• February 19 » Thomas Edison patents the phonograph.
• February 21 » The first telephone directory is issued in New Haven, Connecticut.
• May 14 » The last witchcraft trial held in the United States begins in Salem, Massachusetts, after Lucretia Brown, an adherent of Christian Science, accused Daniel Spofford of attempting to harm her through his mental powers.
• May 25 » Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera H.M.S. Pinafore opens at the Opera Comique in London.
• September 3 » Over 640 die when the crowded pleasure boat Princess Alice collides with the Bywell Castle in the River Thames.

The temperature on February 21, 1878 was about 5.3 °C. The air pressure was 1 kgf/m² and came mainly from the south-southwest. The airpressure was 77 cm mercury. The atmospheric humidity was 98%.