This Date in History: February 21

 

Johannes Steinhoff, Luftwaffe Colonel, born August 15, 1913 in Bottendorf, commander of Jagdgeschwader 77, commander of Jagdgeschwader 7 – a jet fighter squadron, seriously injured in a jet crash at the end of the war, winner of the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords, Chief of Staff of the German Air Force in West Germany, Chairman of NATO’s Military Committee, died in Bonn on February 21, 1994, on Hermann Göring in 1943: “The Reichsmarschall hasn’t yet realized that we’ve stopped flying biplanes with wire-braced wings and that we no longer sit in open cockpits muffled up in furs and wearing outsize goggles.  He’s certainly never worn an oxygen mask and he has no idea how we navigate or operate the radio.  So how can one expect him to understand the nature of modern aerial warfare?”  (2,000 Quotes From Hitler’s 1,000-Year Reich)

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On Saturday, February 21, 1874 sunrise was at 7:07 a.m.  The 1874 Yellowstone Wagon Road and Prospecting Expedition probably departed Shed Creek in the direction of Little Timber Creek shortly afterward.  Sunset was at 5:50 p.m.  The scribe Addison M. Quivey later discussed the land he had seen:

“The first one hundred miles from Bozeman we traveled through a fine grazing country, with a large amount of good farming lands, and but little snow in winter.  There is a narrow valley along the Yellowstone; also along Shields River, Big Timber, Sweet Grass, etc., with cottonwood along the streams, and pine, fir, etc.  In the mountains, the rocks are limestone, sandstone, trap, clay, slate, etc.; in some places showing signs of volcanic action.  Between Shields River and Big Timber are extensive veins of feldspar, in a friable trap formation.”  (Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Gold and Guns: The 1874 Yellowstone Wagon Road and Prospecting Expedition and the Battle of Lodge Grass Creek)

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On February 21, 1956 one-time pimp, turned Capone confidant, Chicago Outfit top accountant, Jake Guzik died of a heart attack at St. Hubert’s Olde English Grill, on Federal Street.  Mob brass did not want Guzik to be found dead in a gangster hangout so secreted his body to his home, where his wife told medical personnel he had died there.