1. On February 21, 1861, the Alabama Secession Convention voted to withdraw from the United States and join the Confederacy, becoming the fourth state to do so. This decision would set the stage for the Civil War.

2. In 1904, Tuskegee Institute founder Booker T. Washington came to Birmingham to deliver a speech at the Industrial Institute and College (now known as Alabama State University). He was greeted by a large crowd and praised for his work in education and civil rights.

3. On February 21, 1948, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that the University of Alabama School of Law must admit African American applicant Autherine Lucy. This decision was later overturned and Lucy faced hostility and violence on campus, but her admission paved the way for future desegregation efforts.

4. In 1965, civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a march from Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in a protest for voting rights. The march became known as "Bloody Sunday" after state troopers attacked the peaceful demonstrators with tear gas and billy clubs.

5. On February 21, 2011, tornadoes swept across several states including Alabama, causing widespread devastation and loss of life. The storm system, which would later be known as the Super Outbreak of 2011, resulted in over 250 deaths in Alabama alone and was one of the deadliest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history.