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February 23 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day / admin

303 – Roman emperor Diocletian orders the destruction of the Christian church in Nicomedia, beginning eight years of Diocletianic Persecution.
532 – Byzantine emperor Justinian I orders the building of a new Orthodox Christian basilica in Constantinople – the Hagia Sophia.
1455 – Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed with movable type.
1554 – Mapuche forces, under the leadership of Lautaro, score a victory over the Spanish at the Battle of Marihueñu in Chile.
1653 – The Ballet Royal de la Nuit is first performed at the Salle du Petit-Bourbon in Paris
1739 – At York Castle, the outlaw Dick Turpin is identified by his former schoolteacher. Turpin had been using the name Richard Palmer.
1778 – American Revolutionary War: Baron von Steuben arrives at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania to help to train the Continental Army.
1820 – Cato Street Conspiracy: A plot to murder all the British cabinet ministers is exposed.
1836 – Texas Revolution: The Siege of the Alamo (prelude to the Battle of the Alamo) begins in San Antonio, Texas.
1847 – Mexican–American War: Battle of Buena Vista: In Mexico, American troops under future president General Zachary Taylor defeat Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna.
1854 – The official independence of the Orange Free State is declared.
1861 – President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington, D.C., after the thwarting of an alleged assassination plot in Baltimore, Maryland.
1870 – Reconstruction Era: Post-U.S. Civil War military control of Mississippi ends and it is readmitted to the Union.
1883 – Alabama becomes the first U.S. state to enact an anti-trust law.
1885 – Sino-French War: French Army gains an important victory in the Battle of Đồng Đăng in the Tonkin region of Vietnam.
1886 – Charles Martin Hall produced the first samples of aluminium from the electrolysis of aluminium oxide, after several years of intensive work. He was assisted in this project by his older sister, Julia Brainerd Hall.
1887 – The French Riviera is hit by a large earthquake, killing around 2,000.
1898 – Émile Zola is imprisoned in France after writing J’Accuse…!, a letter accusing the French government of antisemitism and wrongfully imprisoning Captain Alfred Dreyfus.
1900 – Second Boer War: During the Battle of the Tugela Heights, the first British attempt to take Hart’s Hill fails.
1903 – Cuba leases Guantánamo Bay to the United States “in perpetuity”.
1905 – Chicago attorney Paul Harris and three other businessmen meet for lunch to form the Rotary Club, the world’s first service club.
1909 – The AEA Silver Dart makes the first powered flight in Canada and the British Empire.
1917 – First demonstrations in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The beginning of the February Revolution (March 8 in the Gregorian calendar).
1927 – U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs a bill by Congress establishing the Federal Radio Commission (later replaced by the Federal Communications Commission) which was to regulate the use of radio frequencies in the United States.
1927 – German theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg writes a letter to fellow physicist Wolfgang Pauli, in which he describes his uncertainty principle for the first time.
1934 – Leopold III becomes King of Belgium.
1941 – Plutonium is first produced and isolated by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg.
1942 – World War II: Japanese submarines fire artillery shells at the coastline near Santa Barbara, California.
1943 – A fire breaks out at Saint Joseph’s Orphanage, County Cavan, Ireland, killing 35 children and one adult.
1943 – Greek Resistance: The United Panhellenic Organization of Youth is founded in Greece.
1944 – The Soviet Union begins the forced deportation of the Chechen and Ingush people from the North Caucasus to Central Asia.
1945 – World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, a group of United States Marines reach the top of Mount Suribachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag.
1945 – World War II: The 11th Airborne Division, with Filipino guerrillas, free all 2,147 captives of the Los Baños internment camp, in what General Colin Powell later would refer to as “the textbook airborne operation for all ages and all armies.”
1945 – World War II: The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by combined Filipino and American forces.
1945 – World War II: Capitulation of German garrison in Poznań. The city is liberated by Soviet and Polish forces.
1945 – World War II: The German town of Pforzheim is annihilated in a raid by 379 British bombers.
1947 – International Organization for Standardization is founded.
1954 – The first mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine begins in Pittsburgh.
1966 – In Syria, Ba’ath Party member Salah Jadid leads an intra-party military coup that replaces the previous government of General Amin al-Hafiz, also a Baathist.
1974 – The Symbionese Liberation Army demands $4 million more to release kidnap victim Patty Hearst.
1980 – Iran hostage crisis: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini states that Iran’s parliament will decide the fate of the American embassy hostages.
1981 – In Spain, Antonio Tejero attempts a coup d’état by capturing the Spanish Congress of Deputies.
1983 – The United States Environmental Protection Agency announces its intent to buy out and evacuate the dioxin-contaminated community of Times Beach, Missouri.
1987 – Supernova 1987a is seen in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
1991 – In Thailand, General Sunthorn Kongsompong leads a bloodless coup d’état, deposing Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan.
1998 – In the United States, tornadoes in central Florida destroy or damage 2,600 structures and kill 42 people.
1999 – Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan is charged with treason in Ankara, Turkey.
2007 – A train derails on an evening express service near Grayrigg, Cumbria, England, killing one person and injuring 88. This results in hundreds of points being checked over the UK after a few similar accidents.
2008 – A United States Air Force B-2 Spirit bomber crashes on Guam, marking the first operational loss of a B-2.
2010 – Unknown criminals pour more than 2¹⁄₂ million liters of diesel oil and other hydrocarbons into the river Lambro, in northern Italy, sparking an environmental disaster.
2012 – A series of attacks across Iraq leave at least 83 killed and more than 250 injured.
2017 – The Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army captures Al-Bab from ISIL.
2019 – Atlas Air Flight 3591, a Boeing 767 freighter, crashes into Trinity Bay near Anahuac, Texas, killing all three people on board.

Births on February 23

1417 – Pope Paul II (d. 1471)
1417 – Louis IX, Duke of Bavaria (d. 1479)
1443 – Matthias Corvinus, Hungarian king (d. 1490)
1529 – Onofrio Panvinio, Italian historian (d. 1568)
1539 – Henry XI of Legnica, thrice Duke of Legnica (d. 1588)
1539 – Salima Sultan Begum, Empress of the Mughal Empire (d. 1612)
1583 – Jean-Baptiste Morin, French mathematician, astrologer, and astronomer (d. 1656)
1592 – Balthazar Gerbier, Dutch painter (d. 1663)
1633 – Samuel Pepys, English diarist and politician (d. 1703)
1646 – Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, Japanese shōgun (d. 1709)
1680 – Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, Canadian politician, 2nd Colonial Governor of Louisiana (d. 1767)
1685 – George Frideric Handel, German-English organist and composer (d. 1759)
1723 – Richard Price, Welsh-English minister and philosopher (d. 1791)
1744 – Mayer Amschel Rothschild, German banker and businessman (d. 1812)
1792 – José Joaquín de Herrera, Mexican politician and general. President three times (1844–1854) (d. 1854)
1831 – Hendrik Willem Mesdag, Dutch painter (d. 1915)
1840 – Carl Menger, Austrian economist and educator (d. 1921)
1842 – Karl Robert Eduard von Hartmann, German philosopher and author (d. 1906)
1850 – César Ritz, Swiss businessman, founded The Ritz Hotel, London and Hôtel Ritz Paris (d. 1918)
1868 – W. E. B. Du Bois, American sociologist, historian, and activist (d. 1963)
1868 – Anna Hofman-Uddgren, Swedish actress, singer, and director (d. 1947)
1873 – Liang Qichao, Chinese journalist, philosopher, and scholar (d. 1929)
1874 – Konstantin Päts, Estonian lawyer and politician, 1st President of Estonia (d. 1956)
1878 – Kazimir Malevich, Ukrainian painter and theorist (d. 1935)
1883 – Karl Jaspers, German-Swiss psychiatrist and philosopher (d. 1969)
1883 – Guy C. Wiggins, American painter (d. 1962)
1889 – Musidora, French actress and director (d. 1957)
1889 – Cyril Delevanti, English-American actor (d. 1975)
1889 – Victor Fleming, American director, cinematographer, and producer (d. 1949)
1889 – John Gilbert Winant, American captain, pilot, and politician, 60th Governor of New Hampshire (d. 1947)
1892 – Kathleen Harrison, English actress (d. 1995)
1892 – Agnes Smedley, American journalist and writer (d. 1950)
1894 – Harold Horder, Australian rugby league player and coach (d. 1978)
1899 – Erich Kästner, German author and poet (d. 1974)
1899 – Norman Taurog, American director and screenwriter (d. 1981)
1904 – Terence Fisher, English director and screenwriter (d. 1980)
1904 – William L. Shirer, American journalist and historian (d. 1993)
1908 – William McMahon, Australian lawyer and politician, 20th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1988)
1915 – Jon Hall, American actor and director (d. 1979)
1915 – Paul Tibbets, American general and pilot (d. 2007)
1919 – Johnny Carey, Irish footballer and manager (d. 1995)
1920 – Paul Gérin-Lajoie, Canadian lawyer and politician (d. 2018)
1923 – Rafael Addiego Bruno, Uruguayan jurist and politician, President of Uruguay (d. 2014)
1923 – Harry Clarke, English international footballer, defender (d. 2000)
1923 – Ioannis Grivas, Greek judge and politician, 176th Prime Minister of Greece (d. 2016)
1923 – Dante Lavelli, American football player (d. 2009)
1923 – Clarence D. Lester, African-American fighter pilot (d.1986)
1923 – Mary Francis Shura, American author (d. 1991)
1924 – Allan McLeod Cormack, South-African-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
1925 – Louis Stokes, American lawyer and politician (d. 2015)
1927 – Régine Crespin, French soprano and actress (d. 2007)
1928 – Hans Herrmann, German race car driver
1928 – Vasily Lazarev, Russian colonel, physician, and astronaut (d. 1990)
1929 – Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow (d. 2008)
1929 – Elston Howard, American baseball player and coach (d. 1980)
1930 – Paul West, English-American author, poet, and academic (d. 2015)
1931 – Tom Wesselmann, American painter and sculptor (d. 2004)
1932 – Majel Barrett, American actress and producer (d. 2008)
1937 – Tom Osborne, American football player, coach, and politician
1938 – Sylvia Chase, American broadcast journalist (d. 2019)
1938 – Paul Morrissey, American director, producer, and screenwriter
1938 – Diane Varsi, American actress (d. 1992)
1940 – Peter Fonda, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2019)
1940 – Jackie Smith, American football player
1941 – Ron Hunt, American baseball player
1943 – Fred Biletnikoff, American football player and coach
1943 – Bobby Mitchell, American golfer (d. 2018)
1944 – Bernard Cornwell, English author and educator
1944 – Florian Fricke, German keyboard player and composer (d. 2001)
1944 – Johnny Winter, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 2014)
1945 – Allan Boesak, South African cleric and politician
1946 – Rusty Young, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1947 – Pia Kjærsgaard, Danish politician, Speaker of the Danish Parliament
1947 – Anton Mosimann, Swiss chef and author
1948 – Bill Alexander, English director and producer
1948 – Trevor Cherry, English footballer (d. 2020)
1948 – Steve Priest, English singer-songwriter and bass player
1949 – César Aira, Argentinian author and translator
1949 – Marc Garneau, Canadian engineer, astronaut, and politician
1950 – Rebecca Goldstein, American philosopher and author
1951 – Eddie Dibbs, American tennis player
1951 – Debbie Friedman, American singer-songwriter of Jewish melodies (d. 2011)
1951 – Ed “Too Tall” Jones, American football player and boxer
1951 – Patricia Richardson, American actress
1952 – Brad Whitford, American guitarist and songwriter
1953 – Kenny Bee, Hong Kong singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
1953 – Satoru Nakajima, Japanese race car driver
1954 – Rajini Thiranagama, Sri Lankan physician and academic (d. 1989)
1954 – Viktor Yushchenko, Ukrainian captain and politician, 3rd President of Ukraine
1955 – Howard Jones, English singer-songwriter
1955 – Flip Saunders, American basketball player and coach (d. 2015)
1956 – Sandra Osborne, Scottish politician
1958 – David Sylvian, English singer-songwriter
1959 – Clayton Anderson, American engineer and astronaut
1959 – Nick de Bois, English politician
1959 – Ian Liddell-Grainger, Scottish soldier and politician
1959 – Linda Nolan, Irish singer and actress
1960 – Naruhito, Emperor of Japan
1962 – Michael Wilton, American guitarist
1963 – Bobby Bonilla, American baseball player
1963 – Radosław Sikorski, Polish journalist and politician, 11th Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland
1964 – John Norum, Norwegian guitarist and songwriter
1965 – Michael Dell, American businessman
1965 – Helena Suková, Czech-Monacan tennis player
1967 – Steve Stricker, American golfer
1967 – Chris Vrenna, American drummer, songwriter, and producer
1969 – Michael Campbell, New Zealand golfer
1969 – Martine Croxall, English journalist and television news presenter
1969 – Daymond John, American fashion designer and businessman, founded FUBU
1970 – Niecy Nash, American actress and producer
1971 – Carin Koch, Swedish golfer
1971 – Melinda Messenger, English model and television host
1971 – Joe-Max Moore, American soccer player
1972 – Alessandro Sturba, Italian footballer
1972 – Rondell White, American baseball player
1973 – Jeff Nordgaard, American-Polish basketball player
1974 – Herschelle Gibbs, South African cricketer
1974 – Robbi Kempson, South African rugby player
1975 – Michael Cornacchia, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1975 – Ryan McCourt, Canadian artist
1976 – Scott Elarton, American baseball player and coach
1976 – Kelly Macdonald, Scottish actress
1976 – Jeff O’Neill, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
1977 – Kristina Šmigun-Vähi, Estonian skier
1978 – Residente, Puerto Rican-American singer-songwriter
1978 – Dan Snyder, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2003)
1979 – S. E. Cupp, American journalist and author
1981 – Gareth Barry, English footballer
1981 – Josh Gad, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
1981 – Charles Tillman, American football player
1982 – Adam Hann-Byrd, American actor and screenwriter
1983 – Mido, Egyptian footballer, striker, manager and sportscaster
1983 – Aziz Ansari, American comedian, actor, producer, and screenwriter
1983 – Emily Blunt, English actress
1986 – Emerson Conceição, Brazilian footballer
1986 – Skylar Grey, American singer-songwriter
1986 – Kazuya Kamenashi, Japanese singer-songwriter and actor
1986 – Jerod Mayo, American football player
1986 – Ola Svensson, Swedish singer-songwriter
1987 – Ab-Soul, American rapper
1987 – Theophilus London, Trinidadian-American singer-songwriter and producer
1987 – Zak Kirkup, Member of the Parliament of Western Australia
1988 – Nicolás Gaitán, Argentinian footballer
1989 – Evan Bates, American ice dancer
1989 – Jérémy Pied, French footballer
1990 – Kevin Connauton, Canadian ice hockey player
1990 – Terry Hawkridge, English footballer
1990 – Marco Scandella, Canadian ice hockey player
1992 – Casemiro, Brazilian footballer
1992 – Kyriakos Papadopoulos, Greek footballer
1993 – Chris Grevsmuhl, Australian rugby league player
1994 – Dakota Fanning, American actress
1995 – Andrew Wiggins, Canadian basketball player
1996 – D’Angelo Russell, American basketball player
1997 – Jamal Murray, Canadian basketball player

Deaths on February 23

715 – Al-Walid I, Umayyad caliph (b. 668)
908 – Li Keyong, Shatuo military governor during the Tang Dynasty in China (b. 856)
943 – Herbert II, Count of Vermandois, (b. 884)
943 – David I, prince of Tao-Klarjeti (Georgia)
1011 – Willigis, German archbishop (b. 940)
1100 – Emperor Zhezong of Song (b. 1076)
1270 – Isabel of France (b. 1225)
1447 – Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (b. 1390)
1447 – Pope Eugene IV (b. 1383)
1464 – Emperor Yingzong of Ming (b. 1427)
1473 – Arnold, Duke of Gelderland (b. 1410)
1526 – Diego Colón, Spanish Viceroy of the Indies (b. c. 1479)
1554 – Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, English politician, Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire (b. 1515)
1603 – Andrea Cesalpino, Italian philosopher, physician, and botanist (b. 1519)
1603 – Franciscus Vieta, French mathematician (b. 1540)
1620 – Nicholas Fuller, English politician (b. 1543)
1704 – Georg Muffat, French organist and composer (b. 1653)
1766 – Stanisław Leszczyński, Polish king (b. 1677)
1781 – George Taylor, Irish-American blacksmith and politician (b. 1716)
1792 – Joshua Reynolds, English painter and academic (b. 1723)
1821 – John Keats, English poet (b. 1795)
1848 – John Quincy Adams, American politician, 6th President of the United States (b. 1767)
1855 – Carl Friedrich Gauss, German mathematician, astronomer, and physicist (b. 1777)
1859 – Zygmunt Krasiński, Polish poet and playwright (b. 1812)
1879 – Albrecht von Roon, Prussian soldier and politician, 10th Minister President of Prussia (b. 1803)
1897 – Woldemar Bargiel, German composer and educator (b. 1828)
1900 – Ernest Dowson, English poet, novelist, and short story writer (b. 1867)
1908 – Friedrich von Esmarch, German surgeon and academic (b. 1823)
1918 – Adolphus Frederick VI, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (b. 1882)
1930 – Horst Wessel, German SA officer (b. 1907)
1931 – Nellie Melba, Australian soprano and actress (b. 1861)
1934 – Edward Elgar, English composer and academic (b. 1857)
1944 – Leo Baekeland, Belgian-American chemist and engineer (b. 1863)
1946 – Tomoyuki Yamashita, Japanese general (b. 1885)
1948 – John Robert Gregg, Irish-American publisher and educator (b. 1866)
1955 – Paul Claudel, French poet and playwright (b. 1868)
1965 – Stan Laurel, English actor and comedian (b. 1890)
1969 – Madhubala, Indian actress and producer (b. 1933)
1969 – Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, 2nd King of Saudi Arabia (b. 1902)
1973 – Dickinson W. Richards, American physician and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1895)
1974 – Harry Ruby, American composer and screenwriter (b. 1895)
1976 – L. S. Lowry, English painter (b. 1887)
1979 – W. A. C. Bennett, Canadian businessman and politician, 25th Premier of British Columbia (b. 1900)
1983 – Herbert Howells, English organist and composer (b. 1892)
1990 – José Napoleón Duarte, Salvadoran engineer and politician, President of El Salvador (b. 1925)
1995 – James Herriot, English veterinarian and author (b. 1916)
1997 – Tony Williams, American drummer, composer, and producer (b. 1945)
1998 – Philip Abbott, American actor and director (b. 1924)
1999 – The Renegade, American wrestler (b. 1965)
2000 – Ofra Haza, Israeli singer-songwriter and actress (b. 1957)
2000 – Stanley Matthews, English footballer and manager (b. 1915)
2003 – Howie Epstein, American bass player, songwriter, and producer (b. 1955)
2003 – Robert K. Merton, American sociologist and academic (b. 1910)
2004 – Vijay Anand, Indian director, producer, screenwriter, and actor (b. 1934)
2004 – Sikander Bakht, Indian politician, Indian Minister of External Affairs (b. 1918)
2006 – Telmo Zarra, Spanish footballer (b. 1921)
2007 – John Ritchie, English footballer (b. 1941)
2008 – Janez Drnovšek, Slovenian economist and politician, 2nd President of Slovenia (b. 1950)
2008 – Paul Frère, Belgian race car driver and journalist (b. 1917)
2010 – Orlando Zapata, Cuban plumber and activist (b. 1967)
2011 – Nirmala Srivastava, Indian religious leader, founded Sahaja Yoga (b. 1923)
2012 – William Raggio, American lawyer and politician (b. 1926)
2012 – David Sayre, American physicist and mathematician (b. 1924)
2012 – Kazimierz Żygulski, Polish sociologist and activist (b. 1919)
2013 – Eugene Bookhammer, American soldier and politician, 18th Lieutenant Governor of Delaware (b. 1918)
2013 – Joseph Friedenson, Holocaust survivor, Holocaust historian, Yiddish writer, lecturer and editor (b. 1922)
2013 – Julien Ries, Belgian cardinal (b. 1920)
2013 – Lotika Sarkar, Indian lawyer and academic (b. 1945)
2014 – Alice Herz-Sommer, Czech-English Holocaust survivor, pianist and educator (b. 1903)
2014 – Roger Hilsman, American soldier, academic, and politician (b. 1919)
2015 – James Aldridge, Australian-English journalist and author (b. 1918)
2015 – Rana Bhagwandas, Pakistani lawyer and judge, Chief Justice of Pakistan (b. 1942)
2015 – W. E. “Bill” Dykes, American soldier and politician (b. 1925)
2016 – Peter Lustig, German television host and author (b. 1937)
2016 – Jacqueline Mattson, American baseball player (b. 1928)
2019 – Katherine Helmond, American actress (b. 1929)

Holidays and observances on February 23

Christian feast day:
- Polycarp of Smyrna
- Serenus the Gardener
- February 23 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
The Emperor’s Birthday, birthday of Naruhito, the current Emperor of Japan (Japan)
Mashramani-Republic Day (Guyana)
Meteņi (Latvia)
National Day (Brunei)
Red Army Day or Day of Soviet Army and Navy in the former Soviet Union, also held in various former Soviet republics:
- Defender of the Fatherland Day (Russia)
- Defender of the Fatherland and Armed Forces day (Belarus)
- Armed Forces Day (Tajikistan) (Tajikistan)

February 23 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

February 22 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day / admin

705 – Empress Wu Zetian abdicates the throne, restoring the Tang dynasty.
1316 – The Battle of Picotin, between Ferdinand of Majorca and the forces of Matilda of Hainaut, ends in victory for Ferdinand.
1371 – Robert II becomes King of Scotland, beginning the Stuart dynasty.
1495 – King Charles VIII of France enters Naples to claim the city’s throne.
1632 – Ferdinando II de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, the dedicatee, receives the first printed copy of Galileo’s Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems .
1651 – St. Peter’s Flood: A storm surge floods the Frisian coast, drowning 15,000 people.
1744 – War of the Austrian Succession: The Battle of Toulon causes several Royal Navy captains to be court-martialed, and the Articles of War to be amended.
1797 – The last Invasion of Britain begins near Fishguard, Wales.
1819 – By the Adams–Onís Treaty, Spain sells Florida to the United States for five million U.S. dollars.
1821 – Greek War of Independence: Alexander Ypsilantis crosses the Prut river at Sculeni into the Danubian Principalities.
1847 – Mexican–American War: The Battle of Buena Vista: Five thousand American troops defeat 15,000 Mexican troops.
1848 – The French Revolution of 1848, which would lead to the establishment of the French Second Republic, begins.
1853 – Washington University in St. Louis is founded as Eliot Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri.
1855 – The Pennsylvania State University is founded in State College, Pennsylvania (as the Farmers’ High School of Pennsylvania).
1856 – The United States Republican Party opens its first national convention in Pittsburgh.
1862 – Jefferson Davis is officially inaugurated for a six-year term as the President of the Confederate States of America in Richmond, Virginia. He was previously inaugurated as a provisional president on February 18, 1861.
1872 – The Prohibition Party holds its first national convention in Columbus, Ohio, nominating James Black as its presidential nominee.
1878 – In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of five-and-dime Woolworth stores.
1889 – President Grover Cleveland signs a bill admitting North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington as U.S. states.
1899 – Filipino forces led by General Antonio Luna launch counterattacks for the first time against the American forces during the Philippine–American War. The Filipinos fail to regain Manila from the Americans.
1904 – The United Kingdom sells a meteorological station on the South Orkney Islands to Argentina; the islands are subsequently claimed by the United Kingdom in 1908.
1909 – The sixteen battleships of the Great White Fleet, led by USS Connecticut, return to the United States after a voyage around the world.
1915 – World War I: The Imperial German Navy institutes unrestricted submarine warfare.
1921 – After Russian forces under Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg drive the Chinese out, the Bogd Khan is reinstalled as the emperor of Mongolia.
1942 – World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as the Japanese victory becomes inevitable.
1943 – World War II: Members of the White Rose resistance, Sophie Scholl, Hans Scholl, and Christoph Probst are executed in Nazi Germany.
1944 – World War II: American aircraft mistakenly bomb the Dutch towns of Nijmegen, Arnhem, Enschede and Deventer, resulting in 800 dead in Nijmegen alone.
1944 – World War II: The Soviet Red Army recaptures Krivoi Rog.
1946 – The “Long Telegram”, proposing how the United States should deal with the Soviet Union, arrives from the US embassy in Moscow.
1957 – Ngô Đình Diệm of South Vietnam survives a communist shooting assassination attempt in Buôn Ma Thuột.
1958 – Egypt and Syria join to form the United Arab Republic.
1959 – Lee Petty wins the first Daytona 500.
1972 – The Official Irish Republican Army detonates a car bomb at Aldershot barracks, killing seven and injuring nineteen others.
1973 – Cold War: Following President Richard Nixon’s visit to the People’s Republic of China, the two countries agree to establish liaison offices.
1974 – The Organisation of the Islamic Conference summit begins in Lahore, Pakistan. Thirty-seven countries attend and twenty-two heads of state and government participate. It also recognizes Bangladesh.
1974 – Samuel Byck attempts to hijack an aircraft at Baltimore/Washington International Airport with the intention of crashing it into the White House to assassinate Richard Nixon, but is killed by police.
1980 – Miracle on Ice: In Lake Placid, New York, the United States hockey team defeats the Soviet Union hockey team 4–3.
1983 – The notorious Broadway flop Moose Murders opens and closes on the same night at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre.
1984 – President of Bangladesh, H M Ershad upgraded South Sylhet’s sub-division status to a district and renamed it back to Moulvibazar.
1986 – Start of the People Power Revolution in the Philippines.
1994 – Aldrich Ames and his wife are charged by the United States Department of Justice with spying for the Soviet Union.
1995 – The Corona reconnaissance satellite program, in existence from 1959 to 1972, is declassified.
1997 – In Roslin, Midlothian, British scientists announce that an adult sheep named Dolly has been successfully cloned.
2002 – Angolan political and rebel leader Jonas Savimbi is killed in a military ambush.
2005 – The 6.4 M_w  Zarand earthquake shakes the Kerman Province of Iran with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), leaving 612 people dead and 1,411 injured.
2006 – At least six men stage Britain’s biggest robbery, stealing £53m (about $92.5 million or €78 million) from a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent.
2011 – New Zealand’s second deadliest earthquake strikes Christchurch, killing 185 people.
2011 – Bahraini uprising: Tens of thousands of people march in protest against the deaths of seven victims killed by police and army forces during previous protests.
2012 – A train crash in Buenos Aires, Argentina, kills 51 people and injures 700 others.
2014 – President Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine is impeached by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine by a vote of 328–0, fulfilling a major goal of the Euromaidan rebellion.
2015 – A ferry carrying 100 passengers capsizes in the Padma River, killing 70 people.
2018 – A man throws a grenade at the U.S embassy in Podgorica, Montenegro. He dies at the scene from a second explosion, with no one else hurt.

Births on February 22

1028 – Al-Juwayni, Persian jurist and theologian (died 1085)
1040 – Rashi, French rabbi and author (d. 1105)
1302 – Gegeen Khan, Emperor Yingzong of Yuan (d. 1323)
1403 – Charles VII of France (d. 1461)
1440 – Ladislaus the Posthumous, Hungarian king (d. 1457)
1500 – Rodolfo Pio da Carpi, Italian cardinal (d. 1564)
1514 – Tahmasp I, Iranian shah (d. 1576)
1520 – Moses Isserles, Polish rabbi (d. 1572)
1550 – Charles de Ligne, 2nd Prince of Arenberg (d. 1616)
1592 – Nicholas Ferrar, English scholar (d. 1637)
1631 – Peder Syv, Danish historian (d. 1702)
1649 – Bon Boullogne, French painter (d. 1717)
1715 – Charles-Nicolas Cochin, French artist (d. 1790)
1732 – George Washington, American general and politician, 1st President of the United States (d. 1799)
1749 – Johann Nikolaus Forkel, German musicologist and theorist (d. 1818)
1778 – Rembrandt Peale, American painter and curator (d. 1860)
1788 – Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher and author (d. 1860)
1796 – Alexis Bachelot, French priest and missionary (d. 1837)
1796 – Adolphe Quetelet, Belgian mathematician, astronomer, and sociologist (d. 1874)
1805 – Sarah Fuller Flower Adams, English poet and hymnwriter (d. 1848)
1806 – Józef Kremer, Polish historian and philosopher (d. 1875)
1817 – Carl Wilhelm Borchardt, German mathematician and academic (d. 1880)
1819 – James Russell Lowell, American poet and critic (d. 1891)
1824 – Pierre Janssen, French astronomer and mathematician (d. 1907)
1825 – Jean-Baptiste Salpointe, French-American archbishop (d. 1898)
1836 – Mahesh Chandra Nyayratna Bhattacharyya, Indian scholar and academic (d. 1906)
1840 – August Bebel, German theorist and politician (d. 1913)
1849 – Nikolay Yakovlevich Sonin, Russian mathematician and academic (d. 1915)
1857 – Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, English general, co-founded The Scout Association (d. 1941)
1857 – Heinrich Hertz, German physicist, philosopher, and academic (d. 1894)
1860 – Mary W. Bacheler, American physician and Baptist medical missionary (d. 1939)
1863 – Charles McLean Andrews, American historian, author, and academic (d. 1943)
1864 – Jules Renard, French author and playwright (d. 1910)
1876 – Zitkala-Sa, American author and activist (d. 1938)
1874 – Bill Klem, American baseball player and umpire (d. 1951)
1879 – Johannes Nicolaus Brønsted, Danish chemist and academic (d. 1947)
1880 – Eric Lemming, Swedish athlete (d. 1930)
1881 – Joseph B. Ely, American lawyer and politician, 52nd Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1956)
1881 – Albin Prepeluh, Slovenian journalist and politician (d. 1937)
1882 – Eric Gill, English sculptor and illustrator (d. 1940)
1883 – Marguerite Clark, American actress (d. 1940)
1886 – Hugo Ball, German author and poet (d. 1927)
1887 – Savielly Tartakower, Polish journalist, author, and chess player (d. 1956)
1887 – Pat Sullivan, Australian-American animator and producer (d. 1933)
1888 – Owen Brewster, American captain and politician, 54th Governor of Maine (d. 1961)
1889 – Olave Baden-Powell, English scout leader, founded the Girl Guides (d. 1977)
1889 – R. G. Collingwood, English historian and philosopher (d. 1943)
1891 – Vlas Chubar, Russian economist and politician (d. 1939)
1892 – Edna St. Vincent Millay, American poet and playwright (d. 1950)
1895 – Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, Peruvian politician (d. 1979)
1897 – Karol Świerczewski, Polish general (d. 1947)
1899 – George O’Hara, American actor and screenwriter (d. 1966)
1900 – Luis Buñuel, Spanish-Mexican director and producer (d. 1983)
1903 – Morley Callaghan, Canadian author and playwright (d. 1990)
1903 – Frank P. Ramsey, English economist, mathematician, and philosopher (d. 1930)
1906 – Constance Stokes, Australian painter (d. 1991)
1907 – Sheldon Leonard, American actor, director, and producer (d. 1997)
1907 – Robert Young, American actor (d. 1998)
1908 – Rómulo Betancourt, Venezuelan politician, 56th President of Venezuela (d. 1981)
1908 – John Mills, English soldier and actor (d. 2005)
1910 – George Hunt, English international footballer, forward (d. 1996)
1914 – Renato Dulbecco, Italian-American virologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2012)
1915 – Gus Lesnevich, American boxer (d. 1964)
1917 – Reed Crandall, American illustrator (d. 1982)
1918 – Sid Abel, Canadian-American ice hockey player, coach, and manager (d. 2000)
1918 – Don Pardo, American radio and television announcer (d. 2014)
1918 – Robert Wadlow, American man, the tallest person in recorded history (d. 1940)
1921 – Jean-Bédel Bokassa, Central African general and politician, 2nd President of the Central African Republic (d. 1996)
1921 – Giulietta Masina, Italian actress (d. 1994)
1922 – Marshall Teague, American race car driver (d. 1959)
1922 – Joe Wilder, American trumpet player, composer, and bandleader (d. 2014)
1923 – Bleddyn Williams, Welsh rugby player and sportscaster (d. 2009)
1923 – François Cavanna, French author and editor (d. 2014)
1925 – Edward Gorey, American illustrator and poet (d. 2000)
1925 – Gerald Stern, American poet and academic
1926 – Kenneth Williams, English actor and screenwriter (d. 1988)
1927 – Florencio Campomanes, Filipino political scientist and chess player (d. 2010)
1927 – Guy Mitchell, American singer (d. 1999)
1928 – Clarence 13X, American religious leader, founded the Nation of Gods and Earths (d. 1969)
1928 – Texas Johnny Brown, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2013)
1928 – Paul Dooley, American actor
1928 – Bruce Forsyth, English singer and television host (d. 2017)
1929 – James Hong, American actor and director
1929 – Rebecca Schull, American stage, film, and television actress
1930 – Marni Nixon, American soprano and actress (d. 2016)
1932 – Ted Kennedy, American soldier, lawyer, and politician (d. 2009)
1932 – Zenaida Manfugás, Cuban-born American-naturalized pianist (d. 2012)
1933 – Katharine, Duchess of Kent
1933 – Sheila Hancock, English actress and author
1933 – Ernie K-Doe, American R&B singer (d. 2001)
1933 – Bobby Smith, English international footballer, centre forward (d. 2010)
1934 – Sparky Anderson, American baseball player and manager (d. 2010)
1936 – J. Michael Bishop, American microbiologist and immunologist, Nobel Prize laureate
1937 – Tommy Aaron, American golfer
1937 – Joanna Russ, American author and activist (d. 2011)
1938 – Steve Barber, American baseball player (d. 2007)
1938 – Tony Macedo, Gibraltarian born English footballer, goalkeeper
1938 – Ishmael Reed, American poet, novelist, essayist
1940 – Judy Cornwell, English actress
1940 – Chet Walker, American basketball player
1941 – Hipólito Mejía, Dominican politician, 52nd President of the Dominican Republic
1942 – Christine Keeler, English model and dancer (d. 2017)
1943 – Terry Eagleton, English philosopher and critic
1943 – Horst Köhler, Polish-German economist and politician, 9th President of Germany
1943 – Dick Van Arsdale, American basketball player
1943 – Tom Van Arsdale, American basketball player
1943 – Otoya Yamaguchi, Japanese assassin of Inejiro Asanuma (d. 1960)
1944 – Jonathan Demme, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2017)
1944 – Mick Green, English rock & roll guitarist (d. 2010)
1944 – Robert Kardashian, American lawyer and businessman (d. 2003)
1944 – Christopher Meyer, English diplomat, British Ambassador to the United States
1944 – Tom Okker, Dutch tennis player and painter
1945 – Oliver, American pop singer (d. 2000)
1946 – Kresten Bjerre, Danish footballer and manager (d. 2014)
1947 – Pirjo Honkasalo, Finnish director, cinematographer, and screenwriter
1947 – Harvey Mason, American drummer
1947 – John Radford, English footballer and manager
1947 – Frank Van Dun, Belgian philosopher and theorist
1949 – John Duncan, Scottish footballer, forward and manager
1949 – Niki Lauda, Austrian racing driver (d. 2019)
1949 – Olga Morozova, Russian tennis player and coach
1950 – Julius Erving, American basketball player and sportscaster
1950 – Lenny Kuhr, Dutch singer-songwriter
1950 – Miou-Miou, French actress
1950 – Genesis P-Orridge, English singer-songwriter (d. 2020)
1950 – Julie Walters, English actress and author
1951 – Ellen Greene, American singer and actress
1952 – Bill Frist, American physician and politician
1952 – Joaquim Pina Moura, Portuguese Minister of Economy and Treasury and MP (d. 2020)
1953 – Nigel Planer, English actor and screenwriter
1955 – David Axelrod, American journalist and political adviser
1955 – Tim Young, Canadian ice hockey player
1957 – Willie Smits, Dutch microbiologist and engineer
1958 – Dave Spitz, American bass player and songwriter
1959 – Jiří Čunek, Czech politician
1959 – Kyle MacLachlan, American actor
1959 – Bronwyn Oliver, Australian sculptor (d. 2006)
1960 – Thomas Galbraith, 2nd Baron Strathclyde, Scottish politician, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
1961 – Akira Takasaki, Japanese guitarist, songwriter, and producer
1962 – Steve Irwin, Australian zoologist and television host (d. 2006)
1963 – Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis, English journalist and politician, Secretary of State for Transport
1963 – Devon Malcolm, Jamaican-English cricketer
1963 – Vijay Singh, Fijian-American golfer
1964 – Ed Boon, American video game designer, co-created Mortal Kombat
1964 – Diane Charlemagne, English singer-songwriter (d. 2015)
1964 – Andy Gray, English footballer, midfielder and manager
1965 – Chris Dudley, American basketball player and politician
1965 – Kieren Fallon, Irish jockey
1965 – Pat LaFontaine, American ice hockey player
1966 – Rachel Dratch, American actress and comedian
1966 – Thorsten Kaye, German-English actor
1967 – Psicosis II, Mexican wrestler
1968 – Shawn Graham, Canadian politician, 31st Premier of New Brunswick
1968 – Bradley Nowell, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 1996)
1968 – Jeri Ryan, American model and actress
1968 – Jayson Williams, American basketball player and sportscaster
1969 – Thomas Jane, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1969 – Brian Laudrup, Danish footballer and sportscaster
1969 – Marc Wilmots, Belgian footballer and manager
1971 – Super Caló, Mexican wrestler
1971 – Lea Salonga, Filipino actress and singer
1972 – Michael Chang, American tennis player and coach
1972 – Claudia Pechstein, German speed skater
1973 – Philippe Gaumont, French cyclist (d. 2013)
1973 – Juninho Paulista, Brazilian footballer
1973 – Scott Phillips, American drummer and producer
1974 – James Blunt, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1974 – Chris Moyles, English radio and television host
1975 – Drew Barrymore, American actress, director, producer, and screenwriter
1977 – Timo Rose, German actor, director, and producer
1977 – Hakan Yakin, Swiss footballer
1978 – Jenny Frost, English singer and dancer
1979 – Brett Emerton, Australian footballer
1979 – Lee Na-young, South Korean actress
1980 – Shamari Fears, American singer-songwriter and actress
1980 – Kang Sung-hoon, South Korean singer
1980 – Jeanette Biedermann, German singer-songwriter and actress
1983 – Shaun Tait, Australian cricketer
1984 – Tommy Bowe, Irish rugby player
1984 – Branislav Ivanović, Serbian footballer
1985 – Hameur Bouazza, Algerian international footballer, winger
1985 – Georgios Printezis, Greek basketball player
1986 – Rajon Rondo, American basketball player
1987 – Han Hyo-joo, South Korean actress and model
1987 – Sergio Romero, Argentinian footballer
1988 – Jonathan Borlée, Belgian sprinter
1988 – Efraín Juárez, Mexican footballer
1988 – Sebastian Tyrała, Polish-German footballer
1989 – Franco Vázquez, Argentinian footballer
1990 – Luca Profeta, Italian footballer
1992 – Alexander Merkel, Kazakhstani-German footballer
1999 – Harry Brook, English cricketer

Deaths on February 22

556 – Maximianus, bishop of Ravenna (b. 499)
606 – Sabinian, pope of the Catholic Church
793 – Sicga, Anglo-Saxon nobleman and regicide
845 – Wang, Chinese empress dowager
954 – Guo Wei, Chinese emperor (b. 904)
965 – Otto, duke of Burgundy (b. 944)
970 – García I, king of Pamplona
978 – Lambert, count of Chalon (b. 930)
1071 – Arnulf III, count of Flanders
1072 – Peter Damian, Italian cardinal
1079 – John of Fécamp, Italian Benedictine abbot
1111 – Roger Borsa, king of Sicily (b. 1078)
1297 – Margaret of Cortona, Italian penitent (b. 1247)
1371 – David II, king of Scotland (b. 1324)
1452 – William Douglas, 8th Earl of Douglas (b. 1425)
1500 – Gerhard VI, German nobleman (b. 1430)
1511 – Henry, duke of Cornwall (b. 1511)
1512 – Amerigo Vespucci, Italian cartographer and explorer (b. 1454)
1627 – Olivier van Noort, Dutch explorer (b. 1558)
1674 – Jean Chapelain, French poet and critic (b. 1595)
1680 – La Voisin, French occultist (b. 1640)
1690 – Charles Le Brun, French painter and theorist (b. 1619)
1731 – Frederik Ruysch, Dutch physician and anatomist (b. 1638)
1732 – Francis Atterbury, English bishop (b. 1663)
1799 – Heshen, Chinese politician (b. 1750)
1816 – Adam Ferguson, Scottish historian and philosopher (b. 1723)
1875 – Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, French painter and illustrator (b. 1796)
1875 – Charles Lyell, Scottish-English geologist and lawyer (b. 1797)
1888 – Anna Kingsford, English physician and activist (b. 1846)
1890 – John Jacob Astor III, American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1822)
1890 – Carl Bloch, Danish painter and academic (b. 1834)
1897 – Charles Blondin, French tightrope walker and acrobat (b. 1824)
1898 – Heungseon Daewongun, Korean king (b. 1820)
1903 – Hugo Wolf, Austrian composer (b. 1860)
1904 – Leslie Stephen, English historian, author, and critic (b. 1832)
1913 – Ferdinand de Saussure, Swiss linguist and author (b. 1857)
1913 – Francisco I. Madero, Mexican president and author (b. 1873)
1923 – Théophile Delcassé, French politician, French Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1852)
1939 – Antonio Machado, Spanish-French poet and author (b. 1875)
1942 – Stefan Zweig, Austrian journalist, author, and playwright (b. 1881)
1943 – Christoph Probst, German activist (b. 1919)
1943 – Hans Scholl, German activist (b. 1918)
1943 – Sophie Scholl, German activist (b. 1921)
1944 – Kasturba Gandhi, Indian activist (b. 1869)
1945 – Osip Brik, Russian avant garde writer and literary critic (b. 1888)
1958 – Abul Kalam Azad, Indian scholar and politician, Indian Minister of Education (b. 1888)
1960 – Paul-Émile Borduas, Canadian-French painter and critic (b. 1905)
1961 – Nick LaRocca, American trumpet player and composer (b. 1889)
1965 – Felix Frankfurter, Austrian-American lawyer and jurist (b. 1882)
1971 – Frédéric Mariotti, French actor (b. 1883)
1973 – Jean-Jacques Bertrand, Canadian lawyer and politician, 21st Premier of Quebec (b. 1916)
1973 – Elizabeth Bowen, Anglo-Irish author (b. 1899)
1973 – Katina Paxinou, Greek actress (b. 1900)
1973 – Winthrop Rockefeller, American colonel and politician, 37th Governor of Arkansas (b. 1912)
1976 – Angela Baddeley, English actress (b. 1904)
1976 – Florence Ballard, American singer (b. 1943)
1980 – Oskar Kokoschka, Austrian painter, poet and playwright (b. 1886)
1982 – Josh Malihabadi, Indian-Pakistani poet and author (b. 1898)
1983 – Adrian Boult, English conductor (b. 1889)
1983 – Romain Maes, Belgian cyclist (b. 1913)
1985 – Salvador Espriu, Spanish author, poet, and playwright (b. 1913)
1985 – Efrem Zimbalist, Russian violinist, composer, and conductor (b. 1889)
1986 – John Donnelly, Australian rugby league player (b. 1955)
1987 – David Susskind, American talk show host and producer (b. 1920)
1987 – Andy Warhol, American painter and photographer (b. 1928)
1992 – Markos Vafiadis, Greek general and politician (b. 1906)
1994 – Papa John Creach, American violinist (b. 1917)
1995 – Ed Flanders, American actor (b. 1934)
1997 – Joseph Aiuppa, American gangster (b. 1907)
1998 – Abraham A. Ribicoff, American lawyer and politician, 4th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (b. 1910)
1999 – William Bronk, American poet and academic (b. 1918)
1999 – Menno Oosting, Dutch tennis player (b. 1964)
2002 – Roden Cutler, Australian lieutenant and politician, 32nd Governor of New South Wales (b. 1916)
2002 – Chuck Jones, American animator, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1912)
2002 – Jonas Savimbi, Angolan general, founded UNITA (b. 1934)
2004 – Andy Seminick, American baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1920)
2005 – Lee Eun-ju, South Korean actress and singer (b. 1980)
2005 – Simone Simon, French actress (b. 1910)
2007 – George Jellicoe, 2nd Earl Jellicoe, English politician, Leader of the House of Lords (b. 1918)
2007 – Dennis Johnson, American basketball player and coach (b. 1954)
2012 – Sukhbir, Indian author and poet (b. 1925)
2012 – Frank Carson, Irish-English comedian and actor (b. 1926)
2012 – Marie Colvin, American journalist (b. 1956)
2012 – Rémi Ochlik, French photographer and journalist (b. 1983)
2013 – Atje Keulen-Deelstra, Dutch speed skater (b. 1938)
2013 – Jean-Louis Michon, French-Swiss scholar and translator (b. 1924)
2013 – Wolfgang Sawallisch, German pianist and conductor (b. 1923)
2014 – Charlotte Dawson, New Zealand–Australian television host (b. 1966)
2014 – Trebor Jay Tichenor, American pianist and composer (b. 1940)
2014 – Leo Vroman, Dutch-American hematologist, poet, and illustrator (b. 1915)
2015 – Chris Rainbow, Scottish singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1946)
2016 – Yolande Fox, American model and singer, Miss America 1951 (b. 1928)
2016 – Sonny James, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1928)
2018 – Forges, Spanish cartoonist (b. 1942)
2019 – Brody Stevens, American comedian and actor (b. 1970)
2019 – Morgan Woodward, American actor (b. 1925)

Holidays and observances on February 22

Birthday of Scouting and Guiding founder Robert Baden-Powell and Olave Baden-Powell, and its related observance:
- Founder’s Day or “B.-P. day” (World Organization of the Scout Movement)
- World Thinking Day (World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts)
Christian feast day:
- Baradates
- Eric Liddell (Episcopal Church (USA))
- Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter (Roman Catholic Church)
- Margaret of Cortona
- February 22 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Crime Victims Day (Europe)
Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Saint Lucia from the United Kingdom in 1979.

February 22 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

February 19 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day / admin

197 – Emperor Septimius Severus defeats usurper Clodius Albinus in the Battle of Lugdunum, the bloodiest battle between Roman armies.
356 – Emperor Constantius II issues a decree closing all pagan temples in the Roman Empire.
1594 – Having already been elected to the throne of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1587, Sigismund III of the House of Vasa is crowned King of Sweden, having succeeded his father John III of Sweden in 1592.
1600 – The Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina explodes in the most violent eruption in the recorded history of South America.
1649 – The Second Battle of Guararapes takes place, effectively ending Dutch colonization efforts in Brazil.
1674 – England and the Netherlands sign the Treaty of Westminster, ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War. A provision of the agreement transfers the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam to England, and it is renamed New York.
1726 – The Supreme Privy Council is established in Russia.
1807 – Former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr is arrested for treason in Wakefield, Alabama and confined to Fort Stoddert.
1819 – British explorer William Smith discovers the South Shetland Islands and claims them in the name of King George III.
1836 – King William IV signs Letters Patent establishing the Province of South Australia.
1846 – In Austin, Texas the newly formed Texas state government is officially installed. The Republic of Texas government officially transfers power to the State of Texas government following the annexation of Texas by the United States.
1847 – The first group of rescuers reaches the Donner Party.
1859 – Daniel E. Sickles, a New York Congressman, is acquitted of murder on grounds of temporary insanity.
1878 – Thomas Edison patents the phonograph.
1884 – More than sixty tornadoes strike the Southern United States, one of the largest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history.
1913 – Pedro Lascuráin becomes President of Mexico for 45 minutes; this is the shortest term to date of any person as president of any country.
1915 – World War I: The first naval attack on the Dardanelles begins when a strong Anglo-French task force bombards Ottoman artillery along the coast of Gallipoli.
1937 – Yekatit 12: During a public ceremony at the Viceregal Palace (the former Imperial residence) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, two Ethiopian nationalists of Eritrean origin attempt to kill viceroy Rodolfo Graziani with a number of grenades.
1942 – World War II: Nearly 250 Japanese warplanes attack the northern Australian city of Darwin, killing 243 people.
1942 – World War II: United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs executive order 9066, allowing the United States military to relocate Japanese Americans to internment camps.
1943 – World War II: Battle of Kasserine Pass in Tunisia begins.
1945 – World War II: Battle of Iwo Jima: About 30,000 United States Marines land on the island of Iwo Jima.
1948 – The Conference of Youth and Students of Southeast Asia Fighting for Freedom and Independence convenes in Calcutta.
1949 – Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry by the Bollingen Foundation and Yale University.
1953 – Book censorship in the United States: The Georgia Literature Commission is established.
1954 – Transfer of Crimea: The Soviet Politburo of the Soviet Union orders the transfer of the Crimean Oblast from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR.
1959 – The United Kingdom grants Cyprus independence, which is formally proclaimed on August 16, 1960.
1960 – China successfully launches the T-7, its first sounding rocket.
1963 – The publication of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique reawakens the feminist movement in the United States as women’s organizations and consciousness raising groups spread.
1965 – Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, and a communist spy of the North Vietnamese Viet Minh, along with Generals Lâm Văn Phát and Trần Thiện Khiêm, all Catholics, attempt a coup against the military junta of the Buddhist Nguyễn Khánh.
1976 – Executive Order 9066, which led to the relocation of Japanese Americans to internment camps, is rescinded by President Gerald Ford’s Proclamation 4417.
1978 – Egyptian forces raid Larnaca International Airport in an attempt to intervene in a hijacking, without authorisation from the Republic of Cyprus authorities. The Cypriot National Guard and Police forces kill 15 Egyptian commandos and destroy the Egyptian C-130 transport plane in open combat.
1985 – William J. Schroeder becomes the first recipient of an artificial heart to leave the hospital.
1985 – Iberia Airlines Boeing 727 crashes into Mount Oiz in Spain, killing 148.
1986 – Akkaraipattu massacre: the Sri Lankan Army massacres 80 Tamil farm workers in eastern Sri Lanka.
1989 – Flying Tiger Line flight 66 crashes into a hill near Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Malaysia, killing four.
2002 – NASA’s Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system.
2003 – An Ilyushin Il-76 military aircraft crashes near Kerman, Iran, killing 275.
2006 – A methane explosion in a coal mine near Nueva Rosita, Mexico, kills 65 miners.
2011 – The debut exhibition of the Belitung shipwreck, containing the largest collection of Tang dynasty artifacts found in one location, begins in Singapore.
2012 – Forty-four people are killed in a prison brawl in Apodaca, Nuevo León, Mexico.

Births on February 19

1461 – Domenico Grimani, Italian cardinal (d. 1523)
1473 – Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish mathematician and astronomer (d. 1543)
1497 – Matthäus Schwarz, German fashion writer (d. 1574)
1519 – Froben Christoph of Zimmern, German author of the Zimmern Chronicle (d. 1566)
1526 – Carolus Clusius, Flemish botanist and academic (d. 1609)
1532 – Jean-Antoine de Baïf, French poet (d. 1589)
1552 – Melchior Klesl, Austrian cardinal (d. 1630)
1594 – Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales (d. 1612)
1611 – Andries de Graeff, Dutch politician (d. 1678)
1630 – Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Indian warrior king and the founder of Maratha Empire
1660 – Friedrich Hoffmann, German physician and chemist (d. 1742)
1717 – David Garrick, English actor, playwright, and producer (d. 1779)
1743 – Luigi Boccherini, Italian cellist and composer (d. 1805)
1798 – Allan MacNab, Canadian soldier, lawyer, and politician, Premier of Canada West (d. 1862)
1800 – Émilie Gamelin, Canadian nun and social worker, founded the Sisters of Providence (d. 1851)
1804 – Carl von Rokitansky, German physician, pathologist, and philosopher (d. 1878)
1821 – August Schleicher, German linguist and academic (d. 1868)
1833 – Élie Ducommun, Swiss journalist and activist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1906)
1838 – Lydia Thompson, British burlesque performer (d. 1908)
1841 – Elfrida Andrée, Swedish organist, composer, and conductor (d. 1929)
1855 – Nishinoumi Kajirō I, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 16th Yokozuna (d. 1908)
1859 – Svante Arrhenius, Swedish physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1927)
1865 – Sven Hedin, Swedish geographer and explorer (d. 1952)
1869 – Hovhannes Tumanyan, Armenian-Russian poet and author (d. 1923)
1872 – Johan Pitka, Estonian admiral (d. 1944)
1876 – Constantin Brâncuși, Romanian-French sculptor, painter, and photographer (d. 1957)
1877 – Gabriele Münter, German painter (d. 1962)
1878 – Harriet Bosse, Swedish–Norwegian actress (d. 1961)
1880 – Álvaro Obregón, Mexican general and politician, 39th President of Mexico (d. 1928)
1886 – José Abad Santos, Filipino lawyer and jurist, 5th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines (d. 1942)
1888 – José Eustasio Rivera, Colombian lawyer and poet (d. 1928)
1893 – Cedric Hardwicke, English actor and director (d. 1964)
1895 – Louis Calhern, American actor (d. 1956)
1896 – André Breton, French poet and author (d. 1966)
1897 – Alma Rubens, American actress (d. 1931)
1899 – Lucio Fontana, Argentinian-Italian painter and sculptor (d. 1968)
1902 – Kay Boyle, American novelist, short story writer, and educator (d. 1992)
1904 – Havank, Dutch journalist and author (d. 1964)
1904 – Elisabeth Welch, American-English singer and actress (d. 2003)
1911 – Merle Oberon, Indian-American actress (d. 1979)
1912 – Dorothy Janis, American actress (d. 2010)
1912 – Saul Chaplin, American composer (d. 1997)
1913 – Prince Pedro Gastão of Orléans-Braganza (d. 2007)
1913 – Frank Tashlin, American animator and screenwriter (d. 1972)
1914 – Thelma Kench, New Zealand Olympic sprinter (d. 1985)
1915 – John Freeman, English lawyer, politician, and diplomat, British Ambassador to the United States (d. 2014)
1916 – Eddie Arcaro, American jockey and sportscaster (d. 1997)
1917 – Carson McCullers, American novelist, short story writer, playwright, and essayist (d. 1967)
1918 – Fay McKenzie, American actress (d. 2019)
1920 – C. Z. Guest, American actress, fashion designer, and author (d. 2003)
1920 – Jaan Kross, Estonian author and poet (d. 2007)
1920 – George Rose, English actor and singer (d. 1988)
1922 – Władysław Bartoszewski, Polish journalist and politician, Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 2015)
1924 – David Bronstein, Ukrainian chess player and theoretician (d. 2006)
1924 – Lee Marvin, American actor (d. 1987)
1926 – György Kurtág, Hungarian composer and academic
1927 – Philippe Boiry, French journalist (d. 2014)
1929 – Jacques Deray, French director and screenwriter (d. 2003)
1930 – John Frankenheimer, American director and producer (d. 2002)
1930 – Kasinathuni Viswanath, Indian actor, director, and screenwriter
1932 – Joseph P. Kerwin, American captain, physician, and astronaut
1935 – Dave Niehaus, American sportscaster (d. 2010)
1935 – Russ Nixon, American MLB catcher and coach (d. 2016)
1936 – Sam Myers, American singer-songwriter (d. 2006)
1936 – Frederick Seidel, American poet
1937 – Terry Carr, American author and educator (d. 1987)
1937 – Norm O’Neill, Australian cricketer and sportscaster (d. 2008)
1938 – Choekyi Gyaltsen, 10th Panchen Lama (d. 1989)
1939 – Erin Pizzey, English activist and author, founded Refuge
1940 – Saparmurat Niyazov, Turkmen engineer and politician, 1st President of Turkmenistan (d. 2006)
1940 – Smokey Robinson, American singer-songwriter and producer
1940 – Bobby Rogers, American singer-songwriter (d. 2013)
1941 – David Gross, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1941 – Jenny Tonge, Baroness Tonge, English politician
1942 – Cyrus Chothia, English biochemist and emeritus scientist at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (d. 2019)
1942 – Paul Krause, American football player and politician
1942 – Howard Stringer, Welsh businessman
1942 – Will Provine, American biologist, historian, and academic (d. 2015)
1943 – Lou Christie, American singer-songwriter
1943 – Homer Hickam, American author and engineer
1943 – Tim Hunt, English biochemist and academic, Nobel laureate
1944 – Les Hinton, English-American journalist and businessman
1945 – Yuri Antonov, Uzbek-Russian singer-songwriter
1946 – Paul Dean, Canadian guitarist
1946 – Peter Hudson, Australian footballer and coach
1946 – Karen Silkwood, American technician and activist (d. 1974)
1947 – Jackie Curtis, American actress and playwright (d. 1985)
1947 – Tim Shadbolt, New Zealand businessman and politician, 42nd Mayor of Invercargill
1948 – Mark Andes, American singer-songwriter and bass player
1948 – Pim Fortuyn, Dutch sociologist, academic, and politician (d. 2002)
1948 – Tony Iommi, English guitarist and songwriter
1949 – Danielle Bunten Berry, American game designer and programmer (d. 1998)
1949 – Eddie Hardin, English singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 2015)
1949 – Barry Lloyd, English footballer, midfielder and manager
1949 – William Messner-Loebs, American author and illustrator
1950 – Juice Leskinen, Finnish singer-songwriter (d. 2006)
1950 – Andy Powell, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1951 – Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, Pakistani scholar and politician, founder of Minhaj-ul-Quran
1952 – Ryū Murakami, Japanese novelist and filmmaker
1952 – Rodolfo Neri Vela, Mexican engineer and astronaut
1952 – Gary Seear, New Zealand rugby player (d. 2018)
1952 – Dave Cheadle, American baseball player (d. 2012)
1952 – Amy Tan, American novelist, essayist, and short story writer
1952 – Danilo Türk, Slovene academic and politician, 3rd President of Slovenia
1953 – Corrado Barazzutti, Italian tennis player
1953 – Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Argentine lawyer and politician, former President of Argentina and current Vice President of Argentina
1953 – Massimo Troisi, Italian actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 1994)
1954 – Sócrates, Brazilian footballer and manager (d. 2011)
1954 – Francis Buchholz, German bass player
1954 – Michael Gira, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1955 – Jeff Daniels, American actor and playwright
1956 – Kathleen Beller, American actress
1956 – Peter Holsapple, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1956 – Roderick MacKinnon, American biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1956 – Dave Wakeling, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1957 – Falco, Austrian singer-songwriter, rapper, and musician (d. 1998)
1957 – Dave Stewart, American baseball player and coach
1957 – Ray Winstone, English actor
1958 – Tommy Cairo, American wrestler
1958 – Helen Fielding, English author and screenwriter
1958 – Steve Nieve, English keyboard player and composer
1959 – Roger Goodell, American businessman
1960 – Prince Andrew, Duke of York
1960 – John Paul Jr., American race car driver
1961 – Justin Fashanu, English footballer (d. 1998)
1961 – Ernie Gonzalez, American golfer
1962 – Hana Mandlíková, Czech-Australian tennis player and coach
1963 – Seal, English singer-songwriter
1963 – Jessica Tuck, American actress
1964 – Doug Aldrich, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1964 – Jonathan Lethem, American novelist, essayist, and short story writer
1965 – Jon Fishman, American drummer
1965 – Clark Hunt, American businessman
1965 – Leroy, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1966 – Justine Bateman, American actress and producer
1966 – Paul Haarhuis, Dutch tennis player and coach
1966 – Eduardo Xol, American designer and author
1967 – Benicio del Toro, Puerto Rican-American actor, director, and producer
1968 – Frank Watkins, American bass player (d. 2015)
1968 – Prince Markie Dee, American rapper and actor
1969 – Burton C. Bell, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1969 – Helena Guergis, Canadian businesswoman and politician
1970 – Joacim Cans, Swedish singer-songwriter
1971 – Miguel Batista, Dominican baseball player and poet
1971 – Richard Green, Australian golfer
1971 – Jeff Kinney, American author and illustrator
1972 – Francine Fournier, American wrestler and manager
1972 – Sunset Thomas, American pornographic actress
1975 – Daniel Adair, Canadian drummer and producer
1975 – Daewon Song, South Korean-American skateboarder, co-founded Almost Skateboards
1977 – Ola Salo, Swedish singer-songwriter and keyboard player
1977 – Andrew Ross Sorkin, American journalist and author
1977 – Gianluca Zambrotta, Italian footballer and manager
1978 – Ben Gummer, English scholar and politician
1978 – Immortal Technique, Peruvian-American rapper
1979 – Steve Cherundolo, American soccer player and manager
1980 – Dwight Freeney, American football player
1980 – Ma Lin, Chinese table tennis player
1980 – Mike Miller, American basketball player
1981 – Beth Ditto, American singer
1983 – Kotoōshū Katsunori, Bulgarian sumo wrestler
1983 – Mika Nakashima, Japanese singer and actress
1983 – Ryan Whitney, American ice hockey player
1984 – Chris Richardson, American singer-songwriter
1985 – Haylie Duff, American actress and singer
1986 – Kyle Chipchura, Canadian ice hockey player
1986 – Marta, Brazilian footballer
1986 – Maria Mena, Norwegian singer-songwriter
1986 – Michael Schwimer, American baseball player
1987 – Anna Cappellini, Italian ice dancer
1988 – Shawn Matthias, Canadian ice hockey player
1988 – Seth Morrison, American guitarist
1989 – Sone Aluko, Anglo-Nigerian international footballer, forward/winger
1991 – Christoph Kramer, German national footballer
1991 – Trevor Bayne, American race car driver
1992 – Camille Kostek, American model
1993 – Mauro Icardi, Argentinian footballer
1993 – Victoria Justice, American actress and singer
1994 – Sam Lisone, New Zealand-Samoan rugby league player
1994 – Tiina Trutsi, Estonian footballer
1995 – Nikola Jokić, Serbian basketball player
1998 – Katharina Gerlach, German tennis player
2001 – David Mazouz, American actor
2004 – Millie Bobby Brown, English actress

Deaths on February 19

197 – Clodius Albinus, Roman usurper (b. 150)
446 – Leontius of Trier, Bishop of Trier
1133 – Irene Doukaina, Byzantine wife of Alexios I Komnenos (b. 1066)
1275 – Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, Sufi philosopher and poet (b. 1177)
1300 – Munio of Zamora, General of the Dominican Order
1408 – Thomas Bardolf, 5th Baron Bardolf, English rebel
1414 – Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1353)
1445 – Leonor of Aragon, queen of Portugal (b. 1402)
1491 – Enno I, Count of East Frisia, German noble (b. 1460)
1553 – Erasmus Reinhold, German astronomer and mathematician (b. 1511)
1602 – Philippe Emmanuel, Duke of Mercœur (b. 1558)
1605 – Orazio Vecchi, Italian composer (b. 1550)
1622 – Henry Savile, English scholar and politician (b. 1549)
1672 – Charles Chauncy, English-American minister, theologian, and academic (b. 1592)
1709 – Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, Japanese shōgun (b. 1646)
1716 – Dorothe Engelbretsdatter, Norwegian author and poet (b. 1634)
1785 – Mary, Countess of Harold, English aristocrat and philanthropist (b. 1701)
1789 – Nicholas Van Dyke, American lawyer and politician, 7th Governor of Delaware (b. 1738)
1799 – Jean-Charles de Borda, French mathematician, physicist, and sailor (b. 1733)
1806 – Elizabeth Carter, English poet and translator (b. 1717)
1837 – Georg Büchner, German-Swiss poet and playwright (b. 1813)
1837 – Thomas Burgess, English bishop and philosopher (b. 1756)
1887 – Multatuli, Dutch-German author and civil servant (b. 1820)
1897 – Karl Weierstrass, German mathematician and academic (b. 1815)
1915 – Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Indian philosopher and politician (b. 1866)
1916 – Ernst Mach, Austrian-Czech physicist and philosopher (b. 1838)
1927 – Robert Fuchs, Austrian composer and educator (b. 1847)
1928 – George Howard Earle Jr., American lawyer and businessman (b. 1856)
1936 – Billy Mitchell, American general and pilot (b. 1879)
1945 – John Basilone, American sergeant, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1916)
1951 – André Gide, French novelist, essayist, and dramatist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1869)
1952 – Knut Hamsun, Norwegian novelist, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1859)
1953 – Richard Rushall, British businessman (b. 1864)
1957 – Maurice Garin, Italian-French cyclist (b. 1871)
1959 – Willard Miller, American sailor, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1877)
1962 – Georgios Papanikolaou, Greek-American pathologist, invented the Pap smear (b. 1883)
1969 – Madge Blake, American actress (b. 1899)
1970 – Ralph Edward Flanders, (b. 1890) US Senator from Vermont.
1972 – John Grierson, Scottish director and producer (b. 1898)
1972 – Lee Morgan, American trumpet player and composer (b. 1938)
1973 – Joseph Szigeti, Hungarian violinist (b. 1892)
1977 – Anthony Crosland, English captain and politician, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (b. 1918)
1977 – Mike González, Cuban baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1890)
1980 – Bon Scott, Scottish-Australian singer-songwriter (b. 1946)
1983 – Alice White, American actress (b. 1904)
1988 – André Frédéric Cournand, French-American physician and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1895)
1992 – Tojo Yamamoto, American wrestler and manager (b. 1927)
1994 – Derek Jarman, English director and set designer (b. 1942)
1996 – Charlie Finley, American businessman (b. 1918)
1997 – Leo Rosten, Polish-American author and academic (b. 1908)
1997 – Deng Xiaoping, Chinese politician, 1st Vice Premier of the People’s Republic of China (b. 1904)
1998 – Grandpa Jones, American singer-songwriter and banjo player (b. 1913)
1999 – Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr, Iraqi cleric (b. 1943)
2000 – Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Austrian-New Zealand painter and illustrator (b. 1928)
2001 – Stanley Kramer, American director and producer (b. 1913)
2001 – Charles Trenet, French singer-songwriter (b. 1913)
2002 – Sylvia Rivera, American transgender LGBT activist (b. 1951)
2003 – Johnny Paycheck, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1938)
2007 – Janet Blair, American actress and singer (b. 1921)
2007 – Celia Franca, English-Canadian dancer and director, founded the National Ballet of Canada (b. 1921)
2008 – Yegor Letov, Russian singer-songwriter (b. 1964)
2008 – Lydia Shum, Chinese-Hong Kong actress and singer (b. 1945)
2009 – Kelly Groucutt, English singer and bass player (b. 1945)
2011 – Ollie Matson, American sprinter and football player (b. 1930)
2012 – Ruth Barcan Marcus, American philosopher and logician (b. 1921)
2012 – Jaroslav Velinský, Czech author and songwriter (b. 1932)
2012 – Vitaly Vorotnikov, Russian politician, 27th Prime Minister of Russia (b. 1926)
2013 – Armen Alchian, American economist and academic (b. 1914)
2013 – Park Chul-soo, South Korean director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1948)
2013 – Robert Coleman Richardson, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1937)
2013 – Donald Richie, American-Japanese author and critic (b. 1924)
2013 – Eugene Whelan, Canadian farmer and politician, 22nd Canadian Minister of Agriculture (b. 1924)
2014 – Kresten Bjerre, Danish footballer and manager (b. 1946)
2014 – Dale Gardner, American captain and astronaut (b. 1948)
2014 – Valeri Kubasov, Russian engineer and astronaut (b. 1935)
2015 – Harold Johnson, American boxer (b. 1928)
2015 – Nirad Mohapatra, Indian director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1947)
2015 – Harris Wittels, American actor, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1984)
2016 – Umberto Eco, Italian novelist, literary critic, and philosopher (b. 1932)
2016 – Harper Lee, American author (b. 1926)
2016 – Chiaki Morosawa, Japanese anime screenwriter (b. 1959)
2016 – Samuel Willenberg, Polish-Israeli sculptor and painter (b. 1923)
2017 – Larry Coryell, American jazz guitarist (b. 1943)
2019 – Clark Dimond, American musician and author (b. 1941)
2019 – Karl Lagerfeld, German fashion designer (b. 1933)
2020 – José Mojica Marins, Brazilian filmmaker, actor, composer, screenwriter, and television horror host Coffin Joe. (b. 1936)
2020 – Pop Smoke, American rapper (b. 1999)

Holidays and observances on February 19

Armed Forces Day (Mexico)
Brâncuși Day (Romania)
Christian feast day:
- Barbatus of Benevento
- Boniface of Brussels
- Conrad of Piacenza
- Lucy Yi Zhenmei (one of Martyrs of Guizhou)
- February 19 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Commemoration of Vasil Levski (Bulgaria)
Flag Day (Turkmenistan)
Shivaji Jayanti (Maharashtra, India)9

February 19 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

February 18 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day / admin

1229 – The Sixth Crusade: Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, signs a ten-year truce with al-Kamil, regaining Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem with neither military engagements nor support from the papacy.
1268 – The Battle of Wesenberg is fought between the Livonian Order and Dovmont of Pskov.
1332 – Amda Seyon I, Emperor of Ethiopia begins his campaigns in the southern Muslim provinces.
1478 – George, Duke of Clarence, convicted of treason against his older brother Edward IV of England, is executed in private at the Tower of London.
1637 – Eighty Years’ War: Off the coast of Cornwall, England, a Spanish fleet intercepts an important Anglo-Dutch merchant convoy of 44 vessels escorted by six warships, destroying or capturing 20 of them.
1781 – Fourth Anglo-Dutch War: Captain Thomas Shirley opens his expedition against Dutch colonial outposts on the Gold Coast of Africa (present-day Ghana).
1791 – Congress passes a law admitting the state of Vermont to the Union, effective 4 March, after that state had existed for 14 years as a de facto independent largely unrecognized state.
1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: Sir Ralph Abercromby and a fleet of 18 British warships invade Trinidad.
1814 – Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Montereau.
1861 – In Montgomery, Alabama, Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the provisional President of the Confederate States of America.
1861 – With Italian unification almost complete, Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont, Savoy and Sardinia assumes the title of King of Italy.
1873 – Bulgarian revolutionary leader Vasil Levski is executed by hanging in Sofia by the Ottoman authorities.
1878 – John Tunstall is murdered by outlaw Jesse Evans, sparking the Lincoln County War in Lincoln County, New Mexico.
1885 – Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is published in the United States.
1900 – Second Boer War: Imperial forces suffer their worst single-day loss of life on Bloody Sunday, the first day of the Battle of Paardeberg.
1906 – Édouard de Laveleye forms the Belgian Olympic Committee in Brussels.
1911 – The first official flight with airmail takes place from Allahabad, United Provinces, British India (now India), when Henri Pequet, a 23-year-old pilot, delivers 6,500 letters to Naini, about 10 kilometers (6.2 mi) away.
1930 – While studying photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto.
1930 – Elm Farm Ollie becomes the first cow to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft and also the first cow to be milked in an aircraft.
1932 – The Empire of Japan creates the independent state of Manzhouguo (the obsolete Chinese name for Manchuria) free from the Republic of China and installed former Chinese Emperor Aisin Gioro Puyi as Chief Executive of the State.
1938 – Second Sino-Japanese War: During the Nanking Massacre, the Nanking Safety Zone International Committee is renamed “Nanking International Rescue Committee”, and the safety zone in place for refugees falls apart.
1942 – World War II: The Imperial Japanese Army begins the systematic extermination of perceived hostile elements among the Chinese in Singapore.
1943 – World War II: The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose movement.
1943 – World War II: Joseph Goebbels delivers his Sportpalast speech.
1946 – Sailors of the Royal Indian Navy mutiny in Bombay harbour, from where the action spreads throughout the Provinces of British India, involving 78 ships, twenty shore establishments and 20,000 sailors
1947 – First Indochina War: The French gain complete control of Hanoi after forcing the Viet Minh to withdraw to mountains.
1954 – The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles.
1955 – Operation Teapot: Teapot test shot “Wasp” is successfully detonated at the Nevada Test Site with a yield of 1.2 kilotons. Wasp is the first of fourteen shots in the Teapot series.
1957 – Kenyan rebel leader Dedan Kimathi is executed by the British colonial government.
1957 – Walter James Bolton becomes the last person legally executed in New Zealand.
1965 – The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
1970 – The Chicago Seven are found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
1972 – The California Supreme Court in the case of People v. Anderson, (6 Cal.3d 628) invalidates the state’s death penalty and commutes the sentences of all death row inmates to life imprisonment.
1977 – The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle is carried on its maiden “flight” on top of a Boeing 747.
1979 – Richard Petty wins a then-record sixth Daytona 500 after leaders Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough crash on the final lap of the first NASCAR race televised live flag-to-flag.
1983 – Thirteen people die and one is seriously injured in the Wah Mee massacre in Seattle. It is said to be the largest robbery-motivated mass-murder in U.S. history.
1991 – The IRA explodes bombs in the early morning at Paddington station and Victoria station in London.
2001 – FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union. He is ultimately convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
2001 – Sampit conflict: Inter-ethnic violence between Dayaks and Madurese breaks out in Sampit, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, ultimately resulting in more than 500 deaths and 100,000 Madurese displaced from their homes.
2003 – Nearly 200 people die in the Daegu subway fire in South Korea.
2004 – Up to 295 people, including nearly 200 rescue workers, die near Nishapur, Iran, when a runaway freight train carrying sulfur, petrol and fertilizer catches fire and explodes.
2007 – Samjhauta Express bombings occurred around midnight in Diwana near the Indian city of Panipat, 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of New Delhi, India.
2010 – WikiLeaks publishes the first of hundreds of thousands of classified documents disclosed by the soldier now known as Chelsea Manning.
2013 – Armed robbers steal a haul of diamonds worth $50 million during a raid at Brussels Airport in Belgium.
2014 – At least 76 people are killed and hundreds are injured in clashes between riot police and demonstrators in Kiev, Ukraine.

Births on February 18

1201 – Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, Persian scientist and writer (d. 1274)
1372 – Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Egyptian jurist and scholar (d. 1448)
1486 – Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Indian monk and saint (d. 1534)
1516 – Mary I of England (d. 1558)
1530 – Uesugi Kenshin, Japanese daimyō (d. 1578)
1543 – Charles III, Duke of Lorraine (d. 1608)
1547 – Bahāʾ al-dīn al-ʿĀmilī, founder of Isfahan School of Islamic Philosophy (d. 1621)
1559 – Isaac Casaubon, Swiss philologist and scholar (d. 1614)
1589 – Henry Vane the Elder, English politician (d. 1655)
1589 – Maarten Gerritsz Vries, Dutch explorer (d. 1646)
1602 – Per Brahe the Younger, Swedish soldier and politician, Governor-General of Finland (d. 1680)
1609 – Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, English historian and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (d. 1674)
1626 – Francesco Redi, Italian physician (d. 1697)
1632 – Giovanni Battista Vitali, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1692)
1642 – Marie Champmeslé, French actress (d. 1698)
1658 – Charles-Irénée Castel de Saint-Pierre, French philosopher and author (d. 1743)
1732 – Johann Christian Kittel, German organist and composer (d. 1809)
1745 – Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist, invented the battery (d. 1827)
1814 – Samuel Fenton Cary, American lawyer and politician (d. 1900)
1817 – Lewis Armistead, American general (d. 1863)
1836 – Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Indian mystic and yogi (d. 1886)
1838 – Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist and philosopher (d. 1916)
1846 – Wilson Barrett, English actor, playwright, and manager (d. 1904)
1848 – Louis Comfort Tiffany, American stained glass artist (d. 1933)
1849 – Alexander Kielland, Norwegian author, playwright, and politician (d. 1906)
1850 – George Henschel, German-English singer-songwriter, pianist, and conductor (d. 1934)
1855 – Jean Jules Jusserand, French historian, author, and diplomat, French Ambassador to the United States (d. 1932)
1860 – Anders Zorn, Swedish artist (d. 1920)
1862 – Charles M. Schwab, American businessman, co-founded Bethlehem Steel (d. 1939)
1867 – Hedwig Courths-Mahler, German writer (d. 1950)
1870 – William Laurel Harris, American painter and author (d. 1924)
1871 – Harry Brearley, English inventor (d. 1948)
1883 – Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek philosopher, author, and playwright (d. 1957)
1885 – Henri Laurens, French sculptor and illustrator (d. 1954)
1893 – Maksim Haretski, Belarusian prose writer, journalist and activist (d. 1938)
1890 – Edward Arnold, American actor (d. 1956)
1890 – Adolphe Menjou, American actor (d. 1963)
1892 – Wendell Willkie, American captain, lawyer, and politician (d. 1944)
1896 – Li Linsi, Chinese educator and diplomat (d. 1970)
1898 – Enzo Ferrari, Italian race car driver and businessman, founded Ferrari (d. 1988)
1898 – Luis Muñoz Marín, Puerto Rican poet and politician, 1st Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (d. 1980)
1899 – Arthur Bryant, English historian and journalist (d. 1985)
1903 – Nikolai Podgorny, Ukrainian engineer and politician (d. 1983)
1905 – Queenie Leonard, English actress (d. 2002)
1906 – Hans Asperger, Austrian pediatrician and academic (d. 1980)
1909 – Wallace Stegner, American novelist, short story writer, and essayist (d. 1993)
1914 – Pee Wee King, American singer-songwriter and fiddler (d. 2000)
1915 – Phyllis Calvert, English actress (d. 2002)
1916 – Jean Drapeau, Canadian lawyer and politician, 37th Mayor of Montreal (d. 1999)
1919 – Jack Palance, American boxer and actor (d. 2006)
1920 – Bill Cullen, American game show panelist and host (d. 1990)
1920 – Rolande Falcinelli, French organist, pianist, composer, and pedagogue (d. 2006)
1921 – Mary Amdur, American toxicologist and public health researcher (d. 1998)
1921 – Oscar Feltsman, Ukrainian-Russian pianist and composer (d. 2013)
1922 – Eric Gairy, Grenadan politician, 1st Prime Minister of Grenada (d. 1997)
1922 – Helen Gurley Brown, American journalist and author (d. 2012)
1922 – Allan Melvin, American actor (d. 2008)
1925 – George Kennedy, American actor (d. 2016)
1925 – Halit Kıvanç, Turkish journalist and sportscaster
1925 – Ghafar Baba, Malaysian politician (d. 2006)
1926 – Wallace Berman, American painter and illustrator (d. 1976)
1927 – Luis Arroyo, Puerto Rican-American baseball player, manager, and scout (d. 2016)
1927 – Fazal Mahmood, Pakistani cricketer (d. 2005)
1927 – John Warner, American captain, lawyer, and politician, 61st United States Secretary of the Navy
1928 – Rex Mossop, Australian rugby player and sportscaster (d. 2011)
1929 – Len Deighton, English historian and author
1929 – André Mathieu, Canadian pianist and composer (d. 1968)
1931 – Johnny Hart, American cartoonist, co-created The Wizard of Id (d. 2007)
1931 – Toni Morrison, American novelist and editor, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2019).
1931 – Swraj Paul, Baron Paul, Indian-English businessman and philanthropist
1931 – John Ryden, Scottish footballer, centre half (d. 2013)
1931 – Bob St. Clair, American football player (d. 2015)
1932 – Miloš Forman, Czech-American actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 2018)
1933 – Yoko Ono, Japanese-American multimedia artist and musician
1933 – Bobby Robson, English international footballer, inside forward and international manager (d. 2009)
1933 – Mary Ure, Scottish-English actress (d. 1975)
1934 – Skip Battin, American singer-songwriter and bass player (d. 2003)
1934 – Dave Dunmore, English footballer, centre forward
1934 – Audre Lorde, American poet, essayist, memoirist, and activist (d. 1992)
1934 – Paco Rabanne, Spanish-French fashion designer
1936 – Jean M. Auel, American author
1938 – Manny Mota, Dominican baseball player, coach, and sportscaster
1938 – Sadanoyama Shinmatsu, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 50th Yokozuna (d. 2017)
1938 – István Szabó, Hungarian director and screenwriter
1939 – Claude Ake, Nigerian political scientist and academic (d. 1996)
1939 – Bobby Hart, American singer-songwriter
1939 – Marlos Nobre, Brazilian composer
1940 – Fabrizio De André, Italian singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1999)
1940 – Prue Leith, English restaurateur and journalist
1941 – Herman Santiago, Puerto Rican-American singer-songwriter
1941 – Irma Thomas, American singer
1943 – Graeme Garden, Scottish comedian, actor, and author
1944 – Pat Bowlen, American businessman (d. 2019)
1945 – Judy Rankin, American golfer and sportscaster
1946 – Michael Buerk, English journalist
1947 – Dennis DeYoung, American singer-songwriter and keyboard player
1947 – Eliot Engel, American educator and politician
1948 – Sinéad Cusack, Irish actress
1948 – Bruce Francis, Australian cricketer
1948 – Keith Knudsen, American singer-songwriter and drummer (d. 2005)
1949 – Gary Ridgway, American criminal, Green River Killer
1950 – Nana Amba Eyiaba I, Ghanaian queen mother and advocate
1950 – Cristina Ferrare, American model, actress, author, and television host
1950 – John Hughes, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2009)
1950 – Cybill Shepherd, American actress and singer
1951 – Queen Komal of Nepal
1951 – Isabel Preysler, Filipino-Spanish journalist
1952 – Randy Crawford, American jazz and R&B singer
1952 – Maurice Lucas, American basketball player and coach (d. 2010)
1952 – Juice Newton, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1952 – Bernard Valcourt, Canadian lawyer and politician
1953 – Robbie Bachman, Canadian rock drummer
1953 – Derek Pellicci, English-Australian drummer
1954 – Charlie Fowler, American mountaineer, author, and photographer (d. 2006)
1954 – Paul Rendall, English rugby player
1954 – John Travolta, American actor and producer
1955 – Cheetah Chrome, American musician
1955 – Miles Tredinnick, English singer-songwriter and playwright
1955 – Lisa See, American writer and novelist
1956 – Ted Gärdestad, Swedish singer-songwriter (d. 1997)
1956 – Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgian businessman and politician, 10th Prime Minister of Georgia
1957 – Marita Koch, German sprinter
1957 – Vanna White, American model and game show host
1959 – Jayne Atkinson, English-American actress
1959 – James Metzger, American businessman and philanthropist
1960 – Andy Moog, Canadian ice hockey player
1960 – Greta Scacchi, Italian-Australian actress
1963 – Rob Andrew, English rugby player and cricketer
1964 – Matt Dillon, American actor and director
1964 – Paul Hanley, English drummer and songwriter
1965 – Dr. Dre, American rapper, producer, and actor
1966 – Phillip DeFreitas, Dominican-English cricketer
1967 – Roberto Baggio, Italian footballer
1967 – Colin Jackson, Welsh sprinter and hurdler
1968 – Molly Ringwald, American actress
1969 – Tomaž Humar, Slovenian mountaineer (d. 2009)
1969 – Alexander Mogilny, Russian-American ice hockey player
1970 – Susan Egan, American actress and singer
1970 – James H. Fowler, American political scientist and author
1970 – Raine Maida, Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1970 – Massimo Taibi, Italian footballer
1971 – Thomas Bjorn, Danish golfer
1971 – Merritt Gant, American guitarist
1972 – Fabian Picardo, Gibraltarian lawyer and politician, 7th Chief Minister of Gibraltar
1973 – Shawn Estes, American baseball player and sportscaster
1973 – Claude Makélélé, French footballer and manager
1974 – Carrie Ann Baade, American painter and academic
1974 – Jamey Carroll, American baseball player
1974 – Radek Černý, Czech international footballer, goalkeeper
1974 – Ruby Dhalla, Canadian chiropractor and politician
1974 – Julia Butterfly Hill, American environmentalist and author
1974 – Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Russian tennis player
1974 – Jillian Michaels, American fitness trainer and author
1975 – Gary Neville, English footballer and coach
1976 – Leilani Munter, American race car driver and environmentalist
1976 – Chanda Rubin, American tennis player
1976 – Bernadette Sembrano, Filipino journalist
1978 – Josip Šimunić, Croatian footballer
1979 – Tinu Yohannan, Indian cricketer
1980 – Aivar Anniste, Estonian footballer
1980 – Nik Antropov, Kazakhstani-Canadian ice hockey player
1980 – Regina Spektor, Russian-American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer
1981 – Andrei Kirilenko, Russian basketball player
1981 – Alex Ríos, American baseball player
1981 – Ivan Sproule, Northern Irish footballer
1981 – Larry Sweeney, American wrestler and manager (d. 2011)
1982 – Juelz Santana, American rapper and actor
1982 – Christian Tiffert, German footballer
1983 – Jermaine Jenas, English international footballer, midfielder, pundit
1984 – Carlos Kameni, Cameroonian footballer
1985 – Anton Ferdinand, English footballer
1985 – Lee Boyd Malvo, Jamaican-American murderer
1985 – Jos van Emden, Dutch cyclist
1986 – Robert DeLong, American singer-songwriter
1986 – Marc Torrejón, Spanish footballer
1987 – Cristian Tănase, Romanian footballer
1988 – Changmin, South Korean singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor
1990 – Didi Gregorius, Dutch baseball player
1990 – Cody Hodgson, Canadian ice hockey player
1991 – Sebastian Neumann, German footballer
1991 – Henry Surtees, English race car driver (d. 2009)
1994 – Jake Trbojevic, Australian rugby league player
1994 – J-Hope, South Korean rapper, dancer, singer-songwriter

Deaths on February 18

675 – Colmán, bishop of Lindisfarne
814 – Angilbert, Frankish monk and diplomat (b. 760)
901 – Thābit ibn Qurra, Arab astronomer and physician (b. 826)
999 – Gregory V, pope of the Catholic Church (b. 972)
1139 – Yaropolk II, Grand Prince of Kiev (b. 1082)
1218 – Berthold V, duke of Zähringen (b. 1160)
1225 – Hugh Bigod, 3rd Earl of Norfolk, Norman nobleman
1294 – Kublai Khan, Mongol emperor (b. 1215)
1379 – Albert II, duke of Mecklenburg (b. 1318)
1397 – Enguerrand VII, French nobleman (b. 1340)
1405 – Timur, Turco-Mongol ruler (b. 1336)
1455 – Fra Angelico, Italian priest and painter (b. 1395)
1478 – George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, English nobleman (b. 1449)
1502 – Hedwig Jagiellon, duchess of Bavaria (b. 1457)
1535 – Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, German magician, astrologer, and theologian (b. 1486)
1546 – Martin Luther, German priest and theologian, leader of the Protestant Reformation (b. 1483)
1564 – Michelangelo, Italian sculptor and painter (b. 1475)
1654 – Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac, French author (b. 1594)
1658 – John Villiers, 1st Viscount Purbeck, English courtier (b. c. 1591)
1683 – Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem, Dutch painter (b. 1620)
1695 – William Phips, governor of Massachusetts (b. 1650)
1712 – Louis, Dauphin of France, (b. 1682)
1743 – Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici, Italian noble (b. 1667)
1748 – Otto Ferdinand von Abensberg und Traun, Austrian field marshal (b. 1677)
1772 – Count Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff, Danish politician (b. 1712)
1778 – Joseph Marie Terray, French economist and politician, Controller-General of Finances (b. 1715)
1780 – Kristijonas Donelaitis, Lithuanian pastor and poet (b. 1714)
1788 – John Whitehurst, English geologist and clockmaker (b. 1713)
1803 – Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim, German poet and educator (b. 1719)
1851 – Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi, German mathematician and academic (b. 1804)
1873 – Vasil Levski, Bulgarian activist, founded the Internal Revolutionary Organization (b. 1837)
1880 – Nikolay Zinin, Russian organic chemist (b. 1812)
1893 – Serranus Clinton Hastings, American lawyer and politician, 1st Chief Justice of California (b. 1814)
1902 – Charles Lewis Tiffany, American businessman, founded Tiffany & Co. (b. 1812)
1906 – John Batterson Stetson, American businessman, founded the John B. Stetson Company (b. 1830)
1910 – Lucy Stanton, American activist (b. 1831)
1911 – Billy Murdoch, Australian cricketer (b. 1854)
1915 – Frank James, American soldier and criminal (b. 1843)
1923 – Alois Rašín, Czech economist and politician (b. 1867)
1931 – Milan Šufflay, Croatian historian, author, and politician (b. 1879)
1931 – Louis Wolheim, American actor and screenwriter (b. 1880)
1933 – James J. Corbett, American boxer and actor (b. 1866)
1938 – David King Udall, American missionary and politician (b. 1851)
1942 – Albert Payson Terhune, American journalist and author (b. 1872)
1945 – Ivan Chernyakhovsky, Russian general (b. 1906)
1956 – Gustave Charpentier, French composer (b. 1860)
1957 – Dedan Kimathi, Kenyan rebel leader (b. 1920)
1957 – Henry Norris Russell, American astronomer, astrophysicist, and academic (b. 1877)
1960 – Gertrude Vanderbilt, American stage actress (b. c. 1885)
1964 – Joseph-Armand Bombardier, Canadian inventor and businessman, founded Bombardier Inc. (b. 1907)
1966 – Robert Rossen, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1908)
1967 – J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist and academic (b. 1904)
1969 – Dragiša Cvetković, Serbian lawyer and politician, 17th Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (b. 1893)
1973 – Frank Costello, Italian-American gangster (b. 1891)
1976 – Wallace Berman, American painter and illustrator (b. 1926)
1977 – Andy Devine, American actor (b. 1905)
1978 – Maggie McNamara, American actress (b. 1928)
1981 – Jack Northrop, American engineer and businessman, founded the Northrop Corporation (b. 1895)
1982 – Ngaio Marsh, New Zealand author (b. 1895)
1989 – Mildred Burke, American wrestler and trainer (b. 1915)
1990 – Richard de Zoysa, Sri Lankan journalist (b. 1958)
1993 – Jacqueline Hill, English actress (b. 1929)
1995 – Eddie Gilbert, American wrestler (b. 1961)
1995 – Bob Stinson, American guitarist (b. 1959)
1997 – Emily Hahn, American journalist and author (b. 1905)
1998 – Harry Caray, American sportscaster (b. 1914)
2001 – Balthus, Polish-Swiss painter and illustrator (b. 1908)
2001 – Dale Earnhardt, American stock car racer and team owner (b. 1951)
2001 – Eddie Mathews, American baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1931)
2003 – Isser Harel, Belarusian-Israeli intelligence officer (b. 1912)
2006 – Bill Cowsill, American singer and guitarist (b. 1948)
2008 – Alain Robbe-Grillet, French director, screenwriter, and novelist (b. 1922)
2009 – Tayeb Salih, Sudanese journalist and author (b. 1929)
2009 – Miika Tenkula, Finnish singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1974)
2010 – John Babcock, Canadian soldier (b. 1900)
2012 – George Brizan, Grenadian politician, 9th Prime Minister of Grenada (b. 1942)
2012 – Elizabeth Connell, South African-English soprano (b. 1946)
2013 – Kevin Ayers, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1944)
2013 – Jerry Buss, American chemist and businessman (b. 1933)
2014 – Mavis Gallant, Canadian-French author and playwright (b. 1922)
2014 – Kristof Goddaert, Belgian cyclist (b. 1986)
2014 – Nikhil Baran Sengupta, Indian art director and production designer (b. 1943)
2014 – Maria Franziska von Trapp, Austrian-American singer (b. 1914)
2015 – Cass Ballenger, American lawyer and politician (b. 1926)
2015 – Jerome Kersey, American basketball player and coach (b. 1962)
2016 – Abdul Rashid Khan, Indian singer-songwriter (b. 1908)
2016 – Pantelis Pantelidis, Greek singer (b. 1983)
2017 – Ivan Koloff, Canadian wrestler (b. 1942)
2017 – Norma McCorvey, American abortion rights activist; Plaintiff, Roe v. Wade (b. 1947)
2017 – Clyde Stubblefield, American drummer (b. 1943)
2019 – Alessandro Mendini, Italian designer and architect (b.1931)

Holidays and observances on February 18

Christian feast day:
- Bernadette Soubirous (France)
- Colmán of Lindisfarne
- Flavian of Constantinople
- Geltrude Comensoli
- Simeon of Jerusalem (Western Christianity)
- February 18 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Dialect Day (Amami Islands, Japan)
Independence Day, celebrates the independence of the Gambia from the United Kingdom in 1965.
Kurdish Students Union Day (Iraqi Kurdistan)
National Democracy Day, celebrates the 1951 overthrow of the Rana dynasty (Nepal)
Wife’s Day (Konudagur) (Iceland)

February 18 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

February 14 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day / admin

748 – Abbasid Revolution: The Hashimi rebels under Abu Muslim Khorasani take Merv, capital of the Umayyad province Khorasan, marking the consolidation of the Abbasid revolt.
842 – Charles the Bald and Louis the German swear the Oaths of Strasbourg in the French and German languages.
1014 – Pope Benedict VIII crowns Henry of Bavaria, King of Germany and of Italy, as Holy Roman Emperor.
1076 – Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor.
1130 – Pope Innocent II is elected.
1349 – Several hundred Jews are burned to death by mobs while the remaining Jews are forcibly removed from Strasbourg.
1400 – Richard II of England dies, most probably from starvation, in Pontefract Castle, on the orders of Henry Bolingbroke.
1530 – Spanish conquistadores, led by Nuño de Guzmán, overthrow and execute Tangaxuan II, the last independent monarch of the Tarascan state in present-day central Mexico.
1556 – Thomas Cranmer is declared a heretic.
1556 – Coronation of Akbar.
1655 – The Mapuches launch coordinated attacks against the Spanish in Chile beginning the Mapuche uprising of 1655.
1778 – The United States flag is formally recognized by a foreign naval vessel for the first time, when French Admiral Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte renders a nine gun salute to USS Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones.
1779 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Kettle Creek is fought in Georgia.
1779 – James Cook is killed by Native Hawaiians near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii.
1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Cape St. Vincent: John Jervis, (later 1st Earl of St Vincent) and Horatio Nelson (later 1st Viscount Nelson) lead the British Royal Navy to victory over a Spanish fleet in action near Gibraltar.
1804 – Karađorđe leads the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire.
1831 – Ras Marye of Yejju marches into Tigray and defeats and kills Dejazmach Sabagadis in the Battle of Debre Abbay.
1835 – The original Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, in the Latter Day Saint movement, is formed in Kirtland, Ohio.
1849 – In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken.
1852 – Great Ormond St Hospital for Sick Children, the first hospital in England to provide in-patient beds specifically for children, is founded in London.
1855 – Texas is linked by telegraph to the rest of the United States, with the completion of a connection between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas.
1859 – Oregon is admitted as the 33rd U.S. state.
1876 – Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent for the telephone, as does Elisha Gray.
1879 – The War of the Pacific breaks out when the Chilean Army occupies the Bolivian port city of Antofagasta.
1899 – Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections.
1900 – British forces begin the Battle of the Tugela Heights in an effort to lift the Siege of Ladysmith.
1903 – The United States Department of Commerce and Labor is established (later split into the Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor).
1912 – Arizona is admitted as the 48th and the last contiguous U.S. state.
1912 – The U.S. Navy commissions its first class of diesel-powered submarines.
1919 – The Polish–Soviet War begins.
1920 – The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago.
1924 – The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company changes its name to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).
1929 – Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre: Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone’s gang, are murdered in Chicago.
1942 – Battle of Pasir Panjang contributes to the fall of Singapore.
1943 – World War II: Rostov-on-Don, Russia is liberated.
1943 – World War II: Tunisia Campaign: General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim’s Fifth Panzer Army launches a concerted attack against Allied positions in Tunisia.
1944 – World War II: In the Action of 14 February 1944, a Royal Navy submarine sinks a German-controlled Italian submarine in the Strait of Malacca.
1945 – World War II: On the first day of the bombing of Dresden, the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces begin fire-bombing Dresden.
1945 – World War II: Navigational error leads to the mistaken bombing of Prague, Czechoslovakia by an American squadron of B-17s assisting in the Soviet’s Vistula–Oder Offensive.
1945 – World War II: Mostar is liberated by Yugoslav partisans
1945 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt meets King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia aboard the USS Quincy, officially beginning U.S.-Saudi diplomatic relations.
1946 – The Bank of England is nationalized.
1949 – The Knesset (parliament of Israel) convenes for the first time.
1949 – The Asbestos Strike begins in Canada. The strike marks the beginning of the Quiet Revolution in Quebec.
1961 – Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized at the University of California.
1966 – Australian currency is decimalized.
1979 – In Kabul, Setami Milli militants kidnap the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs who is later killed during a gunfight between his kidnappers and police.
1983 – United American Bank of Knoxville, Tennessee collapses. Its president, Jake Butcher, is later convicted of fraud.
1989 – Union Carbide agrees to pay $470 million to the Indian government for damages it caused in the 1984 Bhopal disaster.
1989 – Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini issues a fatwa encouraging Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses.
1990 – Ninety-two people are killed when Indian Airlines Flight 605 crashes in Bangalore, India.
1990 – The Voyager 1 spacecraft takes the photograph of planet Earth that later become famous as Pale Blue Dot.
1998 – An oil tanker train collides with a freight train in Yaoundé, Cameroon, spilling fuel oil. One person scavenging the oil created a massive explosion which killed 120.
2000 – The spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker enters orbit around asteroid 433 Eros, the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid.
2004 – In a suburb of Moscow, Russia, the roof of the Transvaal water park collapses, killing more than 25 people, and wounding more than 100 others.
2005 – In Beirut, 23 people, including former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, are killed when the equivalent of around 1,000 kg of TNT is detonated while Hariri’s motorcade drives through the city.
2005 – Seven people are killed and 151 wounded in a series of bombings by suspected al-Qaeda-linked militants that hit Makati, Davao City, and General Santos City, all in the Philippines.
2005 – YouTube is launched by a group of college students, eventually becoming the largest video sharing website in the world and a main source for viral videos.
2008 – Northern Illinois University shooting: A gunman opens fire in a lecture hall of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb County, Illinois, resulting in six fatalities (including the gunman) and 21 injuries.
2011 – As a part of Arab Spring, the Bahraini uprising begins with a ‘Day of Rage’.
2018 – Jacob Zuma resigns as President of South Africa.
2018 – A shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida is one of the deadliest school massacres with 17 fatalities and 15 injuries.
2019 – Pulwama attack takes place in Lethpora in Pulwama district, Jammu and Kashmir, India in which 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel and a suicide bomber were killed and 35 were injured.

Births on February 14

1404 – Leon Battista Alberti, Italian painter, poet, and philosopher (d. 1472)
1408 – John FitzAlan, 14th Earl of Arundel (d. 1435)
1452 – Pandolfo Petrucci, tyrant of Siena (d. 1512)
1468 – Johannes Werner, German priest and mathematician (d. 1522)
1483 – Babur, Moghul emperor (d. 1530)
1490 – Valentin Friedland, German scholar and educationist of the Reformation (d. 1556)
1513 – Domenico Ferrabosco, Italian composer (d. 1573)
1545 – Lucrezia de’ Medici, Duchess of Ferrara (d. 1561)
1602 – Francesco Cavalli, Italian composer (d. 1676)
1614 – John Wilkins, English bishop, academic and natural philosopher (d. 1672)
1625 – Countess Palatine Maria Eufrosyne of Zweibrücken, Swedish princess (d. 1687)
1628 – Valentine Greatrakes, Irish faith healer (d. 1683)
1640 – Countess Palatine Anna Magdalena of Birkenfeld-Bischweiler (d. 1693)
1670 – Rajaram Raj Bhonsle, third Chhatrapati of the Maratha Empire (d. 1700)
1679 – Georg Friedrich Kauffmann, German organist and composer (d. 1735)
1692 – Pierre-Claude Nivelle de La Chaussée, French author and playwright (d. 1754)
1701 – Enrique Flórez, Spanish historian and author (d. 1773)
1763 – Jean Victor Marie Moreau, French general (d. 1813)
1782 – Eleanora Atherton, English philanthropist (d. 1870)
1784 – Heinrich Baermann, German clarinetist (d. 1847)
1799 – Walenty Wańkowicz, Polish painter and illustrator (d. 1842)
1800 – Emory Washburn, American historian, lawyer, and politician, 22nd Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1877)
1808 – Michael Costa, Italian-English conductor and composer (d. 1884)
1813 – Lydia Hamilton Smith, African-American businesswoman (d. 1884)
1819 – Christopher Latham Sholes, American journalist and politician, invented the typewriter (d. 1890)
1824 – Winfield Scott Hancock, American general and politician (d. 1886)
1828 – Edmond François Valentin About, French journalist and author (d. 1885)
1835 – Piet Paaltjens, Dutch minister and poet (d. 1894)
1838 – Margaret E. Knight, American inventor (d. 1914)
1846 – Julian Scott, American soldier and drummer, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1901)
1847 – Anna Howard Shaw, American physician, minister, and activist (d. 1919)
1848 – Benjamin Baillaud, French astronomer and academic (d. 1934)
1855 – Frank Harris, Irish author and journalist (d. 1931)
1859 – George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., American engineer, inventor of the Ferris wheel (d. 1896)
1860 – Eugen Schiffer, German lawyer and politician, Vice-Chancellor of Germany (d. 1954)
1869 – Charles Thomson Rees Wilson, Scottish physicist and meteorologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1959)
1878 – Julius Nieuwland, Belgian priest, chemist and academic (d. 1936)
1882 – John Barrymore, American actor (d. 1942)
1884 – Nils Olaf Chrisander, Swedish actor and director (d. 1947)
1884 – Kostas Varnalis, Greek poet and playwright (d. 1974)
1890 – Nina Hamnett, Welsh-English painter and author (d. 1956)
1890 – Dick Richards Welsh international footballer, forward
1891 – Katherine Stinson, American aviator (d. 1977)
1892 – Radola Gajda, Czech commander and politician (d. 1948)
1894 – Jack Benny, American actor and producer (d. 1974)
1895 – Wilhelm Burgdorf, German general (d. 1945)
1895 – Max Horkheimer, German philosopher and sociologist (d. 1973)
1898 – Bill Tilman, English mountaineer and explorer (d. 1977)
1898 – Fritz Zwicky, Swiss-American physicist and astronomer (d. 1974)
1900 – Jessica Dragonette, American singer (d. 1980)
1903 – Stuart Erwin, American actor (d. 1967)
1905 – Thelma Ritter, American actress and singer (d. 1969)
1907 – Johnny Longden, English-American jockey and trainer (d. 2003)
1911 – Willem Johan Kolff, Dutch physician and inventor (d. 2009)
1912 – Tibor Sekelj, Hungarian lawyer, explorer, and author (d. 1988)
1913 – Mel Allen, American sportscaster (d. 1996)
1913 – Woody Hayes, American football player and coach (d. 1987)
1913 – Jimmy Hoffa, American trade union leader (d. 1975)
1913 – James Pike, American bishop (d. 1969)
1916 – Marcel Bigeard, French general (d. 2010)
1916 – Sally Gray, English actress and singer (d. 2006)
1916 – Masaki Kobayashi, Japanese director and producer (d. 1996)
1916 – Edward Platt, American actor (d. 1974)
1917 – Herbert A. Hauptman, American mathematician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2011)
1921 – Hugh Downs, American journalist, game show host, and producer
1921 – Hazel McCallion, Canadian businesswoman and politician, 3rd Mayor of Mississauga
1923 – Jay Hebert, American golfer (d. 1997)
1924 – Patricia Knatchbull, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma (d. 2017)
1927 – Lois Maxwell, Canadian-Australian model and actress (d. 2007)
1928 – William Allain, American soldier and politician, 58th Governor of Mississippi (d. 2013)
1928 – Vicente T. Blaz, American general and politician (d. 2014)
1929 – Vic Morrow, American actor and director (d. 1982)
1931 – Bernie Geoffrion, Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach (d. 2006)
1931 – Brian Kelly, American actor and director (d. 2005)
1932 – Harriet Andersson, Swedish actress
1934 – Florence Henderson, American actress and singer (d. 2016)
1935 – David Wilson, Baron Wilson of Tillyorn, Scottish academic and diplomat, 27th Governor of Hong Kong
1936 – Anna German, Polish singer (d. 1982)
1937 – John MacGregor, Baron MacGregor of Pulham Market, English politician, Secretary of State for Transport
1937 – Magic Sam, American singer and guitarist (d. 1969)
1939 – Razzy Bailey, American country music singer-songwriter and musician
1939 – Blowfly, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2016)
1939 – Eugene Fama, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1940 – James Maynard, American businessman, co-founded Golden Corral
1941 – Donna Shalala, American academic and politician, 18th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services
1941 – Paul Tsongas, American lawyer and politician (d. 1997)
1942 – Michael Bloomberg, American businessman and politician, 108th Mayor of New York City
1942 – Andrew Robinson, American actor and director
1942 – Ricardo Rodríguez, Mexican race car driver (d. 1962)
1943 – Eric Andersen, American singer-songwriter
1943 – Maceo Parker, American saxophonist
1943 – Aaron Russo, American director and producer (d. 2007)
1944 – Carl Bernstein, American journalist and author
1944 – Alan Parker, English director, producer, and screenwriter
1944 – Ronnie Peterson, Swedish race car driver (d. 1978)
1945 – Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein
1945 – Rod Masterson, American lieutenant and actor (d. 2013)
1946 – Bernard Dowiyogo, Nauru politician, President of Nauru (d. 2003)
1946 – Gregory Hines, American actor, singer, and dancer (d. 2003)
1947 – Tim Buckley, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1975)
1947 – Judd Gregg, American lawyer and politician, 76th Governor of New Hampshire
1948 – Kitten Natividad, Mexican-American actress and dancer
1948 – Pat O’Brien, American journalist and author
1948 – Wally Tax, Dutch singer-songwriter (d. 2005)
1948 – Teller, American magician and actor
1950 – Roger Fisher, American guitarist and songwriter
1951 – Terry Gross, American radio host and producer
1951 – Kevin Keegan, English footballer and manager
1952 – Sushma Swaraj, Indian lawyer and politician, Indian Minister of External Affairs (d. 2019)
1954 – Jam Mohammad Yousaf, Pakistani politician, Chief Minister of Balochistan (d. 2013)
1955 – Carol Kalish, American publisher (d. 1991)
1956 – Howard Davis Jr., American boxer and trainer (d. 2015)
1956 – Dave Dravecky, American baseball player
1956 – Katharina Fritsch, German sculptor and academic
1957 – Alan Hunter, American television host and actor
1957 – Soile Isokoski, Finnish soprano and actress
1957 – Alan Smith, English bishop
1958 – Grant Thomas, Australian footballer and coach
1959 – Renée Fleming, American soprano and actress
1960 – Philip Jones, English admiral
1960 – Jim Kelly, American football player and businessman
1960 – Meg Tilly, American actress and author
1963 – Enrico Colantoni, Canadian actor, director, and producer
1963 – John Marzano, American baseball player (d. 2008)
1964 – Gianni Bugno, Italian cyclist and sportscaster
1966 – Petr Svoboda, Czech ice hockey player and agent
1967 – Stelios Haji-Ioannou, Greek-English businessman, founded easyJet
1967 – Manuela Maleeva, Bulgarian-Swiss tennis player
1967 – Mark Rutte, Dutch businessman and politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands
1968 – Jules Asner, American model and television host
1968 – Chris Lewis, Guyanese-English cricketer
1968 – Scott McClellan, American civil servant and author, 25th White House Press Secretary
1969 – Meg Hillier, English journalist and politician, Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
1970 – Giuseppe Guerini, Italian cyclist
1970 – Sean Hill, American ice hockey player
1970 – Simon Pegg, English actor, director, and producer
1971 – Kris Aquino, Filipino talk show host, actress, and producer
1971 – Gheorghe Mureșan, Romanian basketball player
1972 – Drew Bledsoe, American football player and coach
1972 – Musōyama Masashi, Japanese sumo wrestler
1972 – Najwa Nimri, Spanish actress and singer
1972 – Jaan Tallinn, Estonian computer programmer, co-developed Skype
1972 – Rob Thomas, American singer-songwriter
1973 – H. D. Ackerman, South African cricketer
1973 – Tyus Edney, American basketball player and coach
1973 – Steve McNair, American football player (d. 2009)
1973 – Annalisa Buffa, Italian mathematician
1974 – Valentina Vezzali, Italian fencer and politician
1976 – Liv Kristine, Norwegian singer-songwriter
1976 – Rie Rasmussen, Danish model, film director, writer, photographer, and actress
1977 – Cadel Evans, Australian cyclist
1977 – Jim Jefferies, Australian comedian and actor
1977 – Darren Purse, English footballer
1977 – Elmer Symons, South African motorcycle racer (d. 2007)
1977 – Anna Erschler, Russian mathematician
1977 – Robert J. Jackson Jr., American law professor
1978 – Richard Hamilton, American basketball player
1978 – Darius Songaila, Lithuanian basketball player and coach
1980 – Josh Senter, American screenwriter and producer
1980 – Michelle Ye, Hong Kong actress and producer
1981 – Matteo Brighi, Italian footballer
1981 – Randy de Puniet, French motorcycle racer
1981 – Brad Halsey, American baseball player (d. 2014)
1982 – Marián Gáborík, Slovak ice hockey player
1982 – John Halls, English footballer and model
1982 – Lenka Tvarošková, Slovak tennis player
1983 – Callix Crabbe, Virgin Islander baseball player
1983 – Rocky Elsom, Australian rugby player
1983 – Bacary Sagna, French footballer
1985 – Karima Adebibe, English model and actress
1985 – Tyler Clippard, American baseball player
1985 – Heart Evangelista, Filipino singer and actress
1985 – Philippe Senderos, Swiss international footballer, centre back
1985 – Miki Yeung, Hong Kong singer and actress
1986 – Michael Ammermüller, German race car driver
1986 – Oliver Lee, English actor, director, and screenwriter
1986 – Gao Lin, Chinese footballer
1987 – Edinson Cavani, Uruguayan footballer
1987 – Tom Pyatt, Canadian ice hockey player
1987 – David Wheater, English footballer
1988 – Katie Boland, Canadian actress, producer, and screenwriter
1988 – Ángel Di María, Argentinian footballer
1988 – Siim Liivik, Estonian ice hockey player
1988 – Asia Nitollano, American singer and dancer
1989 – Néstor Calderón, Mexican footballer
1989 – Adam Matuszczyk, Polish footballer
1989 – Emma Miskew, Canadian curler
1989 – Brandon Sutter, Canadian ice hockey player
1989 – Jurij Tepeš, Slovenian ski jumper
1989 – Kristian Thomas, English gymnast
1990 – Sefa Yılmaz, German-Turkish footballer
1991 – Daniela Mona Lambin, Estonian footballer
1991 – Chris Rowney, English footballer
1992 – Christian Eriksen, Danish footballer
1992 – Freddie Highmore, English actor
1996 – Lucas Hernandez, French footballer

Deaths on February 14

869 – Cyril, Greek missionary bishop (b. 827)
945 – Lian Chongyu, Chinese general
945 – Zhu Wenjin, Chinese emperor
1009 – Bruno of Querfurt, German missionary bishop
1010 – Fujiwara no Korechika, Japanese nobleman (b. 974)
1140 – Leo I, Armenian prince
1140 – Sobĕslav I, duke of Bohemia
1164 – Sviatoslav Olgovich, Kievan prince
1229 – Rǫgnvaldr Guðrøðarson, king of the Isles
1317 – Margaret of France, queen of England
1400 – Richard II, king of England (b. 1367)
1440 – Dietrich of Oldenburg, German nobleman
1489 – Nicolaus von Tüngen, prince-bishop of Warmia
1528 – Edzard I, German nobleman (b. 1462)
1549 – Il Sodoma, Italian painter (b. 1477)
1571 – Odet de Coligny, French cardinal (b. 1517)
1676 – Abraham Bosse, French engraver and illustrator (b. 1602)
1714 – Maria Luisa of Savoy, queen of Spain (b. 1688)
1737 – Charles Talbot, 1st Baron Talbot, English lawyer and politician Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1685)
1744 – John Hadley, English mathematician, invented the octant (b. 1682)
1779 – James Cook, English captain, cartographer, and explorer (b. 1728)
1780 – William Blackstone, English jurist and politician (b. 1723)
1782 – Singu Min, Burmese king (b. 1756)
1808 – John Dickinson, American lawyer and politician 5th Governor of Delaware (b. 1732)
1831 – Vicente Guerrero, Mexican general and politician, 2nd President of Mexico (b. 1782)
1831 – Henry Maudslay, English engineer (b. 1771)
1870 – St. John Richardson Liddell, American general (b. 1815)
1881 – Fernando Wood, American merchant and politician, 73rd Mayor of New York City (b. 1812)
1884 – Lydia Hamilton Smith, African-American businesswoman (b. 1813)
1885 – Jules Vallès, French journalist and author (b. 1832)
1891 – William Tecumseh Sherman, American general (b. 1820)
1894 – Eugène Charles Catalan, Belgian-French mathematician and academic (b. 1814)
1901 – Edward Stafford, Scottish-New Zealand educator and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1819)
1910 – Giovanni Passannante, Italian anarchist (b. 1849)
1922 – Heikki Ritavuori, Finnish lawyer and politician (b. 1880)
1929 – Thomas Burke, American sprinter, coach, and lawyer (b. 1875)
1930 – Thomas Mackenzie, Scottish-New Zealand cartographer and politician, 18th Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1853)
1933 – Carl Correns, German botanist and geneticist (b. 1864)
1942 – Adnan Saidi, Malayan lieutenant (b. 1915)
1943 – Dora Gerson, German actress and singer (b. 1899)
1943 – David Hilbert, Russian-German mathematician, physicist, and philosopher (b. 1862)
1948 – Mordecai Brown, American baseball player and manager (b. 1876)
1949 – Yusuf Salman Yusuf, Iraqi politician (b. 1901)
1950 – Karl Guthe Jansky, American physicist and engineer (b. 1905)
1952 – Maurice De Waele, Belgian cyclist (b. 1896)
1958 – Abdur Rab Nishtar, Pakistani politician, 2nd Governor of Punjab (b. 1899)
1959 – Baby Dodds, American drummer (b. 1898)
1967 – Sig Ruman, German-American actor (b. 1884)
1969 – Vito Genovese, Italian-American mob boss (b. 1897)
1970 – Herbert Strudwick, English cricketer and coach (b. 1880)
1974 – Stewie Dempster, New Zealand cricketer and coach (b. 1903)
1975 – Julian Huxley, English biologist and eugenicist, co-founded the World Wide Fund for Nature (b. 1887)
1975 – P. G. Wodehouse, English novelist and playwright (b. 1881)
1979 – Adolph Dubs, American lieutenant and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Afghanistan (b. 1920)
1983 – Lina Radke, German runner and coach (b. 1903)
1986 – Edmund Rubbra, English composer and conductor (b. 1901)
1987 – Dmitry Kabalevsky, Russian pianist and composer (b. 1904)
1988 – Frederick Loewe, German-American composer (b. 1901)
1989 – James Bond, American ornithologist and zoologist (b. 1900)
1989 – Vincent Crane, English pianist (b. 1943)
1994 – Andrei Chikatilo, Soviet serial killer (b. 1936)
1994 – Christopher Lasch, American historian and critic (b. 1932)
1995 – Michael V. Gazzo, American actor and playwright (b. 1923)
1995 – U Nu, Burmese politician, 1st Prime Minister of Burma (b. 1907)
1996 – Bob Paisley, English footballer and manager (b. 1919)
1999 – John Ehrlichman, American lawyer and politician, 12th White House Counsel (b. 1925)
1999 – Buddy Knox, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1933)
2002 – Nándor Hidegkuti, Hungarian footballer and manager (b. 1922)
2002 – Mick Tucker, English drummer (b. 1947)
2003 – Johnny Longden, English jockey and trainer (b. 1907)
2004 – Marco Pantani, Italian cyclist (b. 1970)
2005 – Rafic Hariri, Lebanese businessman and politician, 60th Prime Minister of Lebanon (b. 1944; assassinated)
2006 – Lynden David Hall, English singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1974)
2007 – Ryan Larkin, Canadian animator and director (b. 1943)
2007 – Gareth Morris, English flute player and educator (b. 1920)
2009 – Bernard Ashley, English engineer and businessman, co-founded Laura Ashley plc (b. 1926)
2009 – Louie Bellson, American drummer and composer (b. 1924)
2010 – Doug Fieger, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1952)
2010 – Dick Francis, Welsh jockey and author (b. 1920)
2010 – Linnart Mäll, Estonian historian, orientalist, and translator (b. 1938)
2011 – George Shearing, English-American pianist and composer (b. 1919)
2012 – Mike Bernardo, South African boxer and martial artist (b. 1969)
2012 – Tonmi Lillman, Finnish drummer and producer (b. 1973)
2012 – Dory Previn, American singer-songwriter (b. 1925)
2012 – Péter Rusorán, Hungarian swimmer, water polo player, and coach (b. 1940)
2013 – Glenn Boyer, American historian and author (b. 1924)
2013 – Ronald Dworkin, American philosopher and scholar (b. 1931)
2014 – Tom Finney, English footballer (b. 1922)
2014 – Chris Pearson, Canadian lawyer and politician, 1st Premier of Yukon (b. 1931)
2014 – Mike Stepovich, American lawyer and politician, Governor of Alaska Territory (b. 1919)
2015 – Louis Jourdan, French-American actor and singer (b. 1921)
2015 – Philip Levine, American poet and academic (b. 1928)
2015 – Franjo Mihalić, Croatian-Serbian runner and coach (b. 1920)
2016 – Eric Lubbock, 4th Baron Avebury, English lieutenant, engineer, and politician (b. 1928)
2016 – Steven Stucky, American composer and academic (b. 1949)
2018 – Ruud Lubbers, Dutch politician and diplomat, Prime Minister and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (b. 1939)
2018 – Morgan Tsvangirai, 2nd Prime Minister of Zimbabwe (b. 1952).

Holidays and observances on February 14

Christian feast day:
- Cyril and Methodius, patron saints of Europe (Roman Catholic Church)
- Manchan
- Valentine (Valentine’s Day)
- February 14 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Statehood Day (Arizona, United States)
Statehood Day (Oregon, United States)
Presentation of Jesus at the Temple (Armenian Apostolic Church)
Parents’ Worship Day (parts of India)

February 14 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

February 13 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day / admin

February 13 in History

951 – Guo Wei, a court official, leads a military coup and declares himself emperor of the new Later Zhou.
962 – Emperor Otto I and Pope John XII co-sign the Diploma Ottonianum, recognizing John as ruler of Rome.
1322 – The central tower of Ely Cathedral falls on the night of 12th–13th.
1462 – The Treaty of Westminster is finalised between Edward IV of England and the Scottish Lord of the Isles.
1503 – Challenge of Barletta: Tournament between 13 Italian and 13 French knights near Barletta.
1542 – Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII of England, is executed for adultery.
1633 – Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for his trial before the Inquisition.
1660 – With the accession of young Charles XI of Sweden, his regents begin negotiations to end the Second Northern War.
1689 – William and Mary are proclaimed co-rulers of England.
1692 – Massacre of Glencoe: Almost 80 Macdonalds at Glen Coe, Scotland are killed early in the morning for not promptly pledging allegiance to the new king, William of Orange.
1726 – Parliament of Negrete between Mapuche and Spanish authorities in Chile bring an end to the Mapuche uprising of 1723–26.
1755 – Treaty of Giyanti signed by VOC, Pakubuwono III and Prince Mangkubumi. The treaty divides the Javanese kingdom of Mataram into 2: Sunanate of Surakarta and Sultanate of Yogyakarta.
1849 – The delegation headed by Metropolitan bishop Andrei Șaguna hands out to the Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria the General Petition of Romanian leaders in Transylvania, Banat and Bukovina, which demands that the Romanian nation be recognized.
1861 – Italian unification: The Siege of Gaeta ends with the capitulation of the defending fortress, effectively bringing an end of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
1867 – Work begins on the covering of the Senne, burying Brussels’s primary river and creating the modern central boulevards.
1880 – Thomas Edison observes Thermionic emission.
1913 – The 13th Dalai Lama proclaims Tibetan independence following a period of domination by Manchu Qing dynasty and initiated a period of almost four decades of independence.
1914 – Copyright: In New York City the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers is established to protect the copyrighted musical compositions of its members.
1920 – The Negro National League is formed.
1931 – The British Raj completes its transfer from Calcutta to New Delhi.
1935 – A jury in Flemington, New Jersey finds Bruno Hauptmann guilty of the 1932 kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby, the son of Charles Lindbergh.
1945 – World War II: The siege of Budapest concludes with the unconditional surrender of German and Hungarian forces to the Red Army.
1945 – World War II: Royal Air Force bombers are dispatched to Dresden, Germany to attack the city with a massive aerial bombardment.
1951 – Korean War: Battle of Chipyong-ni, which represented the “high-water mark” of the Chinese incursion into South Korea, commences.
1954 – Frank Selvy becomes the only NCAA Division I basketball player ever to score 100 points in a single game.
1955 – Israel obtains four of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls.
1960 – With the success of a nuclear test codenamed “Gerboise Bleue”, France becomes the fourth country to possess nuclear weapons.
1960 – Black college students stage the first of the Nashville sit-ins at three lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee.
1961 – An allegedly 500,000-year-old rock is discovered near Olancha, California, US, that appears to anachronistically encase a spark plug.
1967 – American researchers discover the Madrid Codices by Leonardo da Vinci in the National Library of Spain.
1975 – Fire at One World Trade Center (North Tower) of the World Trade Center in New York.
1978 – Hilton bombing: a bomb explodes in a refuse truck outside the Hilton Hotel in Sydney, Australia, killing two refuse collectors and a policeman.
1979 – An intense windstorm strikes western Washington and sinks a ¹⁄₂-mile-long section of the Hood Canal Bridge.
1981 – A series of sewer explosions destroys more than two miles of streets in Louisville, Kentucky.
1983 – A cinema fire in Turin, Italy, kills 64 people.
1984 – Konstantin Chernenko succeeds the late Yuri Andropov as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
1990 – German reunification: An agreement is reached on a two-stage plan to reunite Germany.
1991 – Gulf War: Two laser-guided “smart bombs” destroy the Amiriyah shelter in Baghdad. Allied forces said the bunker was being used as a military communications outpost, but over 400 Iraqi civilians inside were killed.
1996 – The Nepalese Civil War is initiated in the Kingdom of Nepal by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist-Centre).
1999 – The last hockey game is played in Maple Leaf Gardens: the Toronto Maple Leafs lose 6–2 to the Chicago Blackhawks.
2001 – An earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter magnitude scale hits El Salvador, killing at least 944.
2004 – The Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announces the discovery of the universe’s largest known diamond, white dwarf star BPM 37093. Astronomers named this star “Lucy” after The Beatles’ song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”.
2007 – Taiwan opposition leader Ma Ying-jeou resigns as the chairman of the Kuomintang party after being indicted on charges of embezzlement during his tenure as the mayor of Taipei; Ma also announces his candidacy for the 2008 presidential election.
2008 – Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd makes a historic apology to the Indigenous Australians and the Stolen Generations.
2010 – A bomb explodes in the city of Pune, Maharashtra, India, killing 17 and injuring 60 more.
2011 – For the first time in more than 100 years the Umatilla, an American Indian tribe, are able to hunt and harvest a bison just outside Yellowstone National Park, restoring a centuries-old tradition guaranteed by a treaty signed in 1855.
2012 – The European Space Agency (ESA) conducted the first launch of the European Vega rocket from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
2017 – Kim Jong-nam, brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un, is assassinated at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

Births on February 13

1440 – Hartmann Schedel, German physician (d. 1514)
1457 – Mary of Burgundy, Sovereign Duchess regnant of Burgundy, married to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1482)
1469 – Elia Levita, Renaissance Hebrew grammarian (d. 1549)
1480 – Girolamo Aleandro, Italian cardinal (d. 1542)
1523 – Valentin Naboth, German astronomer and mathematician (d. 1593)
1539 – Elisabeth of Hesse, Electress Palatine (d. 1582)
1569 – Johann Reinhard I, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg (d. 1625)
1599 – Pope Alexander VII (d. 1667)
1602 – William V, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (d. 1637)
1672 – Étienne François Geoffroy, French physician and chemist (d. 1731)
1683 – Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, Italian painter (d. 1754)
1719 – George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney, English admiral and politician (d. 1792)
1721 – John Reid, Scottish general (d. 1807)
1728 – John Hunter, Scottish surgeon and anatomist (d. 1793)
1766 – Thomas Robert Malthus, English economist and scholar (d. 1834)
1768 – Édouard Adolphe Casimir Joseph Mortier, French general and politician, 15th Prime Minister of France (d. 1835)
1769 – Ivan Krylov, Russian author, poet, and playwright (d. 1844)
1805 – Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet, German mathematician and academic (d. 1859)
1811 – François Achille Bazaine, French general (d. 1888)
1815 – Rufus Wilmot Griswold, American anthologist, editor, poet and critic (d. 1857)
1831 – John Aaron Rawlins, American general and politician, 29th United States Secretary of War (d. 1869)
1834 – Heinrich Caro, Sephardic Jewish Polish-German chemist and academic (d. 1910)
1835 – Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Indian religious leader (d. 1908)
1849 – Lord Randolph Churchill, English lawyer and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (d. 1895)
1855 – Paul Deschanel, Belgian-French politician, 11th President of France (d. 1922)
1863 – Hugo Becker, German cellist and composer (d. 1941)
1867 – Harold Mahony, Scottish-Irish tennis player (d. 1905)
1870 – Leopold Godowsky, Polish-American pianist and composer (d. 1938)
1873 – Feodor Chaliapin, Russian opera singer (d. 1938)
1876 – Fritz Buelow, German-American baseball player and umpire (d. 1933)
1879 – Sarojini Naidu, Indian poet and activist (d. 1949)
1880 – Dimitrie Gusti, Romanian sociologist, ethnologist, historian, and philosopher (d. 1955)
1881 – Eleanor Farjeon, Jewish-English author, poet, and playwright (d. 1965)
1883 – Hal Chase, American baseball player and manager (d. 1947)
1883 – Yevgeny Vakhtangov, Russian-Armenian actor and director (d. 1922)
1884 – Alfred Carlton Gilbert, American pole vaulter and businessman, founded the A. C. Gilbert Company (d. 1961)
1885 – Bess Truman, American wife of Harry S. Truman, 35th First Lady of the United States (d. 1982)
1887 – Géza Csáth, Hungarian playwright and critic (d. 1919)
1888 – Georgios Papandreou, Greek lawyer, economist, and politician, 162nd Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1968)
1889 – Leontine Sagan, Austrian actress and director (d. 1974)
1891 – Kate Roberts, Welsh author and activist (d. 1985)
1891 – Grant Wood, American painter and academic (d. 1942)
1892 – Robert H. Jackson, American lawyer, judge, and politician, 57th United States Attorney General (d. 1954)
1898 – Hubert Ashton, English cricketer and politician (d. 1979)
1900 – Barbara von Annenkoff, Russian-born German film and stage actress (d. 1979)
1901 – Paul Lazarsfeld, Austrian-American sociologist and academic (d. 1976)
1902 – Harold Lasswell, American political scientist and theorist (d. 1978)
1903 – Georgy Beriev, Georgian-Russian engineer, founded the Beriev Aircraft Company (d. 1979)
1903 – Georges Simenon, Belgian-Swiss author (d. 1989)
1906 – Agostinho da Silva, Portuguese philosopher and author (d. 1994)
1907 – Katy de la Cruz, Filipino-American singer and actress (d. 2004)
1910 – William Shockley, English-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989)
1911 – Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Indian-Pakistani poet and journalist (d. 1984)
1911 – Jean Muir, American actress and educator (d. 1996)
1912 – Harald Riipalu, Russian-Estonian commander (d. 1961)
1912 – Margaretta Scott, English actress (d. 2005)
1913 – Khalid of Saudi Arabia (d. 1982)
1915 – Lyle Bettger, American actor (d. 2003)
1915 – Aung San, Burmese general and politician, 5th Premier of British Crown Colony of Burma (d. 1947)
1916 – Dorothy Bliss, American invertebrate zoologist (d. 1987)
1919 – Tennessee Ernie Ford, American singer and actor (d. 1991)
1919 – Eddie Robinson, American football player and coach (d. 2007)
1920 – Boudleaux Bryant, American songwriter (d. 1987)
1920 – Eileen Farrell, American soprano and educator (d. 2002)
1921 – Jeanne Demessieux, French pianist and composer (d. 1968)
1921 – Aung Khin, Burmese painter (d. 1996)
1922 – Francis Pym, Baron Pym, Welsh soldier and politician, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (d. 2008)
1922 – Gordon Tullock, American economist and academic (d. 2014)
1923 – Michael Anthony Bilandic, American soldier, judge, and politician, 49th Mayor of Chicago (d. 2002)
1923 – Chuck Yeager, American general and pilot; first test pilot to break the sound barrier
1924 – Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, French journalist and politician (d. 2006)
1926 – Fay Ajzenberg-Selove, American nuclear physicist (d. 2012)
1928 – Gerald Regan, Canadian lawyer and politician, 19th Premier of Nova Scotia (d. 2019)
1929 – Omar Torrijos, Panamanian commander and politician, Military Leader of Panama (d. 1981)
1930 – Ernst Fuchs, Austrian painter, sculptor, and illustrator (d. 2015)
1930 – Israel Kirzner, English-American economist, author, and academic
1932 – Susan Oliver, American actress (d. 1990)
1933 – Paul Biya, Cameroon politician, 2nd President of Cameroon
1933 – Kim Novak, American actress
1933 – Emanuel Ungaro, French fashion designer (d. 2019)
1934 – George Segal, American actor
1937 – Ali El-Maak, Sudanese author and academic (d. 1992)
1937 – Angelo Mosca, American-Canadian football player and wrestler
1938 – Oliver Reed, English actor (d. 1999)
1940 – Bram Peper, Dutch sociologist and politician, Mayor of Rotterdam
1941 – Sigmar Polke, German painter and photographer (d. 2010)
1941 – Bo Svenson, Swedish-American actor, director, and producer
1942 – Carol Lynley, American model and actress (d. 2019)
1942 – Peter Tork, American singer-songwriter, bass player, and actor (d. 2019)
1942 – Donald E. Williams, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (d. 2016)
1943 – Elaine Pagels, American theologian and academic
1944 – Stockard Channing, American actress
1944 – Jerry Springer, English-American television host, actor, and politician, 56th Mayor of Cincinnati
1945 – Marian Dawkins, English biologist and academic
1945 – King Floyd, American singer-songwriter (d. 2006)
1945 – Simon Schama, English historian and author
1945 – William Sleator, American author and composer (d. 2011)
1946 – Richard Blumenthal, American sergeant and politician, 23rd Attorney General of Connecticut
1946 – Janet Finch, English sociologist and academic
1946 – Colin Matthews, English composer and educator
1947 – Stephen Hadley, American soldier and diplomat, 21st United States National Security Advisor
1947 – Mike Krzyzewski, American basketball player and coach
1947 – Bogdan Tanjević, Montenegrin-Bosnian professional basketball coach
1947 – Kevin Bloody Wilson, Australian comedian, singer-songwriter, and guitarist
1949 – Peter Kern, Austrian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2015)
1950 – Vera Baird, English lawyer and politician
1950 – Peter Gabriel, English singer-songwriter and musician
1952 – Ed Gagliardi, American bass player (d. 2014)
1953 – Akio Sato, Japanese wrestler and manager
1954 – Donnie Moore, American baseball player (d. 1989)
1955 – Joe Birkett, American lawyer, judge, and politician
1956 – Peter Hook, English singer, songwriter, bass player, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer
1957 – Denise Austin, American fitness trainer and author
1958 – Pernilla August, Swedish actress
1958 – Marc Emery, Canadian publisher and activist
1958 – Jean-François Lisée, Canadian journalist and politician
1958 – Derek Riggs, English painter and illustrator
1958 – Øivind Elgenes, Norwegian vocalist, guitarist and composer
1959 – Gaston Gingras, Canadian ice hockey player
1960 – Pierluigi Collina, Italian footballer and referee
1960 – John Healey, English journalist and politician
1960 – Gary Patterson, American football player and coach
1960 – Artur Yusupov, Russian-German chess player and author
1961 – Marc Crawford, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1961 – cEvin Key, Canadian singer-songwriter, drummer, keyboard player, and producer
1961 – Henry Rollins, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
1962 – Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, Puerto Rican lawyer and politician
1962 – Baby Doll, American wrestler and manager
1962 – Michele Greene, American actress
1964 – Stephen Bowen, American engineer, captain, and astronaut
1964 – Ylva Johansson, Swedish educator and politician, Swedish Minister of Employment
1965 – Peter O’Neill, Papua New Guinean accountant and politician, 7th Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea
1966 – Neal McDonough, American actor and producer
1966 – Jeff Waters, Canadian guitarist, songwriter, and producer
1966 – Freedom Williams, American rapper and singer
1967 – Stanimir Stoilov, Bulgarian footballer and coach
1968 – Kelly Hu, American actress
1969 – Joyce DiDonato, American soprano and actress
1970 – Karoline Krüger, Norwegian singer-songwriter and pianist
1971 – Sonia Evans, English singer-songwriter
1971 – Mats Sundin, Swedish ice hockey player
1971 – Todd Williams, American baseball player
1972 – Virgilijus Alekna, Lithuanian discus thrower
1972 – Charlie Garner, American football player
1974 – Fonzworth Bentley, American rapper and actor
1974 – Robbie Williams, English singer-songwriter
1975 – Ben Collins, English race car driver
1975 – Katie Hopkins, English media personality and columnist
1976 – Jörg Bergmeister, German race car driver
1976 – Shannon Nevin, Australian rugby league player
1977 – Randy Moss, American football player and coach
1978 – Niklas Bäckström, Finnish ice hockey player
1978 – Philippe Jaroussky, French countertenor
1979 – Anders Behring Breivik, Norwegian murderer
1979 – Rafael Márquez, Mexican footballer
1979 – Rachel Reeves, English economist and politician, Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
1979 – Mena Suvari, American actress and fashion designer
1980 – Carlos Cotto, Puerto Rican-American wrestler and boxer
1981 – Luisão, Brazilian footballer
1982 – Even Helte Hermansen, Norwegian guitarist and composer
1982 – Michael Turner, American football player
1983 – Mike Nickeas, Canadian baseball player
1983 – Anna Watkins, English rower
1984 – Hinkelien Schreuder, Dutch swimmer
1985 – Kwak Ji-min, South Korean actress
1986 – Luke Moore, English footballer
1986 – Aqib Talib, American football player
1987 – Eljero Elia, Dutch footballer
1988 – Ryan Goins, American baseball player
1988 – Eddy Pettybourne, New Zealand-Samoan rugby league player
1989 – Rodrigo Possebon, Brazilian footballer
1991 – Eliaquim Mangala, French footballer
1991 – Junior Roqica, Australian-Fijian rugby league player
1991 – Vianney, French singer
1994 – Memphis Depay, Dutch footballer

Deaths on February 13

106 – Emperor He of Han (Han Hedi) of the Chinese Eastern Han Dynasty (b. AD 79)
721 – Chilperic II, Frankish king (b. 672)
858 – Kenneth MacAlpin, Scottish king (probable; b. 810)
921 – Vratislaus I, duke of Bohemia
936 – Xiao Wen, empress of the Liao Dynasty
942 – Muhammad ibn Ra’iq, Abbasid emir and regent
988 – Adalbert Atto, Lombard nobleman
1021 – Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, Fatimid caliph (b. 985)
1130 – Honorius II, pope of the Catholic Church (b. 1060
1141 – Béla II, king of Hungary and Croatia (b. 1110)
1199 – Stefan Nemanja, Serbian grand prince (b. 1113)
1219 – Minamoto no Sanetomo, Japanese shōgun (b. 1192)
1332 – Andronikos II Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor (b. 1259)
1351 – Kō no Morofuyu, Japanese general
1539 – Isabella d’Este, Italian noblewoman (b. 1474)
1542 – Catherine Howard, English wife of Henry VIII of England (executed;b. 1521)
1571 – Benvenuto Cellini, Italian painter and sculptor (b. 1500)
1585 – Alfonso Salmeron, Spanish priest and scholar (b. 1515)
1602 – Alexander Nowell, English clergyman and theologian (b. 1507)
1660 – Charles X Gustav, king of Sweden (b. 1622)
1662 – Elizabeth Stuart, queen of Bohemia (b. 1596)
1693 – Johann Caspar Kerll, German organist and composer (b. 1627)
1727 – William Wotton, English linguist and scholar (b. 1666)
1728 – Cotton Mather, American minister and author (b. 1663)
1732 – Charles-René d’Hozier, French historian and author (b. 1640)
1741 – Johann Joseph Fux, Austrian composer and theorist (b. 1660)
1787 – Roger Joseph Boscovich, Croatian physicist, astronomer, mathematician, and philosopher (b. 1711)
1787 – Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, French lawyer and politician, Foreign Minister of France (b. 1717)
1813 – Samuel Ashe, American lawyer and politician, 9th Governor of North Carolina (b. 1725)
1818 – George Rogers Clark, American general (b. 1752)
1826 – Peter Ludwig von der Pahlen, Russian general and politician, Governor-General of Baltic provinces (b. 1745)
1831 – Edward Berry, English admiral (b. 1768)
1837 – Mariano José de Larra, Spanish journalist and author (b. 1809)
1845 – Henrik Steffens, Norwegian-German philosopher and poet (b. 1773)
1877 – Costache Caragiale, Romanian actor and manager (b. 1815)
1883 – Richard Wagner, German composer (b. 1813)
1888 – Jean-Baptiste Lamy, French-American archbishop (b. 1814)
1892 – Provo Wallis, Canadian-English admiral (b. 1791)
1893 – Ignacio Manuel Altamirano, Mexican intellectual and journalist (b. 1834)
1905 – Konstantin Savitsky, Russian painter (b. 1844)
1906 – Albert Gottschalk, Danish painter (b. 1866)
1934 – József Pusztai, Slovene-Hungarian poet and journalist (b. 1864)
1942 – Otakar Batlička, Czech journalist (b. 1895)
1942 – Epitácio Pessoa, Brazilian lawyer, judge, and politician, 11th President of Brazil (b. 1865)
1950 – Rafael Sabatini, Italian-English novelist and short story writer (b. 1875)
1951 – Lloyd C. Douglas, American minister and author (b. 1877)
1952 – Josephine Tey, Scottish author and playwright (b. 1896)
1954 – Agnes Macphail, Canadian educator and politician (b. 1890)
1956 – Jan Łukasiewicz, Polish mathematician and philosopher (b. 1878)
1958 – Christabel Pankhurst, English activist, co-founded the Women’s Social and Political Union (b. 1880)
1958 – Georges Rouault, French painter and illustrator (b. 1871)
1964 – Paulino Alcántara, Filipino-Spanish footballer and manager (b. 1896)
1964 – Werner Heyde, German psychiatrist and academic (b. 1902)
1967 – Yoshisuke Aikawa, entrepreneur, businessman, and politician, founded Nissan Motor Company (b. 1880)
1967 – Abelardo L. Rodríguez, substitute president of Mexico (1932-1934) (b. 1889)
1968 – Mae Marsh, American actress (b. 1895)
1968 – Portia White, Canadian opera singer (b. 1911)
1973 – Marinus Jan Granpré Molière, Dutch architect and educator (b. 1883)
1975 – André Beaufre, French general (b. 1902)
1976 – Murtala Mohammed, Nigerian general and politician, 4th President of Nigeria (b. 1938)
1976 – Lily Pons, French-American soprano and actress (b. 1904)
1980 – David Janssen, American actor (b. 1931)
1984 – Cheong Eak Chong, Singaporean entrepreneur (b. 1888)
1986 – Yuri Ivask, Russian-American poet and critic (b. 1907)
1989 – Wayne Hays, American lieutenant and politician (b. 1911)
1991 – Arno Breker, German sculptor and illustrator (b. 1900)
1992 – Nikolay Bogolyubov, Ukrainian-Russian mathematician and physicist (b. 1909)
1996 – Martin Balsam, American actor (b. 1919)
1997 – Robert Klark Graham, American eugenicist and businessman (b. 1906)
1997 – Mark Krasnosel’skii, Russian-Ukrainian mathematician and academic (b. 1920)
2000 – Anders Aalborg, Canadian educator and politician (b. 1914)
2000 – James Cooke Brown, American sociologist and author (b. 1921)
2000 – John Leake, English soldier (b. 1949)
2002 – Waylon Jennings, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1937)
2003 – Kid Gavilán, Cuban-American boxer (b. 1926)
2003 – Walt Whitman Rostow, American economist; 7th United States National Security Advisor (b. 1916)
2004 – François Tavenas, Canadian engineer and academic (b. 1942)
2004 – Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, Chechen politician, 2nd President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (b. 1952)
2005 – Nelson Briles, American baseball player and sportscaster (b. 1943)
2005 – Lúcia Santos, Portuguese nun (b. 1907)
2006 – P. F. Strawson, English philosopher and author (b. 1919)
2007 – Elizabeth Jolley, English-Australian author and academic (b. 1923)
2007 – Charlie Norwood, American captain and politician (b. 1941)
2007 – Richard Gordon Wakeford, English air marshal (b. 1922)
2008 – Kon Ichikawa, Japanese director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1915)
2009 – Edward Upward, English author and educator (b. 1903)
2010 – Lucille Clifton, American poet and academic (b. 1936)
2010 – Dale Hawkins, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1936)
2012 – Russell Arms, American actor and singer (b. 1920)
2012 – Louise Cochrane, American-English screenwriter and producer (b. 1918)
2012 – Daniel C. Gerould, American playwright and academic (b. 1928)
2013 – Gerry Day, American journalist and screenwriter (b. 1922)
2013 – Miles J. Jones, American pathologist and physician (b. 1952)
2013 – Pieter Kooijmans, Dutch judge and politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs for The Netherlands (b. 1933)
2013 – Andrée Malebranche, Haitian artist (b. 1916)
2013 – Yuko Tojo, Japanese activist and politician (b. 1939)
2014 – Balu Mahendra, Sri Lankan-Indian director, cinematographer, and screenwriter (b. 1939)
2014 – Richard Møller Nielsen, Danish footballer and manager (b. 1937)
2014 – Ralph Waite, American actor and activist (b. 1928)
2015 – Faith Bandler, Australian activist and author (b. 1918)
2015 – Stan Chambers, American journalist and actor (b. 1923)
2016 – O. N. V. Kurup, Indian poet and academic (b. 1931)
2016 – Antonin Scalia, American lawyer and judge, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (b. 1936)
2017 – Ricardo Arias Calderón, Panamanian politician, Vice President (1990–1992) (b. 1933)
2017 – Aileen Hernandez, American union organizer and activist (b. 1926)
2017 – Seijun Suzuki, Japanese filmmaker (b. 1923)
2017 – Kim Jong-nam, North Korean politician (b. 1971)
2017 – E-Dubble, American rapper (b. 1982)
2018 – Henrik, Prince Consort of Denmark, French-born Danish royal (b. 1934)

Holidays and observances on February 13

Children’s Day (Myanmar)
Christian feast day:
- Absalom Jones (Episcopal Church (USA))
- Beatrice of Ornacieux
- Castor of Karden
- Catherine of Ricci
- Ermenilda of Ely
- Fulcran
- Jordan of Saxony
- Polyeuctus (Roman Catholic Church)
- February 13 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
World Radio Day

February 13 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

February 12 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day / admin

1429 – English forces under Sir John Fastolf defend a supply convoy carrying rations to the army besieging Orléans in the Battle of the Herrings.
1502 – Isabella I issues an edict outlawing Islam in the Crown of Castile, forcing virtually all her Muslim subjects to convert to Christianity.
1541 – Santiago, Chile is founded by Pedro de Valdivia.
1593 – Japanese invasion of Korea: Approximately 3,000 Joseon defenders led by general Kwon Yul successfully repel more than 30,000 Japanese forces in the Siege of Haengju.
1689 – The Convention Parliament declares that the flight to France in 1688 by James II, the last Roman Catholic British monarch, constitutes an abdication.
1733 – Georgia Day: Englishman James Oglethorpe founds Georgia, the 13th colony of the Thirteen Colonies, by settling at Savannah.
1771 – Gustav III becomes the King of Sweden.
1817 – An Argentine/Chilean patriotic army, after crossing the Andes, defeats Spanish troops at the Battle of Chacabuco.
1818 – Bernardo O’Higgins formally approves the Chilean Declaration of Independence near Concepción, Chile.
1825 – The Creek cede the last of their lands in Georgia to the United States government by the Treaty of Indian Springs, and migrate west.
1832 – Ecuador annexes the Galápagos Islands.
1855 – Michigan State University is established.
1894 – Anarchist Émile Henry hurls a bomb into the Cafe Terminus in Paris, killing one person and wounding 20.
1909 – The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded.
1909 – New Zealand’s worst maritime disaster of the 20th century happens when the SS Penguin, an inter-island ferry, sinks and explodes at the entrance to Wellington Harbour.
1912 – The Xuantong Emperor, the last Emperor of China, abdicates.
1915 – In Washington, D.C., the first stone of the Lincoln Memorial is put into place.
1921 – Bolsheviks launch a revolt in Georgia as a preliminary to the Red Army invasion of Georgia.
1924 – George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue received its premiere in a concert titled “An Experiment in Modern Music”, in Aeolian Hall, New York, by Paul Whiteman and his band, with Gershwin playing the piano.
1935 – USS Macon, one of the two largest helium-filled airships ever created, crashes into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California and sinks.
1946 – World War II: Operation Deadlight ends after scuttling 121 of 154 captured U-boats.
1946 – African American United States Army veteran Isaac Woodard is severely beaten by a South Carolina police officer to the point where he loses his vision in both eyes. The incident later galvanizes the civil rights movement and partially inspires Orson Welles’ film Touch of Evil.
1947 – The largest observed iron meteorite until that time creates an impact crater in Sikhote-Alin, in the Soviet Union.
1947 – Christian Dior unveils a “New Look”, helping Paris regain its position as the capital of the fashion world.
1961 – The Soviet Union launches Venera 1 towards Venus.
1963 – Construction begins on the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri.
1965 – Malcolm X visits Smethwick in Birmingham following the racially-charged 1964 United Kingdom general election.
1968 – Phong Nhị and Phong Nhất massacre.
1974 – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970, is exiled from the Soviet Union.
1983 – One hundred women protest in Lahore, Pakistan against military dictator Zia-ul-Haq’s proposed Law of Evidence. The women were tear-gassed, baton-charged and thrown into lock-up. The women were successful in repealing the law.
1988 – Cold War: The 1988 Black Sea bumping incident: The U.S. missile cruiser USS Yorktown (CG-48) is intentionally rammed by the Soviet frigate Bezzavetnyy in the Soviet territorial waters, while Yorktown claims innocent passage.
1990 – Carmen Lawrence becomes the first female Premier in Australian history when she becomes Premier of Western Australia.
1992 – The current Constitution of Mongolia comes into effect.
1993 – Two-year-old James Bulger is abducted from New Strand Shopping Centre by two ten-year-old boys, who later torture and murder him.
1994 – Four thieves break into the National Gallery of Norway and steal Edvard Munch’s iconic painting The Scream.
1999 – United States President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the United States Senate in his impeachment trial.
2001 – NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touches down in the “saddle” region of 433 Eros, becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.
2002 – The trial of Slobodan Milošević, the former President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, begins at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands. He dies four years later before its conclusion.
2002 – An Iran Airtour Tupolev Tu-154 crashes in the mountains outside Khorramabad, Iran while descending for a landing at Khorramabad Airport, killing 119.
2004 – The city of San Francisco begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in response to a directive from Mayor Gavin Newsom.
2009 – Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashes into a house in Clarence Center, New York while on approach to Buffalo Niagara International Airport, killing all on board and one on the ground.
2016 – Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill sign an Ecumenical Declaration in the first such meeting between leaders of the Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches since their split in 1054.
2019 – The country known as the Republic of Macedonia renames itself the Republic of North Macedonia in accordance with the Prespa agreement, settling a long-standing naming dispute with Greece.

Births on February 12

AD 41 – Britannicus, Roman son of Claudius (d. 55)
528 – Daughter of Emperor Xiaoming of Northern Wei, nominal empress regnant of Northern Wei
661 – Princess Ōku of Japan (d. 702)
1074 – Conrad II of Italy (d. 1101)
1218 – Kujo Yoritsune, Japanese shōgun (d. 1256)
1322 – John Henry, Margrave of Moravia (d. 1375)
1443 – Giovanni II Bentivoglio, Italian noble (d. 1508)
1480 – Frederick II of Legnica, Duke of Legnica (d. 1547)
1540 – Won Gyun, Korean general and admiral (d. 1597)
1567 – Thomas Campion, English composer, poet, and physician (d. 1620)
1584 – Caspar Barlaeus, Dutch historian, poet, and theologian (d. 1648)
1602 – Michelangelo Cerquozzi, Italian painter (d. 1660)
1606 – John Winthrop the Younger, English-American lawyer and politician, Governor of Connecticut (d. 1676)
1608 – Daniello Bartoli, Italian Jesuit priest (d. 1685)
1637 – Jan Swammerdam, Dutch biologist and zoologist (d. 1680)
1663 – Cotton Mather, English-American minister and author (d. 1728)
1665 – Rudolf Jakob Camerarius, German botanist and physician (d. 1721)
1704 – Charles Pinot Duclos, French author (d. 1772)
1706 – Johann Joseph Christian, German Baroque sculptor and woodcarver (d. 1777)
1728 – Étienne-Louis Boullée, French architect (d. 1799)
1753 – François-Paul Brueys d’Aigalliers, French admiral (d. 1798)
1761 – Jan Ladislav Dussek, Czech pianist and composer (d. 1812)
1768 – Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1835)
1775 – Louisa Adams, English-American wife of John Quincy Adams, 6th First Lady of the United States (d. 1852)
1777 – Bernard Courtois, French chemist and academic (d. 1838)
1777 – Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, German author and poet (d. 1843)
1785 – Pierre Louis Dulong, French physicist and chemist (d. 1838)
1787 – Norbert Provencher, Canadian bishop and missionary (d. 1853)
1788 – Carl Reichenbach, German chemist and philosopher (d. 1869)
1791 – Peter Cooper, American businessman and philanthropist, founded Cooper Union (d. 1883)
1794 – Alexander Petrov, Russian chess player and composer (d. 1867)
1794 – Valentín Canalizo, Mexican general and politician. 14th President (1843-1844) (d. 1850)
1804 – Heinrich Lenz, German-Italian physicist and academic (d. 1865)
1809 – Charles Darwin, English geologist and theorist (d. 1882)
1809 – Abraham Lincoln, American lawyer and politician, 16th President of the United States (d. 1865)
1819 – William Wetmore Story, American sculptor, architect, poet and editor
1824 – Dayananda Saraswati, Indian monk and philosopher, founded Arya Samaj (d. 1883)
1828 – George Meredith, English novelist and poet (d. 1909)
1837 – Thomas Moran, British-American painter and printmaker of the Hudson River School (d. 1926)
1857 – Eugène Atget, French photographer (d. 1927)
1857 – Bobby Peel, English cricketer and coach (d. 1943)
1861 – Lou Andreas-Salomé, Russian-German psychoanalyst and author (d. 1937)
1866 – Lev Shestov, Russian philosopher (d. 1938)
1869 – Kiến Phúc, Vietnamese emperor (d. 1884)
1870 – Marie Lloyd, English actress and singer (d. 1922)
1876 – 13th Dalai Lama (d. 1933)
1877 – Louis Renault, French engineer and businessman, co-founded Renault (d. 1944)
1880 – George Preca, Maltese priest and saint (d. 1962)
1880 – John L. Lewis, American miner and union leader (d. 1969)
1881 – Anna Pavlova, Russian-English ballerina and actress (d. 1931)
1882 – Walter Nash, English-New Zealand lawyer and politician, 27th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1968)
1884 – Max Beckmann, German painter and sculptor (d. 1950)
1884 – Johan Laidoner, Estonian-Russian general (d. 1953)
1884 – Alice Roosevelt Longworth, American author (d. 1980)
1884 – Marie Vassilieff, Russian-French painter (d. 1957)
1885 – Julius Streicher, German publisher, founded Der Stürmer (d. 1946)
1889 – Bhante Dharmawara, Cambodian monk, lawyer, and judge (d. 1999)
1893 – Omar Bradley, American general (d. 1981)
1895 – Kristian Djurhuus, Faroese lawyer and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (d. 1984)
1897 – Charles Groves Wright Anderson, South African-Australian colonel and politician (d. 1988)
1897 – Lincoln LaPaz, American astronomer and academic (d. 1985)
1898 – Wallace Ford, English-American actor and singer (d. 1966)
1900 – Roger J. Traynor, American lawyer and jurist, 23rd Chief Justice of California (d. 1983)
1902 – William Collier, Jr., American actor, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1987)
1903 – Jorge Basadre, Peruvian historian (d. 1980)
1903 – Chick Hafey, American baseball player and manager (d. 1973)
1904 – Ted Mack, American radio and television host (d. 1976)
1907 – Joseph Kearns, American actor (d. 1962)
1908 – Jean Effel, French painter, caricaturist, illustrator and journalist (d. 1982)
1908 – Jacques Herbrand, French mathematician and philosopher (d. 1931)
1909 – Zoran Mušič, Slovene painter and illustrator (d. 2005)
1909 – Sigmund Rascher, German physician (d. 1945)
1911 – Charles Mathiesen, Norwegian speed skater (d. 1994)
1912 – R. F. Delderfield, English author and playwright (d. 1972)
1914 – Tex Beneke, American singer, saxophonist, and bandleader (d. 2000)
1914 – Johanna von Caemmerer, German mathematician (d. 1971)
1915 – Lorne Greene, Canadian-American actor (d. 1987)
1915 – Olivia Hooker, African-American sailor (d. 2018)
1916 – Joseph Alioto, American lawyer and politician, 36th Mayor of San Francisco (d. 1998)
1917 – Al Cervi, American basketball player and coach (d. 2009)
1917 – Dom DiMaggio, American baseball player (d. 2009)
1918 – Norman Farberow, American psychologist and academic (d. 2015)
1918 – Julian Schwinger, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1994)
1919 – Forrest Tucker, American actor (d. 1986)
1920 – Raymond Mhlaba, South African anti-apartheid and ANC activist (d. 2005)
1922 – Hussein Onn, Malaysian lawyer and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Malaysia (d. 1990)
1923 – Franco Zeffirelli, Italian director, producer, and politician (d. 2019)
1925 – Sir Anthony Berry, British Conservative politician (d. 1984)
1925 – Joan Mitchell, American-French painter (d. 1992)
1926 – Rolf Brem, Swiss sculptor and illustrator (d. 2014)
1926 – Joe Garagiola, Sr., American baseball player and sportscaster (d. 2016)
1926 – Charles Van Doren, American academic (d. 2019)
1928 – Vincent Montana, Jr., American drummer and composer (d. 2013)
1930 – John Doyle, Irish hurler and politician (d. 2010)
1930 – Arlen Specter, American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician (d. 2012)
1931 – Janwillem van de Wetering, Dutch-American author and translator (d. 2008)
1932 – Axel Jensen, Norwegian author and poet (d. 2003)
1932 – Julian Simon, American economist, author, and academic (d. 1998)
1933 – Costa-Gavras, Greek-French director and producer
1933 – Brian Carlson, Australian rugby league player (d. 1987)
1934 – Annette Crosbie, Scottish actress
1934 – Anne Osborn Krueger, American economist and academic
1934 – Bill Russell, American basketball player and coach
1935 – Gene McDaniels, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2011)
1936 – Alan Ebringer, Australian immunologist, professor at King’s College in the University of London
1938 – Judy Blume, Jewish-American author and educator
1939 – Leon Kass, American physician, scientist, and educator
1939 – Ray Manzarek, American singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer (d. 2013)
1941 – Hubert Marcoux, Canadian solo sailor and author (d. 2009)
1941 – Dominguinhos, Brazilian singer-songwriter and accordion player (d. 2013)
1941 – Naomi Uemura, Japanese mountaineer and explorer (d. 1984)
1942 – Ehud Barak, Israeli general and politician, 10th Prime Minister of Israel
1942 – Pat Dobson, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 2006)
1945 – Maud Adams, Swedish model and actress
1945 – David D. Friedman, American economist, physicist, and scholar
1946 – Jean Eyeghé Ndong, Gabonese politician, Prime Minister of Gabon
1946 – Ajda Pekkan, Turkish singer-songwriter and actress
1948 – Ray Kurzweil, American computer scientist and engineer
1948 – Nicholas Soames, English politician, Minister of State for the Armed Forces
1950 – Angelo Branduardi, Italian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1950 – Steve Hackett, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1950 – Michael Ironside, Canadian actor, director, and screenwriter
1952 – Simon MacCorkindale, English actor, director, and producer (d. 2010)
1952 – Michael McDonald, American singer-songwriter and keyboard player
1953 – Joanna Kerns, American actress and director
1954 – Joseph Jordania, Georgian-Australian musicologist and academic
1954 – Tzimis Panousis, Greek comedian, singer, and author (d. 2018)
1954 – Phil Zimmermann, American cryptographer and programmer
1955 – Bill Laswell, American bass player and producer
1955 – Chet Lemon, American baseball player and coach
1956 – Arsenio Hall, American actor and talk show host
1956 – Ad Melkert, Dutch lawyer and politician, Dutch Minister of Social Affairs and Employment
1956 – Brian Robertson, Scottish rock guitarist and songwriter
1958 – Outback Jack, Australian-American wrestler
1961 – Jim Harris, Canadian environmentalist and politician
1961 – Michel Martelly, Haitian singer and politician, 56th President of Haiti
1961 – Di Farmer, Queensland Member of Parliament
1964 – Omar Hakim, American drummer, producer, arranger, and composer
1965 – Rubén Amaro, Jr., American baseball player and manager
1965 – Christine Elise, American actress and producer
1965 – David Westlake, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1966 – Paul Crook, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer
1968 – Josh Brolin, American actor
1968 – Chynna Phillips, American singer and actress
1969 – Darren Aronofsky, American director, producer, and screenwriter
1969 – Alemayehu Atomsa, Ethiopian educator and politician (d. 2014)
1969 – Steve Backley, English javelin thrower
1969 – Anneli Drecker, Norwegian singer and actress
1969 – Hong Myung-bo, South Korean footballer and manager
1970 – Jim Creeggan, Canadian singer-songwriter and bass player
1970 – Bryan Roy, Dutch footballer and manager
1970 – Judd Winick, American author and illustrator
1971 – Scott Menville, American voice actor, singer, actor and musician
1973 – Gianni Romme, Dutch speed skater
1973 – Tara Strong, Canadian voice actress and singer
1974 – Naseem Hamed, English boxer
1976 – Christian Cullen, New Zealand rugby player
1977 – Jimmy Conrad, American soccer player and manager
1978 – Paul Anderson, English actor
1978 – Brett Hodgson, Australian rugby league player and coach
1979 – Antonio Chatman, American football player
1979 – Jesse Spencer, Australian actor and violinist
1980 – Juan Carlos Ferrero, Spanish tennis player
1980 – Sarah Lancaster, American actress
1980 – Christina Ricci, American actress and producer
1980 – Gucci Mane, American rapper
1981 – Wade McKinnon, Australian rugby league player
1982 – Jonas Hiller, Swiss ice hockey player
1982 – Louis Tsatoumas, Greek long jumper
1982 – Anthony Tuitavake, New Zealand rugby player
1983 – Carlton Brewster, American football player and coach
1984 – Brad Keselowski, American race car driver
1984 – Andrei Sidorenkov, Estonian footballer
1984 – Peter Vanderkaay, American swimmer
1988 – DeMarco Murray, American football player
1988 – Nicolás Otamendi, Argentine footballer
1988 – Mike Posner, American singer-songwriter and producer
1990 – Robert Griffin III, American football player
1991 – Patrick Herrmann, German footballer
1994 – Arman Hall, American sprinter
1999 – Maggie Coles-Lyster, Canadian cyclist
2000 – Kim Ji-min, South Korean actress

Deaths on February 12

821 – Benedict of Aniane, French monk and saint (b. 747)
890 – Henjō, Japanese priest and poet (b. 816)
981 – Ælfstan, bishop of Ramsbury
901 – Antony II, patriarch of Constantinople
914 – Li, empress of Yan
941 – Wulfhelm, Archbishop of Canterbury
1247 – Ermesinde, Countess of Luxembourg, ruler (b. 1185)
1266 – Amadeus of the Amidei, Italian saint
1517 – Catherine of Navarre (b. 1468)
1538 – Albrecht Altdorfer, German painter, engraver, and architect (b. 1480)
1554 – Lord Guildford Dudley, English son of Jane Dudley, Duchess of Northumberland (b. 1536; executed)
1554 – Lady Jane Grey, de facto monarch of England and Ireland for nine days (b. 1537; executed)
1571 – Nicholas Throckmorton, English politician and diplomat (b. 1515)
1590 – François Hotman, French lawyer and author (b. 1524)
1600 – Edward Denny, Knight Banneret of Bishop’s Stortford, English soldier, privateer and adventurer (b. 1547)
1612 – Jodocus Hondius, Flemish cartographer (b. 1563)
1624 – George Heriot, Scottish goldsmith and philanthropist, founded George Heriot’s School (b. 1563)
1713 – Jahandar Shah, Mughal emperor (b. 1664)
1728 – Agostino Steffani, Italian priest and composer (b. 1653)
1763 – Pierre de Marivaux, French author and playwright (b. 1688)
1771 – Adolf Frederick, King of Sweden (b. 1710)
1789 – Ethan Allen, American farmer, general, and politician (b. 1738)
1799 – Lazzaro Spallanzani, Italian biologist and physiologist (b. 1729)
1804 – Immanuel Kant, German anthropologist, philosopher, and academic (b. 1724)
1834 – Friedrich Schleiermacher, German philosopher and scholar (b. 1768)
1886 – Randolph Caldecott, English-American painter and illustrator (b. 1846)
1894 – Hans von Bülow, German pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1830)
1896 – Ambroise Thomas, French composer and academic (b. 1811)
1912 – Gerhard Armauer Hansen, Norwegian physician (b. 1841)
1915 – Émile Waldteufel, French pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1837)
1916 – Richard Dedekind, German mathematician, philosopher, and academic (b. 1831)
1929 – Lillie Langtry, English singer and actress (b. 1853)
1931 – Samad bey Mehmandarov, Azerbaijani-Russian general and politician, 3rd Azerbaijani Minister of Defense (b. 1855)
1935 – Auguste Escoffier, French chef and author (b. 1846)
1942 – Eugene Esmonde, Irish-English lieutenant and pilot, Victoria Cross recipient (b. 1909)
1942 – Avraham Stern, Polish-Israeli militant leader (b. 1907)
1942 – Grant Wood, American painter and academic (b. 1891)
1947 – Moses Gomberg, Ukrainian-American chemist and academic (b. 1866)
1949 – Hassan al-Banna, Egyptian educator, founded the Muslim Brotherhood (b. 1906)
1954 – Dziga Vertov, Polish-Russian director and screenwriter (b. 1896)
1958 – Douglas Hartree, English mathematician and physicist (b. 1897)
1960 – Oskar Anderson, Bulgarian-German mathematician and academic (b. 1887)
1970 – Clare Turlay Newberry, American author and illustrator (b. 1903)
1971 – James Cash Penney, American businessman and philanthropist, founded J. C. Penney (b. 1875)
1975 – Carl Lutz, Swiss vice-consul to Hungary during WWII, credited with saving over 62,000 Jews (b. 1895)
1976 – Sal Mineo, American actor (b. 1939)
1977 – Herman Dooyeweerd, Dutch philosopher and scholar (b. 1894)
1979 – Jean Renoir, French actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1894)
1980 – Muriel Rukeyser, American poet and activist (b. 1913)
1982 – Victor Jory, Canadian-American actor (b. 1902)
1983 – Eubie Blake, American pianist and composer (b. 1887)
1984 – Anna Anderson, Polish-American woman, who claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia (b. 1896)
1984 – Julio Cortázar, Belgian-Argentinian author and poet (b. 1914)
1985 – Nicholas Colasanto, American actor and director (b. 1924)
1989 – Thomas Bernhard, Austrian playwright and author (b. 1931)
1991 – Roger Patterson, American bass player (b. 1968)
1992 – Bep van Klaveren, Dutch boxer (b. 1907)
1994 – Donald Judd, American painter and sculptor (b. 1928)
1995 – Philip Taylor Kramer, American bass player (b. 1952)
1998 – Gardner Ackley, American economist and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Italy (b. 1915)
2000 – Tom Landry, American football player and coach (b. 1924)
2000 – Charles M. Schulz, American cartoonist, created Peanuts (b. 1922)
2001 – Kristina Söderbaum, Swedish-German actress and producer (b. 1912)
2002 – John Eriksen, Danish footballer (b. 1957)
2005 – Dorothy Stang, American-Brazilian nun and missionary (b. 1931)
2007 – Ann Barzel, American writer and dance critic (b. 1905)
2007 – Peggy Gilbert, American saxophonist and bandleader (b. 1905)
2008 – David Groh, American actor (b. 1939)
2009 – victims of Colgan Air Flight 3407:
- Alison Des Forges, American historian and activist (b. 1942)
- Beverly Eckert, American activist (b. 1951)
- Mat Mathews, Dutch accordion player (b. 1924)
- Coleman Mellett, American guitarist (b. 1974)
- Gerry Niewood, American saxophonist (b. 1943)
2010 – Nodar Kumaritashvili, Georgian luger (b. 1988)
2011 – Peter Alexander, Austrian singer and actor (b. 1926)
2011 – Betty Garrett, American actress, singer, and dancer (b. 1919)
2011 – Kenneth Mars, American actor and comedian (b. 1935)
2012 – Zina Bethune, American actress, dancer, and choreographer (b. 1945)
2012 – Denis Flannery, Australian rugby player and coach (b. 1928)
2012 – David Kelly, Irish actor (b. 1929)
2012 – John Severin, American illustrator (b. 1921)
2013 – Sattam bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Saudi Arabian prince (b. 1941)
2013 – Reginald Turnill, English journalist and author (b. 1915)
2013 – Hennadiy Udovenko, Ukrainian politician and diplomat, 2nd Minister of Foreign Affairs for Ukraine (b. 1931)
2014 – Sid Caesar, American actor and comedian (b. 1922)
2014 – John Pickstone, English historian and author (b. 1944)
2015 – Movita Castaneda, American actress and singer (b. 1916)
2015 – Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, Malaysian cleric and politician, 12th Menteri Besar of Kelantan (b. 1931)
2015 – Gary Owens, American radio host and voice actor (b. 1934)
2015 – Steve Strange, Welsh singer (b. 1959)
2016 – Dominique D’Onofrio, Italian-Belgian footballer and coach (b. 1953)
2016 – Yannis Kalaitzis, Greek cartoonist (b. 1945)
2016 – Yan Su, Chinese general and composer (b. 1930)
2017 – Al Jarreau, American singer (b. 1940)
2017 – Anna Marguerite McCann, first female American underwater archaeologist (b. 1933)
2017 – Ren Xinmin, Chinese rocket scientist (b. 1915)
2019 – Gordon Banks, English footballer (b. 1937)
2019 – Lyndon LaRouche, American political activist (b. 1922)
2019 – Pedro Morales, Puerto Rican professional wrestler and commentator (b. 1942)
2020 – Christie Blatchford, Canadian newspaper columnist, journalist and broadcaster (b. 1951)

Holidays and observances on February 12

Christian feast day:
- Benedict of Aniane
- Damian of Alexandria
- Julian the Hospitaller
- Martyrs of Abitinae
- February 12 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Darwin Day (International)
Georgia Day (Georgia (U.S. state))
Lincoln’s Birthday (United States)
National Freedom to Marry Day (United States)
Red Hand Day (United Nations)
Union Day (Myanmar)
Youth Day (Venezuela)

February 12 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

February 11 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day / admin

660 BC – Traditional date for the foundation of Japan by Emperor Jimmu.
AD 55 – The death under mysterious circumstances of Tiberius Claudius Caesar Britannicus, heir to the Roman empire, on the eve of his coming of age clears the way for Nero to become Emperor.
1534 – Henry VIII of England is recognized as supreme head of the Church of England.
1659 – The assault on Copenhagen by Swedish forces is beaten back with heavy losses.
1794 – First session of United States Senate opens to the public.
1808 – Jesse Fell burns anthracite on an open grate as an experiment in heating homes with coal.
1812 – Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry is accused of “gerrymandering” for the first time.
1823 – Carnival tragedy of 1823: About 110 boys are killed during a stampede at the Convent of the Minori Osservanti in Valletta, Malta.
1826 – University College London is founded as University of London.
1840 – Gaetano Donizetti’s opera La fille du régiment receives its first performance in Paris, France.
1843 – Giuseppe Verdi’s opera I Lombardi alla prima crociata receives its first performance in Milan, Italy.
1855 – Kassa Hailu is crowned Tewodros II, Emperor of Ethiopia.
1856 – The Kingdom of Awadh is annexed by the British East India Company and Wajid Ali Shah, the king of Awadh, is deposed.
1858 – Bernadette Soubirous’s first vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lourdes, France.
1861 – American Civil War: The United States House of Representatives unanimously passes a resolution guaranteeing noninterference with slavery in any state.
1873 – King Amadeo I of Spain abdicates.
1889 – Meiji Constitution of Japan is adopted.
1903 – Anton Bruckner’s 9th Symphony receives its first performance in Vienna, Austria.
1906 – Pope Pius X publishes the encyclical Vehementer Nos.
1919 – Friedrich Ebert (SPD), is elected President of Germany.
1929 – Kingdom of Italy and the Vatican sign the Lateran Treaty.
1937 – The Flint sit-down strike ends when General Motors recognizes the United Auto Workers trade union.
1938 – BBC Television produces the world’s first ever science fiction television programme, an adaptation of a section of the Karel Čapek play R.U.R., that coined the term “robot”.
1942 – World War II: Second day of the Battle of Bukit Timah is fought in Singapore.
1953 – Cold War: U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower denies all appeals for clemency for Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
1953 – The Soviet Union breaks off diplomatic relations with Israel.
1959 – The Federation of Arab Emirates of the South is created as a protectorate of the United Kingdom.
1970 – Japan launches Ohsumi, becoming the fourth nation to put an object into orbit using its own booster.
1971 – Cold War: the Seabed Arms Control Treaty opened for signature outlawing nuclear weapons on the ocean floor in international waters.
1979 – The Iranian Revolution establishes an Islamic theocracy under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
1990 – Nelson Mandela is released from Victor Verster Prison outside Cape Town, South Africa after 27 years as a political prisoner.
1990 – Buster Douglas, a 42:1 underdog, knocks out Mike Tyson in ten rounds at Tokyo to win boxing’s world Heavyweight title.
1997 – Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.
1999 – Pluto crosses Neptune’s orbit, ending a nearly 20-year period when it was closer to the Sun than the gas giant; Pluto is not expected to interact with Neptune’s orbit again until 2231.
2001 – A Dutch programmer launched the Anna Kournikova virus infecting millions of emails via a trick photo of the tennis star.
2008 – Rebel East Timorese soldiers seriously wound President José Ramos-Horta. Rebel leader Alfredo Reinado is killed in the attack.
2011 – Arab Spring: The first wave of the Egyptian revolution culminates in the resignation of Hosni Mubarak and the transfer of power to the Supreme Military Council after 17 days of protests.
2013 – The Vatican confirmed that Pope Benedict XVI would resign the papacy as a result of his advanced age.
2014 – A military transport plane crashes in a mountainous area of Oum El Bouaghi Province in eastern Algeria, killing 77 people.
2015 – A university student was murdered as she resisted an attempted rape in Turkey, sparking nationwide protests and public outcry against harassment and violence against women.
2016 – A man shoots six people dead at an education center in Jizan Province, Saudi Arabia.
2017 – North Korea test fires a ballistic missile across the Sea of Japan.
2018 – Saratov Airlines Flight 703 crashes near Moscow, Russia with 71 deaths and no survivors.

Births on February 11

1380 – Poggio Bracciolini, Italian scholar and translator (d. 1459)
1466 – Elizabeth of York (d. 1503)
1535 – Pope Gregory XIV (d. 1591)
1568 – Honoré d’Urfé, French author and playwright (d. 1625)
1649 – William Carstares, Scottish minister and academic (d. 1715)
1657 – Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle, French poet and playwright (d. 1757)
1708 – Egidio Duni, Italian composer (d. 1775)
1764 – Joseph Chénier, French poet and playwright (d. 1811)
1776 – Ioannis Kapodistrias, Greek politician, 1st Governor of Greece (d. 1831)
1800 – Henry Fox Talbot, English photographer and politician, invented the calotype (d. 1877)
1802 – Lydia Maria Child, American journalist, author, and activist (d. 1880)
1805 – Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, Native American-French Canadian explorer (d. 1866)
1812 – Alexander H. Stephens, American lawyer and politician, Vice President of the Confederate States of America (d. 1883)
1813 – Otto Ludwig, German author, playwright, and critic (d. 1865)
1821 – Auguste Mariette, French archaeologist and scholar (d. 1881)
1830 – Hans Bronsart von Schellendorff, Prussian pianist and composer (d. 1913)
1833 – Melville Fuller, American lawyer and jurist, Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1910)
1839 – Josiah Willard Gibbs, American physicist (d. 1903)
1845 – Ahmet Tevfik Pasha, Ottoman soldier and politician, Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire (d. 1936)
1847 – Thomas Edison, American engineer and businessman, developed the light bulb and phonograph (d. 1931)
1855 – Ellen Day Hale, American painter and author (b. 1855)
1860 – Rachilde, French author and playwright (d. 1953)
1863 – John F. Fitzgerald, American politician; Mayor of Boston (d. 1950)
1864 – Louis Bouveault, French chemist (d. 1909)
1869 – Helene Kröller-Müller, German-Dutch art collector and philanthropist, founded the Kröller-Müller Museum (d. 1939)
1869 – Else Lasker-Schüler, German poet and author (d. 1945)
1874 – Elsa Beskow, Swedish author and illustrator (d. 1953)
1881 – Carlo Carrà, Italian painter (d. 1966)
1897 – Emil Leon Post, Polish-American mathematician and logician (d.1954)
1898 – Leo Szilard, Hungarian-American physicist and academic (d. 1964)
1900 – Ellen Broe, Danish nurse, pioneer in nursing education (d. 1994)
1900 – Hans-Georg Gadamer, German philosopher and scholar (d. 2002)
1900 – Jōsei Toda, Japanese educator and activist (d. 1958)
1902 – Arne Jacobsen, Danish architect, designed Radisson Blu Royal Hotel (d. 1971)
1904 – Keith Holyoake, New Zealand farmer and politician, Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1983)
1904 – Lucile Randon, French Supercentenarian
1908 – Philip Dunne, American screenwriter (d. 1992)
1908 – Vivian Fuchs, English explorer (d. 1999)
1909 – Max Baer, American boxer and actor (d. 1959)
1909 – Joseph L. Mankiewicz, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1993)
1912 – Rudolf Firkušný, Czech-American pianist and educator (d. 1994)
1914 – Matt Dennis, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 2002)
1914 – Josh White, American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1969)
1915 – Patrick Leigh Fermor, English soldier, author, and scholar (d. 2011)
1915 – Richard Hamming, American mathematician and academic (d. 1998)
1917 – Sidney Sheldon, American author and screenwriter (d. 2007)
1920 – Farouk I, King of Egypt (d. 1965)
1920 – Daniel F. Galouye, American author (d. 1976)
1920 – Billy Halop, American actor (d. 1976)
1920 – Daniel James, Jr., American general and pilot (d. 1978)
1921 – Lloyd Bentsen, American colonel and politician, United States Secretary of the Treasury (d. 2006)
1921 – Ottavio Missoni, Italian hurdler and fashion designer, founded Missoni (d. 2013)
1923 – Antony Flew, English philosopher and academic (d. 2010)
1924 – Budge Patty, American tennis player
1925 – Virginia E. Johnson, American psychologist and academic (d. 2013)
1925 – Kim Stanley, American actress (d. 2001)
1926 – Paul Bocuse, French chef (d. 2018)
1926 – Leslie Nielsen, Canadian-American actor and producer (d. 2010)
1930 – Roy De Forest, American painter and academic (d. 2007).
1932 – Dennis Skinner, English miner and politician
1934 – Mel Carnahan, American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician, Governor of Missouri (d. 2000)
1934 – Tina Louise, American actress and singer
1934 – Manuel Noriega, Panamanian general and politician, Military leader of Panama (d. 2017)
1934 – Mary Quant, British fashion designer
1934 – David Taylor, English veterinarian and television host (d. 2013)
1935 – Gene Vincent, American singer and guitarist (d. 1971)
1936 – Burt Reynolds, American actor and director (d. 2018)
1937 – Ian Gow, British Member of Parliament who was assassinated by the IRA (d. 1990)
1937 – Bill Lawry, Australian cricketer and sportscaster
1937 – Eddie Shack, Canadian ice hockey player
1937 – Phillip Walker, American singer and guitarist (d. 2010)
1938 – Bevan Congdon, New Zealand cricketer (d. 2018)
1939 – Gerry Goffin, American songwriter (d. 2014)
1940 – Mick Staton, American soldier and politician (d. 2014)
1941 – Sérgio Mendes, Brazilian pianist and composer
1942 – Otis Clay, American singer-songwriter (d. 2016)
1943 – Joselito, Spanish singer and actor
1943 – Alan Rubin, American trumpet player (d. 2011)
1944 – Mike Oxley, American lawyer and politician (d. 2016)
1944 – Joy Williams, American novelist, short story writer, and essayist
1946 – Ian Porterfield, Scottish footballer and manager (d. 2007)
1947 – Yukio Hatoyama, Japanese engineer and politician and Prime Minister of Japan
1947 – Derek Shulman, Scottish singer-songwriter and producer
1951 – Mike Leavitt, American politician, 14th Governor of Utah
1953 – Philip Anglim, American actor
1953 – Jeb Bush, American banker, politician and Governor of Florida
1953 – Tom Veryzer, American baseball player (d. 2014)
1954 – Wesley Strick, American director and screenwriter
1956 – Didier Lockwood, French violinist (d. 2018)
1959 – Roberto Moreno, Brazilian race car driver
1960 – Richard Mastracchio, American engineer and astronaut
1962 – Tammy Baldwin, American lawyer and politician
1962 – Sheryl Crow, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1964 – Sarah Palin, American journalist, politician and Governor of Alaska
1964 – Ken Shamrock, American martial artist and wrestler
1965 – Vicki Wilson, Australian netball player
1968 – Mo Willems, American author and illustrator
1969 – Jennifer Aniston, American actress and producer
1969 – Andreas Hilfiker, Swiss footballer
1969 – John Salako, Nigerian-English footballer, manager, and sportscaster
1971 – Damian Lewis, English actor
1972 – Steve McManaman, English footballer
1973 – Varg Vikernes, Norwegian guitarist and songwriter
1974 – Nick Barmby, English international footballer, midfielder and manager
1974 – D’Angelo, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1974 – Jaroslav Špaček, Czech ice hockey player and coach
1975 – Andy Lally, American race car driver
1975 – Callum Thorp, Australian cricketer
1975 – Jacque Vaughn, American basketball player and coach
1976 – Tony Battie, American basketball player and sportscaster
1979 – Brandy Norwood, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
1982 – Ľubomíra Kalinová, Slovak biathlete
1982 – Neil Robertson, Australian snooker player
1983 – Rafael van der Vaart, Dutch international footballer, midfielder
1984 – Maarten Heisen, Dutch sprinter
1984 – Marco Marcato, Italian cyclist
1984 – Maxime Talbot, Canadian ice hockey player
1985 – Šárka Strachová, Czech skier
1987 – Luca Antonelli, Italian footballer
1987 – Juanmi Callejón, Spanish footballer
1987 – Ellen van Dijk, Dutch cyclist
1987 – Brian Matusz, American baseball player
1987 – Jan Smeekens, Dutch speed skater
1988 – Vlad Moldoveanu, Romanian basketball player
1990 – Javier Aquino, Mexican footballer
1991 – Nikola Mirotic, Spanish basketball player
1992 – Lasse Norman Hansen, Danish track and road cyclist
1993 – Ben McLemore, American basketball player
1994 – Dansby Swanson, American baseball player
1996 – Jonathan Tah, German footballer

Deaths on February 11

AD 55 – Britannicus, Roman son of Claudius (b. 41)
244 – Gordian III, Roman emperor (b. 225)
641 – Heraclius, Byzantine emperor (b. 575)
731 – Pope Gregory II (b. 669)
824 – Pope Paschal I
1141 – Hugh of Saint Victor, German philosopher and theologian (b. 1096)
1503 – Elizabeth of York (b. 1466)
1626 – Pietro Cataldi, Italian mathematician and astronomer (b. 1548)
1650 – René Descartes, French mathematician and philosopher (b. 1596)
1755 – Francesco Scipione, marchese di Maffei, Italian archaeologist, playwright, and critic (b. 1675)
1763 – William Shenstone, English poet and gardener (b. 1714)
1795 – Carl Michael Bellman, Swedish poet and composer (b. 1740)
1829 – Alexander Griboyedov, Russian poet, playwright, and composer (b. 1795)
1862 – Elizabeth Siddal, English poet and artist’s model (b. 1829)
1868 – Léon Foucault, French physicist and academic (b. 1819)
1898 – Félix María Zuloaga, Mexican general and unconstitutional interim president (1858 and 1860-1862) (b. 1813)
1901 – Milan I of Serbia (b. 1855)
1917 – Oswaldo Cruz, Brazilian physician and epidemiologist (b. 1872)
1918 – Alexey Kaledin, Russian general (b. 1861)
1931 – Charles Algernon Parsons, English-Irish engineer, invented the steam turbine (b. 1854)
1940 – John Buchan, Scottish-Canadian historian and politician, Governor General of Canada (b. 1875)
1940 – Ellen Day Hale, American painter and author (b. 1855)
1942 – Jamnalal Bajaj, Indian businessman and philanthropist (b. 1884)
1947 – Martin Klein, Estonian wrestler and coach (b. 1884)
1948 – Sergei Eisenstein, Russian director and screenwriter (b. 1898)
1949 – Axel Munthe, Swedish doctor (b. 1857)
1958 – Ernest Jones, Welsh neurologist and psychoanalyst (b. 1879)
1963 – John Olof Dahlgren, Swedish-American soldier, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1872)
1963 – Sylvia Plath, American poet, novelist, and short story writer (b. 1932)
1967 – A. J. Muste, Dutch-American minister and activist (b. 1885)
1968 – Howard Lindsay, American playwright (b. 1889)
1973 – J. Hans D. Jensen, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1907)
1975 – Richard Ratsimandrava, Malagasy colonel and politician, President of Madagascar (b. 1931)
1976 – Lee J. Cobb, American actor (b. 1911)
1976 – Alexander Lippisch, German pilot and engineer (b. 1894)
1977 – Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, Indian lawyer and politician, President of India (b. 1905)
1977 – Louis Beel, Dutch academic and politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (b. 1902)
1978 – James Bryant Conant, American chemist and academic (b. 1893)
1978 – Harry Martinson, Swedish novelist, essayist, and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1904)
1982 – Eleanor Powell, American actress and dancer (b. 1912)
1985 – Henry Hathaway, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1898)
1986 – Frank Herbert, American journalist and author (b. 1920)
1989 – George O’Hanlon, American actor and voice artist (b. 1912)
1993 – Robert W. Holley, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1922)
1994 – Neil Bonnett, American race car driver (b. 1946)
1994 – Sorrell Booke, American lieutenant, actor, and director (b. 1930)
1994 – William Conrad, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1920)
1994 – Paul Feyerabend, Austrian-Swiss philosopher and academic (b. 1924)
1996 – Amelia Rosselli, Italian poet and author (b. 1930)
2000 – Lord Kitchner, Trinidadian singer (b. 1922)
2000 – Roger Vadim, French director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1928)
2002 – Frankie Crosetti, American baseball player and coach (b. 1910)
2002 – Barry Foster, English actor (b. 1931)
2004 – Shirley Strickland, Australian runner (b. 1925)
2005 – Jack L. Chalker, American author (b. 1944)
2006 – Peter Benchley, American author and screenwriter (b. 1940)
2006 – Ken Fletcher, Australian tennis player (b. 1940)
2006 – Jackie Pallo, English wrestler and actor (b. 1926)
2008 – Tom Lantos, American lawyer and politician (b. 1928)
2008 – Frank Piasecki, American engineer (b. 1919)
2009 – Estelle Bennett, American singer (b. 1941)
2009 – Willem Johan Kolff, Dutch-American physician and academic (b. 1911)
2010 – Heward Grafftey, Canadian businessman and politician (b. 1928)
2010 – Alexander McQueen, English fashion designer, founder of his eponymous brand (b. 1969)
2011 – Chuck Tanner, American baseball player and manager (b. 1928)
2012 – Siri Bjerke, Norwegian politician, Norwegian Minister of the Environment (b. 1958)
2012 – Aharon Davidi, Israeli general (b. 1927)
2012 – Whitney Houston, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress (b. 1963)
2013 – Rick Huxley, English bass player (b. 1940)
2014 – Alice Babs, Swedish singer and actress (b. 1924)
2014 – Tito Canepa, Dominican-American painter (b. 1916)
2014 – Fernando González Pacheco, Colombian journalist and actor (b. 1932)
2015 – Roger Hanin, French actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1925)
2015 – Bob Simon, American journalist (b. 1941)
2015 – Jerry Tarkanian, American basketball player and coach (b. 1930)
2016 – Kevin Randleman, American mixed martial artist and wrestler (b. 1971)
2016 – Zeng Xuelin, Thai-Chinese footballer and manager (b. 1929)
2017 – Fab Melo, Brazilian basketball player (b. 1990)
2017 – Jaap Rijks, Dutch Olympian (b. 1919)
2018 – Vic Damone, American singer, songwriter and actor (b. 1928)
2018 – Asma Jahangir, Pakistani human-rights lawyer and social activist (b. 1952)
2018 – Jan Maxwell, American stage and television actress (b. 1956)
2018 – Qazi Wajid, Pakistani drama actor, writer and artist (b. 1930)

Holidays and observances on February 11

Christian feast day:
- Blaise Eastern Orthodox liturgics
- Cædmon, first recorded Christian poet in England, circa 680 CE (Anglicanism)
- Gobnait
- Gregory II
- Lazarus of Milan
European 112 Day (European Union)
Armed Forces Day (Liberia)
Evelio Javier Day (Panay Island, the Philippines)
Feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes (Catholic Church), and its related observance
- World Day of the Sick (Roman Catholic Church)
Inventors’ Day (United States)
National Foundation Day (Japan)
Youth Day (Cameroon)
International Day of Women and Girls in Science (UN Women)

February 11 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

February 7 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day / admin

February 7 in History

457 – Leo I the Thracian becomes emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
987 – Bardas Phokas the Younger and Bardas Skleros, Byzantine generals of the military elite, begin a wide-scale rebellion against Emperor Basil II.
1301 – Edward of Caernarvon (later king Edward II of England) becomes the first English Prince of Wales.
1313 – King Thihathu founds the Pinya Kingdom as the de jure successor state of the Pagan Kingdom
1497 – In Florence, Italy, supporters of Girolamo Savonarola burn cosmetics, art, and books, in a “Bonfire of the vanities”.
1783 – American Revolutionary War: French and Spanish forces lift the Great Siege of Gibraltar.
1795 – The 11th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified.
1807 – Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon finds Bennigsen’s Russian forces taking a stand at Eylau. After bitter fighting, the French take the town, but the Russians resume the battle the next day.
1812 – The strongest in a series of earthquakes strikes New Madrid, Missouri.
1813 – In the action of 7 February 1813 near the Îles de Los, the frigates Aréthuse and Amelia batter each other, but neither can gain the upper hand.
1819 – Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles leaves Singapore after just taking it over, leaving it in the hands of William Farquhar.
1842 – Battle of Debre Tabor: Ras Ali Alula, Regent of the Emperor of Ethiopia defeats warlord Wube Haile Maryam of Semien.
1854 – A law is approved to found the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Lectures started October 16, 1855.
1863 – HMS Orpheus sinks off the coast of Auckland, New Zealand, killing 189.
1894 – The Cripple Creek miner’s strike, led by the Western Federation of Miners, begins in Cripple Creek, Colorado, United States.
1898 – Dreyfus affair: Émile Zola is brought to trial for libel for publishing J’Accuse…!.
1900 – Second Boer War: British troops fail in their third attempt to lift the Siege of Ladysmith.
1900 – A Chinese immigrant in San Francisco falls ill to bubonic plague in the first plague epidemic in the continental United States.
1904 – A fire begins in Baltimore, Maryland; it destroys over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours.
1940 – The second full-length animated Walt Disney film, Pinocchio, premieres.
1943 – World War II: Imperial Japanese Navy forces complete the evacuation of Imperial Japanese Army troops from Guadalcanal during Operation Ke, ending Japanese attempts to retake the island from Allied forces in the Guadalcanal Campaign.
1944 – World War II: In Anzio, Italy, German forces launch a counteroffensive during the Allied Operation Shingle.
1951 – Korean War: More than 700 suspected communist sympathizers are massacred by South Korean forces.
1962 – The United States bans all Cuban imports and exports.
1974 – Grenada gains independence from the United Kingdom.
1979 – Pluto moves inside Neptune’s orbit for the first time since either was discovered.
1984 – Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B Mission: Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk using the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU).
1986 – Twenty-eight years of one-family rule end in Haiti, when President Jean-Claude Duvalier flees the Caribbean nation.
1990 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agrees to give up its monopoly on power.
1991 – Haiti’s first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is sworn in.
1991 – The Troubles: The Provisional IRA launched a mortar attack on 10 Downing Street in London, the headquarters of the British government.
1992 – The Maastricht Treaty is signed, leading to the creation of the European Union.
1995 – Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, is arrested in Islamabad, Pakistan.
1997 – NeXT merges with Apple Computer, starting the path to Mac OS X.
1999 – Crown Prince Abdullah becomes the King of Jordan on the death of his father, King Hussein.
2009 – Bushfires in Victoria leave 173 dead in the worst natural disaster in Australia’s history.
2012 – President Mohamed Nasheed of the Republic of Maldives resigns, after 23 days of anti-governmental protests calling for the release of Chief Judge unlawfully arrested by the military.
2013 – The U.S. state of Mississippi officially certifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was formally ratified by Mississippi in 1995.
2014 – Scientists announce that the Happisburgh footprints in Norfolk, England, date back to more than 800,000 years ago, making them the oldest known hominid footprints outside Africa.
2016 – North Korea launches Kwangmyŏngsŏng-4 into outer space violating multiple UN treaties and prompting condemnation from around the world.

Births on February 7

574 – Prince Shōtoku of Japan (d. 622)
1102 – Empress Matilda, Holy Roman Empress, and claimant to the English throne (probable; d. 1167)
1478 – Thomas More, English lawyer and politician, Lord Chancellor of England (d. 1535)
1487 – Queen Dangyeong, Korean royal consort (d. 1557)
1500 – João de Castro, viceroy of Portuguese India (d. 1548)
1612 – Thomas Killigrew, English playwright and manager (d. 1683)
1622 – Vittoria della Rovere, Italian noble (d. 1694)
1693 – Empress Anna of Russia (d. 1740)
1722 – Azar Bigdeli, Iranian anthologist and poet (d. 1781)
1726 – Margaret Fownes-Luttrell, English painter (d. 1766)
1741 – Henry Fuseli, Swiss-English painter and academic (d. 1825)
1758 – Benedikt Schack, Czech tenor and composer (d. 1826)
1796 – Thomas Gregson, English-Australian lawyer and politician, 2nd Premier of Tasmania (baptism date; d. 1874)
1802 – Louisa Jane Hall, American poet, essayist, and literary critic (d. 1892)
1804 – John Deere, American blacksmith and businessman, founded Deere & Company (d. 1886)
1812 – Charles Dickens, English novelist and critic (d. 1870)
1825 – Karl Möbius, German zoologist and ecologist (d. 1908)
1834 – Alfred-Philibert Aldrophe, French architect (d. 1895)
1837 – James Murray, Scottish lexicographer and philologist (d. 1915)
1864 – Arthur Collins, American baritone singer (d. 1933)
1867 – Laura Ingalls Wilder, American author (d. 1957)
1870 – Alfred Adler, Austrian-Scottish psychologist and therapist (d. 1937)
1871 – Wilhelm Stenhammar, Swedish pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1927)
1873 – Thomas Andrews, Irish shipbuilder and businessman, designed the RMS Titanic (d. 1912)
1877 – G. H. Hardy, English mathematician and geneticist (d. 1947)
1878 – Ossip Gabrilowitsch, Russian-American pianist and conductor (d. 1936)
1885 – Sinclair Lewis, American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1951)
1885 – Hugo Sperrle, German field marshal (d. 1953)
1887 – Eubie Blake, American pianist and composer (d. 1983)
1889 – Harry Nyquist, Swedish-American engineer and theorist (d. 1976)
1893 – Joseph Algernon Pearce, Canadian astrophysicist and astronomer (d. 1988)
1893 – Nicanor Abelardo, Filipino pianist, composer and teacher (d. 1934)
1895 – Anita Stewart, American actress (d. 1961)
1901 – Arnold Nordmeyer, New Zealand minister and politician, 30th New Zealand Minister of Finance (d. 1989)
1904 – Ernest E. Debs, American politician, California State Assembly member, Los Angeles city councilman, and a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors (d. 2002)
1905 – Paul Nizan, French philosopher and author (d. 1940)
1905 – Ulf von Euler, Swedish physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1983)
1906 – Puyi, Chinese emperor (d. 1967)
1906 – Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov, Russian engineer, founded the Antonov Aircraft Company (d. 1984)
1908 – Buster Crabbe, American swimmer and actor (d. 1983)
1908 – Manmath Nath Gupta, Indian journalist and author (d. 2000)
1909 – Hélder Câmara, Brazilian archbishop (d. 1999)
1909 – Amedeo Guillet, Italian soldier (d. 2010)
1912 – Russell Drysdale, English-Australian painter (d. 1981)
1915 – Teoctist Arăpașu, Romanian patriarch (d. 2007)
1915 – Eddie Bracken, American actor and singer (d. 2002)
1916 – Frank Hyde, Australian rugby player, coach, and sportscaster (d. 2007)
1919 – Jock Mahoney, American actor and stuntman (d. 1989)
1919 – Desmond Doss, American army corporal and combat medic, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 2006)
1920 – Oscar Brand, Canadian-American singer-songwriter and author (d. 2016)
1920 – An Wang, Chinese-American engineer and businessman, founded Wang Laboratories (d. 1990)
1921 – Athol Rowan, South African cricketer (d. 1998)
1922 – Hattie Jacques, English actress (d. 1980)
1923 – Dora Bryan, English actress and restaurateur (d. 2014)
1925 – Hans Schmidt, Canadian wrestler (d. 2012)
1926 – Konstantin Feoktistov, Russian engineer and astronaut (d. 2009)
1926 – Bill Hoest, American cartoonist (d. 1988)
1927 – Juliette Gréco, French singer and actress
1927 – Vladimir Kuts, Ukrainian-Russian runner and coach (d. 1975)
1927 – Lalo Ríos, Mexican actor (d. 1973)
1928 – Lincoln D. Faurer, American general (d. 2014)
1929 – Jim Langley, English international footballer, full back and manager (d. 2007)
1932 – Gay Talese, American journalist and memoirist
1932 – Alfred Worden, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut (d. 2020)
1933 – K. N. Choksy, Sri Lankan lawyer and politician, Sri Lankan Minister of Finance (d. 2015)
1934 – Eddie Fenech Adami, Maltese lawyer and politician, 7th President of Malta
1934 – King Curtis, American saxophonist and producer (d. 1971)
1934 – Earl King, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 2003)
1935 – Cliff Jones, Welsh international footballer, winger
1935 – Herb Kohl, American businessman and politician
1935 – Jörg Schneider, Swiss actor and author (d. 2015)
1936 – Jas Gawronski, Italian journalist and politician
1937 – Peter Jay, English economist, journalist, and diplomat, British Ambassador to the United States
1937 – Juan Pizarro, Puerto Rican baseball player
1940 – Tony Tan, Singaporean academic and politician, 7th President of Singapore
1941 – Kevin Crossley-Holland, English author and poet
1943 – Eric Foner, American historian, author, and academic
1943 – Gareth Hunt, English actor (d. 2007)
1945 – Gerald Davies, Welsh rugby player and journalist
1946 – Héctor Babenco, Argentinian-Brazilian director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2016)
1946 – Sammy Johns, American country music singer-songwriter (d. 2013)
1946 – Pete Postlethwaite, English actor (d. 2011)
1946 – Gérard Jean-Juste, Haitian priest and activist (d. 2009)
1949 – Jacques Duchesneau, Canadian police officer and politician
1949 – Joe English, American drummer and songwriter
1950 – Karen Joy Fowler, American author
1953 – Dan Quisenberry, American baseball player and poet (d. 1998)
1954 – Dieter Bohlen, German singer-songwriter and producer
1955 – Rolf Benirschke, American football player and game show host
1955 – Miguel Ferrer, American actor and director (d. 2017)
1956 – John Nielsen, Danish racing driver
1956 – Mark St. John, American guitarist (d. 2007)
1957 – Carney Lansford, American baseball player and coach
1958 – Giuseppe Baresi, Italian footballer and manager
1958 – Terry Marsh, English boxer and politician
1958 – Matt Ridley, English journalist, author, and politician
1959 – Mick McCarthy, English footballer, manager, and sportscaster
1960 – Robert Smigel, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
1960 – James Spader, American actor and producer
1962 – Garth Brooks, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1962 – David Bryan, American keyboard player and songwriter
1962 – Eddie Izzard, English comedian, actor, and producer
1963 – Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, American Naval officer and astronaut
1964 – Ashok Banker, Indian journalist, author, and screenwriter
1965 – Chris Rock, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1966 – Kristin Otto, German swimmer
1968 – Peter Bondra, Ukrainian-Slovak ice hockey player and manager
1968 – Sully Erna, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1968 – Mark Tewksbury, Canadian swimmer and sportscaster
1969 – Andrew Micallef, Maltese painter and musician
1971 – Anita Tsoy, Russian singer-songwriter
1972 – Robyn Lively, American actress
1973 – Juwan Howard, American basketball player and coach
1974 – J Dilla, American rapper and producer (d. 2006)
1974 – Nujabes, Japanese record producer, DJ, composer and arranger (d. 2010)
1974 – Steve Nash, South African-Canadian basketball player
1975 – Wes Borland, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1975 – Alexandre Daigle, Canadian ice hockey player
1975 – Rémi Gaillard, French comedian and actor
1976 – Chito Miranda, Filipino singer-songwriter
1977 – Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Japanese footballer
1978 – David Aebischer, Swiss ice hockey player
1978 – Endy Chávez, Venezuelan baseball player
1978 – Ashton Kutcher, American model, actor, producer, and entrepreneur
1978 – Daniel Van Buyten, Belgian football player
1979 – Daniel Bierofka, German footballer and coach
1979 – Tawakkol Karman, Yemeni journalist and activist, Nobel Prize laureate
1979 – Sam J. Miller, American author
1981 – Darcy Dolce Neto, Brazilian footballer
1981 – Lee Ok-sung, South Korean boxer
1982 – Osamu Mukai, Japanese actor
1982 – Mickaël Piétrus, French basketball player
1983 – Sho Kamogawa, Japanese footballer
1983 – Christian Klien, Austrian race car driver
1983 – Federico Marchetti, Italian footballer
1984 – Trey Hardee, American decathlete
1985 – Tina Majorino, American actress
1988 – Ai Kago, Japanese singer and actress
1989 – Nick Calathes, Greek basketball player
1989 – Elia Viviani, Italian cyclist
1989 – Isaiah Thomas, American basketball player
1990 – Gianluca Lapadula, Italian footballer
1990 – Dalilah Muhammad, American hurdler
1990 – Steven Stamkos, Canadian ice hockey player
1991 – Ryan O’Reilly, Canadian ice hockey player
1992 – Sergi Roberto, Spanish footballer
1992 – Ksenia Stolbova, Russian figure skater
1992 – Maimi Yajima, Japanese singer and actress
1993 – Chris Mears, English diver
1994 – Riley Barber, American ice hockey player
1995 – Roberto Osuna, Mexican baseball player
1996 – Pierre Gasly, French racing driver
1997 – Nicolò Barella, Italian footballer

Deaths on February 7

199 – Lü Bu, Chinese warlord
318 – Jin Mindi, emperor of the Jin Dynasty (b. 300)
999 – Boleslaus II the Pious, Duke of Bohemia (b. 932)
1045 – Emperor Go-Suzaku of Japan (b. 1009)
1065 – Siegfried I, Count of Sponheim (b. c. 1010)
1127 – Ava, German poet (b. 1060)
1165 – Marshal Stephen of Armenia
1259 – Thomas, Count of Flanders
1317 – Robert, Count of Clermont (b. 1256)
1320 – Jan Muskata, Bishop of Kraków (b. 1250)
1333 – Nikko, Japanese priest, founder of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism (b. 1246)
1520 – Alfonsina de’ Medici, Regent of Florence (b. 1472)
1560 – Bartolommeo Bandinelli, Florentine sculptor (b. 1493)
1603 – Bartholomäus Sastrow, German politician (b. 1520)
1626 – William V, Duke of Bavaria (b. 1548)
1642 – William Bedell, English bishop and academic (b. 1571)
1693 – Paul Pellisson, French lawyer and author (b. 1624)
1736 – Stephen Gray, English astronomer and physicist (b. 1666)
1779 – William Boyce, English organist and composer (b. 1711)
1799 – Qianlong Emperor of China (b. 1711)
1801 – Daniel Chodowiecki, Polish-German painter and academic (b. 1726)
1819 – August Wilhelm Hupel, German-Estonian linguist and author (b. 1737)
1823 – Ann Radcliffe, English author (b. 1764)
1837 – Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden (b. 1778)
1849 – Mariano Paredes, Mexican general and 16th president (1845-1846) (b. 1797)
1862 – Francisco de Paula Martínez de la Rosa y Berdejo, Spanish playwright and politician, Prime Minister of Spain (b. 1787)
1864 – Vuk Karadžić, Serbian philologist and linguist (b. 1787)
1871 – Henry E. Steinway, German-American businessman, founded Steinway & Sons (b. 1797)
1873 – Sheridan Le Fanu, Irish author (b. 1814)
1878 – Pope Pius IX (b. 1792)
1891 – Marie Louise Andrews, American story writer and journalist (b. 1849)
1897 – Galileo Ferraris, Italian physicist and engineer (b. 1847)
1919 – William Halford, English-American lieutenant, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1841)
1920 – Alexander Kolchak, Russian admiral and explorer (b. 1874)
1920 – Charles Langelier, Canadian journalist, judge, and politician (b. 1850)
1921 – John J. Gardner, American politician (b. 1845)
1937 – Elihu Root, American lawyer and politician, 38th United States Secretary of State, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1845)
1938 – Harvey Samuel Firestone, American businessman, founded the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company (b. 1868)
1939 – Boris Grigoriev, Russian painter and illustrator (b. 1886)
1942 – Ivan Bilibin, Russian illustrator and stage designer (b. 1876)
1944 – Lina Cavalieri, Italian soprano and actress (b. 1874)
1959 – Nap Lajoie, American baseball player and manager (b. 1874)
1959 – Daniel François Malan, South African minister and politician, 5th Prime Minister of South Africa (b. 1874)
1959 – Guitar Slim, American singer and guitarist (b. 1926)
1960 – Igor Kurchatov, Russian physicist and academic (b. 1903)
1963 – Learco Guerra, Italian cyclist and manager (b. 1902)
1964 – Sofoklis Venizelos, Greek captain and politician, 133rd Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1894)
1968 – Nick Adams, American actor and screenwriter (b. 1931)
1972 – Walter Lang, American director and screenwriter (b. 1896)
1979 – Josef Mengele, German SS officer and physician (b. 1911)
1986 – Cheikh Anta Diop, Senegalese historian, anthropologist, and physicist (b. 1923)
1990 – Alan Perlis, American computer scientist and academic (b. 1922)
1990 – Alfredo M. Santos, Filipino general (b. 1905)
1991 – Amos Yarkoni, Israeli colonel (b. 1920)
1994 – Witold Lutosławski, Polish composer and conductor (b. 1913)
1996 – Phillip Davidson, American general (b. 1915)
1999 – King Hussein of Jordan (b. 1935)
1999 – Bobby Troup, American actor, pianist, and composer (b. 1918)
2000 – Doug Henning, Canadian magician and politician (b. 1947)
2001 – Dale Evans, American singer-songwriter and actress (b. 1912)
2001 – Anne Morrow Lindbergh, American author and pilot (b. 1906)
2003 – Augusto Monterroso, Guatemalan author (b. 1921)
2005 – Atli Dam, Faroese engineer and politician, 5th Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (b. 1932)
2006 – Princess Durru Shehvar of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1914)
2009 – Blossom Dearie, American singer and pianist (b. 1924)
2010 – Franco Ballerini, Italian cyclist and coach (b. 1964)
2012 – Harry Keough, American soccer player and coach (b. 1927)
2013 – Krsto Papić, Croatian director and screenwriter (b. 1933)
2014 – Doug Mohns, Canadian-American ice hockey player (b. 1933)
2015 – Billy Casper, American golfer and architect (b. 1931)
2015 – Marshall Rosenberg, American psychologist and author (b. 1934)
2015 – Dean Smith, American basketball player and coach (b. 1931)
2015 – John C. Whitehead, American banker and politician, 9th United States Deputy Secretary of State (b. 1922)
2017 – Richard Hatch, American actor (b. 1945)
2017 – Hans Rosling, Swedish academic (b. 1948)
2017 – Tzvetan Todorov, Bulgarian philosopher (b. 1939)
2019 – John Dingell, American politician (b. 1926)
2019 – Albert Finney, English actor (b. 1936)
2019 – Jan Olszewski, Polish politician, 3rd Prime Minister (b. 1930)
2019 – Frank Robinson, American baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1935)

Holidays and observances on February 7

Christian feast day:
- Richard the Pilgrim
- Blessed Eugénie Smet
- Blessed Pope Pius IX
- Chrysolius
- Egidio Maria of Saint Joseph
- Colette of Corbie
- February 7 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Orthodox Church Typically observed on the Sunday closest to January 25 (O.S.)/February 7 (N.S.)
Independence Day (Grenada), celebrates the independence of Grenada from the United Kingdom in 1974.
National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (United States)

February 7 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

January 28 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day / admin

814 – The death of Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor, brings about the accession of his son Louis the Pious as ruler of the Frankish Empire.
1069 – Robert de Comines, appointed Earl of Northumbria by William the Conqueror, rides into Durham, England, where he is defeated and killed by rebels. This incident leads to the Harrying of the North.
1077 – Walk to Canossa: The excommunication of Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor, is lifted after he humbles himself before Pope Gregory VII at Canossa in Italy.
1521 – The Diet of Worms begins, lasting until May 25.
1547 – Edward VI, the nine-year-old son of Henry VIII, becomes King of England on his father’s death.
1568 – The Edict of Torda prohibited the persecution of individuals on the religious ground in John Sigismund Zápolya’s Eastern Hungarian Kingdom.
1573 – Articles of the Warsaw Confederation are signed, sanctioning freedom of religion in Poland.
1624 – Sir Thomas Warner founds the first British colony in the Caribbean, on the island of Saint Kitts.
1671 – Original city of Panama (founded in 1519) was destroyed by a fire when privateer Henry Morgan sacked and set fire to it. The site of the previously devastated city is still in ruins (see Panama Viejo).
1724 – The Russian Academy of Sciences is founded in St. Petersburg by Peter the Great, and implemented by Senate decree. It is called the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences until 1917.
1754 – Sir Horace Walpole coins the word serendipity in a letter to a friend.
1813 – Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is first published in the United Kingdom.
1846 – The Battle of Aliwal, India, is won by British troops commanded by Sir Harry Smith.
1851 – Northwestern University becomes the first chartered university in Illinois.
1855 – A locomotive on the Panama Canal Railway runs from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean for the first time.
1871 – Franco-Prussian War: The Siege of Paris ends in French defeat and an armistice.
1878 – Yale Daily News becomes the first independent daily college newspaper in the United States.
1896 – Walter Arnold of East Peckham, Kent, becomes the first person to be convicted of speeding. He was fined one shilling, plus costs, for speeding at 8 mph (13 km/h), thereby exceeding the contemporary speed limit of 2 mph (3.2 km/h).
1902 – The Carnegie Institution of Washington is founded in Washington, D.C. with a $10 million gift from Andrew Carnegie.
1908 – Members of the Portuguese Republican Party fail in their attempted coup d’état against the administrative dictatorship of Prime Minister João Franco.
1909 – United States troops leave Cuba with the exception of Guantanamo Bay Naval Base after being there since the Spanish–American War.
1915 – An act of the U.S. Congress creates the United States Coast Guard as a branch of the United States Armed Forces.
1918 – Finnish Civil War: The Red Guard rebels seize control of the capital, Helsinki; members of the Senate of Finland go underground.
1920 – Foundation of the Spanish Legion.
1922 – Knickerbocker Storm, Washington D.C.’s biggest snowfall, causes the city’s greatest loss of life when the roof of the Knickerbocker Theatre collapses.
1932 – Japanese forces attack Shanghai.
1933 – The name Pakistan is coined by Choudhry Rahmat Ali Khan and is accepted by Indian Muslims who then thereby adopted it further for the Pakistan Movement seeking independence.
1935 – Iceland becomes the first Western country to legalize therapeutic abortion.
1938 – The World Land Speed Record on a public road is broken by Rudolf Caracciola in the Mercedes-Benz W195 at a speed of 432.7 kilometres per hour (268.9 mph).
1941 – Franco-Thai War: Final air battle of the conflict. A Japanese-mediated armistice goes into effect later in the day.
1945 – World War II: Supplies begin to reach the Republic of China over the newly reopened Burma Road.
1956 – Elvis Presley makes his first national television appearance.
1958 – The Lego company patents the design of its Lego bricks, still compatible with bricks produced today.
1960 – The National Football League announced expansion teams for Dallas to start in the 1960 NFL season and Minneapolis-St. Paul for 1961 NFL season.
1964 – An unarmed United States Air Force T-39 Sabreliner on a training mission is shot down over Erfurt, East Germany, by a Soviet MiG-19.
1965 – The current design of the Flag of Canada is chosen by an act of Parliament.
1977 – The first day of the Great Lakes Blizzard of 1977 which dumps 10 feet (3.0 m) of snow in one day in Upstate New York, with Buffalo, Syracuse, Watertown, and surrounding areas are most affected.
1980 – USCGC Blackthorn collides with the tanker Capricorn while leaving Tampa, Florida and capsizes, killing 23 Coast Guard crewmembers.
1981 – Ronald Reagan lifts remaining domestic petroleum price and allocation controls in the United States helping to end the 1979 energy crisis and begin the 1980s oil glut.
1982 – US Army general James L. Dozier is rescued by Italian anti-terrorism forces from captivity by the Red Brigades.
1984 – Tropical Storm Domoina makes landfall in southern Mozambique, eventually causing 214 deaths and some of the most severe flooding so far recorded in the region.
1985 – Supergroup USA for Africa (United Support of Artists for Africa) records the hit single We Are the World, to help raise funds for Ethiopian famine relief.
1986 – Space Shuttle program: STS-51-L mission: Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrates after liftoff, killing all seven astronauts on board.
1988 – In R v Morgentaler the Supreme Court of Canada strikes down all anti-abortion laws.
2002 – TAME Flight 120, a Boeing 727-100 crashes in the Andes mountains in southern Colombia, killing 94.
2006 – The roof of one of the buildings at the Katowice International Fair in Poland collapses due to the weight of snow, killing 65 and injuring more than 170 others.

Births on January 28

1312 – Joan II, queen of Navarre (d. 1349)
1368 – Razadarit, king of Hanthawaddy (d. 1421)
1457 – Henry VII, king of England (d. 1509)
1533 – Paul Luther, German scientist (d. 1593)
1540 – Ludolph van Ceulen, German-Dutch mathematician and academic (d. 1610)
1582 – John Barclay, French-Scottish poet and author (d. 1621)
1600 – Clement IX, pope of the Catholic Church (d. 1669)
1608 – Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, Italian physiologist and physicist (d. 1679)
1611 – Johannes Hevelius, Polish astronomer and politician (d. 1687)
1622 – Adrien Auzout, French astronomer and instrument maker (d. 1691)
1693 – Gregor Werner, Austrian composer (d. 1766)
1701 – Charles Marie de La Condamine, French mathematician and geographer (d. 1774)
1706 – John Baskerville, English printer and typographer (d. 1775)
1712 – Tokugawa Ieshige, Japanese shōgun (d. 1761)
1717 – Mustafa III, Ottoman sultan (d. 1774)
1719 – Johann Elias Schlegel, German poet and critic (d. 1749)
1726 – Christian Felix Weiße, German poet and playwright (d. 1802)
1755 – Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring, Polish-German physician, anthropologist, and paleontologist (d. 1830)
1784 – George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, Scottish politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1860)
1797 – Charles Gray Round, English lawyer and politician (d. 1867)
1818 – George S. Boutwell, American lawyer and politician, 28th United States Secretary of the Treasury (d. 1905)
1822 – Alexander Mackenzie, Scottish-Canadian soldier, journalist, and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1892)
1833 – Charles George Gordon, English general and politician (d. 1885)
1841 – Henry Morton Stanley, Welsh-American explorer and journalist (d. 1904)
1843 – Mihkel Veske, Estonian poet and linguist (d. 1890)
1853 – José Martí, Cuban journalist, poet, and theorist (d. 1895)
1853 – Vladimir Solovyov, Russian philosopher, poet, and critic (d. 1900)
1855 – William Seward Burroughs I, American businessman, founded the Burroughs Corporation (d. 1898)
1858 – Tannatt William Edgeworth David, Welsh-Australian geologist and explorer (d. 1934)
1861 – Julián Felipe, Filipino composer and educator (d. 1944)
1863 – Ernest William Christmas, Australian-American painter (d. 1918)
1864 – Charles Williams Nash, American businessman, founded Nash Motors (d. 1948)
1865 – Lala Lajpat Rai, Indian author and politician (d. 1928)
1865 – Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg, Finnish lawyer, judge, and politician, 1st President of Finland (d. 1952)
1873 – Colette, French novelist and journalist (d. 1954)
1873 – Monty Noble, Australian cricketer (d. 1940)
1874 – Alex Smith, Scottish golfer (d. 1930)
1875 – Julián Carrillo, Mexican violinist, composer, and conductor (d. 1965)
1878 – Walter Kollo, German composer and conductor (d. 1940)
1880 – Herbert Strudwick, English cricketer and coach (d. 1970)
1884 – Auguste Piccard, Swiss physicist and explorer (d. 1962)
1885 – Vahan Terian, Armenian poet and activist (d. 1920)
1886 – Marthe Bibesco, Romanian-French author and poet (d. 1973)
1886 – Hidetsugu Yagi, Japanese engineer and academic (d. 1976)
1887 – Arthur Rubinstein, Polish-American pianist and educator (d. 1982)
1897 – Valentin Kataev, Russian author and playwright (d. 1986)
1900 – Alice Neel, American painter (d. 1984)
1903 – Aleksander Kamiński, Polish author and educator (d. 1978)
1903 – Kathleen Lonsdale, Irish crystallographer and 1st female FRS (d. 1971)
1906 – Pat O’Callaghan, Irish athlete (d. 1991)
1906 – Markos Vafiadis, Greek general and politician (d. 1992)
1908 – Paul Misraki, Turkish-French composer and historian (d. 1998)
1909 – John Thomson, Scottish footballer (d. 1931)
1910 – John Banner, Austrian actor (d. 1973)
1911 – Johan van Hulst, Dutch politician, academic and author, Yad Vashem recipient (d. 2018)
1912 – Jackson Pollock, American painter (d. 1956)
1918 – Harry Corbett, English puppeteer, actor, and screenwriter (d. 1989)
1918 – Trevor Skeet, New Zealand-English lawyer and politician (d. 2004)
1919 – Gabby Gabreski, American colonel and pilot (d. 2002)
1921 – Vytautas Norkus, Lithuanian–American basketball player (d. 2014)
1922 – Anna Gordy Gaye, American songwriter and producer, co-founded Anna Records (d. 2014)
1922 – Robert W. Holley, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1993)
1924 – Marcel Broodthaers, Belgian painter and poet (d. 1976)
1925 – Raja Ramanna, Indian physicist and politician (d. 2004)
1926 – Jimmy Bryan, American race car driver (d. 1960)
1927 – Per Oscarsson, Swedish actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2010)
1927 – Ronnie Scott, English saxophonist (d. 1996)
1927 – Hiroshi Teshigahara, Japanese director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2001)
1927 – Vera Williams, American author and illustrator (d. 2015)
1929 – Acker Bilk, English singer and clarinet player (d. 2014)
1929 – Nikolai Parshin, Russian footballer and manager (d. 2012)
1929 – Claes Oldenburg, Swedish-American sculptor and illustrator
1929 – Edith M. Flanigen, American chemist
1930 – Kurt Biedenkopf, German academic and politician, 54th President of the German Bundesrat
1930 – Roy Clarke, English screenwriter, comedian and soldier
1933 – Jack Hill, American director and screenwriter
1934 – Juan Manuel Bordeu, Argentinian race car driver (d. 1990)
1935 – David Lodge, English author and critic
1936 – Alan Alda, American actor, director, and writer
1937 – Karel Čáslavský, Czech historian and television host (d. 2013)
1938 – Tomas Lindahl, Swedish-English biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1938 – Leonid Zhabotinsky, Ukrainian weightlifter and coach (d. 2016)
1939 – John M. Fabian, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut
1940 – Carlos Slim, Mexican businessman and philanthropist, founded Grupo Carso
1942 – Sjoukje Dijkstra, Dutch figure skater
1942 – Erkki Pohjanheimo, Finnish director and producer
1943 – Dick Taylor, English guitarist and songwriter
1944 – Rosalía Mera, Spanish businesswoman, co-founded Inditex and Zara (d. 2013)
1944 – John Tavener, English composer (d. 2013)
1945 – Frank Doubleday, American actor (d. 2018)
1945 – Maxwell Fuller, Australian chess player (d. 2013)
1945 – Marthe Keller, Swiss actress and director
1945 – John Perkins, American author and activist
1947 – Jeanne Shaheen, American educator and politician, 78th Governor of New Hampshire
1948 – Bob Moses, American drummer
1948 – Charles Taylor, Liberian politician, 22nd President of Liberia
1949 – Mike Moore, New Zealand union leader and politician, 34th Prime Minister of New Zealand
1949 – Gregg Popovich, American basketball player and coach
1950 – Barbi Benton, American actress, singer and model
1950 – Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, Bahraini king
1950 – David C. Hilmers, American colonel, physician, and astronaut
1950 – Naila Kabeer, Bangladeshi-English economist and academic
1951 – Brian Bilbray, American politician
1951 – Leonid Kadeniuk, Ukrainian general, pilot, and astronaut
1951 – Billy Bass Nelson, American R&B/funk bass player
1952 – Richard Glatzer, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2015)
1953 – Colin Campbell, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1954 – Peter Lampe, German theologian and historian
1954 – Bruno Metsu, French footballer and manager (d. 2013)
1954 – Rick Warren, American pastor and author
1955 – Vinod Khosla, Indian-American businessman, co-founded Sun Microsystems
1955 – Nicolas Sarkozy, French lawyer and politician, 23rd President of France
1956 – Richard Danielpour, American composer and educator
1956 – Peter Schilling, German singer-songwriter
1957 – Mark Napier, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
1957 – Nick Price, Zimbabwean-South African golfer
1957 – Frank Skinner, English comedian, actor, and author
1959 – Frank Darabont, American director and producer
1960 – Loren Legarda, Filipino journalist and politician
1961 – Normand Rochefort, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1962 – Sam Phillips, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1964 – David Lawrence, English cricketer
1966 – Seiji Mizushima, Japanese director and producer
1967 – Billy Brownless, Australian footballer and sportscaster
1968 – Sarah McLachlan, Canadian singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer
1968 – Rakim, American rapper
1969 – Giorgio Lamberti, Italian swimmer
1969 – Mo Rocca, American comedian and television journalist
1969 – Linda Sánchez, American lawyer and politician
1972 – Mark Regan, English rugby player
1972 – Nicky Southall, English footballer and manager
1972 – Léon van Bon, Dutch cyclist
1974 – Tony Delk, American basketball player and coach
1974 – Jermaine Dye, American baseball player
1974 – Ramsey Nasr, Dutch author and poet
1974 – Magglio Ordóñez, Venezuelan baseball player and politician
1975 – Pedro Pinto, Portuguese-American journalist
1975 – Junior Spivey, American baseball player and coach
1976 – Sireli Bobo, Fijian rugby player
1976 – Mark Madsen, American basketball player and coach
1976 – Rick Ross, American rapper and producer
1976 – Miltiadis Sapanis, Greek footballer
1977 – Sandis Buškevics, Latvian basketball player and coach
1977 – Daunte Culpepper, American football player
1977 – Joey Fatone, American singer, dancer, and television personality
1977 – Takuma Sato, Japanese race car driver
1978 – Gianluigi Buffon, Italian footballer
1978 – Jamie Carragher, English footballer and sportscaster
1978 – Papa Bouba Diop, Senegalese footballer
1978 – Stephen Farrelly, Irish professional wrestler
1978 – Big Freedia, New Orleans musician, “Queen of Bounce”
1980 – Nick Carter, American singer-songwriter and actor
1980 – Yasuhito Endō, Japanese footballer
1980 – Michael Hastings, American journalist and author (d. 2013)
1980 – Brian Fallon, American singer-songwriter
1981 – Elijah Wood, American actor and producer
1984 – Ben Clucas, English race car driver
1984 – Stephen Gostkowski, American football player
1984 – Andre Iguodala, American basketball player
1984 – Anne Panter, English field hockey player
1985 – J. Cole, American singer
1985 – Daniel Carcillo, Canadian ice hockey player
1985 – Lauris Dārziņš, Latvian ice hockey player
1985 – Arnold Mvuemba, French footballer
1985 – Libby Trickett, Australian swimmer
1986 – Jessica Ennis-Hill, English heptathlete and hurdler
1986 – Nathan Outteridge, Australian sailor
1986 – Asad Shafiq, Pakistani cricketer
1988 – Paul Henry, English footballer
1988 – Seiya Sanada, Japanese wrestler
1989 – Siem de Jong, Dutch footballer
1991 – Carl Klingberg, Swedish ice hockey player
1992 – Sergio Araujo, Argentinian footballer
1998 – Ariel Winter, American actress

Deaths on January 28

592 – Guntram, French king (b. 532)
814 – Charlemagne, Holy Roman emperor (pleurisy; b. 742)
919 – Zhou Dewei, Chinese general
929 – Gao Jixing, founder of Chinese Jingnan (b. 858)
947 – Jing Yanguang, Chinese general (b. 892)
1061 – Spytihněv II, Duke of Bohemia (b. 1031)
1142 – Yue Fei, Chinese general (b. 1103)
1256 – William II, Count of Holland, King of Germany (b. 1227)
1271 – Isabella of Aragon, Queen of France (b. 1247)
1290 – Dervorguilla of Galloway, Scottish noble, mother of king John Balliol of Scotland (b. c. 1210)
1443 – Robert le Maçon, French diplomat (b. 1365)
1501 – John Dynham, 1st Baron Dynham, English baron and Lord High Treasurer (b. 1433)
1547 – Henry VIII, king of England (b. 1491)
1613 – Thomas Bodley, English diplomat and scholar, founded the Bodleian Library (b. 1545)
1621 – Pope Paul V (b. 1550)
1666 – Tommaso Dingli, Maltese architect and sculptor (b. 1591)
1672 – Pierre Séguier, French politician, Lord Chancellor of France (b. 1588)
1681 – Richard Allestree, English priest and academic (b. 1619)
1687 – Johannes Hevelius, Polish astronomer and politician (b. 1611)
1688 – Ferdinand Verbiest, Flemish Jesuit missionary in China (b. 1623)
1697 – Sir John Fenwick, 3rd Baronet, English general and politician (b. 1645)
1754 – Ludvig Holberg, Norwegian-Danish historian and philosopher (b. 1684)
1782 – Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville, French geographer and cartographer (b. 1697)
1832 – Augustin Daniel Belliard, French general (b. 1769)
1859 – F. J. Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1782)
1864 – Émile Clapeyron, French physicist and engineer (b. 1799)
1873 – John Hart, English-Australian politician, 10th Premier of South Australia (b. 1809)
1903 – Augusta Holmès, French pianist and composer (b. 1847)
1912 – Gustave de Molinari, Belgian economist and theorist (b. 1819)
1918 – John McCrae, Canadian soldier, physician, and author (b. 1872)
1921 – Mustafa Suphi, Turkish journalist and politician (b. 1883)
1930 – Emmy Destinn, Czech soprano and poet (b. 1878)
1935 – Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, Russian composer and conductor (b. 1859)
1937 – Anastasios Metaxas, Greek architect and target shooter (b. 1862)
1938 – Bernd Rosemeyer, German race car driver (b. 1909)
1939 – W. B. Yeats, Irish poet and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1865)
1942 – Edward Siegler, American gymnast and triathlete (b. 1881)
1945 – Roza Shanina, Russian sergeant and sniper (b. 1924)
1947 – Reynaldo Hahn, Venezuelan-French composer, conductor, and critic (b. 1875)
1948 – Hans Aumeier, German SS officer (b. 1906)
1949 – Jean-Pierre Wimille, French race car driver (b. 1908)
1950 – Nikolai Luzin, Russian mathematician and academic (b. 1883)
1953 – James Scullin, Australian journalist and politician, 9th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1876)
1953 – Neyzen Tevfik, Turkish philosopher and poet (b. 1879)
1959 – Walter Beall, American baseball player (b. 1899)
1960 – Zora Neale Hurston, American novelist, short story writer, and folklorist (b. 1891)
1963 – Gustave Garrigou, French cyclist (b. 1884)
1965 – Tich Freeman, English cricketer (b. 1888)
1965 – Maxime Weygand, Belgian-French general (b. 1867)
1971 – Donald Winnicott, English paediatrician and psychoanalyst (b. 1896)
1973 – John Banner, Austrian actor (b. 1910)
1976 – Marcel Broodthaers, Belgian painter and poet (b. 1924)
1978 – Ward Moore, American author (b. 1903)
1983 – Billy Fury. English pop star (b. 1940)
1983 – Frank Forde, Australian educator and politician, 15th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1890)
1986 – Space Shuttle Challenger crew
- Gregory Jarvis, American captain, engineer, and astronaut (b. 1944)
- Christa McAuliffe, American educator and astronaut (b. 1948)
- Ronald McNair, American physicist and astronaut (b. 1950)
- Ellison Onizuka, American engineer and astronaut (b. 1946)
- Judith Resnik, American colonel, engineer, and astronaut (b. 1949)
- Dick Scobee, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1939)
- Michael J. Smith, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1945)
1988 – Klaus Fuchs, German physicist and politician (b. 1911)
1989 – Choekyi Gyaltsen, 10th Panchen Lama (b. 1938)
1993 – Helen Sawyer Hogg, Canadian astronomer and academic (b. 1905)
1996 – Joseph Brodsky, Russian-American poet and essayist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1940)
1996 – Burne Hogarth, American cartoonist and author (b. 1911)
1996 – Jerry Siegel, American author and illustrator, co-created Superman (b. 1914)
1998 – Shotaro Ishinomori, Japanese author and illustrator (b. 1938)
1999 – Valery Gavrilin, Russian composer (b. 1939)
2001 – Ranko Marinković, Croatian author and playwright (b. 1913)
2002 – Gustaaf Deloor, Belgian cyclist and soldier (b. 1913)
2002 – Astrid Lindgren, Swedish author and screenwriter (b. 1907)
2002 – Ayşe Nur Zarakolu, Turkish author and activist (b. 1946)
2003 – Mieke Pullen, Dutch runner (b. 1957)
2004 – Lloyd M. Bucher, American captain (b. 1927)
2004 – Mel Pritchard, English drummer (b. 1948)
2005 – Jim Capaldi, English singer-songwriter and drummer (b. 1944)
2007 – Carlo Clerici, Swiss cyclist (b. 1929)
2007 – Robert Drinan, American priest, lawyer, and politician (b. 1920)
2007 – Yelena Romanova, Russian runner (b. 1963)
2007 – Karel Svoboda, Czech composer (b. 1938)
2009 – Billy Powell, American keyboard player and songwriter (b. 1952)
2012 – Roman Juszkiewicz, Polish astronomer and astrophysicist (b. 1952)
2012 – Don Starkell, Canadian adventurer and author (b. 1932)
2013 – Florentino Fernández, Cuban-American boxer and coach (b. 1936)
2013 – Hattie N. Harrison, American educator and politician (b. 1928)
2013 – Oldřich Kulhánek, Czech painter, illustrator, and stage designer (b. 1940)
2014 – John Cacavas, American composer and conductor (b. 1930)
2014 – Harry Gamble, American football player, coach, and manager (b. 1930)
2014 – Dwight Gustafson, American composer and conductor (b. 1930)
2014 – Nigel Jenkins, Welsh poet, journalist, and geographer (b. 1949)
2014 – Jorge Obeid, Argentinian engineer and politician, Governor of Santa Fe (b. 1947)
2015 – Suraj Abdurrahman, Nigerian general, architect, and engineer (b. 1954)
2015 – Yves Chauvin, French chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1930)
2015 – Lionel Gilbert, Australian historian, author, and academic (b. 1924)
2016 – Signe Toly Anderson, American singer (b. 1941)
2016 – Paul Kantner, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1941)
2016 – Franklin Gene Bissell, American football player and coach (b. 1926)
2016 – Buddy Cianci, American lawyer and politician, 32nd Mayor of Providence (b. 1941)
2016 – Bob Tizard, New Zealand lawyer and politician, 6th Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1924)
2017 – Alexander Chancellor, British journalist (b. 1940)
2017 – Geoff Nicholls, British musician (b. 1948)
2019 – Pepe Smith, Filipino rock musician (b. 1947)

Holidays and observances on January 28

Christian feast day:
- Joseph Freinademetz
- Julian of Cuenca
- Thomas Aquinas
- January 28 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Army Day (Armenia)
Data Privacy Day

January 28 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

1855

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