- 374 9th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet
- 600 Pope Gregory the Great decrees saying "God bless You" is the correct response to a sneeze
- 1249 Andrew of Longjumeau is dispatched by Louis IX of France as his ambassador to meet with the Khan of the Mongols
- 1486 Maximilian I is elected King of the Romans at Frankfurt
- 1512 Battle at Valeggio: French troops beat Venetianen
- 1559 Pope Paul IV calls for deposition of sovereigns supporting heresy
Historic Publication
1741 Benjamin Franklin's General Magazine begins publishing
Benjamin Franklin
Election of Interest
1742 Spencer Compton becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain (First Lord of the Treasury)
Spencer Compton
- 1751 1st publication of Thomas Gray's poem "Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard"
- 1760 Native American hostages killed in Fort Prince George, South Carolina
- 1771 Messier presents his original list of 45 M-objects to French Academy
- 1777 Messier adds M53 to his catalog (globular cluster in Coma Berenice)
- 1804 US Navy Lt Stephen Decatur raids Tripoli Harbor & burns Navy frigate "Philadelphia" after pirates seized it
- 1824 Athenaeum club founded in London
- 1838 Kentucky passes law permitting women to attend school under conditions
- 1838 Weenen Massacre: Hundreds of Voortrekkers along the Blaukraans River, Natal are killed by Zulu warriors
Historic Discovery
1840 American Charles Wilkes discovers Shackleton Ice Shelf, Antarctica
Charles Wilkes
Music Premiere
1854 Franz Liszt's symphony "Orpheus" premieres
Franz Liszt
Victory in Battle
1862 Fort Donelson is captured by General Ulysses S. Grant following the surrender of around 12,000 Confederate soldiers
Ulysses S. Grant
- 1864 Battle of Mobile, AL - operations by Union Army
- 1866 Spencer Compton Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington becomes the British Secretary of State for War
- 1868 Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks forms (NY)
- 1878 Silver dollar became US legal tender
- 1880 American Society of Mechanical Engineers forms (NYC)
- 1883 "Ladies Home Journal" begins publishing
- 1887 1st newspaper convention (Rochester NY)
- 1887 Eduard Douwes Dekker writes his last text (Lf8-c5)
- 1892 Opera "Werther" by Jules Massenet premieres in Vienna
- 1894 British troops occupy Ilorin, Gold Coast
- 1899 Pelham Warner scores 132 on Test Cricket debut (Eng v SA Johannesburg)
- 1899 President of France Félix Faure dies in office.
- 1899 Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur Iceland's first football club is founded
- 1900 1st Chinese daily newspaper in US publishes (Chung Sai Yat Po, San Francisco)
- 1900 Stanley Cup: Montreal Shamrocks beat Winnipeg Victorias, 3 games to 1
- 1903 -59°F (-51°C), Pokegama Dam, Minnesota (state record)
- 1905 1st US Esperanto club organizes in Boston
- 1909 1st subway car with side doors goes into service (NYC)
- 1909 Serbia mobilizes against Austria-Hungary
- 1912 VSV soccer team forms in Ijmuiden
Agreement of Interest
1913 US President Taft agrees not to intervene in Mexico
William Howard Taft
- 1914 1st airplane flight from LA to SF
- 1915 Frank Home Run Baker, 28, announces retirement following a contract dispute with Connie Mack. He sits out 1915 season
- 1916 Russian troops conquer the Ottoman Empire city of Erzurum during WWI
- 1916 The US rejects the right of Germany and Austria-Hungary to sink armed merchant ships
- 1916 The German ambassador in Washington announces that Germany will pay an indemnity for American lives lost on the Lusitania
- 1917 1st synagogue in 425 years opens in Madrid
- 1918 Lithuania declares independence from Russia & Germany (National Day)
- 1923 Allies accept Latvia's occupation of Memel territory
Event of Interest
1923 Howard Carter opens the inner burial chamber of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun's tomb and finds the sarcophagus
Howard Carter
- 1923 US Ladies' Figure Skating championship won by Theresa Weld Blanchard
- 1923 US Men's Figure Skating championship won by Sherwin Badger
- 1926 Suzanne Lenglen defeats US champion Helen Wills in influential tennis match in Cannes, France
- 1927 Noel Coward's "Marquise" premieres in London
- 1927 US restores diplomatic relations with Turkey
- 1929 KID-AM in Idaho Falls ID begins radio transmissions
Murder of Interest
1929 In mysterious murder suicide Ned Doheny Jr., son of oil magnate Edward L. Doheny, dies along with secretary Hugh Plunkett at Greystone Mansion, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles
Edward L. Doheny
- 1931 Extreme right wing Pehr Evind Svinhufvud becomes President of Finland
- 1932 1st patent for a tree issued to James Markham for a peach tree
- 1933 Catholic newspaper Germania warns against Nazis and communists
- 1933 England regains the Ashes, thanks to "bodyline" tactics
- 1934 Austrian Civil War ends with the defeat of the Social Democrats and the Republican Schutzbund
- 1934 Commission of Government is sworn in as form of direct rule for the Dominion of Newfoundland
- 1936 IVWinter Olympic Games close at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
- 1936 Spanish Frente Popular (People's Front) wins elections
- 1936 IV Winter Olympic Games close in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
- 1937 DuPont Corp patents nylon, developed by employee Wallace H Carothers
- 1937 Jean Anouilh's "Le Voyageur Sans Baggage" premieres in Paris
- 1938 US Federal Crop Insurance program authorized
Film Release
1938 "Bringing Up Baby" film directed by Howard Hawks, starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, is released
Katharine Hepburn
- 1940 British search plane finds German supply ship Altmark, used to accommodate aliied sailors from vessles sunk by the Graf Spee, off Norway
- 1942 German submarines attack Aruba oil refinery
- 1942 Bangka Island massacre: Japanese soldiers machine-gun 22 Australian Army nurses and 60 Australian and British soldiers and crew members from two sunken ships. Only one nurse and two soldiers survive.
- 1943 -32°F (-36°C), Falls Village, Connecticut (state record)
Contract of Interest
1943 British premier Winston Churchill contracts pneumonia
Winston Churchill
- 1943 Withdrawing Afrika Korps reaches Mareth-line in North Africa
- 1943 Sign on Munich facade: "Out with Hitler! Long live freedom!" done by "White Rose" student group, caught on 2/18, beheaded on 2/22
- 1943 World War II: The USSR reconquers Kharkov.
- 1945 US forces land on Corregidor, complete conquest on March 3
- 1945 Venezuela declares war on Nazi Germany
- 1946 "The Duchess Misbehaves" closes at Adelphi Theater NYC after 5 performances
- 1946 1st commercially designed helicopter tested, Bridgeport, Connecticut
- 1947 Morton Gould's 3rd Symphony, premieres
- 1948 1st newsreel telecast, "20th Century Fox-Movietone News", shown on NBC
- 1948 Miranda, famous moon of Uranus, photographed for 1st time
- 1950 Longest-running prime-time game show, "What's My Line" begins on CBS
- 1950 Writers fail to elect anyone to Baseball's Hall of Fame
- 1951 NYC passes bill prohibiting racism in city-assisted housing
- 1951 San Francisco City Hall dome fire
- 1952 Ian Craig makes NSW cricket debut aged 16 years 249 days (NSW record)
Event of Interest
1953 Ted Williams safely crash-lands his damaged Panther jet, later awarded the Air medal
Ted Williams
Event of Interest
1959 Fidel Castro becomes the 16th Prime Minister of Cuba after overthrowing Fulgencio Batista
Fidel Castro
- 1959 Leonard Spigelgass' "Majority of One" premieres in NYC
- 1960 US nuclear submarine USS Triton set off on underwater round-world trip
- 1961 1st all-solid-propellant rocket put in orbit, Wallops Island, Virginia
- 1961 China uses its 1st nuclear reactor
- 1961 US satellite Explorer 9 is launched
- 1962 Darius Milhaud's 12th Symphony premieres
- 1962 "La Jetée", French film directed by Chris Marker, starring Hélène Chatelain, Davos Hanich and Jacques Ledoux, is released
- 1963 1st round-trip swim of Strait of Messina, Italy (Mary Revell of US)
- 1963 Beatles top British rock charts with "Please, Please Me"
- 1963 C & A Building in Amsterdam burns down
NBA Record
1963 North Carolina forward Billy Cunningham grabs a record 27 rebounds in a game vs Clemson
Billy Cunningham
- 1964 "Foxy" opens at Ziegfeld Theater NYC for 72 performances
- 1964 The Beatles' 2nd appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show"
- 1965 "Baker Street" opens at Broadway Theater NYC for 313 performances
- 1965 Pegasus 1 launched to detect micro-meteors
- 1966 Bob Cowper makes 307 v England at the MCG, 727 mins, 20 fours
- 1966 End of Wally Grout's Test Cricket career, 187 dismissals as Australian wicketkeeper
- 1966 France performs underground nuclear test at Ecker, Algeria
- 1967 Red Ruffing selected to Hall of Fame
- 1968 US 1st 911 phone system goes into service in Haleyville, Alabama
Event of Interest
1968 Elvis Presley receives a gold record for "How Great Thou Art"
Elvis Presley
Event of Interest
1968 Beatles George Harrison, John Lennon and their wives fly to India for transcendental meditation study with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
George Harrison
John Lennon
- 1969 "Andrei Rublev", Russian film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, starring Anatoly Solonitsyn and Ivan Lapikov, premieres in Moscow after a limited release in 1966
Boxing Title Fight
1970 Joe Frazier TKOs Jimmy Ellis in 5 for heavyweight boxing title
Joe Frazier
Event of Interest
1972 Wilt Chamberlain hit 30,000 point mark during a game with Phoenix Suns
Wilt Chamberlain
- 1973 West Indies v Australia at Kingston, 1st time since 1955 without Gary Sobers
- 1975 Washington Capitals 1st NHL shutout, beating KC Scouts 3-0
- 1975 17th Daytona 500: Benny Parsons wins (153.649 MPH)
- 1977 USSR performs nuclear test at Sary Shagan
- 1978 1st Computer Bulletin Board System (Ward & Randy's CBBS, Chicago)
- 1979 George Harrison releases "Blow Away"
- 1979 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk
- 1979 Los Angeles premiere of Paul Schrader's allegedly fact based film "Hardcore"
- 1980 Continuous traffic jam extends 176 km north of Lyons, France
- 1980 Eric Heiden skates 5k in 7:02.29 (Olympic Record)
- 1982 Agatha Barbara elected as 1st female president of Malta
- 1982 Assembled STS-3 vehicle moves from Vandenberg AFB to launch pad
- 1983 The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia claim the lives of 75 people in Australia's worst ever fires
- 1984 Bill Johnson becomes 1st American to win Olympic downhill skiing gold
- 1984 NJ Devils 1st OT goal, Jan Ludvig beats Hartford Whalers 6-5
- 1985 Largest NBA crowd to date, 43,816, sees Philadelphia at Detroit
- 1985 Livingston Bramble defeats Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini to win WBA champ
- 1985 NJ Devils score their fastest hat trick in 42 seconds
- 1985 The founding of Hezbollah.
- 1986 "Uptown... It's Hot!" closes at Lunt-Fontanne NYC after 24 performances
- 1986 French air force bombs Ouadi Doum airport in Chad
- 1986 Dutch speed skater Hein Vergeer becomes World Allround champion for the second time
- 1986 Karlstad skates world record 10 km (14:12.14)
Election of Interest
1986 Mário Soares from the Socialist Party is elected the 1st civilian President of Portugal
Mário Soares
- 1986 28th Daytona 500: Geoffrey Bodine wins (148.124 MPH)
- 1987 John Demjanjuk, accused of being "Ivan the Terrible" trial begins
- 1988 1st documented combat action by US military advisors in El Salvador
- 1989 Egypt, Iraq, Jordan & North Yemen form common market
- 1989 Dodgers pitcher Orel Hershiser signs $7.9M-3 year contract
Contract of Interest
1989 Red Sox pitcher Roger Clemens signs $7.5M-3 year contract
Roger Clemens
Event of Interest
1992 LA Lakers retire Magic Johnson's #32 uniform
Magic Johnson
Event of Interest
1992 Ethiopia finds the remains of former Emperor Haile Selassie on the grounds of the Imperial Palace, under the private lavatory of dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, who overthrew the Emperor
Haile Selassie
- 1992 34th Daytona 500: Davey Allison wins (160.256 MPH)
- 1993 Sandra Völker swims world record 50m backstroke (28.33 sec)
- 1993 Western Australia's and Australia's first woman Premier, Carmen Lawrence, is voted out of office.
- 1994 6.5 earthquake strikes South East Sumatra, kills 200
- 1994 Johann Olav Koss skates world record 1500m (1:51.29)
- 1994 Premier Alfonso Bustamente ends government in Peru
- 1996 Gary Kirsten scores 188* for South Africa v UAE at Rawalpindi
- 1997 Paul Stankowski wins Hawaiian Golf Open
- 1997 Terry-Jo Myers wins LPGA Los Angeles Women's Championship
- 1997 39th Daytona 500: Jeff Gordon wins (148.295 MPH)
- 1998 Tellabs Inc acquires Coherent Communications Systems for $670 million
Event of Interest
1999 O.J. Simpson's 1968 Heisman Trophy is sold for $230,000 to help settle a $33.5 million civil judgement against Simpson for the deaths of his ex-wife and her friend
O.J. Simpson
- 1999 Across Europe, Kurdish rebels take over embassies and hold hostages after Turkey arrested one of their rebel leaders, Abdullah Öcalan.
- 2003 45th Daytona 500: Michael Waltrip wins (133.87 MPH)
- 2004 The Pittsburgh Penguins lose their 12th consecutive home game, a NHL record
- 2005 2004-05 NHL season is canceled by league commissioner Gary Bettman. This was the first time that a North American professional sports league had to cancel a season due to a labor dispute
- 2005 The Kyoto Protocol comes into force following its ratification by Russia.
Event of Interest
2005 The UK version of "The Apprentice" with British business magnate Alan Sugar premieres on the BBC
Alan Sugar
Event of Interest
2013 Lionel Messi scores his 14th consecutive goal in La Liga and his 300th goal in 365 appearances for Barcelona
Lionel Messi
Event of Interest
2013 Angelina Jolie undergoes a preventive double mastectomy after learning she had an 87% risk of developing breast cancer due to a defective BRCA1 gene
Angelina Jolie
- 2014 63rd NBA All-Star Game: East beats West 163-155 at New Orleans
- 2014 67th British Film and Television Awards (BAFTAS): "12 Years a Slave" Best Film, Alfonso Cuaron Best Director
- 2016 Former French President Nicholas Sarkozy is placed under investigation for campaign funds
- 2016 China announces it will relocate 9,000 people in Guizhou province, before completion of world's largest telescope (FAST), designed to look for extraterrestrial life
- 2017 Suicide attack on shrine of Sufi saint Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, Sehwan, Pakistan kills 72, Islamic State claims responsibility
- 2017 Car bomb in Bayaa, Baghdad kills at least 48, Islamic State claims responsibility. 3rd attack in 3 days
- 2018 More than 100,00 orangutans killed in Borneo since 1999 according to study published in "Current Biology"
- 2018 National state of emergency declared in Ethiopia in wake of anti-government protests
February in History
Ancient Dresden Reduced to Rubble
The blanket bombing of Dresden in East Germany which began on this day, cost thousands of lives and remains highly controversial.
February 13, 1945
Last Adventure of Captain Cook
Explorer James Cook was the first European to set foot on Hawaii, where he was thought to be a god. But he would never leave the island alive.
February 14, 1779
A Deadly Bite, Or King Tut's Revenge?
It was one of the most spectacular archaeological finds – but was the disturbed Tutankhamun a sleeping tiger?
February 16, 1923
Buried at Sea: The Casket That Carried JFK
John F. Kennedy's aides struggling to load the casket containing the slain President aboard Air Force One is an enduring image. But what happened to the casket?
February 18, 1966