Victory in Battle
1510 Portuguese admiral Afonso de Albuquerque first conquers the city of Goa, entering it with little conflict
Afonso de Albuquerque
Election of Interest
1621 Myles Standish is elected as the first commander of the Plymouth Colony
Myles Standish
- 1634 William Prynne tried in Star Chamber for publishing "Histrio-masti"
- 1670 France & Bavaria sign military assistance treaty
- 1691 Thomas Neale granted English patent for American postal service
- 1714 Parliament of Paris accepts Pope Clemens XI's "Unigenitus" degree
- 1772 1st Partition of Poland signed in Vienna by Austria, Prussia and Russia
Historic Publication
1776 1st volume of Gibbon's "Decline & Fall of Roman Empire" published
Edward Gibbon
Election of Interest
1801 US House of Representatives breaks electoral college tie, chooses Thomas Jefferson President over Aaron Burr
Thomas Jefferson
Aaron Burr
Event of Interest
1837 Charles Lyell makes his presidential address to the Geographical Society, London and announces that Richard Owen has concluded from Darwin's fossils that extinct species were related to current species in the same locality
Charles Lyell
Music Premiere
1859 Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Un Ballo in maschera" premieres in Napoli
Giuseppe Verdi
- 1864 Confederate submarine HL Hunley sinks Union ship Housatonic
- 1865 -18] Battle of Charleston, South Carolina
- 1865 Columbia, South Carolina, burns down during American Civil War
- 1867 Gyula Andressy becomes premier of Hungary
- 1876 Sardines first canned by Julius Wolff in Eastport, Maine
- 1878 1st telephone exchange in San Francisco opens with 18 phones
- 1880 Tsar Alexander II of Russia survives an assassination attempt
- 1882 1st Test Cricket match played at Sydney Cricket Ground
- 1883 A Ashwell patents free-toilet in London
Otto von Bismarck
Victory in Battle
1897 Emilio Aguinaldo and a group of katipuneros defeat Spanish forces led by General Camilo de Polavieja at the Battle of Zapote Bridge in Cavite
Emilio Aguinaldo
- 1902 A general strike in Barcelona and nearby towns leads to government-troop reprisals that leave 40 dead
Music Premiere
1904 Giacomo Puccini's opera "Madama Butterfly" premieres in Milan
Giacomo Puccini
Event of Interest
1923 Ottawa Senator Cy Denneny becomes NHL's all time scorer (143 goals)
Cy Denneny
- 1924 Johnny Weissmuller sets 100-yard freestyle record (52.4 seconds)
- 1926 Avalanche buries 75 in Sap Gulch, Bingham, Utah; 40 die
- 1930 French government of André Tardieu falls for the first time
- 1931 1st telecast of a sporting event in Japan (baseball)
- 1931 Hockey's Hershey Bears (now with AHL) 1st game
Music Premiere
1932 Irving Berlin's musical "Face the Music" premieres in NYC
Irving Berlin
- 1933 First issue of American news magazine "Newsweek" is published
- 1933 Marinus van der Lubbe arrives in Glindow, at Potsdam
- 1933 US Senate accept Blaine Act: ending prohibition
- 1934 1st high school auto driving course offered (State College, Penn)
- 1936 -58°F (-50°C), McIntosh, South Dakota (state record)
- 1936 S. N. Behrman's play "End of Summer" premieres in NYC
- 1936 The world's first superhero, The Phantom, a cartoon strip by Lee Falk, makes his first appearance in comics.
- 1938 1st public experimental demonstration of Baird color TV (London)
- 1939 Katwijk soccer team forms
- 1940 Altmark Incident: Crew of the British destroyer "Cossack" board German "Altmark" in Jøssingfjord, Norway, releasing 299 British prisoners after hand-to-hand fighting with bayonets and the last recorded Royal Naval action with cutlass
Boxing Title Fight
Event of Interest
1943 Adolf Hitler visits field marshal Erich von Manstein's headquarters in Zaporozje, Ukraine and stays until the 19th
Adolf Hitler
Event of Interest
1943 Dow Chemical and Corning Glass Works form a joint venture to explore and produce silicon materials, based off of the work of James Franklin Hyde
James Franklin Hyde
- 1944 Battle of Eniwetok Atoll begins; US victory on Feb 22
- 1944 US begins night bombing of Truk
- 1946 Humanistic Covenant forms in Amsterdam
- 1947 Dutch RC bishops publish manifest against "godless communism"
- 1947 Voice of America begins broadcasting to USSR
- 1949 Chaim Weitzman elected 1st president of Israel
- 1949 Ice Pairs Championship at Paris won by Andrea Kekesy and Ede Kiraly of Hungary
- 1949 Ladies' Figure Skating Champions in Paris won by Alena Vrzanova of CZE
- 1949 Men's Figure Skating Championship in Paris won by Richard Button of the USA
- 1950 31 die in a train crash in Rockville Center NY
- 1953 DSB soccer team forms in Eindhoven
- 1954 WAST (now WNYT) TV channel 13 in Albany-Troy, NY (NBC) 1st broadcast
- 1955 Ice Dance Championship at Vienna Austria won by J Westwood/Demmy GRB
- 1955 Ice Pairs Championship at Vienna won by Frances Dafoe and Norris Bowden of Canada
- 1955 KTVF TV channel 11 in Fairbanks, AK (CBS/ABC) begins broadcasting
- 1955 Ladies Figure Skating Championship in Vienna won by Tenley Albright US
- 1955 Mike Souchak sets PGA 72-hole record of 257 (not broken until 2001)
- 1956 Ice Dance Championship at Garmisch won by Pamela Weight/P Thomas GRB
- 1956 Ice Pairs Championship at Garmisch won by Schwarz & Oppelt of AUT
- 1956 Ladies' Figure Skating Championship in Garmisch won by Carol Heiss USA
- 1956 Men's Figure Skating Championship in Garmisch won by H A Jenkins USA
- 1957 A fire at a home for the elderly in Warrenton, Missouri kills 72 people.
- 1958 Comic strip "BC" 1st appears
- 1958 WETV (now WPBA) TV channel 30 in Atlanta, GA (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1959 1st weather satellite launched, Vanguard 2, 9.8 kg
- 1962 Storm in Hamburg kills 265
Event of Interest
1962 Wilt Chamberlain of NBA Philadelphia Warriors scores 67 points vs St Louis Hawks
Wilt Chamberlain
- 1963 Toru Terasawa runs world record marathon (2:15:15.8
- 1964 101st member elected to baseball's hall of fame (Luke Appling)
- 1964 US House of Representatives accept Law on the civil rights
- 1964 US Supreme Court rules - 1 man 1 vote (Westberry v Sanders)
- 1964 WMEM TV channel 10 in Presque Isle, ME (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1965 US Ranger 8 launched, will transmit 7,137 lunar pictures
- 1965 US-Japan baseball relations suspended over Masanori Murakami dispute
- 1966 French satellite Diapason D-1A launch into Earth orbit
- 1967 Beatles release "Penny Lane" & "Strawberry Fields"
- 1967 Kosmos 140 (Soyuz Test) launches into Earth orbit
- 1968 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Springfield, Massachusetts opens
Event of Interest
1969 Golda Meir sworn in as the first female Prime Minister of Israel
Golda Meir
- 1969 "Cloud Nine" 9th studio album by The Temptations is released (Grammy Award Best Rhythm & Blues Performance by a Duo or Group 1969, Billboard Album of the Year 1969)
- 1970 US army officer Jeffrey MacDonald murders his pregnant wife & two small daughters
- 1970 Robert Marasco's "Child's Play" premieres in NYC
- 1971 England regains cricket Ashes with a 2-0 series win
- 1972 British Parliament votes to join the European Common Market
Event of Interest
1972 US President Richard Nixon leaves Washington, D.C. for China
Richard Nixon
- 1972 TV comedy M*A*S*H, adapted from the movie, starring Alan Alda, Loretta Swit and Wayne Rogers debuts on CBS in the US
Volkswagen Beetle
1972 Sales of the Volkswagen Beetle model exceed those of Ford Model T
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Event of Interest
1972 Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti receives record 17 curtain calls after his performance in "La fille du régiment" at New York's Metropolitan Opera
Luciano Pavarotti
- 1973 Rodney Redmond scores 107 on debut v Pakistan, his only Test Cricket
Meeting of Interest
1973 US National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger meets Chinese leader Mao Zedong, where the latter jokingly offers to send 10 million Chinese women to the United States
Mao Zedong
Henry Kissinger
- 1974 49 die in stampede for seats at soccer match, Cairo, Egypt
- 1974 Robert K. Preston, a disgruntled U.S. Army private, buzzes the White House with a stolen helicopter.
- 1974 16th Daytona 500: Richard Petty wins (140.894 MPH)
- 1976 "Rockabye Hamlet" opens at Minskoff Theater NYC for 7 performances
- 1976 Macau adopts constitution (Organic Law of Macau)
- 1976 NZ scores their 1st innings win in Test Cricket, v India
Event of Interest
1976 Richard Hadlee takes 7-23 New Zealand v India, his 1st match-winning spell
Richard Hadlee
- 1978 11 civilians and 1 RUC officer are killed and 30 wounded by a Provisional Irish Republican Army incendiary bomb at the La Mon Restaurant near Belfast
- 1979 China invades Vietnam, marking the start of the Sino-Vietnamese War
- 1979 Eric Heiden equals skating world record 1000m (1:14.99)
- 1980 Dot Germain wins LPGA S&H Golf Classic
- 1980 22nd Daytona 500: Buddy Baker wins (177.602 MPH)
- 1981 Chrysler Corp reports largest corporate losses in US history
- 1982 Commencement of Sri Lanka's 1st Test Cricket match, v England
- 1983 Bob Bourne fails on 8th Islander penalty shot
- 1983 Netherlands adopts constitution
- 1983 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1984 34th Berlin International Film Festival: "Love Streams" wins the Golden Bear
- 1985 1st class postage rises from 20 cents to 22 cents
- 1985 1st day/night game at the MCG, Australia v England
- 1985 3rd person to receive an artificial heart (Murray Haydon)
- 1985 Dutch speed skater Hein Vergeer becomes World Allround champion
- 1985 Laffit Pincay Jr is third to ride 6,000th winners at Santa Anita
- 1985 27th Daytona 500: Bill Elliott wins (172.265 MPH)
- 1986 1st Francophone Summit convenes at Versailles
- 1986 Howard Stern radio show returns to NYC morning radio (WXRK 92.3 FM)
- 1986 Johnson & Johnson announces it no longer sell capsule drugs
- 1986 Libyan bombers attack N'djamena Airport in Chad
- 1987 Don Mattingly wins highest salary arbitration ($1,975,000 per year)
- 1987 Michelle Renee Royer, 21, (Texas), crowned 36th Miss USA
- 1988 Lebanese terrorists kidnap UN truce observer Lt Col William Higgins
- 1988 US Lt Col Williamm Higgins kidnapped by Lebanese terrorists & later killed
- 1989 6-week study of Arctic atmosphere shows no ozone "hole"
Event of Interest
1989 Former baseball player/manager Leo Durocher injured in a car crash
Leo Durocher
- 1989 Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia & Libya form common market
- 1989 Orel Hershiser, Dodger pitcher signs record $7.9M-3 year contract
- 1989 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- 1991 US male Figure Skating championship won by Todd Eldredge
- 1991 33rd Daytona 500: Ernie Irvan wins (148.148 MPH)
- 1993 Haitian ferry boat capsize in storm, 800-2,000 die
- 1993 Mark Foster swims world record 50m free style (21.60 sec)
- 1995 11th Soap Opera Digest Awards - "Days of Our Lives" wins
- 1995 Colin Fergusson found guilty of killing 6 people on the Long Island Rail Road in NY
Event of Interest
1995 Tiger Manager Sparky Anderson takes unpaid leave due to baseball strike
Sparky Anderson
Event of Interest
1996 Garry Kasparov defeats Deep Blue 4-2 in chess
Garry Kasparov
- 1997 Weekly Standard shows evidence Larry Flint sexually abused his daughter
- 1998 US Naval Academy cadet Diane Zamora, 20, convicted of capital murder
- 1998 Larry Wayne Harris & Bill Levitt arrested for possession of anthrax
- 1998 USA Women's Ice Hockey Team beats Canada and wins the first Olympic Gold medal
- 2002 Westlife go to No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'World Of Our Own.' The Irish boy band's 10th UK No.1 single.
Music Single
2004 "If I Ain't Got You" single released by Alicia Keys (Grammy Award Best Female R&B Vocal Performance 2005, Billboard Song of the Year 2004)
Alicia Keys
- 2006 A massive mudslide occurs in Southern Leyte, Philippines; the official death toll is set at 1,126.
- 2008 Kosovo declares independence from Serbia.
- 2008 57th NBA All-Star Game: East beats West 134-128 at New Orleans
- 2008 50th Daytona 500: Ryan Newman wins (152.672 MPH)
- 2012 Approximately 70 ancient Olympic artifacts are stolen from the Archaeological Museum of Greece
- 2012 The President of Germany, Christian Wulff, resigns over a corruption scandal
- 2012 43rd NAACP Image Awards: "The Help" wins Outstanding Motion Picture
- 2013 37 people are killed and 130 are injured in a series of Baghdad car bombings
- 2013 5 people are killed and 11 are injured after a gas explosion destroyed an apartment complex in Frenštát pod Radhoštěm, Czech Republic
- 2013 President Rafael Correa wins the Ecuadorian general election in a landslide victory
- 2013 Australia defeat the West Indies to win the women's 2013 Cricket World Cup
- 2013 62nd NBA All-Star Game: West beats East 143-138 at Houston
- 2013 Cricket Women's World Cup: Australia defeats West Indies by 114 runs
Film Premier
2014 The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon premieres on NBC
Jimmy Fallon
Event of Interest
2014 US Secretary of State John Kerry claims climate change requires urgent action and that only a small "window of time" remained open
John Kerry
Event of Interest
2016 Nike ends endorsement deal with Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao after he made TV comments gay people are "worse than animals."
Manny Pacquiao
- 2016 Oldest known case of human-Neanderthal sex (100,000 yrs ago) revealed by Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Leipzig), 50,000 yr old Neanderthal woman's remains from Altai mountains show traces of Homo Sapiens DNA
- 2016 Channing Dungey announced new President of ABC Entertainment Group, first African-American to lead a major US broadcast network
- 2016 Car bomb attack on military convoy in Ankara, Turkey, by Kurdish militant eaves 28 dead
- 2017 Discovery of a new mostly underwater continent Zealandia in the South Pacific announced in research journal "GSA Today"
- 2018 3 suicide bombers kill 18 in Konduga, north-east Nigeria
February in History
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
Final Deadly Performance of a Twisted Actor
From a celebrated family of actors came a young man with a twisted mind whose last performance involved the death of a president.
February 20, 1817