- 660 BC Traditional date for the foundation of Japan by Emperor Jimmu
Event of Interest
1543 Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and English King Henry VIII sign anti-French covenant
Henry VIII
Charles V
Event of Interest
1575 King Frederick of Denmark offers island of Hveen to Tycho Brahe
Tycho Brahe
Event of Interest
1768 Samuel Adams letter, circulates around American colonies, opposing Townshend Act taxes
Samuel Adams
Election of Interest
1806 William Grenville becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom following the death of William Pitt the Younger
William Grenville
- 1808 Anthracite coal 1st burned as fuel, experimentally, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Historic Invention
1809 Robert Fulton patents steamboat
Robert Fulton
- 1811 President Madison prohibits trade with Britain for 3rd time in 4 years
- 1812 Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry signs a redistricting bill - first "gerrymander"
- 1814 Norway's independence proclaimed
- 1826 University College London founded; known until 1836 as London University
- 1837 American Physiological Society organizes in Boston
- 1852 First British public female toilet opens (Bedford Street, London)
- 1854 For the 1st time coal gas is used to light major streets in San Francisco
- 1855 Kassa Hailu is crowned Tewodros II, Emperor of Ethiopia, by Abuna Salama III in a ceremony at the church of Derasge Maryam
- 1858 First vision of the Virgin Mary to 14-year-old Bernadette of Lourdes, France
Event of Interest
1861 US President-elect Abraham Lincoln takes train from Spingfield IL to Washington, D.C.
Abraham Lincoln
- 1861 US House unanimously passes resolution guaranteeing noninterference with slavery in any state
- 1873 Spanish Cortes fires king Amadeus I
- 1878 1st weekly weather report published in UK
- 1889 Meiji constitution of Japan adopted; 1st Diet convenes in 1890
- 1895 -17°F (-27.2°C) in Braemar, Grampian (UK record)
- 1895 Georgetown became part of Washington, D.C.
Event of Interest
1896 Oscar Wilde's "Salome" premieres in Paris
Oscar Wilde
Event of Interest
1903 US Congress adopts the Expedition Act, which authorizes the Attorney General to 'expedite' anti-trust cases through the courts, reflecting growing popular support for President Theodore Roosevelt's "trust busting" campaign
Theodore Roosevelt
- 1905 James Blackstone, Seattle, bowls 299½-last pin breaks but stands
- 1905 Pope Pius X publishes encyclical Vehementer nos
- 1907 De Master's Dutch government resigns
- 1907 Passenger ship Larchmont sinks by Block Island, off Rhode Island, 322 die
- 1908 Heemskerk's government begins in Holland
- 1916 Emma Goldman arrested for lecturing on birth control
- 1916 Germany and Austria-Hungary notify the US that they will sink any armed merchant ships starting on 1 March
Event of Interest
1918 US President Woodrow Wilson makes another speech before Congress and announces 'the Four Principles' - freedom of navigation, and end to secret diplomacy, and similar items - that supplement his Fourteen Points
Woodrow Wilson
- 1919 Friedrich Ebert (SPD) elected president of Germany
- 1921 Ambassador Theater opens at 215 W 49th St NYC
- 1922 US intervention army leaves Honduras
- 1922 Influential arts festival Semana de Arte Moderna (Modern Art Week) opens in São Paulo - the beginning of Modernism in Brazil
- 1926 Tokelau (Union) Islands in South Pacific transfers to NZ
- 1927 US female Figure Skating championship won by Beatrix Loughran
- 1927 US Men's Figure Skating championship won by Nathaniel Niles
- 1929 Eugene O'Neill's "Dynamo" premieres in NYC
- 1929 Vatican City (world's smallest country) made an enclave of Rome
- 1932 73°F highest temperature ever recorded in Cleveland in February
- 1932 Johan Grøttumsbraaten leads a Norwegian medal sweep of the Nordic combined event at the Lake Placid Games; retains combined title after also winning in St. Moritz
- 1935 -11°F (-24°C), Ifrane, Morocco (African record low)
- 1935 1st US airplane flight with auto slung beneath fuselage, NY
- 1936 Pumping begins to build Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay
- 1937 44-day sit-down strike at General Motors in Flint Mich ends
Event of Interest
1941 Lt-Gen Erwin Rommel arrives in Tripoli
Erwin Rommel
Event of Interest
1943 US General Eisenhower selected to command the allied armies in Europe; British General Montgomery not best pleased
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Yalta Conference
1945 Yalta agreement signed by FDR, Churchill & Stalin
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Election of Interest
1951 Kwame Nkrumah wins 1st parliamentary election in the Gold Coast (Ghana)
Kwame Nkrumah
- 1953 J Styne and Bob Hilliard's musical "Hazel Flagg" opens at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC for 190 performances
- 1953 President Eisenhower refuses clemency appeal for Rosenberg couple
- 1953 USSR breaks diplomatic relations with Israel
- 1956 British diplomats Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean deny working as spies for Soviet Russia after reappearing in the Soviet Union after going missing 5 years earlier
- 1958 Marshal Chen Yi succeeds Chu En-lai as Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs
- 1958 Ruth Carol Taylor is 1st African-American woman hired as flight attendant, Ithaca NY
- 1961 Robert Weaver sworn in as Administrator of the Housing and Home Finance Agency, the 1st African American to be appointed to a US cabinet-level position
- 1963 CIA Domestic Operations Division created
- 1963 American chef Julia Child's show "The French Chef" premieres
- 1964 Greek & Turks begin fighting in Limassol, Cyprus
- 1964 Taiwan drops diplomatic relations with France
- 1968 Israeli-Jordan border fight
- 1968 Jeffrey Kramer survives 76-m jump, Washington Bridge, Hudson River New York
- 1968 Madison Square Garden III closes Madison Square Garden IV opens (NYC)
- 1969 Dorey Funk Jr beats Gene Kiniski in Tampa, to become NWA champ
- 1970 26.37 cm (10.38") of rainfall, Mt Washington, NH (state 24-hr rec)
- 1970 Japan becomes 4th nation to put a satellite (Osumi) in orbit
- 1971 US, UK, USSR, others sign Seabed Treaty outlawing nuclear weapons
- 1973 1st one-day international for Pakistan & NZ
- 1973 1st sub 17-min 1,500m female free style swim (Shane Gould 16m56.9s)
- 1974 Titan-Centaur rocket test launch fails
Event of Interest
1974 Henry Kissinger unveils Nixon Administration's seven-point "Project Independence" plan to make the U.S. energy independent
Henry Kissinger
- 1974 Libya nationalizes three US oil companies that had not agreed to 51 percent nationalization in September
Leadership Contest
1975 Margaret Thatcher defeats Edward Heath for leadership of the British Conservative Party
Margaret Thatcher
Edward Heath
Event of Interest
1978 China lifts a ban on Aristotle, Shakespeare, & Dickens
William Shakespeare
- 1978 EOKA disbands in Cyprus
Event of Interest
1979 Iran's premier Bakhtiar resigns, Ayatollah Khomeini seizes power
Ayatollah Khomeini
- 1981 Australia all out 83 v India at MCG chasing 143 to win
- 1981 Polish premier Jozef Pinkowski replaced by Wojciech Jaruzelski
- 1982 Ozzie Smith for Garry Templeton trade finally goes through
- 1983 4th largest snowfall in NYC history (18"(46 cm))
- 1984 10th space shuttle mission (41-B)-Challenger 4-returns to Earth
- 1985 King Hussein of Jordan & PLO leader Arafat sign accord
- 1986 Activist Anatoly Scharansky released by USSR, leaves country
- 1986 Iran begins Fajr-8 offensive against Iraq
- 1987 British Airways begins trading stocks
- 1987 Philippines constitution goes into effect
- 1987 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1988 Anthony Kennedy appointed to US Supreme Court
- 1989 Barbara Clementine Harris consecrated 1st female bishop (Episcopalian)
- 1989 US female Figure Skating championship won by Jill Trenary
Event of Interest
1990 Nelson Mandela released after 27 years imprisonment in South Africa
Nelson Mandela
- 1990 US male Figure Skating championship won by Todd Eldredge
- 1991 UNPO, Unrepresented Nations & People Org forms in The Hague, Netherlands
- 1992 F-16 jet crashes at residential district of Hengelo, Netherlands (No deaths)
- 1992 Michael Johnson runs indoor world record 400m (44.97 sec)
- 1993 Howard Stern's radio show begins transmitting to Rochester NY (WRQI)
- 1993 Irina Privalova runs world record 60m indoor (6.92 secs)
Appointment of Interest
1993 President Clinton selects Janet Reno to be first female US Attorney General
Bill Clinton
- 1994 Space shuttle STS-60 (Discovery 18), lands
- 1995 Sandra Volker swims European record 50m backstroke (27.67 sec)
- 1995 Space shuttle STS-63 (Discovery 19), lands
- 1995 US male Figure Skating championship won by Todd Eldredge
- 1995 West Indies score 5-660 against NZ
- 1997 STS 82 (Discovery 22) launches
Event of Interest
1998 KVBC-FM (Las Vegas) offers Monica Lewinsky $5M for interview
Monica Lewinsky
- 1998 Lyrics to "Candle in the Wind 1997" auctioned for $442,500
- 1999 Pluto moves further away from the sun than Neptune regaining its status as solar system's outermost planet, a title it will retain for 228 years
- 2007 A national referendum in Portugal legalises non-therapeutic abortion when requested by the woman during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.
- 2008 In East Timor, assassination attempts were made on Xanana Gusmao and Jose Ramos-Horta. Both failed.
Event of Interest
2009 Uri Geller purchases Lamb Island, Scotland, previously known for its witch trials
Uri Geller
Event of Interest
2011 Egyptian Revolution culminates in the resignation of Hosni Mubarak and the transfer of power to the Supreme Military Council after 18 days of protests (Arab Spring)
Hosni Mubarak
Event of Interest
2013 Pope Benedict XVI announces his resignation from February 28, the first pope to resign since 1415
Benedict XVI
- 2014 77 people are killed after a military transport plane crashes in Algeria
- 2014 Peace talks resume in Geneva as leaders attempt to bring an end to the civil war in Syria
- 2015 Francesco Schettino, Captain of the Costa Concordia that ran aground 2012, is convicted of manslaughter in Grosseto and sentenced to 16 years in jail
- 2016 Discover of gravitational waves (through collision of two black holes) announced by physicists from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (Ligo)
- 2016 Riot between rival drug cartels at a prison in Monterrey, Mexico, leaves 52 dead
- 2016 Last of Oregon militia occupying Malheur wildlife refuge surrenders to authorities after 41 days
- 2018 Russian airliner crashes south-east of Moscow, killing all 71 on board
Event of Interest
2018 MOMA opens a major solo exhibition for Brazilian artist Tarsila do Amaral in New York
Tarsila do Amaral
- 2019 Poisonous homemade alcohol kills up to 100 people in the Indian states of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh
- 2019 Artificial Intelligence system pitted against physicians in test to diagnose 600,000 patients in results published in "Nature Medicine", A.I. won, just
February in History
Earthquakes and a Book Rock London
In the 18th Century, Englishmen went into a panic when London, of all places, was hit by earthquakes. But was there a stronger force than Mother Nature at work?
February 8, 1750Why 'SuperMac' was Banished From Number 10
War hero, Edwardian gentleman, academic, friend of the Kennedys, former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan was born on this day.
February 10, 1894Ancient 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, 1945Last 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
