February 18......

February 18 is the 49th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 316 (317 in leap years) days remaining in the year on this date.

{Disclaimer: I have attempted to give credit to the many different sources that I get entries. Any failure to do so is unintentional. Any statement enclosed by brackets like these are the opinion of the blogger, A Proud Liberal.}

EVENTS

● 3102 BC - Epoch (origin) of the Kali Yuga- Lord Krishna is believed by Hare Krishnas and Hindus to have left the planet on this day.

● 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 Livonian Brothers of the Sword are defeated by Dovmont of Pskov in the Battle of Rakovor.

● 1332 (or 1329) - 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 privately executed in the Tower of London.

● 1503 - Henry Tudor created Prince of Wales (later Henry VIII)

● 1516 - Mary Tudor, the queen of England popularly known as ''Bloody Mary,'' was born in Greenwich Palace.

● 1536 - France & Turkey sign military/trade agreement against King Karel

● 1546 - Martin Luther, leader of the Protestant Reformation in Germany, died.

● 1563 - Huguenot Jean Poltrot de Méré shoots General François De Guise

● 1564 - The artist Michelanglelo died in Rome.

● 1571 - A group of Spanish Jesuits in the Chesapeake Bay area, led by Fray Batista Segura, were murdered by the Indians they had come six months earlier to convert. The massacre led ultimately to the withdrawal of all Jesuits living in Florida as well.

● 1574 - Zeeland falls to Dutch rebels

● 1634 - Ferdinand II orders commander Albrecht von Wallenstein, execution

● 1678 - John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" was first published, in England. Bunyan was frequently imprisoned for preaching without a license. During these sequestered times, between 1660-72, Bunyan collected the ideas enabling him to pen this masterpiece of Christian literature.

● 1685 - Robert Cavelier, Sieur de LaSalle established Fort St. Louis at Matagorda Bay, and thus formed the basis for France's claim to Texas.

● 1688 - At a monthly meeting in Germantown, PA, a group of Quakers and Mennonites became the first white body in English America to register a formal protest against slavery. The historic "Germantown Protest" denounced both slavery and the slave trade.

● 1713 - French invade under Jacques Cassard on Curaçao

● 1745 - Bonnie Prince Charlie's troops occupy Inverness Scotland

● 1781 - Birth of Henry Martyn, Anglican missionary to Persia. Martyn first sailed for the East in 1805. His great linguistic gifts led him to translate the New Testament both into Hindustani and Arabic, before his premature death at 31.

● 1787 - Austrian emperor Jozef II bans children under 8 from labor

● 1797 - Trinidad is surrendered to a British fleet under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby.

● 1804 - 1st US land-grant college, Ohio University, Athens OH, chartered

● 1814 - Battle of Montereau occurs.

● 1815 - Treaty of peace with Great Britain proclaimed

● 1828 - More than 100 vessels destroyed in a storm, Gibraltar

● 1834 - 1st US labor newspaper, "The Man", published, New York NY

● 1839 - Detroit Boat Club forms (still exists today)

● 1841 - The first ongoing filibuster in the United States Senate begins and lasts until March 11.

● 1847 - Birth of Jean Baguet. French anarchist exiled to Switzerland to avoid arrest following demonstrations at Montceau-the-Mines in August 1882. Sentenced in absentia to five years prison.

● 1848 - Louis Comfort Tiffany, a craftsman and designer who made significant advancements in the art of glassmaking, was born.

● 1849 - 1st regular steamboat service to San Francisco CA starts: gold rush prospectors from east coast

● 1850 - California Legislature creates 9 Bay Area counties

● 1856 - The American Party (Know-Nothings) convene in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to nominate their first Presidential candidate, former President Millard Fillmore.

● 1857 - Insurrection of Chinese in Sarawak, Borneo

● 1861 - Arapaho and Cheyenne cede most of eastern Colorado, guaranteed to them forever in an 1851 treaty.

● 1861 - In Montgomery, Alabama, Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the provisional President of the Confederate States of America.

● 1861 - With the Italian unification almost complete, King Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont, Savoy and Sardinia assumes the title of King of Italy.

● 1865 - In the U.S., Delaware voters reject the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and vote to continue the practice of slavery. (Delaware finally ratifies the amendment on February 12, 1901.)

● 1865 - Evacuation of Charleston SC; Sherman's troops burn the city

● 1865 - Union troops force Confederates to abandon Fort Anderson NC

● 1865 - Battle of Ft Moultrie SC occupied by Federals

● 1867 - Nonviolent resistance to Austrian oppression results in separate constitution, Hungary.

● 1867 - The Augusta Institute was founded in Georgia. Established as an institution of higher learning for black students, it moved to Atlanta in 1879, and in 1913 changed its name to Morehouse College.

● 1873 - House of Representatives reports on Credit Mobilers scandal. Reveals government allotted far more money than needed to subsidize the building of the Union Pacific Railroad. Credit Mobiler Corporation was then set up to build the railroad, and stock in it was gratefully sold, at a fraction of its true value, to the congressmen and government officials responsible for providing the excess grants.

● 1876 - Direct telegraph link established between Britain & New Zealand

● 1878 - The Lincoln County War begins in Lincoln County, New Mexico.

● 1879 - Arabs capture Egyptian premier Nabar Pasha

● 1884 - Moscow police seize all copies of anarcho-pacifist Leo Tolstoy's "What I Believe In" at the printers.

● 1884 - General Charles Gordon arrives in Khartoum

● 1885 - Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published for the first time.

● 1887 - Birth of Juan Peiro Belis (1887-1942), Barcelona. Spanish anarcho-syndicalist theorist and militant in the CNT. Peiro took refuge in France in 1939, but was extradited and shot in 1942 when he refused to collaborate with the Franco government.

● 1891 - Captain Archinard's army fights with Nyamina of Niger in West-Sudan

● 1896 - Cave of Winds at Niagara Falls goes almost dry for 1st time in 50 years

● 1899 - 80º F, San Francisco CA

● 1899 - San Francisco named as a port of dispatch for Army transports

● 1900 - Battle at Paardeberg, 1,270 British killed/injured

● 1900 - British troops occupy Monte Christo Natal

● 1900 - A San Francisco man claimed that X-rays had cured his cancer.

● 1901 - H Cecil Booth patented a dust removing suction cleaner

● 1901 - Winston Churchill makes his maiden speech in the British House of Commons.

● 1903 - Kuyper government launches anti strike laws

● 1908 - U.S. bars Japanese immigration.

● 1908 - 1st US postage stamps in coils issued

● 1911 - The first official flight with air mail takes place in Allahabad, British India, when Henri Pequet, a 23-year-old pilot, delivers 6,500 letters to Naini, about 10 km away.

● 1913 - Raymond Poincaré becomes President of France.

● 1915 - Germany begins a blockade of England

● 1916 - The anarchist brothers Enrique and Ricardo Flora Magon arrested at their Community Farm near Los Angeles. Enrique is beaten by the police and hospitalized. The brothers are charged with mailing articles inciting "murder, arson, and treason."

● 1918 - Germans invade Russia which is all but defenseless as virtually the entire army has deserted.

● 1919 - Fifty thousand strikers tie up Barcelona, Spain.

● 1921 - British troops occupy Dublin

● 1923 - Belgium Borinage-mine workers strike for higher wages

● 1924 - US, Minister of Marine Edwin Denby ends term due to Teapot Dome-scandal

● 1927 - US & Canada begin diplomatic relations

● 1929 - First Academy Awards are announced.

● 1930 - Photographic evidence of Pluto was discovered by Clyde W. Tombaugh at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz. Originally classified as a planet, the icy rock was downgraded to "dwarf planet" in 2006.

● 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.

● 1931 - Birth of Toni Morrison, African-American author, editor, and activist. Lorain, Ohio.

● 1932 - The Empire of Japan declares Manzhouguo (obsolete Chinese name for Manchuria) independent from the Republic of China.

● 1934 - Birth of Audre Lorde, New York City. African-American poet/essayist/autobiographer, passionate writer on lesbian feminism and racial issues.

● 1936 - The United States Patent Office grants design patent 98,617 to Frank A. Redford for the design of the Wigwam Motel.

● 1942 - Japanese troop land on Bali

● 1943 - 1st edition of Dutch resistance newspaper "Trouw"

● 1943 - The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose movement.

● 1943 - Joseph Goebbels delivers the Sportpalast speech.

● 1944 - Maastricht resistance fighter JAJ Janssen arrested

● 1947 - 24 die in a train crash in Gallitzin PA

● 1948 - Eamon de Valera resigns as Taoiseach of Ireland.

● 1951 - 3 City College of New York basketball players admit to accepting bribes

● 1951 - Nepál becomes a constitutional monarchy

● 1952 - Greece and Turkey became members of NATO.

● 1953 - The first 3D film, Bwana Devil, opens.

● 1953 - Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz sign an $8,000,000 contract to continue the I Love Lucy television series through 1955.

● 1954 - McCarthy hunts 'army Communists'; The Secretary of the US army orders two generals subpoenaed by anti-Communist senator Joseph McCarthy to ignore the summons.

● 1955 - Baghdad Pact signed, making Turkey & Iraq a defense alliance

● 1957 - Dedan Kimathi, a Kenyan rebel leader is executed by the British colonial government.

● 1959 - Jacques Doubinsky (1889-1959) dies. As a young Russian labor radical he joined the Ukrainian peasant uprising in 1918, fighting with the insurrectionary Makhnovist army. When betrayed and crushed by their one-time Bolshevik allies, Doubinsky went to Bulgaria, active with the anarchists. Arrested and tortured after Bulgaria's coup d'etat of 1923, he escaped to France.

● 1961 - Twenty thousand -- including 89-year old Bertrand Russell -- march against nuclear weapons, and 5,000 stage a sit-down at Ministry of Defence, in the Committee of 100's first public demonstration, London. The desperado Russell is jailed for seven days.

● 1962 - France & Algerian Moslems negotiate truce to end 7 year war

● 1964 - Papandreou government takes power in Greece

● 1965 - Civil rights worker Jimmie Lee Jackson is beaten and shot by state police in Marion, Alabama. He dies eight days later.

● 1965 - 27 copper miners die in avalanche, Granduc Mountain British Columbia

● 1965 - Gambia gains independence from Britain (National Day)

● 1968 - British adopt year-round daylight savings time

● 1968 - 10,000 demonstrators against US in Vietnam War in West-Berlin

● 1969 - Howard University building is seized and boycott starts. This follows on the heels of a law school protest the previous week.

● 1969 - Hawthorne Nevada Airlines Flight 708 disaster kills all on board.

● 1969 - PLO-attack El-Al plane in Zurich Switzerland

● 1969 - Lulu ties knot with Bee Gee; Hundreds of people clamour to see the marriage of popstars Lulu and Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees in a Buckinghamshire church.

● 1970 - US President Nixon launches "Nixon-doctrine"

● 1970 - Federal jury finds the "Chicago 7" innocent of conspiring to incite riots during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. However, five were convicted the next day of crossing state lines with intent to incite riots - Dellinger, Davis, Hayden, Hoffman, and Rubin. Attorneys William Kunstler and Leonard Weinglass sentenced for contempt of court. All appealed and all convictions reversed.

● 1972 - California Supreme Court ends that state's death penalty, finds capital punishment "cruel and unusual." Notable criminals whose lives were spared by the ban on executions are Charles Manson and Sirhan Sirhan.

● 1972 - Giulio Andreotti sworn in as premier of Italy

● 1973 - 54-kg octopus measuring 7 meter across captured in Hood Canal, Washington

● 1974 - NASA launches Italian satellite San Marcos C-2 (235/843 km)

● 1974 - US ambassador to India Daniel Moynihan presents $2,046,700,000 check

● 1975 - West Germany - Water cannons and batons disperse occupiers of nuclear power site, Wyhl.

● 1975 - Italy broadens abortion law

● 1975 - Israel Galan is born in the Canary Islands.

● 1977 - The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle goes on its maiden "flight" while sitting on top of a Boeing 747.

● 1978 - Belfast bomb suspects rounded up; Police in Northern Ireland arrest at least 20 people in connection with the La Mon restaurant bomb.

● 1979 - -52º F (-47º C), Old Forge NY (state record)

● 1979 - NASA launches space vehicle S-202

● 1979 - Snow falls in the Sahara Desert

● 1979 - President Zia ur-Rahmans National Party wins elections in Bangladesh

● 1980 - Pierre Elliott Trudeau's Liberal Party wins Canada's elections

● 1981 - Thatcher gives in to miners; Mrs. Thatcher's Conservative Government withdraws plans to close 23 pits in its first major U-turn since coming to power two years ago.

● 1983 - Thirteen people die and one is seriously injured in the Wah Mee Massacre in Seattle, Washington, said to be the largest robbery-motivated mass-murder in American history.

● 1984 - Revised concordat between Italy & the Vatican signed

● 1985 - Feb 18-21, South African police kill 18 demonstrators at Crossroads, near Capetown, injure 200. Before the month is out, they will kill another 69 on 25th anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre (1960). Also, some 1900 people are arrested in the US demonstrating against South African apartheid in last several months.

● 1987 - The executives of the Girl Scout movement decided to change the color of the scout uniform from the traditional Girl Scout green to the newer Girl Scout blue.

● 1988 - Anthony M Kennedy, sworn in as Supreme Court Justice

● 1991 - The IRA explodes bombs in the early morning at both Paddington station and Victoria station in London.

● 1996 - Bomb blast destroys London bus; Three people are feared dead after a bomb explodes on a London bus, nine days after the IRA ended its ceasefire.

● 1997 - Political prisoner Osman Murat Ulke is one of 12 Turkish activists charged with "alienating the people from the military."

● 1998 - Sportscaster Harry Caray died at age 83.

● 1998 - Two white separatists are arrested in Nevada and accused of plotting a biological attack on New York City subways.

● 1998 - In Russia, money shortages resulted in the shutting down of three plants that produced nuclear weapons.

● 2000 - The U.S. Commerce Department reported a deficit in trade goods and services of $271.3 billion for 1999. It was the largest calender-year trade gap in U.S. history.

● 2001 - Veteran FBI agent Robert Philip Hanssen was arrested, accused of spying for Russia for more than 15 years.

● 2001 - NASCAR legend Ralph Dale Earnhardt is killed in a crash during the last lap of the Daytona 500.

● 2003 - Nearly 200 people die in the Daegu subway fire in South Korea

● 2003 - Gaia Online founded by Derek Liu, Long Vo, Josh Gainsbrugh, and Rosann Yip.

● 2004 - Up to 295 people, including nearly 200 rescue workers, die near Neyshabur in Iran when a run-away freight train carrying sulfur, petrol and fertiliser catches fire and explodes.

● 2005 - The United Kingdom law banning fox hunting, hare coursing and other sports which kill wild mammals is enforced from this date.

● 2006 - A Hamas-dominated Palestinian parliament was sworn in.

● 2007 - Chinese New Year

● 2007 - 2007 NBA Allstar Game.

● 2007 - meteor shower by 9-12 p.m.

BIRTHS

● 1486 - Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Bengali saint, bhakti yoga developer

● 1516 - Queen Mary I (Tudor) of England (d. 1558)

● 1530 - Uesugi Kenshin, Japanese samurai and warlord (d. 1578)

● 1559 - Isaac Casaubon, French classical scholar (d. 1614)

● 1602 - Per Brahe (the younger), Swedish soldier (d. 1680)

● 1609 - Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, English historian (d. 1674)

● 1635 - Johan Göransson Gyllenstierna, Swedish statesman (d. 1680)

● 1642 - Marie Champmeslé, French actress (d. 1698)

● 1658 - Charles-Irénée Castel de Saint-Pierre, French writer (d. 1743)

● 1745 - Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist (d. 1827)

● 1783 - James Biddle, American career naval officer (d. 1848)

● 1814 - Samuel Fenton Cary, U. S. Congressman (d. 1900)

● 1835 - César Cui, Lithuanian composer (d. 1918)

● 1836 - Sri Ramakrishna, Bengali saint, guru of Swami Vivekananda (d. 1886)

● 1838 - Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist (d. 1916)

● 1846 - Wilson Barrett, English playwright (d. 1904)

● 1848 - Louis Comfort Tiffany, American glass artist (d. 1933)

● 1849 - Alexander Kielland, Norwegian author (d. 1906)

● 1857 - Max Klinger, German painter, sculptor and engraver (d. 1920)

● 1859 - Sholom Aleichem, Russian Yiddish humorist (d. 1916)

● 1862 - Charles M. Schwab, American entrepreneur who pioneered Bethlehem Steel (d. 1939)

● 1871 - Harry Brearley, English inventor (d. 1948)

● 1883 - Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek writer (d. 1957)

● 1884 - Andrew Watson Myles, Canadian politician (d. 1970)

● 1890 - Edward Arnold, American actor (d. 1956)

● 1890 - Adolphe Menjou, American actor (d. 1963)

● 1892 - Wendell Willkie, American politician (d. 1944)

● 1895 - George Gipp, American football player ("The Gipper") (d. 1920)

● 1896 - Andre Breton, French writer (d. 1966)

● 1898 - Enzo Ferrari, Italian race car driver (d. 1988)

● 1898 - Luis Muñoz Marín, Puerto Rican poet (d. 1980)

● 1899 - Sir Arthur Bryant, English historian and biographer (d. 1985)

● 1901 - Reginald Sheffield, British actor (d. 1957)

● 1901 - Wayne King, saxophonist, bandleader (d. 1985)

● 1903 - Nikolai Podgorny, President of the Soviet Union (d. 1983)

● 1905 - Jan Gies, Dutch resistance fighter (d. 1993)

● 1906 - Hans Asperger, Austrian pediatrician (d. 1980)

● 1907 - Oscar Brodney, American Screenwriter

● 1909 - Wallace Stegner, American writer (d. 1993)

● 1915 - Phyllis Calvert, British actress (d. 2002)

● 1919 - Jack Palance, American actor (d. 2006)

● 1920 - Bill Cullen, American game show host (d. 1990)

● 1920 - Eric Gairy, Grenadan politician (d. 1997)

● 1922 - Helen Gurley Brown, American editor

● 1922 - Allan Melvin, American actor

● 1924 - Humberto Fernández Morán, Venezuelan scientist (d. 1999)

● 1925 - George Kennedy, American actor

● 1927 - John Warner, American politician

● 1927 - Luis Arroyo, baseball player

● 1929 - Len Deighton, British author

● 1930 - Gahan Wilson, American cartoonist

● 1931 - Johnny Hart, American cartoonist

● 1931 - Toni Morrison, American writer, Nobel laureate

● 1931 - Bob St. Clair, American football player

● 1932 - Miloš Forman, Czech film director

● 1933 - Yoko Ono, Japanese-born singer

● 1933 - Bobby Robson, English football manager

● 1933 - Mary Ure, Scottish actress (d. 1975)

● 1936 - Jean Auel, American writer

● 1938 - István Szabó, Hungarian film director

● 1939 - Dal Maxvill, baseball player

● 1939 - Marek Janowski, Polish-born conductor

● 1941 - Herman Santiago, Singer (Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers)

● 1941 - Irma Thomas, Soul singer

● 1943 - Graeme Garden, Scottish writer

● 1944 - Pat Bowlen, owner of the Denver Broncos

● 1945 - Judy Rankin, American golfer

● 1947 - Dennis DeYoung, American musician (STYX)

● 1947 - Princess Christina of the Netherlands

● 1947 - Carlos Lopes, Portuguese athlete

● 1948 - Sinéad Cusack, Irish actress

● 1949 - Gary Ridgway, American serial killer

● 1950 - John Hughes, American director

● 1950 - Cybill Shepherd, American actress

● 1951 - Isabel Preysler, Spanish fashion designer

● 1952 - Maurice Lucas, American basketball player

● 1952 - Juice Newton, American singer

● 1952 - Randy Crawford, Singer

● 1953 - Larry Rust, Rock musician (Iron Butterfly)

● 1953 - Robbie Bachman, Canadian drummer (Bachman-Turner Overdrive)

● 1954 - John Travolta, American actor

● 1955 - Miles Tredinnick, English playwright

● 1956 - Ted Gärdestad, Swedish singer (d. 1997)

● 1957 - Marita Koch, German athlete

● 1957 - Vanna White, American game show presenter (''Wheel of Fortune'')

● 1958 - Giovanni Lavaggi, Italian racing driver

● 1958 - Gar Samuelson, American musician, drummer (d. 1999)

● 1960 - Greta Scacchi, Australian actress

● 1962 - Julie Strain, American actress

● 1964 - Matt Dillon, American actor

● 1965 - Dr. Dre, American rapper

● 1965 - Gregory Scott Johnson, American murderer (d. 2005)

● 1967 - Roberto Baggio, Italian footballer

● 1968 - Molly Ringwald, American actress

● 1968 - Tommy Scott, British musician (Space)

● 1969 - Alexander Mogilny, Russian hockey player

● 1969 - Jason Sutter, American drummer (Smash Mouth, American Hi-Fi)

● 1970 - Raine Maida, Canadian musician (Our Lady Peace)

● 1970 - Susan Egan, American actress

● 1973 - Claude Makélélé, French footballer

● 1974 - Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Tennis player

● 1974 - Jamey Carroll, baseball player

● 1975 - Sarah Brown, Actress

● 1975 - Keith Gillespie, Irish footballer

● 1975 - Gary Neville, English footballer

● 1977 - Sean Watkins, American guitarist and songwriter (Nickel Creek)

● 1978 - Josip Simunic, Croatian footballer

● 1979 - Tyrone Burton, Actor

● 1980 - Regina Spektor, Russian-born singer and songwriter

● 1980 - Nikolai Antropov, Kazakh hockey player

● 1981 - Andrei Kirilenko, Russian basketball player

● 1981 - Buddy Nielsen, American singer (Senses Fail)

● 1981 - Ivan Sproule, Irish footballer

● 1983 - Juelz Santana, American rapper

● 1983 - Jermaine Jenas, English footballer

● 1985 - Lee Boyd Malvo, American serial killer

● 1985 - Anton Ferdinand, English footballer

● 1986 - Marc Torrejón, Spanish footballer

● 1988 - Shane Lyons, Actor

● 1990 - Park Shin-hye, South Korean actress

● 1991 - Malese Jow, American actress

DEATHS

● 806 - Tarasius, Patriarch of Constantinople

● 814 - Angilbert, Frankish monk and confidant of Charlemagne

● 901 - Thabit ibn Qurra, Arab astronomer and mathematician (b. 826)

● 999 - Pope Gregory V

● 1139 - Prince Yaropolk II of Kiev (b. 1082)

● 1294 - Kublai Khan, Mongol Emperor (b. 1215)

● 1379 - Albert II of Mecklenburg

● 1405 - Tamerlane, Mongol Emperor

● 1455 - Fra Angelico, Italian artist (b. 1395)

● 1478 - George, Duke of Clarence, brother of Kings Edward IV of England and Richard III of England (executed) (b. 1449)

● 1535 - Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, astrologer and alchemist (b. 1486)

● 1546 - Martin Luther, German religious reformer (b. 1483)

● 1564 - Michelangelo Buonarroti, Italian artist (b. 1475)

● 1583 - Antonio Francesco Grazzini, Italian writer (b. 1503)

● 1654 - Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac, French writer (b. 1594)

● 1683 - Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem, Dutch painter (b. 1620)

● 1712 - Louis, Duke of Burgundy, heir to the throne of France (b. 1682)

● 1718 - Pierre Antoine Motteux, French-born English dramatist (b. 1663)

● 1743 - Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, last of the Medicis (b. 1667)

● 1748 - Otto Ferdinand Graf von Abensperg und Traun, Austrian field marshal (b. 1677)

● 1772 - Johann Hartwig Ernst, Count von Bernstorff, Danish statesman (b. 1712)

● 1778 - Joseph Marie Terray, French statesman (b. 1715)

● 1780 - Kristijonas Donelaitis, Lithuanian poet (b. 1714)

● 1788 - John Whitehurst, English clockmaker and scientist (b. 1713)

● 1803 - Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim, German poet (b. 1719)

● 1842 - Thomas Hazlehurst, English soap and alkali manufacturer (b. 1779)

● 1851 - Carl Gustav Jakob Jacobi, German mathematician (b. 1804)

● 1895 - Karl Abs, German professional wrestler

● 1911 - Billy Murdoch, Australian cricketer (b. 1854)

● 1931 - Milan Šufflay, Croatian politician (b. 1879)

● 1933 - James J. Corbett, American boxer (b. 1866)

● 1938 - David King Udall, American politician (b. 1851)

● 1942 - Albert Payson Terhune, American author (b. 1872)

● 1945 - Ivan Chernyakhovsky, Russian general (b. 1906)

● 1956 - Gustave Charpentier, French composer (b. 1860)

● 1957 - Henry Norris Russell, American astronomer (b. 1877)

● 1966 - Robert Rossen, American screenwriter, producer, and director (d. 1908

● 1967 - J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist (b. 1904)

● 1973 - Frank Costello, Italian-born gangster (b. 1891)

● 1977 - Andy Devine, American actor (b. 1905)

● 1978 - Maggie McNamara, American actress (b. 1928)

● 1981 - John Knudsen Northrop, American aircraft manufacturer (b. 1895)

● 1982 - Ngaio Marsh, New Zealand author (b. 1895)

● 1993 - Kerry Von Erich, American professional wrestler (b. 1960)

● 1993 - Jacqueline Hill, British actress (b. 1929)

● 1995 - "Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert, wrestler

● 1997 - Emily Hahn, American writer (b. 1905)

● 1998 - Harry Caray, baseball broadcaster (b. 1914)

● 1999 - Noam Pitlik, American actor and director (b. 1932)

● 2001 - Balthus, Polish-born painter (b. 1908)

● 2001 - Dale Earnhardt, American race car driver (b. 1951)

● 2001 - Eddie Mathews, baseball player (b. 1931)

● 2001 - Charles Trenet, French singer (b. 1913)

● 2003 - Isser Harel, Israeli Mossad leader (b. 1912)

● 2004 - Jean Rouch, French filmmaker and ethnologist (b. 1917)

● 2006 - Richard Bright, American actor (b. 1937)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Agatha Lin
● St. Angilbert
● St. Charalampias
● St. Colman of Lindisfarne
● St. Flavian of Constantinople
● St. Leo & Paregorius
● St. Lucius
● Bl. Martin
● St. Maximus
● St. Simeon, bishop of Jerusalem, martyr
● St. Simon
● St. Theotonius
● Bl. Fra Angelico, Florentine painter
● Bl. John Pibush
● Bl. William Harrington

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for February 5 (Civil Date: February 18)
● Martyr Agatha of Palermo in Sicily.
● Martyr Theodula of Anazarbus in Cilicia, and with her Martyrs Helladius, Macarius, and Evagrius.
● St. Polyeuctus, Patriarch of Constantinople.
● St. Theodosius, Archbishop of Chernigov.
● New-Martyr Anthony of Athens.
● New-Martyr Matushka Agatha of Belo-Russia (1938)
● New-Martyr Schemamonk Eugene (1939)
● New-Martyr Righteous Paramon (1941).
● Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos "Seeking Out of the Lost".
● Repose of RighteousMichael, Metropolitan of Serbia (1897).
● St. Leo I, the Great

● Christian:
● St. Angilbert
● St. Bernadette
● St. Constantia (St. Constance)

● Lutheran:
● Martin Luther, renewer of the Church

● Independence Day in The Gambia (1965)

● Pimps at Sea Day at Bungie Studios (2001)

● Chinese New Year-The Year of the Boar (2007)

● Iceland : National Bun Day

● Iran : Mohammed's Death

● Israel : Mother's Day

● Nepál : Constitutional Day (1951)

● Note: This Holiday is only applicable on a given "day of the week"
● US : Presidents' Day (formerly Washington's Birthday)-legal holiday - ( Monday )


Click on this LINK to see original Wikipedia list with many having links with details.

Additional facts taken from:

On this day in the New York Times

The BBC’s Take on the day

On This Day Website

Geov Parrish's this Day in Radical History, things that happened on this day that you never had to memorize in school.

Scope Systems Any Day Website

Roman Catholic Saint of the Day

Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar

Permanent Backlink to Post