February 19......

February 19 is the 50th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 315 (316 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

● 197 - Roman Emperor Septimius Severus defeats usurper Clodius Albinus in the Battle of Lugdunum, the bloodiest battle between Roman armies.

● 356 - Emperor Constantius II shuts all heathen temples

● 607 - Boniface III becomes Pope.

● 842 - The Medieval Iconoclastic Controversy ended, when a Council in Constantinople formally reinstated the veneration of images (icons) in the churches. (This debate over icons is often considered the last event which led to the Great Schism between the Eastern and Western Churches.)

● 1401 - William Sawtree, first English religious martyr, burned, London.

● 1473 - Birth of astronomer Nicholas Copernicus. Blasphemer who foolishly postulated the theory that Man isn't the center of the universe.

● 1512 - French troops under Gaston de Foix occupy Brescia

● 1537 - Weavers of Leiden Netherlands strike

● 1539 - Jews of Tyrnau Hungary (then Trnava Czechoslovakia), expelled

● 1568 - Death of Miles Coverdale, 80, translator and publisher of the first complete Bible to be printed in English (1535). Coverdale was also editor of the Great Bible of 1539.

● 1574 - Spanish troops plunder Krommenie, Wormerveer & Jisp Netherlands

● 1582 - Francis of Valois becomes duke of Brabant

● 1594 - Having already inherited the throne of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth through his mother Catherine Jagellonica of Poland, Sigismund III of the House of Vasa is crowned King of Sweden, succeeding his father John III of Sweden.

● 1600 - The Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina exploded in the most violent eruption in the recorded history of South America.

● 1619 - Trial against Johan van Oldenbarnevelt begins in The Hague

● 1634 - Battle at Smolensk Polish king Wladyslaw IV beats Russians

● 1674 - England and the Netherlands sign the Peace of Westminster, ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War. A provision of the agreement transfers the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam to England, which renamed it New York.

● 1700 - Last day of the Julian calendar in Denmark

● 1797 - 1/3 of papal domain ceded to France

● 1803 - Congress accepts Ohio's constitution, statehood not ratified till 1953

● 1807 - British squadron under Admiral Duckworth forces passage of Dardanelles

● 1807 - In Alabama, Former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr is arrested for treason; later found innocent.

● 1812 - Congregational missionaries Adoniram Judson, 23, and his wife Ann, 22, first sailed from New England to Calcutta, India. (Judson eventually concentrated his labors in Burma.)

● 1819 - British explorer William Smith discovers the South Shetland Islands, and claims them in the name of King George III.

● 1831 - 1st practical US coal-burning locomotive makes 1st trial run, Pennsylvania

● 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 Texas' annexation by the United States.

● 1847 - In the eastern foothills of California's Sierra Nevada Mountains, a relief party reaches the Donner Party, finding only about half of the original 89 pioneers have survived. For the rest of their lives, memories of the harrowing experience would eat at them.

● 1852 - The Phi Kappa Psi fraternity is founded at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.

● 1856 - Tin-type camera patented by Hamilton Smith, Gambier OH

● 1858 - Leschi, chief of the Nisqually and Yakama, is hanged for leading attack on Seattle.

● 1859 - Dan Sickles is acquitted of murder on grounds of temporary insanity 1st time this defense is successfully used

● 1861 - Serfdom is abolished in Russia by Tsar Alexander II.

● 1869 - Death of Elizabeth Clephane, 39, an orphaned Scottish poet who left the Church with two hauntingly beautiful hymns: "Beneath the Cross of Jesus" and "The Ninety and Nine." (All of Clephane's poetry was published posthumously.)

● 1869 - US Assay Office in Boise ID authorized

● 1878 - The phonograph is patented by Thomas Edison.

● 1881 - Kansas became the first U.S. state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages.

● 1884 - Tornadoes in Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky & Indiana kill 800 people

● 1887 - Eduard Douwes Dekker (1820-1887), best known under his pseudonym, Multatuli (Latin, "I have suffered much"), dies in Germany. Great Dutch anarchist writer/novelist, a one-time civil servant who wrote the autobiographical novel "Max Havelaar," reflecting his disgust with Dutch colonialism and racism. Despised middle-class conformism, excoriating religion, the family, and prejudices of all kinds -- racist, sexist or sexual. Multatuli's ideas influenced the socialist and libertarian milieu of his time, and practising his libertarian ideals scandalized his contemporaries, living as he did with two women and their children.

● 1889 - Quileut Indian reservation (at La Push, WA) established.

● 1891 - Cecilia colony founded.

● 1900 - British troops occupy Hlangwane Natal

● 1903 - Birth of Kay Boyle, St. Paul, Minn. Novelist, short story writer, anti-war activist. In 1967, at the height of the Vietnam War protests, S.I. Hiyakawa, president of SF State University (and later U.S. Senator), publicly fired Boyle for her active role in the student protests. She was 65 years old. As an American expatriate writing in Paris in the '20s and '30s, a journalist documenting the fall of France in the '40s for the New Yorker, a blacklisted writer in the '50s, an anti-war activist and essayist in the '60s and '70s, and founder of the San Francisco chapter of Amnesty International in the '80s, Kay Boyle's literary and political career is a chronicle of the events and concerns of the 20th century.

● 1906 - W K Kellogg & Charles D Bolin incorporate Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company, Battle Creek MI

● 1910 - Three hundred street cars destroyed during Philadelphia transit strike.

● 1912 - In the Bread and Roses textile strike in Lawrence, Mass., 200 police draw their clubs and go after 100 women pickets, knocking them to the ground and beating them. As the police clubbing become more frequent and violent, strike leader Big Bill Haywood urges the women not to picket. Instead of agreeing, an Italian woman suggests (quote) - "Tomorrow morning, man no go on picket line. All man, boy stay home, sleep. Only woman, girl on picket line tomorrow morning. Soldier and policeman no beat woman, girl. You see, I got big belly, she too got big belly. Policeman no beat us." The next morning, however, the women are beaten so badly that the Italian woman who spoke, and Bertha Crouse, another pregnant striker, lose their babies and almost die.

● 1912 – Stan Kenton, the American bandleader who was an innovator in the progressive jazz style of the 1950's, was born.

● 1913 - Prizes are included in Cracker Jack candy boxes for the first time.

● 1913 - Mexican General V Huerta takes power with US support

● 1915 - British fleet fire on Dardanellen coast

● 1915 - World War I: The Battle of Gallipoli began.

● 1919 - First Pan African Congress held, in Paris, organized by W.E.B. DuBois.

● 1920 - John Creaghe dies in Washington DC. Doctor and Irish anarchist. Active in the U.S., England, and Argentina. Participant in the Mexican Revolution.

● 1920 - Netherlands joins League of Nations

● 1927 - General strike against British occupiers in Shanghai

● 1929 - Medical diathermy machine 1st used, Schenectady NY

● 1933 - Prussian minister Göring bans all Catholic newspapers

● 1934 - US contract air mail service canceled, replaced by US army for 6 months

● 1936 - Manuel Azaña becomes Spanish premier

● 1937 - During a public ceremony at the Viceregal Palace (the former Imperial residence) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, two Eritrean nationalists attempt to kill viceroy Rodolfo Graziani with a number of grenades. The Italian security guard fire indiscrimately into the crowd of Ethiopian onlookers. Over the following weeks the colonial authorities execute 30,000 persons in retaliation - including about half of the younger, educated Ethiopian population.

● 1938 - Soviet arctic ice research station North Pole 1 evacuated, Denmark

● 1941 - Nazis raid Koco Amsterdam & round up 429 young Jews for deportation

● 1941 - World War II: The Afrika Korps, the corps-level headquarters controlling the German Panzer divisions in North Africa, was formed.

● 1942 - World War II: nearly 250 Japanese warplanes attack the northern Australian city of Darwin killing anywhere from 243 to 1100 people.

● 1942 - 112,000 citizens of Japanese ancestry interned in U.S. concentration camps set up from this day, ten weeks after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. With the strong support of California Attorney General Earl Warren (later U.S. Supreme Court Justice), liberal journalist Walter Lippmann, and Time magazine -- which referred to California as "Japan's Sudetenland" -- FDR signs Executive Order 9066, authorizing the Secretary of War and military commanders "to prescribe military areas...from which any or all persons may be excluded." The order set the stage for the forced relocation of Americans of Japanese descent to concentration camps; they lose businesses, homes, and belongings to whites who take advantage of their plight.

● 1942 - New York Yankees announce 5,000 uniformed soldiers will be admitted free at each of their upcoming home games

● 1942 - Dutch actors protest obligatory membership of Culture Chamber

● 1942 - Japanese troop land on Timor

● 1943 - World War II: Battle of the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia begins.

● 1944 - 823 British bombers attack Berlin

● 1944 - U-264 sinks off Ireland

● 1945 - 900 Japanese soldiers reportedly killed by crocodiles in 2 days

● 1945 - Brotherhood Day-1st celebrated

● 1945 - The first wave of U.S. Marines storm onto the tiny volcanic island of Iwo Jima, a Pacific island located in bomber-range of the Japanese home islands. Six thousand Americans died in the following six weeks while capturing Iwo Jima; 17,200 were wounded. Almost all of the 22,000 Japanese defenders perished.

● 1947 - French anarcho-syndicalist Pierre Besnard dies.

● 1948 - Joe Ettor, IWW organizer, dies.

● 1949 - Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry by the Bollingen Foundation and Yale University.

● 1949 - Mass arrests of communists in India

● 1952 - French offensive at Hanoi

● 1953 - The State of Georgia approved the first literature censorship board in the U.S. Newspapers were excluded from the new legislation.

● 1955 - South East Asia Collective Defense Treaty goes into effect

● 1959 - Gabon adopts its constitution

● 1959 - USAF rocket-powered rail sled attains Mach 4.1 (4970 kph), New Mexico

● 1959 - Britain, Turkey & Greece sign agreement granting Cyprus independence

● 1960 - France becomes the world’s fourth nuclear power.

● 1960 - Protest strike in Poznan Poland

● 1961 – Lumumba rally clashes with UK police; Police battle with supporters of the murdered Congolese premier outside the Belgian embassy in London.

● 1961 - Albania disavows Chinese "Revisionism"

● 1962 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1963 - Ernest Armand, individualist anarchist, free love activist, dies. Jailed numerous times, including during WWI for advocating desertion, and internment camps during WWII.

● 1963 - USSR informs JFK it's withdrawing several thousand troops from Cuba

● 1964 - Paul Simon writes "The Sounds of Silence," the song which, in a year and a half, will catapult him and Art Garfunkel to stardom as Simon & Garfunkel.

● 1965 - Weekend of protests in 30 U.S. cities against escalation of war in Vietnam.

● 1968 – Damages for thalidomide children; The High Court awards compensation to 62 children born with thalidomide-induced deformities.

● 1968 - 1st US Teachers strike (Florida)

● 1968 - National Educational Television (the predecessor to the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States debuts the children's television program Mister Rogers' Neighborhood

● 1968 - Egyptian commando forces attempt to intervene in a hijacking situation at Larnaca International Airport, 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.

● 1969 - 1st Test flight of Boeing 747 jumbo jet

● 1970 - USSR launches Sputnik 52 & Molniya 1-13 communications satellite

● 1972 - Leech Lake band of Chippewa, Minnesota, wins right to hunt, fish, trap, and gather wild rice by tribal law.

● 1972 - Longest ILWU strike ends.

● 1976 - Four recruits die at Fort Dix, New Jersey of a new flu virus which is a hybrid of Asian flu with one that causes flu-like illness in pigs ("swine flu"). Worries about an epidemic similar to the 1918-19 swine flu epidemic, which affected 500,000 Americans. Big vaccination campaign started. The epidemic never materialized.

● 1976 - Frente Polisario forms Democratic Republic of Sahara

● 1977 - Shuttle Enterprise makes 1st test flight atop a 747 jetliner

● 1977 - France performs nuclear test at Muruora Island

● 1977 - Forty thousand demonstrate against nuclear power, Brokdorf, West Germany.

● 1978 – Egyptian forces die in Cyprus gunfight; At least ten Egyptian commandos are killed in a gun battle with Greek Cypriot soldiers at Larnaca airport.

● 1980 - Bon Scott (Ronald Belford Scott), lead singer of AC/DC, dies after a night of heavy drinking.

● 1981 - George Harrison is ordered to pay ABKCO Music $587,000 for "subconscious plagiarism" "My Sweet Lord" with "He's So Fine"

● 1982 - Hanneke Jelgersma (Jagersma?) installed as Netherlands' 1st Communist mayor

● 1982 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR

● 1982 - Ozzy Osbourne arrested for urinating on The Alamo.

● 1984 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR

● 1985 - Canned & bottled Cherry Coke introduced by Coca-Cola

● 1985 - Mickey Mouse was welcomed to China as part of the 30th anniversary of Disneyland. The touring mouse played 30 cities in 30 days.

● 1985 - Artificial heart patient William J. Schroeder becomes the first such patient to leave hospital.

● 1985 - Iberia Airlines Boeing 727 crashes into Mount Oiz in Spain, killing 148.

● 1985 - EastEnders first airs on televisions across the United Kingdom, on the first night of a major identity change for BBC1.

● 1986 - The Soviet Union launches the Mir space station.

● 1986 - U.S. Congress ratifies UN treaty outlawing genocide -- after 37 years. Between 1991-2000, 1,500 children under the age of 5 per month die in Iraq due to U.S.-imposed economic embargo of Iraq, according to the U.N.

● 1986 - Farm Labor Organizing Committee signs agreement with Campbell Soup Co., ending seven-year-old boycott. Campbell is later bought by a tobacco company.

● 1986 - Jordanian King Hussein severs ties with PLO

● 1987 - A controversial, anti-smoking ad aired for the first time on television. It featured Yul Brynner who died shortly after of lung cancer.

● 1987 - Minnesota sheriff office arrest FBI most wanted, Thomas G Harrelson

● 1987 - Reagan lifts trade boycott against Poland

● 1988 - Passaic County (N.J.) Prosecutor's Office files motion to dismiss the 1966 murder indictments against Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, championed in the song "Hurricane" by Bob Dylan.

● 1990 - Students at Tennessee State University, a primarily African-American school, sit in to demand equal funding. Nashville, TN.

● 1990 - Police kill 8 demonstrators for multi party system in Nepal

● 1990 - Soyuz TM-9 lands

● 1991 - Six thousand rally against Gulf War, Brisbane, Australia.

● 1992 - North and South Korea sign nuclear weapons ban.

● 1996 - Ten thousand gather at the state capitol in Olympia, Wash., in a "Rally for Working Families" opposing cuts in social programs.

● 1997 - Twelve hundred rally in support of striking musicians union, forcing cancellation of opening night Disney production of "Beauty and the Beast" at 5th Ave. Theater in Seattle.

● 1997 - Seattle School District unexpectedly reverses itself after extensive community pressure and drops plans to allow corporate advertising in public schools.

● 1997 - Deng Xiaoping of China died at the age of 92. He was the last of China's major revolutionaries.

● 1998 - About 300 Ohio State Univ. students interrupt a CNN infomercial for the Clinton Administration's planned military strike on Iraq, both heckling White House representatives and peppering them with tough (and unanswered) questions. The PR debacle, broadcast live globally, galvanized anti-war efforts and may have single-handedly stopped the attacks.

● 1998 - Soyuz TM-26 lands

● 1998 - US hockey team destroys their rooms at Olympics village in Japan

● 2001 – Foot-and-mouth scare at UK abbatoir; A five-mile exclusion zone is placed around an abbatoir in Essex after a suspected case of foot-and-mouth disease is detected.

● 2001 - An Oklahoma City bombing museum is dedicated at the Oklahoma City National Memorial.

● 2002 - NASA's Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system.

● 2004 – Former Enron Corp. chief executive Jeffrey Skilling was charged with fraud, insider trading and other crimes in connection with the energy trader's collapse. (He was later convicted and sentenced to more than 24 years in prison.)

● 2004 – After sanctioning more than 2,800 gay marriages, the city of San Francisco sued the state of California, challenging its ban on same-sex marriages.

● 2004 - Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal is awarded an honorary knighthood in recognition of a "lifetime of service to humanity."

● 2005 – Eight suicide bombers struck in quick succession in Iraq in a wave of attacks that killed dozens.

● 2005 – The USS Jimmy Carter, the last of the Seawolf class of attack subs, was commissioned at Groton, Conn.

● 2006 - The Rolling Stones made the largest show open to the public of the world in Copacabana beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 1.3 million people went to the show.

BIRTHS

● 1473 - Nicolaus Copernicus, mathematician and astronomer (d. 1543)

● 1526 - Charles de L'Ecluse, Flemish botanist (d. 1609)

● 1552 - Melchior Klesl, Austrian cardinal and statesman (d. 1630)

● 1630 - Shivaji, founder of the Maratha Empire (d. 1680)

● 1660 - Friedrich Hoffmann, German physician and chemist (d. 1742)

● 1717 - David Garrick, British actor (d. 1779)

● 1722 - Tiphaigne de la Roche, French writer (d. 1774)

● 1743 - Luigi Boccherini, Italian composer (d. 1805)

● 1802 - Wilhelm Matthias Naeff, Swiss Federal Councillor (d. 1881)

● 1804 - Carl Freiherr von Rokitansky, German physician (d. 1878)

● 1804 - David Wark, Canadian politician (d. 1905)

● 1821 - August Schleicher, German linguist (d. 1868)

● 1833 - Élie Ducommun, Swiss journalist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1906)

● 1856 – Rudolf Stammler, German jurist and teacher (d. 1938)

● 1859 - Svante Arrhenius, Swedish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1927)

● 1865 - Sven Hedin, Swedish explorer (d. 1952)

● 1876 - Constantin Brancusi, Romanian sculptor (d. 1957)

● 1877 - Gabriele Münter, German painter (d. 1962)

● 1888 - José Eustasio Rivera, Colombian writer (d. 1928)

● 1893 - Sir Cedric Hardwicke, British actor (d. 1964)

● 1895 - Louis Calhern, American actor (d. 1956)

● 1897 - Alma Rubens, American actress (d. 1931)

● 1899 - Yury Olesha, Russian novelist (d. 1960)

● 1900 - Giorgos Seferis, Greek writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971)

● 1902 - Kay Boyle, American writer (d. 1992)

● 1904 - Havank, Dutch writer (d. 1964)

● 1911 - Merle Oberon, British actress (d. 1979)

● 1912 - Stan Kenton, American musician (d. 1979)

● 1912 - Saul Chaplin, American composer (d. 1997)

● 1913 - Prince Pedro Gastão of Orléans-Braganza, pretender to the title Emperor of Brazil

● 1914 - Jacques Dufilho, French comedian (d. 2005)

● 1916 - Eddie Arcaro, American jockey (d. 1997)

● 1917 - Carson McCullers, American author (d. 1967)

● 1920 - Jaan Kross, Estonian writer

● 1920 - George Rose, British music hall entertainer (d. 1988)

● 1920 - C. Z. Guest, American socialite (d. 2003)

● 1924 - David Bronstein, Ukrainian chess player

● 1924 - Lee Marvin, American actor (d. 1987)

● 1930 - John Frankenheimer, American film director (d. 2002)

● 1934 - Carole Eastman, American screenwriter (d. 2004)

● 1936 - Sam Myers, American musician and songwriter (d. 2006)

● 1936 - Marin Sorescu, Romanian writer and novelist (d. 1997)

● 1937 - Robert "Bilbo" Walker Jr., American blues guitarist.

● 1940 - Smokey Robinson, American musician

● 1940 – Carlin Glynn, Actress

● 1940 – Bobby Rogers, R&B singer (The Miracles)

● 1940 - Saparmurat Niyazov, President of Turkmenistan

● 1941 - David Gross, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

● 1942 - Paul Krause, American football player

● 1943 - Lou Christie, American singer

● 1943 - Tim Hunt, British biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

● 1943 - Homer Hickam, American author and retired NASA Engineer

● 1945 - Michael Nader, American actor

● 1946 - Karen Silkwood, American activist (d. 1974)

● 1947 - Tim Shadbolt, mayor of Invercargill, New Zealand

● 1948 - Pim Fortuyn, Dutch politician (d. 2002)

● 1948 - Tony Iommi, British musician (Black Sabbath)

● 1948 - Big John Studd, Professional wrestler

● 1949 - Dan Bunten, American software developer (d. 1998)

● 1950 - Andy Powell, British musician

● 1951 - Stephen Nichols, American actor

● 1951 - Tahir-ul-Qadri, Pakastani Islamic scholar

● 1952 - Amy Tan, American novelist

● 1952 - Rodolfo Neri Vela, Mexican astronaut

● 1953 - Massimo Troisi, Italian actor (d. 1994)

● 1954 - Socrates, Brazilian footballer

● 1955 - Jeff Daniels, American actor

● 1956 - Roderick MacKinnon, American biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

● 1956 – Dave Wakeling, Rock musician-singer (General Public, English Beat)

● 1956 - Kathleen Beller, American actress

● 1957 - Falco, Austrian singer (d. 1998)

● 1957 - Ray Winstone, British actor

● 1957 – Lorianne Crook, Talk show host

● 1960 - Andrew, Duke of York

● 1962 - Hana Mandlikova, Czech tennis player

● 1963 - Seal, British singer

● 1964 - Dmitri Lipskerov, Russian writer

● 1964 - Sonu Walia, Bollywood actress

● 1966 - Justine Bateman, American actress (''Family Ties'')

● 1966 - Paul Haarhuis, Dutch tennis player

● 1966 - Enzo Scifo, Belgian footballer

● 1967 - Benicio Del Toro, Puerto Rican actor

● 1969 - Burton C. Bell, American vocalist

● 1972 - Francine, American wrestler

● 1974 - Danny Doring, American wrestler

● 1975 – Daniel Adair, Rock musician (Nickelback)

● 1975 - Daewon Song, Korean Pro Skateboarder

● 1977 - Gianluca Zambrotta, Italian footballer

● 1978 - Immortal Technique, American rapper

● 1979 - Mariska, Finnish rapper

● 1979 - Clinton Morrison, Irish International footballer

● 1980 - Neleh Dennis, American Survivor contestant

● 1981 - Gil Reyes, American boxer

● 1981 - Nicky Shorey, English footballer

● 1983 - Vitas, Russian singer

● 1983 - Mika Nakashima, Japanese singer/actress

● 1985 - Haylie Duff, American singer/actress (''7th Heaven'')

● 1986 - Reon Kadena, Japanese model/actress

● 1986 - Maria Mena, Norwegian singer

● 1993 - Victoria Justice, American actress

DEATHS

● 197 - Clodius Albinus, Roman governor of Britain

● 1133 - Irene Ducaena, wife of Alexius I Comnenus (b. 1066)

● 1553 - Erasmus Reinhold, German astronomer and mathematician (b. 1511)

● 1605 - Orazio Vecchi, Italian composer (b. 1550)

● 1602 - Philippe Emmanuel, Duke of Mercoeur, French soldier (b. 1558)

● 1620 - Roemer Visscher, Dutch writer (b. 1547)

● 1622 - Sir Henry Savile, English educator (b. 1549)

● 1653 - Luigi de Rossi, Italian composer (b. 1597)

● 1663 - Adam Adami, German bishop and diplomat (b. 1603)

● 1670 - King Frederick III of Denmark (b. 1609)

● 1672 - Charles Chauncy, English-born president of Harvard College (b. 1592)

● 1709 - Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, Japanese shogun (b. 1646)

● 1716 - Dorthe Engelbrechtsdatter, Norwegian poet (b. 1634)

● 1789 - Nicholas Van Dyke, American lawyer and President of Delaware (b. 1738)

● 1799 - Jean-Charles de Borda, French mathematician, physicist, political scientist, and sailor (b. 1733)

● 1806 - Elizabeth Carter, English writer (b. 1717)

● 1837 - Georg Büchner, German playwright (b. 1813)

● 1873 - Vasil Levski, Bulgarian revolutionary (b. 1837)

● 1887 - Multatuli, Dutch writer (b. 1820)

● 1897 - Karl Weierstraß, German mathematician (b. 1815)

● 1916 - Ernst Mach, Austrian-Czech physicist and philosopher (b. 1838)

● 1927 - Robert Fuchs, Austrian composer (b. 1847)

● 1936 - Billy Mitchell, American general and military aviation pioneer (b. 1879)

● 1936 - Max Schreck, German actor (b. 1879)

● 1936 - Charles Harding Firth, British historian (b. 1857)

● 1942 - Frank Abbandando, American gangster (executed) (b. 1910)

● 1951 - André Gide, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1869)

● 1952 - Knut Hamsun, Norwegian author, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1859)

● 1957 - Maurice Garin, French cyclist (b. 1871)

● 1968 - Georg Hackenschmidt, wrestler (b. 1878)

● 1969 - Madge Blake, American actress (b. 1899)

● 1972 - John Grierson, Scottish documentary filmmaker (b. 1898)

● 1972 - Tedd Pierce, American animator (b. 1906)

● 1973 - Joseph Szigeti, Hungarian violinist (b. 1892)

● 1975 - Luigi Dallapiccola, Italian composer (b. 1904)

● 1977 - Mike González, baseball player (b. 1890)

● 1977 - Anthony Crosland, British politician (b. 1918)

● 1980 - Bon Scott, Australian musician (AC/DC) (b. 1946)

● 1983 - Alice White, American film actress (b. 1904)

● 1986 - Adolfo Celi, Italian actor (b. 1922)

● 1988 - André Frédéric Cournand, French-born physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1895)

● 1994 - Derek Jarman, British film director (b. 1942)

● 1996 - Charles O. Finley, American sports entrepreneur (b. 1918)

● 1997 - Deng Xiaoping, Chinese Communist leader and revolutionary (b. 1904)

● 1997 - Leo Rosten, American Yiddish writer and humorist (b. 1908)

● 1998 - John Acheson, actor

● 1998 - Grandpa Jones, American entertainer (b. 1913)

● 1999 - Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr, Iraqi Shiite leader (assassinated)

● 2000 - Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Austrian artist (b. 1928)

● 2001 - Priscilla Davis, American socialite (b. 1942)

● 2001 - Stanley Kramer, American director (b. 1913)

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

● 2003 - Johnny Paycheck, American singer (b. 1938)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Alvarez
● St. Alvarez of Corova
● St. Auxibius
● St. Barbatus
● St. Beatus
● St. Belina
● St. Boniface of Lausanne
● St. Odran
● St. Valerius
● St. Zambdas
● Bl. Lucy

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for February 6 (Civil Date: February 19)
● St. Bucolus, Bishop of Smyrna.
● Martyr Julian of Emesa.
● Virgin Martyr Fausta, and with her Evilasius and Maximus, at Cyzicus.
● Virgin Martyr Dorothy, two sisters Christina and Callista, and Theophilus, at Caesaria in Cappadocia.
● Virgin Martyrs Martha and Mary, and their brother Lycarion, in Egypt.
● St. Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople.
● Saints Barsanuphius the Great and John the Prophet, monks of Palestine.
● St. Dorothy, schema-nun of Kashin.

● Greek Calendar:
● Martyrs Faustus, Basil, Silvanus, and the holy Martyrs of Darion in Constantinople.
● St. John of Thebes, monk.
● St. James the Ascetic.
● Repose of Archbishop Theophanes of Poltava (1940).

● Christian:
● St. Conrad

● Chaoflux (Discordianism)

● Astrology: First day of sun sign Pisces

● Astrology: Can also be last day of sun sign Aquarius depending on the time of birth and the astrologer's viewpoint.

● Ethiopia : Martyr's Day (1930s)

● Gabon : Constitution Day (1959)

● These Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
● US : Presidents' Day (formerly Washington's Birthday)-legal holiday - ( Monday )
● World : Brotherhood Day (1934) - ( Sunday )


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