February 24......

February 24 is the 55th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 310 (311 in leap years) days remaining in the year on this date.

By Roman custom February 24 is the day added to a leap year, and the occurrence of February 29 is merely a consequence of this.

{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

● 303 The first official Roman edict for the persecution of Christians was issued by Roman Emperor Galerius Valerius Maximianus.

● 1208 - St Francis of Assisi, 26, received his vocation in the Italian village of Portiuncula. He founded the Franciscans the following year, and is regarded by some Catholics as the greatest of all Christian saints.

● 1296 - Pope Boniface VIII degree Clericis Iaicos

● 1387 - King Charles III of Naples and Hungary is assassinated at Buda.

● 1389 - Battle at Falköping Danes defeat King Albert of Sweden

● 1496 - England's Henry VII ends commercial dispute with Flanders

● 1500 - Birth of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Reigning 1519-56, it was Charles who officially pronounced Martin Luther an outlaw and heretic.

● 1510 - Pope Julius II excommunicates the republic of Venice

● 1525 - Battle at Pavia Emperor Karel V's troops beat French king, François I caught taken/8700 killed

● 1527 - Ferdinand of Austria crowned as king of Bohemia

● 1528 - János Zápolyai, Hungarian king, recognizes Sultan Suleiman's suzerainty

● 1530 - 1st imperial coronation by a Pope, Charles V crowned by Clement V

● 1538 - Treaty of Nagyvarad between Ferdinand I and John Zápolya.

● 1541 - Santiago, Chile founded by Pedro de Valvidia

● 1552 - Privileges of the Hanseatic League in England are abrogated

● 1581 - Pope Gregory approves the results of his calendar reform commission

● 1582 - Pope Gregory XIII issued a papal bull, or edict, outlining his calendar reforms. (The Gregorian Calendar is the calendar in general use today.)

● 1597 - Flemish painter Frederick of Valckenborch becomes porter of Frankfurt-on-Main

● 1613 - English princess Elizabeth marries earl Frederik of Palts

● 1708 - Prince Johan Willem Friso sworn in as viceroy of Groningen

● 1711 - The London premiere of Rinaldo by George Friderich Handel, the first Italian opera written for the London stage.

● 1739 - Battle of Karnal: The army of Iranian ruler Nadir Shah defeats the forces of the Mughal emperor of India, Muhammad Shah.

● 1779 - George Rogers Clark captures Vincennes IN from British

● 1782 - Pioneer American Methodist bishop Francis Asbury wrote in his journal: 'It is my constitutional weakness to be gloomy and dejected; the work of God puts life into me.'

● 1786 - Charles Cornwallis appointed Governor-General of India

● 1793 - French troops conquer Breda

● 1803 - The Supreme Court of the United States, in Marbury v. Madison, establishes the principle of judicial review.

● 1804 - London's Drury Lane Theatre burns to the ground, leaving owner Richard Brinsley Sheridan destitute.

● 1807 - 17 die & 15 wounded in a crush to witness execution of Holloway, Heggerty & Elizabeth Godfrey in England

● 1821 - Mexico gains independence from Spain

● 1826 - The signing of the Treaty of Yandaboo marks the end of the First Burmese War.

● 1831 - The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, the first removal treaty in accordance with the Indian Removal Act, is proclaimed. The Choctaws in Mississippi cede land east of the river in exchange for payment and land in the West.

● 1835 - Siwinowe Kesibwi (Shawnee Sun) is 1st Indian language monthly magazine

● 1836 - 3,000 Mexicans attack 182 Texans at the Alamo, lasts 13 days

● 1839 - William Otis receives a patent for the steam shovel.

● 1848 - The Communist Manifesto was published.

● 1848 - King Louis-Philippe abdicates, 2nd French republic declared

● 1849 - Birth of Nicolas Thomassin (1849-1919), Ardennes. French weaver, socialist, anarchist.

● 1855 - In unprovoked attack, Capt. R.G. Ewell destroys Mescalero Apache village near White Mountains, in what is now New Mexico.

● 1855 - US Court of Claims established for cases against the government

● 1857 - 1st perforated US postage stamps delivered to the government

● 1863 - Arizona is organized as a United States territory.

● 1863 - Forrest's raid on Brentwood TN

● 1864 - Battle of Tunnel Hill GA (Buzzard's Roost)

● 1866 - In Washington, DC, an American flag made entirely of American bunting was displayed for the first time.

● 1868 - The first parade to have floats is staged at Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Louisiana.

● 1868 - House impeaches Pres. Andrew Johnson by a vote of 126 to 47 on 11 counts after he attempted to remove Edwin M. Stanton from his position as Secretary of War. The first nine alleged violations were of the Tenure of Office Act, passed only nine months before in a specific attempt to tie Johnson's hands. He is later acquitted in the Senate. {This is the subject of JFK's Pulitzer winning book, "Profiles in Courage." The profiles are of the Senators that voted for acquittal.}

● 1881 - China and Russia sign the Sino-Russian Ili Treaty.

● 1881 - De Lesseps' Company begins work on Panamá Canal

● 1885 - Chester W. Nimitz, whose work as U.S. naval commander contributed greatly to the defeat of Japan during World War II, was born.

● 1888 - Louisville KY becomes 1st government in US to adopt Australian ballot

● 1891 - French troops under Captain Archinard occupy Diéna West Sudan

● 1894 - Nicaragua captures Tegucigalpa, Honduras (National Day, sort of)

● 1895 - Jose Marti, Cuban revolutionary begins liberation struggle against Spain.

● 1899 - Western Washington University is established.

● 1900 - New York City Mayor Van Wyck signed the contract to begin work on New York's first rapid transit tunnel. The tunnel would link Manhattan and Brooklyn. The ground breaking ceremony was on March 24, 1900.

● 1902 - Battle at Yzer Spruit Boer General De la Rey beats British

● 1903 - US signs agreement acquiring a naval station at Guantanamo Bay Cuba

● 1905 - Simplon tunnel in Switzerland completed

● 1909 - The Hudson Motor Car Company is founded.

● 1912 - Elizabeth Gurley Flynn leads Bread and Roses textile strike rally of 20,000 women, Lowell, Massachusetts. Police attack 150 children and their parents at the town railroad station. Many strikers are sending their kids to safe homes with friendly families in other cities. The exodus has generated so much publicity that Lawrence authorities have resolved to crush it. Today they force 35 women & their children into patrol wagons. After charging the women with neglect and handing jail sentences and fines to the organizers, the town fathers send 10 of the kids to the Lawrence poor farm. This prompts only more publicity, forcing Congress to investigate the strike. Sixteen children will testify, describing the poverty that led them to leave school and take jobs in the mill. The American Woolen Company will have no choice but to yield to the strikers' demands.

● 1917 - World War I: The U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom is given the Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany pledges to ensure the return of New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona to Mexico if that country declares war on the United States.

● 1917 - Russian revolution breaks out

● 1918 - Estonia: Declaration of independence from Russia.

● 1919 - New Federal Child Labor law passes; declared unconstitutional on 2 June 1924, a child labor law passed two years earlier had also been declared unconstitutional 3 June 1918.

● 1920 - Peace treaty gives Estonia independence

● 1920 - NSDAP begins at Hofbräuhaus Münich

● 1920 - The Nazi Party is founded.

● 1921 - 1st transcontinental flight in 24 hours flying time arrives Florida

● 1923 - Flying Scotsman goes into service

● 1923 - Mass arrests in US of Mafia

● 1924 - Greek parliament proclaims republic

● 1924 - Mahatma Gandhi released from jail

● 1925 - A thermite (magnesium) bomb is used for the first time to break up a 250,000-ton ice jam clogging the St. Lawrence River near Waddington, New York.

● 1928 - Birth of Michael Harrington, writer and activist on poverty and economic issues.

● 1933 - Final demonstration of German communist party in Berlin

● 1933 - League of Nations tells Japanese to pull out of Manchuria

● 1938 - A nylon-bristle toothbrush becomes the first commercial product (DuPont) to be made with nylon yarn.

● 1941 - 43 Geuzen resistance fighter trial opens in the Hague

● 1941 - Anti Nazi meeting at Noordermarkt Amsterdam

● 1942 - U.S. Army, mistaking a weather balloon that strayed over Los Angeles for a Japanese bomber, unleashes a saturation antiaircraft barrage. Three civilians are trampled to death in the attending panic, and dozens more injured by falling shrapnel.

● 1942 - The U.S. Government stopped shipments of all 12-gauge shotguns for sporting use for the wartime effort.

● 1942 - The Voice of America begins broadcasting.

● 1943 - General-Major Bradley flies to Algiers

● 1944 - Argentina coup by Juan Peron minister of war

● 1945 - Egypt & Syria declares war on Nazi-Germany

● 1945 - Manila freed from Japanese

● 1945 - Nazi occupiers begin state of siege

● 1945 - Egyptian Premier Ahmed Maher Pasha is killed in Parliament after reading a decree.

● 1946 - Juan Perón is elected president of Argentina.

● 1948 - Cold War: The Communist Party seizes control of Czechoslovakia.

● 1949 - V-2/WAC-Corporal 1st rocket to outer space, White Sands NM, 400 km

● 1949 - Israel & Egypt sign an armistice agreement

● 1950 -Labour wins slim majority; Clement Attlee returns as prime minister of Britain but with a single-figure majority.

● 1955 - Britain's big freeze; Deep snow and freezing temperatures continue to cause havoc across much of Britain.

● 1955 - Pact of Baghdad between Iraq & Turkey signed

● 1956 - In response to Alan Freed's rock and roll menace, police in Cleveland, Ohio invoke a 1931 ordinance barring people under the age of 18 from dancing in public unless accompanied by an adult.

● 1960 - Italian government of Segni falls

● 1961 - Explorer (10) fails to reach Earth orbit

● 1962 - Thirty occupy tax office in protest against nuclear war taxes. Bristol, Britain.

● 1962 - General mobilization in Indonesia over New-Guinea

● 1962 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1965 - District 1199 Health Care Workers becomes first U.S. labor union to oppose war in Vietnam.

● 1965 - East German President Ulbricht visits Egypt

● 1966 - David Miller and Russel Wills become first Seattle residents to refuse induction into armed forces to protest Vietnam war. Wills is later sentenced to two years in prison for his refusal.

● 1966 - Coup ousts President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana

● 1966 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1967 - Swiss Reformed theologian Karl Barth wrote in a letter: 'The statement that God is dead comes from Nietzsche and has recently been trumpeted abroad by some German and American theologians. But the good Lord has not died of this; He who dwells in the heaven laughs at them.'

● 1968 - 1st pulsar discovered (CP 1919 by Jocelyn Burnell at Cambridge)

● 1968 - Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive is halted; South Vietnam recaptures Hué.

● 1968 - End of 25-day Tet Offensive, in which Viet Cong demonstrate that the U.S. is not, contrary to its repeated claims, on the verge of winning the war.

● 1969 - Pennsylvania State University administration building is occupied.

● 1969 - Jimi Hendrix gives his final British concert

● 1969 - Mariner 6 launched for Mars fly-by

● 1970 - 29 Swiss Army officers die in avalanche (Reckingen, Switzerland)

● 1970 - National Public Radio is founded in the United States.

● 1971 - The All India Forward Bloc holds an emergency central committee meeting after its chairman, Hemantha Kumar Bose, was killed 3 days earlier. P.K. Mookiah Thevar appointed as the new chairman.

● 1971 - Algeria nationalizes French oil companies

● 1971 - UK restricts Commonwealth migrants; Commonwealth citizens lose their automatic right to remain in the UK under the government's new Immigration Bill.

● 1971 - Children battle riot police at Sourizuka, Japan. They get an education no school can provide them, with study groups, as they and their families fight for their lives against loss of their lands.

● 1972 - Daniel Berrigan released after 18 months of three-year term (part of the "Catonsville 9"); goes to Harrisburg, Pa., where his brother Phil Berrigan is on trial, also for anti-Vietnam War activities. Meanwhile, "Life" magazine has reported this month that "Today's high school generation is interested in security, stability, and comfort."

● 1974 - Pakistan officially recognizes Bangladesh

● 1975 - Hard rock band Led Zeppelin release the classic double album Physical Graffiti.

● 1976 - Cuba : national Constitution proclaimed.

● 1976 - Leonid Brezhnev opens 25th congress of CPSU

● 1977 - President Carter announces US foreign aid will consider human rights

● 1979 - War between North & South Yemen begins

● 1981 - Buckingham Palace announces the engagement of The Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer.

● 1981 - Jean Harris is convicted of murdering Dr. Herman Tarnower, the author of the bestselling The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet.

● 1982 - Lucien Tronchet (1902-1982), dies. Anarchist and Swiss trade unionist whose antifascist activities landed him in prison. As a youngster, he joined FOBB (Federation of Wood and Building Workers), and in May 19, 1928 helped instigate a wildcat strike which lasted 15 days and resulted in a reduction of working hours, minimum wages, etc. In the '30s Tronchet was in charge of the L.A.B. (League of Action of the Building Industry), implementing direct action against the owners. Went to Spain in 1936, fighting with the anarchist forces opposing Franco. In 1940 he was condemned to eight months of prison for antifascist activities. Following WWII, in addition to his militant union activities, he fought for abortion rights, antimilitarism, and creation of co-operatives. In the '70s he supported the Geneva squatters movement.

● 1983 - Three Canadian documentaries, including the Academy Award nominee "If You Love This Planet" are classified as "political propaganda" by the Justice Department.

● 1983 - A special commission of the U.S. Congress releases a report that condemns the practice of Japanese internment during World War II.

● 1983 - Dow Jones closes above 1100 mark for 1st time

● 1983 - USSR performs underground nuclear test

● 1984 - Nine "char-women" enter communications base to "clean" satellite dishes, Cornwall, Britain.

● 1984 - Iraq resumes air attack on Iran

● 1985 - Birendra, Bir Bikram Shah Dev crowned King of Nepal

● 1986 - Voyager 2, 1st Uranus fly-by

● 1987 - An exploding supernova was discovered in the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy.

● 1988 - South African apartheid regime bans the UDF

● 1988 - The Supreme Court of the United States sides with Larry Flynt's Hustler magazine by overturning a lower court decision to award Jerry Falwell $200,000 for defamation.

● 1989 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini offers a USD $3 million bounty for the death of The Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie.

● 1989 - United Airlines Flight 811, bound for New Zealand from Honolulu, Hawaii, rips open during flight, sucking 9 passengers out of the business-class section.

● 1989 - 150-million-year-old fossil egg (oldest dinosaur embryo) found

● 1989 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1991 - US & allies begin a ground war assault on Iraqi troops

● 1992 - Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain marries Courtney Love.

● 1995 - The Corona reconnaissance satellite program, in existence from 1959 to 1972, is declassified.

● 1995 - Dow-Jones hits record 4011.74

● 1996 - Cuba downs 2 US planes

● 1996 - The last occurrence of February 24 as a leap day in the European Union and for the Roman Catholic Church.

● 1997 - The U.S. The Food and Drug Administration named six brands of birth control as safe and effective "morning-after" pills for preventing pregnancy.

● 1997 - Deng Xiaoping, leader of China, cremated (died Feb 19th)

● 1997 - South Africa announces it is constructing largest modern day blimp

● 1998 - Comedian Henny Youngman died at age 91.

● 1998 - Elton John knighted

● 1999 - Lawrence report blasts 'racist' police; London's police force is "institutionally racist" says a report on the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence.

● 1999 - The State of Arizona executes Karl LaGrand, a German national involved in an armed robbery, in spite of Germany's legal action to attempt to save him.

● 1999 - A China Southern Airlines Tupolev TU-154 airliner crashes on approach to Wenzhou airport in eastern the People's Republic of China, killing 61.

● 2002 - The Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah end.

● 2003 - Basist Robert Trujillo joins Metallica after Jason Newsted left January 17, 2001

● 2004 - President George W. Bush urged approval of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

● 2005 - Pope John Paul II underwent an operation to insert a tube in his throat to relieve breathing problems.

● 2006 - South Dakota lawmakers approved a ban on nearly all abortions.

● 2006 - Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declares Proclamation 1017 placing the country in a state of emergency in attempt to subdue a possible military coup.

BIRTHS

● 1103 - Emperor Toba of Japan (d. 1156)

● 1304 - Ibn Battuta, explorer

● 1463 - Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Italian humanist (d. 1494)

● 1500 - Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1558)

● 1545 - Don John of Austria, military leader (d. 1578)

● 1557 - Mathias, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1619)

● 1597 - Vincent Voiture, French poet (d. 1648)

● 1619 - Charles Le Brun, French artist (d. 1690)

● 1622 - Johannes Clauberg, German theologian and philosopher (d. 1665)

● 1684 - Matthias Braun, Czech sculptor (d. 1738)

● 1693 - James Quin, English actor (d. 1766)

● 1709 - Jacques de Vaucanson, French inventor (d. 1782)

● 1723 - John Burgoyne, British general (d. 1792)

● 1774 - Prince Adolphus, 1st Duke of Cambridge (d. 1850)

● 1786 - Martin W. Bates. U.S. Senator from Delaware (d. 1869)

● 1786 - Wilhelm Grimm, German philologist and folklorist (d. 1859)

● 1824 - George Curtis, American author and editor (d. 1892)

● 1831 - Leo von Caprivi, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1899)

● 1836 - Winslow Homer, American artist (d. 1910)

● 1842 - Arrigo Boito, Italian composer (d. 1918)

● 1846 - Luigi Denza, Italian composer (d. 1922)

● 1848 - Andrew Inglis Clark, Tasmanian politician (d. 1907)

● 1849 - John Henry Comstock, American educator and researcher (d. 1931)

● 1852 - George Moore, English writer (d. 1933)

● 1866 - Pyotr Nikolaevich Lebedev, Russian physicist (d. 1912)

● 1874 - Honus Wagner, baseball player (d. 1955)

● 1877 - Ettie Rout, New Zealand activist (d. 1936)

● 1885 - Chester Nimitz, U.S. admiral (d. 1966)

● 1885 - Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Polish writer and painter (d. 1939)

● 1887 - Mary Ellen Chase, American scholar and writer (d. 1973)

● 1890 - Marjorie Main, American actress (d. 1975)

● 1897 - Henri Frankfort, American archaeologist (d. 1954)

● 1906 - Bennie Oosterbaan, American college football player and coach (d. 1990)

● 1909 - August Derleth, American writer (d. 1971)

● 1914 - Zachary Scott, American actor (d. 1965)

● 1914 - Ralph Erskine, British architect (Byker Wall) (d. 2005)

● 1919 - Árpád Bogsch, Hungarian turned American international civil servant (d. 2004)

● 1921 - Abe Vigoda, American actor (''Fish,'' ''Barney Miller'')

● 1921 - Douglass Watson, American actor (d. 1989)

● 1922 - Richard Hamilton, English painter

● 1922 - Steven Hill, American actor (''Law and Order'')

● 1923 - David Soyer, American cellist

● 1931 - Dominic Chianese, Actor-singer (''The Sopranos'')

● 1932 - Zell Miller, Former Georgia governor and senator

● 1932 - Michel Legrand, French composer

● 1932 - John Vernon, Canadian actor (d. 2005)

● 1934 - Bettino Craxi, Prime Minister of Italy (d. 2000)

● 1934 - Renata Scotto, Italian soprano

● 1934 - Linda Cristal, Argentina-born actress

● 1938 - James Farentino, American actor

● 1938 - Phil Knight, American sportswear manufacturer

● 1938 - Kathleen Margaret Richardson, Baroness Richardson of Calow, British Baroness and Methodist reverend

● 1940 - Pete Duel American actor (d. 1971)

● 1940 - Denis Law Scottish footballer

● 1942 - Joseph Lieberman, American politician and vice presidential candidate

● 1943 - George Harrison, British singer, guitarist and songwriter (The Beatles) (d. 2001)

● 1943 - Hristo Prodanov, Bulgarian mountaineer

● 1943 - Terry Semel, chairman and CEO of Yahoo!

● 1944 - Nicky Hopkins, British musician (d. 1994)

● 1946 - Barry Bostwick, American actor

● 1946 - Grigory Margulis, Russian mathematician

● 1947 - Rupert Holmes, English musician

● 1947 - Edward James Olmos, American actor

● 1948 - J. Jayalalithaa, Indian politician

● 1948 - Walter Smith, Scottish football manager

● 1948 - Dennis Waterman, British actor

● 1950 - Pete Duel, American actor (d. 1971)

● 1951 - Debra Jo Rupp, American actress (''That '70s Show'')

● 1951 - Helen Shaver, Canadian actress

● 1955 - Steve Jobs, American computer pioneer

● 1955 - Alain Prost, French race car driver

● 1956 - Paula Zahn, American journalist

● 1956 - Eddie Murray, former baseball player and Hall of Fame member

● 1958 - Sammy Kershaw, American musician

● 1958 - Plastic Bertrand, Belgian singer

● 1959 - Beth Broderick, American actress

● 1962 - Michelle Shocked, American musician

● 1962 - Teri Weigel, American pornography actress

● 1963 - Mike Vernon, Canadian ice hockey goalie

● 1964 - Andy Crane, British children's television presenter

● 1964 - Todd Field, American actor and film director

● 1966 - Billy Zane, American actor

● 1966 - René Arocha, baseball player

● 1968 - Mitch Hedberg, American comedian (d. 2005)

● 1970 - Jeff Garcia, American football player

● 1970 - Jonathan Ward, American television and movie actor

● 1971 - Pedro de la Rosa, Spanish Formula One driver

● 1973 - Chris Fehn, American percussionist (Slipknot)

● 1973 - Jordan Jovtchev, Bulgarian gymnast

● 1973 - Alexei Kovalev, Russian hockey player

● 1973 - Richard Clapp, baseball player

● 1974 - Simeon Rice, Football player

● 1974 - Bonnie Somerville, Actress (''NYPD Blue'')

● 1974 - Chad Hugo, American musician and producer (The Neptunes)

● 1974 - Karim Bagheri, Iranian football (soccer) player

● 1975 - Ashley MacIsaac, Canadian fiddler

● 1976 - Matt Skiba, singer/guitarist/songwriter (Alkaline Trio,Heavens)

● 1976 - Eric Griffin, American rock guitarist

● 1976 - Bradley McGee, Australian cyclist

● 1976 - Crista Flanagan, American television and stand-up comedian

● 1977 - Floyd Mayweather Jr, American boxer

● 1977 - Jason Akermanis, Australian footballer

● 1977 - Bronson Arroyo, baseball pitcher (Cincinnati Reds)

● 1978 - John Nolan, Straylight Run

● 1978 - Shinya, Japanese musician (Dir en grey)

● 1980 - Anton Gustafsson, better known as Anton Maiden. Infamous Swedish Iron Maiden fan (d. 2003)

● 1980 - Shinsuke Nakamura, Japanese professional wrestler

● 1981 - Lleyton Hewitt, Australian tennis player

● 1981 - Mohammad Sami, Pakistani cricketer (fast bowler)

● 1982 - Klára Koukalová, Czech tennis player

● 1983 - Brandon Brown, R&B singer (Mista)

● 1984 - Clivio Piccione, Monegasque racing driver

● 1987 - Daniel Reilly, British entrepreneur

● 1987 - Mayuko Iwasa, Japanese entertainer and model

DEATHS

● 616 - King Ethelbert of Kent

● 1525 - Guillaume Gouffier, seigneur de Bonnivet, French soldier

● 1563 - Francis, Duke of Guise, French soldier and politician (b. 1519)

● 1588 - Johann Weyer, Dutch physician and occultist

● 1666 - Nicholas Lanier, English composer (b. 1588)

● 1674 - Matthias Weckmann, German composer (b. 1616)

● 1685 - Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Carlisle, English politician and military leader (b. 1629)

● 1704 - Marc-Antoine Charpentier, French composer (b. 1643)

● 1714 - Edmund Andros, English governor in North America (b. 1637)

● 1721 - John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby, English statesman and poet (b. 1648)

● 1732 - Colonel Francis Charteris, known as "The Rape-Master General". (b. 1675)

● 1777 - King Joseph I of Portugal (b. 1714)

● 1779 - Paul Daniel Longolius, German encylopedist (b. 1704)

● 1781 - Edward Capell, English critic (b. 1713)

● 1799 - Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, German physicist (b. 1742)

● 1810 - Henry Cavendish, English scientist (b. 1756)

● 1812 - Etienne-Louis Malus, French physicist and mathematician (b. 1775)

● 1815 - Robert Fulton, American inventor (b. 1765)

● 1825 - Thomas Bowdler, English physician and editor (b. 1754)

● 1856 - Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky, Russian mathematician (b. 1792)

● 1914 - Joshua Chamberlain, Civil War hero for the Union on Little Round Top at the Battle of Gettysburg

● 1925 - Hjalmar Branting, Prime Minister of Sweden, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1860)

● 1953 - Gerd von Rundstedt, German field marshal (b. 1875)

● 1970 - Conrad Nagel, American actor (b. 1897)

● 1975 - Nikolai Bulganin, Premier of the Soviet Union (b. 1895)

● 1984 - Helmut Schelsky, German sociologist (b. 1912)

● 1986 - Tommy Douglas, Canadian politician (b. 1904)

● 1989 - Sparky Adams, Baseball player (b. 1894)

● 1990 - Tony Conigliaro, baseball player (b. 1945)

● 1990 - Malcolm Forbes, American publisher (b. 1917)

● 1990 - Sandro Pertini, Italian politician (b. 1896)

● 1990 - Johnnie Ray, American singer (b. 1927)

● 1991 - John Daly, South African game show host (b. 1914)

● 1991 - George Gobel, American comedian (b. 1919)

● 1993 - Bobby Moore, English footballer (b. 1941)

● 1994 - Dinah Shore, American actress and singer (b. 1916)

● 1998 - Antonio Prohias, Cuban-born cartoonist (b. 1921)

● 1998 - Henny Youngman, English-born comedian (b. 1906)

● 1999 - Andre Dubus, American writer (b. 1936)

● 2001 - Claude E. Shannon, American information theorist (b. 1916)

● 2002 - Leo Ornstein, Russian-born composer and pianist (b. 1912)

● 2003 - John Edward Christopher Hill, English historian (b. 1912)

● 2003 - Bernard Loiseau, French chef (b. 1951)

● 2004 - John Randolph, American actor (b. 1915)

● 2006 - Octavia Butler, American author and MacArthur Foundation Fellow (b. 1947)

● 2006 - Don Knotts, American actor (b. 1924)

● 2006 - John Martin, Canadian broadcaster (b. 1947)

● 2006 - Denis Twitchett, Cambridge scholar, and Chinese historian (b. 1925)

● 2006 - Dennis Weaver, American actor (b. 1924)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Adela
● St. Betto
● St. Edelbert
● St. John Theristus
● St. Matthias
● St. Modestus
● St. Montanus
● St. Sergius
● Bl. Ameel of Ter Duinen

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for February 11 (Civil Date: February 24)
● There are no entries for this date.

● Anglican, Lutheran:
● St. Matthias the Apostle (non-leap years)

● Regifugium, in the Roman calendar.

● Independence Day in Estonia (1918; the Soviet period is considered illegal annexation).

● Flag Day in México.

● Dragobete in Romania.

● Cuba : Baire Uprising

● Ghana : Liberation Day (1966)

● Indiana : Vincennes Day-George Clark's defeat of British (1779)

● This Holiday is only applicable on a given "day of the week"
● 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