March 2......

March 2 is the 61st (62nd in leap years) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 304 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

● 871 - Battle at Marton: Ethelred van Wessex beats Danish invasion army

● 986 - Louis V becomes King of the Franks.

● 1121 - Dirk VI becomes count of Holland

● 1127 - Assassination of Charles the Good, Count of Flanders.

● 1458 - Hussite George van Podiebrad chosen king of Bohemia

● 1498 - Vasco da Gama's fleet visits Mozambique Island

● 1629 - English King Charles I leaces house of commons

● 1675 - Prince William III installed as Governor of Overijssel

● 1776 - Americans begin shelling British troops in Boston

● 1789 - Pennsylvania ends prohibition of theatrical performances

● 1791 - Long-distance communication speeds up with the unveiling of a semaphore machine in Paris.

● 1793 - Sam Houston, the first president of the Republic of Texas, was born near Lexington, Va.

● 1795 - Africans revolt in Fedon’s Insurrection against British rule of Grenada.

● 1799 - Congress standardizes US weights & measures

● 1807 - U.S. Congress passes act prohibiting importation of slaves. The first American slave ship, named Desire, sailed from Marblehead, Massachussetts, in 1637. Since then, nearly 15 million blacks have been transported as slaves to the Americas. The African continent, meanwhile, has lost 50 million human beings to slavery and related deaths. But today's Congressional prohibition will go unenforced due to the huge profits it would curtail. Another 250,000 slaves will be imported illegally before the Civil War.

● 1815 - Signing of Kandyan treaty by British invaders and Sri Lankan King.

● 1817 - 1st Evangelical church building dedicated, New Berlin PA

● 1819 - Territory of Arkansas organized

● 1819 - US passed its 1st immigration law

● 1820 - Birth of Eduard Douwes Dekker (1820-1887), best known under his pseudonym, Multatuli (Latin, "I have suffered much"). 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.

● 1824 - Interstate commerce comes under federal control

● 1829 - New England Asylum for the Blind, 1st in US, incorporated, Boston

● 1831 - John Frazee becomes 1st US sculptor to receive a federal commission

● 1836 - Texas Revolution: Declaration of independence of the Republic of Texas from Mexico. If only it had stayed that way.

● 1853 - Territory of Washington organized after separating from Oregon Territory

● 1855 - Alexander II becomes Tsar of Russia.

● 1858 - Frederick Cook, New Orleans, patents a cotton-bale metallic tie

● 1861 - Government Printing Office purchases 1st printing plant, Washington DC

● 1861 - US Congress creates Dakota & Nevada Territories out of the Nebraska & Utah territories

● 1861 - Emancipation reform of 1861 in Russia: Tsar Alexander II signed the emancipation reform into law, abolishing Russian serfdom.

● 1863 - Congress authorizes track width of 4'8½" for Union Pacific RR

● 1865 - Freedman's Bureau founded for Black Education, 1865

● 1865 - General Early's army is defeated at Waynesborough

● 1865 - Second Taranaki War: The Volkner Incident in New Zealand.

● 1866 - Excelsior Needle Company began making sewing machine needles.

● 1867 - Congress abolishes peonage in New Mexico

● 1867 - Howard University established

● 1867 - Jesse James-gang robs bank in Savannah MO, 1 dead

● 1867 - US Congress creates the Department of Education

● 1867 - US Congress passed the 1st Reconstruction Act

● 1868 - University of Illinois opens

● 1877 - Despite an apparent Democratic victory at the polls, the Electoral College, swayed by Republican bribery, selects Rutherford B. Hayes, a Republican, as President. Supporters of Democrat Samuel Tilden claim a stolen election. Sound familiar?

● 1888 - The Convention of Constantinople is signed, guaranteeing free maritime passage through the Suez Canal during war and peace.

● 1889 - Kansas passes 1st US antitrust

● 1893 - 1st federal railroad legislation passed; required safety features

● 1896 - Ethiopia defeats Italy in the Battle of Adwa, marking the first victory of an African nation over a colonial power.

● 1897 - U.S. President Cleveland vetoed legislation that would have required a literacy test for immigrants entering the country.

● 1899 - Congress allows railroad companies blanket approval for rights- of-way through Indian lands.

● 1899 - President McKinley signs bill creating Mount Rainier National Park (5th in US)

● 1899 - U.S. President McKinley signed a measure that created the rank of Admiral for the U.S. Navy. The first admiral was George Dewey.

● 1900 - The U.S. Congress voted to give $2 million in aid to Puerto Rico.

● 1901 - The Platt Amendment is passed by Congress. The amendment informs Cuba that U.S. troops will not be withdrawn. Cuba unofficially becomes a protectorate of the U.S.

● 1901 - Hawaii's 1st telegraph company opens

● 1903 - In New York City the Martha Washington Hotel opens, becoming the first hotel exclusively for women.

● 1904 - Greatest radical political organizer of all time, Dr. Seuss (Teodore Giesel), born, Springfield, Mass

● 1906 - A tornado in Missouri killed 33 and did $5 million in damage.

● 1907 - In Hamburg, Germany, dock workers went on strike after the end of the night shift. British strike breakers were brought in. The issue was settled on April 22, 1907.

● 1907 - General Louis Botha named premier of Transvaal

● 1908 - In New York, the Committee of the Russian Republican Administration was founded.

● 1908 - In Paris, Gabriel Lippmann introduced three-dimensional color photography at the Academy of Sciences.

● 1909 - Great Britain, France, Germany & Italy ask Serbia to set no territorial demands

● 1910 - 2 trains crash in snow storm in Wellington WA, 118 die

● 1915 - British Vice Admiral Carden begins bombing of Dardanelles forts

● 1915 - Vladmir Jabotinsky forms a Jewish military force to fight in Palestine

● 1917 - The enactment of the Jones-Shafroth Act grants Puerto Ricans, United States citizenship.

● 1917 - Tsar Nicholas II abdicates after a series of strikes and protests spread through Petrograd (St. Petersburg) and Moscow, Russia; the government lasts until October, when it is overthrown by the Bolsheviks.

● 1919 - The first Communist International meets in Moscow.

● 1921 - Kronstadt Provisional Revolutionary Committee forms, The Kronstadt Soviet was due to be renewed, and 16,000 showed up and the mass assembly adopted the Petropavlovsk resolution -- opposed only by two Bolsheviks.

● 1923 - Time magazine debuts

● 1925 - Japan's House of Representatives recognizes male suffrage

● 1925 - SDAP-Second-Faction (Dutch Socialists) of parliament demands drastic disarmament

● 1925 - Secretary of Agriculture approves first list of United States Numbered Highways

● 1929 - Congress creates Court of Customs & Patent Appeals

● 1930 - American missionary Gustav Schmidt, 39, opened the Danzig Instytut Biblijny in the Free City of Danzig (Gdansk), Poland. It was the first Pentecostal Bible institute established in Eastern Europe.

● 1930 - 1st US indoor glider flight, St Louis Terminal Building

● 1933 - Most powerful earthquake in 180 years hit Japan

● 1934 - Union Pacific tests light-weight high-speed passenger train, Omaha

● 1934 - Birthday of Dottie Rambo, contemporary gospel singer and songwriter. She has authored such country gospel favorites as "In the Valley He Restoreth My Soul," "Build My Mansion Next Door to Jesus" and "I Just Came to Talk With You, Lord."

● 1937 - U.S. Steel (now USX) begins to bargain with the CIO.

● 1937 - Mexico nationalizes oil

● 1938 - Landslides & floods cause over 200 deaths (Los Angeles CA)

● 1938 - Trials of Soviet leaders begins in the Soviet Union

● 1939 - The Massachusetts legislature voted to ratify the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution. These first ten amendments had gone into effect 147 years before.

● 1939 - Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli is elected Pope and takes the name Pius XII.

● 1940 - Elmer Fudd makes his debut in the cartoon Elmer's Candid Camera.

● 1940 - Soviet armies conquer Tuppura Island Finland

● 1941 - World War II: First German military units enter Bulgaria after it joined the Axis Pact.

● 1942 - Acting under Executive Order 9066, Lt. General John DeWitt proclaims all Japanese-Americans would be required to move away from the West Coast, and recommends, for their own good, they should do so voluntarily. (Any time a government uses the phrase "for their own good," big, big trouble is brewing.)

● 1942 - Admiral Helfrich departs Java for Ceylon

● 1943 - 1st transport from Westerbork Netherlands to Sobibor concentration camp

● 1943 - World War II: Battle of the Bismarck Sea - United States and Australian forces sink Japanese convoy ships.

● 1944 - Fumes from locomotive stalled in a tunnel suffocates 521 in Italy

● 1945 - Anne Frank dies in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

● 1945 - 8th Air Force bombs Dresden

● 1945 - King Michael of Romania gives in to Communist government

● 1946 - Dutch troops land on East Bali

● 1946 - Kingman Douglass, becomes deputy director of CIA

● 1946 - Ho Chi Minh is elected the President of North Vietnam.

● 1948 - U.S. Senate Chaplain Peter Marshall prayed: 'O God, forgive the poverty and the pettiness of our prayers. Listen not to our words but to the yearnings of our hearts. Hear beneath our petitions the crying of our need.'

● 1949 - Captain James Gallagher lands his B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II in Fort Worth, Texas after completing the first non-stop around-the-world airplane flight in 94 hours and one minute.

● 1949 - The first automatic street light was installed in New Milford, Conn..

● 1950 - Silly Putty invented

● 1953 - The Academy Awards are first broadcast on television by NBC

● 1955 - Months before Rosa Parks, teenager Claudette Colvin is arrested in Montgomery, Ala., for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white person.

● 1955 - King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia abdicates the throne in favor of his father, King Norodom Suramarit.

● 1956 - Morocco tears up the Treaty of Féz, declares independence from France

● 1956 - King of Jordan sacks British general; King Hussein of Jordan sacks the British commander of the Arab Legion in an effort to strengthen his own position within the Arab world.

● 1958 - 1st surface crossing of Antarctic continent is completed in 99 days

● 1958 - Yemen announces it will join the United Arab Republic

● 1959 - American Presbyterian apologist Francis Schaeffer wrote in a letter: 'Christianity is the greatest intellectual system the mind of man has ever touched.'

● 1962 - JFK announces US will resume above ground nuclear testing

● 1962 - Atmospheric nuclear weapons tests resumed by UK.

● 1962 - In Burma, the army led by General Ne Win seizes power in a coup.

● 1964 - Marlon Brando and Bob Satiacum are arrested at a "fish-in" at Frank's Landing, Washington, in support of Native American fishing rights.

● 1965 - The North Carolina legislature voted to bring Charlotte College into the UNC system, forming the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

● 1965 - Montcalm Community College in Sidney MI, founded

● 1966 - 215,000 US soldiers in Vietnam

● 1966 - A Canadian Pacific Airlines DC-8 crashes on landing at Tokyo's Haneda Airport in a thunderstorm one day before the crash of BOAC Flight 911 from the same location.

● 1967 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1968 - USAF displays Lockheed C-5A Galaxy, biggest plane in the world

● 1968 - USSR launches space probe Zond 4; fails to leave Earth orbit

● 1969 - Chinese-Russian borders fight (approximately 70 die)

● 1969 - In Toulouse, France the first test flight of the Concorde is conducted.

● 1970 - Rhodesia declares itself a republic, breaking its last links with the British crown.

● 1970 - American Airlines' 1st flight of a Boeing 747

● 1970 - Ian Smith declares Rhodesia a republic; Prime Minister of Rhodesia Ian Smith declares his country a republic, cutting its last link with the British Crown.

● 1970 - Supreme Court ruled draft evaders can not be penalized after 5 years

● 1971 - Oriental Student Union protesters occupy Seattle Central Community College.

● 1972 - Jean-Bédel Bokassa appoints himself President for life of Central African Republic

● 1972 - The Pioneer 10 spaceprobe is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida with a mission to explore the outer planets.

● 1973 - "Black September" terrorists occupy Saudi Embassy in Khartoum

● 1974 - Salvador Puig Antich, 24, dies, garrotted at Model de Barcelone despite international protests. Young anarchist militant in the guerilla MIL (Mouvement Iberique de Liberation) fighting the yoke of Francoism.

● 1974 - 1st class postage raised from 8¢ to 10¢

● 1974 - Grand jury concludes President Nixon is involved in Watergate cover-up

● 1977 - Libya amends constitution

● 1978 - Czech Vladimír Remek becomes the first non-Russian or non-American to go into space, when he is launched aboard Soyuz 28.

● 1979 - Over 1,100 Christian organizations combined to form the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA). This oversight agency was created to demonstrate to the public that religious groups wanted to make themselves accountable for the funds they raise and spend.

● 1981 - Aircraft hijacked by 3 Pakistani terrorists

● 1982 - Philip K. Dick dies, Santa Ana, California, American science fiction writer par excellence, known for creation of eerily prescient (so far) dystopias.

● 1982 - Terror group "The Illuminated Path" frees 260 prisoners in Peru

● 1983 - Compact Disc recordings developed by Phillips & Sony introduced

● 1983 - USSR performs underground nuclear test

● 1984 - Iran offensive against Iraq fails

● 1985 - The U.S. government approved a screening test for AIDS that detected antibodies to the virus that allowed possibly contaminated blood to be kept out of the blood supply.

● 1986 - Corazon Aquino was sworn into office as president of the Philippines. Her first public declaration was to restore the civil rights of the citizens of her country.

● 1986 - Protesters try to stop Land Rover motor company being sold to US

● 1987 - Chrysler acquires American Motors.

● 1988 - Dutch Liberal Party merged with SDP

● 1989 - Exxon Houston runs aground in Hawaii, spills 117,000 gallons of oil

● 1989 - Twelve European Community nations agree to ban the production of all chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by the end of the century.

● 1990 - Univ. of California-Berkeley campus police attack poetry reading at Barrington Hall co-op.

● 1990 - Nelson Mandela elected deputy President of the African National Congress.

● 1990 - Greyhound Bus goes on strike

● 1991 - Sri Lankan hardliner among 19 killed in blast; The Tamil Tigers are being blamed for the assassination of Sri Lanka's Deputy Defence Minister, Ranjan Wijeratne.

● 1991 - UN votes in favor of US resolutions for cease fire with Iraq

● 1991 - Battle at Rumaila Oil Field brings end to the 1991 Gulf War.

● 1992 - Rally against ethnic barricades, Sarajevo, Bosnia.

● 1992 - Uzbekistan joins the United Nations.

● 1992 - Moldova joins the UN.

● 1993 - Claudette Colbert, suffers a stroke at 89

● 1994 - Branch Davidian cult leader David Koresh promises to surrender if taped statement is broadcast; it is, but he doesn't

● 1994 - William Natcher, (Representative-Democrat-KY), casts his 18,401 & last consecutive vote

● 1995 - Russian anti-corruption journalist Vladislav Listyev was killed by a gunman in Moscow.

● 1995 - Proposal to reinstate death penalty loses in Iowa.

● 1995 - Last United Nations "peacekeepers" leave Somalia.

● 1995 - Ferry boat sinks off Sumbe Angola, 42+ killed

● 1995 - Space shuttle STS-67 (Endeavour 8), launches

● 1995 - Nick Leeson is arrested for his role in the collapse of Barings Bank.

● 1995 - Yahoo! is incorporated.

● 1996 - John Howard is appointed as Prime Minister of Australia.

● 1996 - Establishment of Ranabima Royal College, Kandy, Sri Lanka.

● 1996 - All members of Brazilian rock band Mamonas Assassinas die in a plane crash near São Paulo.

● 1997 - It was revealed that Vice President Al Gore had made fund-raising calls for the 1996 election on phones installed in government buildings for that purpose.

● 1997 - Soyuz TM-24 returns to Earth (Russia)

● 1998 - The U.N. Security Council endorses U.N. chief Kofi Annan's deal to open Iraq's presidential palaces to arms inspectors.

● 1998 - Images from the American spacecraft Galileo indicated that the Jupiter moon Europa has a liquid ocean and a source of interior heat.

● 2000 - In Great Britain, Chile's former President Augusto Pinochet Ugarte was freed from house arrest and allowed to return to Chile. Britain's Home Secretary Jack Straw had concluded that Pinochet was mentally and physically unable to stand trial. Belgium, France, Spain and Switzerland had sought the former Chilean leader on human-rights violations.

● 2002 - Eleven Israelis were killed in a Palestinian suicide bombing in Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox neighborhood.

● 2002 - U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda begins, (ending on March 19 after killing 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters, with 11 allied troop fatalities).

● 2003 - The first International Symposium on Taiwan Sign Language Linguistics is held at Chung Cheng University.

● 2003 - Over the Sea of Japan, there was a confrontation between four armed North Korean fighter jets and a U.S. RC-135S Cobra Ball. No shots were fired in the encounted in international airspace about 150 miles off North Korea's coast. The U.S. Air Force announced that it would resume reconnaissance flights on March 12.

● 2004 - NASA announced that the Mars rover Opportunity had discovered evidence that water had existed on Mars in the past.

● 2004 - Voters in the U.S. state of Georgia vote on a referendum concerning its Confederacy-derived flag.

● 2004 - War in Iraq: Al Qaeda carries out the Ashoura Massacre in Iraq, killing 170 and wounding over 500.

● 2004 - War in Iraq: A United Nations report from the weapons inspection teams states that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction of any significance after 1994, despite US President George W. Bush's and Prime Minister Blair's objection to the contrary before the invasion.

● 2005 - The number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq reached 1,500.

● 2006 - President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced a landmark civilian nuclear cooperation deal in New Delhi.

● 2006 - Sir Menzies Campbell is elected the new leader of the United Kingdom Liberal Democrats.

BIRTHS

● 1316 - Robert II of Scotland, (d. 1390)

● 1409 - John II of Alençon, French soldier (d. 1476)

● 1459 - Pope Adrian VI, Dutch - Elected Pope in 1522 (d. 1523)

● 1545 - Thomas Bodley, English diplomat and library founder (d. 1613)

● 1578 - George Sandys, English colonist and poet (d. 1644)

● 1705 - William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, Scottish judge and politician (d. 1793)

● 1760 - Camille Desmoulins, French journalist and politician (d. 1794)

● 1769 - DeWitt Clinton, American who presided over construction of the Erie Canal (d. 1828)

● 1770 - Louis Gabriel Suchet, French marshal (d. 1826)

● 1779 - Joel Roberts Poinsett, American statesman and botanist (d. 1851)

● 1793 - Sam Houston, President of the Republic of Texas (d. 1863)

● 1800 - Evgeny Baratynsky, Russian poet (d. 1844)

● 1810 - Pope Leo XIII, (d. 1903)

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

● 1824 - Bedřich Smetana, Czech composer (d. 1884)

● 1829 - Carl Schurz, German revolutionary and statesman (d. 1906)

● 1842 - Carl Jacobsen, Danish brewer and patron of the arts after whom the Carlsberg brewery was named (d. 1914)

● 1849 - Robert Means Thompson, U.S. naval officer (d. 1930)

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

● 1860 - Susanna M. Salter, Mayor of Argonia, Kansas (d. 1961)

● 1862 - John Jay Chapman, American poet, dramatist, and critic (d. 1933)

● 1862 - Boris Borisovich Galitzine, Russian physicist (d. 1916)

● 1876 - Pope Pius XII, Italian Pope (1939-58) (d. 1958)

● 1878 - William Kissam Vanderbilt II, member of the Vanderbilt family (d. 1944)

● 1886 - Willis O'Brien, American animator (d. 1962)

● 1900 - Kurt Weill, German composer (d. 1950)

● 1902 - Edward Condon, American physicist (d. 1974)

● 1902 - Moe Berg, baseball player and spy (d. 1972)

● 1904 - Dr. Seuss, American author (d. 1991)

● 1905 - Geoffrey Grigson, English poet, editor, and literary critic (d. 1985)

● 1908 - Walter Bruch, German engineer (d. 1990)

● 1909 - Mel Ott, baseball player (d. 1958)

● 1913 - Godfried Bomans, Dutch author and television personality (d. 1971)

● 1913 - Celedonio Romero, Spanish guitarist (d. 1996)

● 1913 - Mort Cooper, baseball player (d. 1958)

● 1914 - Martin Ritt, American director (d. 1990)

● 1917 - Desi Arnaz, Cuban-born actor, bandleader, and musician (d. 1986)

● 1917 - Jim Konstanty, baseball player (d. 1976)

● 1919 - Jennifer Jones, American actress

● 1919 - Tamara Toumanova, Russian ballerina and actress (d. 1996)

● 1921 - Ernst Haas, Austrian-born photojournalist (d. 1986)

● 1923 - Robert H. Michel, American politician

● 1926 - Murray Rothbard, American economist (d. 1995)

● 1927 - Roger Walkowiak, French cyclist

● 1930 - John Cullum, American actor and singer (''Northern Exposure'')

● 1931 - Mikhail Gorbachev, President of the Soviet Union, Nobel laureate

● 1931(30? NYT) - Tom Wolfe, American author

● 1935 - Al Waxman, Canadian actor (d. 2001)

● 1937 - Abdelaziz Bouteflika, President of Algeria

● 1938 - Ricardo Lagos, former President of Chile

● 1938 - Lawrence Payton, American singer and sngwriter (The Four Tops) (d. 1997)

● 1939 - Barbara Luna, Actress

● 1940 - Tony Croatto, Italian-born singer and composer (d. 2005)

● 1941 - David Satcher, 16th United States Surgeon General

● 1941 - Jon Finch, Actor

● 1942 - John Irving, American author

● 1942 - Lou Reed, American singer and guitarist

● 1942 - Peter Guber, American film producer

● 1942 - Luc Plamondon, French Canadian lyricist

● 1943 - Peter Straub, American author

● 1943 - Zygfryd Blaut, Polish football player

● 1944 - Uschi Glas, German actress

● 1948 - Rory Gallagher, Irish guitarist (d. 1995)

● 1948 - Jeff Kennett, Australian politician

● 1949 - Eddie Money, New York police officer and singer

● 1949 - JPR Williams, Welsh rugby player

● 1949 - Gates McFadden, American actress

● 1949 - Alain Chamfort, French singer

● 1950 - Karen Carpenter, American singer and drummer (d. 1983)

● 1951 - Cassie Yates, Actress

● 1952 - Mark Evanier, American writer

● 1952 - Laraine Newman, American actress and comedian (''Saturday Night Live'')

● 1953 - Russ Feingold, American politician

● 1955 - Ken Salazar, U.S. senator, D-CO

● 1955 - Shoko Asahara, Japanese religious leader

● 1955 - Jay Osmond, American musician (The Osmonds)

● 1956 - Mark Evans, Australian bassist (AC/DC)

● 1956 - John Cowsill, American keyboardist and vocalist (The Cowsills)

● 1958 - Ian Woosnam, Welsh golfer

● 1959 - Larry Stewart, Country singer (Restless Heart)

● 1961 - Simone Young, Australian conductor

● 1962 - Morioka Hiroyuki, Japanese writer

● 1962 - Jon Bon Jovi, American singer, songwriter, and actor

● 1962 - Raimo Summanen, Finnish ice hockey player and coach

● 1963 - Tuff Hedeman, 4-Time PRCA World Champion Bull Rider

● 1964 - Megan Leigh, American pornstar (d. 1990)

● 1964 - Mike Von Erich, professional wrestler

● 1965 - Ron Gant, baseball player

● 1968 - Daniel Craig, English actor

● 1971 - Elizabeth Lackey, American actress

● 1972 - Amber Smith, American actress and model

● 1973 - Trevor Sinclair, English footballer

● 1974 - Monika Niederstätter, Italian athlete

● 1976 - Casey, Rock musician (Jimmie's Chicken Shack)

● 1977 - Chris Martin, British musician (Coldplay)

● 1977 - Heather McComb, American actress (''Party of Five'')

● 1977 - Andrew Strauss, English cricketer

● 1978 - Claudio Sanchez, American musician (Coheed and Cambria)

● 1978 - Giannis Skopelitis, Greek footballer

● 1979 - Damien Duff, Irish footballer

● 1980 - Édson Nobre, Angolan footballer

● 1981 - Bryce Dallas Howard, American actress

● 1981 - Lance Cade, professional wrestler

● 1982 - Kevin Kurányi, German footballer

● 1982 - Henrik Lundqvist, Swedish hockey

● 1982 - Ben Roethlisberger, American football player

● 1982 - Corey Webster, American football player

● 1985 - Robert Iler, American actor (''The Sopranos'')

● 1985 - Reggie Bush, American football player

● 1989 - Will Makar, American singer

DEATHS

● 855 - Lothair, King of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor (b. 795)

● 1316 - Marjorie Bruce, daughter of Robert I of Scotland (b. 1296)

● 1572 - Mem de Sá, Portuguese Governor-General of Brazil

● 1589 - Alessandro Cardinal Farnese, Italian cardinal (b. 1520)

● 1729 - Francesco Bianchini, Italian philosopher and scientist (b. 1662)

● 1730 - Pope Benedict XIII (b. 1649)

● 1755 - Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, French writer (b. 1675)

● 1758 - Pierre Guérin de Tencin, French cardinal (b. 1679)

● 1791 - John Wesley, English founder of Methodism (b. 1703)

● 1793 - Carl Gustaf Pilo, Swedish-born artist

● 1797 - Horace Walpole, English politician and writer (b. 1717)

● 1830 - Samuel Thomas von Sömmering, German physician (b. 1755)

● 1835 - Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1768)

● 1840 - Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers, German astronomer (b. 1758)

● 1865 - Carl Sylvius Völkner, German missionary to New Zealand (b. 1819)

● 1880 - Sir John MacNeill, Irish civil engineer (b. 1790)

● 1894 - William McMurdo, British army officer (b. 1819)

● 1895 - Berthe Morisot, French painter (b. 1841)

● 1895 - Isma'il Pasha, Governor of Egypt (b. 1830)

● 1921 - King Nicholas I of Montenegro (b. 1841)

● 1930 - D. H. Lawrence, English writer (b. 1885)

● 1938 - Ben Harney, American composer and pianist (b. 1871)

● 1939 - Howard Carter, British archaeologist (b. 1874)

● 1945 - Emily Carr, Canadian artist (b. 1871)

● 1946 - Fidél Pálffy, Hungarian Nazi (b. 1895)

● 1953 - Jim Lightbody, American runner (b. 1882)

● 1959 - Eric Blore, film actor (b. 1887)

● 1960 - Stanisław Taczak, Polish general, commander-in-chief of the Greater Poland Uprising (b. 1874)

● 1962 - Charles Jean de la Vallée-Poussin, Belgian mathematician (b. 1866)

● 1973 - Cleo A. Noel, Jr., US Chief of Mission to Sudan (b. 1918). See Khartoum diplomatic assassinations.

● 1974 - Salvador Puig Antich, Spanish anarchist (b. 1948)

● 1975 - Josiah Mwangi Kariuki, Kenyan politician (b. 1929)

● 1982 - Philip K. Dick, American author (b. 1928)

● 1987 - Randolph Scott, American actor and director (b. 1898)

● 1991 - Serge Gainsbourg, French singer (b. 1928)

● 1992 - Sandy Dennis, American actress (b. 1937)

● 1997 - Bloodshed, American rapper (b. 1975)

● 1999 - Dusty Springfield, English singer (b. 1939)

● 2001 - John Diamond, British journalist (b. 1953)

● 2003 - Hank Ballard, American musician (b. 1927)

● 2003 - Malcolm Williamson, Australian composer, (b. 1931)

● 2004 - Cormac McAnallen, Northern Irish Gaelic footballer (b. 1980)

● 2004 - Mercedes McCambridge, American actress (b. 1916)

● 2004 - Marge Schott, baseball team owner (b. 1928)

● 2005 - Rick Mahler, baseball player (b. 1953)

● 2005 - Martin Denny, American musician (b. 1911)

● 2006 - Milton Katims, American violist and conductor (b. 1909)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Agnes of Boheinia
● St. Chad
● St. Cynibild
● St. Fergna
● St. Gilstlian
● St. Jovinus & Basileus
● Martyrs of Campania
● St. Paul, Heraclius, and Companions
● St. Willeic
● Bl. Charles the Good

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for February 19 (Civil Date: March 2)
● St. Leo the Great, pope of Rome.
● St. Flavian the confessor, Patriarch of Constantinople.
● St. Agapitus, Bishop of Synnada in Phrygia, and Martyrs Victor, Dorotheus, Theodulus, and Agrippa, who suffered under Licinius.
● St. Cosmas, monk of Yakhromsk.
● New-Martyr Priest Alexander Medvedsky (1932) and Hieromonk Benjamin (1938).
● Commemoration of the New-Martyrs who suffered during the "Holy Night" in Petersburg (1932).

● Greek Calendar:
● Martyrs Leo and Parigorius of Patara in Lycia.
● Martyr Publius.

● Anglican:
● Chad, Bishop of Lichfield

● Lutheran:
● Charles Wesley
● John Wesley

● Bahá'í : Beginning of month of 'Alá (19 days of fasting)

● Burma: Peasant's Day

● Ethiopia: Battle of Aduwa Day (1896)

● Texas: Independence Day (1836)

● Morocco: Independence Day (1956)


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