Today in History

On This Day In History, February 15th

2003 The largest peace demonstration in history takes place
Up to 30 million people in 600 cities around the world protested against the Iraq War.

2001 The first draft of the human genome is published
The human genome contains the complete human genetic information.

1989 The Soviet Union pulls out of Afghanistan
Despite their military superiority, the Soviet and Afghan armies did not succeed in breaking the Mujahideen insurgents' resistance.

1971 The United Kingdom and Ireland decimalize their currencies
Before the change, a pound sterling was made up of 240 pence, or 20 shillings.

1965 Canada adopts its current national flag showing a maple leaf
The leaf symbolizes the country's forests, the middle white stripe the arctic snow, and the red stripes the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
 

Births On This Day, February 15th 🎂

1954 Matt Groening
American animator, screenwriter, producer

1934 Graham Kennedy
Australian actor

1874 Ernest Shackleton
Irish explorer

1710 Louis XV of France

1564 Galileo Galilei
Italian astronomer, physicist

Deaths On This Day, February 15th 🪦

2005 Samuel T. Francis
American journalist

1988 Richard Feynman
American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

1965 Nat King Cole
American singer, pianist, television host

1928 H. H. Asquith
English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

1781 Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
German author, philosopher
 
On This Day In History, February 16th

2005 The Kyoto Protocol goes into effect
The global warming pact was ratified by 191 countries to date - excluding the United States.

1987 The first trial against John Demjanjuk begins in Jerusalem
Demjanjuk was falsely accused of being a particularly brutal Nazi guard dubbed “Ivan the Terrible”; in a separate trial in 2011, he was convicted by a German criminal court as an accessory to the murder of 27,900 people.

1985 Hezbollah is founded
The Lebanese political party and militant group is classified as a terrorist organization by several Western countries.

1959 Fidel Castro becomes Cuba's Prime Minister
Castro's rise to power came shortly after his “26th of July Movement” had overthrown dictator Fulgencio Batista in what became known as the Cuban Revolution.

1923 The burial chamber of Pharoh Tutankhamun is opened
Howard Carter's discovery is one of archaeology's best known, especially due to the myth of the “Curse of Tutankhamun” that was sparked by the death of Lord Carnarvon who was one of the first to enter the chamber.
 

Births On This Day, February 16th 🎂

1979 Valentino Rossi
Italian motorcycle racer

1954 Iain Banks
Scottish author

1941 Kim Jong-il
North Korean politician, 2nd Supreme Leader of North Korea

1898 Katharine Cornell
American actress, producer

1831 Nikolai Leskov
Russian author, playwright, journalist

Deaths On This Day, February 16th 🪦

2013 Tony Sheridan
English singer-songwriter, guitarist

2002 Walter Winterbottom
England football manager

1984 M. A. G. Osmany
Bangladeshi general

1957 Josef Hofmann
Polish/American pianist, composer

1932 Edgar Speyer
American/English financier, philanthropist
 
On This Day In History, February 17th

2008 Kosovo declares its independence
The region's secession from Serbia followed an armed conflict referred to as the Kosovo War.

1992 Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is jailed for life
Dahmer was convicted of murdering and dismembering at least 17 young men and boys.

1913 The “Armory Show” opens in New York
The art exhibition featured works by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Vincent van Gogh and marked the advent of artistic modernism in the United States.

1904 “Madama Butterfly” is premiered
Giacomo Puccini's opera, one of the world's most performed works of musical theatre, was poorly received in its first performance.

1863 A precursor of the Red Cross and Red Crescent is founded
The “Committee for Relief to the Wounded” was created by a group of citizens in Geneva, Switzerland.
 
Births On This Day, February 17th 🎂

1981 Paris Hilton
American model, actress, singer

1963 Michael Jordan
American basketball player, actor

1949 Fred Frith
English guitarist, composer

1904 Hans Morgenthau
German philosopher

624 Wu Zetian
Chinese empress

Deaths On This Day, February 17th 🪦

1998 Ernst Jünger
German author

1986 Jiddu Krishnamurti
Indian/American philosopher, author

1982 Thelonious Monk
American pianist, composer

1856 Heinrich Heine
German poet

1673 Molière
French playwright, actor
 
On This Day In History, December 18th

1978 Hawaii hosts the first Ironman Triathlon
Contestants have to swim 2.4 miles (3.86 km), bike 112 miles (180.25 km) and complete a marathon run measuring 26.2 miles (42.2 km).

1977 The Space Shuttle takes off on its maiden flight
The “Enterprise” was mounted on a Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft; the first free flight took place on August 12, 1977

1954 The first Church of Scientology is established
Despite many controversies, Scientology has gained thousands of members since its inception.

1943 The Gestapo arrests German resistance fighter Sophie Scholl and other White Rose activists
21-year-old student Scholl and her fellow campaigners were executed for having distributed flyers criticizing the Nazi regime.

1930 Pluto is discovered
Clyde W. Tombaugh discovered the dwarf planet when sifting through photographs taken a month earlier.
 
Births On This Day, February 18th 🎂

1974 Yevgeny Kafelnikov
Russian tennis player

1967 Roberto Baggio
Italian footballer

1954 John Travolta
American actor, singer, producer

1933 Yoko Ono
Japanese/American singer-songwriter

1838 Ernst Mach
Austrian physicist

Deaths On This Day, February 18th 🪦

1967 J. Robert Oppenheimer
American physicist

1906 John Batterson Stetson
American businessman founded the John B. Stetson Company

1564 Michelangelo
Italian painter, sculptor

1546 Martin Luther
German monk, priest, leader of the Protestant Reformation

1294 Kublai Khan
Mongolian Emperor
 
On This Day In History, February 19th

2008 Fidel Castro steps down as Cuba's president
Castro was 81 years old at the time and had been in power for 49 years.

1986 The “Mir” Space Station is launched
The Soviet vehicle was the world's first modular space station and remained in orbit for 15 years.

1985 Iberia Airlines Flight 610 crashes
All 148 people on board died in the accident that was blamed on pilot error.

1945 U.S. troops land on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima
The photo showing 4 marines erecting a U.S. flag on the island has become one of the best-known images of World War II.

1878 Thomas Edison patents the phonograph
It was the first machine able to reproduce recorded sound.
 

Births On This Day, February 19th 🎂

1963 Seal
English singer-songwriter

1957 Falco
Austrian singer-songwriter

1953 Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
Argentinian politician, 55th President of Argentina

1865 Sven Hedin
Swedish geographer, explorer

1473 Nicolaus Copernicus
Polish mathematician, astronomer

Deaths On This Day, February 19th 🪦

2001 Stanley Kramer
American director

2000 Friedensreich Hundertwasser
Austrian/New Zealand painter, and architect, designed the Kuchlbauer Tower, Waldspirale

1997 Deng Xiaoping
Chinese politician, diplomat

1952 Knut Hamsun
Norwegian writer, Nobel Prize laureate

1916 Ernst Mach
Austrian physicist
 
19th February

1408 The Battle of Bramham Moor in which King Henry IV defeated the rebellious Percy family. The death of Percy removed the threat of rebellion in the North of England and allowed Henry to focus more fully on Wales.

1674 England and the Netherlands signed the Treaty of Westminster, ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War. A provision of the agreement transferred the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam to England and it was renamed New York.

1819 British explorer William Smith discovered the South Shetland Islands, an archipelago lying about 75 miles north of the Antarctic Peninsula.

1910 Manchester United played its first game at Old Trafford. The Sporting Chronicle said "The most handsomest, the most spacious and the most remarkable arena I have ever seen. As a football ground it is unrivalled in the world, it is an honour to Manchester and the home of a team who can do wonders when they are so disposed."

1976 Iceland broke off diplomatic relations with the UK after the two countries failed to agree on limits in the ‘cod war’ fishing dispute.
 
On This Day In History, February 20th

1988 The Nagorno-Karabakh War is triggered by der Autonomous Oblast's secession from Azerbaijan
Today, Nagorno-Karabakh is a de facto independent state, but the territory is still internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.

1962 The first U.S. citizen to orbit the Earth lands safely in the Atlantic Ocean
John Glenn's 5-hour spaceflight came almost a year after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth on April 12, 1961.

1944 U.S. bombers attacked German aircraft manufacturing centres, in a bombing campaign that became known as the “Big Week”
The goal was to achieve air superiority to secure the invasion of Europe.

1913 Works to build Australia's capital city commence
Canberra is an entirely planned city and was chosen as the Australian capital as a compromise between rivals Sydney and Melbourne.

1877 Tchaikovsky's ballet “Swan Lake” is premiered
It is one of the world's best-known ballets.
 
Births On This Day, February 20th 🎂

1988 Rihanna
Barbadian/American singer-songwriter, actress

1967 Kurt Cobain
American singer-songwriter, guitarist

1951 Gordon Brown
Scottish politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

1927 Sidney Poitier
American actor, director

1819 Alfred Escher
Swiss businessman, politician

Deaths On This Day, February 20th 🪦

2005 Hunter S. Thompson
American journalist, author

1996 Toru Takemitsu
Japanese composer

1993 Ferruccio Lamborghini
Italian businessman created Lamborghini

1961 Percy Grainger
Australian composer

1895 Frederick Douglass
American author, activist
 
On This Day In History, February 22nd

2011 185 people are killed during an earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand
The quake, while having a magnitude of only 6.3, had one of the highest intensities ever recorded in an urban area (MM IX).

1986 The People Power Revolution begins in the Philippines
The nonviolent campaign resulted in the fall of President Ferdinand Marcos and the restoration of the country's democracy.

1983 The play “Moose Murders” flops spectacularly on Broadway
According to critic Frank Rich, “A visit to Moose Murders is what will separate the connoisseurs of Broadway disaster from mere dilettantes for many moons to come.”

1948 Czechoslovakia becomes a communist state following a coup d'etat
The country became a parliamentary republic following the non-violent “Velvet Revolution” in 1989 and was split into the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic in 1993.

1879 The first Woolworth store opens in Utica, New York
Frank Woolworth's five-and-dime retail stores became one of the world's most successful trading companies with branches in many countries around the world.
 
Births On This Day, February 22nd 🎂

1975 Drew Barrymore
American actress, director, producer, screenwriter

1932 Ted Kennedy
American politician

1900 Luis Buñuel
Spanish director, producer

1857 Heinrich Hertz
German physicist

1732 George Washington
American general, politician, 1st President of the United States

Deaths On This Day, February 22nd 🪦

1987 Andy Warhol
American artist

1983 Adrian Boult
English conductor

1958 Abul Kalam Azad
Indian activist, scholar, politician

1943 Sophie Scholl
German student, activist

1875 Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
French painter
 
On This Day In History February, 27th

2010 A massive earthquake strikes Chile
The tremor measured 8.8 on the Richter scale and left more than 500 people dead and thousands injured.

2002 A Muslim mob set fire to a train carrying Hindu pilgrims
The attack killed 59 people, including many women and children.

1943 Non-violent protests in Berlin prevented the deportation of 2000 Jews
The “Rosenstrasse protest” was carried out by the “Aryan” wives and relatives of detained Jewish men.

1933 Germany's parliament building is set on fire
The Nazis used the Reichstag fire to justify harsh repression against political opponents. The event is considered pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany.

1932 The neutron is discovered
English physicist James Chadwick was later awarded the Nobel Prize for his discovery.
 
Births On This Day, February 27th 🎂

1994 Hou Yifan
Chinese chess player

1934 Ralph Nader
American lawyer, author, activist

1932 Elizabeth Taylor
English/American actress

1902 John Steinbeck
American author, Nobel Prize laureate

1807 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
American poet

Deaths On This Day, February 27th 🪦

2011 Frank Buckles
American soldier

2008 William F. Buckley, Jr.
American publisher, author, founded the National Review

2002 Spike Milligan
Indian/Irish actor, singer, screenwriter, author

1989 Konrad Lorenz
Austrian zoologist, Nobel Prize laureate

1936 Ivan Pavlov
Russian physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate
 
27th February

1700 The island of New Britain (close to New Guinea) was discovered by William Dampier, English buccaneer, sea captain, author and scientific observer. He dubbed the island with the Latin name Nova Britannia.

1812 In his maiden speech to the House of Lords, poet, peer and politician Lord Byron became one of the few members of the establishment to defend the Luddites. He spoke specifically against the Frame Breaking Act of 1812 that applied the death penalty to machine breaking.

1868 Benjamin Disraeli became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

1999 While trying to circumnavigate the world in a hot air balloon, British pilots Colin Prescot and Andy Elson set a new endurance record after being in a hot air balloon for 233 hours and 55 minutes.

2023 The legal age of marriage in England and Wales was raised to 18 to protect the damaging impact of forced marriages. 16 and 17 year olds will no longer be allowed to marry or enter a civil partnership, even if they have parental consent.
 
On This Day In History, February 28th

2013 Pope Benedict XVI resigns
The pope whose birth name is Joseph Ratzinger was the first leader of the Catholic Church to resign since 1415.

1991 The first Gulf War ends
The armed conflict had lasted a little over half a year and claimed over 100,000 civilian casualties.

1986 Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme is assassinated
Even though over 130 people have confessed to the murder, the case has never been solved.

1975 A London underground train crashes into the end of the tunnel at Moorgate station
The Moorgate tube crash claimed 43 lives and was the deadliest accident in the London Underground during peacetime.

1935 Nylon is invented
Wallace Carothers first produced the polymer at the DuPont Experimental Station in Wilmington, Delaware, United States.
 

Births On This Day, February 28th 🎂

1953 Paul Krugman
American economist, Nobel Prize laureate

1948 Bernadette Peters
American actress, singer, author

1929 Frank Gehry
Canadian/American architect, designed 8 Spruce Street, Walt Disney Concert Hall

1901 Linus Pauling
American chemist, activist, Nobel Prize laureate

1894 Ben Hecht
American screenwriter, director, producer

Deaths On This Day, February 28th 🪦

2009 Paul Harvey
American radio host

2007 Billy Thorpe
English/Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer

1977 Eddie Anderson
American actor

1925 Friedrich Ebert
German politician, 1st President of Germany

1916 Henry James
American/English author
 
On This Day In History, February 29th

2012 The world's tallest tower is completed
The Tokyo Skytree measures 634 m (2080 ft). It is also the world's second tallest man-made structure, after Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

2004 Jean-Bertrand Aristide is removed as President of Haiti
The country's first democratically elected president was toppled in a coup d'etat following the assassination of a gang leader. Aristide went into exile in South Africa and returned to Haiti in 2011.

1996 The siege of Sarajevo is lifted after nearly 4 years
The siege of Bosnia and Herzegovina's capital during the Bosnian War was the longest-lasting siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare.

1996 A Boeing 737 crashes in the Andes, killing all 123 on board
A wrong barometric altimeter setting caused the pilots to fly too low during an approach to Rodríguez Ballón International Airport in Arequipa, Peru.

1940 Hattie McDaniel becomes the first black actor to win an Academy Award
She won Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mammy in the 1939 historical romance “Gone with the Wind”.
 
Births On This Day, February 29th 🎂

1964 Mervyn Warren
American singer-songwriter, producer

1960 Khaled
Algerian singer-songwriter

1916 Dinah Shore
American singer, actress

1904 Pepper Martin
American baseball player, manager

1792 Gioachino Rossini
Italian composer

Deaths On This Day, February 29th 🪦

2012 Davy Jones
English singer, actor

1956 Elpidio Quirino
Filipino politician, 6th President of the Philippines

1940 E. F. Benson
English writer

1928 Ina Coolbrith
American poet

1908 Pat Garrett
American sheriff
 
On This Day In History March 1st

1998 Titanic becomes the first film to gross $1 billion
James Cameron's epic account of the sinking of the Titanic had a budget of $ 200 million and grossed over $ 2 billion in the end.

1995 Internet giant Yahoo! is incorporated
The company was founded in January 1994 as Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web by Jerry Yang and David Filo.

1947 The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is formed
The IMF's primary goal of improving the economies of its member countries has frequently been overshadowed in the past by criticisms about the fund's alleged support of dictatorships and its negative impact on the environment.

1932 Aviator Charles Lindbergh's son is kidnapped
The toddler's abduction and death was one of the most publicized crimes of the century.

1896 Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity
The French physicist made his groundbreaking discovery while trying to prove his erroneous theory that phosphorescent uranium salts absorb sunlight and reemit it as X-rays.
 

Births On This Day, March 1st 🎂

1994 Justin Bieber
Canadian singer-songwriter, dancer

1944 Roger Daltrey
English singer-songwriter, producer, actor

1922 Yitzhak Rabin
Israeli politician, 5th Prime Minister of Israel, Nobel Prize laureate

1904 Glenn Miller
American trombonist, composer, bandleader

1810 Frédéric Chopin
Polish pianist, composer

Deaths On This Day, March 1st 🪦

2014 Alain Resnais
French director, cinematographer, screenwriter

1983 Arthur Koestler
Hungarian/English author, journalist

1980 Dixie Dean
English footballer

1912 George Grossmith
English actor, singer

1643 Girolamo Frescobaldi
Ferrarese pianist, composer
 

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