February 18

Events

• 1229 - The Sixth Crusade: Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, signs a ten-year truce with al-Kamil, regaining Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem with neither military engagements nor support from the papacy.
• 1268 - The Battle of Wesenberg is fought between the Livonian Order and Dovmont of Pskov.
• 1332 - Amda Seyon I, Emperor of Ethiopia begins his campaigns in the southern Muslim provinces.
• 1478 - George, Duke of Clarence, convicted of treason against his older brother Edward IV of England, is executed in private at the Tower of London.
• 1637 - Eighty Years' War: Off the coast of Cornwall, England, a Spanish fleet intercepts an important Anglo-Dutch merchant convoy of 44 vessels escorted by six warships, destroying or capturing 20 of them.
• 1781 - Fourth Anglo-Dutch War: Captain Thomas Shirley opens his expedition against Dutch colonial outposts on the Gold Coast of Africa.
• 1791 - Congress passes a law admitting the state of Vermont to the Union, effective 4 March, after that state had existed for 14 years as a de facto independent largely unrecognized state.
• 1797 - French Revolutionary Wars: Sir Ralph Abercromby and a fleet of 18 British warships invade Trinidad.
• 1814 - Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Montereau.
• 1861 - In Montgomery, Alabama, Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the provisional President of the Confederate States of America.
• 1861 - With Italian unification almost complete, Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont, Savoy and Sardinia assumes the title of King of Italy.
• 1873 - Bulgarian revolutionary leader Vasil Levski is executed by hanging in Sofia by the Ottoman authorities.
• 1878 - John Tunstall is murdered by outlaw Jesse Evans, sparking the Lincoln County War in Lincoln County, New Mexico.
• 1885 - Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is published in the United States.
• 1900 - Second Boer War: Imperial forces suffer their worst single-day loss of life on Bloody Sunday, the first day of the Battle of Paardeberg.
• 1906 - Édouard de Laveleye forms the Belgian Olympic Committee in Brussels.
• 1911 - The first official flight with airmail takes place from Allahabad, United Provinces, British India, when Henri Pequet, a 23-year-old pilot, delivers 6,500 letters to Naini, about away.
• 1930 - While studying photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto.
• 1930 - Elm Farm Ollie becomes the first cow to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft and also the first cow to be milked in an aircraft.
• 1932 - The Empire of Japan creates the independent state of Manzhouguo free from the Republic of China and installed former Chinese Emperor Aisin Gioro Puyi as Chief Executive of the State.
• 1938 - Second Sino-Japanese War: During the Nanking Massacre, the Nanking Safety Zone International Committee is renamed "Nanking International Rescue Committee", and the safety zone in place for refugees falls apart.
• 1942 - World War II: The Imperial Japanese Army begins the systematic extermination of perceived hostile elements among the Chinese in Singapore.
• 1943 - World War II: The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose movement.
• 1943 - World War II: Joseph Goebbels delivers his Sportpalast speech.
• 1946 - Sailors of the Royal Indian Navy mutiny in Bombay harbour, from where the action spreads throughout the Provinces of British India, involving 78 ships, twenty shore establishments and 20,000 sailors
• 1947 - First Indochina War: The French gain complete control of Hanoi after forcing the Viet Minh to withdraw to mountains.
• 1954 - The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles.
• 1955 - Operation Teapot: Teapot test shot "Wasp" is successfully detonated at the Nevada Test Site with a yield of 1.2 kilotons. Wasp is the first of fourteen shots in the Teapot series.
• 1957 - Kenyan rebel leader Dedan Kimathi is executed by the British colonial government.
• 1957 - Walter James Bolton becomes the last person legally executed in New Zealand.
• 1965 - The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
• 1970 - The Chicago Seven are found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
• 1972 - The California Supreme Court in the case of People v. Anderson, invalidates the state's death penalty and commutes the sentences of all death row inmates to life imprisonment.
• 1977 - The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle is carried on its maiden "flight" on top of a Boeing 747.
• 1979 - Richard Petty wins a then-record sixth Daytona 500 after leaders Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough crash on the final lap of the first NASCAR race televised live flag-to-flag.
• 1983 - Thirteen people die and one is seriously injured in the Wah Mee massacre in Seattle. It is said to be the largest robbery-motivated mass-murder in U.S. history.
• 1991 - The IRA explodes bombs in the early morning at Paddington station and Victoria station in London.
• 2001 - FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union. He is ultimately convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
• 2001 - Sampit conflict: Inter-ethnic violence between Dayaks and Madurese breaks out in Sampit, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, ultimately resulting in more than 500 deaths and 100,000 Madurese displaced from their homes.
• 2003 - Nearly 200 people die in the Daegu subway fire in South Korea.
• 2004 - Up to 295 people, including nearly 200 rescue workers, die near Nishapur, Iran, when a runaway freight train carrying sulfur, petrol and fertilizer catches fire and explodes.
• 2007 - Samjhauta Express bombings occurred around midnight in Diwana near the Indian city of Panipat, 80 kilometres north of New Delhi, India.
• 2010 - WikiLeaks publishes the first of hundreds of thousands of classified documents disclosed by the soldier now known as Chelsea Manning.
• 2013 - Armed robbers steal a haul of diamonds worth $50 million during a raid at Brussels Airport in Belgium.
• 2014 - At least 76 people are killed and hundreds are injured in clashes between riot police and demonstrators in Kiev, Ukraine.

  Births

• 1201 - Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, Persian scientist and writer
• 1372 - Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Egyptian jurist and scholar
• 1486 - Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Indian monk and saint
• 1516 - Mary I of England
• 1530 - Uesugi Kenshin, Japanese daimyō
• 1543 - Charles III, Duke of Lorraine
• 1547 - Bahāʾ al-dīn al-ʿĀmilī, founder of Isfahan School of Islamic Philosophy
• 1559 - Isaac Casaubon, Swiss philologist and scholar
• 1589 - Henry Vane the Elder, English politician
• 1589 - Maarten Gerritsz Vries, Dutch explorer
• 1602 - Per Brahe the Younger, Swedish soldier and politician, Governor-General of Finland
• 1609 - Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, English historian and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer
• 1626 - Francesco Redi, Italian physician
• 1632 - Giovanni Battista Vitali, Italian violinist and composer
• 1642 - Marie Champmeslé, French actress
• 1658 - Charles-Irénée Castel de Saint-Pierre, French philosopher and author
• 1732 - Johann Christian Kittel, German organist and composer
• 1745 - Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist, invented the battery
• 1814 - Samuel Fenton Cary, American lawyer and politician
• 1817 - Lewis Armistead, American general
• 1836 - Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Indian mystic and yogi
• 1838 - Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist and philosopher
• 1846 - Wilson Barrett, English actor, playwright, and manager
• 1848 - Louis Comfort Tiffany, American stained glass artist
• 1849 - Alexander Kielland, Norwegian author, playwright, and politician
• 1850 - George Henschel, German-English singer-songwriter, pianist, and conductor
• 1855 - Jean Jules Jusserand, French historian, author, and diplomat, French Ambassador to the United States
• 1860 - Anders Zorn, Swedish artist
• 1862 - Charles M. Schwab, American businessman, co-founded Bethlehem Steel
• 1867 - Hedwig Courths-Mahler, German writer
• 1870 - William Laurel Harris, American painter and author
• 1871 - Harry Brearley, English inventor
• 1883 - Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek philosopher, author, and playwright
• 1885 - Henri Laurens, French sculptor and illustrator
• 1893 - Maksim Haretski, Belarusian prose writer, journalist and activist
• 1890 - Edward Arnold, American actor
• 1890 - Adolphe Menjou, American actor
• 1892 - Wendell Willkie, American captain, lawyer, and politician
• 1896 - Li Linsi, Chinese educator and diplomat
• 1898 - Enzo Ferrari, Italian race car driver and businessman, founded Ferrari
• 1898 - Luis Muñoz Marín, Puerto Rican poet and politician, 1st Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
• 1899 - Arthur Bryant, English historian and journalist
• 1903 - Nikolai Podgorny, Ukrainian engineer and politician
• 1905 - Queenie Leonard, English actress
• 1906 - Hans Asperger, Austrian pediatrician and academic
• 1909 - Wallace Stegner, American novelist, short story writer, and essayist
• 1914 - Pee Wee King, American singer-songwriter and fiddler
• 1915 - Phyllis Calvert, English actress
• 1916 - Jean Drapeau, Canadian lawyer and politician, 37th Mayor of Montreal
• 1919 - Jack Palance, American boxer and actor
• 1920 - Bill Cullen, American game show panelist and host
• 1920 - Rolande Falcinelli, French organist, pianist, composer, and pedagogue
• 1921 - Mary Amdur, American toxicologist and public health researcher
• 1921 - Oscar Feltsman, Ukrainian-Russian pianist and composer
• 1922 - Eric Gairy, Grenadan politician, 1st Prime Minister of Grenada
• 1922 - Helen Gurley Brown, American journalist and author
• 1922 - Allan Melvin, American actor
• 1925 - George Kennedy, American actor
• 1925 - Halit Kıvanç, Turkish journalist and sportscaster
• 1925 - Ghafar Baba, Malaysian politician
• 1926 - Wallace Berman, American painter and illustrator
• 1927 - Luis Arroyo, Puerto Rican-American baseball player, manager, and scout
• 1927 - Fazal Mahmood, Pakistani cricketer
• 1927 - John Warner, American captain, lawyer, and politician, 61st United States Secretary of the Navy
• 1928 - Rex Mossop, Australian rugby player and sportscaster
• 1929 - Len Deighton, English historian and author
• 1929 - André Mathieu, Canadian pianist and composer
• 1931 - Johnny Hart, American cartoonist, co-created The Wizard of Id
• 1931 - Toni Morrison, American novelist and editor, Nobel Prize laureate.
• 1931 - Swraj Paul, Baron Paul, Indian-English businessman and philanthropist
• 1931 - John Ryden, Scottish footballer, centre half
• 1931 - Bob St. Clair, American football player
• 1932 - Miloš Forman, Czech-American actor, director, and screenwriter
• 1933 - Yoko Ono, Japanese-American multimedia artist and musician
• 1933 - Bobby Robson, English international footballer, inside forward and international manager
• 1933 - Mary Ure, Scottish-English actress
• 1934 - Skip Battin, American singer-songwriter and bass player
• 1934 - Dave Dunmore, English footballer, centre forward
• 1934 - Audre Lorde, American poet, essayist, memoirist, and activist
• 1934 - Paco Rabanne, Spanish-French fashion designer
• 1936 - Jean M. Auel, American author
• 1938 - Manny Mota, Dominican baseball player, coach, and sportscaster
• 1938 - Sadanoyama Shinmatsu, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 50th Yokozuna
• 1938 - István Szabó, Hungarian director and screenwriter
• 1939 - Claude Ake, Nigerian political scientist and academic
• 1939 - Bobby Hart, American singer-songwriter
• 1939 - Marlos Nobre, Brazilian composer
• 1940 - Fabrizio De André, Italian singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1940 - Prue Leith, English restaurateur and journalist
• 1941 - Herman Santiago, Puerto Rican-American singer-songwriter
• 1941 - Irma Thomas, American singer
• 1943 - Graeme Garden, Scottish comedian, actor, and author
• 1944 - Pat Bowlen, American businessman
• 1945 - Judy Rankin, American golfer and sportscaster
• 1946 - Michael Buerk, English journalist
• 1947 - Dennis DeYoung, American singer-songwriter and keyboard player
• 1947 - Eliot Engel, American educator and politician
• 1948 - Sinéad Cusack, Irish actress
• 1948 - Bruce Francis, Australian cricketer
• 1948 - Keith Knudsen, American singer-songwriter and drummer
• 1949 - Gary Ridgway, American criminal, Green River Killer
• 1950 - Nana Amba Eyiaba I, Ghanaian queen mother and advocate
• 1950 - Cristina Ferrare, American model, actress, author, and television host
• 1950 - John Hughes, American director, producer, and screenwriter
• 1950 - Cybill Shepherd, American actress and singer
• 1951 - Queen Komal of Nepal
• 1951 - Isabel Preysler, Filipino-Spanish journalist
• 1952 - Randy Crawford, American jazz and R&B singer
• 1952 - Maurice Lucas, American basketball player and coach
• 1952 - Juice Newton, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1952 - Bernard Valcourt, Canadian lawyer and politician
• 1953 - Robbie Bachman, Canadian rock drummer
• 1953 - Derek Pellicci, English-Australian drummer
• 1954 - Charlie Fowler, American mountaineer, author, and photographer
• 1954 - Paul Rendall, English rugby player
• 1954 - John Travolta, American actor and producer
• 1955 - Cheetah Chrome, American musician
• 1955 - Miles Tredinnick, English singer-songwriter and playwright
• 1955 - Lisa See, American writer and novelist
• 1956 - Ted Gärdestad, Swedish singer-songwriter
• 1956 - Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgian businessman and politician, 10th Prime Minister of Georgia
• 1957 - Marita Koch, German sprinter
• 1957 - Vanna White, American model and game show host
• 1959 - Jayne Atkinson, English-American actress
• 1959 - James Metzger, American businessman and philanthropist
• 1960 - Andy Moog, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1960 - Greta Scacchi, Italian-Australian actress
• 1963 - Rob Andrew, English rugby player and cricketer
• 1964 - Matt Dillon, American actor and director
• 1964 - Paul Hanley, English drummer and songwriter
• 1965 - Dr. Dre, American rapper, producer, and actor
• 1966 - Phillip DeFreitas, Dominican-English cricketer
• 1967 - Roberto Baggio, Italian footballer
• 1967 - Colin Jackson, Welsh sprinter and hurdler
• 1968 - Molly Ringwald, American actress
• 1969 - Tomaž Humar, Slovenian mountaineer
• 1969 - Alexander Mogilny, Russian-American ice hockey player
• 1970 - Susan Egan, American actress and singer
• 1970 - James H. Fowler, American political scientist and author
• 1970 - Raine Maida, Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
• 1970 - Massimo Taibi, Italian footballer
• 1971 - Thomas Bjorn, Danish golfer
• 1971 - Merritt Gant, American guitarist
• 1972 - Fabian Picardo, Gibraltarian lawyer and politician, 7th Chief Minister of Gibraltar
• 1973 - Shawn Estes, American baseball player and sportscaster
• 1973 - Claude Makélélé, French footballer and manager
• 1974 - Carrie Ann Baade, American painter and academic
• 1974 - Jamey Carroll, American baseball player
• 1974 - Radek Černý, Czech international footballer, goalkeeper
• 1974 - Ruby Dhalla, Canadian chiropractor and politician
• 1974 - Julia Butterfly Hill, American environmentalist and author
• 1974 - Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Russian tennis player
• 1974 - Jillian Michaels, American fitness trainer and author
• 1975 - Gary Neville, English footballer and coach
• 1976 - Leilani Munter, American race car driver and environmentalist
• 1976 - Chanda Rubin, American tennis player
• 1976 - Bernadette Sembrano, Filipino journalist
• 1978 - Josip Šimunić, Croatian footballer
• 1979 - Tinu Yohannan, Indian cricketer
• 1980 - Aivar Anniste, Estonian footballer
• 1980 - Nik Antropov, Kazakhstani-Canadian ice hockey player
• 1980 - Regina Spektor, Russian-American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer
• 1981 - Andrei Kirilenko, Russian basketball player
• 1981 - Alex Ríos, American baseball player
• 1981 - Ivan Sproule, Northern Irish footballer
• 1981 - Larry Sweeney, American wrestler and manager
• 1982 - Juelz Santana, American rapper and actor
• 1982 - Christian Tiffert, German footballer
• 1983 - Jermaine Jenas, English international footballer, midfielder, pundit
• 1984 - Carlos Kameni, Cameroonian footballer
• 1985 - Anton Ferdinand, English footballer
• 1985 - Lee Boyd Malvo, Jamaican-American murderer
• 1985 - Jos van Emden, Dutch cyclist
• 1986 - Robert DeLong, American singer-songwriter
• 1986 - Marc Torrejón, Spanish footballer
• 1987 - Cristian Tănase, Romanian footballer
• 1988 - Changmin, South Korean singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor
• 1990 - Didi Gregorius, Dutch baseball player
• 1990 - Cody Hodgson, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1991 - Sebastian Neumann, German footballer
• 1991 - Henry Surtees, English race car driver
• 1994 - Jake Trbojevic, Australian rugby league player
• 1994 - J-Hope, South Korean rapper, dancer, singer-songwriter

  Deaths

• 675 - Colmán, bishop of Lindisfarne
• 814 - Angilbert, Frankish monk and diplomat
• 901 - Thābit ibn Qurra, Arab astronomer and physician
• 999 - Gregory V, pope of the Catholic Church
• 1139 - Yaropolk II, Grand Prince of Kiev
• 1218 - Berthold V, duke of Zähringen
• 1225 - Hugh Bigod, 3rd Earl of Norfolk, Norman nobleman
• 1294 - Kublai Khan, Mongol emperor
• 1379 - Albert II, duke of Mecklenburg
• 1397 - Enguerrand VII, French nobleman
• 1405 - Timur, Turco-Mongol ruler
• 1455 - Fra Angelico, Italian priest and painter
• 1478 - George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, English nobleman
• 1502 - Hedwig Jagiellon, duchess of Bavaria
• 1535 - Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, German magician, astrologer, and theologian
• 1546 - Martin Luther, German priest and theologian, leader of the Protestant Reformation
• 1564 - Michelangelo, Italian sculptor and painter
• 1654 - Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac, French author
• 1658 - John Villiers, 1st Viscount Purbeck, English courtier
• 1683 - Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem, Dutch painter
• 1695 - William Phips, governor of Massachusetts
• 1712 - Louis, Dauphin of France,
• 1743 - Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, Italian noble
• 1748 - Otto Ferdinand von Abensberg und Traun, Austrian field marshal
• 1772 - Count Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff, Danish politician
• 1778 - Joseph Marie Terray, French economist and politician, Controller-General of Finances
• 1780 - Kristijonas Donelaitis, Lithuanian pastor and poet
• 1788 - John Whitehurst, English geologist and clockmaker
• 1803 - Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim, German poet and educator
• 1851 - Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi, German mathematician and academic
• 1873 - Vasil Levski, Bulgarian activist, founded the Internal Revolutionary Organization
• 1880 - Nikolay Zinin, Russian organic chemist
• 1893 - Serranus Clinton Hastings, American lawyer and politician, 1st Chief Justice of California
• 1902 - Charles Lewis Tiffany, American businessman, founded Tiffany & Co.
• 1906 - John Batterson Stetson, American businessman, founded the John B. Stetson Company
• 1910 - Lucy Stanton, American activist
• 1911 - Billy Murdoch, Australian cricketer
• 1915 - Frank James, American soldier and criminal
• 1923 - Alois Rašín, Czech economist and politician
• 1931 - Milan Šufflay, Croatian historian, author, and politician
• 1931 - Louis Wolheim, American actor and screenwriter
• 1933 - James J. Corbett, American boxer and actor
• 1938 - David King Udall, American missionary and politician
• 1942 - Albert Payson Terhune, American journalist and author
• 1945 - Ivan Chernyakhovsky, Russian general
• 1956 - Gustave Charpentier, French composer
• 1957 - Dedan Kimathi, Kenyan rebel leader
• 1957 - Henry Norris Russell, American astronomer, astrophysicist, and academic
• 1960 - Gertrude Vanderbilt, American stage actress
• 1964 - Joseph-Armand Bombardier, Canadian inventor and businessman, founded Bombardier Inc.
• 1966 - Robert Rossen, American director, producer, and screenwriter
• 1967 - J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist and academic
• 1969 - Dragiša Cvetković, Serbian lawyer and politician, 17th Prime Minister of Yugoslavia
• 1973 - Frank Costello, Italian-American gangster
• 1976 - Wallace Berman, American painter and illustrator
• 1977 - Andy Devine, American actor
• 1978 - Maggie McNamara, American actress
• 1981 - Jack Northrop, American engineer and businessman, founded the Northrop Corporation
• 1982 - Ngaio Marsh, New Zealand author
• 1989 - Mildred Burke, American wrestler and trainer
• 1990 - Richard de Zoysa, Sri Lankan journalist
• 1993 - Jacqueline Hill, English actress
• 1995 - Eddie Gilbert, American wrestler
• 1995 - Bob Stinson, American guitarist
• 1997 - Emily Hahn, American journalist and author
• 1998 - Harry Caray, American sportscaster
• 2001 - Balthus, Polish-Swiss painter and illustrator
• 2001 - Dale Earnhardt, American stock car racer and team owner
• 2001 - Eddie Mathews, American baseball player, coach, and manager
• 2003 - Isser Harel, Belarusian-Israeli intelligence officer
• 2006 - Bill Cowsill, American singer and guitarist
• 2008 - Alain Robbe-Grillet, French director, screenwriter, and novelist
• 2009 - Tayeb Salih, Sudanese journalist and author
• 2009 - Miika Tenkula, Finnish singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 2010 - John Babcock, Canadian soldier
• 2012 - George Brizan, Grenadian politician, 9th Prime Minister of Grenada
• 2012 - Elizabeth Connell, South African-English soprano
• 2013 - Kevin Ayers, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 2013 - Jerry Buss, American chemist and businessman
• 2014 - Mavis Gallant, Canadian-French author and playwright
• 2014 - Kristof Goddaert, Belgian cyclist
• 2014 - Nikhil Baran Sengupta, Indian art director and production designer
• 2014 - Maria Franziska von Trapp, Austrian-American singer
• 2015 - Cass Ballenger, American lawyer and politician
• 2015 - Jerome Kersey, American basketball player and coach
• 2016 - Abdul Rashid Khan, Indian singer-songwriter
• 2016 - Pantelis Pantelidis, Greek singer
• 2017 - Ivan Koloff, Canadian wrestler
• 2017 - Norma McCorvey, American abortion rights activist; Plaintiff, Roe v. Wade
• 2017 - Clyde Stubblefield, American drummer
• 2019 - Alessandro Mendini, Italian designer and architect

  Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day:
• *Bernadette Soubirous
• *Colmán of Lindisfarne
• *Flavian of Constantinople
• *Geltrude Comensoli
• *Simeon of Jerusalem
• *February 18
• Dialect Day
• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of the Gambia from the United Kingdom in 1965.
• Kurdish Students Union Day
• National Democracy Day, celebrates the 1951 overthrow of the Rana dynasty
• Wife's Day