February 18

February 18 is the 49th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 316 days remaining until the end of the year (317 in leap years).

Events

• 3102 BC – Epoch (origin) of the Kali Yuga.
• 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 Livonian Brothers of the Sword are defeated by Dovmont of Pskov in the Battle of Rakovor.
• 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.
• 1685 – Fort St. Louis is established by a Frenchman at Matagorda Bay thus forming the basis for France's claim to Texas.
• 1745 – The city of Surakarta, Central Java is founded on the banks of Bengawan Solo river, and becomes the capital of the Kingdom of Surakarta
• 1797 – Trinidad is surrendered to a British fleet under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby.
• 1814 – The Battle of Montereau occurs.
• 1841 – The first ongoing filibuster in the United States Senate begins and lasts until March 11.
• 1846 – Beginning of the Galician peasant revolt.
• 1856 – The American Party (Know-Nothings) convene in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to nominate their first Presidential candidate, former President Millard Fillmore.
• 1861 – In Montgomery, Alabama, Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the provisional President of the Confederate States of America.
• 1861 – With the Italian unification almost complete, King Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont, Savoy and Sardinia assumes the title of King of Italy.
• 1865 – Union forces under Major General William T. Sherman set the South Carolina State House on fire during the burning of Columbia.
• 1873 – Bulgarian revolutionary leader Vasil Levski is executed by hanging in Sofia by the Ottoman authorities.
• 1878 – John Tunstall is murdered by outlaw Jessie Evans, sparking the Lincoln County War in Lincoln County, New Mexico.
• 1884 – Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published for the first time.
• 1901 – Winston Churchill makes his maiden speech in the House of Commons.
• 1906 – Edouard de Laveleye forms the Belgian Olympic Committee in Brussels.
• 1911 – The first official flight with air mail takes place in Allahabad, British India, when Henri Pequet, a 23-year-old pilot, delivers 6,500 letters to Naini, about 10 km away.
• 1913 – Raymond Poincaré becomes President of France.
• 1929 – The first Academy Awards are announced.
• 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 declares Manzhouguo (the obsolete Chinese name for Manchuria) independent from the Republic of China.
• 1943 – The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose movement.
• 1943 – Joseph Goebbels delivers the Sportpalast speech.
• 1948 – Eamon de Valera resigns as Taoiseach of Ireland.
• 1954 – The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles, California.
• 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 of the Teapot series.
• 1957 – Kenyan rebel leader Dedan Kimathi is executed by the British colonial government.
• 1965 – The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
• 1969 – The Hawthorne Nevada Airlines Flight 708 disaster occurs, killing all on board.
• 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, 6 Cal.3d 628 invalidates the state's death penalty and commutes the sentences of all death row inmates to life in prison.
• 1977 – The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle is carried on its maiden "flight" sitting on top of a Boeing 747.
• 1979 – Snow fell in the Sahara Desert in southern Algeria for the only recorded time in history.
• 1983 – Thirteen people die and one is seriously injured in the Wah Mee Massacre in Seattle, Washington. 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 both Paddington station and Victoria station in London.
• 1998 – Two white separatists are arrested in Nevada and accused of plotting a biological attack on New York City subways.
• 2001 – FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union. He is ultimately convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
• 2001 – Seven time Winston Cup Champion Dale Earnhardt dies as a result of a last lap accident in turn four of the Daytona 500.
• 2003 – Nearly 200 people die in the Daegu subway fire in South Korea.
• 2003 – Comet C/2002 V1 (NEAT) makes perihelion, seen by SOHO.
• 2004 – Up to 295 people, including nearly 200 rescue workers, die near Neyshabur in Iran when a run-away freight train carrying sulfur, petrol and fertilizer catches fire and explodes.

Births

• 1374 – Saint Jadwiga of Poland, queen of Poland (d. 1399)
• 1404 – Leone Battista Alberti, Italian painter and philosopher (d. 1472)
• 1486 – Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Bengali yogi (d. 1534)
• 1516 – Queen Mary I of England (d. 1558)
• 1530 – Uesugi Kenshin, Japanese samurai and warlord (d. 1578)
• 1543 – Charles III, Duke of Lorraine (d. 1608)
• 1559 – Isaac Casaubon, French classical scholar (d. 1614)
• 1602 – Per Brahe, Swedish soldier (d. 1680)
• 1609 – Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, English historian (d. 1674)
• 1635 – Johan Göransson Gyllenstierna, Swedish statesman (d. 1680)
• 1642 – Marie Champmeslé, French actress (d. 1698)
• 1658 – Charles-Irénée Castel de Saint-Pierre, French writer (d. 1743)
• 1745 – Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist (d. 1827)
• 1814 – Samuel Fenton Cary, American-born U. S. Congressman (d. 1900)
• 1818 – Pedro Figueredo, Cuban poet, musician, and freedom fighter (d. 1870)
• 1836 – Sri Ramakrishna, Indian Bengali guru of Swami Vivekananda (d. 1886)
• 1838 – Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist (d. 1916)
• 1846 – Wilson Barrett, English playwright (d. 1904)
• 1848 – Louis Comfort Tiffany, American glass artist (d. 1933)
• 1849 – Alexander Kielland, Norwegian author (d. 1906)
• 1859 – Sholom Aleichem, Russian Yiddish humorist (d. 1916)
• 1870 – William Laurel Harris, American mural painter and writer (d. 1924)
• 1871 – Harry Brearley, English inventor (d. 1948)
• 1883 – Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek author (d. 1957)
• 1884 – Andrew Watson Myles, Canadian politician (d. 1970)
• 1888 – George Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1968)
• 1890 – Edward Arnold, American actor (d. 1956)
• 1890 – Adolphe Menjou, American actor (d. 1963)
• 1892 – Wendell Willkie, American politician (d. 1944)
• 1896 – Andre Breton, French writer (d. 1966)
• 1897 – Charles Kuentz, German-born French WW1 veteran and centenarian (d. 2005)
• 1898 – Luis Muñoz Marín, Puerto Rican poet (d. 1980)
• 1898 – Enzo Ferrari, Founder of Ferrari (d. 1988)
• 1901 – Reginald Sheffield, British actor (d. 1957)
• 1902 – Walter Herbert, German-born conductor and impresario (d. 1975)
• 1903 – Nikolai Podgorny, President of the Soviet Union (d. 1983)
• 1906 – Hans Asperger, Austrian pediatrician (d. 1980)
• 1907 – Oscar Brodney, American screenwriter (d. 2008)
• 1909 – Tuppy Owen-Smith, South African cricketer and English rugby union player (d. 1990)
• 1909 – Wallace Stegner, American writer (d. 1993)
• 1914 – Pee Wee King, American country musician and songwriter (d. 2000)
• 1915 – Phyllis Calvert, British actress (d. 2002)
• 1916 – Jean Drapeau, Canadian politician, mayor of Montreal (d. 1999)
• 1918 – Jane Loevinger, American psychologist (d. 2008).
• 1919 – Jack Palance, American actor (d. 2006)
• 1920 – Bill Cullen, American game show host (d. 1990)
• 1920 – Eric Gairy, Grenadan politician (d. 1997)
• 1922 – Helen Gurley Brown, American editor
• 1922 – Allan Melvin, American actor (d. 2008)
• 1922 – Juhan Smuul, Estonian author (d. 1971)
• 1924 – Humberto Fernández Morán, Venezuelan scientist (d. 1999)
• 1924 – Louis Laberge, Canadian labor union leader (d. 2002)
• 1925 – George Kennedy, American actor
• 1925 – Marcel Barbeau, Canadian Quebec artist
• 1926 – Nalini Jaywant, Indian actress
• 1927 – John Warner, American politician
• 1927 – Luis Arroyo, Puerto Rican baseball player
• 1927 – Peter Fryer English Marxist writer and journalist (d. 2006)
• 1928 – Tom Johnson, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1929 – Len Deighton, British author
• 1929 – André Mathieu, Canadian composer (d. 1968)
• 1930 – Gahan Wilson, American cartoonist
• 1931 – Johnny Hart, American cartoonist (d. 2007)
• 1931 – Toni Morrison, American writer, Nobel laureate
• 1931 – Bob St. Clair, American football player
• 1932 – Miloš Forman, Czech film director
• 1933 – Yoko Ono, Japanese-born singer
• 1933 – Sir Bobby Robson, English football manager
• 1933 – Mary Ure, Scottish actress (d. 1975)
• 1934 – Audre Lord, Caribbean poet and activist (d. 1992)
• 1935 – Michel Aoun, Lebanese prime minister
• 1936 – Jean Auel, American writer
• 1936 – Dick Duff, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1938 – István Szabó, Hungarian film director
• 1938 – Manny Mota, Dominican baseball player
• 1939 – Dal Maxvill, American baseball player
• 1939 – Marek Janowski, Polish-born conductor
• 1939 – Claude Ake, Nigerian political scientist
• 1940 – Fabrizio De André, Italian singer-songwriter (d. 1999)
• 1941 – Irma Thomas, American singer
• 1943 – Graeme Garden, Scottish writer
• 1944 – Pat Bowlen, American sports team owner (Denver Broncos)
• 1945 – Judy Rankin, American golfer
• 1946 – Michael Buerk, British newsreader
• 1946 – Jean-Claude Dreyfus, French actor
• 1947 – Dennis DeYoung, American musician (Styx)
• 1947 – Princess Christina of the Netherlands
• 1947 – Carlos Lopes, Portuguese athlete
• 1947 – Eliot Lance Engel, American politician
• 1948 – Sinéad Cusack, Irish actress
• 1948 – Keith Knudsen, American drummer and songwriter (The Doobie Brothers) (d. 2005)
• 1949 – Gary Ridgway, American serial killer
• 1950 – John Hughes, American director (d.2009)
• 1950 – Cybill Shepherd, American actress
• 1950 – Michel Gauthier, Canadian politician
• 1951 – Isabel Preysler, Philippines-born Spanish socialite
• 1952 – Maurice Lucas, American basketball player
• 1952 – Juice Newton, American singer
• 1953 – Robbie Bachman, Canadian drummer (Bachman-Turner Overdrive)
• 1954 – John Travolta, American actor
• 1955 – Miles Tredinnick, English playwright
• 1955 – Raymond Rougeau, Canadian professional wrestler
• 1956 – Ted Gärdestad, Swedish singer (d. 1997)
• 1956 – Paul Reed Smith, American luthier, founder and owner of PRS Guitars
• 1957 – Marita Koch, German athlete
• 1957 – Vanna White, American game show presenter
• 1958 – Giovanni Lavaggi, Italian racing driver
• 1958 – Gar Samuelson, American drummer (d. 1999)
• 1960 – Carol McGiffin, British TV and radio presenter
• 1960 – Greta Scacchi, Australian actress
• 1960 – Andy Moog, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1961 – Hironobu Kageyama, Japanese singer
• 1962 – Julie Strain, American actress
• 1963 – Henry Winter, English football journalist
• 1964 – Matt Dillon, American actor
• 1964 – Paul Hanley, British musician (The Fall, Tom Hingley and the Lovers)
• 1965 – Dr. Dre, American record producer and rapper
• 1965 – Gregory Scott Johnson, American murderer (d. 2005)
• 1966 – Guy Ferland, American television director
• 1967 – Roberto Baggio, Italian footballer
• 1967 – Tracey Edmonds, American film and television producer
• 1967 – Harry Van Barneveld, Belgian judoka
• 1968 – Molly Ringwald, American actress
• 1969 – Tomaž Humar, Slovenian mountaineer
• 1969 – Alexander Mogilny, Russian ice hockey player
• 1969 – Jason Sutter, American drummer (Smash Mouth, American Hi-Fi)
• 1970 – Raine Maida, Canadian musician (Our Lady Peace)
• 1970 – Susan Egan, American actress
• 1971 – Constantin Popa, Romanian-born Israeli basketball player
• 1971 – Merritt Gant, American thrash metal guitarist
• 1972 – Drew Bowie, Australian stand up comedian
• 1973 – Claude Makélélé, French footballer
• 1974 – Jamey Carroll, American baseball player
• 1974 – Julia Butterfly Hill, American environmental activist
• 1974 – Ruby Dhalla, Canadian politician
• 1974 – Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Russian tennis player
• 1974 – Jillian Michaels, Personal trainer
• 1975 – Sarah Brown, American actress
• 1975 – Keith Gillespie, Irish footballer
• 1975 – Gary Neville, English footballer
• 1976 – Chanda Rubin, American tennis player
• 1976 – Leilani Munter, American race car driver
• 1977 – Ike Barinholtz, American actor
• 1977 – Kátia, Brazilian footballer
• 1977 – Sean Watkins, American guitarist and songwriter
• 1977 – Chrissie Wellington, British triathlete
• 1978 – Josip Šimunić, Croatian footballer
• 1980 – Nikolai Antropov, Kazakh ice hockey player
• 1980 – Regina Spektor, Russian/American singer and songwriter
• 1981 – Andrei Kirilenko, Russian basketball player
• 1981 – Alex Rios, American baseball player
• 1981 – Ivan Sproule, Irish footballer
• 1981 – Larry Sweeney, American Professional Wrestler
• 1981 – Kim Jae Won, South Korean actor
• 1981 – Jasmine Fiore, American model (d. 2009)
• 1983 – Juelz Santana, American rapper
• 1983 – Jermaine Jenas, English footballer
• 1983 – Jason Maxiell, American basketball player
• 1983 – Troy Bienemann, American football player
• 1985 – Anton Ferdinand, English footballer
• 1985 – Lee Boyd Malvo, Jamaican serial killer
• 1986 – Marc Torrejón, Spanish footballer
• 1988 – Shane Lyons, American actor and chef
• 1988 – Maiara Walsh, American actress
• 1988 – Max (singer), South Korean singer from TVXQ
• 1990 – Cody Hodgson, Canadian hockey player
• 1991 – Malese Jow, American actress and singer
• 1991 – Henry Surtees, British racing driver (d. 2009)

Deaths

• 806 – Tarasius, Patriarch of Constantinople (b. 730)
• 814 – Angilbert, Frankish monk and confidant of Charlemagne
• 901 – Thabit ibn Qurra, Arab astronomer and mathematician (b. 826)
• 999 – Pope Gregory V (b. 972)
• 1139 – Prince Yaropolk II of Kiev (b. 1082)
• 1294 – Kublai Khan, Mongol Emperor (b. 1215)
• 1379 – Albert II of Mecklenburg (b. 1318)
• 1405 – Tamerlane, Mongol Emperor (b. 1336)
• 1455 – Fra Angelico, Italian artist (b. 1395)
• 1478 – George, Duke of Clarence, brother of Kings Edward IV of England and Richard III of England (executed) (b. 1449)
• 1535 – Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, astrologer and alchemist (b. 1486)
• 1546 – Martin Luther, German religious reformer (b. 1483)
• 1564 – Michelangelo Buonarroti, Italian artist (b. 1475)
• 1583 – Antonio Francesco Grazzini, Italian writer (b. 1503)
• 1654 – Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac, French writer (b. 1594)
• 1683 – Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem, Dutch painter (b. 1620)
• 1712 – Louis, duc de Bourgogne, heir to the throne of France (b. 1682)
• 1718 – Pierre Antoine Motteux, French-born English dramatist (b. 1663)
• 1743 – Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, last of the Medicis (b. 1667)
• 1748 – Otto Ferdinand von Abensberg und Traun, Austrian field marshal (b. 1677)
• 1772 – Johann Hartwig Ernst, Count von Bernstorff, Danish statesman (b. 1712)
• 1778 – Joseph Marie Terray, French statesman (b. 1715)
• 1780 – Kristijonas Donelaitis, Lithuanian poet (b. 1714)
• 1788 – John Whitehurst, English clockmaker and scientist (b. 1713)
• 1803 – Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim, German poet (b. 1719)
• 1842 – Thomas Hazlehurst, English soap and alkali manufacturer (b. 1779)
• 1845 – Johnny Appleseed, American environmentalist (b. 1774)
• 1851 – Carl Gustav Jakob Jacobi, German mathematician (b. 1804)
• 1873 – Vasil Levski, Bulgarian Revolutionist (b. 1837)
• 1893 – Serranus Clinton Hastings, American politician (b. 1814)
• 1895 – Karl Abs, German professional wrestler (b. 1851)
• 1900 – Clinton L. Merriam, American politician (b. 1824)
• 1902 – Charles Lewis Tiffany, American founder of Tiffany & Co. (b. 1812)
• 1906 – John Batterson Stetson, American manufacturer (b. 1830)
• 1911 – Billy Murdoch, Australian cricketer (b. 1854)
• 1931 – Milan Šufflay, Croatian politician (b. 1879)
• 1933 – James J. Corbett, American boxer (b. 1866)
• 1938 – David King Udall, American politician (b. 1851)
• 1942 – Albert Payson Terhune, American author (b. 1872)
• 1945 – Ivan Chernyakhovsky, Russian general (b. 1906)
• 1956 – Gustave Charpentier, French composer (b. 1860)
• 1957 – Dedan Kimathi, Kenyan rebel leader (b. 1920)
• 1957 – Henry Norris Russell, American astronomer (b. 1877)
• 1964 – Joseph-Armand Bombardier, Quebec inventor and industrialist (b. 1907)
• 1966 – Robert Rossen, American screenwriter, producer, and director (b. 1908)
• 1967 – J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist (b. 1904)
• 1967 – Dragiša Cvetković, Kingdom of Yugoslavia prime minister (b. 1893)
• 1973 – Frank Costello, Italian-born gangster (b. 1891)
• 1977 – Andy Devine, American actor (b. 1905)
• 1978 – Maggie McNamara, American actress (b. 1928)
• 1981 – John Knudsen Northrop, American aircraft manufacturer (b. 1895)
• 1982 – Ngaio Marsh, New Zealand author (b. 1895)
• 1993 – Kerry Von Erich, American professional wrestler (b. 1960)
• 1993 – Jacqueline Hill, British actress (b. 1929)
• 1995 – Bob Stinson, American guitarist (b. 1959)
• 1997 – Emily Hahn, American writer (b. 1905)
• 1998 – Harry Caray, American baseball broadcaster (b. 1914)
• 1998 – Robbie James, Welsh footballer (b. 1957)
• 1999 – Noam Pitlik, American actor and director (b. 1932)
• 2000 – Willy Maltaite, Belgian comics creator (b. 1927)
• 2001 – Balthus, Polish-born painter (b. 1908)
• 2001 – Dale Earnhardt, American race car driver (b. 1951)
• 2001 – Eddie Mathews, American baseball player (b. 1931)
• 2003 – Isser Harel, Israeli Mossad leader (b. 1912)
• 2004 – Jean Rouch, French filmmaker and ethnologist (b. 1917)
• 2006 – Richard Bright, American actor (b. 1937)
• 2008 – Sir Richard Knowles, British politician (b. 1917)
• 2008 – Mihaela Mitrache, Romanian actress, (b. 1955)
• 2008 – Mickey Renaud, Canadian professional ice hockey player (b. 1988)
• 2009 – Al-Tayyib Salih, Sudanese novelist and columnist (b. 1929)

Holidays and observances

• Gambian Independence Day
• February 18 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: February 18

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada