February 18
February 18 is the 49th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar . There are 316 days remaining (317 in leap years ).
Events
3102 BC - Epoch (origin) of the Kali Yuga .
1229 - The Sixth Crusade : Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor signed a ten-year truce with al-Kamil , regaining Jerusalem , Nazareth , and Bethlehem with neither military engagements nor support from the papacy .
1478 - George , Duke of Clarence , convicted of treason against his older brother Edward IV of England , is privately executed in 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 .
1797 - Trinidad is surrendered to a british fleet under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby .
1814 - Battle of Montereau occurs.
1841 - The first ongoing filibuster in the United States Senate begins and lasts until March 11 .
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 first and only 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 - In the U.S., Delaware voters reject the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and vote to continue the practice of slavery. (Delaware finally ratified the amendment on February 12, 1901.)
1878 - The Lincoln County War begins in Lincoln County, New Mexico .
1885 - Mark Twain 's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published for the first time.
1911 - The first official flight with air mail took place in Allahabad , British India , when Henri Pequet , a 23-year-old pilot, delivered 6,500 letters to Naini , about 10 km away.
1913 - Raymond Poincaré becomes President of France .
1929 - 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 an airplane and also the first cow to be milked in an airplane.
1932 - The Empire of Japan declares Manzhouguo (obsolete Chinese name for Manchuria ) independent from China .
1943 - The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose movement.
1943 - Joseph Goebbels delivered the Sportpalast speech
1948 - Eamon de Valera resigns as Taoiseach of Ireland .
1953 - The first 3D film , Bwana Devil 1953 - Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz sign an $8,000,000 contract to continue the I Love Lucy television series through 1955.
1965 - The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom .
1970 - The Chicago Eight are found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic Party national convention.
1972 - The California Supreme Court invalidates the state's death penalty and commutes the sentences of all death row inmates to life in prison.
1974 - The game show Tattletales soap opera The Secret Storm 1977 - The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle goes on its maiden "flight" while sitting on top of a Boeing 747 .
1983 - 13 people lose their lives and one is seriously injured in the Wah Mee Massacre in Seattle, Washington , said to be the largest robbery-motivated mass-murder in American history.
1985 - The legendary "mirror globe" ident, first used in 1969 , is seen for the last time in regular rotation on BBC1 .
1998 - Two white separatists were arrested in Nevada and accused of plotting a biological attack on New York City subways .
2001 - NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt is killed on the final lap of the Daytona 500 .
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 Neyshabur in Iran when a run-away freight train carrying sulfur , petrol and fertiliser catches fire and explodes.
2005 - The United Kingdom law banning fox hunting , hare coursing and other sports which kill wild mammals is enforced from this date.
Births
1516 - Queen Mary I of England (d. 1558 )
1530 - Uesugi Kenshin , Japanese samurai and warlord (d. 1578 )
1626 - February 18/19 - Francesco Redi , physician, refuted abiogenesis (d. 1697 )
1745 - Alessandro Volta , physicist, eponym for the unit of the electric potential (d. 1827 )
1838 - Ernst Mach , Austrian physicist and philosopher (d. 1916 )
1846 - Wilson Barrett , actor and playwright (d. 1904 )
1848 - Louis Comfort Tiffany , American glass artist (d. 1933 )
1849 - Alexander Kielland , Norwegian author
1858 - Louise-Marie Amélie, daughter of Leopold II of Belgium , wife of Prince Philipp of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (d. 1924 )
1859 - Sholom Aleichem , humorist, author (d. 1916 )
1867 - Hedwig Courths-Mahler , novelist (d. 1950 )
1871 - Harry Brearley , inventor of stainless steel (d. 1948 )
1883 - Nikos Kazantzakis , poet (d. 1957 )
1890 - Adolphe Menjou , actor (d. 1963 )
1890 - Edward Arnold , American actor (d. 1956 )
1892 - Wendell Wilkie , U.S. Presidential candidate (d. 1944 )
1896 - Andre Breton , French poet and principal theorist of surrealism (d. 1966 )
1898 - Enzo Ferrari , Italian auto racer, manufacturer (d. 1988 )
1903 - Nikolai Podgorny , President of the Soviet Union (d. 1983 )
1905 - Jan Gies , Dutch resistance fighter (d. 1993 )
1907 - Billy De Wolfe , American actor, comedian (d.l 1974 )
1912 - Heinz Kühn , politician (d. 1992 )
1919 - Jack Palance , actor
1920 - Bill Cullen , game show host (d. 1990 )
1920 - Eric Gairy , Grenadian politician (d. 1997 )
1922 - Helen Gurley Brown , editor, publisher
1922 - Allan Melvin , American actor
1925 - George Kennedy , actor
1927 - John Warner , United States Senator
1929 - Len Deighton , author
1930 - Gahan Wilson , cartoonist
1931 - Johnny Hart , cartoonist
1931 - Toni Morrison , writer, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature 1993
1931 - Bob St. Clair , American football star
1932 - Milos Forman , film director
1933 - Yoko Ono , singer, artist, wife of John Lennon
1936 - Jean Auel , American writer
1938 - István Szabó , director
1943 - Graeme Garden , writer, comedian, actor
1945 - Judy Rankin , American golfer
1947 - Princess Christina of the Netherlands
1947 - Dennis DeYoung , musician (Styx )
1948 - Sinéad Cusack , Irish actress
1949 - Gary Ridgway , the Green River killer
1950 - John Hughes , director, producer, writer
1950 - Cybill Shepherd , actress
1952 - Juice Newton , country music entertainer
1954 - John Travolta , actor
1957 - Vanna White , game show presenter
1960 - Greta Scacchi , Italian actress
1964 - Matt Dillon , actor
1965 - Dr. Dre , rap music performer, music producer
1968 - Molly Ringwald , American actress
1967 - Roberto Baggio , Italian football player
1979 - Tyrone Burton , American actor
1981 - Andrei Kirilenko , Russian NBA star
1985 - Lee Boyd Malvo , convicted Beltway sniper
Deaths
806 - Tarasius , Patriarch of Constantinople
814 - Angilbert , Frankish monk and confidant of Charlemagne
901 - Thabit ibn Qurra , Arab astronomer and mathematician (b. 826 )
999 - Pope Gregory V (b. ca. 972 )
1478 - George, Duke of Clarence , brother of Edward IV and Richard III of England (executed) (b. 1449 )
1546 - Martin Luther , religious reformer (b. 1483 )
1564 - Michelangelo Buonarroti , Italian artist (b. 1475 )
1931 - Milan Sufflay , Croat politician (b. 1879 )
1933 - James J. Corbett , boxer
1942 - Albert Payson Terhune , author (b. 1872 )
1957 - Henry Norris Russell , American astronomer (b. 1877 )
1967 - J. Robert Oppenheimer , American physicist (b. 1904 )
1973 - Frank Costello , gangster
1977 - Andy Devine , American actor
1978 - Maggie McNamara , American actress
1981 - John Knudsen Northrop , American aircraft designer
1982 - Ngaio Marsh , mystery fiction author (b. 1895 )
1993 - Kerry Von Erich , American professional wrestler
1997 - Emily Hahn , writer (b. 1905 )
1998 - Harry Caray , TV and radio broadcaster for three Major League Baseball teams (b. 1917 )
1999 - Noam Pitlik , actor/director (b. 1932 )
2001 - Balthus , French painter
2001 - Dale Earnhardt , NASCAR race car driver (b. 1951 )
2001 - Eddie Mathews , Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1931 )
2001 - Roger Caras , writer, animal activist, President of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
2001 - Balthus , Polish artist
2003 - Isser Harel , Mossad leader (b. 1912 )
2003 - Johnny PayCheck , American country music singer
2004 - Jean Rouch , French filmmaker and ethnologist (b. 1917 )
Holidays and observances
External links
February 17 - February 19 - January 18 - March 18 -- listing of all days
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