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- Lord Krishna leaves his mortal coil.
- 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.
- 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 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 - 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 ratifies 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 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 - 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 delivers the Sportpalast speech
- 1948 - Eamon de Valera resigns as Taoiseach of Ireland.
- 1953 - The first 3D film, Bwana Devil, opens.
- 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 debuts in the slot vacated by the long-running soap opera The Secret Storm.
- 1974 - KISS releases their self-titled debut album.
- 1977 - The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle goes on its maiden "flight" while sitting on top of a Boeing 747.
- 1983 - Thirteen people die 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 are arrested in Nevada and accused of plotting a biological attack on New York City subways.
- 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)
- 1559 - Isaac Casaubon, French classical scholar (d. 1614)
- 1602 - Per Brahe (the younger), Swedish soldier and statesman (d. 1680)
- 1635 - Johan Göransson Gyllenstierna, Swedish statesman (d. 1680)
- 1609 - Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, English statesman and historian (d. 1674)
- 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)
- 1835 - César Cui, Lithuanian composer (d. 1918)
- 1838 - Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist and philosopher (d. 1916)
- 1846 - Wilson Barrett, English actor and 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 and author (d. 1916)
- 1871 - Harry Brearley, English inventor (d. 1948)
- 1883 - Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek writer (d. 1957)
- 1884 - Andrew Watson Myles, Canadian politician (d. 1970)
- 1890 - Edward Arnold, American actor (d. 1956)
- 1890 - Adolphe Menjou, American actor (d. 1963)
- 1892 - Wendell Willkie, U.S. Presidential candidate (d. 1944)
- 1896 - Andre Breton, French writer (d. 1966)
- 1898 - Enzo Ferrari, Italian race car driver and manufacturer (d. 1988)
- 1901 - Reginald Sheffield, British actor (d. 1957)
- 1903 - Nikolai Podgorny, President of the Soviet Union (d. 1983)
- 1905 - Jan Gies, Dutch resistance fighter (d. 1993)
- 1909 - Wallace Stegner, American writer (d. 1993)
- 1915 - Phyllis Calvert, British actress (d. 2002)
- 1919 - Jack Palance, American actor
- 1920 - Bill Cullen, American game show host (d. 1990)
- 1920 - Eric Gairy, Grenadan politician (d. 1997)
- 1922 - Helen Gurley Brown, American editor and publisher
- 1922 - Allan Melvin, American actor
- 1925 - George Kennedy, American actor
- 1927 - John Warner, United States Senator
- 1929 - Len Deighton, British author
- 1930 - Gahan Wilson, American cartoonist
- 1931 - Johnny Hart, American cartoonist
- 1931 - Toni Morrison, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1931 - Bob St. Clair, American football player
- 1932 - Milos Forman, Czech film director
- 1933 - Bobby Robson, English football manager
- 1933 - Yoko Ono, Japanese-born singer, artist, and wife of John Lennon
- 1933 - Mary Ure, Scottish actress (d. 1975)
- 1936 - Jean Auel, American writer
- 1938 - István Szabó, Hungarian film director
- 1943 - Graeme Garden, Scottish writer, comedian, and actor
- 1945 - Judy Rankin, American golfer
- 1947 - Princess Christina of the Netherlands
- 1947 - Dennis DeYoung, American musician (Styx)
- 1948 - Sinéad Cusack, Irish actress
- 1949 - Gary Ridgway, American serial killer
- 1950 - John Hughes, American director, producer, and writer
- 1950 - Cybill Shepherd, American actress
- 1952 - Maurice Lucas, American basketball player
- 1952 - Juice Newton, American entertainer
- 1954 - John Travolta, American actor
- 1957 - Vanna White, American game show presenter
- 1957 - Marita Koch, German athlete
- 1959 - Jayne Atkinson, British actress
- 1960 - Greta Scacchi, Italian actress
- 1962 - Julie Strain, actress
- 1964 - Matt Dillon, American actor
- 1965 - Dr. Dre, American rapper and record producer
- 1967 - Roberto Baggio, Italian footballer
- 1968 - Molly Ringwald, American actress
- 1970 - Susan Egan, American musical actress
- 1973 - Claude Makelele, French footballer
- 1975 - Gary Neville, English footballer
- 1981 - Andrei Kirilenko, Russian basketball player
- 1981 - Buddy Nielsen, American singer (Senses Fail)
- 1983 - Jermaine Jenas - English Footballer
- 1985 - Lee Boyd Malvo, American serial killer
- 1986 - Skylar Jordan, American college student/blogger
- 1988 - Rihanna, first female reggae singer
Deaths
- 806 - Tarasius, Patriarch of Constantinople (b. 1866)
- 814 - Angilbert, Frankish monk and confidant of Charlemagne
- 901 - Thabit ibn Qurra, Arab astronomer and mathematician (b. 826)
- 999 - Pope Gregory V
- 1294 - Kublai Khan of the Mongol Empire (b. 1215)
- 1379 - Albert II of Mecklenburg
- 1478 - George, Duke of Clarence, brother of Edward IV 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, Itlian writer (b. 1503)
- 1654 - Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac, French writer (b. 1594)
- 1683 - Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem, Dutch painter (b. 1620)
- 1712 - Louis, Duke of Burgundy, 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 Graf von Abensperg und Traun, Austrian field marshal (b. 1677)
- 1931 - Milan Sufflay, 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)
- 1956 - Gustave Charpentier, French composer
- 1957 - Henry Norris Russell, American astronomer (b. 1877)
- 1966 - Robert Rossen, American screenwriter, producer, and director (d. 1908
- 1967 - J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist (b. 1904)
- 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 designer (b. 1895)
- 1982 - Ngaio Marsh, New Zealand author (b. 1895)
- 1993 - Kerry Von Erich, American professional wrestler
- 1993 - Jacqueline Hill, British actress (b. 1929)
- 1997 - Emily Hahn, American writer (b. 1905)
- 1998 - Harry Caray, baseball broadcaster (b. 1917)
- 1999 - Noam Pitlik, American actor and director (b. 1932)
- 2001 - Balthus, French-Polish painter (b. 1908)
- 2001 - Dale Earnhardt, American race car driver (b. 1951)
- 2001 - Eddie Mathews, baseball player (b. 1931)
- 2003 - Isser Harel, Israeli Mossad leader (b. 1912)
- 2003 - Johnny PayCheck, American singer (b. 1938)
- 2004 - Jean Rouch, French filmmaker and ethnologist (b. 1917)
Holidays and observances
- Independence Day in The Gambia, (1965)
External links
February 17 - February 19 - January 18 - March 18 -- listing of all days