wikipedia.org:
Events
* 1500 - Battle of Hemmingstedt.
* 1600 - Philosopher Giordano Bruno was burnt alive at Campo de' Fiori in Rome, charged of heresy.
* 1621 - Miles Standish is appointed as first commander of Plymouth colony.
* 1753 - February 17 is followed by March 1 as Sweden moves to the Gregorian from the Julian calendar.
* 1801 - An electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr is resolved when Jefferson is elected President of the United States and Burr Vice President by the United States House of Representatives.
* 1814 - Battle of Mormans
* 1819 - The United States House of Representatives passes the Missouri Compromise.
* 1854 - The British recognizes the independence of the Orange Free State.
* 1864 - American Civil War: H. L. Hunley becomes the first submarine to engage and sink a warship, the USS Housatonic.
* 1865 - American Civil War: Columbia, South Carolina burned as Confederate forces flee from advancing Union forces.
* 1867 - The first ship passes through the Suez Canal.
* 1871 - The victorious Prussian Army parades though Paris after the end of the Siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War.
* 1895 - Swan Lake, with music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, is first performed at full length in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
* 1913 - The Armory Show opens in New York City, displaying works of artists who are to become some of the most influential painters of the early 20th century.
* 1924 - In Miami, Florida, Johnny Weissmuller sets a new world record in the 100-yard freestyle swimming competition with a time of 52-2/5 seconds.
* 1925 - Harold Ross and Jane Grant found The New Yorker magazine; the debut issue is dated February 21, 1925.
* 1933 - The magazine Newsweek is published for the first time.
* 1933 - The Blaine Act ends Prohibition in the United States.
* 1944 - World War II: Battle of Eniwetok Atoll begins. The battle ends in an American victory on February 22.
* 1944 - World War II: Operation Hailstone begins. U.S. naval air, surface, and submarine attack against Truk (Chuuk), Japan's main base in the central Pacific, in support of the Eniwetok invasion.
* 1947 - The Voice of America begins to transmit radio broadcasts into the Soviet Union.
* 1957 - A fire at a home for the elderly in Warrenton, Missouri kills 72 people.
* 1958 - Pope Pius XII declares Saint Clare of Assisi (1193~1253) the patron saint of television
* 1959 - Project Vanguard: Vanguard 2 - The first weather satellite launched to measure cloud-cover distribution.
* 1962 - A storm kills more than 300 people in Hamburg, West Germany.
* 1964 - In Wesberry v. Sanders the Supreme Court of the United States rules that congressional districts have to be approximately equal in population.
* 1968 - In Springfield, Massachusetts the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame opens.
* 1972 - Sales of the Volkswagen Beetle model exceed those of Ford Model-T.
* 1974 - Robert K. Preston, a disgruntled U.S. Army private, buzzes the White House with a stolen helicopter.
* 1979 - The Sino-Vietnamese War begins.
* 1992 - A court in Milwaukee, Wisconsin sentences serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer to life in prison.
* 1995 - Colin Ferguson is convicted of six counts of murder for the December 1993 Long Island Rail Road shootings and later receives a 200+ year sentence.
* 1995 - The Cenepa War between Peru and Ecuador ends on a cease-fire brokered by the UN.
* 1996 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, world champion Garry Kasparov beats the Deep Blue supercomputer in a chess match.
* 2000 - Microsoft released Windows 2000.
[edit]
Births
* 1490 - Charles III, Duke of Bourbon, Constable of France (d. 1527)
* 1519 - Francis, Duke of Guise, French soldier and politician (d. 1563)
* 1524 - Charles of Guise, French cardinal (d. 1574)
* 1581 - Fausto Poli, Italian Catholic priest (d. 1653)
* 1646 - Pierre Le Pesant, sieur de Boisguilbert, French economist (d. 1714)
* 1653 - Arcangelo Corelli, Italian composer (d. 1713)
* 1718 - Matthew Tilghman, American Continental Congressman (d. 1790)
* 1723 - Tobias Mayer, German astronomer (d. 1762)
* 1752 - Friedrich Maximilian Klinger, German writer (d. 1831)
* 1754 - Nicolas Baudin, French explorer (d. 1803)
* 1766 - Thomas Malthus, English demographer and political economist (d. 1834)
* 1781 - René Laënnec, French physician (d. 1826)
* 1792 - Karl Ernst von Baer, German biologist (d. 1876)
* 1796 - Philipp Franz von Siebold, German physician (d. 1866)
* 1817 - King William III of the Netherlands (d, 1890)
* 1820 - Henri Vieuxtemps, Belgian composer (d. 1881)
* 1821 - Lola Montez, Mexican dancer, actress, friend of monarchs (d. 1861)
* 1836 - Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Spanish poet (b. 1870)
* 1844 - Aaron Montgomery Ward, American department store founder (d. 1913)
* 1848 - Louisa Lawson, Australian feminist, suffragist, and writer (d. 1920)
* 1854 - Friedrich Alfred Krupp, German industrialist (d. 1902)
* 1864 - Banjo Paterson, Australian poet (d. 1941)
* 1874 - Thomas J. Watson, American computer manufacturer (d. 1956)
* 1877 - Isabelle Eberhardt, explorer and writer who spent a lot of time in North Africa (d. 1904)
* 1877 - André Maginot, French politician (d. 1932)
* 1885 - Steve Evans, baseball player (d. 1943)
* 1887 - Leevi Madetoja, Finnish composer (d. 1947)
* 1888 - Otto Stern, German physicist, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1969)
* 1908 - Red Barber, baseball announcer (d. 1992)
* 1910 - Marc Lawrence, American actor (d. 2005)
* 1911 - Oskar Seidlin, Silesian-born Jewish-American literary scholar (d. 1984)
* 1912 - Andre Norton, American author (d. 2005)
* 1914 - Arthur Kennedy, American actor (d. 1990)
* 1919 - Kathleen Freeman, American actress (d. 2001)
* 1920 - Ivo Caprino, Norwegian animated film director
* 1922 - Marshall Teague, American race car driver (d. 1959)
* 1924 - Margaret Truman, American novelist
* 1925 - Ron Goodwin, English composer and conductor (d. 2003)
* 1925 - Hal Holbrook, American actor
* 1929 - Chaim Potok, American author (d. 2002)
* 1929 - Patricia Routledge, English actress
* 1930 - Ruth Rendell, English writer
* 1930 - Roger Craig, baseball player
* 1932 - Buck Trent, American banjo player
* 1934 - Alan Bates, English actor (d. 2003)
* 1934 - Barry Humphries, Australian actor and comedian
* 1935 - Christina Pickles, British actress
* 1936 - Jim Brown, American football player
* 1939 - Mary Ann Mobley, American actress and beauty queen
* 1941 - Gene Pitney, American singer (d. 2006)
* 1942 - Huey P. Newton, American politicial activist (d. 1989)
* 1944 - Karl Jenkins, Welsh composer
* 1945 - Zina Bethune, American actress
* 1945 - Brenda Fricker, Irish actress
* 1949 - Fred Frith, British musician
* 1952 - Karin Janz, East German gymnast
* 1953 - Janice Dickinson, American model
* 1953 - Norman Pace, British actor and comic
* 1954 - Rene Russo, American actress
* 1956 - Richard Karn, American actor
* 1957 - Loreena McKennitt, Canadian musician
* 1959 - Aryeh Deri, Israeli rabbi and politician
* 1959 - Neil Lomax, American football player
* 1962 - Alison Hargreaves, British mountaineer (d. 1995)
* 1962 - Lou Diamond Phillips, American actor
* 1963 - Michael Jordan, American basketball player
* 1963 - Larry the Cable Guy, American Comedian
* 1964 - Buster Olney, American sports columnist
* 1966 - Luc Robitaille, Canadian ice hockey player
* 1966 - Quorthon, Swedish musician (Bathory) (d. 2004)
* 1967 - Chanté Moore, American singer
* 1969 - Tuesday Knight, American actress
* 1970 - Dominic Purcell, English Born Actor
* 1970 - Tim Mahoney, American musician (311)
* 1971 - Martyn Bennett, Canadian composer (d. 2005)
* 1971 - Denise Richards, American actress
* 1972 - Billie Joe Armstrong, American musician (Green Day)
* 1972 - Philippe Candeloro, French figure skater
* 1974 - Kaoru Niikura, Japanese musician
* 1974 - Jerry O'Connell, American actor
* 1974 - Bryan White, American singer
* 1975 - Wish Bone, American rapper
* 1975 - Vaclav Prospal, Czech hockey player
* 1978 - Jacob Wetterling, American kidnapping victim
* 1980 - Jason Ritter, American actor
* 1981 - Joseph Gordon-Levitt, American actor
* 1981 - Paris Hilton, American actress and heiress
* 1982 - Adriano Leite Ribeiro, Brazilian footballer
* 1982 - Brian Bruney, Professional baseball player
* 1991 - Bonnie Wright, British child actress
* 1996 - Sasha Pieterse, South African child actress
[edit]
Deaths
* 197 - Clodius Albinus, Roman usurper (killed in battle)
* 364 - Jovian, Roman Emperor
* 1339 - Duke Otto of Austria (b. 1301)
* 1371 - Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria.
* 1596 - Friedrich Sylburg, German classical scholar (b. 1536)
* 1600 - Giordano Bruno, Italian philosopher (burned at the stake) (b. 1548)
* 1609 - Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1549)
* 1624 - Juan de Mariana, Spanish historian (b. 1536)
* 1659 - Abel Servien, French diplomat (b. 1593)
* 1673 - Molière, French playwright (b. 1622)
* 1680 - Denzil Holles, 1st Baron Holles, English statesman and writer (b. 1599)
* 1680 - Jan Swammerdam, Dutch scientist (b. 1637)
* 1715 - Antoine Galland, French archaeologist (b. 1646)
* 1732 - Louis Marchand, French organist and harpsichordist (b. 1669)
* 1768 - Arthur Onslow, English politician (b. 1691)
* 1780 - Andreas Felix von Oefele, German historian and librarian (b. 1706)
* 1841 - Ferdinando Carulli, Italian guitarist
* 1854 - John Martin, English painter (b. 1789)
* 1856 - Heinrich Heine, German writer (b. 1797)
* 1874 - Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet, Belgian mathematician (b. 1796)
* 1883 - Napoleon Coste, French guitarist and composer (b. 1806)
* 1883 - Vasudeo Balwant Phadke, Indian revolutionary (b. 1845)
* 1909 - Geronimo, Apache leader (b. 1829)
* 1919 - Wilfrid Laurier, 7th Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1841)
* 1934 - King Albert I of Belgium (b. 1875)
* 1934 - Siegbert Tarrasch, German chess player (b. 1862)
* 1939 - Willy Hess, German violinist (b. 1859)
* 1943 - Armand J. Piron, American jazz violinist and composer (b. 1888)
* 1943 - Konstantin Bogaevsky, Russian painter (b. 1872)
* 1961 - Nita Naldi, American actress (b. 1897)
* 1962 - Bruno Walter, German conductor (b. 1876)
* 1970 - Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Israeli writer, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1888)
* 1970 - Alfred Newman, American film composer (b. 1901)
* 1977 - Janani Luwum, Ugandan Archbishop (shot) (b. 1922)
* 1982 - Thelonious Monk, American jazz pianist (b. 1917)
* 1982 - Lee Strasberg, Austrian-born actor (b. 1901)
* 1990 - Erik Rhodes, American actor (b. 1906)
* 1994 - Randy Shilts, American author and activist (AIDS) (b. 1951)
* 1998 - Ernst Jünger, German author (b. 1895)
* 2001 - Khalid Abdul Muhammed, American Nation of Islam spokesman (brain aneurysm) (b. 1948)
* 2004 - José López Portillo, President of Mexico (b. 1920)
* 2005 - Dan O'Herlihy, Irish actor (b. 1919)
* 2005 - Omar Sivori, Argentine football player (b. 1935)
* 2006 - Ray Barretto, Puerto Rican musician (congas) (b. 1929)
[edit]
Holidays and observances
* Roman Empire - Quirinalia in honor of Quirinus.
* Ancient Latvia - Tanis Diena observed.
* Random Acts of Kindness Day. <
LOL
Kaikkea sitä on sattunut syntymäpäivänäni :P
