Title: February 18 Content: ==Events== === Up to 1900 === * 1229 - Sixth Crusade: Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor signs a ten-year truce with al-Kamil, regaining Jerusalem, Nazareth and Bethlehem, with neither military engagement nor support from the Pope. * 1268 – The Livonian Brothers of the Sword are defeated by Dovmont of Pskov in the Battle of Rakvere. * 1332 - Amda Seyon I of Ethiopia begins his campaigns in the southern Muslim provinces. * 1478 – George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence is executed in the Tower of London after being convicted of treason against his older brother, King Edward IV of England. * 1637 - Eighty Years' War: Off Cornwall, a Spanish fleet intercepts a very important Anglo-Dutch merchant convoy of 44 vessels escorted by 6 warships, destroying or capturing 20 of them. * 1745 - Surakarta, Central Java, is founded. * 1766 - A mutiny by captive Malagasy begins at sea on the slave ship Meermin, leading to the ship's destruction on Cape Agulhas in present-day South Africa and recapture of the instigators. * 1791 - United States Congress passes a law making Vermont a state from March 4. * 1814 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Montereau. * 1861 – Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy assumes the title of King of Italy. * 1861 – In Montgomery, Alabama, Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as provisional President of the Confederate States of America. * 1865 - American Civil War: Union forces under General William Tecumseh Sherman set the South Carolina State House on fire during the burning of Columbia, South Carolina. * 1873 – Bulgarian revolutionary Vasil Levski is executed by hanging in Sofia by the Ottoman authorities. * 1885 - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, is published. * 1900 – Second Boer War: British forces suffer their worst single-day loss of life of the war on the first day of the Battle of Paardeberg. === 1901 2000 === * 1906 - Edouard de Laveleye forms the Belgian Olympic Committee. * 1910 – The future-World Governing body for the sport of Skiing is founded in Kristiania, present-day Oslo, in Norway. * 1911 - The first airmail flight takes place in what is then British India. * 1913 - Pedro Lascurain becomes President of Mexico for 45 minutes. This is the shortest time that a President has ever served in office. * 1930 – From photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh discovers the dwarf planet Pluto. * 1932 – The Empire of Japan declares Manzhougou (Manchuria) independent of the Republic of China. * 1942 - World War II: The Imperial Japanese Army begins the systematic extermination of people in the Chinese community in Singapore that it sees as hostile to its regime. * 1943 – Members of the White Rose Resistance Movement are arrested by the Nazis. * 1946 - Sailors of the Royal Indian Navy mutiny in Bombay. This action later spreads throughout India. * 1947 - First Indochina War: The French gain complete control of Hanoi after forcing the Viet Minh to withdraw to the mountains. * 1952 – Greece and Turkey join NATO. * 1954 – The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles, California. * 1957 – Kenyan rebel leader Dedan Kimathi is executed by the British colonial government. * 1960 – The Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California, begin. * 1963 – The eruption of the Agung volcano on Bali kills around 1,500 people. * 1965 – The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom. * 1969 - Hawthorne Nevada Airlines Flight 708 crashes into Mount Whitney, California, killing all on board. * 1977 – The Space Shuttle Enterprise makes its first flight, on a Boeing 747. * 1978 – The first Ironman triathlon takes place on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. It is won by Gordon Haller. * 1979 – Snow falls in the Sahara desert of southern Algeria for the only time in recorded history. * 1983 – 13 people die in the Wah Mee massacre in Seattle. It is believed to be the worst robbery-motivated killing in US history. * 1985 - NBA player Larry Bird barely misses a quadruple-double in a game against the Utah Jazz. He sits out the entire fourth quarter. * 1988 – Anthony Kennedy becomes a member of the Supreme Court of the United States. * 1991 - The IRA detonates bombs at London's Paddington and Victoria Stations. * 2000 - Stjepan Mesic becomes President of Croatia. === From 2001 === * 2001 - Inter-ethnic violence begins in Sampit, Indonesia, between Dayaks and Madurese. * 2001 – Dale Earnhardt dies in a crash on the last lap of the last turn on the Daytona 500. * 2001 – FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union. * 2003 – Nearly 200 people die in the Daegu subway fire in South Korea. * 2004 – Up to 295 people, including around 200 rescue workers, are killed in Iran, when a freight train carrying sulfur, petrol and fertiliser catches fire and explodes. * 2005 – A ban on Fox Hunting in the United Kingdom enters effect. * 2007 – Terrorist bombings occur on the Samjhauta Express in Panipat, Haryana, India, killing 68 people. * 2010 – A coup takes place in Niamey, Niger. President Mamadou Tandja is replaced by a ruling junta, the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy. * 2014 - At least 76 people are killed and hundreds are injured in clashes between riot police and demonstrators in Kyiv, Ukraine, during the Euromaidan protests. ==Births== === Up to 1800 === * 1372 - Iban Hajar al-Asqalani, Egyptian jurist and scholar (d. 1448) * 1374 – Saint Jadwiga of Poland, Queen of Poland (d. 1399) * 1404 – Leon Battista Alberti, Italian painter and philosopher (d. 1472) * 1486 - Chaitanya Mahaprabha, Indian saint (d. 1534) * 1516 – Queen Mary I of England (d. 1558) * 1530 - Uesugi Kenshin, Japanese daimyo (d. 1578) * 1543 - Charles III, Duke of Burgundy (d. 1608) * 1609 - Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, English statesman and historian (d. 1674) * 1632 - Giovanni Battista Vitali, Italian composer and violinist (d. 1692) * 1635 - Johan Goransson Gyllenstierna, Swedish statesman (d. 1680) * 1642 - Marie Champnesle, French actress (d. 1698) * 1677 - Jacques Cassini, French astronomer (d. 1756) * 1732 – Johann Christian Kittel, German organist, composer and teacher (d. 1809) * 1745 – Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist (d. 1827) === 1801 1900 === * 1814 - Samuel Fenton Cary, American lawyer and politician (d. 1900) * 1817 – Lewis A. Armistead, American Confederate General (d. 1863) * 1818 – Pedro Figueredo, Cuban poet, musician and revolutionary (d. 1870) * 1832 - Octave Chanute, French-American civil engineer and aviation pioneer (d. 1910) * 1836 - Sri Ramakrishna, Indian Bengali Guru (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 writer (d. 1906) * 1850 - George Henschel, German-British baritone, conductor and composer (d. 1934) * 1854 - Herbert Gladstone, British politician (d. 1930) * 1855 - Jean Jules Jusserand, French author and diplomat (d. 1932) * 1857 - Max Klinger, German sculptor and painter (d. 1920) * 1858 – Princess Louise Marie of Belgium (d. 1924) * 1860 – Anders Zorn, Swedish painter (d. 1920) * 1875 - Wilhelm Külz, German politician (d. 1948) * 1878 - Harriet Bosse, Swedish- Norwegian actress (d. 1961) * 1883 - Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek writer (d. 1957) * 1885 - Henri Laurens, French sculptor and illustrator (d. 1954) * 1890 - Edward Arnold, American actor (d. 1956) * 1890 - Adolphe Menjou, American actor (d. 1963) * 1892 – Wendell Wilkie, American politician (d. 1944) * 1896 - André Breton, French writer (d. 1966) * 1897 – Charles Kuentz, German-born French World War I veteran (d. 2005) * 1898 – Enzo Ferrari, Italian founder of Ferrari (d. 1988) * 1898 – Luis Muñoz Marin, 1st Governor of Puerto Rico (d. 1980) * 1899 - Arthur Bryant, British historian (d. 1985) === 1901 1950 === * 1901 - Reginald Sheffield, British actor (d. 1957) * 1902 - Walter Herbert, German-born conductor and impresario (d. 1975) * 1903 – Nikolai Podgorny, Soviet politician (d. 1983) * 1906 – Hans Asperger, Austrian physician, after whom Asperger syndrome is named (d. 1980) * 1912 - Heinz Kühn, German politician (d. 1992) * 1914 - Pee Wee King, American singer-songwriter (d. 2000) * 1915 - Phyllis Calvert, English actress (d. 2002) * 1916 - Jean Drapeau, 37th Mayor of Montreal (d. 1999) * 1919 - Amir Abbas Hoveyda, Prime Minister of Iran (d. 1979) * 1919 – Jack Palance, American actor (d. 2006) * 1920 – Bill Cullen, American game show host (d. 1990) * 1920 – Eddie Slovik, American soldier (d. 1945) * 1922 - Helen Gurley Brown, American publisher (d. 2012) * 1922 - Joe Tipton, American baseball player (d. 1994) * 1922 - Eric Gairy, 1st Prime Minister of Grenada (d. 1997) * 1925 - Marcel Barbeau, Canadian painter and sculptor (d. 2016) * 1925 - George Kennedy, American actor (d. 2016) * 1927 - Richard A. Snelling, two-time Governor of Vermont (d. 1991) * 1927 - John Warner, American politician (d. 2021) * 1929 - Len Deighton, English author * 1929 - Ertem Egilmez, Turkish movie director, producer and screenwriter (d. 1989) * 1931 – Toni Morrison, American writer, Nobel Prize winner * 1931 - Bob St. Clair, American football player (d. 2015) * 1932 – Miloš Forman, Czech movie director * 1933 – Yoko Ono, Japanese singer and performance artist * 1933 – Bobby Robson, English footballer and manager (d. 2009) * 1933 - Mary Ure, Scottish actress (d. 1975) * 1934 - Paco Rabanne, Spanish fashion designer * 1936 - Ab McDonald, Canadian ice hockey player * 1938 – Sadanoyama Shinmatsu, Japanese sumo wrestler * 1938 – Istvan Szabo, Hungarian movie director * 1939 - Marek Janowski, Polish-born conductor * 1940 - Prue Leith, South African-English chef and author * 1943 - Graeme Garden, Scottish writer, actor and comedian * 1944 - Pat Bowlen, American owner of the Denver Broncos football team * 1945 - Judy Rankin, American golfer * 1946 – Michael Buerk, British newsreader * 1946 – Jean-Claude Dreyfus, French actor * 1947 – Princess Christina of the Netherlands * 1947 - Dennis DeYoung, American musician * 1947 - Carlos Lopes, Portuguese athlete * 1948 – Sinead Cusack, Irish actress * 1949 – Gary Ridgway, American serial killer * 1950 - Cristina Ferrare, American model, actress, author and host * 1950 - Cybill Shepherd, American actress * 1950 – John Hughes, American movie director (d. 2009) === 1951 1975 === * 1951 - Komal, last Queen of Nepal * 1951 - Isabel Preysler, Filipino-Spanish journalist * 1952 - Randy Crawford, American singer * 1954 – John Travolta, American actor * 1956 – Rüdiger Abramczik, German footballer and manager * 1956 - Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgian politician and businessman * 1957 ** Marita Koch, German athlete ** Bruce Rauner, American politician, 42nd Governor of Illinois ** Christiane Torloni, Brazilian actress ** Vanna White, American actress/game show model (Wheel of Fortune) * 1958 - Lucie Visser, Dutch actress and model * 1958 - Gar Samuelson, American drummer (d. 1999) * 1959 – Hallgrimur Helgason, Icelandic artist and writer * 1960 - Greta Scacchi, Australian actress * 1960 - Tony Anselmo, American animator * 1961 - Hironobu Kageyama, Japanese singer * 1961 - Alison Owen, British movie producer * 1963 – Anders Frisk, Swedish football referee * 1964 – Matt Dillon, American actor * 1964 - Paul Hanley, British musician * 1965 – Dr. Dre, American record producer and rapper * 1967 – Roberto Baggio, Italian footballer * 1967 – Colin Jackson, Welsh athlete * 1968 - Molly Ringwald, American actress * 1969 - Alexander Mogilny, Russian ice hockey player * 1969 - Jason Sutter, American drummer * 1970 - Susan Egan, American actress * 1970 - Raine Maida, Canadian singer-songwriter * 1971 - Merritt Gant, American guitarist * 1971 - Constnatin Popa, Romanian-Israeli basketball player * 1971 - Thomas Bjorn, Danish golfer * 1972 - Fabian Picardo, 7th Chief Minister of Gibraltar * 1973 – Claude Makélélé, French footballer * 1973 - Shawn Estes, American baseball player * 1974 – Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Russian tennis player * 1975 – Keith Gillespie, Irish footballer * 1975 – Gary Neville, English footballer * 1975 - Thora Arnorsdottir, Icelandic television presenter and former Presidential candidate === From 1976 === * 1977 – Chrissie Wellington, English tri-athlete * 1978 – Josip Simunic, Croatian footballer * 1980 - Nikolai Antropov, Kazakhstani ice hockey player * 1981 - Andrei Kirilenko, Russian basketball player * 1981 - Ivan Sproule, Irish footballer * 1982 - Courtney Act, Australian drag queen, singer and entertainer * 1982 - Kaspars Cipruss, Latvian basketball player * 1983 - Roberta Vinci, Italian tennis player * 1983 – Jermaine Jenas, English footballer * 1984 - Laurent Vidal, French triathlete (d. 2015) * 1985 – Anton Ferdinand, English footballer * 1985 - Jos van der Emden, Dutch cyclist * 1985 - Song Jae-rim, South Korean actor and model * 1985 – Lee Boyd Malvo, Jamaican-American spree killer * 1986 - Vika Jigulina, Romanian singer * 1986 - Marc Torrejon, Spanish footballer * 1988 - Changmin, South Korean singer-songwriter, dancer and actor * 1988 – Maiara Walsh, Brazilian-American actress * 1990 - Park Shin-hye, South Korean actress, dancer, model and singer * 1990 - Kang So-ra, South Korean actress * 1991 - Malese Jow, American actress and singer-songwriter * 1991 – Henry Surtees, English racing driver (d. 2009) * 1992 - Logan Miller, American actor * 1995 - Samantha Crawford, American tennis player ==Deaths== === Up to 1900 === * 814 - Anglibert, Frankish monk and diplomat (b. 760) * 901 - Thabit ibn Qurra, Iraqi physician, astronomer and mathematician (b. 826) * 999 – Pope Gregory V (b. 972) * 1139 - Prince Yaropolk II of Kiev (b. 1082) * 1294 – Kublai Khan, Mongol ruler (b. 1215) * 1379 - Albert II of Mecklenburg (b. 1318) * 1405 – Tamerlane, Mongol ruler (b. 1336) * 1455 – Fra Angelico, Italian artist (b. 1395) * 1478 – George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence (b. 1449) * 1535 - Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, German magician, astrologer and theologian (b. 1486) * 1546 – Martin Luther, German religious reformer (b. 1483) * 1564 – Michelangelo, Italian artist and sculptor (b. 1475) * 1712 - Louis, duc de Bourgogne, heir to the French throne (b. 1682) * 1743 - Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, last of the Medicis (b. 1667) * 1772 - Johann Hartwig Ernst, Count of Bernstorff, Danish statesman (b. 1712) * 1780 – Kristijonas Donelaitis, Lithuanian poet (b. 1714) * 1834 - William Wirt, United States Attorney General (b. 1772) * 1851 – Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi, German mathematician (b. 1804) * 1873 – Vasil Levski, Bulgarian revolutionary (b. 1837) * 1890 – Gyula Andrassy, Hungarian politician and statesman (b. 1823) * 1891 - Henry Hastings Sibley, American politician (b. 1811) * 1893 - Serranus Clinton Hastings, American politician (b. 1814) * 1895 - Archduke Albrecht, Duke of Teschen (b. 1817) * 1899 – Sophus Lie, Norwegian mathematician (b. 1842) * 1900 - Clinton L. Merriam, American politician (b. 1824) === 1901 2000 === * 1902 – Charles Lewis Tiffany, founder of Tiffany and Co. (b. 1812) * 1906 - John Batterson Stetson, American businessman (b. 1830) * 1910 - Lucy Stanton, American abolitionist (b. 1831) * 1911 - Billy Murdoch, Australian cricketer (b. 1854) * 1915 - Harry Ward Leonard, American engineer and inventor (b. 1861) * 1931 - Frank C. Emerson, Governor of Wyoming (b. 1882) * 1932 - Frederick Augustus III of Saxony (b. 1865) * 1933 - James J. Corbett, American boxer (b. 1866) * 1937 - Lamartine Griffin Hardman, American politician, Governor of Georgia (b. 1856) * 1937 - Grigory Ordzhonikidze, Soviet politician (b. 1886) * 1945 - Ivan Chernyakhovsky, Russian general (b. 1906) * 1949 - Nicolas Alcala-Zamora, Spanish politician (b. 1877) * 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, Canadian inventor and industrialist (b. 1907) * 1966 - Robert Rossen, American screenwriter, movie director and producer (b. 1908) * 1967 – Dragisa Cvetkovic, Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (b. 1893) * 1967 – J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist (b. 1904) * 1969 - Dragisa Cvetkovic, 17th Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (b. 1893) * 1973 - Frank Costello, Italian-American mob boss (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 - Jacqueline Hill, British actress (b. 1929) * 1995 - Bob Stinson, American guitarist (b. 1959) === From 2001 === * 2001 – Dale Earnhardt, American racing driver (b. 1951) * 2001 – Balthus, Polish-French painter (b. 1908) * 2003 – Isser Harel, Israeli Mossad leader (b. 1912) * 2004 – Jean Rouch, French movie maker and ethnologist (b. 1917) * 2008 – Alain Robbe-Grillet, French writer and movie maker (b. 1922) * 2009 – Kamila Skolimowska, Polish hammer thrower (b. 1982) * 2009 – At-Tayyib Salih, Sudanese writer (b. 1929) * 2010 – John Babcock, Canadian World War I veteran (b. 1900) * 2010 – Ariel Ramirez, Argentine composer (b. 1921) * 2012 – Roald Aas, Norwegian speed skater and cyclist (b. 1928) * 2012 – George Brizan, Grenadian politician (b. 1942) * 2013 – Jerry Buss, American businessman and owner of the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team (b. 1933) * 2013 – Elspet Gray, Scottish actress (b. 1928) * 2013 – Otfried Preussler, German writer (b. 1923) * 2014 – Nelson Frazier, Jr., American professional wrestler (b. 1971) * 2014 – Nikhil Baran Sengupta, Indian art director, producer, designer and actor (b. 1943) * 2014 – Malcolm Tierney, British actor (b. 1938) * 2014 – Al Greene, American baseball player (b. 1954) * 2014 – Kristof Goddaert, Belgian cyclist (b. 1986) * 2015 – Cass Ballenger, American politician (b. 1926) * 2015 – Claude Criquielion, Belgian cyclist (b. 1957) * 2015 – Mark Fischer, American lawyer (b. 1950) * 2015 – Jerome Kersey, American basketball player (b. 1962) * 2016 – Abdul Rashid Khan, Indian musician (b. 1907) * 2016 – Pantelis Pantelidis, Greek singer-songwriter (b. 1983) * 2016 – John Reinhardt, American diplomat (b. 1920) * 2017 – Omar Abdel-Rahman, Egyptian terrorist (b. 1938) * 2017 – Ivan Koloff, Canadian professional wrestler (b. 1942) * 2017 – Lawrence F. Snowden, American military officer (b. 1921) * 2017 – Pasquale Squitieri, Italian movie director and screenwriter (b. 1938) * 2017 – Clive Stubblefield, American drummer (b. 1942) * 2017 – Michael Ogio, Governor-General of Papua New Guinea (b. 1942) * 2017 – Norma McCorvey, American activist (b. 1947) * 2017 – Dan Vickerman, Australian rugby player (b. 1979) * 2017 – Richard Schickel, American writer, filmmaker and critic (b. 1933) * 2020 – Sreten Stefanović, Serbian Olympic gymnast (b. 1916) * 2020 – José Bonaparte, Argentine paleontologist (b. 1928) == Observances == * Independence Day (the Gambia) * International Asperger's Day Category:Days of the year