February 18

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 Kulz, 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 - Andre 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 Munoz 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 Kuhn, 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 - Milos 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 - Rudiger 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 Makelele, 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 Stefanovic, Serbian Olympic gymnast (b. 1916)
2020 - Jose Bonaparte, Argentine paleontologist (b. 1928)
Observances
Independence Day (the Gambia)
International Asperger's Day
Days of the year