[Misafir]

Events (February 20th)

• 1472 - Orkney and Shetland are left by Norway to Scotland, due to a dowry payment.
• 1547 - Edward VI of England crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey.
• 1724 - The premiere of Giulio Cesare, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel, takes place in London.
• 1725 - The second reported case of white men scalping Native Americans takes place in New Hampshire colony.
• 1792 - The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, is signed by President George Washington.
• 1798 - Louis Alexandre Berthier removes Pope Pius VI from power.
• 1810 - Andreas Hofer, Tyrolean patriot and leader of rebellion against Napoleon's forces, was executed.
• 1816 - Gioachino Rossini's The Barber of Seville debuts at Teatro Argentina, with a fiasco.
• 1835 - Concepción, Chile is destroyed by an earthquake
• 1864 - Battle of Olustee
• 1872 - In New York City the Metropolitan Museum of Art opens.
• 1873 - The University of California opens its first medical school in San Francisco, California.
• 1901 - The legislature of Hawaii Territory convenes for the first time.
• 1909 - Publication of the Futurist Manifesto in the French journal Le Figaro
• 1913 - King O'Malley drives in the first survey peg to mark commencement of work on the construction of Canberra.
• 1921 - The film The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, starring Rudolph Valentino, premieres.
• 1931 - California gets the go-ahead by the U.S. Congress to build the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
• 1942 - Lieutenant Edward O'Hare becomes America's first World War II flying ace.
• 1943 - American movie studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies.
• 1943 - The Parícutin volcano begins to form in Paricutín, México.
• 1944 - World War II: "Big Week" ended with American bomber raids on Nazi aircraft manufacturing centers.
• 1944 - World War II: The United States takes Eniwetok Island.
• 1947 - State of Prussia ceases to exist
• 1952 - Emmett L. Ashford becomes the first African-American umpire in organized baseball by being authorized to be a substitute umpire in the Southwestern International League.
• 1952 - The film The African Queen opens at the Capitol Theatre in New York City.
• 1959 - The Avro Arrow program to design and manufacture supersonic jet fighters in Canada is cancelled by the Diefenbaker government amid much political debate.
• 1962 - Mercury program: While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn orbits the earth three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes, becoming the first American to orbit the earth.
• 1965 - Ranger 8 crashes into the moon after a successful mission of photographing possible landing sites for the Apollo program astronauts.
• 1969 - The date that Michel Collin had predicted as the coming of a world wide catastrophe.
• 1976 - The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization disbands.
• 1987 - Unabomber: In Salt Lake City, in the USA, a bomb explodes in a computer store.
• 1991 - A gigantic statue of Albania's long-time dictator, Enver Hoxha, is brought down in the Albanian capital, Tirana, by mobs of angry protesters.
• 1992 - Ross Perot announces his intention to run in the 1992 U.S. presidential election on CNN's Larry King Live.
• 1992 - The FA Premier League is formed and takes over as the professional league in England from season 1992–93.
• 1998 - American figure skater Tara Lipinski becomes the youngest gold-medalist at the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.
• 1998 - The Nashville Banner daily newspaper in Nashville, Tennessee, USA publishes its last edition.
• 1999 - First hockey game occurs at the Air Canada Centre. The Toronto Maple Leafs win 3-2 in overtime vs the Montreal Canadiens.
• 2002 - In Reqa Al-Gharbiya, Egypt, a fire on a train injures over 65 and kills at least 370.
• 2003 - In Rhode Island, in the USA, The Station nightclub fire kills about 100 and injures over 200.
• 2005 - Spain becomes the first country to vote in a referendum on ratification of the proposed Constitution of the European Union, passing it by a substantial margin, but on a low turnout.

[Misafir]

Events (February 21st)

• 362 - Athanasius returns to Alexandria.
• 1440 - The Prussian Confederation is formed.
• 1543 - Battle of Wayna Daga - A combined army of Ethiopian and Portuguese troops defeated a Muslim army led by Ahmed Gragn.
• 1613 - Mikhail I is elected unanimously as Tsar by a national assembly, beginning the Romanov dynasty of Imperial Russia.
• 1743 - The premiere in London of George Frideric Handel's oratorio, "Samson".
• 1804 - The first self-propelling steam locomotive makes its outing at the Pen-y-Darren ironworks in Wales.
• 1842 - John Greenough is granted the first U.S. patent for the sewing machine.
• 1848 - Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish the Communist Manifesto.
• 1874 - The Oakland Daily Tribune publishes its first newspaper.
• 1875 - Jeanne Calment was born, going on to live for 122 years 164 days, the longest confirmed lifespan for any human being in history.
• 1878 - The first telephone book is issued in New Haven, Connecticut.
• 1885 - The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated.
• 1893 - Thomas Edison receives two U.S. patents for a "Cut Out for Incandescent Electric Lamps" and for a "Stop Device"
• 1916 - World War I: In France the Battle of Verdun begins.
• 1918 - The last Carolina parakeet dies in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo.
• 1925 - The New Yorker publishes its first issue.
• 1937 - Initial flight of the first successful flying car, Waldo Waterman's Arrowbile.
• 1937 - The League of Nations bans foreign national "volunteers" in the Spanish Civil War.
• 1945 - World War II: Japanese Kamikaze planes sink escort carrier Bismarck Sea and damage the Saratoga.
• 1947 - In New York City Edwin Land demonstrates the first "instant camera", the Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.
• 1948 - NASCAR is incorporated.
• 1952 - Language Martyrs' Day, marking language-revolution in the then East Pakistan (currently, the independent state of People's Republic of Bangladesh).
• 1952 - The government of Winston Churchill abolishes Identity Cards in the UK to "set the people free".
• 1952 - In Dhaka, East Pakistan (present Bangladesh) Police opened fire on a procession of students, who demanded to establish Bengali as the Official language, killing four people and starting a country-wide protest which led to the recognition of Bengali as one of the national languages of Pakistan. 21st February was later declared as "International Mother Language Day" by UNESCO.
• 1953 - Francis Crick and James D. Watson discover the structure of the DNA molecule.
• 1960 - Cuban leader Fidel Castro nationalizes all businesses in Cuba.
• 1965 - Malcolm X is assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City by members of the Nation of Islam.
• 1970 - Swissair Flight 330: A mid-air bomb explosion and subsequent crash kills 38 passengers and nine crew members near Zürich, Switzerland.
• 1971 - The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.
• 1972 - President Richard Nixon visits the People's Republic of China to normalize Sino-American relations.
• 1972 - The Soviet unmanned spaceship Luna 20 lands on the Moon.
• 1973 - Over the Sinai Desert, Israeli fighter aircraft shoot down a Libyan Airlines jet killing 108.
• 1974 - The long-running Japanese comic strip "Sazae-san" publishes its final installment in the Asahi Shimbun.
• 1974 - The last Israeli soldiers leave the west bank of the Suez Canal in carrying out a truce with Egypt.
• 1975 - Watergate scandal: Former United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are sentenced to prison.
• 1981 - Charles Rocket, portraying the gunshot victim in a Saturday Night Live parody of the "Who shot J.R.?" plot on the program Dallas, said, "I'd like to know who the **** did it," during the live feed of the "goodnights" segment. Afterward, everyone except Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo was fired.
• 1986 - Nintendo releases The Legend of Zelda.
• 1988 - Jimmy Swaggart, on his own televangelism program being taped in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, confesses that he is guilty of an unspecified sin and will be temporarily leaving the pulpit
• 1995 - Serkadji prison mutiny in Algeria; 4 guards and 96 prisoners killed in a day and a half.
• 1995 - Ibrahim Ali, a 17-year-old Comorian living in France, is murdered by three far right National Front activists.
• 1995 - Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.
• 2000 - David Letterman returns to The Late Show over a month after having an emergency quintuple heart bypass surgery.
• 2003 - Over 100 concert goers in Rhode Island die in a fire during a performance of the rock band Great White.
• 2004 - The first European political party organization, the European Greens, is established in Rome.
• 2006 - New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg unveils a brand new sign on the corner of West 66th Street called Peter Jennings Way in honor of the late ABC News anchor Peter Jennings.

[Misafir]

Events (February 22nd)

• 1295 BC - The coronation of Ramses II, on whose face the sun's rays fall each year in Abu Simbel temple.
• 1281 - Martin IV becomes Pope.
• 1288 - Nicholas IV becomes Pope.
• 1495 - King Charles VIII of France enters Naples to claim the city's throne.
• 1632 - Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems is published.
• 1744 - War of the Austrian Succession: The Battle of Toulon begins.
• 1819 - By the Adams-Onís Treaty, Spain sells Florida to the United States for five million U.S. dollars.
• 1847 - Mexican-American War: The Battle of Buena Vista - 5,000 American troops drive off 15,000 Mexican.
• 1853 - The Washington University is founded in St. Louis as Eliot Seminary.
• 1855 - The Pennsylvania State University is founded.
• 1856 - The Republican Party opens its first national meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
• 1865 - Tennessee adopts a new constitution that abolishes slavery.
• 1876 - Johns Hopkins University is founded in Baltimore, Maryland.
• 1879 - In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of 5 and 10-cent Woolworth stores.
• 1882 - Serbian kingdom refounded.
• 1889 - President Grover Cleveland signs a bill admitting North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington as U.S. states.
• 1904 - UK recognises the South Orkney Islands as part of Argentina, in 1908 claims them again.
• 1915 - World War I: Germany institutes unrestricted submarine warfare.
• 1920 - In Emeryville, California, the first dog race track to employ an imitation rabbit opens.
• 1923 - The United States begins the first transcontinental air mail route.
• 1924 - Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President of the United States to deliver a radio broadcast from the White House.
• 1942 - World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defense collapses.
• 1943 - Members of White Rose are executed in Nazi Germany.
• 1944 - American aircraft bombard the Dutch towns of Nijmegen, Arnhem, Enschede and Deventer by mistake, resulting in 800 dead in Nijmegen alone.
• 1948 - Communist coup in Czechoslovakia
• 1949 - Grady the Cow, a 1,200-pound cow gets stuck inside a silo on a farm in Yukon, Oklahoma and garners national media attention.
• 1956 - Elvis Presley enters the music charts for the first time, with "Heartbreak Hotel".
• 1958 - Egypt and Syria join to form the United Arab Republic.
• 1959 - Lee Petty wins the first Daytona 500.
• 1969 - Barbara Jo Rubi wins a United States thoroughbred horse race making history as the first woman to do so.
• 1969 - The last time all four Beatles were together for a recording session.
• 1973 - Cold War: Following United States President Richard Nixon's visit to the People's Republic of China, the two countries agree to establish liaison offices.
• 1974 - Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) summit conference starts in Lahore, Pakistan. Thirty-seven countries are attending. Twenty-two heads of state and government participate.
• 1974 - Samuel Byck tries and fails to assassinate U.S. President Richard Nixon.
• 1979 - Independence of Saint Lucia from the United Kingdom.
• 1980 - The United States ice hockey team defeats the Soviet Union team at the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in an upset dubbed the "Miracle on Ice".
• 1986 - Start of the 1986 EDSA Revolution in the Philippines.
• 1994 - Aldrich Ames and his wife are charged by the United States Department of Justice with spying for the Soviet Union.
• 1997 - In Roslin, Scotland, scientists announce that an adult sheep named Dolly had been successfully cloned.
• 2002 - Angolan political and rebel leader Jonas Savimbi is killed in a military ambush.
• 2002 - A MH-47E Chinook helicopter crashes into the ocean near the Philippines, killing all 10 aboard.
• 2006 - Al Askari Mosque bombed.
• 2006 - Dushanbe synagogue demolished.
• 2006 - At least six men stage Britain's biggest robbery ever, stealing £53m (about $92.5 million or €78 million) from a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent.
• 2007 - In The Netherlands, the Fourth Balkenende cabinet is installed.
• 2007 - Norwegian cross country skiers Jens Arne Svartedal and Astrid Jacobsen become the first ever gold medalists of an indoor and a nighttime nordic skiing event at a World Championship or Winter Olympic level by winning their respective men's and women's individual sprint finals in Sapporo, Japan.
• 2007 - Zenwalk Linux 4.4 is released.

[Misafir]

Events (February 23rd)

• 1455 - Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed from movable type.
• 1660 - Charles XI becomes King of Sweden.
• 1778 - American Revolution: Baron von Steuben arrives at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania to help to train the Continental Army.
• 1797 - French Forces launch a failed invasion of Britain. See Last Invasion of Britain
• 1820 - Cato Street Conspiracy: A plot to murder all the British cabinet ministers is exposed.
• 1830 - Oxford, Ohio, home of Miami University, is incorporated.
• 1836 - The Siege of the Alamo begins in San Antonio, Texas.
• 1847 - Mexican-American War: Battle of Buena Vista - In Mexico, American troops defeat Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna.
• 1854 - The official independence of the Orange Free State is declared.
• 1861 - President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington, D.C., after an assassination attempt in Baltimore, Maryland.
• 1870 - Military control of Mississippi ends and it is readmitted to the Union.
• 1874 - Major Walter Clopton Wingfield patents a game called "sphairistike," now more commonly called lawn tennis.
• 1883 - Alabama becomes the first U.S. state to enact an antitrust law.
• 1887 - The French Riviera is hit by a large earthquake, killing around 2,000.
• 1893 - Rudolf Diesel receives a patent for the diesel engine.
• 1898 - Émile Zola is imprisoned in France after writing "J'accuse", a letter accusing the French government of anti-Semitism and wrongfully placing Captain Alfred Dreyfus in jail.
• 1900 - In South Africa the Boers and British troops fight in the Battle of Hart's Hill.
• 1903 - Cuba leases Guantanamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity".
• 1904 - For $10 million the United States gains control of the Panama Canal Zone.
• 1905 - Chicago, Illinois attorney Paul Harris and three other businessmen meet for lunch to form the Rotary Club, the world's first service club.
• 1909 - The Silver Dart makes the first powered flight in Canada and the British Empire.
• 1917 - First demonstrations in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The beginning of the February Revolution.

• 1918 - First victory of Red Army over the Kaiser's German troops near Narva and Pskov. Since 1923 this date become the Day of Red Army in honour of this victory.

• 1919 - Benito Mussolini forms the Fascist Party in Italy.
• 1927 - The Federal Radio Commission (later renamed the Federal Communications Commission) begins to regulate the use of radio frequencies.
• 1934 - Léopold III becomes King of Belgium.
• 1940 - World War II: Soviet Union troops conquer Lasi Island.
• 1941 - Plutonium was first produced and isolated by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg.
• 1945 - World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, a group of United States Marines reach the top of Mount Suribachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag. The photo would later win a Pulitzer Prize.
• 1945 - World War II: The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by American forces.
• 1945 - World War II: Capitulation of German garrison in Poznań, city is liberated by Soviet and Polish forces.
• 1945 - World War II: The German town of Pforzheim is completely destroyed by a raid of 379 British bombers.
• 1947 - International Organization for Standardization(ISO) is founded.
• 1954 - The first mass vaccination of children against polio begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
• 1955 - First meeting of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO).
• 1955 - Edgar Faure becomes Prime Minister of France.
• 1956 - In a cosmic event known as the great flare, the Earth was bombarded with a burst of protons and other nuclei from a solar flare.
• 1957 - The founding congress of the Senegalese Popular Bloc is opened in Dakar.
• 1958 - Cuban rebels kidnap 5-time world driving champion Juan Manuel Fangio.
• 1966 - A military coup in Syria replaces the previous government.
• 1974 - The Symbionese Liberation Army demands $4 million more to release kidnap victim Patty Hearst.
• 1975 - In response to the energy crisis, daylight saving time commences nearly two months early in the United States.
• 1980 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini states that Iran's parliament would decide the fate of the American embassy hostages.
• 1981 - 23-F, Antonio Tejero attempts a coup d'état by capturing the Spanish Congress of Deputies.
• 1983 - The Spanish Socialist government of Felipe González and Miguel Boyer nationalizes Rumasa, a holding of José María Ruiz Mateos.
• 1983 - The Environmental Protection Agency announces its intent to buy out and evacuate the dioxin-contaminated community of Times Beach, Missouri.
• 1987 - A supernova is seen in the Large Magellanic Cloud (see Supernova 1987a).
• 1991 - Gulf War: Ground troops cross the Saudi Arabia border and enter Iraq, thus starting the ground-phase of the war.
• 1991 - In Thailand, General Sunthorn Kongsompong leads a bloodless coup d'état, deposing Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan.
• 1992 - The Socialist Labour Party is founded in Georgia.
• 1995 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 30.28 to close at 4,003.33, closing above 4,000 for the first time.
• 1997 - A large fire occurs in the Russian Space station, Mir.
• 1998 - Kissimmee Tornado Outbreak: Tornadoes in central Florida destroy or damage 2,600 structures and kill 42.
• 1998 - Osama bin Laden publishes a fatwa declaring jihad against all Jews and Crusaders.
• 1999 - Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan is charged with treason in Ankara, Turkey.
• 1999 - An avalanche destroys the Austrian village of Galtür, killing 31.
• 2005 - Slovakia Summit 2005 begins, marking the first occasion when a sitting American President visits Slovakia; Bush and Putin are in attendance.
• 2005 - Vote of the controversial French law on colonialism, repealed start of 2006.

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Events (February 24th)

• 303 - Galerius, Roman Emperor, publishes his edict that begins the persecution of Christians in his portion of the Empire.
• 1387 - King Charles III of Naples and Hungary is assassinated at Buda.
• 1538 - Treaty of Nagyvarad between Ferdinand I and John Zápolya.
• 1582 - Pope Gregory XIII announces the Gregorian calendar.
• 1607 - L'Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi, one of the first works recognized as an opera, premieres.
• 1711 - The London premiere of Rinaldo by George Friderich Handel, the first Italian opera written for the London stage.
• 1739 - Battle of Karnal: The army of Iranian ruler Nadir Shah defeats the forces of the Mughal emperor of India, Muhammad Shah.
• 1803 - The Supreme Court of the United States, in Marbury v. Madison, establishes the principle of judicial review.
• 1804 - London's Drury Lane Theatre burns to the ground, leaving owner Richard Brinsley Sheridan destitute.
• 1826 - The signing of the Treaty of Yandaboo marks the end of the First Burmese War.
• 1831 - The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, the first removal treaty in accordance with the Indian Removal Act, is proclaimed. The Choctaws in Mississippi cede land east of the river in exchange for payment and land in the West.
• 1839 - William Otis receives a patent for the steam shovel.
• 1848 - King Louis-Philippe of France abdicates the throne.
• 1863 - Arizona is organized as a United States territory.
• 1868 - The first parade to have floats is staged at Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Louisiana.
• 1868 - Andrew Johnson becomes the first President of the United States to be impeached by the United States House of Representatives. He is later acquitted in the Senate.
• 1881 - China and Russia sign the Sino-Russian Ili Treaty.
• 1895 - Revolution breaks out in Baire, a town near Santiago de Cuba, beginning the second war for Cuban independence, which ended with the Spanish-American War in 1898.
• 1899 - Western Washington University is established.
• 1909 - The Hudson Motor Car Company is founded.
• 1917 - World War I: The U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom is given the Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany pledges to ensure the return of New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona to Mexico if that country declares war on the United States.
• 1918 - Estonia: Declaration of independence from Russia.
• 1920 - The Nazi Party is founded.
• 1925 - A thermite (magnesium) bomb is used for the first time to break up a 250,000-ton ice jam clogging the St. Lawrence River near Waddington, New York.
• 1938 - A nylon-bristle toothbrush becomes the first commercial product (DuPont) to be made with nylon yarn.
• 1942 - The Voice of America begins broadcasting.
• 1945 - Egyptian Premier Ahmed Maher Pasha is killed in Parliament after reading a decree.
• 1946 - Juan Perón is elected president of Argentina.
• 1968 - Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive is halted; South Vietnam recaptures Hué.
• 1970 - National Public Radio is founded in the United States.
• 1971 - The All India Forward Bloc holds an emergency central committee meeting after its chairman, Hemantha Kumar Bose, was killed 3 days earlier. P.K. Mookiah Thevar appointed as the new chairman.
• 1975 - Hard rock band Led Zeppelin release the classic double album Physical Graffiti.
• 1976 - Cuba : national Constitution proclaimed.
• 1981 - Buckingham Palace announces the engagement of The Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer.
• 1981 - An earthquake registering 6.7 on the Richter scale hits Athens, killing 16 people and destroying buildings in several towns west of the city.
• 1981 - Jean Harris is convicted of murdering Dr. Herman Tarnower, the author of the bestselling The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet.
• 1983 - A special commission of the U.S. Congress releases a report that condemns the practice of Japanese internment during World War II.
• 1988 - The Supreme Court of the United States sides with Larry Flynt's Hustler magazine by overturning a lower court decision to award Jerry Falwell $200,000 for defamation.
• 1989 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini offers a USD $3 million bounty for the death of The Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie.
• 1989 - United Airlines Flight 811, bound for New Zealand from Honolulu, Hawaii, rips open during flight, sucking 9 passengers out of the business-class section.
• 1992 - Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain marries Courtney Love.
• 1995 - The Corona reconnaissance satellite program, in existence from 1959 to 1972, is declassified.
• 1996 - The last occurrence of February 24 as a leap day in the European Union and for the Roman Catholic Church.
• 1999 - The State of Arizona executes Karl LaGrand, a German national involved in an armed robbery, in spite of Germany's legal action to attempt to save him.
• 1999 - A China Southern Airlines Tupolev TU-154 airliner crashes on approach to Wenzhou airport in eastern the People's Republic of China, killing 61.
• 2002 - The Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah end.
• 2003 - Bassist Robert Trujillo joins Metallica after Jason Newsted left January 17, 2001
• 2006 - Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declares Proclamation 1017 placing the country in a state of emergency in attempt to subdue a possible military coup.