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.
• 1229 - The Sixth Crusade: Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor signed 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 first and only 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 ratified 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 took place in Allahabad, British India, when Henri Pequet, a 23-year-old pilot, delivered 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 delivered 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.
• 1977 - The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle goes on its maiden "flight" while sitting on top of a Boeing 747.
• 1983 - 13 people lose their lives 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 were arrested in Nevada and accused of plotting a biological attack on New York City subways.
• 2001 - NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt is killed on the final lap of the Daytona 500.
• 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)
• 1626 - February 18/19 - Francesco Redi, physician, refuted abiogenesis (d. 1697)
• 1745 - Alessandro Volta, physicist, eponym for the unit of the electric potential (d. 1827)
• 1838 - Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist and philosopher (d. 1916)
• 1846 - Wilson Barrett, actor and playwright (d. 1904)
• 1848 - Louis Comfort Tiffany, American glass artist (d. 1933)
• 1849 - Alexander Kielland, Norwegian author
• 1858 - Louise-Marie Amélie, daughter of Leopold II of Belgium, wife of Prince Philipp of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (d. 1924)
• 1859 - Sholom Aleichem, humorist, author (d. 1916)
• 1867 - Hedwig Courths-Mahler , novelist (d. 1950)
• 1871 - Harry Brearley, inventor of stainless steel (d. 1948)
• 1883 - Nikos Kazantzakis, poet (d. 1957)
• 1890 - Adolphe Menjou, actor (d. 1963)
• 1890 - Edward Arnold, American actor (d. 1956)
• 1892 - Wendell Wilkie, U.S. Presidential candidate (d. 1944)
• 1896 - Andre Breton, French poet and principal theorist of surrealism (d. 1966)
• 1898 - Enzo Ferrari, Italian auto racer, manufacturer (d. 1988)
• 1903 - Nikolai Podgorny, President of the Soviet Union (d. 1983)
• 1905 - Jan Gies , Dutch resistance fighter (d. 1993)
• 1907 - Billy De Wolfe , American actor, comedian (d.l 1974)
• 1912 - Heinz Kühn , politician (d. 1992)
• 1919 - Jack Palance, actor
• 1920 - Bill Cullen, game show host (d. 1990)
• 1920 - Eric Gairy, Grenadian politician (d. 1997)
• 1922 - Helen Gurley Brown, editor, publisher
• 1922 - Allan Melvin , American actor
• 1925 - George Kennedy, actor
• 1927 - John Warner, United States Senator
• 1929 - Len Deighton, author
• 1930 - Gahan Wilson, cartoonist
• 1931 - Johnny Hart, cartoonist
• 1931 - Toni Morrison, writer, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature 1993
• 1931 - Bob St. Clair, American football star
• 1932 - Milos Forman, film director
• 1933 - Yoko Ono, singer, artist, wife of John Lennon
• 1936 - Jean Auel, American writer
• 1938 - István Szabó, director
• 1943 - Graeme Garden, writer, comedian, actor
• 1945 - Judy Rankin, American golfer
• 1947 - Princess Christina of the Netherlands
• 1947 - Dennis DeYoung, musician (Styx)
• 1948 - Sinéad Cusack, Irish actress
• 1949 - Gary Ridgway, the Green River killer
• 1950 - John Hughes, director, producer, writer
• 1950 - Cybill Shepherd, actress
• 1952 - Juice Newton, country music entertainer
• 1954 - John Travolta, actor
• 1957 - Vanna White, game show presenter
• 1960 - Greta Scacchi, Italian actress
• 1964 - Matt Dillon, actor
• 1965 - Dr. Dre, rap music performer, music producer
• 1968 - Molly Ringwald, American actress
• 1967 - Roberto Baggio, Italian football player
• 1979 - Tyrone Burton , American actor
• 1981 - Andrei Kirilenko, Russian NBA star
• 1985 - Lee Boyd Malvo, convicted Beltway sniper

Deaths

• 806 - Tarasius, Patriarch of Constantinople
• 814 - Angilbert, Frankish monk and confidant of Charlemagne
• 901 - Thabit ibn Qurra, Arab astronomer and mathematician (b. 826)
• 999 - Pope Gregory V (b. ca. 972)
• 1478 - George, Duke of Clarence, brother of Edward IV and Richard III of England (executed) (b. 1449)
• 1546 - Martin Luther, religious reformer (b. 1483)
• 1564 - Michelangelo Buonarroti, Italian artist (b. 1475)
• 1931 - Milan Sufflay, Croat politician (b. 1879)
• 1933 - James J. Corbett, boxer
• 1942 - Albert Payson Terhune , author (b. 1872)
• 1957 - Henry Norris Russell, American astronomer (b. 1877)
• 1967 - J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist (b. 1904)
• 1973 - Frank Costello, gangster
• 1977 - Andy Devine, American actor
• 1978 - Maggie McNamara, American actress
• 1981 - John Knudsen Northrop, American aircraft designer
• 1982 - Ngaio Marsh, mystery fiction author (b. 1895)
• 1993 - Kerry Von Erich, American professional wrestler
• 1997 - Emily Hahn, writer (b. 1905)
• 1998 - Harry Caray, TV and radio broadcaster for three Major League Baseball teams (b. 1917)
• 1999 - Noam Pitlik, actor/director (b. 1932)
• 2001 - Balthus, French painter
• 2001 - Dale Earnhardt, NASCAR race car driver (b. 1951)
• 2001 - Eddie Mathews, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1931)
• 2001 - Roger Caras , writer, animal activist, President of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
• 2001 - Balthus, Polish artist
• 2003 - Isser Harel, Mossad leader (b. 1912)
• 2003 - Johnny PayCheck, American country music singer
• 2004 - Jean Rouch, French filmmaker and ethnologist (b. 1917)

Holidays and observances

• Independence Day in The Gambia, (1965)

External links

• BBC: On This Day

February 17 - February 19 - January 18 - March 18 -- listing of all days