Saturday, February 28, 2009

Historical Events on 1 Mar

Historical Events on 1 Mar

1457 - The Unitas Fratrum is established in the village of Kunvald, on the Bohemian-Moravian borderland. It is to date the second oldest Protestant denomination.
1562 - Over 1,000 Huguenots are massacred by Catholics in Wassy, France, marking the start of the French Wars of Religion.
1565 - The city of Rio de Janeiro is founded.
1593 - The Uppsala Synod is summoned to confirm the exact forms of the Lutheran Church of Sweden.
1628 - Writs are issued in February by Charles I of England mandating that every county in England (not just seaport towns) pay ship tax by this date.
1633 - Samuel de Champlain reclaims his role as commander of New France on behalf of Cardinal Richelieu.
1642 - Georgeana, Massachusetts (now known as York, Maine) becomes the first incorporated city in the USA.
1692 - Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba are brought before local magistrates in Salem Village, Massachusetts, beginning what would become known as the Salem witch trials.
1700 - Sweden introduces its own Swedish calendar, in an attempt to gradually merge into the Gregorian calendar, reverts to the Julian calendar on this date in 1712, and introduces the Gregorian Calendar on this date in 1753.
1781 - The Continental Congress adopts the Articles of Confederation.
1790 - The first United States census is authorized.
1803 - Ohio is admitted as the 17th U.S. state.
1805 - Justice Samuel Chase is acquitted at the end of his impeachment trial by the U.S. Senate.
1811 - Leaders of the Mameluke dynasty are killed by Egyptian ruler Muhammad Ali.
1815 - Napoleon returns to France from his banishment on Elba.
1836 - A convention of delegates from 57 Texas communities convenes in Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas, to deliberate independence from Mexico.
1840 - Adolphe Thiers becomes prime minister of France.
1845 - President John Tyler signs a bill authorizing the United States to annex the Republic of Texas.
1847 - The state of Michigan formally abolishes capital punishment.
1852 - Archibald William Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
1854 - German psychologist Friedrich Eduard Beneke disappears; two years later his remains are found in a canal near Charlottenburg.
1867 - Nebraska becomes the 37th U.S. state; Lancaster, Nebraska is renamed Lincoln and becomes the state capital.
1872 - Yellowstone National Park is established as the world's first national park.
1873 - E. Remington and Sons in Ilion, New York begins production of the first practical typewriter.
1878 - First winter ascent of Aneto
1886 - The Anglo-Chinese School, Singapore is founded by Bishop William Oldham.
1896 - Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity.
1896 - Battle of Adowa: an Ethiopian army defeats an outnumbered Italian force, ending the First Italo-Ethiopian War.
1912 - Albert Berry makes the first parachute jump from a moving airplane.
1914 - The Republic of China joins the Universal Postal Union.
1917 - U.S. government releases the plaintext of the Zimmermann Telegram to the public.
1919 - March 1st Movement begins in Korea.
1932 - The son of Charles Lindbergh, Charles Augustus Lindbergh III, is kidnapped.
1936 - A strike occurs aboard the S.S. California, leading to the demise of the International Seamen's Union and the creation of the National Maritime Union.
1936 - The Hoover Dam is completed.
1939 - Japanese Imperial Army ammunition dump exploded at Hirakata, Osaka, Japan, killing 94.
1941 - World War II: Bulgaria signs the Tripartite Pact, allying itself with the Axis powers.
1941 - W47NV (now known as WSM-FM) begins operations in Nashville, Tennessee becoming the first FM radio station in the U.S..
1943 - World War II: Battle of Bismarck Sea begins.
1946 - The Bank of England is nationalised.
1947 - The International Monetary Fund begins financial operations.
1949 - Indonesia seizes Yogyakarta from the Dutch.
1950 - Cold War: Klaus Fuchs is convicted of spying for the Soviet Union by disclosing top secret atomic bomb data.
1953 - Joseph Stalin suffers a stroke and collapses. He dies four days later.
1954 - Nuclear testing: The Castle Bravo, a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb, is detonated on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, resulting in the worst radioactive contamination ever caused by the United States.
1954 - Puerto Rican nationalists attack the United States Capitol building, injuring five Representatives. (See U.S. Capitol shooting incident (1954).)
1956 - formation of the National People's Army
1956 - The International Air Transport Association finalizes a draft of the Radiotelephony spelling alphabet for the International Civil Aviation Organization.
1958 - Samuel Alphonsus Stritch, is appointed Pro-Prefect of the Propagation of Faith and thus becomes the first American member of the Roman Curia.
1958 - Turkish passenger ship Uskudar capsized and sank at Izmit Bay, Kocaeli, Turkey, killing at least 300.
1961 - President of the United States John F. Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps.
1961 - Uganda becomes self-governing and holds its first elections.
1962 - American Airlines Flight 1 crashes on take off in New York.
1966 - Venera 3 Soviet space probe crashes on Venus becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet's surface.
1966 - The Ba'ath Party takes power in Syria.
1971 - Pakistani President Yahya Khan indefinitely postpones the pending national assembly session, precipitating massive civil disobedience in East Pakistan.
1971 - A bomb explodes in a men's room in the United States Capitol: the Weather Underground claims responsibility.
1972 - The Thai province of Yasothon is created after being split off from the Ubon Ratchathani province.
1973 - Black September terrorists storm the Saudi embassy in Khartoum, Sudan resulting in the 1973 Khartoum diplomatic assassinations.
1974 - Watergate scandal: Seven are indicted for their role in the Watergate break-in and charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice.
1975 - Colour television transmissions begin in Australia.
1980 - Voyager 1 probe confirms that Janus (moon of Saturn) exists.
1989 - The United States becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
1990 - Steve Jackson Games is raided by the United States Secret Service, prompting the later formation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
1992 - Bosnia and Herzegovina declares its independence from Yugoslavia.
1995 - Polish Prime Minister Waldemar Pawlak resigns from parliament and is replaced by ex-communist Józef Oleksy.
2000 - Hans Blix assumes the position of Executive Chairman of UNMOVIC.
2000 - The Constitution of Finland is rewritten.
2002 - The peseta is discontinued as official currency of Spain and is replaced with the euro (€).
2002 - The Envisat environmental satellite successfully reaches an orbit 800 kilometers (500 miles) above the Earth on its 11th launch, carrying the heaviest payload to date at 8500 kilograms (9.5 tons).
2002 - U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda begins in eastern Afghanistan.
2003 - Management of the United States Customs Service and the United States Secret Service move to the United States Department of Homeland Security.
2004 - Terry Nichols is convicted of state murder charges and being an accomplice to Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
2004 - Mohammed Bahr al-Uloum becomes President of Iraq.
2006 - English-language Wikipedia reaches its one millionth article, Jordanhill railway station.
2006 - Tarja Halonen is inaugurated as President of Finland for the second and last time.
2007 - Tornadoes swarm across the southern United States, killing at least 20; eight of the deaths were at a high school in Enterprise, Alabama.
2007 - "Squatters" are evicted from Ungdomshuset in Copenhagen, Denmark, provoking the March 2007 Denmark Riots.
286 - Roman Emperor Diocletian raises Maximian to the rank of Caesar.
293 - Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximian appoint Constantius Chlorus and Galerius as Caesares, thus beginning the Tetrarchy.
317 - Crispus and Constantine II, sons of Roman Emperor Constantine I, and Licinius Iunior, son of Emperor Licinius, are made Caesares
86 BC - Lucius Cornelius Sulla, at the head of a Roman Republic army, enters in Athens, removing the tyrant Aristion who was supported by troops of Mithridates VI of Pontus.

Friday, February 27, 2009

Historical Events on 28 Feb

Historical Events on 28 Feb

1700 - Today is followed by March 1 in Sweden, thus creating the Swedish calendar.
1710 - In the Battle of Helsingborg, 14,000 Danish invaders under Jørgen Rantzau are decisively defeated by an equally sized Swedish force under Magnus Stenbock.
1784 - John Wesley charters the Methodist Church.
1787 - The charter establishing the institution now known as the University of Pittsburgh is granted.
1827 - The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad is incorporated, becoming the first railroad in America offering commercial transportation of both people and freight.
1838 - Robert Nelson, leader of the Patriotes, proclaims the independence of Lower Canada (today Québec)
1844 - A gun on USS Princeton explodes while the boat is on a Potomac River cruise, killing two United States Cabinet members and several others.
1849 - Regular steamboat service from the west to the east coast of the United States begins with the arrival of the SS California in San Francisco Bay, 4 months 21 days after leaving New York Harbor.
1850 - The University of Utah opens in Salt Lake City, Utah.
1854 - The Republican Party of the United States is organized in Ripon, Wisconsin.
1861 - Colorado is organized as a United States territory.
1870 - The Bulgarian Exarchate is established by decree of Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz of the Ottoman Empire.
1883 - The first vaudeville theater opens in Boston, Massachusetts.
1885 - The American Telephone and Telegraph Company is incorporated in New York State as the subsidiary of American Bell Telephone. (American Bell would later merge with its subsidiary.)
1897 - Queen Ranavalona III, the last monarch of Madagascar, is deposed by a French military force.
1900 - The Second Boer War: The 118-day "Siege of Ladysmith" is lifted.
1922 - The United Kingdom accepts the independence of Egypt.
1933 - Gleichschaltung: The Reichstag Fire Decree is passed in Germany a day after the Reichstag fire.
1935 - Nylon is invented by Wallace Carothers.
1939 - The first issue of Serbian weekly magazine Politikin zabavnik is published.
1939 - The erroneous word "Dord" is discovered in the Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition, prompting an investigation.
1940 - Basketball is televised for the first time (Fordham University vs. the University of Pittsburgh in Madison Square Garden).
1942 - The heavy cruiser USS Houston (CA-30) is sunk in the Battle of Sunda Strait with 693 crew members killed.
1947 - 228 Incident: In Taiwan, civil disorder is put down with the loss of 30,000 civilian lives.
1953 - James D. Watson and Francis Crick announce to friends that they have determined the chemical structure of DNA; the formal announcement takes place on April 25 following publication in April Nature (pub. April 2).
1958 - A school bus in Floyd County, Kentucky hits a wrecker truck and plunges down an embankment into the rain-swollen Levisa Fork River. The driver and 26 children die in what remains the worst school bus accident in U.S. history.
1972 - Sino-American relations: The United States and People's Republic of China sign the Shanghai Communiqué.
1972 - The Asama-Sanso incident ends in Japan.
1974 - After seven years, the United States and Egypt re-establish diplomatic relations.
1975 - A major tube train crash at Moorgate station, London kills 43 people.
1983 - The final episode of M*A*S*H is broadcast in the USA, becoming the most watched television episode in history, with 106-125 million viewers in the U.S. (estimate varies by source).
1985 - The Provisional Irish Republican Army carries out a mortar attack on the Royal Ulster Constabulary police station at Newry, killing nine officers in the highest loss of life for the RUC on a single day.
1986 - Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden, is assassinated in Stockholm.
1991 - The first Gulf War ends.
1993 - Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents raid the Branch Davidian church in Waco, Texas with a warrant to arrest the group's leader David Koresh. Four BATF agents and five Davidians die in the initial raid, starting a 51-day standoff.
1995 - Denver International Airport officially opens in Denver, Colorado to replace Stapleton International Airport
1997 - The North Hollywood shootout takes place.
1998 - Kosovo War: Serbian police begin the offensive against the Kosovo Liberation Army in Kosovo.
1998 - First flight of RQ-4 Global Hawk, the first unmanned aerial vehicle certified to file its own flight plans and fly regularly in U.S. civilian airspace.
2001 - Six passengers and four railway staff are killed and a further 82 people suffer serious injuries in the Selby rail crash.
2001 - The Nisqually Earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter Scale hits the Nisqually Valley and the Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia area of the U.S. state of Washington.
2004 - Over 1 million Taiwanese participating in the 228 Hand-in-Hand Rally form a 500-kilometre (300-mile) long human chain to commemorate the 228 Incident in 1947
2005 - Lebanon's pro-Syrian prime minister, Omar Karami, resigns amid large anti-Syria street demonstrations in Beirut.
2005 - A suicide bombing at a police recruiting centre in Al Hillah, Iraq kills 127.
2007 - Jupiter flyby of the New Horizons Pluto-observer spacecraft.
2008 - Former Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra is arrested on corruption charges upon returning to Thailand after months of exile.
202 BC - coronation ceremony of Liu Bang as Emperor Gaozu of Han takes place, initiating four centuries of the Han Dynasty's rule over China
364 - Valentinian I becomes Roman Emperor.
870 - The Fourth Council of Constantinople closes.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Historical Events on 27 Feb

Historical Events on 27 Feb

1560 - The Treaty of Berwick, which would expel the French from Scotland, is signed by England and the Congregation of Scotland.
1594 - Henry IV is crowned King of France.
1617 - Sweden and Russia sign the Treaty of Stolbovo, ending the Ingrian War and shutting Russia out of the Baltic Sea.
1626 - Yuan Chonghuan is appointed Governor of Liaodong, after he led the Chinese into a great victory against the Manchurians under Nurhaci.
1700 - The island of New Britain is discovered.
1776 - The Battle of Moore's Creek in North Carolina was won by the Patriots during the American Revolution.
1801 - Washington, DC is placed under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress. See District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801
1812 - Poet Lord Byron gives his first address as a member of the House of Lords, in defense of Luddite violence against Industrialism in his home county of Nottinghamshire.
1844 - The Dominican Republic gains independence from Haiti.
1860 - Abraham Lincoln makes a speech at Cooper Union in the city of New York that is largely responsible for his election to the Presidency.
1861 - A crowd in Warsaw protesting against Russian rule over Poland is fired upon by Russian troops, killing five protesters.
1864 - American Civil War: The first Northern prisoners arrive at the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia.
1900 - Second Boer War: In South Africa, British military leaders receive an unconditional notice of surrender from Boer General Piet Cronje at the Battle of Paardeberg.
1900 - The British Labour Party is founded.
1921 - The International Working Union of Socialist Parties is founded in Vienna.
1922 - A challenge to the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, allowing women the right to vote, is rebuffed by the Supreme Court of the United States in Leser v. Garnett.
1933 - Reichstag fire: Germany's parliament building in Berlin, the Reichstag, is set on fire.
1939 - American Civil Rights Movement: Sit-down strikes are outlawed by the Supreme Court of the United States.
1940 - Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discover carbon-14
1942 - World War II: During the Battle of the Java Sea, an allied (ABDA) strike force is defeated by a Japanese task force in the Java Sea in the Dutch East Indies
1943 - The Smith Mine #3 in Bearcreek, Montana, explodes, killing 74 men.
1943 - The Rosenstrasse protest starts in Berlin
1945 - Lebanon declares Independence.
1951 - The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting Presidents to two terms, is ratified.
1961 - The first congress of the Spanish Trade Union Organisation is inaugurated.
1963 - The Dominican Republic receives its first democratically elected president, Juan Bosch, since the end of the dictatorship led by Rafael Trujillo.
1964 - The government of Italy asks for help to keep the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over.
1967 - Dominica gains independence from the United Kingdom.
1971 - Doctors in the first Dutch abortion clinic (the Mildredhuis in Arnhem) start to perform aborti provocati.
1973 - The American Indian Movement occupies Wounded Knee, South Dakota.
1974 - People magazine is published for the first time.
1976 - The formerly Spanish territory of Western Sahara, under the auspices of the Polisario Front declares independence as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
1986 - The United States Senate allows its debates to be televised on a trial basis.
1989 - Venezuela is rocked by the riots of Caracazo.
1991 - Gulf War: U.S. President George H. W. Bush announces that "Kuwait is liberated".
1999 - Korea International School is founded by Soon-Il Chung. It is currently directed by Ann Clapper.
1999 - Olusegun Obasanjo becomes Nigeria's first elected president since mid-1983.
2002 - Ryanair Flight 296 catches fire in London Stansted Airport. Subsequent investigations criticize Ryanair's handling of the evacuation.
2002 - Godhra train burning, a Muslim mob kills 59 Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya;
2003 - Rowan Williams is enthroned as the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury in the Anglican church.
2004 - Former BPMC general secretary Ordrick Samuel launches a new party in Barbuda, Barbudans for a Better Barbuda.
2004 - A bombing of a Superferry by Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines worst terrorist attack kills 116.
2007 - The general strike against Lansana Conté in Guinea ends.
2007 - The Chinese Correction: the Shanghai Stock Exchange falls 9%, the largest drop in 10 years.
2008 - Mas Selamat bin Kastari, a suspected JI terrorism leader, escaped from the Whitley Road Detention Centre in Singapore.
2008 - An Earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale struck Lincolnshire, UK.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Historical Events on 26 Feb

Historical Events on 26 Feb

1266 - Battle of Benevento: An army led by Charles, Count of Anjou, defeats a combined German and Sicilian force led by King Manfred of Sicily. Manfred is killed in the battle and Pope Clement IV invests Charles as king of Sicily and Naples.
1658 - Treaty of Roskilde: After a devastating defeat in the Northern Wars (1655-1661), the King of Denmark-Norway is forced to give up nearly half his territory to Sweden to save the rest.
1794 - Christiansborg Castle, Copenhagen burns down.
1797 - The Bank of England issues the first one-pound and two-pound notes.
1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from Elba.
1848 - The second French Republic is proclaimed.
1863 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the National Banking Act into law.
1870 - In New York City, the first pneumatic-subway opens.
1885 - The Berlin Act, which resulted from the Berlin Conference regulating European colonization and trade in Africa, is signed
1887 - At the SCG, George Lohmann becomes the first bowler to take eight wickets in a Test innings.
1914 - HMHS Britannic, sister to the Titanic, is launched at Harland & Wolff, Belfast.
1917 - The Original Dixieland Jass Band records the first ever jazz record for the Victor Talking Machine Company in New York.
1919 - An act of the U.S. Congress establishes most of the Grand Canyon as a United States National Park (see Grand Canyon National Park).
1929 - The Grand Teton National Park is created.
1935 - The Luftwaffe is re-formed.
1935 - The Daventry Experiment, Robert Watson-Watt carries out a demonstration near Daventry which leads directly to the development of RADAR in the United Kingdom.
1936 - In the February 26 Incident, young Japanese military officers attempt to stage a coup against the government.
1952 - United Kingdom Prime Minister Winston Churchill announces that his nation has an atomic bomb.
1966 - Apollo Program: Launch of AS-201, the first flight of the Saturn IB rocket
1970 - National Public Radio incorporates as a non-profit corporation.
1971 - Secretary-General U Thant signs United Nations proclamation of the vernal equinox as Earth Day.
1972 - The Buffalo Creek Flood caused by a burst dam kills 125 in West Virginia.
1984 - US troops withdraw from Beirut. President Ronald Reagan had sent the troops as a peacekeeping force in August 1982.
1986 - People Power Revolution in the Philippines.
1987 - Iran-Contra affair: The Tower Commission rebukes American President Ronald Reagan for not controlling his national security staff.
1990 - The Sandinistas are defeated in Nicaraguan elections.
1991 - Gulf War: On Baghdad Radio Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein announces the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Kuwait.
1993 - World Trade Center bombing: In New York City, a truck bomb parked below the North Tower of the World Trade Center explodes, killing 6 and injuring over a thousand.
1995 - The United Kingdom's oldest investment banking firm, Barings Bank collapses after a securities broker, Nick Leeson, loses $1.4 billion by speculating on the Singapore International Monetary Exchange using futures contracts.
2001 - The Taliban destroy two giant Buddha statues in Bamyan, Afghanistan.
2004 - The United States lifts a ban on travel to Libya, ending travel restrictions to the nation that had lasted for 23 years.
2004 - Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski is killed in a plane crash near Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
2005 - Hosni Mubarak the president of Egypt orders the constitution changed to allow multi-candidate presidential elections before September 2005 by asking Egyptian parliament to amend Article 76 of the constitution.
364 - Valentinian I is proclaimed Roman Emperor.
747 BC - Epoch (origin) of Ptolemy's Nabonassar Era.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Historical Events on 25 Feb

Historical Events on 25 Feb

138 - The Emperor Hadrian adopts Antoninus Pius, effectively making him his successor.
1570 - Pope Pius V excommunicates Queen Elizabeth I of England.
1793 - George Washington holds the first Cabinet meeting as President of the United States.
1797 - Colonel William Tate and his force of 1000-1500 soldiers surrender after the Last Invasion of Britain
1836 - Samuel Colt receives an American patent for the Colt revolver.
1836 - US Showman Phineas Taylor Barnum exhibits African American slave Joice Heth.
1837 - The first practical electric motor in the US is patented by Thomas Davenport.
1870 - Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from Mississippi, is sworn into the United States Senate, becoming the first African American ever to sit in the U.S. Congress.
1901 - J.P. Morgan incorporates the United States Steel Corporation.
1912 - Marie-Adélaïde, the eldest of six daughters of Guillaume IV, becomes the first reigning Grand Duchess of Luxembourg.
1919 - Oregon places a 1 cent per U.S. gallon tax on gasoline, becoming the first U.S. state to levy a gasoline tax.
1921 - Tbilisi, capital of the Democratic Republic of Georgia, occupied by Bolshevist Russia.
1925 - Glacier Bay National Monument (now Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve) is established in Alaska.
1925 - The diplomatic relations between Japan and the Soviet Union were established.
1928 - Charles Jenkins Laboratories of Washington, DC becomes the first holder of a television license from the Federal Radio Commission.
1932 - Adolf Hitler obtains German citizenship by naturalization, which allows him to run in the 1932 election for Reichspräsident.
1933 - The USS Ranger is launched, becoming the first custom-built aircraft carrier.
1941 - February strike: First general & physical protest against Nazi anti-Jewish behaviour & -laws (Amsterdam)
1945 - World War II: Turkey declares war on Germany.
1948 - The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia takes control of government in Czechoslovakia and the period of the Third Republic ends.
1951 - The first Pan American Games are held in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1954 - Gamal Abdul Nasser is made premier of Egypt.
1956 - In his speech On the Personality Cult and its Consequences Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev denounces the cult of personality of Joseph Stalin.
1969 - Germany gives $5 million to an Arab terrorist as ransom for the passengers and crew of a hijacked jumbo jet.
1971 - The first unit of the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station, first commercial nuclear power station in Canada, goes online.
1980 - The Suriname government ( elected after gaining independence from the Netherlands in 1975 ) was overthrown by a military coup which was initiated with the bombing of the police station from an army ship of the coast of the nations capital; Paramaribo
1986 - People Power Revolution: President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines flees the nation after 20 years of rule; Corazon Aquino becomes the first Filipino woman president.
1991 - Gulf War: An Iraqi Scud missile hits an American military barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia killing 28 U.S. Army Reservists from Pennsylvania.
1992 - Khojaly massacre: about 613 civilians killed by Armenian armed forces during the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan
1994 - Mosque of Abraham massacre: In the Cave of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron, Dr. Baruch Kappel Goldstein opens fire with an automatic rifle, killing 29 Palestinian worshippers and injuring 125 more before being subdued and beaten to death by
2000 - The Swedish political party New Democracy is declared financially bankrupt.
2006 - Heavy rioting takes place in Dublin, Ireland after a "Love Ulster" march is opposed by counter-activists.
2008 - The country of Kosovo declares independence from Serbia.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Historical Events on 24 Feb

Historical Events on 24 Feb

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 Frideric 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.
1875 - The SS Gothenburg hits the Great Barrier Reef and sinks off the Australian east coast, killing approximately 100, including a number of high profile civil servants and dignitaries.
1881 - China and Russia sign the Sino-Russian Ili Treaty.
1893 - The American University is chartered by an act of the Congress of the United States of America.
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 - Estonian Declaration of Independence.
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
1942 - The "Battle of Los Angeles" takes place, lasting until the next day.
1945 - Egyptian Premier Ahmed Maher Pasha is killed in Parliament after reading a decree.
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.
1976 - Cuba : national Constitution proclaimed.
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 - Buckingham Palace announces the engagement of The Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer.
1983 - A special commission of the U.S. Congress releases a report that condemns the practice of Japanese internment during World War II.
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.
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.
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.
2008 - Fidel Castro retires as the President of Cuba after nearly fifty years.
303 - Galerius, Roman Emperor, publishes his edict that begins the persecution of Christians in his portion of the Empire.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Historical Events on 23 Feb

Historical Events on 23 Feb

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.
1820 - Cato Street Conspiracy: A plot to murder all the British cabinet ministers is exposed.
1836 - The Battle of the Alamo begins in San Antonio, Texas.
1847 - Mexican-American War: Battle of Buena Vista - In Mexico, American troops under General Zachary Taylor 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.
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.
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 - The United States gains control of the Panama Canal Zone for $10 million.
1905 - Chicago attorney Paul Harris and three other businessmen meet for lunch to form the Rotary Club, the world's first service club.
1909 - The AEA 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.
1941 - Plutonium was first produced and isolated by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg.
1943 - A fire breaks out at St. Joseph's Orphanage Co Cavan , Ireland , killing 36 people (35 of whom were children)
1944 - Forced deportation of the Chechen and Ingush people to Central Asia.
1945 - World War II: The Verona Philharmonic Theatre is bombed by Allied forces. It would later be re-opened in 1975.
1945 - World War II: The German town of Pforzheim is completely destroyed by a raid of 379 British bombers.
1945 - World War II: Capitulation of German garrison in Poznań, the city is liberated by Soviet and Polish forces.
1945 - World War II: The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by American forces.
1945 - World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, a group of United States Marines and a commonly forgotten U.S. Navy Corpsman, reach the top of Mount Suribachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag. The photo would later win a Pulitzer
1947 - The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is founded.
1954 - The first mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine began in Pittsburgh.
1955 - First meeting of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO).
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.
1960 - Peter Burdon was born.
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 United States Environmental Protection Agency announces its intent to buy out and evacuate the dioxin-contaminated community of Times Beach, Missouri.
1987 - Supernova 1987a: A supernova is seen in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
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.
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 - An avalanche destroys the Austrian village of Galtür, killing 31.
1999 - Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan is charged with treason in Ankara, Turkey.
2005 - Slovakia Summit 2005 begins, marking the first occasion when a sitting American President visits Slovakia; George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin are in attendance.
2005 - Vote of the controversial French law on colonialism, repealed start of 2006.
2006 - Dubai Ports World agrees to postpone its plans to take over management of six U.S. ports after the proposal ignited harsh bipartisan criticism on Capitol Hill.
2007 - Japan launches its fourth spy satellite, stepping up its ability to monitor potential threats such as North Korea.
2007 - A train derails on an evening express service near Grayrigg, Cumbria, United Kingdom, killing one person and injuring 22. This results in hundreds of points being checked over the UK after a few similar accidents.
2008 - a B-2 Spirit of the USAF crashes at Guam. The crew survived but the aircraft was written off, making it the most expensive air crash in human history (the aircraft alone cost $1.2Bn). The B-2 had a perfect safety record before the crash; not one B-2 ever

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Historical Events on 22 Feb

Historical Events on 22 Feb

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.
1797 - Last Invasion of Britain: 1797 The Last Invasion of Britain by the French, begins near Fishguard, Wales.
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 Mexicans.
1856 - The Republican Party opens its first national meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1862 - Jefferson Davis is officially inaugurated for a six-year term as the President of the Confederate States of America in Richmond, Virginia. He was previously inaugurated as a provisional president on February 18, 1861.
1879 - In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of 5 and 10-cent Woolworth stores.
1882 - The Serbian kingdom is refounded.
1889 - President Grover Cleveland signs a bill admitting North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington as U.S. states.
1904 - The United Kingdom sells a meteorological station on the South Orkney Islands to Argentina, the islands are subsequently claimed by the United Kingdom in 1908.
1915 - World War I: Germany institutes unrestricted submarine warfare.
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 defenses 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.
1958 - Egypt and Syria join to form the United Arab Republic.
1959 - Lee Petty wins the first Daytona 500.
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 - Organisation 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 - Miracle on Ice: In Lake Placid, New York, the United States hockey team defeats the Soviet Union hockey team 4-3, in what is considered to be one of the greatest upsets in sports history.
1986 - Start of the People Power 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.
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.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Historical Events on 21 Feb

Historical Events on 21 Feb

1245 - Thomas, the first known Bishop of Finland, is granted resignation after having confessed to torture and forgery.
1440 - The Prussian Confederation is formed.
1543 - Battle of Wayna Daga - A combined army of Ethiopian and Portuguese troops defeats 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 of George Frideric Handel's oratorio, "Samson" takes place in London.
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.
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"
1912 - Ioannina is incorporated into the Greek state after the Balkan Wars.
1916 - World War I: In France, the Battle of Verdun begins.
1918 - The last Carolina parakeet dies in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo.
1919 - Kurt Eisner, German socialist, is assassinated. His death results in the establishment of the Bavarian Soviet Republic and parliament and government fleeing Munich, Germany.
1921 - Constituent Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Georgia adopts the country's first constitution.
1925 - The New Yorker publishes its first issue.
1937 - The League of Nations bans foreign national "volunteers" in the Spanish Civil War.
1937 - Initial flight of the first successful flying car, Waldo Waterman's Arrowbile.
1945 - World War II: Japanese Kamikaze planes sink the 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 - The British government, under Winston Churchill, abolishes identity cards in the UK to "set the people free".
1952 - In Dhaka, East Pakistan (present Bangladesh) police open fire on a procession of students that was demanding the establishment of Bengali as the official language, killing four people and starting a country-wide protest which led to the recognition of Ben
1953 - Francis Crick and James D. Watson discover the structure of the DNA molecule.
1958 - The Peace symbol is designed and completed by Gerald Holtom, commissioned by Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment.
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 last Israeli soldiers leave the west bank of the Suez Canal pursuant to 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.
1995 - Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.
2004 - The first European political party organization, the European Greens, is established in Rome.
2007 - Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi resigns from office. His resignation is rejected by the President of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano.
362 - Athanasius returns to Alexandria.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Historical Events on 20 Feb

Historical Events on 20 Feb

1472 - Orkney and Shetland are left by Norway to Scotland, due to a dowry payment.
1547 - Edward VI of England is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey.
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 - American Civil War: Battle of Olustee occurs - the largest battle fought in Florida during the war.
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.
1931 - California gets the go-ahead by the U.S. Congress to build the San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge.
1933 - The Congress of the United States proposes the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution, which would end Prohibition in the United States.
1935 - Caroline Mikkelsen becomes the first woman to set foot in Antarctica.
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 Parícutin, Mexico.
1944 - World War II: The "Big Week" began with American bomber raids on German aircraft manufacturing centers.
1944 - World War II: The United States takes Eniwetok Island.
1947 - State of Prussia ceases to exist.
1952 - Emmett Ashford becomes the first African-American umpire in organized baseball by being authorized to be a substitute umpire in the Southwestern International League.
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.
1976 - The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization disbands.
1987 - Unabomber: In Salt Lake City, Utah, 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.
1998 - American figure skater Tara Lipinski becomes the youngest gold-medalist at the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.
2002 - In Reqa Al-Gharbiya, Egypt, a fire on a train injures over 65 and kills at least 370.
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.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Historical Events on 19 Feb

Historical Events on 19 Feb

1594 - Having already inherited the throne of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth through his mother Catherine Jagellonica of Poland, Sigismund III of the House of Vasa is crowned King of Sweden, succeeding his father John III of Sweden.
1600 - The Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina explodes in the most violent eruption in the recorded history of South America.
1674 - England and the Netherlands sign the Peace of Westminster, ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War. A provision of the agreement transfers the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam to England, and it is renamed New York.
1807 - In Alabama, Former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr is arrested for treason and confined to Fort Stoddart.
1819 - British explorer William Smith discovers the South Shetland Islands, and claims them in the name of King George III.
1846 - In Austin, Texas the newly-formed Texas state government is officially installed. The Republic of Texas government officially transfers power to the State of Texas government following Texas' annexation by the United States.
1847 - The Donner Party is rescued.
1852 - The Phi Kappa Psi fraternity is founded at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.
1861 - Serfdom is abolished in Russia.
1864 - Knights of Pythias are founded in Washington, DC by Justus H. Rathbone.
1878 - The phonograph is patented by Thomas Edison.
1881 - Kansas becomes the first U.S. state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages.
1915 - World War I: The Battle of Gallipoli begins. Plans for mutiny in the British Indian army, the Ghadar Conspiracy, are uncovered in India.
1937 - During a public ceremony at the Viceregal Palace (the former Imperial residence) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, two Eritrean nationalists attempt to kill viceroy Rodolfo Graziani with a number of grenades.
1941 - World War II: The Afrika Korps, the corps-level headquarters controlling the German Panzer divisions in North Africa, is formed.
1942 - World War II: nearly 250 Japanese warplanes attack the northern Australian city of Darwin killing 243 people.
1942 - World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the executive order 9066, allowing the United States military to relocate Japanese-Americans to Japanese internment camps.
1943 - World War II: Battle of the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia begins.
1945 - World War II: Battle of Iwo Jima - about 30,000 United States Marines land on Iwo Jima.
1949 - Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry by the Bollingen Foundation and Yale University.
1953 - Censorship: Georgia approves the first literature censorship board in the United States.
1959 - The United Kingdom grants Cyprus its independence, which is then on formally proclaimed on August 16, 1960.
197 - Roman Emperor Septimius Severus defeats usurper Clodius Albinus in the Battle of Lugdunum, the bloodiest battle between Roman armies.
1972 - The Asama-Sanso hostage standoff begins in Japan.
1978 - Egyptian forces raid Larnaca International Airport, in an attempt to intervene in a hijacking situation, without authorisation from the Republic of Cyprus authorities. The Cypriot National Guard and Police forces kill 15 Egyptian commandos and destroy the
1985 - Artificial heart recipient William J. Schroeder becomes the first such patient to leave hospital.
1985 - Iberia Airlines Boeing 727 crashes into Mount Oiz in Spain, killing 148.
1985 - The first episode of the well-known British soap opera EastEnders is broadcast.
1986 - The Soviet Union launches the Mir space station.
2001 - An Oklahoma City bombing museum is dedicated at the Oklahoma City National Memorial.
2002 - NASA's Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system.
2004 - Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal is awarded an honorary knighthood in recognition of a "lifetime of service to humanity."
2007 - Three Salvadoran deputies to the Central American Parliament and their driver are murdered in Guatemala.
2008 - Toshiba announces its formal recall of its HD DVD video formatting, ending the format war between it and Sony's Blu-Ray Disc

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Historical Events on 18 Feb

Historical Events on 18 Feb

1229 - The Sixth Crusade: Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor signs a ten-year truce with al-Kamil, regaining Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem with neither military engagements nor support from the papacy.
1268 - The Livonian Brothers of the Sword are defeated by Dovmont of Pskov in the Battle of Rakovor.
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 - The 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 provisional 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 - Union forces under Major General William T. Sherman set the South Carolina State House on fire during the burning of Columbia.
1878 - John Tunstall is murdered by outlaw Jessie Evans, sparking the Lincoln County War in Lincoln County, New Mexico.
1885 - Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published for the first time.
1901 - Winston Churchill makes his maiden speech in the British House of Commons.
1911 - The first official flight with air mail takes place in Allahabad, British India, when Henri Pequet, a 23-year-old pilot, delivers 6,500 letters to Naini, about 10 km away.
1913 - Raymond Poincaré becomes President of France.
1929 - The 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 a fixed-wing aircraft and also the first cow to be milked in an aircraft.
1932 - The Empire of Japan declares Manzhouguo (obsolete Chinese name for Manchuria) independent from the Republic of China.
1943 - The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose movement.
1943 - Joseph Goebbels delivers the Sportpalast speech.
1948 - Eamon de Valera resigns as Taoiseach of Ireland.
1954 - The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles, California.
1955 - The Shot Teapot-Wasp is successfully detonated at the Nevada Test Site with a yield of 1.2 kilotons. Wasp would be the first of fourteen shots of the Teapot series.
1957 - Dedan Kimathi, a Kenyan rebel leader is executed by the British colonial government.
1965 - The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
1969 - The Hawthorne Nevada Airlines Flight 708 disaster occurs, killing all on board.
1970 - The Chicago Seven are found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
1972 - The California Supreme Court in the case of People v. Anderson, 6 Cal.3d 628 invalidates the state's death penalty and commutes the sentences of all death row inmates to life in prison.
1977 - The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle goes on its maiden "flight" while sitting on top of a Boeing 747.
1979 - Snow fell in the Sahara Desert in southern Algeria for the first and only recorded time in history.
1983 - Thirteen people die and one is seriously injured in the Wah Mee Massacre in Seattle, Washington. It is said to be the largest robbery-motivated mass-murder in U.S. history.
1991 - The IRA explodes bombs in the early morning at both Paddington station and Victoria station in London.
1998 - Two white separatists are arrested in Nevada and accused of plotting a biological attack on New York City subways.
2000 - Stjepan Mesić becomes the second president of Croatia.
2001 - FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union. He was ultimately convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
2003 - Comet C/2002 V1 (NEAT) makes perihelion, seen by SOHO.
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.
3102 BC - Epoch (origin) of the Kali Yuga.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Historical Events on 17 Feb

Historical Events on 17 Feb

1500 - Battle of Hemmingstedt.
1600 - Philosopher Giordano Bruno is burned alive at Campo de' Fiori in Rome, charged of heresy.
1621 - Myles Standish is appointed as first commander of Plymouth colony.
1753 - February 17 is followed by March 1 as Sweden moves from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian 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: The H. L. Hunley becomes the first submarine to engage and sink a warship, the USS Housatonic.
1865 - American Civil War: Columbia, South Carolina is 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, France after the end of the Siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War.
1904 - Madama Butterfly premiers at La Scala in Milan.
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.
1936 - The world's first superhero, The Phantom, makes his first appearance in comics.
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.
1944 - World War II: Battle of Eniwetok Atoll begins. The battle ends in an American victory on February 22.
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.
2003 - The London Congestion Charge scheme begins.
2006 - A massive mudslide occurs in Southern Leyte, Philippines; the official death toll is set at 1,126.
2008 - Kosovo declares independence from Serbia.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Historical Events on 16 Feb

Historical Events on 16 Feb

1249 - Andrew of Longjumeau is dispatched by Louis IX of France as his ambassador to meet with the Khan of the Mongols.
1646 - Battle of Great Torrington, Devon - the last major battle of the first English Civil War.
1742 - Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, becomes British Prime Minister.
1804 - First Barbary War: Stephen Decatur leads a raid to burn the pirate-held frigate USS Philadelphia.
1838 - Weenen Massacre: Hundreds of Voortrekkers along the Blaukraans River, Natal are killed by Zulus.
1852 - Studebaker Brothers wagon company, precursor of the automobile manufacturer, is established.
1859 - The French Government passes a law to set the A-note above middle C to a frequency of 435 Hz, in an attempt to standardize the pitch.
1862 - American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant captures Fort Donelson, Tennessee.
1866 - Spencer Compton Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington becomes the British Secretary of State for War.
1868 - In New York City the Jolly Corks organization is renamed the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE).
1899 - President Félix Faure of France dies in office.
1899 - Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur Iceland's first football club is founded.
1918 - The Council of Lithuania unanimously adopts the Act of Independence, declaring Lithuania an independent state.
1923 - Howard Carter unseals the burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun.
1934 - Austrian Civil War ends with the defeat of the Social Democrats and the Republican Schutzbund.
1934 - Commission of Government is sworn in as form of direct rule for the Dominion of Newfoundland.
1936 - Elections bring the Popular Front to power in Spain.
1937 - Wallace H. Carothers receives a patent for nylon.
1940 - World War II: Altmark Incident: The German tanker Altmark is boarded by sailors from the British destroyer HMS Cossack. 299 British prisoners are freed.
1943 - World War II: The USSR reconquers Kharkov.
1945 - World War II: American forces land on Corregidor island in the Philippines.
1947 - Canadians granted Canadian citizenship after 80 years of being British subjects. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King becomes the first Canadian citizen.
1957 - The "Toddlers' Truce", a controversial television closedown between 6.00pm and 7.00pm was abolished in the United Kingdom.
1959 - Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba after dictator Fulgencio Batista was overthrown on January 1.
1961 - Explorer program: Explorer 9 (S-56a) is launched.
1968 - In Haleyville, Alabama, the first 9-1-1 emergency telephone system goes into service.
1978 - The first computer bulletin board system is created (CBBS in Chicago, Illinois).
1983 - The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia claim the lives of 75 people in Australia's worst ever fires.
1985 - The founding of Hezbollah.
1986 - The Soviet liner Mikhail Lermontov runs aground in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand.
1987 - The trial of John Demjanjuk, accused of being a Nazi guard dubbed "Ivan the Terrible" in Treblinka extermination camp, starts in Jerusalem.
1993 - Western Australia's and Australia's first woman Premier, Carmen Lawrence, is voted out of office.
1999 - In Uzbekistan, a bomb explodes and gunfire is heard at the government headquarters in an apparent assassination attempt against President Islom Karimov.
1999 - Across Europe, Kurdish rebels take over embassies and hold hostages after Turkey arrested one of their rebel leaders, Abdullah Öcalan.
2005 - The Kyoto Protocol comes into force, following its ratification by Russia.
2005 - The National Hockey League cancels the entire 2004-2005 regular season and playoffs, becoming the first major sports league in North America to do so over a labor dispute.
2006 - The last Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) is decommissioned by the United States Army.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Historical Events on 15 Feb

Historical Events on 15 Feb

1637 - Ferdinand III becomes Holy Roman Emperor.
1764 - The city of St. Louis, Missouri is established.
1805 - Harmony Society is officially formed.
1852 - Great Ormond St Hospital for Sick Children, London, admits its first patient.
1862 - American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant attacks Fort Donelson, Tennessee.
1879 - Women's rights: American President Rutherford B. Hayes signs a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.
1891 - AIK is founded at Biblioteksgatan 8 in Stockholm by Isidor Behrens.
1898 - Spanish-American War: The USS Maine explodes and sinks in Havana harbor in Cuba, killing more than 260. This event leads the United States to declare war on Spain.
1906 - The British Labour Party is organised.
1910 - The Boy Scouts of America is founded.
1933 - In Miami, Florida, Giuseppe Zangara attempts to assassinate President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, but instead shoots Chicago, Illinois Mayor Anton J. Cermak, who dies of his wounds on March 6, 1933.
1942 - World War II: The Fall of Singapore. Following an assault by Japanese forces, the British General Arthur Percival surrenders. About 80,000 Indian, United Kingdom and Australian soldiers become prisoners of war, the largest surrender of British-led militar
1944 - World War II: The assault on Monte Cassino, Italy, begins.
1946 - ENIAC (for "Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer"), the first general-purpose electronic computer, is unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania.
1950 - The Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China sign a mutual defense treaty.
1952 - King George VI is buried in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.
1953 - Seventeen-year-old Tenley Albright becomes the first American to win the world figure skating championship.
1961 - Sabena Flight 548 crashes in Belgium, killing 73, with the entire US Figure Skating team, several coaches and family.
1965 - A new red-and-white maple leaf design is adopted as the flag of Canada, replacing the old Canadian Red Ensign banner.
1970 - A Dominican DC-9 crashes into the sea during takeoff from Santo Domingo, killing 102.
1971 - Decimalisation of British coinage is completed on Decimal Day.
1972 - Sound recordings are granted U.S. federal copyright protection for the first time.
1976 - The 1976 Constitution of Cuba is adopted by the national referendum.
1980 - Television One and Television Two (formerly South Pacific Television) under the newly formed Television New Zealand goes to air for the first time.
1982 - The drilling rig Ocean Ranger sinks during a storm off the coast of Newfoundland, killing 84 rig workers.
1989 - Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan: The Soviet Union officially announces that all of its troops have left Afghanistan.
1991 - The Visegrád Agreement, establishing cooperation to move toward free-market systems, is signed by the leaders of Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland.
1993 - Katie Elizabeth Hillyard was born, famous English young composer of the year 2007.England
1995 - Hacking: Kevin Mitnick is arrested by the FBI and charged with breaking into some of the United States' most "secure" computer systems.
1996 - Mortar attack on the US Embassy in Athens, Greece.
1996 - At the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China, a Long March 3 rocket, carrying an Intelsat 708, crashes into a rural village after liftoff, killing many people.
1999 - Abdullah Öcalan, leader of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party, widely recognized as terrorist organization), was arrested in Kenya.
2000 - Indian Point II nuclear power plant in New York State vents a small amount of radioactive steam when a steam generator fails.
2001 - First draft of the complete Human Genome is published in Nature
2002 - At the Tri-State Crematory in La Fayette, Georgia, investigators find uncremated bodies disposed of in the woods and buildings on the crematorium's property. The discovery reveals one of the worst incidents of abuse in the funeral service industry.
2003 - Protests against the Iraq war occur in over 600 cities worldwide. It is estimated that between 8 million to 30 million people took part, making this the largest peace demonstration in the history of the world.
2005 - YouTube, the popular Internet site on which videos may be shared and viewed by others, is launched in the United States.
590 - Khosrau II is crowned as king of Persia

Friday, February 13, 2009

Historical Events on 14 Feb

Historical Events on 14 Feb

1009 - First known mention of Lithuania, in the annals of the monastery of Quedlinburg.
1014 - Pope Benedict VIII recognizes Henry of Bavaria as King of Germany.
1076 - Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor.
1349 - Approximately 2,000 Jews are burned to death by mobs or forcibly removed from the city of Strasbourg.
1556 - Thomas Cranmer is declared a heretic.
1743 - Henry Pelham becomes British Prime Minister.
1778 - The United States Flag is formally recognized by a foreign naval vessel for the first time, when French Admiral Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte rendered a nine gun salute to USS Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones.
1779 - James Cook is killed by Native Hawaiians near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii.
1797 - French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Cape St. Vincent - John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent and Horatio Nelson (later 1st Viscount Nelson) lead the British Royal Navy to victory over a Spanish fleet in action near Gibraltar.
1803 - Chief Justice John Marshall declares that any act of U.S. Congress that conflicts with the Constitution is void.
1804 - Karadjordje leads the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire.
1831 - Ras Marye of Yejju marches into Tigray and defeats and kills Dejazmach Sabagadis in the Battle of Debre Abbay.
1835 - The original Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is formed in Kirtland, Ohio.
1849 - In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken.
1855 - Texas is linked by telegraph to the rest of the United States, with the completion of a connection between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas.
1859 - Oregon is admitted as the 33rd U.S. state.
1876 - Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent for the telephone, as does Elisha Gray.
1879 - The War of the Pacific breaks out when Chilean armed forces occupy the Bolivian port city of Antofagasta.
1899 - Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections.
1900 - Second Boer War: In South Africa, 20,000 British troops invade the Orange Free State.
1900 - Russia responds to international pressure to free Finland by tightening imperial control over the country.
1903 - The United States Department of Commerce and Labor is established (later split into Department of Commerce and Department of Labor).
1912 - Arizona is admitted as the 48th U.S. state.
1912 - In Groton, Connecticut, the first diesel-powered submarine is commissioned.
1918 - The Soviet Union adopts the Gregorian calendar (on 1 February according to the Julian calendar).
1919 - The Polish-Soviet War begins.
1920 - The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago, Illinois.
1924 - The International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is founded.
1929 - St. Valentine's Day Massacre: Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone's gang, are murdered in Chicago, Illinois.
1942 - Battle of Pasir Panjang contributes to the fall of Singapore.
1943 - World War II: Rostov-on-Don, Russia is liberated.
1943 - World War II: Battle of the Kasserine Pass - German General Erwin Rommel and the Afrika Korps launch an offensive against Allied defenses in Tunisia.
1944 - World War II: Anti-Japanese revolt on Java.
1945 - World War II: Mostar is liberated by Yugoslav partisans.
1945 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt meets with King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia aboard the USS Quincy, officially starting the U.S.-Saudi diplomatic relationship.
1945 - World War II: Prague is bombed probably due to a mistake in the orientation of the pilots bombing Dresden.
1945 - World War II: On the second day of the bombing of Dresden , the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces begin fire-bombing Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony.
1946 - The Bank of England is nationalized.
1949 - The Knesset (Israeli parliament) convenes for the first time.
1949 - The Asbestos Strike begins in Canada. The strike marks the beginning of the Quiet Revolution in Quebec.
1956 - The XX Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union begins in Moscow. On the last night of the meeting, Premier Nikita Khrushchev condemns Joseph Stalin's crimes in a secret speech.
1961 - Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized at the University of California.
1962 - First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy takes television viewers on a tour of the White House.
1966 - Australian currency is decimalised.
1979 - In Kabul, Muslims kidnap the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs who is later killed during a gunfight between his kidnappers and police.
1981 - Stardust Disaster: A fire in a Dublin nightclub kills 48 people
1983 - United American Bank of Knoxville, Tennessee collapses. Its president, Jake Butcher is later convicted of fraud.
1989 - Union Carbide agrees to pay $470 million to the Indian government for damages it caused in the 1984 Bhopal Disaster.
1989 - Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini issues a fatwa encouraging Muslims to kill the author of The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie.
1989 - The first of 24 satellites of the Global Positioning System are placed into orbit.
1990 - 92 people are killed aboard Indian Airlines Flight 605 at Bangalore, India.
1994 - Andrei Chikatilo, a Russian serial killer is executed by shooting.
1996 - China launches a Long March 3 rocket, carrying the Intelsat 708 satellite. The rocket flies off course 3 seconds after liftoff and crashes into a rural village.
1998 - Authorities in the United States announce that Eric Robert Rudolph is a suspect in an Alabama abortion clinic bombing.
2000 - The spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker enters orbit around asteroid 433 Eros, the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid.
2002 - The Tullaghmurray Lass sinks off the coast of Kilkeel, County Down, Northern Ireland killing three members of the same family on board.
2004 - In a suburb of Moscow, Russia, the roof of the Transvaal water park collapses, killing more than 25 people, and wounding more than 100 others.
2005 - Seven people are killed and 151 wounded in a series of bombings by suspected Al-Qaeda-linked militants that hit the Philippines' Makati financial district in Metro Manila, Davao City, and General Santos City.
2005 - Lebanon's former Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri, is assassinated, prompting the country to fall into chaos.
2008 - Northern Illinois University shooting: a gunman opened fire in a lecture hall of the DeKalb County, Illinois university resulting in 24 casualties; 6 fatalities (including gunman) and 18 injured.
842 - Charles the Bald and Louis the German swear the Oaths of Strasbourg in the French and German languages.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Historical Events on 13 Feb

Historical Events on 13 Feb

1258 - Baghdad falls to the Mongols, and the Abbasid Caliphate is destroyed.
1503 - Disfida di Barletta - Famous challenge between 13 Italian and 13 French knights near Barletta.
1542 - Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII of England, is executed for adultery.
1575 - Henry III of France is crowned at Rheims.
1575 - Henry III of France marries Louise de Lorraine-Vaudémont.
1633 - Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for his trial before the Inquisition.
1635 - The first public school in the U.S., Boston Latin School, is founded.
1668 - Spain recognizes Portugal as an independent nation.
1689 - William and Mary are proclaimed co-rulers of England.
1692 - Massacre of Glencoe : About 78 Macdonalds at Glen Coe, Scotland are killed early in the morning for not promptly pledging allegiance to the new king, William of Orange.
1815 - The Cambridge Union Society is founded.
1866 - Jesse James and his gang commit the first armed bank robbery in United States history during peacetime in Liberty, Missouri.
1880 - Work begins on the covering of the Senne, burying Brussels's primary river and creating the modern central boulevards.
1880 - Thomas Edison observes the Edison effect.
1881 - The feminist newspaper La Citoyenne is first published in Paris by the activist Hubertine Auclert.
1894 - Auguste and Louis Lumière patent the Cinematographe, a combination movie camera and projector.
1899 - Tallahassee, Florida records its all time coldest temperature of -2 degrees Fahrenheit.
1914 - Copyright: In New York City the ASCAP (for American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) is established to protect the copyrighted musical compositions of its members.
1920 - The Negro National League is formed.
1934 - The Soviet steamship Cheliuskin sinks in the Arctic Ocean.
1935 - A jury in Flemington, New Jersey finds Bruno Hauptmann guilty of the 1932 kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby, the son of Charles Lindbergh.
1945 - World War II: Red Army forces take Budapest, Hungary from Wehrmacht forces.
1945 - World War II: Royal Air Force bombers are dispatched to Dresden, Germany to attack the city with a massive aerial bombardment (see Bombing of Dresden in World War II).
1955 - Israel obtains 4 of the 7 Dead Sea scrolls.
1960 - Nuclear testing: France tests its first atomic bomb.
1971 - Vietnam War: Backed by American air and artillery support, South Vietnamese troops invade Laos.
1974 - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1970, is exiled from the Soviet Union.
1975 - A fire erupts in the World Trade Center in New York City, New York.
1978 - Hilton bombing: a bomb explodes in a refuse truck outside the Hilton Hotel in Sydney, Australia, killing two refuse collectors and a policeman.
1979 - An intense windstorm strikes western Washington and sinks a 1/2-mile-long section of the Hood Canal Bridge.
1981 - A series of sewer explosions destroys more than two miles of streets in Louisville, Kentucky.
1984 - Konstantin Chernenko succeeds the late Yuri Andropov as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
1990 - German reunification: An agreement is reached on a two-stage plan to reunite Germany.
1991 - Gulf War: Two laser-guided "smart bombs" destroy a bunker in Baghdad. The bunker was being used as a military communications outpost and unknown to allied forces, as a shelter for Iraqi civilians.
1997 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 7,000 for the first time closing at 7,022.44.
2000 - The last original "Peanuts" comic strip appears in newspapers one day after Charles M. Schulz dies.
2001 - An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter Scale hits El Salvador, killing at least 400.
2004 - The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics discovers the universe's largest known diamond, white dwarf star BPM 37093.
2007 - Taiwan opposition leader Ma Ying-jeou resigns as the chairman of the Kuomintang party after being indicted by the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office on charges of embezzlement during his tenure as the mayor of Taipei; Ma also announces his candidacy for the 2
2008 - Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd makes an historic apology to the Indigenous Australians and the Stolen Generations.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Historical Events on 12 Feb

Historical Events on 12 Feb

1429 - English Forces under Sir John Fastolf defend a supply convoy carrying rations to the army besieging Orleans from attack by the Comte de Clermont and John Stuart in the Battle of Rouvray (also known as the Battle of the Herrings).
1502 - Vasco da Gama sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal on his second voyage to India.
1541 - Santiago, Chile is founded by Pedro de Valdivia.
1554 - A year after claiming the throne of England for nine days, Lady Jane Grey is beheaded for treason.
1689 - The Convention Parliament convenes and declares that the flight to France in 1688 by James II, the last Roman Catholic British monarch, constitutes an abdication.
1700 - The Great Northern War begins in Northern Europe.
1719 - The Onderlinge van 1719 u.a., the oldest existing life insurance company in the Netherlands is founded.
1733 - Englishman James Oglethorpe founds the 13th United States colony of Georgia, and its first city at Savannah (known as Georgia Day).
1771 - Gustav III becomes the King of Sweden.
1816 - The San Carlo, the oldest working opera house in Europe, is destroyed by fire.
1817 - Argentine/Chilean patriotic army, after crossing the Andes, defeat Spanish troops on the battle of Chacabuco.
1818 - Bernardo O'Higgins signs the Independence of Chile near Concepción.
1825 - The Creek cede the last of their lands in Georgia to the United States government, and migrate west.
1832 - Ecuador annexes the Galápagos Islands.
1855 - Michigan State University was established.
1870 - Women gain the right to vote in Utah Territory.
1879 - At New York City's Madison Square Garden the first artificial ice rink in North America opens.
1894 - Anarchist Émile Henry hurls a bomb into Paris's Cafe Terminus, killing one and wounding 20.
1909 - The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded.
1912 - The Republic of China adopts the Gregorian calendar.
1912 - Xuantong Emperor of the Manchu Qing dynasty, the last Emperor of China, abdicates.
1914 - In Washington, DC, the first stone of the Lincoln Memorial is put into place.
1924 - Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President of the United States to deliver a political speech on radio.
1934 - In Spain the national council of Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista is inaugurated. The council decides to merge the movement with the Falange Española.
1934 - The Export-Import Bank of the United States is incorporated.
1934 - The Austrian Civil War begins.
1946 - World War II: Operation Deadlight ends after scuttling 121 of 154 captured U-boats.
1961 - U.S.S.R. launches Venera 1 towards Venus.
1966 - Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, announced famous Six Points in Karachi as election manifesto of Awami League that later led to formation of Bangladesh.
1973 - Vietnam War: The first United States prisoners of war are released by the Viet Cong.
1990 - Carmen Lawrence becomes the first female Premier in Australian History when she becomes premier of Western Australia.
1997 - Hwang Jang-yop, secretary in the Workers' Party of Korea and a prime architect of North Korea's Juche doctrine, defects at the South Korean embassy in Beijing along with his aide, Kim Dok-hong.
1999 - President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the United States Senate in his impeachment trial.
2001 - NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touchdown in the "saddle" region of 433 Eros becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.
2002 - The trial of former President of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milošević begins at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague. He eventually dies four years later before its conclusion.
2002 - US Secretary of Energy makes the decision that Yucca Mountain is suitable to be the United States' nuclear waste repository.
2002 - An Iran Air Tupolev Tu-154 crashes prior to landing in Khorramabad, Iran, killing 119.
2004 - The city of San Francisco, California begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in response to a directive from Mayor Gavin Newsom.
2006 - A powerful winter storm blankets the Northeastern United States dumping 1 to 2 feet of snow from Washington DC up to Boston, Massachusetts. The storm dumped a record 26.9 inches of snow in New York City.
2007 - A gunman opens fire in a mall in Salt Lake City, killing 5 people in the Trolley Square shooting.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Historical Events on 11 Feb

Historical Events on 11 Feb

1531 - Henry VIII of England is recognized as supreme head of the Church of England.
1659 - The assault on Copenhagen by Swedish forces is beaten back with heavy losses.
1752 - Pennsylvania Hospital, the first hospital in the United States, opens.
1790 - Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers, petitions U.S. Congress for abolition of slavery.
1794 - First session of United States Senate open to the public.
1808 - Anthracite coal is first burned as fuel, experimentally.
1809 - Robert Fulton took out a patent for improvements to steamboat navigation
1812 - Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry gerrymanders for the first time.
1814 - Norway's independence is proclaimed, marking the ultimate end of the Kalmar Union.
1826 - University College London is founded under the name University of London.
1840 - Gaetano Donizetti's opera La Fille du Régiment receives its first performance in Paris.
1843 - Giuseppe Verdi's opera I Lombardi receives its first performance in Milan.
1855 - Kassa Hailu is crowned Tewodros II, Emperor of Ethiopia, by Abuna Salama III in a ceremony at the church of Derasge Maryam.
1858 - The Blessed Virgin Mary reputedly appears to Saint Bernadette Soubirous of Lourdes.
1861 - American Civil War: United States House of Representatives unanimously passes a resolution guaranteeing noninterference with slavery in any state.
1873 - King Amadeus I of Spain abdicates.
1889 - Meiji constitution of Japan is adopted; the first Diet of Japan convenes in 1890.
1895 - The lowest ever UK temperature of -27.2°C is recorded at Braemar in Aberdeenshire. This record was equalled on 10 January 1982 and again on 30 December 1995.
1902 - Police assault universal suffrage demonstrators in Brussels.
1903 - Anton Bruckner's 9th Symphony receives its first performance in Vienna.
1905 - Pope Pius X publishes the encyclical Vehementer nos.
1916 - Emma Goldman is arrested for lecturing on birth control.
1919 - Friedrich Ebert (SPD), is elected President of Germany.
1929 - Italy and the Vatican sign the Lateran Treaty.
1937 - A sit-down strike ends when General Motors recognizes the United Auto Workers Union.
1938 - BBC Television produces the world's first ever science fiction television program, an adaptation of a section of the Karel Capek play R.U.R., which coined the term "robot".
1939 - Lockheed P-38 flies from California to New York in 7 hours 2 minutes.
1941 - First Gold record is presented to Glenn Miller for "Chattanooga Choo Choo".
1942 - The Battle of Bukit Timah is fought in Singapore during World War II.
1943 - World War II: General Dwight Eisenhower is selected to command the allied armies in Europe.
1948 - John Costello succeeds Éamon de Valera as Taoiseach of Ireland.
1953 - The Soviet Union breaks off diplomatic relations with Israel.
1953 - President Dwight Eisenhower refuses clemency appeal for Ethel and Julius Rosenberg.
1963 - Julia Child's show The French Chef premieres.
1964 - The Republic of China (Taiwan) breaks off diplomatic relations with France.
1964 - The Beatles hold their first concert in the United States at the Washington Coliseum in Washington, D.C.
1964 - Greeks and Turks begin fighting in Limassol, Cyprus.
1968 - Israeli-Jordanian border clashes.
1971 - Eighty-seven countries, including the US, UK, and USSR, sign the Seabed Treaty outlawing nuclear weapons in international waters.
1973 - Vietnam War: First release of American prisoners of war from Vietnam takes place.
1978 - Censorship: the People's Republic of China lifts a ban on works by Aristotle, Shakespeare and Dickens.
1979 - Islamic revolution of Iran achieves victory under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
1981 - 100,000 gallons (380 m³) of radioactive coolant leak into the containment building of TVA Sequoyah 1 nuclear plant in Tennessee, contaminating 8 workers.
1987 - Philippines constitution goes into effect.
1990 - Buster Douglas KO's "Iron" Mike Tyson in Tokyo, Japan.
1990 - Nelson Mandela, a political prisoner for 27 years, is freed from Victor Verster Prison outside Cape Town, South Africa.
1991 - UNPO, the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, forms in The Hague, Netherlands.
1997 - Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.
2007 - In Portugal, a national referendum legalizes non-therapeutic abortion when requested by the woman during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.
2008 - In East Timor, assassination attempts were made on Xanana Gusmao and Jose Ramos-Horta. Both failed.
55 - Tiberius Claudius Caesar Britannicus, heir to the Roman Emperorship, dies under mysterious circumstances in Rome. This clears the way for Nero to become Emperor.
660 BC - Traditional founding date of Japan by Emperor Jimmu.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Historical Events on 10 Feb

Historical Events on 10 Feb

1355 - The St. Scholastica's Day riot breaks out in Oxford, England, leaving 63 scholars and perhaps 30 locals dead in two days.
1542 - Queen Catherine Howard of England is confined in the Tower of London to be executed three days later for treason (adultery).
1567 - An explosion destroys the Kirk o' Field house in Edinburgh, Scotland. The second husband of Mary Queen of Scots, Lord Darnley is found strangled, in what many believe to be an assassination.
1763 - French and Indian War: The 1763 Treaty of Paris ends the war and France cedes Quebec to Great Britain.
1798 - Louis Alexandre Berthier invaded Rome, on February 15 proclaimed a Roman Republic and then on February 20 take Pope Pius VI as a prisoner.
1814 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Champaubert
1840 - Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
1846 - First Anglo-Sikh War: Battle of Sobraon - British defeat Sikhs in final battle of the war
1863 - The world-famous dwarfs General Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren get married in New York City.
1870 - The YWCA is founded (New York City).
1904 - The Russo-Japanese War over Korea and Manchuria begins after the Battle of Port Arthur.
1906 - HMS Dreadnought (1906) is launched
1920 - Jozef Haller de Hallenburg performs symbolic wedding of Poland to the sea, celebrating restitution of Polish access to open sea.
1923 - Texas Tech University was founded as Texas Technological College in Lubbock, Texas.
1929 - Msgr. Stephen Alencastre, SS.CC., dedicates the beautiful Romanesque church of Saint Patrick in Honolulu.
1931 - New Delhi becomes the capital of India.
1933 - The New York City-based Postal Telegraph Company introduces the first singing telegram.
1933 - In round 13 of a boxing match at New York City's Madison Square Garden, Primo Carnera knocks out Ernie Schaaf, killing him.
1933 - Adolf Hitler takes a speech in Sportpalast, Berlin - 10 days after he became 'Reichskanzler' on January 30th.
1947 - Italy cedes most of Venezia Giulia to Yugoslavia.
1954 - President Dwight Eisenhower warns against United States intervention in Vietnam.
1962 - Captured American spy pilot Francis Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.
1964 - Melbourne-Voyager collision: The aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne collides with the destroyer HMAS Voyager off the south coast of New South Wales, Australia.
1967 - The 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution ratified.
1981 - A fire at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino kills eight and injures 198.
1989 - Ron Brown is elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee becoming the first African American to lead a major American political party.
1996 - The IBM supercomputer Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov for the first time.
1998 - Voters in Maine repeal a gay rights law passed in 1997 becoming the first U.S. state to abandon that law.
2003 - France and Belgium break the NATO procedure of silent approval concerning the timing of protective measures for Turkey in case of a possible war with Iraq.
2008 - The 2008 Namdaemun fire severely damages Namdaemun, the first National Treasure of South Korea.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Historical Events on 9 Feb

Historical Events on 9 Feb

1555 - Bishop of Gloucester John Hooper is burned at the stake.
1621 - Gregory XV becomes Pope, the last Pope elected by acclamation.
1775 - American Revolutionary War: British Parliament declares Massachusetts in rebellion.
1788 - The Habsburg Empire joins the Russo-Turkish War in the Russian camp.
1822 - Haiti invades the newly founded Dominican Republic.
1825 - After no presidential candidate received a majority of electoral votes, the United States House of Representatives elects John Quincy Adams President of the United States.
1861 - American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is elected the Provisional President of the Confederate States of America by the Confederate convention at Montgomery, Alabama.
1870 - The U.S. Weather Bureau was established.
1885 - The first Japanese arrive in Hawaii.
1889 - The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is established as a Cabinet-level agency.
1895 - William G. Morgan modifies Mintonette to volleyball.
1900 - Davis Cup competition is established.
1904 - Russo-Japanese War: Battle of Port Arthur
1920 - By the terms of the Svalbard Treaty, international diplomacy recognizes Norwegian sovereignty over Arctic archipelago Svalbard, and designates it as demilitarized.
1922 - Brazil becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
1934 - The Balkan Entente is formed.
1942 - Allied forces declare Guadalcanal secure, ending the Guadalcanal Campaign as a significant strategic victory for Allied forces fighting Imperial Japan in the Pacific War.
1942 - Daylight saving time goes into effect in the United States.
1942 - World War II: Top United States military leaders hold their first formal meeting to discuss American military strategy in the war.
1943 - World War II: Allied authorities declare Guadalcanal secure after Imperial Japan evacuates its remaining forces from the island, ending the Battle of Guadalcanal.
1945 - The Battle of the Atlantic the HMS Venturer sinking U-Boat 864 off the coast of Norway.
1950 - Second Red Scare: Senator Joseph McCarthy accuses the United States State Department of being filled with Communists.
1960 - Joanne Woodward receives the first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1962 - Jamaica becomes independent nation within the Commonwealth of Nations.
1964 - The Beatles make their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, performing before a "record-busting" audience of 73 million viewers.
1965 - Vietnam War: The first United States combat troops are sent to South Vietnam.
1969 - First test flight of the Boeing 747.
1971 - The 6.4 on the Richter Scale Sylmar earthquake hits the San Fernando Valley area of California.
1971 - Satchel Paige becomes the first Negro League player to be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1971 - Apollo program: Apollo 14 returns to Earth after the third manned moon landing.
1973 - Biju Patnaik of the Pragati Legislature Party elected leader of opposition in the state assembly in Orissa, India.
1975 - The Soyuz 17 Soviet spacecraft returns to Earth.
1986 - Comet Halley reaches perihelion, its closest approach to the sun, during its second visit to the inner solar system in the 20th century.
1991 - Voters in Lithuania vote for independence.
1994 - Vance-Owen peace plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina is announced.
1995 - Space Shuttle astronauts Bernard A. Harris, Jr. and Michael Foale become the first African American and first Briton, respectively, to perform spacewalks.
1996 - The Irish Republican Army declares the end of its 18 month ceasefire shortly followed by a large bomb in London's Canary Wharf.
2001 - The American submarine USS Greeneville accidentally strikes and sinks the Ehime-Maru, a Japanese training vessel operated by the Uwajima Fishery High School.
474 - Zeno crowned as co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Historical Events on 8 Feb

Historical Events on 8 Feb

1575 - Universiteit Leiden founded, and given the motto "Praesidium Libertatis".
1587 - Mary, Queen of Scots was executed at suspicion of having been involved in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I of England.
1601 - Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, rebels against Elizabeth I of England - revolt is quickly crushed.
1622 - King James I of England disbands the English Parliament.
1692 - A doctor in Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony suggests that two girls in the family of the village minister may be suffering from bewitchment, leading to the Salem witch trials.
1693 - The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia is granted a charter by King William III and Queen Mary II.
1726 - The Supreme Privy Council is established in Russia.
1807 - Battle of Eylau - Napoleon defeats Russians under General Benigssen.
1817 - Las Heras crosses the Andes with an army to join San Martín and liberate Chile from Spain.
1837 - Richard Johnson becomes the first Vice President of the United States chosen by the United States Senate.
1849 - New Roman Republic established.
1855 - The Devil's Footprints mysteriously appear in southern Devon.
1865 - In the U.S., Delaware voters reject the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and vote to continue the practice of slavery. (Delaware finally ratifies the amendment on February 12, 1901.)
1867 - The Ausgleich results in the establishment of the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary.
1879 - Sandford Fleming first proposes adoption of Universal Standard Time at a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute.
1887 - The Dawes Act authorized the President of the United States to survey Native American tribal land and divide it into individual allotments.
1900 - British troops are defeated by Boers at Ladysmith, South Africa.
1904 - Battle of Port Arthur: A surprise torpedo attack by the Japanese at Port Arthur, China starts the Russo-Japanese War.
1910 - The Boy Scouts of America is incorporated by William D. Boyce.
1915 - D.W. Griffith's controversial film The Birth of a Nation premieres in Los Angeles.
1918 - The Stars and Stripes newspaper publishes for the first time.
1922 - President Warren G. Harding introduces the first radio in the White House.
1924 - Capital punishment: The first state execution using gas in the United States takes place in Nevada.
1943 - World War II: Battle of Guadalcanal ends after the Japanese Imperial Army evacuated their remaining forces with a United States victory.
1949 - Cardinal Mindszenty of Hungary sentenced for treason.
1952 - Elizabeth II is proclaimed Queen of the UK.
1955 - The Government of Sindh abolished Jagirdari system in the province. One million acres (4000 km²) of land thus acquired is to be distributed among the landless peasants.
1960 - Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom issued an Order-in-Council, stating that she and her family would be known as the House of Windsor, and that her descendants will take the name "Mountbatten-Windsor".
1962 - Charonne massacre. 9 trade unionists are killed by French police at the instigation of Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, then chief of the Paris Prefecture of Police.
1963 - Travel, financial and commercial transactions by United States citizens to Cuba are made illegal by the John F. Kennedy administration.
1968 - American civil rights movement: The Orangeburg massacre, a mass killing in Orangeburg, South Carolina of black students from South Carolina State University who were protesting segregation at the town's only bowling alley.
1969 - Allende meteorite falls near Pueblito de Allende, Chihuahua, Mexico.
1971 - The Nasdaq stock market index debuts.
1974 - Military coup in Upper Volta.
1974 - After 84 days in space, the crew of the first American space station Skylab return to Earth.
1978 - Proceedings of the United States Senate are broadcast on radio for the first time.
1979 - Denis Sassou-Nguesso became the President of the Republic of the Congo for the first time.
1983 - The Melbourne dust storm hits Australia's second largest city. The result of the worst drought on record and a day of severe weather conditions, the 320m deep dust cloud envelops the city, turning day to night.
1986 - 1984 Summer Olympics head of the LAPD bomb squad, Arleigh McCree, and his partner Officer Ronald Ball of the Firearms and explosives unit were killed while trying to dismantle two pipe bombs when they responded to a call. McCree was recognized as one of t
1989 - An Independent Air Boeing 707 crashes into Santa Maria mountain in Azores Islands off the coast of Portugal, killing 144.
1993 - General Motors sues NBC after Dateline NBC allegedly rigs two crashes intended to demonstrate that some GM pickups can easily catch fire if hit in certain places. NBC settles the lawsuit the next day.
1996 - The massive Internet collaboration "24 Hours in Cyberspace" takes place.
1996 - The U.S. Congress passes the Communications Decency Act.
1998 - First female ice hockey game in Olympic history: Finland beats Sweden 6-0.
2005 - Israel and Palestinians agree to cease-fire.
2008 - Nebraska bans electric chair as sole execution method.
421 - Constantius III becomes co-Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.