February 18

February 18 is the 49th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 316 days remaining until the end of the year (317 in leap years).

Events

Up to 1900

1229 – Sixth Crusade: Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor signs a ten–year truce with al–Kamil, regaining Jerusalem, Nazareth and Bethlehem, with neither military engagement nor support from the Pope.
1268 – The Livonian Brothers of the Sword are defeated by Dovmont of Pskov in the Battle of Rakvere.
1332 – Amda Seyon I of Ethiopia begins his campaigns in the southern Muslim provinces.
1478 – George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence is executed in the Tower of London after being convicted of treason against his older brother, King Edward IV of England.
1637 – Eighty Years' War: Off Cornwall, a Spanish fleet intercepts a very important Anglo–Dutch merchant convoy of 44 vessels escorted by 6 warships, destroying or capturing 20 of them.
1745 – Surakarta, Central Java, is founded.
1766 – A mutiny by captive Malagasy begins at sea on the slave ship Meermin, leading to the ship's destruction on Cape Agulhas in present–day South Africa and recapture of the instigators.
1791 – United States Congress passes a law making Vermont a state from March 4.
1814 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Montereau.
1861 – Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy assumes the title of King of Italy.
1861 – In Montgomery, Alabama, Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as provisional President of the Confederate States of America.
1865 – American Civil War: Union forces under General William Tecumseh Sherman set the South Carolina State House on fire during the burning of Columbia, South Carolina.
1873 – Bulgarian revolutionary Vasil Levski is executed by hanging in Sofia by the Ottoman authorities.
1885 – The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, is published.
1900 – Second Boer War: British forces suffer their worst single–day loss of life of the war on the first day of the Battle of Paardeberg.

1901 – 2000

1906 – Edouard de Laveleye forms the Belgian Olympic Committee.
1910 – The future–World Governing body for the sport of Skiing is founded in Kristiania, present–day Oslo, in Norway.
1911 – The first airmail flight takes place in what is then British India.
1913 – Pedro Lascurain becomes President of Mexico for 45 minutes. This is the shortest time that a President has ever served in office.
1930 – From photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh discovers the dwarf planet Pluto.
1932 – The Empire of Japan declares Manzhougou (Manchuria) independent of the Republic of China.
1942 – World War II: The Imperial Japanese Army begins the systematic extermination of people in the Chinese community in Singapore that it sees as hostile to its regime.
1943 – Members of the White Rose Resistance Movement are arrested by the Nazis.
1946 – Sailors of the Royal Indian Navy mutiny in Bombay. This action later spreads throughout India.
1947 – First Indochina War: The French gain complete control of Hanoi after forcing the Viet Minh to withdraw to the mountains.
1952 – Greece and Turkey join NATO.
1954 – The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles, California.
1957 – Kenyan rebel leader Dedan Kimathi is executed by the British colonial government.
1960 – The Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California, begin.
1963 – The eruption of the Agung volcano on Bali kills around 1,500 people.
1965 – The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
1969 – Hawthorne Nevada Airlines Flight 708 crashes into Mount Whitney, California, killing all on board.
1977 – The Space Shuttle Enterprise makes its first flight, on a Boeing 747.
1978 – The first Ironman triathlon takes place on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. It is won by Gordon Haller.
1979 – Snow falls in the Sahara desert of southern Algeria for the only time in recorded history.
1983 – 13 people die in the Wah Mee massacre in Seattle. It is believed to be the worst robbery–motivated killing in US history.
1985 – NBA player Larry Bird barely misses a quadruple–double in a game against the Utah Jazz. He sits out the entire fourth quarter.
1988 – Anthony Kennedy becomes a member of the Supreme Court of the United States.
1991 – The IRA detonates bombs at London's Paddington and Victoria Stations.
2000 – Stjepan Mesic becomes President of Croatia.

From 2001

2001 – Inter–ethnic violence begins in Sampit, Indonesia, between Dayaks and Madurese.
2001 – Dale Earnhardt dies in a crash on the last lap of the last turn on the Daytona 500.
2001 – FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union.
2003 – Nearly 200 people die in the Daegu subway fire in South Korea.
2004 – Up to 295 people, including around 200 rescue workers, are killed in Iran, when a freight train carrying sulfur, petrol and fertiliser catches fire and explodes.
2005 – A ban on Fox Hunting in the United Kingdom enters effect.
2007 – Terrorist bombings occur on the Samjhauta Express in Panipat, Haryana, India, killing 68 people.
2010 – A coup takes place in Niamey, Niger. President Mamadou Tandja is replaced by a ruling junta, the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy.
2014 – At least 76 people are killed and hundreds are injured in clashes between riot police and demonstrators in Kyiv, Ukraine, during the Euromaidan protests.

Births

Up to 1800

1372 – Iban Hajar al-Asqalani, Egyptian jurist and scholar (d. 1448)
1374 – Saint Jadwiga of Poland, Queen of Poland (d. 1399)
1404 – Leon Battista Alberti, Italian painter and philosopher (d. 1472)
1486 – Chaitanya Mahaprabha, Indian saint (d. 1534)
1516 – Queen Mary I of England (d. 1558)
1530 – Uesugi Kenshin, Japanese daimyo (d. 1578)
1543 – Charles III, Duke of Burgundy (d. 1608)
1609 – Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, English statesman and historian (d. 1674)
1632 – Giovanni Battista Vitali, Italian composer and violinist (d. 1692)
1635 – Johan Goransson Gyllenstierna, Swedish statesman (d. 1680)
1642 – Marie Champnesle, French actress (d. 1698)
1677 – Jacques Cassini, French astronomer (d. 1756)
1732 – Johann Christian Kittel, German organist, composer and teacher (d. 1809)
1745 – Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist (d. 1827)

1801 – 1900

1814 – Samuel Fenton Cary, American lawyer and politician (d. 1900)
1817 – Lewis A. Armistead, American Confederate General (d. 1863)
1818 – Pedro Figueredo, Cuban poet, musician and revolutionary (d. 1870)
1832 – Octave Chanute, French–American civil engineer and aviation pioneer (d. 1910)
1836 – Sri Ramakrishna, Indian Bengali Guru (d. 1886)
1838 – Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist (d. 1916)
1846 – Wilson Barrett, English playwright (d. 1904)
1848 – Louis Comfort Tiffany, American glass artist (d. 1933)
1849 – Alexander Kielland, Norwegian writer (d. 1906)
1850 – George Henschel, German–British baritone, conductor and composer (d. 1934)
1854 – Herbert Gladstone, British politician (d. 1930)
1855 – Jean Jules Jusserand, French writer and diplomat (d. 1932)
1857 – Max Klinger, German sculptor and painter (d. 1920)
1858 – Princess Louise Marie of Belgium (d. 1924)
1860 – Anders Zorn, Swedish painter (d. 1920)
1875 – Wilhelm Külz, German politician (d. 1948)
1878 – Harriet Bosse, Swedish–Norwegian actress (d. 1961)
1883 – Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek writer (d. 1957)
1885 – Henri Laurens, French sculptor and illustrator (d. 1954)
1890 – Edward Arnold, American actor (d. 1956)
1890 – Adolphe Menjou, American actor (d. 1963)
1892 – Wendell Wilkie, American politician (d. 1944)
1896 – André Breton, French writer (d. 1966)
1897 – Charles Kuentz, German–born French World War I veteran (d. 2005)
1898 – Enzo Ferrari, Italian founder of Ferrari (d. 1988)
1898 – Luis Muñoz Marin, 1st Governor of Puerto Rico (d. 1980)
1899 – Arthur Bryant, British historian (d. 1985)

1901 – 1950

1901 – Reginald Sheffield, British actor (d. 1957)
1902 – Walter Herbert, German–born conductor and impresario (d. 1975)
1903 – Nikolai Podgorny, Soviet politician (d. 1983)
1906 – Hans Asperger, Austrian physician, after whom Asperger syndrome is named (d. 1980)
1912 – Heinz Kühn, German politician (d. 1992)
1914 – Pee Wee King, American singer-songwriter (d. 2000)
1915 – Phyllis Calvert, English actress (d. 2002)
1916 – Jean Drapeau, 37th Mayor of Montreal (d. 1999)
1919 – Amir Abbas Hoveyda, Prime Minister of Iran (d. 1979)
1919 – Jack Palance, American actor (d. 2006)
1920 – Bill Cullen, American game show host (d. 1990)
1920 – Eddie Slovik, American soldier (d. 1945)
1922 – Helen Gurley Brown, American publisher (d. 2012)
1922 – Joe Tipton, American baseball player (d. 1994)
1922 – Eric Gairy, 1st Prime Minister of Grenada (d. 1997)
1925 – Marcel Barbeau, Canadian painter and sculptor (d. 2016)
1925 – George Kennedy, American actor (d. 2016)
1927 – Richard A. Snelling, two–time Governor of Vermont (d. 1991)
1927 – John Warner, American politician (d. 2021)
1929 – Len Deighton, English writer
1929 – Ertem Egilmez, Turkish movie director, producer and screenwriter (d. 1989)
1931 – Toni Morrison, American writer, Nobel Prize winner
1931 – Bob St. Clair, American football player (d. 2015)
1932 – Miloš Forman, Czech movie director
1933 – Yoko Ono, Japanese singer and performance artist
1933 – Bobby Robson, English footballer and manager (d. 2009)
1933 – Mary Ure, Scottish actress (d. 1975)
1934 – Paco Rabanne, Spanish fashion designer
1936 – Ab McDonald, Canadian ice hockey player
1938 – Sadanoyama Shinmatsu, Japanese sumo wrestler
1938 – Istvan Szabo, Hungarian movie director
1939 – Marek Janowski, Polish–born conductor
1940 – Prue Leith, South African–English chef and writer
1943 – Graeme Garden, Scottish writer, actor and comedian
1944 – Pat Bowlen, American owner of the Denver Broncos football team
1945 – Judy Rankin, American golfer
1946 – Michael Buerk, British newsreader
1946 – Jean-Claude Dreyfus, French actor
1947 – Princess Christina of the Netherlands
1947 – Dennis DeYoung, American musician
1947 – Carlos Lopes, Portuguese athlete
1948 – Sinead Cusack, Irish actress
1949 – Gary Ridgway, American serial killer
1950 – Cristina Ferrare, American model, actress, writer and host
1950 – Cybill Shepherd, American actress
1950 – John Hughes, American movie director (d. 2009)

1951 – 1975

1951 – Komal, last Queen of Nepal
1951 – Isabel Preysler, Filipino–Spanish journalist
1952 – Randy Crawford, American singer
1954 – John Travolta, American actor
1956 – Rüdiger Abramczik, German footballer and manager
1956 – Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgian politician and businessman
1957 – Marita Koch, German athlete
1957 – Bruce Rauner, American politician, 42nd Governor of Illinois
1957 – Christiane Torloni, Brazilian actress
1957 – Vanna White, American actress/game show model (Wheel of Fortune)
1958 – Lucie Visser, Dutch actress and model
1958 – Gar Samuelson, American drummer (d. 1999)
1959 – Hallgrimur Helgason, Icelandic artist and writer
1960 – Greta Scacchi, Australian actress
1960 – Tony Anselmo, American animator
1961 – Hironobu Kageyama, Japanese singer
1961 – Alison Owen, British movie producer
1963 – Anders Frisk, Swedish football referee
1964 – Matt Dillon, American actor
1964 – Paul Hanley, British musician
1965 – Dr. Dre, American record producer and rapper
1967 – Roberto Baggio, Italian footballer
1967 – Colin Jackson, Welsh athlete
1968 – Molly Ringwald, American actress
1969 – Alexander Mogilny, Russian ice hockey player
1969 – Jason Sutter, American drummer
1970 – Susan Egan, American actress
1970 – Raine Maida, Canadian singer-songwriter
1971 – Merritt Gant, American guitarist
1971 – Constnatin Popa, Romanian–Israeli basketball player
1971 – Thomas Bjorn, Danish golfer
1972 – Fabian Picardo, 7th Chief Minister of Gibraltar
1973 – Claude Makélélé, French footballer
1973 – Shawn Estes, American baseball player
1974 – Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Russian tennis player
1975 – Keith Gillespie, Irish footballer
1975 – Gary Neville, English footballer
1975 – Thora Arnorsdottir, Icelandic television presenter and former Presidential candidate

From 1976

1977 – Chrissie Wellington, English tri–athlete
1978 – Josip Simunic, Croatian footballer
1980 – Nikolai Antropov, Kazakhstani ice hockey player
1981 – Andrei Kirilenko, Russian basketball player
1981 – Ivan Sproule, Irish footballer
1982 – Courtney Act, Australian drag queen, singer and entertainer
1982 – Kaspars Cipruss, Latvian basketball player
1983 – Roberta Vinci, Italian tennis player
1983 – Jermaine Jenas, English footballer
1984 – Laurent Vidal, French triathlete (d. 2015)
1985 – Anton Ferdinand, English footballer
1985 – Jos van der Emden, Dutch cyclist
1985 – Song Jae-rim, South Korean actor and model
1985 – Lee Boyd Malvo, Jamaican–American spree killer
1986 – Vika Jigulina, Romanian singer
1986 – Marc Torrejon, Spanish footballer
1988 – Changmin, South Korean singer-songwriter, dancer and actor
1988 – Maiara Walsh, Brazilian–American actress
1990 – Park Shin-hye, South Korean actress, dancer, model and singer
1990 – Kang So-ra, South Korean actress
1991 – Malese Jow, American actress and singer-songwriter
1991 – Henry Surtees, English racing driver (d. 2009)
1992 – Logan Miller, American actor
1995 – Samantha Crawford, American tennis player

Deaths

Up to 1900

814 – Anglibert, Frankish monk and diplomat (b. 760)
901 – Thabit ibn Qurra, Iraqi physician, astronomer and mathematician (b. 826)
999 – Pope Gregory V (b. 972)
1139 – Prince Yaropolk II of Kiev (b. 1082)
1294 – Kublai Khan, Mongol ruler (b. 1215)
1379 – Albert II of Mecklenburg (b. 1318)
1405 – Tamerlane, Mongol ruler (b. 1336)
1455 – Fra Angelico, Italian artist (b. 1395)
1478 – George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence (b. 1449)
1535 – Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, German magician, astrologer and theologian (b. 1486)
1546 – Martin Luther, German religious reformer (b. 1483)
1564 – Michelangelo, Italian artist and sculptor (b. 1475)
1712 – Louis, duc de Bourgogne, heir to the French throne (b. 1682)
1743 – Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, last of the Medicis (b. 1667)
1772 – Johann Hartwig Ernst, Count of Bernstorff, Danish statesman (b. 1712)
1780 – Kristijonas Donelaitis, Lithuanian poet (b. 1714)
1834 – William Wirt, United States Attorney General (b. 1772)
1851 – Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi, German mathematician (b. 1804)
1873 – Vasil Levski, Bulgarian revolutionary (b. 1837)
1890 – Gyula Andrassy, Hungarian politician and statesman (b. 1823)
1891 – Henry Hastings Sibley, American politician (b. 1811)
1893 – Serranus Clinton Hastings, American politician (b. 1814)
1895 – Archduke Albrecht, Duke of Teschen (b. 1817)
1899 – Sophus Lie, Norwegian mathematician (b. 1842)
1900 – Clinton L. Merriam, American politician (b. 1824)

1901 – 2000

1902 – Charles Lewis Tiffany, founder of Tiffany and Co. (b. 1812)
1906 – John Batterson Stetson, American businessman (b. 1830)
1910 – Lucy Stanton, American abolitionist (b. 1831)
1911 – Billy Murdoch, Australian cricketer (b. 1854)
1915 – Harry Ward Leonard, American engineer and inventor (b. 1861)
1931 – Frank C. Emerson, Governor of Wyoming (b. 1882)
1932 – Frederick Augustus III of Saxony (b. 1865)
1933 – James J. Corbett, American boxer (b. 1866)
1937 – Lamartine Griffin Hardman, American politician, Governor of Georgia (b. 1856)
1937 – Grigory Ordzhonikidze, Soviet politician (b. 1886)
1945 – Ivan Chernyakhovsky, Russian general (b. 1906)
1949 – Nicolas Alcala-Zamora, Spanish politician (b. 1877)
1956 – Gustave Charpentier, French composer (b. 1860)
1957 – Dedan Kimathi, Kenyan rebel leader (b. 1920)
1957 – Henry Norris Russell, American astronomer (b. 1877)
1964 – Joseph-Armand Bombardier, Canadian inventor and industrialist (b. 1907)
1966 – Robert Rossen, American screenwriter, movie director and producer (b. 1908)
1967 – Dragisa Cvetkovic, Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (b. 1893)
1967 – J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist (b. 1904)
1969 – Dragisa Cvetkovic, 17th Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (b. 1893)
1973 – Frank Costello, Italian–American mob boss (b. 1891)
1977 – Andy Devine, American actor (b. 1905)
1978 – Maggie McNamara, American actress (b. 1928)
1981 – John Knudsen Northrop, American aircraft manufacturer (b. 1895)
1982 – Ngaio Marsh, New Zealand writer (b. 1895)
1993 – Jacqueline Hill, British actress (b. 1929)
1995 – Bob Stinson, American guitarist (b. 1959)

From 2001

2001 – Dale Earnhardt, American racing driver (b. 1951)
2001 – Balthus, Polish–French painter (b. 1908)
2003 – Isser Harel, Israeli Mossad leader (b. 1912)
2004 – Jean Rouch, French movie maker and ethnologist (b. 1917)
2008 – Alain Robbe-Grillet, French writer and movie maker (b. 1922)
2009 – Kamila Skolimowska, Polish hammer thrower (b. 1982)
2009 – At-Tayyib Salih, Sudanese writer (b. 1929)
2010 – John Babcock, Canadian World War I veteran (b. 1900)
2010 – Ariel Ramirez, Argentine composer (b. 1921)
2012 – Roald Aas, Norwegian speed skater and cyclist (b. 1928)
2012 – George Brizan, Grenadian politician (b. 1942)
2013 – Jerry Buss, American businessman and owner of the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team (b. 1933)
2013 – Elspet Gray, Scottish actress (b. 1928)
2013 – Otfried Preussler, German writer (b. 1923)
2014 – Nelson Frazier, Jr., American professional wrestler (b. 1971)
2014 – Nikhil Baran Sengupta, Indian art director, producer, designer and actor (b. 1943)
2014 – Malcolm Tierney, British actor (b. 1938)
2014 – Al Greene, American baseball player (b. 1954)
2014 – Kristof Goddaert, Belgian cyclist (b. 1986)
2015 – Cass Ballenger, American politician (b. 1926)
2015 – Claude Criquielion, Belgian cyclist (b. 1957)
2015 – Mark Fischer, American lawyer (b. 1950)
2015 – Jerome Kersey, American basketball player (b. 1962)
2016 – Abdul Rashid Khan, Indian musician (b. 1907)
2016 – Pantelis Pantelidis, Greek singer-songwriter (b. 1983)
2016 – John Reinhardt, American diplomat (b. 1920)
2017 – Omar Abdel-Rahman, Egyptian terrorist (b. 1938)
2017 – Ivan Koloff, Canadian professional wrestler (b. 1942)
2017 – Lawrence F. Snowden, American military officer (b. 1921)
2017 – Pasquale Squitieri, Italian movie director and screenwriter (b. 1938)
2017 – Clive Stubblefield, American drummer (b. 1942)
2017 – Michael Ogio, Governor–General of Papua New Guinea (b. 1942)
2017 – Norma McCorvey, American activist (b. 1947)
2017 – Dan Vickerman, Australian rugby player (b. 1979)
2017 – Richard Schickel, American writer, filmmaker and critic (b. 1933)
2020 – Sreten Stefanović, Serbian Olympic gymnast (b. 1916)
2020 – José Bonaparte, Argentine paleontologist (b. 1928)

Observances

Independence Day (the Gambia)
International Asperger's Day