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