Monday, February 18, 2013

February 18th in History


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.


1332 - Amda Seyon I, Emperor of Ethiopia begins his campaigns in the southern Muslim provinces.

1478 - George, Duke of Clarence, convicted of treason against his older brother Edward IV of England, is executed in private at the Tower of London.

1637 - Eighty Years' War: Off the coast of Cornwall, England, a Spanish fleet intercepts an important Anglo-Dutch merchant convoy of 44 vessels escorted by 6 warships, destroying or capturing 20 of them.


1797 - French Revolutionary Wars: Sir Ralph Abercromby and a fleet of 18 British warships invade Trinidad.

1814 - Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Montereau.


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, Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont, Savoy and Sardinia assumes the title of King of Italy.


1900 - Second Boer War: Imperial forces suffer their worst single-day loss of life on Bloody Sunday, the first day of the Battle of Paardeberg.

1913 - Pedro Lascuráin becomes President of Mexico for 45 minutes; this is the shortest term to date of any person as president of any country.


1942 - World War II: The Imperial Japanese Army begins the systematic extermination of perceived hostile elements among the Chinese in Singapore.

1943 - The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose movement.

1954 - The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles, California.

1965 - The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom.

1979 - Snow falls in the Sahara Desert in southern Algeria for the only time in recorded history.


2004 - Up to 295 people, including nearly 200 rescue workers, die near Neyshabur in Iran when a runaway freight train carrying sulfur, petrol and fertilizer catches fire and explodes.

Famous Birthdays

1374 - St Jadwiga of Poland, Queen of Poland

1516 - Queen Mary I of England

1658 - Charles-Irénée Castel de Saint-Pierre, writer

1883 - Madan Lal Dhingra, Revolutionary

1898 - Enzo Ferrari, founder of Ferrari

1925 - George Kennedy, actor

1941 - Irma Thomas, singer




1947 - HRH Princess Christina of the Netherlands

1954 - John Travolta, actor

1967 - Marco Aurélio, footballer

1977 - Ike Barinholtz, actor

1984 - HRH Stéphanie, Hereditary Grand Duchess of Luxembourg

1989 - Vicente, footballer

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