February 18
Events
Pre-1600
- 3102 BC - Kali Yuga, the fourth and final yuga of Hinduism, starts with the death of Krishna.
- 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 Battle of Wesenberg is fought between the Livonian Order and Dovmont of Pskov.
- 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.
1601–1900
- 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 six warships, destroying or capturing 20 of them.
- 1735 - The ballad opera called Flora, or Hob in the Well went down in history as the first opera of any kind to be produced in North America
- 1781 - Fourth Anglo-Dutch War: Captain Thomas Shirley opens his expedition against Dutch colonial outposts on the Gold Coast of Africa.
- 1791 - Congress passes a law admitting the state of Vermont to the Union, effective 4 March, after that state had existed for 14 years as a de facto independent largely unrecognized state.
- 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 Italian unification almost complete, Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont, Savoy and Sardinia assumes the title of King of Italy.
- 1873 - Bulgarian revolutionary leader Vasil Levski is executed by hanging in Sofia by the Ottoman authorities.
- 1878 - John Tunstall is murdered by outlaw Jesse Evans, sparking the Lincoln County War in Lincoln County, New Mexico.
- 1885 - Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is published in the United States.
- 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.
1901–present
- 1906 - Édouard de Laveleye forms the Belgian Olympic Committee in Brussels.
- 1911 - The first official flight with airmail takes place from Allahabad, United Provinces, British India, when Henri Pequet, a 23-year-old pilot, delivers 6,500 letters to Naini, about away.
- 1915 - U-boat Campaign: The Imperial German Navy institutes unrestricted submarine warfare in the waters around Great Britain and Ireland.
- 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 creates the independent state of Manzhouguo free from the Republic of China and installed former Chinese Emperor Aisin Gioro Puyi as Chief Executive of the State.
- 1938 - Second Sino-Japanese War: During the Nanking Massacre, the Nanking Safety Zone International Committee is renamed "Nanking International Rescue Committee", and the safety zone in place for refugees falls apart.
- 1942 - World War II: The Imperial Japanese Army begins the systematic extermination of perceived hostile elements among the Chinese in Singapore.
- 1943 - World War II: The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose movement.
- 1943 - World War II: Joseph Goebbels delivers his Sportpalast speech.
- 1945 - World War II: American and Brazilian troops kick off Operation Encore in Northern Italy, a successful limited action in the Northern Apennines that prepares for the western portion of the Allied Spring offensive.
- 1946 - Sailors of the Royal Indian Navy mutiny in Bombay harbour, from where the action spreads throughout the Provinces of British India, involving 78 ships, twenty shore establishments and 20,000 sailors
- 1947 - First Indochina War: The French gain complete control of Hanoi after forcing the Viet Minh to withdraw to the mountains.
- 1954 - The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles.
- 1955 - Operation Teapot: Teapot test shot "Wasp" is successfully detonated at the Nevada Test Site with a yield of 1.2 kilotons. Wasp is the first of fourteen shots in the Teapot series.
- 1957 - Kenyan rebel leader Dedan Kimathi is executed by the British colonial government.
- 1957 - Walter James Bolton becomes the last person legally executed in New Zealand.
- 1965 - The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
- 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, invalidates the state's death penalty and commutes the sentences of all death row inmates to life imprisonment.
- 1977 - The Xinjiang 61st Regiment Farm fire started during Chinese New Year when a firecracker ignited memorial wreaths of the late Mao Zedong, killing 694 personnel. It remains the deadliest fireworks accident in the world.
- 1977 - A thousand armed soldiers raid Kalakuta Republic, the commune of Nigerian singer Fela Kuti, leading to the death of Funmilayo Anikulapo Kuti.
- 1977 - The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle is carried on its maiden "flight" on top of a Boeing 747.
- 1979 - Richard Petty wins a then-record sixth Daytona 500 after leaders Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough crash on the final lap of the first NASCAR race televised live flag-to-flag.
- 1983 - Thirteen people die and one is seriously injured in the Wah Mee massacre in Seattle. 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 Paddington station and Victoria station in London.
- 2001 - FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union. He is ultimately convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
- 2001 - Sampit conflict: Inter-ethnic violence between Dayaks and Madurese breaks out in Sampit, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, ultimately resulting in more than 500 deaths and 100,000 Madurese displaced from their homes.
- 2003 - 192 people die when an arsonist sets fire to a subway train in Daegu, South Korea.
- 2004 - Up to 295 people, 182 of which being rescue workers, die near Nishapur, Iran, when a runaway freight train carrying sulfur, petrol and fertilizer catches fire and explodes.
- 2010 - WikiLeaks publishes the first of hundreds of thousands of classified documents disclosed by the soldier now known as Chelsea Manning.
- 2013 - Armed robbers steal a haul of diamonds worth $50 million during a raid at Brussels Airport in Belgium.
- 2014 - At least 76 people are killed and hundreds are injured in clashes between riot police and demonstrators in Kyiv, Ukraine.
- 2018 - Iran Aseman Airlines Flight 3704 crashes in the Dena sub-range in the Zagros Mountains of Iran, Resulting in 66 Deaths
- 2021 - Perseverance, a Mars rover designed to explore Jezero crater on Mars, as part of NASA's Mars 2020 mission, lands successfully.
Births
Pre-1600
- 1201 - Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, Persian scientist and writer
- 1372 - Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Egyptian jurist and scholar
- 1486 - Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Indian monk and saint
- 1516 - Mary I of England
- 1530 - Uesugi Kenshin, Japanese daimyō
- 1543 - Charles III, Duke of Lorraine
- 1547 - Bahāʾ al-dīn al-ʿĀmilī, founder of Isfahan School of Islamic Philosophy
- 1559 - Isaac Casaubon, Swiss philologist and scholar
- 1589 - Henry Vane the Elder, English politician
- 1589 - Maarten Gerritsz Vries, Dutch explorer
1601–1900
- 1602 - Per Brahe the Younger, Swedish soldier and politician, Governor-General of Finland
- 1602 - Michelangelo Cerquozzi, Italian painter
- 1609 - Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, English historian and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer
- 1626 - Francesco Redi, Italian physician
- 1632 - Giovanni Battista Vitali, Italian violinist and composer
- 1642 - Marie Champmeslé, French actress
- 1658 - Charles-Irénée Castel de Saint-Pierre, French philosopher and author
- 1732 - Johann Christian Kittel, German organist and composer
- 1745 - Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist, invented the battery
- 1754 - Emanuel Granberg, Finnish church painter
- 1814 - Samuel Fenton Cary, American lawyer and politician
- 1817 - Lewis Armistead, American general
- 1818 - John O'Shanassy, Irish-Australian politician, 2nd Premier of Victoria
- 1818 - Konstanty Schmidt-Ciążyński, Polish collector and art connoisseur who donated a large collection to the National Museum in Kraków
- 1836 - Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Indian mystic and yogi
- 1838 - Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist and philosopher
- 1846 - Wilson Barrett, English actor, playwright, and manager
- 1848 - Louis Comfort Tiffany, American stained glass artist
- 1849 - Alexander Kielland, Norwegian author, playwright, and politician
- 1850 - George Henschel, German-English singer-songwriter, pianist, and conductor
- 1855 - Jean Jules Jusserand, French historian, author, and diplomat, French Ambassador to the United States
- 1860 - Anders Zorn, Swedish artist
- 1862 - Charles M. Schwab, American businessman, co-founded Bethlehem Steel
- 1867 - Hedwig Courths-Mahler, German writer
- 1870 - William Laurel Harris, American painter and author
- 1871 - Harry Brearley, English inventor
- 1883 - Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek philosopher, author, and playwright
- 1885 - Henri Laurens, French sculptor and illustrator
- 1893 - Maksim Haretski, Belarusian prose writer, journalist and activist
- 1890 - Edward Arnold, American actor
- 1890 - Adolphe Menjou, American actor
- 1892 - Wendell Willkie, American captain, lawyer, and politician
- 1896 - Li Linsi, Chinese educator and diplomat
- 1898 - Luis Muñoz Marín, Puerto Rican poet and politician, 1st Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
- 1899 - Arthur Bryant, English historian and journalist