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This day in history

This day in history: 18 February

Events, births and deaths on this date, ordered by how many people look them up.

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Born on this day · Died on this day145 · 56

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Key facts

252 historical events, births and deaths are listed for 18 February.
Entries come from Wikipedia’s day pages and are ordered by page views.
2021: Perseverance, a Mars rover designed to explore Jezero crater on Mars, as part of NASA's Mars 2020 mission, lands successfully.

Holidays and observances

Christian feast day: Bernadette Soubirous (France)

Christian feast day: Colmán of Lindisfarne

Christian feast day: February 18 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Christian feast day: Flavian of Constantinople

Christian feast day: Geltrude Comensoli

Christian feast day: Simeon of Jerusalem (Western Christianity)

Dialect Day (Amami Islands, Japan)

Independence Day, celebrates the independence of the Gambia from the United Kingdom in 1965

Kurdish Students Union Day (Iraqi Kurdistan)

National Democracy Day, celebrates the 1951 overthrow of the Rana dynasty (Nepal)

Events

2021Perseverance, a Mars rover designed to explore Jezero crater on Mars, as part of NASA's Mars 2020 mission, lands successfully.

2018Iran Aseman Airlines Flight 3704 crashes in the Dena sub-range in the Zagros Mountains of Iran, Resulting in 66 Deaths

2014Revolution of Dignity: At least 76 people are killed and hundreds are injured in clashes between riot police and demonstrators in Kyiv, Ukraine.

2013Armed robbers steal a haul of diamonds worth $50 million during a raid at Brussels Airport in Belgium.

2010WikiLeaks publishes the first of hundreds of thousands of classified documents disclosed by the soldier now known as Chelsea Manning.

2004Up 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.

2003192 people die when an arsonist sets fire to a subway train in Daegu, South Korea.

2001FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union. He is ultimately convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

2001Sampit 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.

1991The IRA explodes bombs in the early morning at Paddington station and Victoria station in London.

1983Thirteen 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.

1979Richard 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.

1977A thousand armed soldiers raid Kalakuta Republic, the commune of Nigerian singer Fela Kuti, leading to the death of Funmilayo Anikulapo Kuti.

1977The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle is carried on its maiden "flight" on top of a Boeing 747.

1977The 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.

1972The 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 imprisonment.

1970The Chicago Seven are found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

1965The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom.

1957Kenyan rebel leader Dedan Kimathi is executed by the British colonial government.

1957Walter James Bolton becomes the last person legally executed in New Zealand.

1955Operation 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.

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

1947First Indochina War: The French gain complete control of Hanoi after forcing the Viet Minh to withdraw to the mountains.

1946Sailors 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

1945World 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.

1943World War II: Joseph Goebbels delivers his Sportpalast speech.

1943World War II: The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose movement.

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

1938Second 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.

1932The Empire of Japan creates the independent state of Manzhouguo (the obsolete Chinese name for Manchuria) free from the Republic of China and installed former Chinese Emperor Puyi as Chief Executive of the State.

1930Elm Farm Ollie becomes the first cow to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft and also the first cow to be milked in an aircraft.

1930While studying photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto.

1915U-boat Campaign: The Imperial German Navy institutes unrestricted submarine warfare in the waters around Great Britain and Ireland.

1911The first official flight with airmail takes place from Allahabad, United Provinces, British India (now India), when Henri Pequet, a 23-year-old pilot, delivers 6,500 letters to Naini, about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) away.

1906Édouard de Laveleye forms the Belgian Olympic Committee in Brussels.

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

1885Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is published in the United States.

1878John Tunstall is murdered by outlaw Jesse Evans, sparking the Lincoln County War in Lincoln County, New Mexico.

1873Bulgarian revolutionary leader Vasil Levski is executed by hanging in Sofia by the Ottoman authorities.

1861In Montgomery, Alabama, Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the provisional President of the Confederate States of America.

Born on this day

2002Manu Bhaker, Indian sports shooter

2001Jaime Jaquez Jr., American basketball player

2001Tanguy Coulibaly, French footballer

2000Giacomo Raspadori, Italian footballer

2000Zakaria Aboukhlal, Moroccan footballer

1998Vernon, South Korean and American rapper, singer and songwriter

1997Brandon Jones, American racing driver

1997DK, South Korean singer

1997Odysseas Adam, Greek volleyball player

1996Tyler Dorsey, American-Greek basketball player

1995Nathan Aké, Dutch footballer

1994J-Hope, South Korean rapper, singer-songwriter, dancer, and record producer

1994Paul Zipser, German basketball player

1993Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, American basketball player

1992Le'Veon Bell, American football player

1992Logan Miller, American actor

1992Martin Marinčin, Slovak ice hockey player

1991Sebastian Neumann, German footballer

1990Bryan Oviedo, Costa Rican footballer

1990Cody Hodgson, Canadian ice hockey player

1990Didi Gregorius, Dutch baseball player

1990Monica Aksamit, American saber fencer

1989Sonja Vasić, Serbian basketball player

1988Maiara Walsh, American-Brazilian actress

1988Roman Neustädter, German-Russian footballer

1988Sarah Sutherland, American actress

1986Kyle Weaver, American basketball player

1984Carlos Kameni, Cameroonian footballer

1983Jason Maxiell, American basketball player

1983Jermaine Jenas, English footballer

1983Kara Braxton, American basketball player (died 2026)

1982Christian Tiffert, German footballer

1981Alex Ríos, American baseball player

1981Andrei Kirilenko, Russian-American basketball player

1980Nik Antropov, Kazakhstani-Canadian ice hockey player

1980Regina Spektor, Russian-American musician and songwriter

1977Ike Barinholtz, American actor and comedian

1977Kristoffer Polaha, American actor

1975Gary Neville, English footballer

1974Carrie Ann Baade, American painter and academic

Died on this day

2026Borislav Paravac, Bosnian Serb politician, 8th Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina (born 1943)

2025Gene Hackman, award-winning American actor (born 1930)

2025Gerald Ridsdale, Australian laicised Catholic priest and sex offender (born 1934)

2025Hurricane, American secret service canine (born 2009)

2020Flavio Bucci, Italian actor and voice actor (born 1947)

2019Alessandro Mendini, Italian designer and architect (born 1931)

2015Elchanan Heilprin, Slovak-born English rabbi (born 1920 or 1922)

2014Maria Franziska von Trapp, Austrian-American singer (born 1914)

2014Mavis Gallant, Canadian-French author and playwright (born 1922)

2001Balthus, Polish-Swiss painter and illustrator (born 1908)

2001Dale Earnhardt, American racer and seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion (born 1951)

1982Ngaio Marsh, New Zealand author (born 1895)

1981Jack Northrop, American engineer and businessman, founded the Northrop Corporation (born 1895)

1977Andy Devine, American actor (born 1905)

1969Dragiša Cvetković, Serbian lawyer and politician, 17th Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (born 1893)

1967J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist and academic (born 1904)

1966Grigory Nelyubov, Soviet pilot and military officer (born 1934)

1960Gertrude Vanderbilt, American stage actress (born c. 1885)

1956Gustave Charpentier, French composer (born 1860)

1938David King Udall, American missionary and politician (born 1851)

1933James J. Corbett, American boxer and actor (born 1866)

1915Frank James, American soldier and criminal (born 1843)

1910Lucy Stanton, American activist (born 1831)

1902Charles Lewis Tiffany, American businessman, founded Tiffany & Co. (born 1812)

1893Serranus Clinton Hastings, American lawyer and politician, 1st Chief Justice of California (born 1814)

1880Nikolay Zinin, Russian organic chemist (born 1812)

1873Vasil Levski, Bulgarian activist, founded the Internal Revolutionary Organization (born 1837)

1851Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi, German mathematician and academic (born 1804)

1803Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim, German poet and educator (born 1719)

1788John Whitehurst, English geologist and clockmaker (born 1713)

Quote of the day

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”

Aristotle

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From Wikipedia’s on-this-day pages for this language, updated once a day and ordered by how often each article is read.

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