On this day

January 31st

1752 - USA: The first American-born nun in the Roman Catholic Church was Sister St. Martha Turpin, who celebrated the ceremony for the Profession at the Ursuline Convent in New Orleans.

1786 - USA: The Shawnee Treaty was signed at Fort Finley, in north-western Ohio, by eight Shawnee Indians. The Shawnee acknowledged the sovereignty of only the United States over the lands ceded by the British under the 1784 Treaty of Paris. New boundary lines were established for Shawnee lands. No citizens could stay on Indian lands without Indian approval.

1870 - USA: The first acts were taken to establish the White Mountain-San Carlos-Camp Apache Reserve in western Arizona Territory by the Military Division of the Pacific. Major Engineer H.M Robert forwarded a map of the proposed reserve to military HQ in San Francisco for consideration.

1915 - Eastern Front: Tear Gas is used for the first time at Bolimov against the Russians.

1917 - USA: A note announcing the German renewal of Submarine Warfare against neutral and belligerent ships, effective from Feb 1, was delivered to the State Department by Count Johann-Heinrich von Bernstorff, the German Ambassador.

1918 - UK: 103 sailors are killed and two submarines are lost in a series of collisions during a Royal Navy night exercise in the Firth of Forth.

1926 - Rome: Benito Mussolini assumes the power to rule by decree.

1934 - USA: The Farm Mortgage Refinancing Act, which created the Federal Farm Mortgage Corporation was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This institution was authorized to assist farmers in paying their mortgages by providing easier credit terms.

1940 - UK: A survey of evacuees by local authorities revealed that out of 734,883 unaccompanied children evacuated from the cities since the 1 September 1939, 316,192 had returned home, with around 500,000 schoolchildren remaining in "safe areas."

1941 - Germany: The Wehrmacht completes the initial plans for the invasion of the USSR - Operation Barbarossa.

1942 - Berlin: SS General Franz Stahlecker, the commander of the "Einsatzgruppe" in the Baltic states, reports that he has killed 229,052 Jews.

1944 - Pacific: The American conquest of the central Pacific continued when a powerful U.S. Amphibious Force assaulted the Marshall Islands.

1945 - Philippines: The 11th U.S Airborne Division land on the west coast of Luzon.

1950 - USA: Development of the Hydrogen Bomb was authorized by President Truman.

1952 - UK: Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh leave for a tour Kenya and other Commonwealth nations.

1954 - UK: 23 people are reported to have been killed in accidents on frozen ice as Britain shivers in the grip of wintry weather.

1958 - USA: The first U.S. Earth Satellite, "Explorer 1" was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It was bullet-shaped, 80in long, 6in in diameter, with the last stage attached, and weighed 30.8lbs.

1961 - USA: In a Project Mercury suborbital test flight, the U.S. shot a chimpanzee into space and recovered him successfully. The capsule containing the animal travelled 5000mph to a height of 155 miles.

1966 - Vietnam: U.S planes resume bombing raids after a 37-day pause.

1967 - UK: John Lennon bought an 1843 poster from an antique shop in Surrey, which provided him with most of the lyrics for the song "Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite", recorded on Sgt Pepper.

1968 - Mauritius: The island becomes independent of Britain after days of race riots.

1971 - USA: "Apollo 14", manned by Alan B. Shepard Jr, Edgar D. Mitchell, and Stuart A. Roosa, was successfully launched. After initial problems in docking the lunar and command modules, the mission proceeded to a successful lunar landing. Apollo 14 returned to Earth on February 9th, bringing back more than 100lbs of rock for study.

1970 - USA: The Jackson Five went to No.1 on the U.S. singles chart with "I Want You Back."

1976 - UK: Abba's single "Mamma Mia" knocks Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody off the UK No.1 spot after a nine week run at the top spot.

1977 - Rhodesia: Around 400 mission children are reported to have been kidnapped by nationalists for guerrilla training.

1978 - UK: Talking Heads made their UK TV debut on "The Old Grey Whistle Test."

1980 - Amsterdam: Queen Juliana of the Netherlands announces she will abdicate in favour of her daughter Beatrix.

1982 - Tel Aviv: Israel agrees to accept a UN peacekeeping force in Sinai with troops from four European nations.

1983 - UK: Wearing a seat-belt in the front of a car, becomes compulsory.

1988 - UK: The Red Hot Chilli Peppers appeared at The Mean Fiddler in London.

1991 - Saudi Arabia: Allied forces recapture the border town of Khafji from Iraqi troops.

1993 - USA: The Dallas Cowboys beat the Buffalo Bills 52-17 to win Super Bowl XXVII in Pasadena.

2003 - UK: Robbie Williams topped a chart based on UK album sales from the previous five years. He had sold 9.7 million albums in Britain an average of 5,000 every day.

2007 - Archaeologists announce the excavation of the apparent village of the builders of Stonehenge, the largest Neolithic settlement discovered in Britain.

2010 - Peru: The death toll from flooding in Southern Peru rises to 20.

2012 - UK: Former RBS CEO Fred Goodwin loses his knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II, as a result of the near collapse of the bank in 2008.

2013 - USA: David Beckham joins French club Paris Saint-Germain after leaving LA Galaxy, donating his entire salary to charity.

February 1st

1804 - President Thomas Jefferson's vision of an agrarian society rising in the U.S. was reflected in a letter to the French economist Jean Baptiste Say, who had sent Jefferson two volumes on political economy. Jefferson noted that in Europe "the quantity of food is fixed, or increasing in a slow and only arithmetical ratio.... Here the immense extent of uncultivated and fertile lands enables every one who will labor to marry young, and to raise a family of any size. Our food then, may increase geometrically with our laborers, and our births, however multiplied, become effective."

1893 - USA: The construction of a pioneer film studio, called the "Black Maria" because of its resemblance to police paddy wagons, was completed at the Edison laboratories in West Orange, New Jersey. The structure was covered with tarpaper and pivoted to turn with the sun.

1902 - China: An Imperial decree abolishes the binding of women's feet, and ends the ban on mixed Chinese-Manchu marriages.

1910 - Turkey: Army Reservists are called up as fears grow of a clash with Greece over Crete.

1917 - Berlin: Germany steps up its submarine warfare, warning the U.S. and other neutrals that ships trading with the Allies will be torpedoed without warning.

1918 - Paris: 45 people are killed in a bombing raid by four squadrons of German Gotha aeroplanes.

1922 - UK: 117 outbreaks of foot and mouth disease are reported throughout the country.

1925 - Berlin: The first meeting takes place of the "Front of Red Fighters" the combat wing of the German Communist Party.

1928 - Miami: Boxer Jack Dempsey announces his retirement.

1930 - London: A bomb, believed to be planted by Indian nationalists, is found at the British Museum.

1934 - Germany: The law for sterilisation of "inferior" citizens comes into effect.

1941 - USA: Admiral Husband Kimmel becomes Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet based at Pearl Harbor.

1942 - Pacific: 92 planes from the U.S. carriers Yorktown and Lexington attack Japanese bases on the Gilbert and Marshall Islands.

1943 - Guadalcanal: 20 Japanese destroyers evacuate around 5,000 soldiers from Cape Esperance.

1944 - Warsaw: Polish partisans assassinate the local Gestapo chief SS Major-General Franz Kutschera.

1945 - Philippines: U.S troops advance 25 miles into Japanese held territory and free over 500 POW's.

1947 - Portugal: 16 people are killed when a Dakota DC-3 from Paris crashes near Lisbon.

1950 - Moscow: The USSR calls for Japanese Emperor Hirohito to be tried as a war criminal.

1951 - USA: Communist China was formally accused of aggression in Korea by the UN.

1953 - USA: 20th Century Fox announces that its films will all now be produced by a new system called "Cinemascope."

1955 - USA: Tornadoes kill 29 people in Mississippi.

1958 - Middle East: Egypt and Syria proclaim union as the United Arab Republic (UAR).

1964 - USA: The Beatles begin a seven-week run at No.1 on the U.S. singles chart with "I Want To Hold Your Hand."

1967 - UK: Students protest against a government decision to increase fees for overseas students.

1972 - UK: Chuck Berry had his first UK No.1 single with "My Ding A Ling". Mary Whitehouse attempted to get the song banned.

1973 - London: Woman are allowed on the Stock Exchange floor for the first time.

1975 - USA: Otis Francis Tabler, a computer scientist, became the first declared homosexual to get security clearance for work on a Defence Department contract.

1977: USA: TV rights to the 1980 Olympics in Moscow were secured by the National Broadcasting Company, which agreed to pay $35,000,000 for exclusive rights to the games and an additional $50,000,000 for production and equipment costs.

1983 - UK: ITV's breakfast television service "TV-am" begins broadcasting.

1988 - London: Released Cabinet papers show Harold Macmillan's government suppressed the 1957 Windscale fire report.

1989 - London: The Guardian Angels, a group of New York subway vigilantes, arrive to set up a London branch.

1991 - A head-on airplane crash at the Los Angeles airport, involving a US Air Boeing 737 about to land and a Sky West commuter craft about to take off from the same runway, killed 22 of the 69 people aboard the former and all 12 on the latter. The planes were mistakenly cleared to use the same runway.

1994 - London: The sale of Rover, the last British-owned car manufacturer, to the German firm BMW causes a huge political row.

1995 - Coventry: Jill Phipps, an animal-rights protestor, dies after falling under the wheels of a lorry carrying live calves for export.

2001 - USA: A collection of Sir Elton John's private photos on display at a museum in Atlanta were withdrawn. The exhibition, which included snaps of nude men, was said to be too explicit - some school trips to the museum were cancelled.

2007 - France: The French government ban the smoking of cigarettes in every second hand smoke area.

2009 - English Channel: The wreck of the British Warship "HMS Victory" is discovered in the English Channel.

2011 - Australia: Cyclone Yasi is upgraded to a category 5 storm and is predicted to be the worst storm to hit Australia in generations.

2013 - UK: Metropolitan police detective April Casburn who tried to sell information to the "News Of The World" regarding the investigation in the phone hacking scandal is jailed for 15 months.

February 2nd

1876 - USA: Professional Baseball became entrenched in the U.S. with the formation of the National League, consisting of teams in Philadelphia, Hartford, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, and New York. The First President of the league was Morgan G. Buckley. Chicago won the pennant with a season's record of 52 wins and 14 losses.

1897 - USA: Fire destroyed the Pennsylvania State Captitol , at Harrisburg.

1911 - USA: Minnesota doctors claim tetanus can be cured by spinal injections of Epsom Salts.

1913 - USA: Grand Central Terminal in New York City, one of the most elegant and spacious public buildings in the U.S. was officially opened.

1920 - Russia: The Soviet government recognized the independence of Estonia.

1922 - India: 22 policemen are killed during rioting in Chauri Chaura.

1931 - Berlin: Nazi deputies in the Reichstag demand Germany's withdrawal from the League of Nations.

1934 - Berlin: The Nazis begin rewriting the Psalms to remove all reference to Jews.

1937 - Paris: The Chamber of Deputies votes for a 19 million defence budget to match Germany's military spending.

1940 - UK: Rabbit meat continually increases in popularity in British Households since the introduction of meat rationing.

1943 - Stalingrad: The last pocket of German resistance surrenders.

1944 - Warsaw: In retaliation for the previous days shooting of Gestapo chief Franz Kutschera, German authorities execute 100 Poles.

1944 - Marshall Islands: Roi Island was taken by the U.S Fourth Marine Division, and positions were secured on Namur and Kwajalein.

1946 - Germany: A third copy of Hitler's will is found in Dortmund.

1954 - USA: Detonation of the first hydrogen bomb was officially reported by President Eisenhower. It had took place at Einwetok Atoll in the Pacific.

1959 - Moscow: Nikita Khrushchev proposes a new East-West summit on Berlin.

1963 - Finland: Penetti Nikula becomes the first pole-vaulter to successfully jump five metres.

1966 - UK: The Rolling Stones released "19th Nervous Breakdown." It went on to reach No. 2 on the UK and U.S. singles charts.

1974 - USA: Barbra Streisand began a four-week run at No.1 on the U.S singles chart with "The Way We Were."

1975 - Ethiopia: Government planes attack rebel positions outside Asmara, the Eritrean capital.

1976 - Birmingham: The Queen opens the £45 million National Exhibition Centre.

1979 - USA: Sex Pistols bass player Sid Vicious dies from a heroin overdose in New York. There had been a party in his flat to celebrate his release on bail pending his trial for the murder of his former girlfriend Nancy Spungen, the previous October. Guests stated that Vicious had taken heroin around midnight.

1980 - USA: Details of "Abscam" an FBI sting operation to uncover official corruption, were released. Some 31 public officials were named as targets of the investigation, including Senator Harrison Williams, Republican of New Jersey, and six members of the House of Representatives. In the operation an FBI agent posed as an Arab sheik and offered bribes for political favours.

1986 - Western Europe: Over 34 deaths are reported after blizzards and freezing weather sweeps across most of Western Europe.

1992 -London: Labour Leader Neil Kinnock denies allegations of a "Kremlin connection" during the 1980's.

1994 -Egypt: An armed Islamic group warns foreigners to leave the country, warning of a ferocious" campaign against the government.

1995 - Netherlands: A total of around 240,000 people are evacuated from eastern and central regions of Holland, due to fears that flooding could destroy dikes.

1999 - Australia: Australian cricket captain Mark Taylor announces his retirement from international cricket.

2003 - UK: Russian girl duo "Tatu" began a four-week stint at No.1 on the UK singles charts with "All The Things She Said."

2008 - France: French President Nicolas Sirkozy marries former supermodel Carla Bruni at the Elysee Palace.

2010 - USA: "Avatar" and "The Hurt Locker" receive 9 nominations each as the 82nd Academy Awards nominations are announced.

2011 - USA: NASA's Kepler Mission announces the discovery of a planetary system of six planets circulating the star Kepler-11.

2013 - Iran: Iran reveals a new Qaher-313 combat jet, which is believed can evade radar detection.

1959, Buddy Holly, Richard Valens and The Big Bopper all appeared at the Surf Ballroom, Clear Lake, Iowa. This was all three acts last ever gig before being killed in a plane crash the following day. 

1962, The Beatles played their first professionally organised gig outside of Liverpool at The Oasis Club, Manchester. The groups set started with their version of 'Hippy Hippy Shake'. 

1963, Cliff Richard and The Shadows started a 14-week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with 'Summer Holiday'. 

1963, The Beatles played at the Gaumont Cinema, Bradford on the opening night of the nationwide Helen Shapiro UK tour. The Beatles were at the bottom of the six-act bill playing just four songs, 'Please Please Me’, ‘Chains’, ‘Keep Your Hands Off My Baby’ and ‘A Taste of Honey.' 

1966, The Rolling Stones released '19th Nervous Breakdown' it peaked at No.2 on the UK singles chart. 

1967, The Jimi Hendrix Experience played live on UK TV show Top Of The Pops performing 'Purple Haze.' 

1969, Yoko Ono divorced her husband Tony Cox, Yoko was granted custody of their daughter Kyoko. John Lennon and married Yoko the following month on 30th March. 

1973, Keith Emerson of Emerson Lake and Palmer injured his hands when his piano rigged to explode as a stunt, detonated prematurely during a concert in San Francisco.

1974, Barbra Streisand started a four week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with the theme from the film 'The Way We Were'. The single won an Oscar and a Grammy for 'Song of the year.'
1974, The Carpenters started a four week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with 'The Singles 1969-73', featuring 12 hits and the US No.1 'Top Of The World' it went back to the top of the charts on three other occasions.

1976, Genesis released 'A Trick Of The Tail', their seventh studio album and the first to feature drummer Phil Collins as full-time lead vocalist following the departure of original vocalist Peter Gabriel. After auditioning over 400 vocalists, which saw Collins teaching the potential lead singers the songs, the band decided that Collins should be the new vocalist.

1979, Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious died of a heroin overdose in New York City. There had been a party to celebrate Vicious' release on $50,000 (£29,412) bail pending his trial for the murder of his former girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, the previous October. Party guests, said that Vicious had taken heroin at midnight. An autopsy confirmed that Vicious died from an accumulation of fluid in the lungs that was consistent with heroin overdose. A syringe, spoon and heroin residue were discovered near the body.  

1980, The Specials were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'The Special A.K.A. Live E.P'. The lead track 'Too Much Too Young' was the shortest song to reach No.1 on the UK singles chart in the 1980s at 2'04".

1985, Foreigner started a two-week run at No.1 on the US singles charts with 'I Want To Know What Love Is', also a UK No.1. London-born Mick Jones wrote the song and sang lead vocals with the British-American rock band. 

1989, George Michael received undisclosed damages in excess of £100,000 ($170,000) from The Sun newspaper over articles printed that stated Michael had gatecrashed a party given by Andrew Lloyd Weber and was drunk and abusive. 

1991, KLF featuring The Children Of The Revolution were at No.1 on the UK single chart with '3am Eternal'. Also a No.5 hit in the US.2001, Bad Manners singer Buster Bloodvessel was told he was 'too fat' to survive an urgently needed operation. Buster collapsed on stage during a show in Italy but Doctors felt that his huge 30 stone frame might not make it through surgery. 

2002, The Phonographic Performance Ltd launched performersmoney.com for artists to check if they were owed any of the £10 million ($17 million) in unclaimed money. It showed that Michael Jackson was owed over £100,000 ($170,000) for 'Say, Say, Say', Stevie Wonder had money owing for 'Ebony And Ivory' and Ray Davies of The Kinks was owed a six-figure fee for 'You Really Got Me'. Director Dominic McGonigal said "If anyone has seen Rick Astley please let him know, he is still earning money for his hits." 

2003, Russian girl duo Tatu started a four-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'All The Things She Said'. The song had been a hit on the Russian charts three years earlier. Tatu were the first Russian act to score a UK No 1. 

2004, TV network CBS apologised for its broadcast of the American Super Bowl after Janet Jackson was left exposed when Justin Timberlake ripped her top. The pair had been performing a raunchy half-time duet when one of Jackson's breasts was exposed as Timberlake pulled at her top. CBS quickly cut away from the scene but was still flooded with calls from angry viewers about the half-time entertainment, produced by MTV. Timberlake insisted it had been an accident saying "I am sorry that anyone was offended by the wardrobe malfunction during the half-time performance of the Super Bowl." 

2005, Former Libertines frontman Pete Doherty was arrested on suspicion of theft and assault. He was held in custody at a north London police station after an alleged incident at a hotel in Clerkenwell, central London. 

2007, Billy Henderson, one of the founders of US soul group The Spinners, died aged 67 after complications from diabetes. Had the 1980 UK No.1 & US No.2 single 'Working My Way Back To You.'
2007, US keyboardist Joe Hunter, a veteran session musician as one of the Funk Brothers who helped craft the distinctive Motown sound, died in Detroit, Michigan, at the age of 79. Hunter performed with such legendary Motown acts as Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson and Martha and the Vandellas.

2008, The Spice Girls cut short their reunion world tour, blaming "family and personal commitments". The band said they would end their tour in Toronto on 26 February, with planned shows in Beijing, Sydney, Cape Town and Buenos Aires being axed. A spokesman for the group said: "Sadly, the tour needs to come to an end by the end of February due to family and personal commitments."

2013, A 1960’s Beatles Record Player, produced for fans as a commercial Beatles memorabilia item, fetched $12,100 in an online auction. The Record Player, which was highly-sought by Beatles collectors worldwide, was manufactured in a limited quantity. Because of this, some believed there was still a strong possibility a few remaining players to be discovered.

http://www.thisdayinmusic.com/

February 3rd

1865 - USA: At the Hampton Roads Peace Conference, President Abraham Lincoln met with Confederate peace commissioners aboard the "River Queen" in Hampton Roads, Virginia. Negotiations were deadlocked because the Confederates insisted on Southern autonomy.

1900 - Europe: Strikers in Aachen, Vienna, and Brussels, demand higher pay and an eight-hour day.

1904 - London: Irish Nationalist John Redmond makes a renewed call for Home Rule in Ireland.

1907 - Paris: King Edward VII and Queen Alexandria arrive on a state visit.

1917 - Washington: Diplomatic relations with Germany were severed. On the same day the U.S. liner Housatonic was sunk by a German submarine after a one-hour warning.

1919 - London: The Tube is brought to a standstill by workers striking for shorter hours.

1920 - Germany: The Allies request the German authority to hand over 890 political and military leaders for trial as war criminals.

1926 - Prague: Czech becomes the official language of Czechoslovakia, but rights of minority languages are guaranteed.

1930 - USA: Charles Evans Hughes was appointed chief justice of the Supreme Court by President Herbert Hoover to succeed William Howard Taft.

1936 - USA: The National Guard prepared to assault strikers holding the General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan. At the last minute, Walter Knudsen, head of General Motors, agreed to recognize the United Automobile Workers and to negotiate for a union contract.

1939 - London: A hunt for IRA terrorists takes place after bomb blasts at Tottenham Court Road and Leicester Square tube stations.

1940 - Whitby: A Heinkel He111 bomber is the first German plane to be shot down over England.

1941 - Rome: Benito Mussolini declares southern Italy a war zone and places it under martial law.

1942 - East Indies: Japan attacks Dutch positions on Java, damaging the naval base at Surabaya.

1944 - USSR: The encirclement of 60,000 German troops in the Korsun pocket, south of Kiev, is announced and celebrated in Moscow.

1945 - France: The German garrison at Colmar surrenders to the French First Army.

1948 - UK: Elsie Bayer becomes the first woman general manager of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford.

1951 - USA: "The Rose Tattoo" by Tennessee Williams opened at the Martin Beck Theatre in New York City. The cast included Maureen Stapleton and Eli Wallach.

1951 - USA: The largest purse to date in horse racing, $144,323 was won by "Great Circle" in the Santa Anita Maturity at Santa Anita, Arcadia, California. Willie Shoemaker rode the horse to victory.

1959 - London: London Transport unveils details of a £50 million Victoria tube line from Victoria to Walthamstow.

1959 - USA: An American Airlines plane crashed into New York's East River, killing 65 out of the 73 people on board.

1962 -USA: President Kennedy imposes an embargo on Cuban imports.

1967 - USA: Otis Redding, Aaron Neville, and The Drifters, appeared at the Civic Coliseum in Knoxville, Tennessee.

1968 - USA: The Lemon Pipers went to No.1 on the U,S singles chart with "Green Tambourine."

1973 - USA: Elton John began a three week run at No.1 on the U.S singles chart with "Crocodile Rock."

1979 - UK: Blondie was no.1 on the UK singles charts with "Heart Of Glass."

1980 - USA: 14 prisoners are murdered by rioting convicts at the New Mexico state penitentiary.

1981 - Norway: Gro Harlem Brundtland becomes the country's first woman prime minister.

1984 - In the first case of surrogate conception, the birth of a baby conceived in one woman's womb and brought to term by another woman was announced by a team of California physicians.

1989: USA: The National League of major league baseball elected Bill White as President. A player for 14 years and then a sports broadcaster, he was the first black elected to head a major sports organization.

1990 - UK: For the first time ever, the UK top 3 singles featured non-British and non-American acts - Ireland's Sinead O'Conner, Australia's Kylie Minogue, and Belgium's Technotronic.

1993 - UK: Radiohead appeared at the Wheatsheaf in Stoke-on Trent.

2003 - UK: The exclusive documentary "Living With Michael Jackson" was shown on UK television. Reporter Martin Bashir had spent eight months with the star.

2009 - UK: The UK struggles to cope with its heaviest snowfalls since 1991.

2012 - Egypt: 400 people are injured in protests in Cairo.

2013 - Germany: Ali Carter wins his third ranking snooker title defeating Marco Fu 9-6 in the final of the German Masters.

February 4th

1861 - USA: The Confederate States of America was formed at Montgomery, Alabama. Jefferson Davies of Mississippi was elected President, and Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia, vice president.

1890 USA: The senate ratified the Samoan treaty with Germany and Great Britain. This treaty placed the Samoan Islands under the joint control of the three powers, and thus made more secure the fueling station at Pago Pago for the growing U.S. Fleet.

1902 - USA: The Carnegie Institution is formed in Washington to promote study and research.

1909 - USA: The Californian lower house passes a bill segregating immigrant Japanese school-children.

1912 - Berlin: The government announces a bill that will increase its Navy by 15,000 men.

1917 - London: The government agrees with Germany to an exchange of all internees over 45.

1922 - China: Japan agrees to restore Shantung to the Chinese Government.

1924 - France: Norway takes first place in the medals table at the Winter Olympics.

1928 - Vienna: Austrian Nazis protest over the presence of black singer Josephine Baker.

1929 - London: The first area of "green belt" is approved, a five mile long stretch near Hendon.

1933 - London: Around 50,000 demonstrators gather in Hyde Park, protesting against unemployment.

1938 - Berlin: Joachim von Ribbentrop becomes foreign minister.

1940 - North Sea: The mine-sweeper HMS Sphinx sinks, a day after being bombed by German aircraft.

1943 - USSR: Soviet troops retake Kushchevskaya, south of Rostov-on-Don, and Kupyansk, in the Ukraine.

1944 - Pacific: The U.S Navy bombards Paramushiro, one of the Kurile Islands in Japanese home waters.

1945 - Wales: Rudolf Hess, under guard in an Abergavenny mental hospital, tries to commit suicide with a bread knife.

1946 - Moscow: The USSR states it has found 190,000 bodies of Russian, Polish, French, and British prisoners in Silesia.

1952 - London: The government offers farmers £5 an acre to plough up grassland for crops.

1954 - London: BOAC announces that after making 50 modifications, its Comet fleet is airworthy once again.

1963 - UK: Britain's worst learner driver, Margaret Hunter, is fined for driving on after her instructor jumped out shouting "this is suicide."

1966 - Japan: 133 people are killed when an airliner crashes into Tokyo Bay.

1967 - UK: The Monkees self-titled debut album, began a seven-week run at No.1 on the UK chart.

1971 - UK: Rolls-Royce declares itself bankrupt.

1974 - UK: 81% of miners vote for a national strike.

1976 - South Atlantic: An Argentine destroyer fires shots across the bows of the "Shackleton" a British research ship.

1978 - UK: Abba began a seven-week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with "The Album."

1981 - London: A verdict of justifiable homicide is returned on the terrorists who died in the Iranian embassy siege.

1984 - UK: Eurythmics achieve their first No.1 UK album with their second release "Touch."

1990 - Egypt: Gunmen attack a tour bus, killing 15 Israelis.

1992 - Venezuela: A coup attempt by rebel troops fails to topple President Carlos Perez.

2000 - Sweden: Bjorn Ulvaeus confirmed that the members of Abba had turned down a $1 billion offer by an American and British consortium to reform the group.

2003 - London: Courtney Love was arrested at Heathrow airport for "endangering an aircraft" on a transatlantic flight. The singer was said to have hurled abuse at the cabin crew on the flight from Los Angeles to London, after her nurse who was in an economy seat was barred access to Love in the upper-class cabin.

2007 - USA: The U.S military admits publically for the first time that 4 U.S. helicopters were downed by ground fire in Iraq.

2011 - USA: Falling ice injures 7 people at Cowboys Stadium, Arlington, Texas, prior to Super Bowl XLV.

2013 - UK: The University of Leicester holds a media conference to announce that a skeleton found in Leicester the previous year in an archaeological dig is that of former King Richard III of England.

February 5th

1819 - USA: Double-feature theatrical performances offered theatre buffs such plays as "Rob Roy McGregor" or "Auld Lang Syne", followed after an intermission by "Dr Last's Examination" or the comic ballet "Little Red Riding Hood."

1900 - USA: Britain and the U.S. sign a treaty for the building of a Central American shipping canal through Nicaragua.

1907 - UK: An epidemic of meningitis occurs in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Belfast.

1915 - Eastern Front: Around 30,000 Germans are killed by Russians in battle near the Rivers Bzura and Rawka.

1917 - USA: An Immigration Act was passed by congress over President Woodrow Wilson's veto. The law required a literacy test for immigrants and barred Asiatic labourers, except for those from countries with special agreements or treaties with the U.S.

1919 - Germany: The first public air service was introduced, from Berlin to Weimar via Leipzig.

1922 - Detroit: Ford buys the Lincoln Motor Co. for $8,000,000.

1926 - UK: The Food Council recommends the sale of food by standard measures.

1928 - London: The Medical Research Council announces the Vitamin D can be produced artificially.

1932 - Geneva: France proposes the creation of an international police force.

1935 - New York: The Boxing authorities rule that championship bouts must be a maximum of 15 rounds.

1936 - USA: Charlie Chaplin's film "Modern Times" opens across the country.

1939 - Coventry: Four fires break out, which are believed to be the work of the IRA.

1941 - UK: An announcement states the war is costing Britain £11 million a day.

1943 - Rome: Benito Mussolini sacks his son-in-law Count Nobile Ciano as foreign minister and assumes the post himself.

1944 - France: Michel Holland, the British agent who spied on the German V-bomb programme, is arrested by the Gestapo.

1945 - Germany: Red Army troops begin their crossing of the River Oder.

1951 - Ivory Coast: The Port of Abidjan is opened by the French junior minister, Francois Mitterrand.

1953 - Ireland: An Irish stud farm buys the Aga Khan's Derby winner "Tulyar" for a record price of £250,000.

1954 - UK: Kingsley Amis's novel "Lucky Jim" is published.

1958 - London: It was announced that Mayfair would be the first place in Britain to have parking meters.

1964 - Rwanda: Thousands of Tutsi's are feared massacred by a rival tribe.

1965 - New York: A Northeast drought that began in September 1961 reduced the water in New York City's storage reservoirs to an all-time low of 24.5% of capacity.

1966 - USA: Petula Clark got her second No.1 in the U.S. singles chart with "My Love."

1968 - Atlantic: 19 Hull trawler-men are killed when their boat sinks off Iceland.

1971 - USA: Apollo 14 lands safely on the moon.

1972 - USA: In a move to prevent airplane hijacking, screening of passengers and their luggage became mandatory on all domestic and foreign flights by U.S scheduled airlines.

1974 - UK: In a series of raids police seize arms belonging to Protestant extremists.

1974 - USA: Patricia Hearst, daughter of publisher Randolph Hearst, was kidnapped from her Berkley, California apartment by members of a group calling itself the Symbionese Liberation Army.

1982 - London: Laker Airways collapse, leaving around 6,000 passengers stranded.

1985 - UK: 200 protestors are evicted from outside a Cruise missile base at Molesworth in Cambridgeshire.

1986 - London: The government publishes a white paper advocating the privatisation of the water industry.

1988 - USA: General Manuel Antonio Noriega, the most powerful figure in the government of Panama, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami, in connection with illegal drug dealings. He was charged with receiving more than $4,600,000 in pay-offs for allowing large scale drug dealers to use airstrips under his protection.

1991 - Johannesburg: Winnie Mandela goes on trial for her part in allegedly kidnapping four youths.

1996 - Guatemala: Pope John Paul II is welcomed by thousands of Catholics during his two-day tour of the country.

2000 - Chechnya: Russian forces massacre around 60 civilians in the Novye Aldi suburb of Grozny.

2005 - Afghanistan: NATO helicopters find the wreckage of a Kam Air Boeing 737, in mountains east of Kabul, all 104 passengers were presumed dead.

2009 - UK: Undefeated Welsh boxer Joe Calzaghe announces his retirement.

2011 - UK: Arsenal become the first team since the Premier League was established in 1992 to throw away a 4-0 lead as Newcastle Utd, storm back to draw 4-4.

2013 - USA: Curtis Coope a mathematician and computer science professor at the University of Central Missouri discovers the largest known 17.4 million-digit prime number.

February 6th

1778 - USA: A Treaty of Alliance with France was signed. It was in part commercial and in part political and military. France recognised U.S independence, which was for the Americans the goal of the treaty. It was the first and only treaty of alliance made by the U.S. until the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Pact of 1949.

1802 - USA: To protect ships against Tripolitan pirates, Congress empowered the president to arm U.S vessels. Congress did not declare war, implying instead that the U.S might use force at sea but not against Tripolitan ports.

1816 - USA: What was probably the first railroad charter granted in the U.S. was that of the New Jersey legislature to Colonel John Stevens for a railroad between the Delaware and Raritan rivers. The project never came to fruition.

1820 - USA: The organized immigration of blacks to Africa from the U.S began with a group of 86 sailing from New York City to Sierra Leone.

1865 - USA: General Robert E. Lee was given overall command of the Confederate Armies by the Confederate Congress at Richmond.

1869 - USA: The first caricature of "Uncle Sam" with chin whiskers appeared in Harpers Weekly. The figure had been used without whiskers by cartoonists for several years and had evolved from the Revolutionary caricature of Brother Jonathan. After 1869 Uncle Sam became a stock device of political cartoonists.

1907 - Atlantic: "HMS Dreadnought" sails from Gibraltar to Trinidad at a record speed of 17 knots.

1911 - Turkey: A large area of Constantinople is destroyed by fire.

1918 - London: The Representation of the People Act, received Royal Assent, giving the vote to married women over 30.

1929 - Bombay: At least 30 people are reported killed after Hindu-Moslem riots.

1930 - Germany: Ex-chief of staff Max von Hoffman is implicated in a plot to overthrow the Soviet Regime.

1934 - Paris: Right-wing groups take to the streets, calling for the resignation of the government.

1936 - Germany: Adolf Hitler opens the fourth Winter Olympic Games at Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

1940 - London: An IRA bomb explodes at Euston station injuring four people.

1941 - Germany: Hitler appoints General Irwin Rommel to command the "Afrika Korps" formed to support Italy in Libya.

1943 - Berlin: Heinrich Himmler receives an inventory of goods taken from murdered Polish Jews, including 825 rail wagons of clothing for re-distribution in Germany and a wagon full of women's hair.

1944 - Burma: Major-General Orde Wingate leads a special force of Indian, British, and U.S. soldiers to engage the Japanese at Myitkyina.

1945 - Philippines: Douglas MacArthur announces the capture of Manila and the liberation of 5,000 POW's.

1951 - London: The BBC announces that its tests of Very High Frequency (VHF) transmissions have been a success.

1956 - USA: Three days of campus violence at the University of Alabama were climaxed by the suspension of Autherine Lucy, the first black student to be enrolled there. On March 1 she was permanently expelled for her accusations against the school in a legal suit handled by the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People.

1961 - London: Spurs captain Danny Blanchflower is the first person to refuse to appear on ITV's "This Is Your Life."

1964 - London: Britain and France agree on the building of a Channel Tunnel costing £160 million.

1965 - USA: The Righteous Brothers began a two-week run at No.1 on the U.S. singles charts with "You've Lost That Loving Feeling."

1970 - USA: Eric Clapton played the first of two nights at The Filmore East in New York.

1977 - UK: This date was the Silver Jubilee of The Queen's accession.

1982 - UK: Kraftwerk were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with "The Model/Computer Love. becoming the first German Act to have a UK No.1.

1984 - Beirut: President Gemayal orders a 24 hour shoot-on-sight curfew as open civil war erupts in the city.

1986 - London: The government drops plans to sell Austin Rover to Ford due to post-Westland backbench pressure.

1991 - USA: An act to benefit Vietnam War veterans who were exposed to the herbicide Agent Orange, which was used to defoliate jungle cover, was signed by President Bush. The law extended disability benefits to those suffering from two kinds of cancer, Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and soft-tissue sarcoma.

1999 - Florida: NASA launches the Stardust mission on a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral.

2007 - UK: The Sun newspaper obtains a video tape of a U.S. pilot shooting a UK convoy in a friendly fire incident during the Iraq War, which killed a British soldier and injured four others.

2009 - USA: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves ATRYN, the first drug made using genetically engineered animals.

2011 -Saudi Arabia: Danish golfer Thomas Bjorn wins the Qatar Masters at the Doha Golf Club by four shots.

2013 - South Pacific: A tsunami warning is issued for a wide range of islands in the region after a 8.0 earthquake occurs off the coast of the Solomon Islands.

February 7th

1864 - USA: A Union expedition to Florida to return the state to Union allegiance entered Jacksonville under the command of General Truman Seymour.

1904 - USA: A tremendous fire in Baltimore, Maryland, destroyed 2,600 buildings in an 80-block area of the business district. The fire burned for around 30 hours, making it the biggest fire since the great Chicago fire of 1871.

1917 - Germany: All U.S. citizens in the country are held as government hostages.

1919 - Germany: Chancellor Friedrich Ebert denounces the terms of the Armistice at a cabinet convention in Weimar.

1922 - Paris: Marie Curie is elected to the Academie des Sciences.

1932 - Oslo: The Scandinavian countries, along with Belgium and Holland sign a convention for economic co-operation.

1941 - Libya: After a two-day battle, Italian forces surrender at Beda Fomm, in the first important British victory of the war. Around 25,000 Italians are taken prisoner.

1942 - East Prussia: The Nazi armaments and munitions minister Fritz Todt returning to Berlin, is killed after his plane crashes on take-off.

1943 - New Delhi: Chiang Kai-shek agrees to provide manpower to help reconquer Burma, in exchange for U.S. aid.

1943 - USA: Shoe rationing began, limiting civilians to three pairs a year.

1944 - Helsinki: The city is bombed twice by the Soviet Air Force.

1959 -USA: The funeral of Buddy Holly took place at the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Lubbock, Texas.

1960 - Judea: Israeli archaeologists discover parchment scrolls, written approximately 1,700 years ago by Hebrew bands who had fled from the Roman occupation into hiding in the Judaean desert.

1964 - USA: The Beatles arrived at Kennedy Airport in New York at the start of their first U.S musical tour. After appearing on the "Ed Sullivan Show" they gave their first concert on February 12 at Carnegie Hall.

1967 - UK: The Bee Gees returned to the UK, after living in Australia for nine years.

1969 - USA: The first woman jockey to ride at a U.S. pari-mutuel track was Diana Crump. At Hialeah, Florida, she rode her first mount to a tenth-place finish in a field of 12 runners.

1971 - Switzerland: A referendum gives women the vote in national elections.

1976 - USA: Paul Simon began a three-week run at No.1 on the U.S singles chart with "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover."

1977 - USA: Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger sold his memoirs for $2,000,000.

1981 - UK: John Lennon was No.1 on the UK singles chart with "Woman"

1984 - USA: Withdrawal of U.S marines from Beirut was announced by President Reagan. The troops were completely redeployed to navy ships offshore by February 29th.

1988 - Brazil: 127 people are feared killed after floods and mud-slides in the Rio de Janeiro area.

1989 - USA: Georgia state representative Billy Randall, introduced a bill to make Little Richards "Tutti Frutti" the state's official rock song.

1995 - London: Junior Scottish Industry Minister Allen Stewart resigns after accusations that he brandished a pickaxe during a confrontation with an anti-motorway protestor.

1996 - Dominican Republic: A Boeing 757 airline crashes in the Caribbean, killing 189 people, mostly German tourists.

1998 - Japan: The 1998 Winter Olympics began in Nagano.

2004 - UK: Queen's single "We Will Rock You" topped a poll by music fans to find the greatest rock anthem of all time. The 1977 song beat their classic "Bohemian Rhapsody" into second place in a survey of 1,000 people carried out by the UCI cinema chain.

2008 - USA: Space Shuttle Atlantis launches successfully on its STS-122 mission.

2009 - Atlantic: Jennifer Frigge from Aspen, Colorado, becomes the first woman to swim across the Atlantic Ocean.

2011 - Saudi Arabia: Archaeologists using Google maps, find around 2,000 potential archaeological sites.

2013 - UK: Findus, the frozen food manufacturer withdraws its Beef Lasagne ready meals after tests showed they contained horse meat.

February 8th

1690 - USA: In King William's War (1689-1697) French and Indian forces from Montreal attacked and burned Schenectady, New York.

1735 - USA: The first opera produced in the colonies was performed at the Courtroom, in Charleston, South Carolina. It was The Hob in the Well by Colley Cibber.

1862 - USA: USA: Union forces captured Roanoke Island, North Carolina. General Henry A. Wise and his Confederate garrison of 2,675 men were taken prisoner.

1887 - USA: Congress passed the Dawes Severalty Act. On the surface, it attempted to replace the Indian reservation system by parcelling out tracts of land (40, 80, or 160 acres) to individual Indians on the supposition that this would provide them with greater incentives to succeed. In practice it became a mechanism that enabled whites to acquire these allotments buy purchase or in repayment of loans. By 1934, when the law was overturned, Indian lands had dwindled from 138,000,000 acres to 48,000,000.

1909 - London: The government announces that the Navy will be receiving six new dreadnoughts.

1916 - Berlin: Riots break out over food shortages.

1918 - London: The government announces a meat ration of 20oz per adult per week for London and the Home Counties.

1926 - Berlin: The German government applies to join the League of Nations.

1927 - UK: Proposed revisions to the Book of Common Prayer are published, including sex equality in the wedding service.

1930 - Rome: Pope Pius XI denounces the USSR for its persecution of Christians.

1936 - India: Jawaharlal Nehru is elected president of the Indian National Congress, making him effectively heir apparent to Ghandi.

1939 - London: Peers pass the Bastardy Bill, making blood tests compulsory in paternity suits.

1940 - Paris: Police raid the Soviet Press agency and discover that it is being used as a front for pro-German propaganda.

1942 - Berlin: Adolf Hitler appoints Albert Speer as minister for armaments and war production.

1943 - Guadalcanal: A Japanese rear-guard action slows down the U.S. advance towards Cape Esperance.

1944 - USSR: The Third Ukrainian Front captures Nikopol, a vital centre of manganese production.

1945 - Germany: General Bernard Montgomery opens "Operation Veritable", a British-Canadian offensive to clear the lower Rhineland.

1950 - USA: Man o' War was named the greatest horse of the first half of the century by an Associated Press Poll. Known as a horse that excelled as a sprinter and distance runner, between two and three years old the horse won 20 out of 21 starts and broke five track records.

1956 - New York: "Middle of the Night" by Paddy Chayefsky, starring Edward G. Robinson and Gena Rowlands, opened at the ANTA Theatre.

1958 - UK: David Lean's "The Bridge on the River Kwai" wins three top British Film Academy Awards.

1962 - USA: Creation of the Military Assistance Command (MAC), a new U.S military command in South Vietnam, was announced by the Defence Department.

1963 - USA: Underground nuclear testing was resumed by the U.S. A suspension of tests had been ordered on January 20 during test-ban talks between the U.S. and USSR.

1964 - USA: The Ronettes greeted The Beatles on their first visit to the U.S. interviewing them for radio.

1977 - USA: Larry Flint, publisher of the sexually explicit magazine "Hustler" was convicted in Cincinnati of promoting obscenity and involvement in organised crime.

1978 - USA: Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat began a six-day visit to the U.S. He conferred at length with President Carter, urging the U.S. to exert pressure on Israel to negotiate a Middle East peace settlement.

1979 - USA: Military ties with Nicaragua had been severed, President Carter announced, adding that economic aid to the repressive regime of Anastasio Somoza DeBayle would be reduced as well. The moves were intended to force Somoza to negotiate with the revolutionary Sandinista movement threatening to topple the Nicaraguan government.

1981 - USA: R.E.M made their first-ever recording sessions at Bombay Studios Smyrna, Georgia. Tracks included "Radio Free Europe" and "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville."

1986 - UK: Billy Ocean began a Four-week run at No.1 on the UK singles charts with "When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going" from the movie "The Jewel Of The Nile."

1990 - UK: The House of Lords votes to allow experiments on human embryos to continue.

1994 - Holland: Oasis were forced to cancel their first foreign tour after they were deported from Holland for getting involved in a drunken brawl on a cross-channel ferry, resulting in members of the band being arrested and locked in the brig.

2001 - UK: Eminem made his live UK concert debut when he appeared at The Manchester Arena.

2007 - Florida: The American model and actress Anna Nicole-Smith is found dead at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino from a drug overdose aged 39.

2009 - Australia: Bushfires in Victoria result in the deaths of 108 people and the destruction of 750 homes.

2010 - Galapagos Islands: A colony of sea lions relocate 1500 kilometres away, the first time a colony have set up away from the islands.

2012 - UK: Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp is cleared of tax evasion at a London court.

2013 - USA: A massive blizzard hits the North-eastern U.S and South-eastern regions of Canada, with over 5,000 flights cancelled, and around 600,000 people losing power to their homes.