On this day

February 9th

1825 - USA: John Quincy Adams was elected President of the United States by the House of Representatives, into which the election had been thrown by the failure of any of the four candidates to win a majority in the electoral college. In a four-way race of Adams, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, and William Crawford, Jackson had received more electoral votes than Adams, but no majority. Clay assisted the Adams cause in the House.

1870 - USA: The U.S Weather Bureau was established by Congress. Originally part of the Signal Corps, it became part of the Department of Agriculture on July 1, 1891.

1884 - USA: A tornado swept across the southern states killing 700 people.

1898 - USA: The "de Lome letter", written by the Spanish minister to the U.S. Enrique de Lome, was published in William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal. This private letter was stolen by Cuban revolutionists from the mails in Havana. It characterized President William McKinley as weak and questioned his political integrity. De Lome immediately resigned.

1900 - USA: Dwight F. Davis creates the Davis Cup Tennis Tournament.

1916 - Africa: General Jan Smuts is appointed to command UK and South African troops in East Africa.

1921 - India: The Duke of Connaught opens the new Indian Central Legislature in Delhi.

1922 - USA: Mexican rebels destroy railway lines and bridges in an attack on El Paso, Texas.

1926 - London: Serious flooding occurs in the London suburbs after 18 days of continuous rain.

1934 - Balkans: A Balkan Pact is signed by Rumania, Greece, Yugoslavia, and Turkey.

1939 - London: The Home Office announces families earning less than £250 a year will receive free air-raid shelters.

1941 - Libya: British troops occupy El Agheila.

1942 - USA: War time became effective throughout the nation. Clocks were set ahead one hour, as in daylight savings time, and were kept one hour ahead of standard time throughout the year.

1943 - USA: A minimum 48-hour working week in war plants was ordered by President Roosevelt.

1944 - France: 12 Lancaster bombers of 617 (Dambusters) Squadron, led by Wing-Commander Leonard Cheshire devastate the important Gnome and Rhone aero-engine factory at Limoges with 12,000-lb bombs.

1945 - Japan: Iwo Jima was invaded by U.S Marines, who established beachheads two hours after landing.

1951 - USA: Swedish actress Greta Garbo becomes a U.S. Citizen.

1953 - UK: Over 280 people were reported to have died, and 50 were still missing after high winds and flooding battered the East Coast.

1955 - China: Compulsory military service is introduced.

1956 - Oxford: W.H. Auden is elected Professor of Poetry.

1957 - USA: The U.S Communist Party held a convention in New York City during which its members adopted a new party constitution. One of the rules specified that party members could be expelled for subversion of the U.S. government. FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover stated that the new rules were merely an attempt by the party to gain acceptance by U.S. citizens.

1964 - USA: The Beatles made their U.S. live debut on CBS-TV's The Ed Sullivan Show. They performed five songs, including "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" and an estimated audience of 73 million people tuned in to watch.

1966 - London: The government announces plans for a prototype fast-breeder reactor at Dounreay in Scotland.

1967 - UK: The Film for "Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever" was shown on BBC TV's "Top Of The Pops". It was the first Beatle's single not to make No.1 since 1963. It was kept from the top spot by Engelbert Humperdink's "Release Me."

1971 - An Earthquake in Southern California caused more than $500,000,000 in damage and killed 65 people, including 47 at a Veterans Administration hospital in Sylmar, near San Francisco.

1972 - UK: Paul McCartney's Wings played the first night of a UK college tour in Nottingham. The group arrived unannounced, asking social secretaries if they would like them to perform that evening.

1979 - USA: The Peabody Museum of Harvard University facing financial difficulties, announced it would sell 106 oil paintings of North American Indians by the artist Henry Inman, but would retain the David I. Bushnell collections of Indian artifacts. Objections to the sale had been raised by scholars who feared the paintings would be sold to private collectors and become unavailable for study.

1981 - London: Shirley Williams resigns from Labour's national executive committee.

1982 - USA: George Harrison presented UNICEF with a cheque for $9 million, ten years after the fundraising concert for Bangladesh.

1985 - USA: Madonna began a three-week run at No.1 on the U.S. album chart with "Like A Virgin."

1988 - USA: New York City's largest single art theft occurred when 18 paintings and 10 drawings valued at $6,000,000 were taken from the Colnaghi Ltd gallery on the Upper East Side. The most valuable items taken were two paintings by Fra Angelico.

1995 - Space: Michael Foale a member of the crew of the Discovery space shuttle, becomes the first Briton to walk in space.

2008 - London: Residents are forced to evacuate after a fire at Camden Market.

2010 - USA: Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson's doctor pleads not guilty in the death of the star.

2013 - Syria: Clashes between government forces continue around Damascus and Homs, with heavy bombardment by the Syrian air force.

February 10th

1676 - USA: Lancaster, Massachusetts was attacked by Indians led by King Philip. The settlement was destroyed by fire after all the men were killed and the women and children were taken prisoner.

1855 - USA: U.S. citizenship laws were amended to provide that all children born abroad of U.S parents be granted U.S. citizenship.

1890 - USA: Some 110,000.000 acres of Sioux Indian territory, ceded to the U.S. in 1889, were opened to general settlement.

1899 - USA: The peace treaty with Spain was signed by President William McKinley. It had been ratified by Congress on January 9. By its terms the U.S. acquired Puerto Rico and Guam, and Spain relinquished its claim to Cuba. The U.S. paid Spain $20,000,000 for specific Spanish holdings in the Philippines, but many interpreted the payment as purchase of the Philippines from Spain.

1904 - Africa: British Consul Roger Casement publishes an account of the Belgium atrocities against Congo natives.

1908 - London: Transatlantic passenger fares almost double as the main carriers agree to end a price-cutting war.

1915 - Eastern Front: German troops surround Russian forces near River Nieman, taking 100,000 prisoners.

1917 - London: Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann meets with government representatives to discuss a possible Jewish colony in Palestine.

1923 - Berlin: The Reichsbank, Germany's central bank, begins large sales of gold in an effort to bolster the German mark.

1928 - London: "The Chained Swan" pub, the first building built after the Great Fire of London, is demolished.

1930 - USA: A major bootlegging operation was shut down in Chicago with the arrest of 158 people from 31 organizations. it was estimated that these organizations sold more than 7,000,000 gallons of whiskey to speakeasies all over the country.

1933 - Berlin: Adolf Hitler declares war on parliamentary democracy at a Nazi rally in the German capital.

1938 - Rumania: King Carol ousts anti-Semitic premier Octavian Goga and becomes dictator.

1939 - China: The Japanese occupy Hainan Island off the Chinese coast.

1941 - Italy: In Britain's first parachute operation of the war, paratroopers destroy the Tragino aqueduct in Apulia.

1942 - New York: The impounded French liner "Normandie" capsizes after catching fire; Axis sabotage is suspected.

1944 - Burma: Japanese troops take the Ngakyeduak Pass, cutting off the 7th Indian Division at Sinzweya.

1945 - Germany: The U.S. advance is held up after the Germans open up the Schwammenaul Dam, making it impossible to bridge the Roer River.

1950 - London: Alleged spy Dr Klaus Fuchs claims he quit being a Soviet agent the previous year.

1951 - Korea: UN troops fight back at Communist positions in Wonju.

1954 - Berlin: The Western Allies reject a Soviet plan for a Pan-European security pact to replace Nato.

1955 - London: MP's vote by a majority of 31 to keep the death penalty.

1959 - USA: A tornado struck St Louis Missouri, killing 22 people, injuring 350, leaving 5,000 homeless, and causing an estimated $12,000,000 in damage.

1962 - Berlin: U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers was released in Berlin by Soviet authorities in exchange for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel. Frederic L. Pryor, an American student was also released by the Soviets.

1966 - UK: Watneys put a penny on a pint of ale, which cost 1/8d.

1968 - UK: The Four Tops were at No.1 on the UK album chart with their "Greatest Hits" album.

1970 - Munich: One person is killed and 11 are injured in an Arab attack on a London-bound Israeli El Al Airliner.

1972 - UK: David Bowie appeared at the Tolworth Toby Jug in London, on the opening date of his Ziggy Stardust tour.

1976 - USA: Elvis Presley was made a police reserve for the Memphis police.

1979 - USA: Rod Stewart began a four-week run at No.1 on the U.S singles chart with "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?"

1981 - UK: The Coal Board announces plans to close 50 pits employing 30,000 miners.

1984 - UK: After many years of refusing a peerage, Harold Macmillan accepts a hereditary earldom on his 90th birthday.

1987 - Washington: Ex-security adviser Robert Mcfarlane, implicated in the Irangate scandal, attempts suicide.

1990 - USA: Paula Abdul began a three-week run at No.1 on the U.S. singles charts with "Opposites Atrract."

1998 - USA: Axl Rose was charged with disorderly conduct following a row with a baggage handler at Arizona Airport. He was released on bail.

1999 - Geneva: The UN allows a one-off sale of African ivory to carvers in Japan to see if it causes an upsurge in illegal poaching.

2005 - USA: Prince topped "Rolling Stone" magazines annual list of the years biggest money earners after his 2004 tour grossed over $90 million.

2008 - Ghana: Egypt win the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations beating Cameroon 1-0.

2011 - UK: The House Of Commons votes 234-22 against prisoners receiving the right to vote.

2012 - Egypt: Protesters march on the Defence Ministry in Cairo, demanding the return of a civilian government.

2013 - London: "Argo" wins the best picture award and "Daniel Day Lewis" the best actor award for his role in "Lincoln" at the 66th British Academy Film Awards.

February 11th

1808- USA: Anthracite coal was burned for the first time in an open-grate experiment conducted by Judge Jesse Fell in his home at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Anthracite was too hot a fuel for most domestic stoves of the period and was considered generally useless except for small manufacturing and forging operations.

1811 - USA: USA: Trade with Britain was prohibited by President James Madison, the third time in four years that such action was taken. Madison hoped to effect repeal of the Orders in Council by which Britain placed restrictions on neutral commerce.

1916 - Berlin: Kaiser Wilhelm II orders the intensification of submarine warfare.

1919 - UK: The government offers miners a pay rise, and sets up a Commission to look into the coal industry.

1922 - Northern Ireland: The IRA murder four policemen at Clones, County Monaghan.

1928 - Switzerland: The second Winter Olympics opens in St. Moritz.

1936 - London: Artist Dame Laura Knight becomes the first woman to be appointed to the Royal Academy.

1940 - Finland: The Red Army breaches the Mannerheim Line at Summa.

1941 - Netherlands: The Sterling Bomber made its operational debut in a raid on oil storage tanks at Rotterdam.

1943 - Germany: RAF bombers begin heavy night raids on Wilhelmshaven naval base.

1945 - Germany: Russian forces cut a 100-mile gap in German defences on the Oder.

1954 - "The Confidential Clerk" by T.S. Elliot, a verse play starring Claude Raines, Joan Greenwood, and Ina Claire, opened at the Morosco Theatre in New York City.

1957 - London: Anthony Eden resigns from parliament due to renewed anxiety over his health.

1969 - UK: 1,600 women workers at Ford win equal pay with their male colleagues.

1971 - USA: A treaty banning nuclear weapons from the seabed beyond the standard 12-mile coastal limit was signed by the U.S. and 62 other nations at ceremonies in Washington, London, and Moscow. It was to become effective after ratification by 22 nations.

1973 - New Zealand: A local charity raised over £500 selling bed-sheets and pillowcases used by the Rolling Stones after a show in Auckland.

1985 - West Germany: 17 RAF bandsmen are among 19 people killed when their bus collides with a petrol tanker in Munich.

1987 - London: An Old Bailey jury clears Cynthia Payne of running a brothel.

1988 - USA: A federal jury convicted Lyn Nofziger, former White House political director, on three counts of illegal lobbying under the 1978 Ethics in Government Act.

1990 - Tokyo: The world heavyweight boxing championship was won by James "Buster" Douglas when he knocked out the titleholder Mike Tyson in the tenth round.

1997 - USA: The Space Shuttle "Discovery" is launched on a mission to service the Hubble Space Telecope.

2008 - Switzerland: Paintings by Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Monet are stolen from the foundation E.G Buhrle, a museum in Zurich.

2011 - Iran: Iran marks the 32nd anniversary of its revolution.

2013 - Russia: 18 miners are killed in an explosion at the Vorkutinskaya coal mine in Russia's Kohi region.

February 12th

1735 - The third theatre in the colonies, the Dock Street Theatre in Charleston, South Carolina, opened with a performance of "The Recruiting Officer" by George Farquhar.

1809 - USA: Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, was born in Hodgenville, Kentucky.

1825 - USA: The Creek Indian Treaty was signed. Tribal leaders agreed to turn over all their lands in Georgia to the government and promised to migrate west by Sept. 1, 1826. The treaty was rejected by the vast majority of most Creeks.

1839 - USA: The Aroostock War began with the seizure of Rufus McIntire, a U.S. land agent sent to the Aroostock region between New Brunswick, Canada, and Maine, to expel Canadian lumberjacks who had entered the disputed area. The Boundary question had been an Anglo-American issue since 1783 and had never been satisfactorily settled. After McIntire's arrest, Maine and New Brunswick called out their militias, and the Nova Scotia legislature appropriated war funds. Congress authorized a conscription of 50,000 men and voted $10,000,000 toward the prosecution of this action. Calmer voices prevailed: General Winfield Scott arranged a truce, and both parties agreed to refer their dispute to a boundary commission. The issue was settled in 1842 by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty.

1866 - USA: The first formal observance of Abraham Lincoln's birthday was held in the Capitol with most of the high government officials, including President Andrew Johnson in attendance.

1873 - USA: A routine coinage act of Congress omitted all silver currency because silver was so scarce it brought more as bullion than as dollars. Three years later, when Nevada mines were producing unprecedented quantities of silver, mine owners demanded that the government buy their product for coinage. At that time the coinage act became known as the Crime of 73.

1906 - London: Keir Hardie is elected leader of new Labour MP's in the House of Commons.

1921- London: Winston Churchill is appointed Colonial Secretary.

1924 - USA: "Rhapsody in Blue" by George Gershwin was first performed with Gershwin himself at the piano, at Aeolian Hall in New York City.

1928 - UK: 11 people are killed as gales sweep across Britain.

1934 - France: Rioting accompanies a one-day general strike called by left wing parties and the trade unions.

1937 - UK: The price of petrol is raised by a halfpenny to 1/7d.

1940 - Egypt: The first echelon (4th Brigade) of the New Zealand Division arrives in the country.

1941 - Libya: Irwin Rommel arrives in Tripoli to head the German Afrika Corps.

1942 - Malta: The destroyer HMS Maori is sunk while moored in the Grand Harbour.

1943 - Dachau: Dr Sigismund Rascher reported that his experiments on prisoners have proved that sexual intercourse can speed the return of warmth to men who have been chilled in ice-cold water.

1944 - Monte Cassino: Fierce opposition stops the U.S. 34th Division less than 300 yards short of the town of Cassino.

1945 - Berlin: German women between 16 and 60 are called up as auxiliaries to the "Volkssturm" (People's front).

1948 - London: The War Office announce that 8 of the 19 Gurkha battalions in India will join the British Army.

1953 - UK: Magistrates vote to restore corporal punishment.

1954 - London: The government publishes a bill setting up an Atomic Energy Authority.

1965 - UK: Pye Records announced they had signed "the British Bob Dylan" after signing Donovan to their label.

1967 - Switzerland: Dougal Haston and Mike Burke are the First Britons to climb the Matterhorn's north face in winter.

1969 - UK: "If Paradise Was Half As Nice" by Amen Corner was No.1 on the UK singles charts.

1970 - UK: John Lennon performed "Instant Karma" on "Top of the Pops" becoming the first Beatle to appear on the show since 1966.

1974 - UK: 10 people are injured by an IRA bomb in Buckinghamshire.

1976 - USA: Production of "Red Dye No.2, most frequently used in drugs, foods and cosmetics, was banned by the Food and Drug Administration after studies indicated that the dye was carcinogenic.

1979 - UK: Over 1,000 schools close owing to a heating shortage, caused by a strike by lorry drivers.

1981 - London: Rupert Murdoch reaches agreement with the unions on his takeover of "The Times" and "Sunday Times."

1986 - UK: Margaret Thatcher and Francois Mitterrand sign a treaty to build a Channel Tunnel.

1991 - London: Fine powdery snow is blamed for the failure of British Rail's new trains.

1993 - UK: Retail price inflation falls to 1.7%, its lowest level in 25 years.

1999 - UK: Twenty international scientists announce their support for Dr Arpad Pusztai, who was suspended for suggesting that genetically modified food may harm human immune systems.

2003 - UK: A train was named after Clash frontman Joe Strummer at a ceremony in Bristol. The diesel train, owned by Cotswold Rail, was named after the singer who had died aged 50 in 2002.

2008 - Sweden: Chilean opera singer Ernesto "Tito" Beltran was sentenced to two years in jail by a Swedish court for rape during a concert tour in 1999.

2010 - Canada: The XXI Winter Olympic Games began in Vancouver.

2012 - USA: Adele won Grammy Awards for Song of the Year (Rolling in the Deep) and Album of the Year for "21" in Los Angeles.

2013 - North Korea: North Korea confirms it has successfully tested a nuclear device, claiming that it was small enough to be weaponized.

February 13th

1826 - USA: The first national temperance organization, The American Temperance Society, was founded. "The National Philanthropist", the first journal devoted entirely to temperance, was also founded by the Reverend William Collier, a Baptist missionary.

1861 - USA: The action that led to the awarding of the first U.S. Medal of Honour took place at Apache Pass, Arizona, where Colonel Bernard John Dowling Irwin led his troops to victory over hostile Chiricahua Apache Indians. Irwin did not receive his medal until January 24, 1894.

1894 - USA: A cave-in at the Gaylord mine in Plymouth PA, killed 13 miners.

1904 - Balkans: Turkish Troops clash with 16,000 Albanian insurgents at Djakova.

1910 - China: Around 6,000 foreign-led troops mutiny and loot Canton, killing around 100 people.

1914 - USA: ASCAP, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, was organized at a meeting of more than 100 composers and their associates at the Hotel Claridge in New York City. Victor Herbert, was made director and vice president.

1922 - India: The Indian National Congress suspends its civil disobedience campaign in the face of mounting violence.

1923 - USA - President Warren G. Harding calls a conference of state governors to discuss the enforcement of prohibition.

1929 - USA: In one of his last acts as President, Calvin Coolidge signs a bill to build 15 cruisers and an aircraft carrier.

1936 - London: MP's give a second reading to the Education Bill, which would raise the school-leaving age to 15.

1941 - Eritrea: Aircraft from the carrier HMS Formidable attack Massawa.

1942 - Berlin: Adolf Hitler cancels the much-postponed "Operation Sealion", the planned invasion of Britain.

1943 - USSR: Soviet troops retake control of the Rostov-on-Don to Veronezh railway line, with the recapture of Novocherkassk.

1944 - France: Allied Planes drop weapon supplies for the Resistance in Haute-Savoie.

1948 - London: The ATS and WAAF become the Women's Royal Army Corps and the Women's Royal Air Force.

1949 - Ecuador: A mob burn a radio station in Quito after a dramatization of "The War of the Worlds" causes panic.

1952 - USA: "Venus Observed" by Christopher Fry, staged by Sir Lawrence Olivier and starring Rex Harrison and Lilli Palmer, opened at the Century Theatre in New York City.

1957 - London: The government announces it will boost Britain's output of nuclear weapons.

1960 - Africa: Despite UN and U.S. opposition, France explodes an Atomic bomb in the Sahara Desert.

1961 - USA: Frank Sinatra launched his own record label "Reprise Records", which would become the home of Neil Young, Joni, Mitchell, The Beach Boys, and Jimi Hendrix.

1967 - USA: The National Student Association admitted it had secretly
received more than $3,000,000 from the CIA between 1952 and 1966 for its use in overseas programs.

1973 - UK: Gas workers begin a nationwide strike over pay.

1978 - London: Edward Heath slams Margaret Thatcher's remarks on immigration for causing an "unnecessary national row."

1980 - UK: It was announced that Sixpence pieces would cease to be legal tender after June 30.

1982 - UK: The Jam became the first band since The Beatles to play two numbers on the same edition of "Top of the Pops" when they performed "Town Called Malice" and "Precious", their double A-sided No.1.

1989 - USA: Michael Jackson fired his manager, Dileo, who reportedly sought a $60 million settlement to prevent him revealing Jackson's lifestyle to the press.

1995 - Dresden: The Duke of Kent attends ceremonies marking the 50th anniversary of the Allied bombing of the city.

1998 - Australia: Delegates at a conference on constitutional change, vote in favour of Australia becoming a republic.

2007 - USA: A Tornado strikes New Orleans, Louisiana leaving one person killed and three more injured.

2010 - New Zealand: Cyclone Rene approaches Manu'a at full force with winds of 150 kilometres an hour.

2011 - Egypt: Minister of State for Antiquities Zahi Hawass states several pieces have been stolen from the Egyptian Museum during the revolution.

2013 - Nepal: A Tibetan monk sets himself on fire near Boudhanath in Nepal in protest of the Chinese occupation of Tibet.

February 14th

1778 - USA: The first salute to the "Stars and Stripes" was fired by the French ship Admiral La-Motte Picquet in answer to a 13-gun salute by the Ranger commanded by John Paul Jones. The French volley was in effect, acknowledgement of American Independence.

1842 - USA: The "Boz Ball", at the Park Theatre in New York City, was one of the highlights of the U.S. tour of Charles Dickens. Named for his early pseudonym "Boz" it was a select affair, with the pedigree of every guest rigorously checked by a committee beforehand. The affair was a sellout. Between dances the record crowd was entertained and edified with representations of scenes from the works of Dickens.

1902 - Liverpool: Lord Rosebery delivered a speech in which he stated that he would never grant independence to Ireland.

1911 - France: 13 people are killed in a railway accident near Chartres.

1912 - USA: Arizona was admitted to the Union, becoming the 47th state.

1914 - London: A memorial service in memory of Captain Robert Falcon Scott is held at St. Paul's Cathedral.

1918 - Warsaw: Demonstrations occurred against the transfer of Polish territories to the Ukraine.

1922 - Geneva: German and Polish representatives meet to discuss the disputed border of Upper Silesia.

1925 - Germany: A state of emergency and a ban on the Nazi Party is lifted in Bavaria.

1929 - USA: Seven men were lined up, their backs to the wall in a Chicago side street, and mown down by sub-machine guns, which became known as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. The killers were gangsters, members of the Al Capone led mob which was defending its monopoly of bootlegged liquor, extortion and prostitution in the city. Some of them wore police uniforms to create the impression of a normal raid. The dead men were said by police to be remnants of a mob led by George "Bugsy" Malone. Police commissioner William F. Russell was livid at the impersonation of the police officers and described the shooting as "A war to finish. I've never known a challenge like this."

1938 - Germany: Adolf Hitler tells Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg to free all Nazis and appoint a pro-Nazi minister.

1939 - Germany: The 35,000-ton battleship "Bismarck" is launched.

1940 - UK: British citizens are given permission to join the Finnish Foreign Legion.

1941 - Libya: The first units of the German Afrika Korps arrive.

1942 - Singapore: Japanese troops bayonet 150 patients and staff to death at the Alexandra Military Hospital in Singapore City.

1943 - USSR: Rostov and Voroshilovgrad fall to advancing Soviet troops.

1944 - Malacca Straits: A German-crewed ex-Italian submarine It-23 is sunk by the submarine HMS Tally Ho.

1946 - Paris: The International Olympic Committee announces that the 1948 games will be held in London.

1950 - South Africa: Three townships around Johannesburg are the scene of racial violence between blacks and the police.

1955 - London: The National and Tate Gallery Act came into force, making the Tate an independent institution.

1959 - USA: A two-day narcotics sweep in New York City smashed a major heroin ring. Recovering an estimated 28.5 lbs. of heroin valued at $3,600,000 and $50,000 in cash, agents arrested 27 importers and distributors.

1962 - USA: Plans for an underwater telephone cable costing $84,000,000 and running between Hawaii and Japan, via Midway, Wake, and the Guam Islands, was announced by the American Telephone & Telegraph Company.

1967 - USA: A retrospective show of more than 200 works by Andrew Wyeth opened at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. There, and at museums in other cities, the exhibit attracted record crowds. A few critics found Wyeth's style too objective, but most praised the evocative studies created by the most popular living U.S. painter.

1969 - USA: The Longest dock strike to date, a 57-day strike of Port of New York dock workers, which had begun on December 20, 1968, was ended with agreement on a new three-year contract. But 43,000 other members of the International Longshoremen's Association continued to strike, closing ports along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts until April 2nd.

1972 - USA: The first nuclear powered heart pump kept a calf's heart beating for five hours at Boston City Hospital.

1973 - USA: David Bowie collapsed on stage during a concert at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

1978 - London: Dire Straits began recording their first album at Basing Street Studios in London. The whole project cost £12,500 to produce.

1979 - Afghanistan: The U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan was kidnapped in Kabul and then killed when Afghan government forces attempted to free him.

1980 - USA: The 1500-lb Solar Maximum Observatory, designed to study solar flares was successfully launched into orbit.

1982 - UK: The Animal Liberation Front raids laboratories and releases Beagles used for experiments.

1983 -USA: In the fourth largest bank failure in the U.S. in 50 years, the United American Bank of Knoxville, Tennessee, was declared insolvent and closed its doors. The bank had deposits of $760,000,000.

1984 - Australia: Elton John married Rene Blauer in Sydney.

1993 - Baltic Sea: A Polish ferry capsizes, killing 48 people.

1994 - USA: The three largest producers of silicone breast implants agree to pay $4.75 billion to women harmed by implant surgery.

1997 - Outer Space: American astronauts carried out improvements to the Hubble space telescope.

1998 - USA: Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" set a new record for the most radio plays in a week in the U.S. with 116 million plays.

2003 - Australia: Stolen reel-to-reel studio recordings by The Beatles were found in Australia. Police recovered the tapes of the band's "White" and "Abbey Road" albums after they were advertised for sale in a Sydney newspaper. Australian police had been tipped off by British detectives from "Operation Acetone", an investigation into theft of original Beatles music from Abbey Road studios in London in the 1960's.

2007 - USA: The U.S. redeploys the 173rd Airborne Brigade to Afghanistan to prepare for a spring offensive against the Taliban.

2009 - Japan: Japan's National Astronomical Observatory completes its first topographic map of the Moon.

2011 - Mexico: Monarch Butterfly colonies in the country more than double in size, after bad storms reduced their numbers a year ago.

2013 - Pretoria: South African amputee sprint runner Oscar Pistorius is charged with the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp who was shot dead at his home in Pretoria.

February 15th

1812 - USA: William Hunt arrived in Astoria, Oregon. He had started from St. Louis to establish a route and a fur trading post on the Columbia river for John Jacob Astor. Hunt crossed much unexplored territory, and the last part of his route was almost identical with the later Oregon Trail.

1851 - USA: Shadrach, a fugitive slave was rescued from forcible return to his master by a mob in Boston. Attempts to put the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 into effect caused much bitterness in the North and increased abolitionist sentiment. Many states passed personal liberty laws, in large part designed to circumvent the federal fugitive slave law. These state laws aroused much controversy and contributed greatly to the split between North and South that led to the Civil War.

1879 - USA: Women attorneys won the right to argue cases before the U.S. Supreme Court by an act of Congress.

1898 - Cuba: The U.S. battleship "Maine" exploded in Havana harbour; two officers and 258 crew members were killed. U.S. sympathies were already strongly with Cuba in its revolt against Spanish tyranny, and the "Maine" disaster made U.S. intervention inevitable. The cause of the explosion and the people responsible for it were never determined.

1901 - London: King Edward VII resigns as the Grand Master of Freemasons.

1907 - London: Music Halls re-open after a pay dispute is settled.

1914 - Russia: Czar Nicholas II begins a campaign against the excessive consumption of alcohol.

1916 - London: A Royal Proclamation bans the imports of paper and tobacco.

1922 - The Hague: The Permanent International Court of Justice opens.

1925 - London: Regent's Park Zoo announces it will install lights in an effort to keep their animals happy during London fogs.

1928 - UK: The Oxford English Dictionary is complete after 70 years work, and costing £300,000.

1939 - London: The government announced plans to spend £580 million on defence in 1939.

1940 - Finland: Summa falls to the Soviet Army, and the Finns are forced to retreat to the second line of Mannerheim Line defences.

1941 - Austria: The deportation of Jews to ghettos in Lublin and Kielce in Poland, begins at the rate of 1,000 a month.

1942 - Sumatra: Allied forces head towards the west coast as Japanese troops capture the oil refinery at Palembang.

1944 - London: The Polish government in exile rejects the Soviet proposal that the Curzon Line should be Poland's post-war eastern frontier.

1954 - UK: The 800th episode of BBC radio's "The Archers" is broadcast; it now had a record audience of 10 million.

1955 - London: The government unveils plans for 12 nuclear power stations in the next decade, costing £300 million.

1956 - USA: To enforce school desegregation in New Orleans, a federal court banned all Louisiana laws opposing the Supreme Court ruling against segregation in public schools.

1963 - Paris: Police foil an assassination attempt on Charles de Gaulle.

1964 - USA: The Beatles achieved their first U.S. No.1 album with "Meet The Beatles". It was No.1 for 11 weeks.

1968 - Atlantic: The Royal Navy's first Polaris missile is successfully tested.

1969 - USA: Sly & The Family Stone began a four week run at No.1 on the U.S. singles charts with "Everyday People."

1971 - London: Enoch Powell predicts an "explosion" unless there is a massive repatriation scheme for immigrants.

1973 - USA: A five-year accord on hijacking was signed by the U.S. and Cuba, who agreed on measures intended to discourage the pirating of airplanes and ships.

1978 - USA: The world heavyweight boxing championship was won by Leon Spinks in a 15-round decision over Muhammad Ali in Las Vegas.

1981 - Zimbabwe: Over 300 people are killed in a week of clashes between ZANLA and ZIPRA guerrillas.

1983 - Beirut: The Lebanese army take control of East Beirut from the Christian militia.

1988 - Canada: Pirmin Zurbriggen of Switzerland wins the Olympic men's downhill skiing championship.

1990 -Madrid: Argentina and Britain establish full diplomatic relations, severed since 1982 during the Falklands War.

1991 - London: An opinion poll shows John Major to be the most popular premier for years.

2002 - UK: "Kerrang!" magazine overtook the "New Musical Express" for the first time to become the bestselling UK weekly music publication.

2007 - Europe: The European Union announces plans to set up a single hotline for parents to report missing children.

2009 - Columbia: The "Galeras" volcano erupts.

2011 - USA: Motley Crew singer Vince Neil begins a 15-day jail sentence for drink driving in Las Vegas.

2013 - North Korea: North Korea tells China it is prepared to stage one or even two more nuclear tests in an effort to force the U.S. into diplomatic talks.

February 16th

1804- Tripoli: Lt. Stephen Decatur, commanding the Intrepid, burned the captured U.S. Frigate Philadelphia while it was docked in Tripoli harbour. The American ship had been captured by Tripolitan gunboats the previous October when it ran onto a reef.

1862 - USA: General Ulysses Grant captured Fort Donelson in Tennessee.

1921 - Ireland: Eight Sinn Fein supporters are shot dead in a gun battle with the army.

1923 - USA: Jazz singer Bessie Smith makes her first recording "Down-hearted Blues."

1924 - UK: A dock strike paralyses every port in the country.

1933 - Berlin: The writer Heinrich Mann quits the Prussian Academy of Arts in protest against the Nazis.

1937 - London: Britain, Italy, Germany, the USSR, and 23 other powers agree to halt military aid to Spain.

1938 - USA: The second Agricultural Adjustment Act was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It maintained the soil conservation program; provided acreage allotments, parity payments, marketing quotas, and commodity loans to farmers; and authorized crop insurance corporations and the "ever-normal granary" proposals of Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace.

1941 - Singapore: Britain mines the waters round the colony.

1942 - Venezuela: German U-Boats shell oil refineries on Aruba and Curacao, sinking seven tankers.

1943 - UK: Anti-Fascist Italian POW's open "Radio Risorgi" [Resurge], broadcasting for resistence to Mussolini.

1944 - Anzio: German forces launch "Operation Fischfang" a major counter-attack to push the Allies back to the sea.

1945 - Japan: U.S. ships attack Tokyo and Yokohama.

1951 - UK: A standard bottle of whisky goes up 1/8d to £1 15/-

1953 - UK: The navy's latest aircraft carrier, HMS Hermes is launched at Barrow.

1956 - London: MP's vote in favour of abolishing the Death Penalty.

1962 - UK: 11 people are feared dead after fierce gales sweep the country.

1965 - USA: A plot to dynamite the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell, and the Washington Monument was foiled. Four people were arrested, including the self-styled leader of the Black Liberation Front and a woman member of a Quebec separatist party.

1965 - USA: "Pegasus 1" a micrometeoroid detection station with 96-foot wings as sensors, was put into orbit.

1967 - UK: Petula Clark was No.1 on the UK singles chart with "This is my Song"

1970 - USA: The world heavyweight boxing championship was won by Joe Frazier, who knocked out Jimmy Ellis after five rounds in New York City.

1974 - USA: Bob Dylan began a four-week run at No.1 on the U.S album chart with "Planet Waves".

1983 - Australia: 68 people are killed in in the country's worst bush fires. Arson was suspected.

1985 - UK: Bruce Springsteen went to No.1 on the UK album chart with "Born To Run."

1989 - Sri Lanka: The ruling United National Party win elections after a campaign that cost around 700 lives.

1990 - UK: A poll showed that 73% of voters were against the poll tax.

1991 - UK: Queen secured their seventh UK No.1 album with "Innuendo"

1992 - Berne: The Swiss vote against banning animals for medical and pharmaceutical experiments.

1998 - India: The four-day Indian general election began.

1999 - Europe: The birth rate in Europe was at its lowest for 50 years, dropping by one-third since 1965, according to a Eurostat survey. Britain had 101,000 births in 1998.

2006 - USA: The last Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) is decommissioned by the U.S. Army.

2009 - UK: BMW cuts 850 jobs at its Mini Factory in Cowley, Oxfordshire.

2011 - UK: Researchers from London's Natural History Museum claim that ancient skulls found in Gough's Cave in the Cheddar Gorge in Somerset, showed signs of cannibalism.

2013 - Philippines: A 6.2 magnitude earthquake occurred near the Southern Philippine Island of Mindanao.

February 17th

1797 - USA: The play "Bunker Hill" by John Daly Burk provided a dramatic spectacle in its last act, in which a realistic re-enactment of the assault was staged. The play was often revived in Fourth of July celebrations.

1865 - USA: Columbia, South Carolina, was set afire while being entered by federal troops under General William Tecumseh Sherman. Bales of cotton were put to the torch possibly by Confederates to prevent their falling into federal hands. Strong winds scattered the burning cotton across most of the city.

1905 - London: An outbreak of typhus is reported in the East end of the capital.

1909 - London: A Royal Commission report stated that conditions in London produce "a degenerate race, morally and physically enfeebled."

1913 - New York: The International Exhibition of Modern Art, known to this day as "The Armory Show" introduced "Modernists" to the U.S public. it included works by Picasso and Matisse.

1914 - Russia: The government announces an increase in the standing army from 460,000 to 1,700,000.

1922 - London: MP's approved the Irish Free State Bill, which set up a boundary commission for both parts of Ireland.

1926 - London: The government announces it's intention to give £2,000,000 towards the development of the Kent coalfields.

1931 - India: Mahatma Gandhi has his first meeting with the Viceroy, Lord Irving.

1934 - Belgium: King Albert dies in a climbing accident near Namur; his son succeeds him to the throne as Leopold III.

1940 - Finland: The USSR completes it's conquest of the Mannerheim Line, with Timoshenko's 54 Red Army divisions facing 15 depleted Finnish divisions.

1941 - UK: Jam and Marmalade are rationed to eight ounces per person per month.

1943 - Norway: A special commando group lands near Vermork, aiming to destroy a heavy water plant used by Germany's atomic research programme.

1944 - Marshall Islands: U.S forces overrun Eniwetok Atoll.

1945 - Japan: The U.S Navy continues its attacks on Tokyo and Yokohama, and launches its final wave of the bombardment of Iwo Jima, before landings commenced.

1950 - Budapest: British businessman Edgar Sanders and American Robert Vogeler go on trial for spying.

1954 - London: The government announces Meat rationing will end in July after 14 years.

1959 - USA: "Vanguard 2" a 21.5lb satellite designed to function as the first weather station in space achieved orbit after being launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida by the U.S. Navy.

1960 - USA: A study of the feasibility of using unmanned seismic stations for the detection of underground nuclear tests was ordered by the Defence Department.

1963 - West Berlin: Willy Brandt is overwhelmingly re-elected as mayor of the city.

1965 - USA: "Ranger 9" was launched. It transmitted 5,814 photos of the Moon's surface before crashing into the Alphonsus crater on March 24. It was the last moon probe of the Ranger series.

1969 - USA: Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash recorded together in Nashville at CBS Studios. The track "Girl From The North Country" appeared on Dylan's "Nashville Skyline" album.

1972 - London: The House of Commons pass a bill to bring Britain into the EEC.

1972 - London: Pink Floyd began a three night run at London's Rainbow Theatre.

1979 - UK: Blondie scored their first UK No.1 album when "Parallel Lines" began a four-week run at the top.

1980 - UK: The Greek cargo ship "Athina B" is refloated a month after being stranded on a Brighton beach during a storm.

1981 - UK: South Wales Miners begin an unofficial strike.

1985 - USA: A $12,000,000 libel suit against CBS was dropped by General William C. Westmoreland, former commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, after 18 weeks of court testimony. The case involved a 1982 CBS documentary that claimed Westmoreland had withheld important information on enemy troop strength.

1987 - London: Tamils seeking asylum, strip to their underwear in protest against plans to return them to Sri Lanka.

1988 - Lebanon: Another American hostage in Lebanon, U.S. Marine Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, was kidnapped in Sothern Lebanon, presumably by Palestinian terrorists. His abduction brought the number of Americans missing in Lebanon to nine.

1992 - USA: Martina Navratilova won her 158th tennis title, more than any other player, male or female. She won her first championship in Czechoslovakia in 1973.

1993 - Haiti: Up to 1,700 people were feared killed after a ferry capsized and sank.

1996 - USA: A platinum American Express card once belonging to Bruce Springsteen was sold for $4,500 at a New York memorabilia sale. The singer had given the expired card to a waiter in a Los Angeles restaurant by mistake, and let him keep it as a souvenir.

2000 - UK: John Lennon's Steinway piano, on which he composed "Imagine" went on display at the Beatles Story Museum in Liverpool. The piano was set to be auctioned on the Internet later in the year and was expected to fetch more than £1 million.

2003 - London: The London Congestion Charge Scheme began.

2005 - UK: The BNFL nuclear plant at Sellafield reported that 30kg of plutonium was "unaccounted for." This amount of missing plutonium would be sufficient to make seven atomic bombs. The UK Atomic Energy Authority stated the discrepancy was merely an auditing error, and that there was no "real loss" of plutonium.

2011 - London: A rare red & white 6ft x 6ft self portrait of Andy Warhol sells at Christie's for £10.79 million.

2013 - USA: U.S. country singer Mindy McCready commits suicide at the age of 37. She was found on her front porch at her home in Arkansas from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

February 18th

1861 - USA: Jefferson Davis was inaugurated president of the confederacy. The Confederate capital was established in Montgomery, Alabama, where Davis lived at 626 Washington Street, in a building known as the White House of the Confederacy. The capital was later moved to Richmond, Virginia.

1902 - London: A 37,000-signature petition is presented by women textile workers to Parliament, demanding votes for women.

1904 - Macedonia: Turks kill around 800 Albanians in the siege of Shemsi Pasha.

1910 - Germany: Around 300 people are injured in clashes between socialists and police over a new suffrage reform bill.

1921 - France: A French engineer managed to achieve true flight in a helicopter, claiming he had solved the problem of how to match power and weight in the machines. Etienne Oehmichen told the French Academy of Science that he managed flight using just a 25hp motor attached to a simple structure weighing a total of only 100 kilos. He estimated rotors only needed eight and a half horse power to lift 135 kilos. However, he had yet to discover the important trick of how to keep an helicopter stable.

1926 - Mexico: The discovery is announced of five cities built by the Maya civilisation in the Yucatan.

1927 - Shanghai: Around 65,000 workers go on strike in protest at the presence of foreign troops in the city.

1937 - Cairo: An Imperial Airways flying boat arrives from England after a non-stop flight of 13 hours, 30 minutes.

1940 - Scotland: The British destroyer HMS "Daring" is torpedoed off Duncansby Head, with the loss of 157 lives.

1941 - Singapore: 12,000 Australian troops arrive in Singapore to reinforce the British garrison in response to the growing menace of Japanese expansion to the south of the region.

1942 - Burma: Japanese forces cross the Bilin River, and Britain orders Rangoon to be evacuated.

1943 - London: After a tumultuous debate MP's voted 335-119 in favour of the Beveridge plan for post-war social security.

1944 - Anzio: The U-Boat U410 sinks the light cruiser HMS "Penelope."

1949 - Berlin: The millionth ton of airlifted supplies arrives in the Western sector of the city.

1954 - Washington: McCarthy's anti-Communist committee begins investigations of U.S. Army personnel.

1957 - London: BBC TV broadcasts the first of a new magazine series, "Tonight."

1962 - USA: On weekend leave from marine training, The Everly Brothers appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. In full uniform and with regulation cropped hair, they sang their new single "Crying In The Rain."

1965 - UK: The Kinks were No.1 on the UK singles charts with "Tired Of Waiting For You."

1966 - Australia: The Rolling Stones began an 11-date tour of Australia at the Commemorative Auditorium in Sydney, supported by The Searchers.

1970 -USA: The Chicago Seven were acquitted of conspiracy charges in connection with riots during the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago. Five were found guilty of crossing a state line with intent to incite a riot. On February 20 they were sentenced to five-year prison terms.

1971 - UK: 1.5 million workers stage a second one-day strike in protest at the Industrial Relations Bill.

1976 - London: The Race Relations Bill is published; it would make it an offence to incite racial hatred.

1978 - USA: Fleetwood Mac win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year with "Rumours."

1984 - UK: Simple Minds scored their first UK No.1 album with "Sparkle In The Rain."

1987 - USA: Bon Jovi were at No.1 on the U.S. singles charts with "Living On A Prayer."

1989 - UK: The Fine Young Cannibals were at No.1 on the UK album chart with "The Raw And The Cooked."

1991 - London: One man is killed and 43 are injured in an IRA bombing at Victoria Station.

1998 - UK: Noel Gallagher's Epiphone Supernova guitar raised £4,600 in aid of Children In Need at an auction at Bonhams.

2007 - Iraq: U.S. Marine Robert Pennington is sentenced to 8 years in military prison for his role in the murder of Hachim Ibrahim Awad in April 2006.

2009 - USA: A Columbian mammoth is discovered in the La Breu Tar Pits in Los Angeles, California.

2013 - Canada: A fishing vessel capsizes off Liverpool, Nova Scotia, leaving five fishermen missing.