February 15 - Events

Events

• 590 – Khosrau II is crowned king of Persia
• 1637 – Ferdinand III becomes Holy Roman Emperor.
• 1764 – The city of St. Louis, Missouri is established.
• 1804 – Serbian revolution started.
• 1805 – Harmony Society is officially formed.
• 1835 – The first constitutional law in modern Serbia was adopted.
• 1852 – Great Ormond St Hospital for Sick Children, London, admits its first patient.
• 1862 – American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant attacks Fort Donelson, Tennessee.
• 1879 – Women's rights: American President Rutherford B. Hayes signs a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.
• 1898 – Spanish-American War: The USS Maine explodes and sinks in Havana harbor in Cuba, killing more than 260. This event leads the United States to declare war on Spain.
• 1906 – The British Labour Party is organised.
• 1909 – The Flores Theater fire in Acapulco, Mexico kills 250.
• 1933 – In Miami, Florida, Giuseppe Zangara attempts to assassinate President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, but instead shoots Chicago, Illinois Mayor Anton J. Cermak, who dies of his wounds on March 6, 1933.
• 1942 – World War II: The Fall of Singapore. Following an assault by Japanese forces, the British General Arthur Percival surrenders. About 80,000 Indian, United Kingdom and Australian soldiers become prisoners of war, the largest surrender of British-led military personnel in history. The Sook Ching massacre begins.
• 1944 – World War II: The assault on Monte Cassino, Italy, begins.
• 1950 – The Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China sign a mutual defense treaty.
• 1952 – King George VI is buried in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.
• 1961 – Sabena Flight 548 crashes in Belgium, killing 73, including the entire United States figure skating team, several coaches and family.
• 1965 – A new red-and-white maple leaf design is adopted as the flag of Canada, replacing the old Canadian Red Ensign banner.
• 1970 – A Dominican DC-9 crashes into the sea during takeoff from Santo Domingo, killing 102.
• 1971 – The decimalisation of British coinage is completed on Decimal Day.
• 1972 – Sound recordings are granted U.S. federal copyright protection for the first time.
• 1976 – The 1976 Constitution of Cuba is adopted by the national referendum.
• 1979 – Don Dunstan resigns as Premier of South Australia, ending a decade of sweeping social liberalisation.
• 1982 – The drilling rig Ocean Ranger sinks during a storm off the coast of Newfoundland, killing 84 rig workers.
• 1989 – Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan: The Soviet Union officially announces that all of its troops have left Afghanistan.
• 1991 – The Visegrád Agreement, establishing cooperation to move toward free-market systems, is signed by the leaders ofCzechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland.
• 1996 – At the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China, a Long March 3 rocket, carrying an Intelsat 708, crashes into a rural village after liftoff, killing many people.
• 1999 – Abdullah Öcalan, leader of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party), is arrested in Kenya.
• 2000 – Indian Point II nuclear power plant in New York State vents a small amount of radioactive steam when a steam generator fails.
• 2001 – First draft of the complete Human Genome is published in Nature
• 2003 – Protests against the Iraq war occur in over 600 cities worldwide. It is estimated that between 8 million to 30 million people took part, making this the largest peace demonstration in the history of the world.
• 2005 – YouTube, the Internet site on which videos may be shared and viewed by others, is launched in the United States.