Born On This Day:

• Czar Peter III, 1728
• Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, 1794
• John Henry Cardinal Newman, 1801
• Sacha Guitry, 1885
• Andrés Segovia, 1893
• Anais Nin, 1903
• W. H. Auden, 1907
• Robert Mugabe, 1924
• Sam Peckinpah, 1925
• Givenchy, 1927
• Erma Bombeck, 1927
• Nina Simone, 1933
• Rue McClanahan, 1934
• Barbara Jordan, 1936
• Jilly Cooper, 1937
• Harald V, King of Norway, 1937
• David Geffen, 1943
• Alan Rickman, 1946
• Tyne Daly, 1947
• Mary Chapin Carpenter, 1958
• Charlotte Church, 1986

Died On This Day:

• Pope Julius II, 1513
• Baruch Spinoza, 1677
• Jethro Tull, 1741
• Nikolay Gogol, 1852
• Nathaniel Gordon hanged, 1862
• George Hale, 1938
• Malcolm X assassinated, 1965
• Ina Claire, 1985
• Dame Margot Fonteyn, 1991
• Morton Gould, 1996
• John Thaw, 2002
• Billy Graham, 2018

Today's Events:

• 1431 - Joan of Arc's trial begins on 12 charges of sorcery, wantonness and blasphemous pride.
• 1795 - Freedom of worship established in France under the constitution from the French Revolution.
• 1804 - First steam locomotive makes run in Wales over 9 miles with ten-ton load and 70 passengers.
• 1828 - Cherokee Elias Boudinot publishes first Indian newspaper in America - The Cherokee Phoenix. 1842-John James Greenough of Washington D.C. patents his version of the sewing machine.
• 1849 - Battle of Gujrat, decisive last battle in 2nd Sikh War leads to British annex of Punjab.
• 1858 - First burglar alarm installed in Boston, Mass. by Edwin Holmes.
• 1878 - First telephone directory in America issued in New Haven listing 50 names.
• 1916 - Germans attack on Western Front beginning Battle of Verdun. WW1
• 1918 - Extinction of Carolina parakeet; last green and yellow bird named Incas dies at Cincinnati Zoo.
• 1925 - New Yorker Magazine first published with the fictional Eustace Tilley on the cover.
• 1932 - William Goodwin of Weston Electrical in Newark gets patent for camera exposure meter.
• 1946 - Indian naval mutiny at Bombay
• 1947 - Edwin Land demonstrates first Polaroid camera in New York.
• 1972 - Richard Nixon becomes first U.S. President to visit country unrecognized by U.S. - China.
• 1973 - Israeli fighter jets mistakenly shoot down Libyan passenger airliner; all 106 aboard killed
• 1975 - John Ehrlichman and H.R. Haldeman sentenced to imprisonment for Watergate.
• 2011 - 6.3 earthquake hits Christchurch, New Zealand; 75 dead, 300 missing; worst natural disaster in 80 years strikes at 12:51 pm.

Non-Specific Holiday:

• TU BI-SHEBAT (Judaism) New Year for Trees, celebrated on 15th of lunar month Shebat.
• PRESIDENT'S DAY 3rd Monday in February observing births of Washington & Lincoln
• SHROVE TUESDAY (or Fat Tuesday). Day before Ash Wednesday. Also called Fasnacht (eve of the fast) in Germany and Austria, Carnival (farewell to meat) in Italy, Mardi Gras in Brazil and U.S., Street Urchins' Carnival in Denmark & Pancake Tuesday in Britain.
• ASH WEDNESDAY, moveable feast day celebrated 40 days (ex-Sundays) before Easter.
• PURIM or Feast of Lots (Jewish), celebrated on 14th or 15th of lunar month Adar.
• HOLI (Hindu festival of Spring and Vernal Fire)
• HOLA MOHALLA, Sikh Festival celebrated in India
• LENT, called Careme in France, Quaresima in Italy and the Great Fast in Eastern Orthodoxy. (between Feb and April)
• SUNDAY OF THE GREAT FIRES, first Sunday in Lent.
• CARLING SUNDAY, fifth Sunday in Lent celebrated in Britain
• MAHA SHIVARATRI, Hindu Festival of the Night of Shiva, celebrated mid-February
• TENG CHIEH, Feast of lanterns in China (Fifteenth day of the First Moon)
• CHINESE NEW YEAR celebrated all over the world in February
• SUPER BOWL SUNDAY - first Sunday in February from 2004