| 1798 |
|
The first serious fist fight occurs in Congress. |
| 1804 |
|
New Jersey becomes the last northern state to abolish slavery. |
| 1862 |
|
Union General Ulysses S. Grant launches a major assault on Fort Donelson, Tenn. |
| 1869 |
|
Charges of treason against Jefferson Davis are dropped. |
| 1898 |
|
The U.S. battleship Maine blows up in Havana Harbor, killing 268 sailors and bringing hordes of Western cowboys and gunfighters rushing to enlist in the Spanish-American. |
| 1900 |
|
The British threaten to use natives in the Boer War fight. |
| 1925 |
|
The London Zoo announces it will install lights to cheer up fogged-in animals. |
| 1934 |
|
U.S. Congress passes the Civil Works Emergency Relief Act, allotting new funds for Federal Emergency Relief Administration. |
| 1940 |
|
Hitler orders that all British merchant ships will be considered warships. |
| 1942 |
|
British forces in Singapore surrender to Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita. |
| 1943 |
|
The Germans break the American Army’s lines at the Fanid-Sened Sector in Tunisia, North Africa. |
| 1944 |
|
American bombers attack the Abbey of Monte Cassino in an effort to neutralize it as a German observation post in central Italy. |
| 1946 |
|
Royal Canadian mounted police arrest 22 as Soviet spies. |
| 1950 |
|
Joseph Stalin and Mao Tse-tung sign a mutual defense treaty in Moscow. |
| 1957 |
|
Andrei Gromyko replaces Dmitri T. Shepilov as the Soviet Foreign Minister. |
| 1961 |
|
Eighteen members of the U.S. figure skating team are lost in an airplane crash in Belgium. |
| 1965 |
|
Canada’s maple leaf flag is raised for the first time. |
| 1967 |
|
Thirteen U.S. helicopters are shot down in one day in Vietnam |
| 1974 |
|
U.S. gas stations threaten to close because of federal fuel policies. |
|
Born on February 15 |
| 1564 |
|
Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer and mathematician. |
| 1710 |
|
Louis XV, King of France |
| 1726 |
|
Abraham Clark, signer of Declaration of Independence. |
| 1797 |
|
Henry Steinway, piano maker |
| 1820 |
|
Susan B. Anthony, suffragette and political activist. |
| 1882 |
|
John Barrymore, actor, sibling to actors Lionel Barrymore & Ethel Barrymore, father of actors John Drew Barrymore & Diana Barrymore and grandfather of actor Drew Barrymore. |
| 1905 |
|
Harold Arlen, composer, arranger and pianist ("Stormy Weather," "It’s Only a Paper Moon"). |
| 1954 |
|
Matt Groening, cartoonist (The Simpsons). |
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