| 303 |
|
Emperor Diocletian orders the general persecution of Christians in Rome. |
| 1516 |
|
The Hapsburg Charles I succeeds Ferdinand in Spain. |
| 1540 |
|
Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado begins his unsuccessful search for the fabled Seven Cities of Gold in the American Southwest. |
| 1574 |
|
The 5th War of Religion breaks out in France. |
| 1615 |
|
The Estates-General in Paris is dissolved, having been in session since October 1614. |
| 1778 |
|
Baron von Steuben joins the Continental Army at Valley Forge. |
| 1821 |
|
Poet John Keats dies of tuberculosis at the age of 25. |
| 1836 |
|
The Alamo is besieged by Santa Anna. |
| 1846 |
|
The Liberty Bell tolls for the last time, to mark George Washington's birthday. |
| 1847 |
|
Forces led by Zachary Taylor defeat the Mexicans at the Battle of Buena Vista. |
| 1854 |
|
Great Britain officially recognizes the independence of the Orange Free State. |
| 1861 |
|
Texas becomes the seventh state to secede from the Union. |
| 1885 |
|
John Lee survives three attempts to hang him in Exeter Prison, as the trap fails to open. |
| 1898 |
|
Writer Emile Zola is imprisoned in France for his letter J'accuse in which he accuses the French government of anti-semitism and the wrongful imprisonment of army captain Alfred Dreyfus. |
| 1901 |
|
Britain and Germany agree on a boundary between German East Africa and Nyasaland. |
| 1904 |
|
Japan guarantees Korean sovereignty in exchange for military assistance. |
| 1916 |
|
Secretary of State Lansing hints that the U.S. may have to abandon the policy of avoiding "entangling foreign alliances". |
| 1921 |
|
An airmail plane sets a record of 33 hours and 20 minutes from San Francisco to New York. |
| 1926 |
|
President Calvin Coolidge opposes a large air force, believing it would be a menace to world peace. |
| 1936 |
|
In Russia, an unmanned balloon rises to a record height of 25 miles. |
| 1938 |
|
Twelve Chinese fighter planes drop bombs on Japan. |
| 1942 |
|
A Japanese submarine shells an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, California, the first Axis bombs to hit American soil. |
| 1944 |
|
American bombers strike the Marianas Islands bases, only 1,300 miles from Tokyo. |
| 1945 |
|
Eisenhower opens a large offensive in the Rhineland. |
| 1945 |
|
U.S. Marines plant an American flag atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima. |
| 1946 |
|
Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita is hanged in Manila, the Philippines, for war crimes. |
| 1947 |
|
Several hundred Nazi organizers are arrested in Frankfurt by U.S. and British forces. |
| 1950 |
|
New York's Metropolitan Museum exhibits a collection of Hapsburg art. The first showing of this collection in the U.S. |
| 1954 |
|
Mass innoculation begins as Salk's polio vaccine is given to children for first time. |
| 1955 |
|
Eight nations meet in Bangkok for the first SEATO council. |
| 1960 |
|
Whites join Negro students in a sit-in at a Winston-Salem, N.C. Woolworth store. |
| 1964 |
|
The U.S. and Britain recognize the new Zanzibar government. |
| 1967 |
|
American troops begin the largest offensive of the war, near the Cambodian border. |
| 1972 |
|
Black activist Angela Davis is released from jail where she was held for kidnapping , conspiracy and murder. |
| 1991 |
|
French forces unofficially start the Persian Gulf ground war by crossing the Saudi-Iraqi border. |
|
Born on February 23 |
| 1633 |
|
Samuel Pepys, English diarist. |
| 1685 |
|
George F. Handel, German composer. |
| 1743 |
|
Meyer Amschel Rothschild, banker and founder of the Rothschild dynasty in Europe. |
| 1868 |
|
W.E.B. [William Edward Burghardt] Du Bois, U.S. historian and civil rights leader, founder of what became the NAACP. |
| 1883 |
|
Victor Fleming, film director (The Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind) |
| 1899 |
|
Erich Kastner, German poet, novelist and children's author (Emil and the Detectives). |
| 1904 |
|
William Shirer, CBS broadcaster and author (The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich). |
| 1924 |
|
Allan MacLeod Cormack, physicist, developed the CAT scan. |
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