On this day in history

February 18

31 births · 16 deaths · 5 events

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Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

1960 Winter Olympics

66 years ago

Born this day

1931

Toni Morrison

Would be 95

Photo (modified): John Mathew Smith ( celebrity-photos.com ) · CC BY-SA 2.0

Oldest record

732nd

Kublai Khan

death anniversary

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Famous births31

1374 · 652 yrs

Jadwiga I of Poland

Jadwiga (Polish:; 1373/1374 – 17 July 1399), also known as Hedwig (from German, Hungarian: Hedvig), was Queen of the Kingdom of Poland, as well as its last hereditary ruler. Crowned "King" (in regem Poloniae coronata) to highlight her sovereign status, she reigned from 16 October 1384 until her death.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 25

View profile Photo (modified): Marcello Bacciarelli · Public domain

1516 · 510 yrs

Mary I

Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558) was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain as the wife of King Philip II from January 1556 until her death in 1558. She made vigorous attempts to reverse the English Reformation, which had begun during the reign of her father, King Henry VIII.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 42

View profile Photo (modified): Antonis Mor · Public domain

1745 · 281 yrs

Alessandro Volta

Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta (18 February 1745 – 5 March 1827) was an Italian chemist and physicist who was a pioneer of electricity and power, and is credited as the inventor of the electric battery and the discoverer of methane.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 82

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1836 · 190 yrs

Ramakrishna

Ramakrishna (18 February 1836 – 16 August 1886), also called Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (pronounced; IAST: Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahaṃsa), born Ramakrishna Chattopadhyay (his childhood nickname was Gadadhar), was an Indian Hindu mystic.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ReligionDied aged 50

View profile Photo (modified): Abinash Chandra Dna · Public domain

1838 · 188 yrs

Ernst Mach

Ernst Waldfried Josef Wenzel Mach ( MAHK; Austrian German:; 18 February 1838 – 19 February 1916) was an Austrian physicist and philosopher who contributed to the understanding of the physics of shock waves. The ratio of the speed of a flow or object to that of sound is named the Mach number in his honor.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 78

View profile Photo (modified): Charles Scolik · Public domain

1859 · 167 yrs

Sholem Aleichem

Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich or Solomon Naumovych Rabinovych (2 March 1859 – May 13, 1916), better known under his pen name Sholem Aleichem, was a Ukrainian Jewish author and playwright who wrote in Yiddish and lived in the Russian Empire and later the United States.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 57

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1879 · 147 yrs

Paul Klee

Paul Klee (German:; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism.

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ArtWould be 147

View profile Photo (modified): Alexander Eliasberg · Public domain

1883 · 143 yrs

Nikos Kazantzakis

Nikos Kazantzakis (Greek: Νίκος Καζαντζάκης; 2 March 1883 – 26 October 1957) was a Greek writer, journalist, politician, poet and philosopher.

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LiteratureWould be 143

View profile Photo (modified): Μουσείο N. Καζαντζάκη / Kazantzakis Museum · CC BY 3.0

1894 · 132 yrs

Alexander Oparin

Alexander Ivanovich Oparin (Russian: Александр Иванович Опарин; 2 March 1894 – 21 April 1980) was a Soviet biochemist notable for his theories about the origin of life and for his book The Origin of Life. He also studied the biochemistry of material processing by plants and enzyme reactions in plant cells.

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ScienceWould be 132

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1896 · 130 yrs

André Breton

André Robert Breton (French:; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, known as a principal theorist and co-founder of surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto (Manifeste du surréalisme) of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism".

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 130

View profile Photo (modified): Henri Manuel · Public domain

1898 · 128 yrs

Enzo Ferrari

Enzo Anselmo Giuseppe Maria Ferrari (Italian:; 18 February 1898 – 14 August 1988) was an Italian racing driver and entrepreneur, the founder of Scuderia Ferrari in Grand Prix motor racing, and subsequently of the Ferrari automobile marque.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

BusinessWould be 128

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1919 · 107 yrs

Jack Palance

Walter Jack Palance ( PAL-əns; born Volodymyr Palahniuk; February 18, 1919 – November 10, 2006) was an American actor. He gained stardom for his masculine portrayals of men in neo-noirs, crime dramas and westerns.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 107

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Showing 12 of 31

Famous deaths16

1294 · 732 yrs

Kublai Khan

Kublai Khan (23 September 1215 – 18 February 1294), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Shizu of Yuan and his regnal name Setsen Khan, was the founder and first emperor of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China. He proclaimed the dynastic name "Great Yuan" in 1271, and ruled Yuan China until his death in 1294.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 78

View profile Photo (modified): Araniko · Public domain

1405 · 621 yrs

Timur

Timur (1320s – 17/18 February 1405), also known as Tamerlane, was a Turco-Mongol conqueror, first ruler of the Timurid dynasty, and the founder of the Timurid Empire, which ruled over modern-day Afghanistan, Iran, and Central Asia.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Notable PeopleDied aged 68

View profile Photo (modified): 1405-1409 artist · Public domain

1535 · 491 yrs

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (German:; 14 September 1486 – 18 February 1535) was a German Renaissance polymath, physician, legal scholar, alchemist, soldier, knight, theologian, and occult writer.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 48

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1546 · 480 yrs

Martin Luther

Martin Luther ( LOO-thər; German:; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, professor, and former Augustinian friar. Luther was the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation, and his theological beliefs form the basis of Lutheranism.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ReligionDied aged 62

View profile Photo (modified): Lucas Cranach the Elder · Public domain

1564 · 462 yrs

Michelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known mononymously as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. He was born in the Republic of Florence but was mostly active in Rome from his 30s onwards.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtDied aged 88

View profile Photo (modified): Attributed to Daniele da Volterra · Public domain

1851 · 175 yrs

Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi

Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi (German:; 10 December 1804 – 18 February 1851) was a German mathematician who made fundamental contributions to elliptic functions, dynamics, differential equations, determinants and number theory.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 46

View profile Photo (modified): August Kaselowsky ; Giesecke u. Devrient (heliogr.) · Public domain

1873 · 153 yrs

Vasil Levski

Vasil Levski (Bulgarian: Васил Левски, spelled in old Bulgarian orthography as Василъ Львскій, pronounced), born Vasil Ivanov Kunchev (Васил Иванов Кунчев; 18 July 1837 – 18 February 1873), was a Bulgarian revolutionary who is, today, a national hero of Bulgaria.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ActivismDied aged 35

View profile Photo (modified): File:BASA-600K-1-1865-15-Vasil Levski.jpeg : Unknown author Unknown author derivative work: Iliev · Public domain

1899 · 127 yrs

Sophus Lie

Marius Sophus Lie ( LEE; Norwegian:; 17 December 1842 – 18 February 1899) was a Norwegian mathematician. He largely created the theory of continuous symmetry and applied it to the study of geometry and differential equations.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 56

View profile Photo (modified): L. Szaciński (Christiania) · No restrictions

1916 · 110 yrs

Elisabeth of Wied

Elisabeth of Wied (Pauline Elisabeth Ottilie Luise; 29 December 1843 – 2 March 1916) was the first Queen of Romania as the wife of King Carol I from 15 March 1881 to 27 September 1914. She had been the princess consort of Romania since her marriage to then-Prince Carol on 15 November 1869.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 72

View profile Photo (modified): Unidentified photographer · Public domain

1937 · 89 yrs

Sergo Ordzhonikidze

Sergo Konstantinovich Ordzhonikidze (born Grigol Konstantines dze Orjonikidze; 24 October 1886 – 18 February 1937) was an Old Bolshevik and a Soviet statesman.

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PoliticsWould be 140

View profile Photo (modified): G.K. Ordzhonikidze · Public domain

1957 · 69 yrs

Henry Norris Russell

Henry Norris Russell ForMemRS HFRSE FRAS (October 25, 1877 – February 18, 1957) was an American astronomer who, along with Ejnar Hertzsprung, developed the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram (1910). In 1923, working with Frederick Saunders, he developed Russell–Saunders coupling, which is also known as LS coupling.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 149

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1967 · 59 yrs

J. Robert Oppenheimer

J. Robert Oppenheimer (born Julius Robert Oppenheimer; April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist who served as the director of the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 122

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Showing 12 of 16

Events5

1943 · 83 yrs

Sportpalast speech

The Sportpalast speech (German: Sportpalastrede) or Total War speech was a speech delivered by German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels at the Berlin Sportpalast to a large, carefully selected audience on 18 February 1943, as the tide of World War II was turning against Nazi Germany and its Axis allies.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Sports

1960 · 66 yrs

1960 Winter Olympics

The 1960 Winter Olympics (officially the VIII Olympic Winter Games and also known as Squaw Valley 1960) were a winter multi-sport event held from February 18 to 28, 1960, at the Squaw Valley Resort (now known as Palisades Tahoe) in Squaw Valley (now known as Olympic Valley), California, in the Lake Tahoe area of the…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Sports

1980 · 46 yrs

1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens

On May 18, 1980, at 8:32 a.m., Mount St. Helens in Skamania County, Washington, United States, experienced a catastrophic explosive eruption which had a volcanic explosivity index of 5.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Disaster

2018 · 8 yrs

Iran Aseman Airlines Flight 3704

Iran Aseman Airlines Flight 3704 was a scheduled Iranian domestic passenger flight from Iranian capital Tehran Mehrabad International Airport to Yasuj in southwest Iran.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Disaster

2024 · 2 yrs

77th British Academy Film Awards

The 77th British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs, were held on 18 February 2024, honouring the best national and foreign films of 2023, at the Royal Festival Hall within London's Southbank Centre.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Culture

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