1587: Queen Elizabeth I<\/a> signs a death warrant for her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots<\/a><\/h4>\n ![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Queen Elizabeth I. (Photo by Culture Club\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n2 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1461: Yorkist forces defeat a Lancastrian army<\/h4>\n
Led by 18-year-old Edward of March (the future King Edward IV<\/a>), Yorkist forces defeated a Lancastrian army under the earls of Pembroke and Wiltshire at the battle of Mortimer\u2019s Cross near Wigmore in Herefordshire.<\/p>\n3 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1870: The 15th Amendment guarantees Black Americans the vote<\/h4>\n
In February 1869, the House of Representatives drafted a 15th Amendment to the Constitution, stating that \u201cthe right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude\u201d.<\/p>\n
At last, on 3 February 1870, the 15th Amendment became law. Black communities exploded with joy. Alas, their struggle for equal rights was far from over.<\/p>\n
4 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1555: John Rogers becomes the first person to be executed for heresy under the Catholic queen<\/h4>\n
In January 1554, John Rogers had been detained for denying the authority of the Church of Rome \u2013 a brave thing to do, given that Mary<\/a> was now vigorously turning the clock back towards Catholicism. And now, more than a year later, his time had run out.<\/p>\nHe was taken to Smithfield, singing psalms as he went. On the way, his wife and 11 children were waiting; not even the sight of his family, though, could disturb his cool. Before a \u201cgreat number of people\u201d, according to Foxe\u2019s Book of Martyrs<\/em>, \u201che was burnt to ashes, washing his hands in the fame as he was burning\u2026 He constantly and cheerfully took his death with wonderful patience, in the defence and quarrel of the Gospel of Christ.\u201d He was just the first of Mary\u2019s victims. In the next three years, at least 280 more would follow.<\/p>\n5 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1783: Earthquake in Italy kills thousands<\/h4>\n
The first of five major earthquakes to hit Calabria, southern Italy, in two months killed an estimated 25,000 people and destroyed over 100 villages.<\/p>\n
6 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1952: 25-year-old Princess Elizabeth becomes queen<\/h4>\n ![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Queen Elizabeth II making her first ever Christmas broadcast to the nation from Sandringham House, Norfolk, 25 December 1952. (Photo by Fox Photos\/Hulton Archive\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nThis was following the death of her father, King George VI<\/a>, who passed away in his sleep at \u00a0Sandringham. She was in Kenya when she learned of his death.<\/p>\n7 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1807: Start of the two-day Battle of Eylau, the first serious check to Napoleon<\/a>\u2018s Grande Armee<\/h4>\n Famous births in February<\/h2>\n6 February 1911<\/h6>\n
Ronald Reagan<\/a>, actor, governor of California, and 40th president of the United States<\/p>\n9 February 1897<\/h6>\n
Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith, the first person to fly the Pacific from west to east<\/p>\n
9 February 1909<\/h6>\n
Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha, Portuguese Samba singer who became one of Hollywood\u2019s highest paid stars<\/p>\n
9 February 1910<\/h6>\n
Jacques Lucien Monod, French biologist who won a Nobel Prize for his discoveries concerning the genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis<\/p>\n
11 February 1847\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Thomas Edison, American inventor\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
12 February 1637<\/h6>\n
Jan Swammerdam, the first person to describe red blood cells<\/p>\n
12 February 1809<\/h6>\n
Charles Darwin<\/a>, pioneering British naturalist<\/p>\n14 February 1483<\/h6>\n
Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur<\/a>, a descendant of Genghis Khan and Turkic ruler Tamerlaine, and India\u2019s first Mughal emperor<\/p>\n18 February 1838<\/h6>\n
Ernst Mach, physicist, and developer of the \u2018Mach number\u2019, the ratio of the speed of an object as related to the speed of sound<\/p>\n
19 February 1473<\/h6>\n
Nicolaus Copernicus, astronomer, mathematician, and proponent of a heliocentric model of the universe<\/p>\n
19 February 1911<\/h6>\n
Merle Oberon, actress who rose to fame through her portrayal of Anne Boleyn in his 1933 film The Private Life of Henry VIII<\/em><\/p>\n21 February 1907<\/h6>\n
WH (Wystan Hugh) Auden, poet, and critic\u00a0<\/p>\n
22 February 1857<\/h6>\n
Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts\u00a0<\/p>\n
Famous deaths in February<\/h2>\n1 February 1851<\/h6>\n
Mary Shelley<\/a>, author of Frankenstein\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n2 February 1970<\/h6>\n
Bertrand Russell, Nobel Prize<\/a> winning philosopher and political campaigner<\/p>\n3 February 1832<\/h6>\n
George Crabbe, Aldeburgh-born poet, and minister<\/p>\n
4 February 1847\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Henri Dutrochet, discoverer of osmosis<\/p>\n
6 February 1617<\/h6>\n
Prospero Alpini, Italian botanist who is credited with introducing Europeans to the coffee plant<\/p>\n
6 February 1783<\/h6>\n
Lancelot \u2018Capability\u2019 Brown, English landscape designer<\/p>\n
7 February 1959<\/h6>\n
Daniel F Malan, African prime minister of the country from 1948 to 1954, and was one of the leading architects of its apartheid policy<\/p>\n
11 February 1650<\/h6>\n
Ren\u00e9 Descartes, French philosopher, mathematician, and physicist<\/p>\n
13 February 1571<\/h6>\n
Benvenuto Cellini, Italian goldsmith, painter, and sculptor\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
14 February 1779<\/h6>\n
Captain James Cook, Yorkshire explorer\u00a0<\/p>\n
20 February 1841<\/h6>\n
Friedrich Wilhelm Sert\u00fcrner, German pharmacologist who successfully isolated morphine from opium<\/p>\n
21 February 1513<\/h6>\n
Julius II, \u2018the Warrior Pope\u2019<\/p>\n
23 February 1821<\/h6>\n
John Keats, English poet, and author of works including\u00a0Ode to a Nightingale<\/em>,\u00a0La Belle Dame Sans Merci<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0To Autumn<\/em><\/p>\n24 February 1810<\/h6>\n
Henry Cavendish, scientist whose 1784 paper\u00a0Experiments on Air<\/em>\u00a0included the discovery that water was a compound of hydrogen and oxygen<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section>
8 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1587: Mary, Queen of Scots loses her head<\/h4>\n ![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> The execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. (Photo by Hulton Archive\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nBlindfolded, Mary knelt on a cushion on the specially erected scaffold and began to pray in Latin. Then came the executioner\u2019s blow. Unfortunately, he missed and hit her on the head, not the neck. The second blow almost severed her neck, but for \u201cone little gristle\u201d. On the third stroke, however, her head came off completely.<\/p>\n
The executioner raised it to the crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cGod save Queen Elizabeth!\u201d he cried. As if on cue, the head\u2019s auburn wig fell off, revealing Mary\u2019s short grey hair. Standing over her body, the Earl of Kent said solemnly: \u201cSuch end of all the queen\u2019s and the gospel\u2019s enemies.\u201d | Find out more about who betrayed Mary, Queen of Scots<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n9 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1943: The United States declares victory over Japan in Second World War<\/a> campaign<\/h4>\nThe campaign for Guadalcanal and nearby islands in the south-west Pacific lasted seven months.<\/p>\n
10 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1840: Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert<\/h4>\n
The ceremony was held at St James\u2019s Palace \u2013 \u201cvery imposing, and fine and simple\u201d, wrote Victoria. Unusually for brides of the time, she wore a white dress, a symbol not so much of purity than of wealth, which proved immensely influential. Given her royal position, the archbishop of Canterbury had suggested leaving out the vow to \u2018obey\u2019 her husband. But she insisted on keeping it in.<\/p>\n
- Read more |\u00a0Queen Victoria and Prince Albert: what was their relationship like?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
On the wedding night, not even Victoria\u2019s headache could spoil the mood. \u201cHe clasped me in his arms, and we kissed each other again and again!\u201d she recorded excitedly. And the wedding night itself? \u201cBliss beyond belief! Oh! this was the happiest day of my life! \u2013 May God help me to do my duty as I ought and be worthy of such blessings!\u201d<\/p>\n
11 February <\/a><\/h2>\nAD 55: Nero assassinates his stepbrother<\/h4>\n
\u201cA drink, still harmless, very hot, and already tasted, was handed to Britannicus,\u201d wrote Tacitus. \u201cThen, when he declined it as too warm, cold water was poured in, and with it the\u00a0poison, which ran so effectively through his whole system that he lost simultaneously both voice and breath. There was a startled movement in the company seated around, and the more obtuse began to disperse; those who could read more clearly sat motionless, their eyes\u00a0riveted on Nero<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\nNero just shrugged. Britannicus, he said, was having an epileptic fit \u2013 nothing to worry about. Nobody moved; within a few moments, the boy was dead. That night, in pouring rain, Nero had his stepbrother\u2019s body burned.<\/p>\n
12 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1909: Black activists and white reformers meet to form the\u00a0National Association for the Advancement of Colored People<\/h4>\n
Horrified by the rise of lynching, the Association was designed \u201cto promote equality of rights and\u00a0to eradicate caste or race prejudice\u201d in the US.<\/p>\n
13 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1258: Baghdad falls to the Mongols<\/a><\/h4>\nThe Mongols marched into the city. They burned the Great Library to the ground, threw its books into the Tigris and slaughtered its scholars. They burned and looted every mosque, palace and hospital in the city. They murdered al-Musta\u2019sim\u2019s sons before his eyes, wrapped him in a carpet and trampled him to death.<\/p>\n
Above all, they threw themselves on the local populace\u00a0in an orgy of rape and murder. Some estimates put the death toll at 100,000; others go much higher. The stench was such that Hulagu had to move his camp upwind. Baghdad survived, somehow. But its golden age was over.<\/p>\n
14 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1852: Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children opens its doors to the public<\/h4>\n
The first in-patient was Eliza Armstrong from Lisson Grove who was suffering from phthisis and bronchitis.<\/p>\n
![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Interior of the Clarence Ward in the Great Ormond Street Hospital. (Photo by English Heritage\/Heritage Images\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n15 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1493: Christopher Columbus writes of the New World<\/h4>\n
The date was 15 February 1493. Sailing back from the Americas, Christopher Columbus decided to write to the finance minister of Aragon, Luis de Sant\u00e1ngel, to report his discoveries. He was writing, he said, from \u201cthe islands of India beyond the Ganges recently discovered\u201d, which did not say much for his command of geography. Even so, he had good news \u2013 for the voyage had been a triumph.<\/p>\n
One word, above all, came up again and again. \u201cThere are many spices and vast mines of gold and other metals in this island,\u201d wrote Columbus. There were magnificent rivers, too, \u201cmost of which bear gold\u2026 To speak, in conclusion, only of what has been done during this hurried voyage, their Highnesses will see that I can give them as much gold as they desire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gold! That was what the Spanish authorities most wanted to hear. And with that, history was made.<\/p>\n
16 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1923: English archaeologist Howard Carter<\/a> opens the fourth room of King Tutankhamun<\/a>\u2019s tomb<\/h4>\nThe sealed burial chamber contained the king\u2019s sarcophagus and mummified body.<\/p>\n
17 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1662: Frederick Coyett, the last governor of Dutch-occupied Taiwan, abandons the island to its Ming conquerors, who were led by Koxinga<\/h4>\n18 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1478: Edward IV\u2019s brother is apparently drowned in a barrel of wine<\/h4>\n
Even by the standards of medieval England, George, Duke of Clarence met a colourful end. \u201cTake him on the costard with the hilts of thy sword,\u201d says one of his two murderers in Shakespeare\u2019s play\u00a0Richard III<\/em>, \u201cand then throw him into the malmsey-butt in the next room.\u201dWas he really drowned in a butt of sweet wine? Writing only five years later, the Italian visitor Dominic Mancini said so. And who would invent such a bizarre story?<\/p>\n
19 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1942: Japan\u2019s surprise bombing raid brings death and destruction to Darwin<\/h4>\n ![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> A Japanese air attack on Port Darwin, Australia, during the Second World War, 1942. In the foreground right is a US destroyer, and behind it (left to right) are the burning remains of an Australian ship, an Australian hospital ship and a British ship. (Photo by Keystone\/Hulton Archive\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nFew dates are as deeply etched into Australia\u2019s imagination as 19 February 1942, which saw the bloodiest attack by a foreign power in the nation\u2019s history. In all, 242 Japanese planes (from the fleet that had attacked Pearl Harbor<\/a>) swooped down on Darwin, the Northern Territory\u2019s capital, in two waves of terrifying intensity. \u201cMen who were there during the raids declared it was worse than anything they had experienced in London,\u201d reported The Sydney Morning Herald<\/em>\u00a0two days later. \u201cIt was a blitz of the most ferocious kind.\u201d<\/p>\nYet as clouds of thick black smoke rose above the waterfront, the horror and panic in Darwin did nothing to undermine Australia\u2019s commitment to the struggle. Indeed, the shock of the Japanese attack only strengthened many people\u2019s resolve to fight back. \u201cWhatever the future holds in store for us,\u201d declared Prime Minister John Curtin, \u201cwe are Australians and will fight grimly and victoriously\u2026 Unity must be our watchword, national service our one desire.\u201d<\/p>\n
20 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1472: Orkney and Shetland are annexed by Scotland<\/h4>\n
This followed the failure of Christian, the King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, to pay a dowry for James III\u2019s bride, Margaret of Denmark.<\/p>\n
21 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1804: Pen-y-Darren locomotive steams into history<\/h4>\n
Samuel Homfray, founder of the Pen-y-Darren Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil, was open to innovation and, in 1802, he engaged a Cornish inventor, Richard Trevithick, to build a high-pressure steam engine to drive a hammer.<\/p>\n
Homfray liked what he saw so much that he bought the patent. Then he made a 500-guinea bet with a rival ironmaster, Richard Crawshay, wagering that his new locomotive could pull 10 tonnes of iron along the Merthyr Tydfil tramway, a distance of almost 10 miles. A date was set: 21 February 1804. And in its way, it deserves to be remembered as one of the most influential moments in history.<\/p>\n
A large crowd assembled to watch the great moment. Steam went up, the wheels turned \u2013 and they were off. Underneath, some of the tramway\u2019s plates buckled and cracked under the weight of the train. But they kept moving. Four hours later, the train eased to a stop. Homfray had won his bet, and the history of transport would never be the same again.<\/p>\n
22 February 1879<\/a><\/h2>\nFrank Woolworth opened his first store in New York<\/h4>\n
It was not a success, but he opened more and the firm grew. The first UK shop opened in Liverpool in 1909.<\/p>\n
23 February <\/a><\/h2>\n303: Diocletian orders massive persecution of Christians<\/h4>\n
On 23 February, Diocletian made his move. It was the feast-day of Terminus, the god of the boundary-marker \u2013 an appropriate day to begin the termination of Christianity. At first he ordered that the new Christian church in the eastern city of Nicomedia be destroyed and its treasures seized. But the next day he went further. In his Edict Against the Christians, Diocletian ordered that all Christian churches, books and relics be obliterated. Christians were banned from religious meetings or from appearing in court, while all Christian senators, civil servants and officers were stripped of their titles.<\/p>\n
Although Diocletian ordered that the edict be carried out \u201cwithout bloodshed\u201d, officials in the east in particular quickly resorted to the death penalty, burning Christians alive if they resisted. But the truth was that Christianity was too deeply embedded in Roman culture to be rooted out. As one historian puts it, the persecution was \u201ctoo little, too late\u201d.<\/p>\n
24 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1848: France\u2019s last king abdicates amid riots<\/h4>\n
In the early stages of the 1848 revolution, Louis-Philippe had sympathised with the revolutionaries. But, as a cousin of the late Louis XVI, he dreaded suffering the same bloody fate and, in any case, lacked the stomach to order large-scale repression. By the late morning of 24 February, his courage had run out. Cloistered with his courtiers, the king called for ink and paper. His queen, Marie-Am\u00e9lie, begged him to stand firm. \u201cSir, you are giving way to a riot; you are allowing yourself to be frightened!\u201d she begged. But he gently pushed her away and a moment later signed the instrument of abdication. Later that afternoon, dressed all in black, the last French king left his palace for exile in Surrey.<\/p>\n
25 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1956: Khrushchev denounces Stalin<\/h4>\n
Three years after Stalin\u2019s death, Nikita Khrushchev said, it was time to tell the truth about Stalin\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n
- On the podcast |\u00a0Stalin: the real victor of WW2<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
The dictator had been projected as \u201ca superman possessing supernatural characteristics, akin to those of a god\u201d. In fact, Khrushchev said, Stalin had been a man of \u201cbrutal violence\u2026 capricious and despotic\u201d. He had practised \u201cmass terror\u201d against \u201cthe honest workers of the Party and of the Soviet state\u201d. He had ignored warnings that the Nazis were going to invade in 1941. And he had taken credit for the heroism of the Soviet people, encouraging a cult of \u201cloathsome adulation\u201d. All of this, Nikita Khrushchev said, had been built on lies; all of it must gradually be exposed to the people.<\/p>\n
26 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1616: Galileo is ordered to abandon his astronomical ideas by the Catholic church<\/h4>\n ![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Portrayal of Italian astronomer and physicist, Galileo Galilei (1564 \u2013 1642) using a telescope. (Photo by Hulton Archive\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nThere was a problem. Galileo\u2019s observations placed the sun at the centre of the solar system and relegated the Earth to a mere orbiting planet, contradicting the geocentric theory of the Alexandrian writer Claudius Ptolemy \u2013 the accepted position of the Catholic church. His tract sparked a debate that raged for years. By early 1615, Dominican friar Tommaso Caccini was loudly pressing the Inquisition to crack down on Galileo\u2019s heretical ideas. In one sermon, he suggested that astronomy contravened biblical teachings, quoting a line from the Acts of the Apostles: \u201cYe men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?\u201d<\/p>\n
On 26 February, Bellarmine summoned Galileo to his house in Rome and ordered him \u201cto abstain completely from teaching or defending this doctrine and opinion or from discussing it\u201d. In Bellarmine\u2019s words, Galileo must \u201cabandon completely\u2026 the opinion that the sun stands still at the centre of the world and the Earth moves, and henceforth not to hold, teach or defend it in any way whatever, either orally or in writing\u201d.<\/p>\n
27 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1881: British routed at Majuba Hill in surprise attack during First Boer War<\/h4>\n
With hundreds of reinforcements newly arrived from the south, the British commander, Sir George Colley, decided to mount a surprise attack on the Boers that would force them to agree to Britain\u2019s terms. On the night of the 26th, his troops climbed Majuba Hill, above the main Boer camp. Then, at first light, the firing began.<\/p>\n
As Colley had anticipated, the battle was a walkover \u2013 but for the wrong side. As the Boers charged up the hill, taking cover in the long grass, British resolve faltered. Suddenly, wrote young Thomas Carter, men started running. \u201cFive, six, seven, eight more men broke from the ranks in front of us and fled,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe\u00a0rest wavered, and\u2026 the whole lot went rushing wildly over us down into the bottom of the basin.\u201d And as Boer gunfire echoed around the\u00a0hill, Carter admitted, \u201cit was not long before I was on my feet and running with the rest\u201d.<\/p>\n
By now, Colley was dead, shot by\u00a0a Boer sniper as he tried to rally his men. He was one of 92 killed, while dozens more were captured, among them Thomas Fortescue Carter. For the British, it was a disaster; at the ensuing peace conference, they were forced to recognise the independent Transvaal Republic. But they never forgot Majuba. And two decades later, they got their revenge.<\/p>\n
28 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1638: Members of the Scottish nobility sign the National Covenant in the churchyard of Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh<\/h4>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/01\/GettyImages-173273375-1-f4b3e1f-e1674815141324.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>2 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1461: Yorkist forces defeat a Lancastrian army<\/h4>\n
Led by 18-year-old Edward of March (the future King Edward IV<\/a>), Yorkist forces defeated a Lancastrian army under the earls of Pembroke and Wiltshire at the battle of Mortimer\u2019s Cross near Wigmore in Herefordshire.<\/p>\n3 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1870: The 15th Amendment guarantees Black Americans the vote<\/h4>\n
In February 1869, the House of Representatives drafted a 15th Amendment to the Constitution, stating that \u201cthe right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude\u201d.<\/p>\n
At last, on 3 February 1870, the 15th Amendment became law. Black communities exploded with joy. Alas, their struggle for equal rights was far from over.<\/p>\n
4 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1555: John Rogers becomes the first person to be executed for heresy under the Catholic queen<\/h4>\n
In January 1554, John Rogers had been detained for denying the authority of the Church of Rome \u2013 a brave thing to do, given that Mary<\/a> was now vigorously turning the clock back towards Catholicism. And now, more than a year later, his time had run out.<\/p>\nHe was taken to Smithfield, singing psalms as he went. On the way, his wife and 11 children were waiting; not even the sight of his family, though, could disturb his cool. Before a \u201cgreat number of people\u201d, according to Foxe\u2019s Book of Martyrs<\/em>, \u201che was burnt to ashes, washing his hands in the fame as he was burning\u2026 He constantly and cheerfully took his death with wonderful patience, in the defence and quarrel of the Gospel of Christ.\u201d He was just the first of Mary\u2019s victims. In the next three years, at least 280 more would follow.<\/p>\n5 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1783: Earthquake in Italy kills thousands<\/h4>\n
The first of five major earthquakes to hit Calabria, southern Italy, in two months killed an estimated 25,000 people and destroyed over 100 villages.<\/p>\n
6 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1952: 25-year-old Princess Elizabeth becomes queen<\/h4>\n ![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Queen Elizabeth II making her first ever Christmas broadcast to the nation from Sandringham House, Norfolk, 25 December 1952. (Photo by Fox Photos\/Hulton Archive\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nThis was following the death of her father, King George VI<\/a>, who passed away in his sleep at \u00a0Sandringham. She was in Kenya when she learned of his death.<\/p>\n7 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1807: Start of the two-day Battle of Eylau, the first serious check to Napoleon<\/a>\u2018s Grande Armee<\/h4>\n Famous births in February<\/h2>\n6 February 1911<\/h6>\n
Ronald Reagan<\/a>, actor, governor of California, and 40th president of the United States<\/p>\n9 February 1897<\/h6>\n
Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith, the first person to fly the Pacific from west to east<\/p>\n
9 February 1909<\/h6>\n
Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha, Portuguese Samba singer who became one of Hollywood\u2019s highest paid stars<\/p>\n
9 February 1910<\/h6>\n
Jacques Lucien Monod, French biologist who won a Nobel Prize for his discoveries concerning the genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis<\/p>\n
11 February 1847\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Thomas Edison, American inventor\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
12 February 1637<\/h6>\n
Jan Swammerdam, the first person to describe red blood cells<\/p>\n
12 February 1809<\/h6>\n
Charles Darwin<\/a>, pioneering British naturalist<\/p>\n14 February 1483<\/h6>\n
Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur<\/a>, a descendant of Genghis Khan and Turkic ruler Tamerlaine, and India\u2019s first Mughal emperor<\/p>\n18 February 1838<\/h6>\n
Ernst Mach, physicist, and developer of the \u2018Mach number\u2019, the ratio of the speed of an object as related to the speed of sound<\/p>\n
19 February 1473<\/h6>\n
Nicolaus Copernicus, astronomer, mathematician, and proponent of a heliocentric model of the universe<\/p>\n
19 February 1911<\/h6>\n
Merle Oberon, actress who rose to fame through her portrayal of Anne Boleyn in his 1933 film The Private Life of Henry VIII<\/em><\/p>\n21 February 1907<\/h6>\n
WH (Wystan Hugh) Auden, poet, and critic\u00a0<\/p>\n
22 February 1857<\/h6>\n
Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts\u00a0<\/p>\n
Famous deaths in February<\/h2>\n1 February 1851<\/h6>\n
Mary Shelley<\/a>, author of Frankenstein\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n2 February 1970<\/h6>\n
Bertrand Russell, Nobel Prize<\/a> winning philosopher and political campaigner<\/p>\n3 February 1832<\/h6>\n
George Crabbe, Aldeburgh-born poet, and minister<\/p>\n
4 February 1847\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Henri Dutrochet, discoverer of osmosis<\/p>\n
6 February 1617<\/h6>\n
Prospero Alpini, Italian botanist who is credited with introducing Europeans to the coffee plant<\/p>\n
6 February 1783<\/h6>\n
Lancelot \u2018Capability\u2019 Brown, English landscape designer<\/p>\n
7 February 1959<\/h6>\n
Daniel F Malan, African prime minister of the country from 1948 to 1954, and was one of the leading architects of its apartheid policy<\/p>\n
11 February 1650<\/h6>\n
Ren\u00e9 Descartes, French philosopher, mathematician, and physicist<\/p>\n
13 February 1571<\/h6>\n
Benvenuto Cellini, Italian goldsmith, painter, and sculptor\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
14 February 1779<\/h6>\n
Captain James Cook, Yorkshire explorer\u00a0<\/p>\n
20 February 1841<\/h6>\n
Friedrich Wilhelm Sert\u00fcrner, German pharmacologist who successfully isolated morphine from opium<\/p>\n
21 February 1513<\/h6>\n
Julius II, \u2018the Warrior Pope\u2019<\/p>\n
23 February 1821<\/h6>\n
John Keats, English poet, and author of works including\u00a0Ode to a Nightingale<\/em>,\u00a0La Belle Dame Sans Merci<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0To Autumn<\/em><\/p>\n24 February 1810<\/h6>\n
Henry Cavendish, scientist whose 1784 paper\u00a0Experiments on Air<\/em>\u00a0included the discovery that water was a compound of hydrogen and oxygen<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section>
8 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1587: Mary, Queen of Scots loses her head<\/h4>\n ![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> The execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. (Photo by Hulton Archive\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nBlindfolded, Mary knelt on a cushion on the specially erected scaffold and began to pray in Latin. Then came the executioner\u2019s blow. Unfortunately, he missed and hit her on the head, not the neck. The second blow almost severed her neck, but for \u201cone little gristle\u201d. On the third stroke, however, her head came off completely.<\/p>\n
The executioner raised it to the crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cGod save Queen Elizabeth!\u201d he cried. As if on cue, the head\u2019s auburn wig fell off, revealing Mary\u2019s short grey hair. Standing over her body, the Earl of Kent said solemnly: \u201cSuch end of all the queen\u2019s and the gospel\u2019s enemies.\u201d | Find out more about who betrayed Mary, Queen of Scots<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n9 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1943: The United States declares victory over Japan in Second World War<\/a> campaign<\/h4>\nThe campaign for Guadalcanal and nearby islands in the south-west Pacific lasted seven months.<\/p>\n
10 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1840: Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert<\/h4>\n
The ceremony was held at St James\u2019s Palace \u2013 \u201cvery imposing, and fine and simple\u201d, wrote Victoria. Unusually for brides of the time, she wore a white dress, a symbol not so much of purity than of wealth, which proved immensely influential. Given her royal position, the archbishop of Canterbury had suggested leaving out the vow to \u2018obey\u2019 her husband. But she insisted on keeping it in.<\/p>\n
- Read more |\u00a0Queen Victoria and Prince Albert: what was their relationship like?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
On the wedding night, not even Victoria\u2019s headache could spoil the mood. \u201cHe clasped me in his arms, and we kissed each other again and again!\u201d she recorded excitedly. And the wedding night itself? \u201cBliss beyond belief! Oh! this was the happiest day of my life! \u2013 May God help me to do my duty as I ought and be worthy of such blessings!\u201d<\/p>\n
11 February <\/a><\/h2>\nAD 55: Nero assassinates his stepbrother<\/h4>\n
\u201cA drink, still harmless, very hot, and already tasted, was handed to Britannicus,\u201d wrote Tacitus. \u201cThen, when he declined it as too warm, cold water was poured in, and with it the\u00a0poison, which ran so effectively through his whole system that he lost simultaneously both voice and breath. There was a startled movement in the company seated around, and the more obtuse began to disperse; those who could read more clearly sat motionless, their eyes\u00a0riveted on Nero<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\nNero just shrugged. Britannicus, he said, was having an epileptic fit \u2013 nothing to worry about. Nobody moved; within a few moments, the boy was dead. That night, in pouring rain, Nero had his stepbrother\u2019s body burned.<\/p>\n
12 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1909: Black activists and white reformers meet to form the\u00a0National Association for the Advancement of Colored People<\/h4>\n
Horrified by the rise of lynching, the Association was designed \u201cto promote equality of rights and\u00a0to eradicate caste or race prejudice\u201d in the US.<\/p>\n
13 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1258: Baghdad falls to the Mongols<\/a><\/h4>\nThe Mongols marched into the city. They burned the Great Library to the ground, threw its books into the Tigris and slaughtered its scholars. They burned and looted every mosque, palace and hospital in the city. They murdered al-Musta\u2019sim\u2019s sons before his eyes, wrapped him in a carpet and trampled him to death.<\/p>\n
Above all, they threw themselves on the local populace\u00a0in an orgy of rape and murder. Some estimates put the death toll at 100,000; others go much higher. The stench was such that Hulagu had to move his camp upwind. Baghdad survived, somehow. But its golden age was over.<\/p>\n
14 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1852: Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children opens its doors to the public<\/h4>\n
The first in-patient was Eliza Armstrong from Lisson Grove who was suffering from phthisis and bronchitis.<\/p>\n
![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Interior of the Clarence Ward in the Great Ormond Street Hospital. (Photo by English Heritage\/Heritage Images\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n15 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1493: Christopher Columbus writes of the New World<\/h4>\n
The date was 15 February 1493. Sailing back from the Americas, Christopher Columbus decided to write to the finance minister of Aragon, Luis de Sant\u00e1ngel, to report his discoveries. He was writing, he said, from \u201cthe islands of India beyond the Ganges recently discovered\u201d, which did not say much for his command of geography. Even so, he had good news \u2013 for the voyage had been a triumph.<\/p>\n
One word, above all, came up again and again. \u201cThere are many spices and vast mines of gold and other metals in this island,\u201d wrote Columbus. There were magnificent rivers, too, \u201cmost of which bear gold\u2026 To speak, in conclusion, only of what has been done during this hurried voyage, their Highnesses will see that I can give them as much gold as they desire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gold! That was what the Spanish authorities most wanted to hear. And with that, history was made.<\/p>\n
16 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1923: English archaeologist Howard Carter<\/a> opens the fourth room of King Tutankhamun<\/a>\u2019s tomb<\/h4>\nThe sealed burial chamber contained the king\u2019s sarcophagus and mummified body.<\/p>\n
17 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1662: Frederick Coyett, the last governor of Dutch-occupied Taiwan, abandons the island to its Ming conquerors, who were led by Koxinga<\/h4>\n18 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1478: Edward IV\u2019s brother is apparently drowned in a barrel of wine<\/h4>\n
Even by the standards of medieval England, George, Duke of Clarence met a colourful end. \u201cTake him on the costard with the hilts of thy sword,\u201d says one of his two murderers in Shakespeare\u2019s play\u00a0Richard III<\/em>, \u201cand then throw him into the malmsey-butt in the next room.\u201dWas he really drowned in a butt of sweet wine? Writing only five years later, the Italian visitor Dominic Mancini said so. And who would invent such a bizarre story?<\/p>\n
19 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1942: Japan\u2019s surprise bombing raid brings death and destruction to Darwin<\/h4>\n ![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> A Japanese air attack on Port Darwin, Australia, during the Second World War, 1942. In the foreground right is a US destroyer, and behind it (left to right) are the burning remains of an Australian ship, an Australian hospital ship and a British ship. (Photo by Keystone\/Hulton Archive\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nFew dates are as deeply etched into Australia\u2019s imagination as 19 February 1942, which saw the bloodiest attack by a foreign power in the nation\u2019s history. In all, 242 Japanese planes (from the fleet that had attacked Pearl Harbor<\/a>) swooped down on Darwin, the Northern Territory\u2019s capital, in two waves of terrifying intensity. \u201cMen who were there during the raids declared it was worse than anything they had experienced in London,\u201d reported The Sydney Morning Herald<\/em>\u00a0two days later. \u201cIt was a blitz of the most ferocious kind.\u201d<\/p>\nYet as clouds of thick black smoke rose above the waterfront, the horror and panic in Darwin did nothing to undermine Australia\u2019s commitment to the struggle. Indeed, the shock of the Japanese attack only strengthened many people\u2019s resolve to fight back. \u201cWhatever the future holds in store for us,\u201d declared Prime Minister John Curtin, \u201cwe are Australians and will fight grimly and victoriously\u2026 Unity must be our watchword, national service our one desire.\u201d<\/p>\n
20 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1472: Orkney and Shetland are annexed by Scotland<\/h4>\n
This followed the failure of Christian, the King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, to pay a dowry for James III\u2019s bride, Margaret of Denmark.<\/p>\n
21 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1804: Pen-y-Darren locomotive steams into history<\/h4>\n
Samuel Homfray, founder of the Pen-y-Darren Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil, was open to innovation and, in 1802, he engaged a Cornish inventor, Richard Trevithick, to build a high-pressure steam engine to drive a hammer.<\/p>\n
Homfray liked what he saw so much that he bought the patent. Then he made a 500-guinea bet with a rival ironmaster, Richard Crawshay, wagering that his new locomotive could pull 10 tonnes of iron along the Merthyr Tydfil tramway, a distance of almost 10 miles. A date was set: 21 February 1804. And in its way, it deserves to be remembered as one of the most influential moments in history.<\/p>\n
A large crowd assembled to watch the great moment. Steam went up, the wheels turned \u2013 and they were off. Underneath, some of the tramway\u2019s plates buckled and cracked under the weight of the train. But they kept moving. Four hours later, the train eased to a stop. Homfray had won his bet, and the history of transport would never be the same again.<\/p>\n
22 February 1879<\/a><\/h2>\nFrank Woolworth opened his first store in New York<\/h4>\n
It was not a success, but he opened more and the firm grew. The first UK shop opened in Liverpool in 1909.<\/p>\n
23 February <\/a><\/h2>\n303: Diocletian orders massive persecution of Christians<\/h4>\n
On 23 February, Diocletian made his move. It was the feast-day of Terminus, the god of the boundary-marker \u2013 an appropriate day to begin the termination of Christianity. At first he ordered that the new Christian church in the eastern city of Nicomedia be destroyed and its treasures seized. But the next day he went further. In his Edict Against the Christians, Diocletian ordered that all Christian churches, books and relics be obliterated. Christians were banned from religious meetings or from appearing in court, while all Christian senators, civil servants and officers were stripped of their titles.<\/p>\n
Although Diocletian ordered that the edict be carried out \u201cwithout bloodshed\u201d, officials in the east in particular quickly resorted to the death penalty, burning Christians alive if they resisted. But the truth was that Christianity was too deeply embedded in Roman culture to be rooted out. As one historian puts it, the persecution was \u201ctoo little, too late\u201d.<\/p>\n
24 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1848: France\u2019s last king abdicates amid riots<\/h4>\n
In the early stages of the 1848 revolution, Louis-Philippe had sympathised with the revolutionaries. But, as a cousin of the late Louis XVI, he dreaded suffering the same bloody fate and, in any case, lacked the stomach to order large-scale repression. By the late morning of 24 February, his courage had run out. Cloistered with his courtiers, the king called for ink and paper. His queen, Marie-Am\u00e9lie, begged him to stand firm. \u201cSir, you are giving way to a riot; you are allowing yourself to be frightened!\u201d she begged. But he gently pushed her away and a moment later signed the instrument of abdication. Later that afternoon, dressed all in black, the last French king left his palace for exile in Surrey.<\/p>\n
25 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1956: Khrushchev denounces Stalin<\/h4>\n
Three years after Stalin\u2019s death, Nikita Khrushchev said, it was time to tell the truth about Stalin\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n
- On the podcast |\u00a0Stalin: the real victor of WW2<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
The dictator had been projected as \u201ca superman possessing supernatural characteristics, akin to those of a god\u201d. In fact, Khrushchev said, Stalin had been a man of \u201cbrutal violence\u2026 capricious and despotic\u201d. He had practised \u201cmass terror\u201d against \u201cthe honest workers of the Party and of the Soviet state\u201d. He had ignored warnings that the Nazis were going to invade in 1941. And he had taken credit for the heroism of the Soviet people, encouraging a cult of \u201cloathsome adulation\u201d. All of this, Nikita Khrushchev said, had been built on lies; all of it must gradually be exposed to the people.<\/p>\n
26 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1616: Galileo is ordered to abandon his astronomical ideas by the Catholic church<\/h4>\n ![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Portrayal of Italian astronomer and physicist, Galileo Galilei (1564 \u2013 1642) using a telescope. (Photo by Hulton Archive\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nThere was a problem. Galileo\u2019s observations placed the sun at the centre of the solar system and relegated the Earth to a mere orbiting planet, contradicting the geocentric theory of the Alexandrian writer Claudius Ptolemy \u2013 the accepted position of the Catholic church. His tract sparked a debate that raged for years. By early 1615, Dominican friar Tommaso Caccini was loudly pressing the Inquisition to crack down on Galileo\u2019s heretical ideas. In one sermon, he suggested that astronomy contravened biblical teachings, quoting a line from the Acts of the Apostles: \u201cYe men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?\u201d<\/p>\n
On 26 February, Bellarmine summoned Galileo to his house in Rome and ordered him \u201cto abstain completely from teaching or defending this doctrine and opinion or from discussing it\u201d. In Bellarmine\u2019s words, Galileo must \u201cabandon completely\u2026 the opinion that the sun stands still at the centre of the world and the Earth moves, and henceforth not to hold, teach or defend it in any way whatever, either orally or in writing\u201d.<\/p>\n
27 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1881: British routed at Majuba Hill in surprise attack during First Boer War<\/h4>\n
With hundreds of reinforcements newly arrived from the south, the British commander, Sir George Colley, decided to mount a surprise attack on the Boers that would force them to agree to Britain\u2019s terms. On the night of the 26th, his troops climbed Majuba Hill, above the main Boer camp. Then, at first light, the firing began.<\/p>\n
As Colley had anticipated, the battle was a walkover \u2013 but for the wrong side. As the Boers charged up the hill, taking cover in the long grass, British resolve faltered. Suddenly, wrote young Thomas Carter, men started running. \u201cFive, six, seven, eight more men broke from the ranks in front of us and fled,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe\u00a0rest wavered, and\u2026 the whole lot went rushing wildly over us down into the bottom of the basin.\u201d And as Boer gunfire echoed around the\u00a0hill, Carter admitted, \u201cit was not long before I was on my feet and running with the rest\u201d.<\/p>\n
By now, Colley was dead, shot by\u00a0a Boer sniper as he tried to rally his men. He was one of 92 killed, while dozens more were captured, among them Thomas Fortescue Carter. For the British, it was a disaster; at the ensuing peace conference, they were forced to recognise the independent Transvaal Republic. But they never forgot Majuba. And two decades later, they got their revenge.<\/p>\n
28 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1638: Members of the Scottish nobility sign the National Covenant in the churchyard of Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh<\/h4>\n
3 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1870: The 15th Amendment guarantees Black Americans the vote<\/h4>\n
In February 1869, the House of Representatives drafted a 15th Amendment to the Constitution, stating that \u201cthe right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude\u201d.<\/p>\n
At last, on 3 February 1870, the 15th Amendment became law. Black communities exploded with joy. Alas, their struggle for equal rights was far from over.<\/p>\n
4 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1555: John Rogers becomes the first person to be executed for heresy under the Catholic queen<\/h4>\n
In January 1554, John Rogers had been detained for denying the authority of the Church of Rome \u2013 a brave thing to do, given that Mary<\/a> was now vigorously turning the clock back towards Catholicism. And now, more than a year later, his time had run out.<\/p>\nHe was taken to Smithfield, singing psalms as he went. On the way, his wife and 11 children were waiting; not even the sight of his family, though, could disturb his cool. Before a \u201cgreat number of people\u201d, according to Foxe\u2019s Book of Martyrs<\/em>, \u201che was burnt to ashes, washing his hands in the fame as he was burning\u2026 He constantly and cheerfully took his death with wonderful patience, in the defence and quarrel of the Gospel of Christ.\u201d He was just the first of Mary\u2019s victims. In the next three years, at least 280 more would follow.<\/p>\n5 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1783: Earthquake in Italy kills thousands<\/h4>\n
The first of five major earthquakes to hit Calabria, southern Italy, in two months killed an estimated 25,000 people and destroyed over 100 villages.<\/p>\n
6 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1952: 25-year-old Princess Elizabeth becomes queen<\/h4>\n ![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Queen Elizabeth II making her first ever Christmas broadcast to the nation from Sandringham House, Norfolk, 25 December 1952. (Photo by Fox Photos\/Hulton Archive\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nThis was following the death of her father, King George VI<\/a>, who passed away in his sleep at \u00a0Sandringham. She was in Kenya when she learned of his death.<\/p>\n7 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1807: Start of the two-day Battle of Eylau, the first serious check to Napoleon<\/a>\u2018s Grande Armee<\/h4>\n Famous births in February<\/h2>\n6 February 1911<\/h6>\n
Ronald Reagan<\/a>, actor, governor of California, and 40th president of the United States<\/p>\n9 February 1897<\/h6>\n
Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith, the first person to fly the Pacific from west to east<\/p>\n
9 February 1909<\/h6>\n
Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha, Portuguese Samba singer who became one of Hollywood\u2019s highest paid stars<\/p>\n
9 February 1910<\/h6>\n
Jacques Lucien Monod, French biologist who won a Nobel Prize for his discoveries concerning the genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis<\/p>\n
11 February 1847\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Thomas Edison, American inventor\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
12 February 1637<\/h6>\n
Jan Swammerdam, the first person to describe red blood cells<\/p>\n
12 February 1809<\/h6>\n
Charles Darwin<\/a>, pioneering British naturalist<\/p>\n14 February 1483<\/h6>\n
Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur<\/a>, a descendant of Genghis Khan and Turkic ruler Tamerlaine, and India\u2019s first Mughal emperor<\/p>\n18 February 1838<\/h6>\n
Ernst Mach, physicist, and developer of the \u2018Mach number\u2019, the ratio of the speed of an object as related to the speed of sound<\/p>\n
19 February 1473<\/h6>\n
Nicolaus Copernicus, astronomer, mathematician, and proponent of a heliocentric model of the universe<\/p>\n
19 February 1911<\/h6>\n
Merle Oberon, actress who rose to fame through her portrayal of Anne Boleyn in his 1933 film The Private Life of Henry VIII<\/em><\/p>\n21 February 1907<\/h6>\n
WH (Wystan Hugh) Auden, poet, and critic\u00a0<\/p>\n
22 February 1857<\/h6>\n
Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts\u00a0<\/p>\n
Famous deaths in February<\/h2>\n1 February 1851<\/h6>\n
Mary Shelley<\/a>, author of Frankenstein\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n2 February 1970<\/h6>\n
Bertrand Russell, Nobel Prize<\/a> winning philosopher and political campaigner<\/p>\n3 February 1832<\/h6>\n
George Crabbe, Aldeburgh-born poet, and minister<\/p>\n
4 February 1847\u00a0<\/h6>\n
Henri Dutrochet, discoverer of osmosis<\/p>\n
6 February 1617<\/h6>\n
Prospero Alpini, Italian botanist who is credited with introducing Europeans to the coffee plant<\/p>\n
6 February 1783<\/h6>\n
Lancelot \u2018Capability\u2019 Brown, English landscape designer<\/p>\n
7 February 1959<\/h6>\n
Daniel F Malan, African prime minister of the country from 1948 to 1954, and was one of the leading architects of its apartheid policy<\/p>\n
11 February 1650<\/h6>\n
Ren\u00e9 Descartes, French philosopher, mathematician, and physicist<\/p>\n
13 February 1571<\/h6>\n
Benvenuto Cellini, Italian goldsmith, painter, and sculptor\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
14 February 1779<\/h6>\n
Captain James Cook, Yorkshire explorer\u00a0<\/p>\n
20 February 1841<\/h6>\n
Friedrich Wilhelm Sert\u00fcrner, German pharmacologist who successfully isolated morphine from opium<\/p>\n
21 February 1513<\/h6>\n
Julius II, \u2018the Warrior Pope\u2019<\/p>\n
23 February 1821<\/h6>\n
John Keats, English poet, and author of works including\u00a0Ode to a Nightingale<\/em>,\u00a0La Belle Dame Sans Merci<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0To Autumn<\/em><\/p>\n24 February 1810<\/h6>\n
Henry Cavendish, scientist whose 1784 paper\u00a0Experiments on Air<\/em>\u00a0included the discovery that water was a compound of hydrogen and oxygen<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section>
8 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1587: Mary, Queen of Scots loses her head<\/h4>\n ![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> The execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. (Photo by Hulton Archive\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nBlindfolded, Mary knelt on a cushion on the specially erected scaffold and began to pray in Latin. Then came the executioner\u2019s blow. Unfortunately, he missed and hit her on the head, not the neck. The second blow almost severed her neck, but for \u201cone little gristle\u201d. On the third stroke, however, her head came off completely.<\/p>\n
The executioner raised it to the crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cGod save Queen Elizabeth!\u201d he cried. As if on cue, the head\u2019s auburn wig fell off, revealing Mary\u2019s short grey hair. Standing over her body, the Earl of Kent said solemnly: \u201cSuch end of all the queen\u2019s and the gospel\u2019s enemies.\u201d | Find out more about who betrayed Mary, Queen of Scots<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n9 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1943: The United States declares victory over Japan in Second World War<\/a> campaign<\/h4>\nThe campaign for Guadalcanal and nearby islands in the south-west Pacific lasted seven months.<\/p>\n
10 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1840: Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert<\/h4>\n
The ceremony was held at St James\u2019s Palace \u2013 \u201cvery imposing, and fine and simple\u201d, wrote Victoria. Unusually for brides of the time, she wore a white dress, a symbol not so much of purity than of wealth, which proved immensely influential. Given her royal position, the archbishop of Canterbury had suggested leaving out the vow to \u2018obey\u2019 her husband. But she insisted on keeping it in.<\/p>\n
- Read more |\u00a0Queen Victoria and Prince Albert: what was their relationship like?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
On the wedding night, not even Victoria\u2019s headache could spoil the mood. \u201cHe clasped me in his arms, and we kissed each other again and again!\u201d she recorded excitedly. And the wedding night itself? \u201cBliss beyond belief! Oh! this was the happiest day of my life! \u2013 May God help me to do my duty as I ought and be worthy of such blessings!\u201d<\/p>\n
11 February <\/a><\/h2>\nAD 55: Nero assassinates his stepbrother<\/h4>\n
\u201cA drink, still harmless, very hot, and already tasted, was handed to Britannicus,\u201d wrote Tacitus. \u201cThen, when he declined it as too warm, cold water was poured in, and with it the\u00a0poison, which ran so effectively through his whole system that he lost simultaneously both voice and breath. There was a startled movement in the company seated around, and the more obtuse began to disperse; those who could read more clearly sat motionless, their eyes\u00a0riveted on Nero<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\nNero just shrugged. Britannicus, he said, was having an epileptic fit \u2013 nothing to worry about. Nobody moved; within a few moments, the boy was dead. That night, in pouring rain, Nero had his stepbrother\u2019s body burned.<\/p>\n
12 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1909: Black activists and white reformers meet to form the\u00a0National Association for the Advancement of Colored People<\/h4>\n
Horrified by the rise of lynching, the Association was designed \u201cto promote equality of rights and\u00a0to eradicate caste or race prejudice\u201d in the US.<\/p>\n
13 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1258: Baghdad falls to the Mongols<\/a><\/h4>\nThe Mongols marched into the city. They burned the Great Library to the ground, threw its books into the Tigris and slaughtered its scholars. They burned and looted every mosque, palace and hospital in the city. They murdered al-Musta\u2019sim\u2019s sons before his eyes, wrapped him in a carpet and trampled him to death.<\/p>\n
Above all, they threw themselves on the local populace\u00a0in an orgy of rape and murder. Some estimates put the death toll at 100,000; others go much higher. The stench was such that Hulagu had to move his camp upwind. Baghdad survived, somehow. But its golden age was over.<\/p>\n
14 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1852: Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children opens its doors to the public<\/h4>\n
The first in-patient was Eliza Armstrong from Lisson Grove who was suffering from phthisis and bronchitis.<\/p>\n
![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Interior of the Clarence Ward in the Great Ormond Street Hospital. (Photo by English Heritage\/Heritage Images\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n15 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1493: Christopher Columbus writes of the New World<\/h4>\n
The date was 15 February 1493. Sailing back from the Americas, Christopher Columbus decided to write to the finance minister of Aragon, Luis de Sant\u00e1ngel, to report his discoveries. He was writing, he said, from \u201cthe islands of India beyond the Ganges recently discovered\u201d, which did not say much for his command of geography. Even so, he had good news \u2013 for the voyage had been a triumph.<\/p>\n
One word, above all, came up again and again. \u201cThere are many spices and vast mines of gold and other metals in this island,\u201d wrote Columbus. There were magnificent rivers, too, \u201cmost of which bear gold\u2026 To speak, in conclusion, only of what has been done during this hurried voyage, their Highnesses will see that I can give them as much gold as they desire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gold! That was what the Spanish authorities most wanted to hear. And with that, history was made.<\/p>\n
16 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1923: English archaeologist Howard Carter<\/a> opens the fourth room of King Tutankhamun<\/a>\u2019s tomb<\/h4>\nThe sealed burial chamber contained the king\u2019s sarcophagus and mummified body.<\/p>\n
17 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1662: Frederick Coyett, the last governor of Dutch-occupied Taiwan, abandons the island to its Ming conquerors, who were led by Koxinga<\/h4>\n18 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1478: Edward IV\u2019s brother is apparently drowned in a barrel of wine<\/h4>\n
Even by the standards of medieval England, George, Duke of Clarence met a colourful end. \u201cTake him on the costard with the hilts of thy sword,\u201d says one of his two murderers in Shakespeare\u2019s play\u00a0Richard III<\/em>, \u201cand then throw him into the malmsey-butt in the next room.\u201dWas he really drowned in a butt of sweet wine? Writing only five years later, the Italian visitor Dominic Mancini said so. And who would invent such a bizarre story?<\/p>\n
19 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1942: Japan\u2019s surprise bombing raid brings death and destruction to Darwin<\/h4>\n ![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> A Japanese air attack on Port Darwin, Australia, during the Second World War, 1942. In the foreground right is a US destroyer, and behind it (left to right) are the burning remains of an Australian ship, an Australian hospital ship and a British ship. (Photo by Keystone\/Hulton Archive\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nFew dates are as deeply etched into Australia\u2019s imagination as 19 February 1942, which saw the bloodiest attack by a foreign power in the nation\u2019s history. In all, 242 Japanese planes (from the fleet that had attacked Pearl Harbor<\/a>) swooped down on Darwin, the Northern Territory\u2019s capital, in two waves of terrifying intensity. \u201cMen who were there during the raids declared it was worse than anything they had experienced in London,\u201d reported The Sydney Morning Herald<\/em>\u00a0two days later. \u201cIt was a blitz of the most ferocious kind.\u201d<\/p>\nYet as clouds of thick black smoke rose above the waterfront, the horror and panic in Darwin did nothing to undermine Australia\u2019s commitment to the struggle. Indeed, the shock of the Japanese attack only strengthened many people\u2019s resolve to fight back. \u201cWhatever the future holds in store for us,\u201d declared Prime Minister John Curtin, \u201cwe are Australians and will fight grimly and victoriously\u2026 Unity must be our watchword, national service our one desire.\u201d<\/p>\n
20 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1472: Orkney and Shetland are annexed by Scotland<\/h4>\n
This followed the failure of Christian, the King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, to pay a dowry for James III\u2019s bride, Margaret of Denmark.<\/p>\n
21 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1804: Pen-y-Darren locomotive steams into history<\/h4>\n
Samuel Homfray, founder of the Pen-y-Darren Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil, was open to innovation and, in 1802, he engaged a Cornish inventor, Richard Trevithick, to build a high-pressure steam engine to drive a hammer.<\/p>\n
Homfray liked what he saw so much that he bought the patent. Then he made a 500-guinea bet with a rival ironmaster, Richard Crawshay, wagering that his new locomotive could pull 10 tonnes of iron along the Merthyr Tydfil tramway, a distance of almost 10 miles. A date was set: 21 February 1804. And in its way, it deserves to be remembered as one of the most influential moments in history.<\/p>\n
A large crowd assembled to watch the great moment. Steam went up, the wheels turned \u2013 and they were off. Underneath, some of the tramway\u2019s plates buckled and cracked under the weight of the train. But they kept moving. Four hours later, the train eased to a stop. Homfray had won his bet, and the history of transport would never be the same again.<\/p>\n
22 February 1879<\/a><\/h2>\nFrank Woolworth opened his first store in New York<\/h4>\n
It was not a success, but he opened more and the firm grew. The first UK shop opened in Liverpool in 1909.<\/p>\n
23 February <\/a><\/h2>\n303: Diocletian orders massive persecution of Christians<\/h4>\n
On 23 February, Diocletian made his move. It was the feast-day of Terminus, the god of the boundary-marker \u2013 an appropriate day to begin the termination of Christianity. At first he ordered that the new Christian church in the eastern city of Nicomedia be destroyed and its treasures seized. But the next day he went further. In his Edict Against the Christians, Diocletian ordered that all Christian churches, books and relics be obliterated. Christians were banned from religious meetings or from appearing in court, while all Christian senators, civil servants and officers were stripped of their titles.<\/p>\n
Although Diocletian ordered that the edict be carried out \u201cwithout bloodshed\u201d, officials in the east in particular quickly resorted to the death penalty, burning Christians alive if they resisted. But the truth was that Christianity was too deeply embedded in Roman culture to be rooted out. As one historian puts it, the persecution was \u201ctoo little, too late\u201d.<\/p>\n
24 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1848: France\u2019s last king abdicates amid riots<\/h4>\n
In the early stages of the 1848 revolution, Louis-Philippe had sympathised with the revolutionaries. But, as a cousin of the late Louis XVI, he dreaded suffering the same bloody fate and, in any case, lacked the stomach to order large-scale repression. By the late morning of 24 February, his courage had run out. Cloistered with his courtiers, the king called for ink and paper. His queen, Marie-Am\u00e9lie, begged him to stand firm. \u201cSir, you are giving way to a riot; you are allowing yourself to be frightened!\u201d she begged. But he gently pushed her away and a moment later signed the instrument of abdication. Later that afternoon, dressed all in black, the last French king left his palace for exile in Surrey.<\/p>\n
25 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1956: Khrushchev denounces Stalin<\/h4>\n
Three years after Stalin\u2019s death, Nikita Khrushchev said, it was time to tell the truth about Stalin\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n
- On the podcast |\u00a0Stalin: the real victor of WW2<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
The dictator had been projected as \u201ca superman possessing supernatural characteristics, akin to those of a god\u201d. In fact, Khrushchev said, Stalin had been a man of \u201cbrutal violence\u2026 capricious and despotic\u201d. He had practised \u201cmass terror\u201d against \u201cthe honest workers of the Party and of the Soviet state\u201d. He had ignored warnings that the Nazis were going to invade in 1941. And he had taken credit for the heroism of the Soviet people, encouraging a cult of \u201cloathsome adulation\u201d. All of this, Nikita Khrushchev said, had been built on lies; all of it must gradually be exposed to the people.<\/p>\n
26 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1616: Galileo is ordered to abandon his astronomical ideas by the Catholic church<\/h4>\n ![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Portrayal of Italian astronomer and physicist, Galileo Galilei (1564 \u2013 1642) using a telescope. (Photo by Hulton Archive\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nThere was a problem. Galileo\u2019s observations placed the sun at the centre of the solar system and relegated the Earth to a mere orbiting planet, contradicting the geocentric theory of the Alexandrian writer Claudius Ptolemy \u2013 the accepted position of the Catholic church. His tract sparked a debate that raged for years. By early 1615, Dominican friar Tommaso Caccini was loudly pressing the Inquisition to crack down on Galileo\u2019s heretical ideas. In one sermon, he suggested that astronomy contravened biblical teachings, quoting a line from the Acts of the Apostles: \u201cYe men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?\u201d<\/p>\n
On 26 February, Bellarmine summoned Galileo to his house in Rome and ordered him \u201cto abstain completely from teaching or defending this doctrine and opinion or from discussing it\u201d. In Bellarmine\u2019s words, Galileo must \u201cabandon completely\u2026 the opinion that the sun stands still at the centre of the world and the Earth moves, and henceforth not to hold, teach or defend it in any way whatever, either orally or in writing\u201d.<\/p>\n
27 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1881: British routed at Majuba Hill in surprise attack during First Boer War<\/h4>\n
With hundreds of reinforcements newly arrived from the south, the British commander, Sir George Colley, decided to mount a surprise attack on the Boers that would force them to agree to Britain\u2019s terms. On the night of the 26th, his troops climbed Majuba Hill, above the main Boer camp. Then, at first light, the firing began.<\/p>\n
As Colley had anticipated, the battle was a walkover \u2013 but for the wrong side. As the Boers charged up the hill, taking cover in the long grass, British resolve faltered. Suddenly, wrote young Thomas Carter, men started running. \u201cFive, six, seven, eight more men broke from the ranks in front of us and fled,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe\u00a0rest wavered, and\u2026 the whole lot went rushing wildly over us down into the bottom of the basin.\u201d And as Boer gunfire echoed around the\u00a0hill, Carter admitted, \u201cit was not long before I was on my feet and running with the rest\u201d.<\/p>\n
By now, Colley was dead, shot by\u00a0a Boer sniper as he tried to rally his men. He was one of 92 killed, while dozens more were captured, among them Thomas Fortescue Carter. For the British, it was a disaster; at the ensuing peace conference, they were forced to recognise the independent Transvaal Republic. But they never forgot Majuba. And two decades later, they got their revenge.<\/p>\n
28 February <\/a><\/h2>\n1638: Members of the Scottish nobility sign the National Covenant in the churchyard of Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh<\/h4>\n
1555: John Rogers becomes the first person to be executed for heresy under the Catholic queen<\/h4>\n
In January 1554, John Rogers had been detained for denying the authority of the Church of Rome \u2013 a brave thing to do, given that Mary<\/a> was now vigorously turning the clock back towards Catholicism. And now, more than a year later, his time had run out.<\/p>\n He was taken to Smithfield, singing psalms as he went. On the way, his wife and 11 children were waiting; not even the sight of his family, though, could disturb his cool. Before a \u201cgreat number of people\u201d, according to Foxe\u2019s Book of Martyrs<\/em>, \u201che was burnt to ashes, washing his hands in the fame as he was burning\u2026 He constantly and cheerfully took his death with wonderful patience, in the defence and quarrel of the Gospel of Christ.\u201d He was just the first of Mary\u2019s victims. In the next three years, at least 280 more would follow.<\/p>\n The first of five major earthquakes to hit Calabria, southern Italy, in two months killed an estimated 25,000 people and destroyed over 100 villages.<\/p>\n This was following the death of her father, King George VI<\/a>, who passed away in his sleep at \u00a0Sandringham. She was in Kenya when she learned of his death.<\/p>\n Ronald Reagan<\/a>, actor, governor of California, and 40th president of the United States<\/p>\n Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith, the first person to fly the Pacific from west to east<\/p>\n Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha, Portuguese Samba singer who became one of Hollywood\u2019s highest paid stars<\/p>\n Jacques Lucien Monod, French biologist who won a Nobel Prize for his discoveries concerning the genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis<\/p>\n Thomas Edison, American inventor\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Jan Swammerdam, the first person to describe red blood cells<\/p>\n Charles Darwin<\/a>, pioneering British naturalist<\/p>\n Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur<\/a>, a descendant of Genghis Khan and Turkic ruler Tamerlaine, and India\u2019s first Mughal emperor<\/p>\n Ernst Mach, physicist, and developer of the \u2018Mach number\u2019, the ratio of the speed of an object as related to the speed of sound<\/p>\n Nicolaus Copernicus, astronomer, mathematician, and proponent of a heliocentric model of the universe<\/p>\n Merle Oberon, actress who rose to fame through her portrayal of Anne Boleyn in his 1933 film The Private Life of Henry VIII<\/em><\/p>\n WH (Wystan Hugh) Auden, poet, and critic\u00a0<\/p>\n Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts\u00a0<\/p>\n Mary Shelley<\/a>, author of Frankenstein\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Bertrand Russell, Nobel Prize<\/a> winning philosopher and political campaigner<\/p>\n George Crabbe, Aldeburgh-born poet, and minister<\/p>\n Henri Dutrochet, discoverer of osmosis<\/p>\n Prospero Alpini, Italian botanist who is credited with introducing Europeans to the coffee plant<\/p>\n Lancelot \u2018Capability\u2019 Brown, English landscape designer<\/p>\n Daniel F Malan, African prime minister of the country from 1948 to 1954, and was one of the leading architects of its apartheid policy<\/p>\n Ren\u00e9 Descartes, French philosopher, mathematician, and physicist<\/p>\n Benvenuto Cellini, Italian goldsmith, painter, and sculptor\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Captain James Cook, Yorkshire explorer\u00a0<\/p>\n Friedrich Wilhelm Sert\u00fcrner, German pharmacologist who successfully isolated morphine from opium<\/p>\n Julius II, \u2018the Warrior Pope\u2019<\/p>\n John Keats, English poet, and author of works including\u00a0Ode to a Nightingale<\/em>,\u00a0La Belle Dame Sans Merci<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0To Autumn<\/em><\/p>\n Henry Cavendish, scientist whose 1784 paper\u00a0Experiments on Air<\/em>\u00a0included the discovery that water was a compound of hydrogen and oxygen<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> Blindfolded, Mary knelt on a cushion on the specially erected scaffold and began to pray in Latin. Then came the executioner\u2019s blow. Unfortunately, he missed and hit her on the head, not the neck. The second blow almost severed her neck, but for \u201cone little gristle\u201d. On the third stroke, however, her head came off completely.<\/p>\n The executioner raised it to the crowd.<\/p>\n \u201cGod save Queen Elizabeth!\u201d he cried. As if on cue, the head\u2019s auburn wig fell off, revealing Mary\u2019s short grey hair. Standing over her body, the Earl of Kent said solemnly: \u201cSuch end of all the queen\u2019s and the gospel\u2019s enemies.\u201d | Find out more about who betrayed Mary, Queen of Scots<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The campaign for Guadalcanal and nearby islands in the south-west Pacific lasted seven months.<\/p>\n The ceremony was held at St James\u2019s Palace \u2013 \u201cvery imposing, and fine and simple\u201d, wrote Victoria. Unusually for brides of the time, she wore a white dress, a symbol not so much of purity than of wealth, which proved immensely influential. Given her royal position, the archbishop of Canterbury had suggested leaving out the vow to \u2018obey\u2019 her husband. But she insisted on keeping it in.<\/p>\n On the wedding night, not even Victoria\u2019s headache could spoil the mood. \u201cHe clasped me in his arms, and we kissed each other again and again!\u201d she recorded excitedly. And the wedding night itself? \u201cBliss beyond belief! Oh! this was the happiest day of my life! \u2013 May God help me to do my duty as I ought and be worthy of such blessings!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA drink, still harmless, very hot, and already tasted, was handed to Britannicus,\u201d wrote Tacitus. \u201cThen, when he declined it as too warm, cold water was poured in, and with it the\u00a0poison, which ran so effectively through his whole system that he lost simultaneously both voice and breath. There was a startled movement in the company seated around, and the more obtuse began to disperse; those who could read more clearly sat motionless, their eyes\u00a0riveted on Nero<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Nero just shrugged. Britannicus, he said, was having an epileptic fit \u2013 nothing to worry about. Nobody moved; within a few moments, the boy was dead. That night, in pouring rain, Nero had his stepbrother\u2019s body burned.<\/p>\n Horrified by the rise of lynching, the Association was designed \u201cto promote equality of rights and\u00a0to eradicate caste or race prejudice\u201d in the US.<\/p>\n The Mongols marched into the city. They burned the Great Library to the ground, threw its books into the Tigris and slaughtered its scholars. They burned and looted every mosque, palace and hospital in the city. They murdered al-Musta\u2019sim\u2019s sons before his eyes, wrapped him in a carpet and trampled him to death.<\/p>\n Above all, they threw themselves on the local populace\u00a0in an orgy of rape and murder. Some estimates put the death toll at 100,000; others go much higher. The stench was such that Hulagu had to move his camp upwind. Baghdad survived, somehow. But its golden age was over.<\/p>\n The first in-patient was Eliza Armstrong from Lisson Grove who was suffering from phthisis and bronchitis.<\/p>\n The date was 15 February 1493. Sailing back from the Americas, Christopher Columbus decided to write to the finance minister of Aragon, Luis de Sant\u00e1ngel, to report his discoveries. He was writing, he said, from \u201cthe islands of India beyond the Ganges recently discovered\u201d, which did not say much for his command of geography. Even so, he had good news \u2013 for the voyage had been a triumph.<\/p>\n One word, above all, came up again and again. \u201cThere are many spices and vast mines of gold and other metals in this island,\u201d wrote Columbus. There were magnificent rivers, too, \u201cmost of which bear gold\u2026 To speak, in conclusion, only of what has been done during this hurried voyage, their Highnesses will see that I can give them as much gold as they desire.\u201d<\/p>\n Gold! That was what the Spanish authorities most wanted to hear. And with that, history was made.<\/p>\n The sealed burial chamber contained the king\u2019s sarcophagus and mummified body.<\/p>\n Even by the standards of medieval England, George, Duke of Clarence met a colourful end. \u201cTake him on the costard with the hilts of thy sword,\u201d says one of his two murderers in Shakespeare\u2019s play\u00a0Richard III<\/em>, \u201cand then throw him into the malmsey-butt in the next room.\u201d Was he really drowned in a butt of sweet wine? Writing only five years later, the Italian visitor Dominic Mancini said so. And who would invent such a bizarre story?<\/p>\n Few dates are as deeply etched into Australia\u2019s imagination as 19 February 1942, which saw the bloodiest attack by a foreign power in the nation\u2019s history. In all, 242 Japanese planes (from the fleet that had attacked Pearl Harbor<\/a>) swooped down on Darwin, the Northern Territory\u2019s capital, in two waves of terrifying intensity. \u201cMen who were there during the raids declared it was worse than anything they had experienced in London,\u201d reported The Sydney Morning Herald<\/em>\u00a0two days later. \u201cIt was a blitz of the most ferocious kind.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet as clouds of thick black smoke rose above the waterfront, the horror and panic in Darwin did nothing to undermine Australia\u2019s commitment to the struggle. Indeed, the shock of the Japanese attack only strengthened many people\u2019s resolve to fight back. \u201cWhatever the future holds in store for us,\u201d declared Prime Minister John Curtin, \u201cwe are Australians and will fight grimly and victoriously\u2026 Unity must be our watchword, national service our one desire.\u201d<\/p>\n This followed the failure of Christian, the King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, to pay a dowry for James III\u2019s bride, Margaret of Denmark.<\/p>\n Samuel Homfray, founder of the Pen-y-Darren Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil, was open to innovation and, in 1802, he engaged a Cornish inventor, Richard Trevithick, to build a high-pressure steam engine to drive a hammer.<\/p>\n Homfray liked what he saw so much that he bought the patent. Then he made a 500-guinea bet with a rival ironmaster, Richard Crawshay, wagering that his new locomotive could pull 10 tonnes of iron along the Merthyr Tydfil tramway, a distance of almost 10 miles. A date was set: 21 February 1804. And in its way, it deserves to be remembered as one of the most influential moments in history.<\/p>\n A large crowd assembled to watch the great moment. Steam went up, the wheels turned \u2013 and they were off. Underneath, some of the tramway\u2019s plates buckled and cracked under the weight of the train. But they kept moving. Four hours later, the train eased to a stop. Homfray had won his bet, and the history of transport would never be the same again.<\/p>\n It was not a success, but he opened more and the firm grew. The first UK shop opened in Liverpool in 1909.<\/p>\n On 23 February, Diocletian made his move. It was the feast-day of Terminus, the god of the boundary-marker \u2013 an appropriate day to begin the termination of Christianity. At first he ordered that the new Christian church in the eastern city of Nicomedia be destroyed and its treasures seized. But the next day he went further. In his Edict Against the Christians, Diocletian ordered that all Christian churches, books and relics be obliterated. Christians were banned from religious meetings or from appearing in court, while all Christian senators, civil servants and officers were stripped of their titles.<\/p>\n Although Diocletian ordered that the edict be carried out \u201cwithout bloodshed\u201d, officials in the east in particular quickly resorted to the death penalty, burning Christians alive if they resisted. But the truth was that Christianity was too deeply embedded in Roman culture to be rooted out. As one historian puts it, the persecution was \u201ctoo little, too late\u201d.<\/p>\n In the early stages of the 1848 revolution, Louis-Philippe had sympathised with the revolutionaries. But, as a cousin of the late Louis XVI, he dreaded suffering the same bloody fate and, in any case, lacked the stomach to order large-scale repression. By the late morning of 24 February, his courage had run out. Cloistered with his courtiers, the king called for ink and paper. His queen, Marie-Am\u00e9lie, begged him to stand firm. \u201cSir, you are giving way to a riot; you are allowing yourself to be frightened!\u201d she begged. But he gently pushed her away and a moment later signed the instrument of abdication. Later that afternoon, dressed all in black, the last French king left his palace for exile in Surrey.<\/p>\n Three years after Stalin\u2019s death, Nikita Khrushchev said, it was time to tell the truth about Stalin\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n The dictator had been projected as \u201ca superman possessing supernatural characteristics, akin to those of a god\u201d. In fact, Khrushchev said, Stalin had been a man of \u201cbrutal violence\u2026 capricious and despotic\u201d. He had practised \u201cmass terror\u201d against \u201cthe honest workers of the Party and of the Soviet state\u201d. He had ignored warnings that the Nazis were going to invade in 1941. And he had taken credit for the heroism of the Soviet people, encouraging a cult of \u201cloathsome adulation\u201d. All of this, Nikita Khrushchev said, had been built on lies; all of it must gradually be exposed to the people.<\/p>\n There was a problem. Galileo\u2019s observations placed the sun at the centre of the solar system and relegated the Earth to a mere orbiting planet, contradicting the geocentric theory of the Alexandrian writer Claudius Ptolemy \u2013 the accepted position of the Catholic church. His tract sparked a debate that raged for years. By early 1615, Dominican friar Tommaso Caccini was loudly pressing the Inquisition to crack down on Galileo\u2019s heretical ideas. In one sermon, he suggested that astronomy contravened biblical teachings, quoting a line from the Acts of the Apostles: \u201cYe men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?\u201d<\/p>\n On 26 February, Bellarmine summoned Galileo to his house in Rome and ordered him \u201cto abstain completely from teaching or defending this doctrine and opinion or from discussing it\u201d. In Bellarmine\u2019s words, Galileo must \u201cabandon completely\u2026 the opinion that the sun stands still at the centre of the world and the Earth moves, and henceforth not to hold, teach or defend it in any way whatever, either orally or in writing\u201d.<\/p>\n With hundreds of reinforcements newly arrived from the south, the British commander, Sir George Colley, decided to mount a surprise attack on the Boers that would force them to agree to Britain\u2019s terms. On the night of the 26th, his troops climbed Majuba Hill, above the main Boer camp. Then, at first light, the firing began.<\/p>\n As Colley had anticipated, the battle was a walkover \u2013 but for the wrong side. As the Boers charged up the hill, taking cover in the long grass, British resolve faltered. Suddenly, wrote young Thomas Carter, men started running. \u201cFive, six, seven, eight more men broke from the ranks in front of us and fled,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe\u00a0rest wavered, and\u2026 the whole lot went rushing wildly over us down into the bottom of the basin.\u201d And as Boer gunfire echoed around the\u00a0hill, Carter admitted, \u201cit was not long before I was on my feet and running with the rest\u201d.<\/p>\n By now, Colley was dead, shot by\u00a0a Boer sniper as he tried to rally his men. He was one of 92 killed, while dozens more were captured, among them Thomas Fortescue Carter. For the British, it was a disaster; at the ensuing peace conference, they were forced to recognise the independent Transvaal Republic. But they never forgot Majuba. And two decades later, they got their revenge.<\/p>\n5 February <\/a><\/h2>\n
1783: Earthquake in Italy kills thousands<\/h4>\n
6 February <\/a><\/h2>\n
1952: 25-year-old Princess Elizabeth becomes queen<\/h4>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/01\/GettyImages-3418925-b34ccba-e1674814957456.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C412"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>7 February <\/a><\/h2>\n
1807: Start of the two-day Battle of Eylau, the first serious check to Napoleon<\/a>\u2018s Grande Armee<\/h4>\n
Famous births in February<\/h2>\n
6 February 1911<\/h6>\n
9 February 1897<\/h6>\n
9 February 1909<\/h6>\n
9 February 1910<\/h6>\n
11 February 1847\u00a0<\/h6>\n
12 February 1637<\/h6>\n
12 February 1809<\/h6>\n
14 February 1483<\/h6>\n
18 February 1838<\/h6>\n
19 February 1473<\/h6>\n
19 February 1911<\/h6>\n
21 February 1907<\/h6>\n
22 February 1857<\/h6>\n
Famous deaths in February<\/h2>\n
1 February 1851<\/h6>\n
2 February 1970<\/h6>\n
3 February 1832<\/h6>\n
4 February 1847\u00a0<\/h6>\n
6 February 1617<\/h6>\n
6 February 1783<\/h6>\n
7 February 1959<\/h6>\n
11 February 1650<\/h6>\n
13 February 1571<\/h6>\n
14 February 1779<\/h6>\n
20 February 1841<\/h6>\n
21 February 1513<\/h6>\n
23 February 1821<\/h6>\n
24 February 1810<\/h6>\n
8 February <\/a><\/h2>\n
1587: Mary, Queen of Scots loses her head<\/h4>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/01\/GettyImages-51244744-3bccb1b-e1674815070780.jpg?quality=90&resize=599%2C412"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>9 February <\/a><\/h2>\n
1943: The United States declares victory over Japan in Second World War<\/a> campaign<\/h4>\n
10 February <\/a><\/h2>\n
1840: Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert<\/h4>\n
11 February <\/a><\/h2>\n
AD 55: Nero assassinates his stepbrother<\/h4>\n
12 February <\/a><\/h2>\n
1909: Black activists and white reformers meet to form the\u00a0National Association for the Advancement of Colored People<\/h4>\n
13 February <\/a><\/h2>\n
1258: Baghdad falls to the Mongols<\/a><\/h4>\n
14 February <\/a><\/h2>\n
1852: Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children opens its doors to the public<\/h4>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/01\/GettyImages-973878656-79e7ca3-e1674815238206.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C412"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>15 February <\/a><\/h2>\n
1493: Christopher Columbus writes of the New World<\/h4>\n
16 February <\/a><\/h2>\n
1923: English archaeologist Howard Carter<\/a> opens the fourth room of King Tutankhamun<\/a>\u2019s tomb<\/h4>\n
17 February <\/a><\/h2>\n
1662: Frederick Coyett, the last governor of Dutch-occupied Taiwan, abandons the island to its Ming conquerors, who were led by Koxinga<\/h4>\n
18 February <\/a><\/h2>\n
1478: Edward IV\u2019s brother is apparently drowned in a barrel of wine<\/h4>\n
19 February <\/a><\/h2>\n
1942: Japan\u2019s surprise bombing raid brings death and destruction to Darwin<\/h4>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/01\/GettyImages-109692355-c7ad894-e1674815554403.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C412"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>20 February <\/a><\/h2>\n
1472: Orkney and Shetland are annexed by Scotland<\/h4>\n
21 February <\/a><\/h2>\n
1804: Pen-y-Darren locomotive steams into history<\/h4>\n
22 February 1879<\/a><\/h2>\n
Frank Woolworth opened his first store in New York<\/h4>\n
23 February <\/a><\/h2>\n
303: Diocletian orders massive persecution of Christians<\/h4>\n
24 February <\/a><\/h2>\n
1848: France\u2019s last king abdicates amid riots<\/h4>\n
25 February <\/a><\/h2>\n
1956: Khrushchev denounces Stalin<\/h4>\n
26 February <\/a><\/h2>\n
1616: Galileo is ordered to abandon his astronomical ideas by the Catholic church<\/h4>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/01\/GettyImages-50965499-d1f4145-e1674815001545.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C412"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>27 February <\/a><\/h2>\n
1881: British routed at Majuba Hill in surprise attack during First Boer War<\/h4>\n
28 February <\/a><\/h2>\n
1638: Members of the Scottish nobility sign the National Covenant in the churchyard of Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh<\/h4>\n