Events

• 1370 – Northern Crusades: Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Teutonic Knights meet in the Battle of Rudau.
• 1411 – Following the successful campaigns during the Ottoman Interregnum, Musa Çelebi, one of the sons of Bayezid I, becomes Sultan of the Ottoman Empire with the support of Mircea I of Wallachia.
• 1500 – Duke Friedrich and Duke Johann attempt to subdue the peasantry of Dithmarschen, Denmark, in the Battle of Hemmingstedt.
• 1621 – Myles Standish is appointed as the first military commander of the English Plymouth Colony in North America.
• 1676 – Sixteen men of Pascual de Iriate’s expedition are lost at Evangelistas Islets at the western end of the Strait of Magellan.
• 1739 – The Battle of Vasai commences as the Marathas move to invade Portuguese-occupied territory.
• 1814 – War of the Sixth Coalition: The Battle of Mormant (refer to Napoleonic Wars).
• 1819 – The United States House of Representatives passes the Missouri Compromise for the first time.
• 1838 – Weenen massacre: Hundreds of Voortrekkers along the Blaukraans River, Natal are killed by Zulus.
• 1854 – The United Kingdom recognises the independence of the Orange Free State.
• 1859 – Cochinchina Campaign: The French Navy captures the Citadel of Saigon, a fortress manned by 1,000 Nguyễn dynasty soldiers, en route to conquering Saigon and other regions of southern Viet Nam.
• 1863 – A group of citizens of Geneva found an International Committee for Relief to the Wounded, which later became known as the International Committee of the Red Cross.
• 1864 – American Civil War: The H.L. Hunley becomes the first submarine to engage and sink a warship, the USS Housatonic.
• 1865 – American Civil War: Columbia, South Carolina, is burned as Confederate forces flee from advancing Union forces.
• 1867 – The first ship passes through the Suez Canal.
• 1871 – The victorious Prussian Army parades through Paris, France, after the end of the Siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War.
• 1919 – The Ukrainian People’s Republic asks the Entente and the US for help fighting the Bolsheviks.
• 1944 – World War II: The Battle of Eniwetok begins. The battle ends in an American victory on February 22.
• 1944 – World War II: Operation Hailstone begins: US naval air, surface, and submarine attack against Truk Lagoon, Japan’s main base in the central Pacific, in support of the Eniwetok invasion.
• 1964 – Gabonese president Léon M’ba is toppled by a coup and his rival, Jean-Hilaire Aubame, is installed in his place.
• 1974 – Robert K. Preston, a disgruntled US Army private, buzzes the White House in a stolen helicopter.
• 1978 – The Troubles: The Provisional IRA detonates an incendiary bomb at the La Mon restaurant, near Belfast, killing 12 and seriously injuring 30 others, all Protestants.
• 1979 – The Sino-Vietnamese War begins.
• 1992 – First Nagorno-Karabakh War: Armenian troops massacre more than 20 Azerbaijani civilians during the Capture of Garadaghly.
• 1995 – The Cenepa War between Peru and Ecuador ends on a ceasefire brokered by the UN.
• 2008 – Kosovo declares independence from Serbia.
• 2011 – Arab Spring: Libyan protests against Muammar Gaddafi’s regime begin.
• 2011 – Arab Spring: In Bahrain, security forces launch a deadly pre-dawn raid on protesters in Pearl Roundabout in Manama; the day is locally known as Bloody Thursday.
• 2016 – Military vehicles explode outside a Turkish Armed Forces barracks in Ankara, Turkey, killing at least 29 people and injuring 61 others.

People (Births)

• 1762 – John Cooke, English captain (d. 1805).
• 1781 – René Laennec, French physician, invented the stethoscope (d. 1826).
• 1862 – Mori Ōgai, Japanese general, author, and poet (d. 1922).
• 1877 – André Maginot, French sergeant and politician (d. 1932), refer to Maginot Line.
• 1908 – Bo Yibo, Chinese general and politician, Vice Premier of the People’s Republic of China (d. 2007).
• 1929 – Nicholas Ridley, Baron Ridley of Liddesdale, English lieutenant and politician, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (d. 1993).
• 1959 – Rowdy Gaines, American swimmer and sportscaster.
• 1961 – Maria Eagle, English politician, Shadow Secretary of State for Defence.
• 1969 – David Douillet, French martial artist and politician.
• 1989 – Rebecca Adlington, English swimmer.

People (Deaths)

• 1909 – Geronimo, American tribal leader (b. 1829).
• 1998 – Ernst Jünger, German soldier, philosopher, and author (b. 1895).
• 2015 – Liu Yudi, Chinese general and pilot (b. 1923).