This day in .....

1 February 1964 – The Beatles have their first number one hit in the United States with "I Want to Hold Your Hand".

I Want to Hold Your Hand

For other uses, see I Want to Hold Your Hand (disambiguation).

"I Want to Hold Your Hand" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles. Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and recorded in October 1963, it was the first Beatles record to be made using four-track equipment.

With advance orders exceeding one million copies in the United Kingdom, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" would have gone straight to the top of the British record charts on its day of release (29 November 1963) had it not been blocked by the group's first million-seller "She Loves You", their previous UK single, which was having a resurgence of popularity following intense media coverage of the group. Taking two weeks to dislodge its predecessor, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" stayed at number 1 for five weeks and remained in the UK top 50 for 21 weeks in total.^[1]

It was also the group's first American number 1 hit, entering the Billboard Hot 100 chart on 18 January 1964 at number 45 and starting the British Invasion of the American music industry. By 1 February it topped the Hot 100, and stayed there for seven weeks before being replaced by "She Loves You". It remained on the Billboard chart for 15 weeks.^[2] "I Want to Hold Your Hand" became the Beatles' best-selling single worldwide selling more than 12 million copies.^[3] In 2018, Billboard magazine named it the 48th biggest hit of all time on the Billboard Hot 100.^[4]

1. ^ Gambaccini 1991, pp. 27.
2. ^ Harry 1985, pp. 66.
3. ^ Harry 2000, p. 561.
4. ^ "Hot 100 turns 60". Billboard. Retrieved August 6, 2018.

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2 February 1901 – Funeral of Queen Victoria.

Queen Victoria

British monarch who reigned 1837–1901

For other uses, see Queen Victoria (disambiguation) and Victoria of the United Kingdom (disambiguation).

"Victoria Regina" redirects here. For the play, see Victoria Regina (play).

Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. On 1 May 1876, she adopted the additional title of Empress of India.

Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, the fourth son of King George III. Both the Duke and the King died in 1820, and Victoria was raised under close supervision by her mother, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She inherited the throne at the age of 18, after her father's three elder brothers had all died, leaving no surviving legitimate children. The United Kingdom was already an established constitutional monarchy, in which the sovereign held relatively little direct political power. Privately, Victoria attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments; publicly, she became a national icon who was identified with strict standards of personal morality.

Victoria married her first cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1840. Their nine children married into royal and noble families across the continent, tying them together and earning her the sobriquet "the grandmother of Europe". After Albert's death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, republicanism temporarily gained strength, but in the latter half of her reign, her popularity recovered. Her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration.

Her reign of 63 years and seven months was longer than that of any of her predecessors and is known as the Victorian era. It was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover. Her son and successor, Edward VII, initiated the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the line of his father.

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3 February 2007 – A Baghdad market bombing kills at least 135 people and injures a further

3 February 2007 Baghdad market bombing

The 3 February 2007 Baghdad market bombing was the detonation of a large truck bomb in a busy market in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on 3 February 2007. The suicide attack killed at least 135 people and injured 339 others.^[1]

The bomb, estimated to be about one ton in weight, brought down at least 10 buildings and coffee shops and obliterated market stalls in a largely Shi‘ite enclave less than a half mile from the Tigris River.^[2]

1. ^ ^{a b} "Terror takes toll on market, vendors". The Washington Times. 7 February 2007. Retrieved 7 February 2007.
2. ^ Oppel, Jr., Richard A.; Qais Mizher (3 February 2007). "Dozens Killed in Baghdad Bombing". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 February 2007.

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4 February 1859 – The Codex Sinaiticus is discovered in Egypt.

Codex Sinaiticus

Handwritten copy of the Bible in Greek

Codex Sinaiticus (Greek: Σιναϊτικός Κώδικας, Sinaïtikós Kṓdikas, Hebrew: קודקס סינאיטיקוס‎; Shelfmarks and references: London, Brit. Libr., Additional Manuscripts 43725; Gregory-Aland nº א [Aleph] or 01, [Soden δ 2]) or "Sinai Bible" is one of the four great uncial codices, ancient, handwritten copies of the Greek Bible. The codex is a celebrated historical treasure.^[1]

The codex is an Alexandrian text-type manuscript written in uncial letters on parchment in the 4th century. Scholarship considers the Codex Sinaiticus to be one of the best Greek texts of the New Testament,^[2] along with the Codex Vaticanus. Until Constantin von Tischendorf's discovery of the Sinaiticus text, the Codex Vaticanus was unrivaled.^[3]

The Codex Sinaiticus came to the attention of scholars in the 19th century at Saint Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai Peninsula, with further material discovered in the 20th and 21st centuries. Although parts of the codex are scattered across four libraries around the world, most of the manuscript is held today in the British Library in London, where it is on public display.^[4][5] Since its discovery, study of the Codex Sinaiticus has proven to be useful to scholars for critical studies of biblical text.

While large portions of the Old Testament are missing, it is assumed that the codex originally contained the whole of both Testaments.^[6] About half of the Greek Old Testament (or Septuagint) survived, along with a complete New Testament, the entire Deuterocanonical books, the Epistle of Barnabas and portions of The Shepherd of Hermas.^[2]

1. ^ Sinai: The Site & the History by Mursi Saad El Din, Ayman Taher, Luciano Romano 1998 ISBN 0-8147-2203-2 page 101
2. ^ ^{a b} Aland, Kurt; Barbara Aland (1995). The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism, trans. Erroll F. Rhodes. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. p. 107. ISBN 978-0-8028-4098-1.
3. ^ Scrivener, Frederick Henry Ambrose (1875). Six Lectures on the Text of the New Testament and the Ancient Manuscripts. Cambridge. p. 26. ISBN 978-1-4097-0826-1.
4. ^ Aland, Kurt; Aland, Barbara (1995). The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism. Erroll F. Rhodes (trans.). Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. pp. 107–108. ISBN 978-0-8028-4098-1.
5. ^ "Liste Handschriften". Münster: Institute for New Testament Textual Research. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
6. ^ "Sacred Texts: Codex Sinaiticus". www.bl.uk. Retrieved 2017-01-27.

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5 February 1971 – Astronauts land on the moon in the Apollo 14 mission.

Apollo 14

Third manned mission to land on the Moon

Apollo 14 was the eighth manned mission in the United States Apollo program, and the third to land on the Moon. It was the last of the "H missions," targeted landings with two-day stays on the Moon with two lunar EVAs, or moonwalks.

Commander Alan Shepard, Command Module Pilot Stuart Roosa, and Lunar Module Pilot Edgar Mitchell launched on their nine-day mission on Sunday, January 31, 1971, at 4:03:02 p.m. EST. Liftoff was delayed forty minutes and two seconds, due to launch site weather restrictions, the first such delay in the Apollo program.^[2]

Shepard and Mitchell made their lunar landing on February 5 in the Fra Mauro formation – originally the target of the aborted Apollo 13 mission. During the two lunar EVAs, 94.35 pounds (42.80 kg) of Moon rocks were collected,^[3] and several scientific experiments were performed. Shepard hit two golf balls on the lunar surface with a makeshift club he had brought with him. Shepard and Mitchell spent 33​¹⁄₂ hours on the Moon, with almost 9​¹⁄₂ hours of EVA.

In the aftermath of Apollo 13, several modifications had been made to the service module electrical power system to prevent a repeat of that accident, including a redesign of the oxygen tanks and the addition of a third tank. The launch had been scheduled for October 1, 1970,^[4] and was delayed about four months.^[5]

While Shepard and Mitchell were on the surface, Roosa remained in lunar orbit aboard the command and service module Kitty Hawk, performing scientific experiments and photographing the Moon, including the landing site of the future Apollo 16 mission. He took several hundred seeds on the mission, many of which were germinated on return, resulting in the so-called Moon trees. Shepard, Roosa, and Mitchell landed in the Pacific Ocean on February 9.

1. ^ Orloff, Richard W. (September 2004) [First published 2000]. "Table of Contents". Apollo by the Numbers: A Statistical Reference. NASA History Division, Office of Policy and Plans. NASA History Series. Washington, D.C.: NASA. ISBN 0-16-050631-X. LCCN 00061677. NASA SP-2000-4029. Archived from the original on September 6, 2007. Retrieved July 17, 2013.
2. ^ Wheeler, Robin (2009). "Apollo lunar landing launch window: The controlling factors and constraints". Apollo Flight Journal. NASA. Archived from the original on April 2, 2009. Retrieved July 17, 2013.
3. ^ Orloff, Richard W. (September 2004) [First published 2000]. "Extravehicular Activity". Apollo by the Numbers: A Statistical Reference. NASA History Division, Office of Policy and Plans. The NASA History Series. Washington, D.C.: NASA. ISBN 0-16-050631-X. LCCN 00061677. NASA SP-2000-4029. Retrieved August 1, 2013. For some reason, the total reported does not match the sum of the two EVAs.
4. ^ "Next Moon flight to await solving Apollo's woes". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). UPI. April 18, 1970. p. 1A.
5. ^ "Astronauts, families visit on launch eve". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). Associated Press. January 30, 1971. p. 1A.

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6 January 1947 – Pan American Airlines becomes the first commercial airline to offer a round-the-world ticket.

Pan American World Airways

"Pan Am" and "Pan American Airways" redirect here. For other uses, see Pan Am (disambiguation) and Pan American Airways (disambiguation).

Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways^[1] and commonly known as Pan Am, was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial flag carrier of the United States from 1927 until its collapse on December 4, 1991. It was founded in 1927 as a scheduled air mail and passenger service operating between Key West, Florida and Havana, Cuba. The airline is credited for many innovations that shaped the international airline industry, including the widespread use of jet aircraft, jumbo jets, and computerized reservation systems.^[2] It was also a founding member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the global airline industry association.^[3]

Identified by its blue globe logo ("The Blue Meatball"),^[4] the use of the word "Clipper" in its aircraft names and call signs, and the white uniform caps of its pilots, the airline was a cultural icon of the 20th century. In an era dominated by flag carriers that were wholly or majority government-owned, it was also the unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States. During most of the jet era, Pan Am's flagship terminal was the Worldport located at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City.^[2]

1. ^ britannica.com Pan American World Airways, Inc.: American Airline Company
2. ^ ^{a b} Guy Norris & Mark Wagner (September 1, 1997). "Birth of a Giant". Boeing 747: Design and Development Since 1969. Zenith Imprint. pp. 12–13. ISBN 978-0-7603-0280-4.
3. ^ Airliner World (IATA: A new mandate in a changed world), p. 32, Key Publishing, Stamford, November 2011
4. ^ Green, Richard P.; Carroll, James J. (2000). Investigating Entrepreneurial Opportunities. SAGE Publications. p. 108. ISBN 9780803959422.

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2 February 1962 – The United States bans all Cuban imports and exports.

United States embargo against Cuba

U.S president Dwight D. Eisenhower (left), and leader of Cuba Fidel Castro (right)

Economic sanctions imposed by the US on Cuba in 1958 and again in 1960.

The United States currently imposes a commercial, economic, and financial embargo against Cuba. The United States first imposed an embargo on the sale of arms to Cuba on March 14, 1958, during the Fulgencio Batista regime. Again on October 19, 1960 (almost two years after the Cuban Revolution had led to the deposition of the Batista regime) the U.S. placed an embargo on exports to Cuba except for food and medicine after Cuba nationalized American-owned Cuban oil refineries without compensation. On February 7, 1962 the embargo was extended to include almost all exports.^[1]

As of 2018^[update], the Cuban embargo is enforced mainly through six statutes: the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917, the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, the Cuban Assets Control Regulations of 1963, the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992, the Helms–Burton Act of 1996, and the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000.^[2] The stated purpose of the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992 is to maintain sanctions on Cuba as long as the Cuban government refuses to move toward "democratization and greater respect for human rights".^[3] The Helms–Burton Act further restricted United States citizens from doing business in or with Cuba, and mandated restrictions on giving public or private assistance to any successor government in Havana unless and until certain claims against the Cuban government were met. In 1999 President Bill Clinton expanded the trade embargo by also disallowing foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies to trade with Cuba. In 2000 Clinton authorized the sale of "humanitarian" U.S. products to Cuba.

In Cuba the embargo is called el bloqueo, "the blockade". Despite the term bloqueo (blockade), there has been no physical naval blockade of the country by the United States since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.^[4] The United States does not block Cuba's trade with third parties: other countries are not under the jurisdiction of U.S. domestic laws, such as the Cuban Democracy Act (although, in theory, the U.S. could penalize foreign countries that trade with Cuba, a possibility which has been condemned by the United Nations General Assembly as an "extraterritorial" measure that contravenes "the sovereign equality of States, non-intervention in their internal affairs and freedom of trade and navigation as paramount to the conduct of international affairs"^[5]). Cuba can, and does, conduct international trade with many third-party countries;^[6] Cuba has been a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) since 1995.^[7]

Beyond criticisms of human rights in Cuba, the United States holds $6 billion worth of financial claims against the Cuban government.^[8] The pro-embargo position is that the U.S. embargo is, in part, an appropriate response to these unaddressed claims.^[9] The Latin America Working Group argues that pro-embargo Cuban-American exiles, whose votes are crucial in the U.S. state of Florida, have swayed many politicians to adopt views similar to their own.^[10] Some business leaders, including James E. Perrella, Dwayne O. Andreas, and Peter Blyth, have opposed the Cuban-American views, arguing that trading freely would be good for Cuba and the United States.^[11]

As of 2018^[update], the embargo, which limits American businesses from conducting trade with Cuban interests, remains in effect and is the most enduring trade embargo in modern history. Despite the existence of the embargo, the United States is the fifth-largest exporter to Cuba (6.6% of Cuba's imports come from the US).^[12] Cuba must, however, pay cash for all imports, as credit is not allowed.^[13]

The UN General Assembly has, since 1992, passed a resolution every year condemning the ongoing impact of the embargo and declaring it in violation of the Charter of the United Nations and of international law. In 2014, out of the 193-nation assembly, 188 countries voted for the nonbinding resolution, the United States and Israel voted against and the Pacific Island nations Palau, Marshall Islands and Micronesia abstained.^[2][14] Human-rights groups including Amnesty International,^[2] Human Rights Watch,^[15] and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights^[16]

have also been critical of the embargo. Critics^[which?] of the embargo say that the embargo laws are too harsh, citing the fact that violations can result in up to 10 years in prison.

1. ^ "Case Studies in Economic Sanctions and Terrorism: US v. Gta 5 (1960– : Castro)" (PDF). Peterson Institute for International Economics. October 2011. Retrieved December 29, 2013.
2. ^ ^{a b c} "The US Embargo Against Cuba: Its Impact on Economic and Social Rights". Amnesty International. September 2009. Retrieved December 29, 2013.
3. ^ "Cuban Democracy Act of 1992". U.S. Department of State. Archived from the original on August 5, 2012.
4. ^ "515 - The President's News Conference November 20, 1962". White House Audio Recordings, 1961-1963. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
5. ^ "Speakers Denounce Cuban Embargo as 'Sad Echo' of Failed Cold War Politics; General Assembly, for Twentieth Year, Demands Lifting of Economic Blockade". Un.org. Retrieved December 6, 2013.
6. ^ "European Union, Trade in goods with Cuba" (PDF). Trade.ec.europa.eu. Retrieved December 6, 2013.
7. ^ "Cuba - Member information". WTO. Retrieved December 6, 2013.
8. ^ "U.S. Claims Against Cuba Buyer Beware". The Poblete DC, 08/04/08
9. ^ "Cuba's Economic Sanctions and Property Rights". Focus. May 21, 2012.
10. ^ "Ignored Majority – The Moderate Cuban-American Community" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 27, 2009.
11. ^ "Eyes on Cuba: U.S. Business and the Embargo". Foreign Affairs.
12. ^ "Cuba". The World Factbook. Cia.gov. Retrieved June 9, 2012.
13. ^ "End embargo on Cuba, US is urged". BBC News. September 2, 2009. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
14. ^ "For 23rd time, U.N. nations urge end to U.S. embargo on Cuba". Reuters. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
15. ^ "Cuba: A Step Forward on US Travel Regulations". Human Rights Watch. January 19, 2011. Retrieved January 5, 2014.
16. ^ "IACHR Annual Report 2011". Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Retrieved January 5, 2014.

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8 February 1971 – The NASDAQ stock market index opens for the first time.

NASDAQ

American stock exchange

The Nasdaq Stock Market (/ˈnæzˌdæk/ (listen), also known as Nasdaq) is an American stock exchange. It is the second-largest stock exchange in the world by market capitalization, behind only the New York Stock Exchange located in the same city.^[2] The exchange platform is owned by Nasdaq, Inc.,^[3] which also owns the Nasdaq Nordic (formerly known as OMX) and Nasdaq Baltic stock market network and several U.S. stock and options exchanges.

1. ^ "Nasdaq Companies". Archived from the original on February 13, 2011. Retrieved December 1, 2018.
2. ^ "Monthly Reports". World-Exchanges.org. World Federation of Exchanges. Archived from the original on August 17, 2014. Retrieved June 3, 2015.
3. ^ "Nasdaq – Business Solutions & Services". Business.nasdaq.com. Archived from the original on October 20, 2016. Retrieved October 23, 2016.

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9 February 1900 – The Davis Cup competition is established

Davis Cup

For the album by Walter Davis Jr., see Davis Cup (album).

2018 Davis Cup Final - opening ceremony

The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organisers as the "World Cup of Tennis", and the winners are referred to as the World Champion team.^[1] The competition began in 1900 as a challenge between Great Britain and the United States. By 2016, 135 nations entered teams into the competition.^[2] The most successful countries over the history of the tournament are the United States (winning 32 tournaments and finishing as runners-up 29 times) and Australia (winning 28 times, including four occasions with New Zealand as Australasia, and finishing as runners-up 19 times). The present champions are Croatia, who beat France to win their second title in 2018.

The women's equivalent of the Davis Cup is the Fed Cup. Australia, the Czech Republic, and the United States are the only countries to have held both Davis Cup and Fed Cup titles in the same year. The Hopman Cup, a third competition for mixed teams, carries less prestige, but is a popular curtain raiser to the tennis season. Only the Czechs have won all three competitions in one calendar year, doing so in 2012.

1. ^ "Andy Murray wins Davis Cup for Great Britain - BBC Sport". BBC Sport.
2. ^ "Davis Cup Format". www.daviscup.com. Retrieved 20 January 2016. In 2016, 130 nations have entered Davis Cup by BNP Paribas

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10 February 1940 – Tom and Jerry make their debut with Puss Gets the Boot.

Tom and Jerry

This article is about the animal cartoon series. For other uses, see Tom and Jerry (disambiguation).

Tom and Jerry is an American comedy slapstick cartoon series created in 1940 by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. It centers on a rivalry between the title characters Tom, a cat, and Jerry, a mouse. Many episodes also feature several recurring characters.

In its original run, Hanna and Barbera produced 114 Tom and Jerry shorts for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from 1940 to 1958.^[1] During this time, they won seven Academy Awards for Animated Short Film, tying for first place with Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies with the most awards in the category. After the MGM cartoon studio closed in 1957, MGM revived the series with Gene Deitch directing an additional 13 Tom and Jerry shorts for Rembrandt Films from 1961 to 1962. Tom and Jerry then became the highest-grossing animated short film series of that time, overtaking Looney Tunes. Chuck Jones then produced another 34 shorts with Sib Tower 12 Productions between 1963 and 1967. Three more shorts were produced, The Mansion Cat in 2001, The Karate Guard in 2005, and A Fundraising Adventure in 2014, making a total of 164 shorts.

A number of spin-offs have been made, including the television series The Tom and Jerry Show (1975), The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show (1980–82), Tom and Jerry Kids (1990–93), Tom and Jerry Tales (2006–08), and The Tom and Jerry Show (2014–present). The first feature-length film based on the series, Tom and Jerry: The Movie, was released in 1992, and 13 direct-to-video films have been produced since 2002.

1. ^ Jones, Paul (2015-02-17). "Tom and Jerry's 75th anniversary proves cat and mouse games never get old". Radio Times. Retrieved 2018-02-10.

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11 February 1929 – Kingdom of Italy and the Vatican sign the Lateran Treaty.

Lateran Treaty

From the Italian unification and as Rome in 1871 became the capital of the new Kingdom of Italy, the Holy See lacked a territory, which it earlier had enjoyed ever since the early Middle Ages. This international-Catholic problem was finally solved through the 1929 Lateran Treaty.

The Lateran Treaty (Italian: Patti Lateranensi; Latin: Pacta Lateranensia) was one of the Lateran Pacts of 1929 or Lateran Accords, agreements made in 1929 between the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See, settling the "Roman Question". They are named after the Lateran Palace, where they were signed on 11 February 1929. The Italian parliament ratified them on 7 June 1929. It recognized Vatican City as an independent state, with the Italian government, at the time led by Benito Mussolini as prime minister, agreeing to give the Roman Catholic Church financial compensation for the loss of the Papal States.^[1] In 1947, the Lateran Treaty was recognized in the Constitution of Italy^[2] as regulating the relations between the state and the Catholic Church.

1. ^ A History of Western Society (Tenth ed.). Bedford/St. Martin's. p. 900.
2. ^ Constitution of Italy, article 7.

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12 February 1961 – The Soviet Union launches Venera 1 towards Venus.

Venera 1

Venera 1 (Russian: Венера-1 meaning Venus 1), also known as Venera-1VA No.2 and occasionally in the West as Sputnik 8 was the first spacecraft to fly past Venus, as part of the Soviet Union's Venera programme.^[1] Launched in February 1961, it flew past Venus on 19 May of the same year; however, radio contact with the probe was lost before the flyby, resulting in it returning no data.

1. ^ NSSDC Spacecraft 1961-003A (NASA Goddard Space Center), accessed August 9, 2010

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13 February 1955 – Israel obtains four of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls.

Dead Sea Scrolls

For the travelling exhibition, see Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Ancient Times.

Ancient Jewish religious manuscripts found in the Qumran Caves in the West Bank] near the Dead Sea

The Dead Sea Scrolls (also Qumran Caves Scrolls) are ancient Jewish religious manuscripts found in the Qumran Caves in the West Bank near the Dead Sea.^[1] Scholarly consensus dates these scrolls from the last three centuries BCE and the first century CE.^[2] The texts have great historical, religious, and linguistic significance because they include the second-oldest known surviving manuscripts of works later included in the Hebrew Bible canon, along with deuterocanonical and extra-biblical manuscripts which preserve evidence of the diversity of religious thought in late Second Temple Judaism. Almost all of the Dead Sea Scrolls collection is currently under the ownership of the Government of the state of Israel, and housed in the Shrine of the Book on the grounds of the Israel Museum.

1. ^ "The Digital Library: Introduction". Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library. Retrieved 2014-10-13.
2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Israel Museum Jerusalem was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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14 February 1946 – The Bank of England is nationalized.

Bank of England

Central bank of the United Kingdom

"English bank" redirects here. For banking in England, see Banking in the United Kingdom. For the corpus linguistics project, see Bank of English.

The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of the United Kingdom, it is the world's eighth-oldest bank. It was privately owned by stockholders from its foundation in 1694 until it was nationalised in 1946.^[2][3]

The Bank became an independent public organisation in 1998, wholly owned by the Treasury Solicitor on behalf of the government,^[4] but with independence in setting monetary policy.^[5][6][7][8]

The Bank is one of eight banks authorised to issue banknotes in the United Kingdom, has a monopoly on the issue of banknotes in England and Wales and regulates the issue of banknotes by commercial banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland.^[9]

The Bank's Monetary Policy Committee has a devolved responsibility for managing monetary policy. The Treasury has reserve powers to give orders to the committee "if they are required in the public interest and by extreme economic circumstances", but such orders must be endorsed by Parliament within 28 days.^[10] The Bank's Financial Policy Committee held its first meeting in June 2011 as a macroprudential regulator to oversee regulation of the UK's financial sector.

The Bank's headquarters have been in London's main financial district, the City of London, on Threadneedle Street, since 1734. It is sometimes known as The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street, a name taken from a satirical cartoon by James Gillray in 1797.^[11] The road junction outside is known as Bank junction.

As a regulator and central bank, the Bank of England has not offered consumer banking services for many years, but it still does manage some public-facing services such as exchanging superseded bank notes.^[12] Until 2016, the bank provided personal banking services as a privilege for employees.^[13]

1. ^ Bank of England (2 August 2018). "Monetary Policy Committee voted unanimously to raise Bank Rate to 0.75%". Retrieved 2 August 2018.
2. ^ "House of Commons Debate 29th October 1945, Second Reading of the Bank of England Bill". Hansard.millbanksystems.com. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
3. ^ "Bank of England Act 1946" (PDF). Retrieved 12 October 2012.
4. ^ "Freedom of Information – disclosures". Bank of England. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
5. ^ 1 June 1998, The Bank of England Act 1998 (Commencement) Order 1998 s 2
6. ^ "BBC On This Day - 6-1997: Brown sets Bank of England free". Retrieved 14 September 2014.
7. ^ "Bank of England - About the Bank". Retrieved 14 September 2014.
8. ^ "Bank of England: Relationship with Parliament". Archived from the original on 8 July 2009. Retrieved 14 September 2014.
9. ^ "The Bank of England's Role in Regulating the Issue of Scottish and Northern Ireland Banknotes". Bank of England website. Retrieved 31 October 2011.
10. ^ "Act of Parliament gives devolved responsibility to the MPC with reserve powers for the Treasury". Opsi.gov.uk. Retrieved 10 May 2010.
11. ^ Bank of England, "Who is The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street?". Accessed 15 January 2018.
12. ^ "Exchanging for an individual at the Bank of England counter". Bank of England. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
13. ^ Topham, Gwyn. "Bank of England to close personal banking service for employees". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 November 2016.

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15 February 1971 – The decimalisation of British coinage is completed on Decimal Day.

Decimal Day

An introductory pack of the new currency.

On 15 February 1971, known as Decimal Day, the United Kingdom and Ireland decimalised their currencies.

Under the old currency of pounds, shillings and pence, the pound was made up of 240 pence (denoted by the letter d for Latin denarius and now referred to as "old pence"), with 12 pence in a shilling and 20 shillings (denoted by s for Latin solidus) in a pound.

The loss of value of the currency meant that the "old" penny, with the same diameter as the US half-dollar, had become of relatively low value.

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16 February 1933 – The Blaine Act ends Prohibition in the United States.

Prohibition in the United States

"The Noble Experiment" redirects here. For the rum distillery, see The Noble Experiment (distillery).

Not to be confused with Abolitionism in the United States.

Detroit police with equipment found in a clandestine brewery during the Prohibition era

Every Day Will Be Sunday When the Town Goes Dry (1918–1919)

Prohibition in the United States was a nationwide constitutional ban on the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages from 1920 to 1933.

During the nineteenth century, alcoholism, family violence, and saloon-based political corruption prompted prohibitionists, led by pietistic Protestants, to end the alcoholic beverage trade to cure the ill society and weaken the political opposition. One result was that many communities in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries introduced alcohol prohibition, with the subsequent enforcement in law becoming a hotly debated issue. Prohibition supporters, called "drys", presented it as a victory for public morals and health.

Promoted by the "dry" crusaders, the movement was led by pietistic Protestants and social Progressives in the Prohibition, Democratic, and Republican parties. It gained a national grass roots base through the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. After 1900, it was coordinated by the Anti-Saloon League. Opposition from the beer industry mobilized "wet" supporters from the Catholic and German Lutheran communities. They had funding to fight back, but by 1917–18 the German community had been marginalized by the nation's war against Germany, and the brewing industry was shut down in state after state by the legislatures and finally nationwide under the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920. Enabling legislation, known as the Volstead Act, set down the rules for enforcing the federal ban and defined the types of alcoholic beverages that were prohibited. For example, religious use of wine was allowed. Private ownership and consumption of alcohol were not made illegal under federal law, but local laws were stricter in many areas, with some states banning possession outright.

Criminal gangs were able to gain control of the beer and liquor supply for many cities. By the late-1920s a new opposition mobilized nationwide. Wets attacked prohibition as causing crime, lowering local revenues, and imposing "rural" Protestant religious values on "urban" United States.^[1] Prohibition ended with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment on December 5, 1933. Some states continued statewide prohibition, marking one of the last stages of the Progressive Era.

Research shows that prohibition reduced overall alcohol consumption by half during the 1920s, and consumption remained below pre-Prohibition levels until the 1940s, suggesting that Prohibition did socialize a significant proportion of the population in temperate habits, at least temporarily.^[2][3] Rates of liver cirrhosis "fell by 50% early in Prohibition and recovered promptly after Repeal in 1933."^[4][2][5] Criticism remains that Prohibition led to unintended consequences such as a century^{[citation needed]} of Prohibition-influenced legislation and the growth of urban crime organizations, though some scholars have argued that violent crime did not increase dramatically,^[2] while others have argued that crime during the Prohibition era was properly attributed to increased urbanization, rather than the criminalization of alcohol use.^[6][7] As an experiment it lost supporters every year, and lost tax revenue that governments needed when the Great Depression began in 1929.^[8]

1. ^ Margaret Sands Orchowski (2015). The Law that Changed the Face of America: The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 32. ISBN 9781442251373.
2. ^ ^{a b c} Mark H. Moore (October 16, 1989). "Actually, Prohibition Was a Success". The New York Times. Retrieved May 29, 2017.
3. ^ Jack S. Blocker et al. eds (2003). Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History: An International Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 23. ISBN 9781576078334.CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list (link)
4. ^ Cite error: The named reference MacCounReuter2001 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
5. ^ Jack S. Blocker, Jr (February 2006). "Did Prohibition Really Work? Alcohol Prohibition as a Public Health Innovation". American Journal of Public Health. 96 (2): 233–243. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2005.065409. PMC 1470475. PMID 16380559.
6. ^ Philip J. Cook, Stephen Machin, Olivier Marie, Giovanni Mastrobuoni (October 4, 2013). Lessons from the Economics of Crime: What Reduces Offending?. MIT Press. p. 56. ISBN 9780262019613. Proponents of legalization often draw on anecdotal evidence from the prohibition era to argue that the increase in crime during prohibition occurred directly because of the criminalization of alcohol. Owens (2011), however, offers evidence to the contrary--exploiting state-level variation in prohibition policy, she finds that violent crime trends were better explained by urbanization and immigration, rather than criminalization/decriminalization of alcohol.CS1 maint: Uses authors parameter (link)
7. ^ Cite error: The named reference PinardPagani2000 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
8. ^ Hall, Wayne (2010). "What are the policy lessons of National Alcohol Prohibition in the United States, 1920–1933?". Addiction. 105 (7): 1164–1173. doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2010.02926.x. PMID 20331549.

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17 February 1867 – The first ship passes through the Suez Canal.

Suez Canal

canal in Egypt between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea

The southern terminus of the Suez Canal at Suez on the Gulf of Suez (Red Sea)

The Suez Canal (Arabic: قناة السويس‎ qanāt as-suwēs) is a sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez. Constructed by the Suez Canal Company between 1859 and 1869, it was officially opened on 17 November 1869. The canal offers watercraft a more direct route between the North Atlantic and northern Indian Oceans via the Mediterranean and Red Seas, thus avoiding the South Atlantic and southern Indian Oceans and thereby reducing the journey distance from the Arabian Sea to, for example, London by approximately 8,900 kilometres (5,500 mi).^[1] It extends from the northern terminus of Port Said to the southern terminus of Port Tewfik at the city of Suez. Its length is 193.30 km (120.11 mi), including its northern and southern access channels. In 2012, 17,225 vessels traversed the canal (an average of 47 per day).^[2]

The original canal was a single-lane waterway with passing locations in the Ballah Bypass and the Great Bitter Lake.^[3] It contains no locks system, with seawater flowing freely through it. In general, the canal north of the Bitter Lakes flows north in winter and south in summer. South of the lakes, the current changes with the tide at Suez.^[4]

The canal is owned and maintained by the Suez Canal Authority^[5] (SCA) of Egypt. Under the Convention of Constantinople, it may be used "in time of war as in time of peace, by every vessel of commerce or of war, without distinction of flag".^[6]

In August 2014, construction was launched to expand and widen the Ballah Bypass for 35 km (22 mi) to speed the canal's transit time. The expansion was planned to double the capacity of the Suez Canal from 49 to 97 ships a day.^[7] At a cost of $8.4 billion, this project was funded with interest-bearing investment certificates issued exclusively to Egyptian entities and individuals. The "New Suez Canal", as the expansion was dubbed, was opened with great fanfare in a ceremony on 6 August 2015.^[8]

On 24 February 2016, the Suez Canal Authority officially opened the new side channel. This side channel, located at the northern side of the east extension of the Suez Canal, serves the East Terminal for berthing and unberthing vessels from the terminal. As the East Container Terminal is located on the Canal itself, before the construction of the new side channel it was not possible to berth or unberth vessels at the terminal while the convoy was running.^[9]

1. ^ "The Suez Canal - A vital shortcut for global commerce" (PDF). http://www.worldshipping.org. External link in |website= (help)
2. ^ "Yearly Number & Net Tone by Ship Type, Direction & Ship Status". Suez Canal. Archived from the original on 2010-02-15. Retrieved 23 Apr 2014.
3. ^ Suez Canal Authority
4. ^ The Red Sea Pilot. Imray Laurie Norie & Wilson. 1995. p. 266.
5. ^ "Official Web Site of the Suez Canal Authority". Missing or empty |url= (help)
6. ^ Constantinople Convention of the Suez Canal of 2 March 1888 still in force and specifically maintained in Nasser's Nationalization Act.
7. ^ "New Suez Canal project proposed by Egypt to boost trade". Cairo News.Net. Retrieved 7 August 2014.
8. ^ Tadros, Sherine (6 August 2015). "Egypt Opens New £6bn Suez Canal". Sky News. Retrieved 6 August 2015.
9. ^ "Egypt opens East Port Said side channel for navigation - Xinhua". News.xinhuanet.com. Retrieved 12 March 2016.

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18 February 1954 – The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles.

Church of Scientology

The Church of Scientology is a multinational network and hierarchy of numerous ostensibly independent but interconnected^[1] corporate entities and other organizations devoted to the practice, administration and dissemination of Scientology, a new religious movement. The Church of Scientology International (CSI) is officially the Church of Scientology's parent organization, and is responsible for guiding local Scientology churches.^[2][3][4] At a local level, every church is a separate corporate entity set up as a licensed franchise and has its own board of directors and executives.^[5][6][7][8] The first Scientology church was incorporated in December 1953 in Camden, New Jersey by L. Ron Hubbard.^[9][10] Its international headquarters are located at the Gold Base, in an unincorporated area of Riverside County, California. The location at Gilman Hot Springs is private property and not accessible by the public.^[11] Scientology Missions International is under CSI and oversees Scientology missions, which are local Scientology organizations smaller than churches.^[12][13] The Church of Spiritual Technology (CST) is the organization which owns all the copyrights of the estate of L. Ron Hubbard.^[1]

The highest authority in the Church of Scientology is the Religious Technology Center (RTC). The RTC claims to only be the "holder of Scientology and Dianetics trademarks", but is in fact the main Scientology executive organization.^[1] RTC chairman David Miscavige is widely seen as the effective head of Scientology.^[1]

All Scientology management organizations are controlled exclusively by members of the Sea Org, which is a legally nonexistent paramilitary organization for the "elite, innermost dedicated core of Scientologists".^[1][12] David Miscavige is the highest-ranking Sea Org officer, holding the rank of captain.

Although in some countries it has attained legal recognition as a religion,^[14] the movement has been the subject of a number of controversies, and has been accused by critics of being both a cult and a commercial enterprise.^[15]

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} Urban, Hugh B. (2015). New Age, Neopagan, and New Religious Movements: Alternative Spirituality in Contemporary America. Univ of California Press. p. 144. ISBN 0520281179.
2. ^ Melton, J. Gordon (Sep 2000). The Church of Scientology (Studies in Contemporary Religions, 1). Signature Books in cooperation with CESNUR. Since 1981, all of the churches and organizations of the church have been brought together under the Church of Scientology International. CSI provides a visible point of unity and guides the individual churches, especially in the area of applying Hubbard's teaching and technology in a uniform fashion.
3. ^ "At the top of the structure is the Church of Scientology International (CSI), the mother church for all Scientology. Located in Los Angeles, CSI provides overall direction, planning and guidance for the network of churches, missions, field auditors and volunteer ministers which comprise the Scientology hierarchy it spans, and ensures these various organizations are all working effectively together." What is Scientology? Published 1998 Bridge Publications ISBN 978-1-57318-122-8
4. ^ "description of the Scientology ecclesiastical structure on www.rtc.org". Rtc.org. Retrieved 2011-11-22.
5. ^ Mikael Rothstein (2009). James R. Lewis, ed. Scientology. Oxford University Press USA. p. 98. ISBN 978-0-19-533149-3.
6. ^ The Church of Scientology (Studies in Contemporary Religions, 1) By J. Gordon Melton Publisher: Signature Books in cooperation with CESNUR, September 2000 ISBN 978-1-56085-139-4 "The various missions, churches, and organizations, all autonomous corporations which fellowship with the larger movement, receive licenses to use the church's trademarks, service marks, and copyrights of Hubbard's published and unpublished works from RTC."
7. ^ "Each church corporation is organized on a nonprofit basis with its own board of directors and executives responsible for its activities. What is Scientology? Published 1998 Bridge Publications ISBN 978-1-57318-122-8
8. ^ "description of the individual Scientology churches on www.rtc.org". Rtc.org. Retrieved 2011-11-22.
9. ^ Atack, Jon (1990). A Piece of Blue Sky. New York, NY: Carol Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-8184-0499-3.
10. ^ Hubbard, L. Ron. "Pulpateer". Church of Scientology International. Archived from the original on July 30, 2007. Retrieved June 7, 2006.
11. ^ Janet Reitman Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion, p. 318, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011 ISBN 0547549237, 9780547549231
12. ^ ^{a b} Davis, Derek; Hankins, Barry (2003). New Religious Movements and Religious Liberty in America. Baylor University Press. pp. 48–49. ISBN 0918954924.
13. ^ Flinn, Frank K. (2003). "Scientology". In Karen Christensen, and David Levinson. Encyclopedia of Community: From the Village to the Virtual World. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. pp. 1209–11.
14. ^ Weird, Sure. A Cult, No. Washington Post By Mark Oppenheimer, August 5, 2007
15. ^ The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power TIME magazine, May. 06, 1991 by Richard Behar. The investigation paints a picture of a depraved yet thriving enterprise.

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19 February 2003 – An Ilyushin Il-76 military aircraft crashes near Kerman, Iran, killing 275.

2003 Iran Ilyushin Il-76 crash

The 2003 Iran Ilyushin Il-76 crash occurred on 19 February 2003, when an Ilyushin Il-76 crashed in mountainous terrain near Kerman in Iran. The Aerospace Force of the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution aircraft, registration 15-2280, was flying from Zahedan to Kerman when it crashed 35 kilometres (22 mi) southeast of Kerman.^[1] The aircraft was carrying members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, a special force that is independent from the Iranian Army, on an unknown mission.^[2]

Strong winds were reported in the region of the crash when the aircraft disappeared from the radar screens; approximately at the same time, villagers in the area described hearing a loud explosion.^[3] There were no survivors among the 275 occupants on board the aircraft.^{[1][nb 1]}

1. ^ ^{a b} Accident description for 15-2280 at the Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved on 24 November 2014.
2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Fog halts Iran air crash search was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
3. ^ ^{a b} Cite error: The named reference Iranian plane crash kills 302 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Iran plane crash kills 302 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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20 February 1872 – The Metropolitan Museum of Art opens in New York City.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Art museum in New York City, New York

Not to be confused with Museum of Modern Art.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met",^[a] is the largest art museum in the United States. With 7.3 million visitors to its three locations in 2016, it was the fourth most visited art museum in the world, and the fifth most visited museum of any kind.^[8] Its permanent collection contains over two million works,^[9] divided among seventeen curatorial departments. The main building, on the eastern edge of Central Park along Museum Mile in Manhattan's Upper East Side is by area one of the world's largest art galleries. A much smaller second location, The Cloisters at Fort Tryon Park in Upper Manhattan, contains an extensive collection of art, architecture, and artifacts from Medieval Europe. On March 18, 2016, the museum opened the Met Breuer museum at Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side; it extends the museum's modern and contemporary art program.

The permanent collection consists of works of art from classical antiquity and ancient Egypt, paintings, and sculptures from nearly all the European masters, and an extensive collection of American and modern art. The Met maintains extensive holdings of African, Asian, Oceanian, Byzantine, and Islamic art. The museum is home to encyclopedic collections of musical instruments, costumes, and accessories, as well as antique weapons and armor from around the world. Several notable interiors, ranging from 1st-century Rome through modern American design, are installed in its galleries.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870 for the purposes of opening a museum to bring art and art education to the American people. It opened on February 20, 1872, and was originally located at 681 Fifth Avenue.

1. ^ "Today in Met History: April 13". The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Archived from the original on January 17, 2015. Retrieved January 16, 2015.
2. ^ "The Metropolitan Museum of Art: About". Artinfo. 2008. Archived from the original on September 26, 2011. Retrieved February 18, 2013.
3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Met History was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
4. ^ "The world's most popular exhibition? Ancient sculptures in Tokyo versus Modern masters in Paris". The Art Newspaper. March 26, 2018.
5. ^ "Metropolitan Museum of Art". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on October 9, 2012. Retrieved February 18, 2013.
6. ^ "A New Strategy at The Met". Archived from the original on March 22, 2017. Retrieved March 22, 2017.
7. ^ National Park Service (2007-01-23). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
8. ^ "The World's 20 most popular museums", CNN.com, June 22, 2017
9. ^ "Metropolitan Museum Launches New and Expanded Web Site" Archived November 28, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, press release, The Met, January 25, 2000

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

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21 February 1848 – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto.

The Communist Manifesto

The Communist Manifesto (originally Manifesto of the Communist Party) is an 1848 political pamphlet by the German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Commissioned by the Communist League and originally published in London (in German as Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei) just as the Revolutions of 1848 began to erupt, the Manifesto was later recognised as one of the world's most influential political documents. It presents an analytical approach to the class struggle (historical and then-present) and the conflicts of capitalism and the capitalist mode of production, rather than a prediction of communism's potential future forms.

The Communist Manifesto summarises Marx and Engels' theories concerning the nature of society and politics, namely that in their own words "[t]he history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles". It also briefly features their ideas for how the capitalist society of the time would eventually be replaced by socialism. Near the end of the Manifesto, the authors call for a "forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions", which served as the justification for all communist revolutions around the world. In 2013, The Communist Manifesto was registered to UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme along with Marx's Capital, Volume I.^[1]

1. ^ "Schriften von Karl Marx: "Das Minifest der Kommunistischen Partei" (1948) und "Das Kapital", ernster Band (1867)". UNESCO.

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22 February 2011 – New Zealand's second deadliest earthquake strikes Christchurch, killing 185 people.

2011 Christchurch earthquake

"Christchurch earthquake" redirects here. For other uses, see Christchurch earthquake (disambiguation).

For the aftershock that occurred on 13 June 2011, see June 2011 Christchurch earthquake.

An M_w  6.2 earthquake occurred in Christchurch on 22 February 2011 at 12:51 p.m. local time (23:51 UTC, 21 February).^[9][10] The earthquake struck the Canterbury Region in New Zealand's South Island^[9][11] and was centred two kilometres (1.2 mi) west of the port town of Lyttelton, and 10 kilometres (6 mi) south-east of the centre of Christchurch, at the time New Zealand's second-most populous city.^[9] The earthquake caused widespread damage across Christchurch, killing 185 people^[6][7] in the nation's fifth-deadliest disaster.

Christchurch's central city and eastern suburbs were badly affected, with damage to buildings and infrastructure already weakened by the magnitude 7.1 Canterbury earthquake of 4 September 2010 and its aftershocks. Significant liquefaction affected the eastern suburbs, producing around 400,000 tonnes of silt. The earthquake was felt across the South Island and parts of the lower and central North Island. While the initial quake only lasted for approximately 10 seconds, the damage was severe because of the location and shallowness of the earthquake's focus in relation to Christchurch as well as previous quake damage. Subsequent population loss saw the Christchurch main urban area fall behind the Wellington equivalent to decrease from second to third most populous area in New Zealand.

1. ^ "M 6.2 Christchurch Tue, Feb 22 2011". Geonet. Retrieved 23 March 2018.
2. ^ "M 6.3, Christchurch, 22 February 2011". GeoNet. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Geonet23 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
4. ^ "Ice breaks off glacier after Christchurch quake". ABC News. 22 February 2011. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
5. ^ "Earthquake causes glacier to calve". Stuff.co.nz. 23 February 2011. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
6. ^ ^{a b} "Official quake toll rises to 185". Stuff.co. 9 February 2012. Retrieved 9 February 2012.
7. ^ ^{a b} "List of deceased – Christchurch earthquake". New Zealand Police. 8 September 2011. Retrieved 26 December 2011.
8. ^ "Earthquake death toll reaches 113". Stuff.co.nz. 25 February 2011. Archived from the original on 24 May 2012. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
9. ^ ^{a b c} "M 6.3, Christchurch, 22 February 2011". GeoNet. Earthquake Commission and GNS Science. Retrieved 27 March 2017.
10. ^ "New Zealand Earthquake Report". www.geonet.org.nz. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
11. ^ M6.3 – South Island of New Zealand Archived 6 September 2013 at the Wayback Machine, USGS

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23 February 1934 – Leopold III becomes King of Belgium.

Leopold III of Belgium

King of Belgians

The face of Leopold III on a bas-relief by Pierre De Soete.

Leopold III (3 November 1901 – 25 September 1983) reigned as the King of the Belgians from 1934 until 1951, when he abdicated in favour of the heir apparent, his son Baudouin. From 1944 until 1950, Leopold's brother, Charles, served as prince regent while Leopold was declared unable to reign. Leopold's controversial actions during the Second World War resulted in a political crisis known as the Royal Question. In 1950, the debate about whether Leopold could resume his royal functions escalated. Following a referendum, Leopold was allowed to return from exile to Belgium, but the continuing political instability pressured him to abdicate in 1951.

Leopold was born in Brussels and succeeded to the throne of Belgium on 23 February 1934, following the death of his father King Albert I.

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24 February 1920 – The Nazi Party is founded.

Nazi Party

Fascist political party in Germany (1920-1945)

This article is about the German Nazi Party that existed from 1920 to 1945. For the ideology, see Nazism. For other Nazi Parties, see Nazi Party (disambiguation).

The National Socialist German Workers' Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (help·info), abbreviated NSDAP), commonly referred to in English as the Nazi Party (English: /ˈnɑːtsi, ˈnætsi/),^[5] was a far-right political party in Germany that was active between 1920 and 1945, that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor, the German Workers' Party (Deutsche Arbeiterpartei; DAP), existed from 1919 to 1920.

The Nazi Party emerged from the German nationalist, racist and populist Freikorps paramilitary culture, which fought against the communist uprisings in post-World War I Germany.^[6] The party was created to draw workers away from communism and into völkisch nationalism.^[7] Initially, Nazi political strategy focused on anti-big business, anti-bourgeois, and anti-capitalist rhetoric, although this was later downplayed to gain the support of business leaders, and in the 1930s the party's main focus shifted to anti-Semitic and anti-Marxist themes.^[8]

Pseudo-scientific racist theories were central to Nazism, expressed in the idea of a "people's community" (Volksgemeinschaft). The party aimed to unite "racially desirable" Germans as national comrades, while excluding those deemed either to be political dissidents, physically or intellectually inferior, or of a foreign race (Fremdvölkische).^[9] The Nazis sought to strengthen the Germanic people, the "Aryan master race", through racial purity and eugenics, broad social welfare programs, and a collective subordination of individual rights, which could be sacrificed for the good of the state on behalf of the people.

To protect the supposed purity and strength of the Aryan race, the Nazis sought to exterminate Jews, Romani, Poles and most other Slavs, along with the physically and mentally handicapped. They disenfranchised and segregated homosexuals, Africans, Jehovah's Witnesses and political opponents.^[10] The persecution reached its climax when the party-controlled German state set in motion the Final Solution–an industrial system of genocide which achieved the murder of an estimated 5.5 to 6 million Jews and millions of other targeted victims, in what has become known as the Holocaust.^[11]

Adolf Hitler, the party's leader since 1921, was appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933. Hitler rapidly established a totalitarian regime^{[12][13][14][15]} known as the Third Reich. Following the defeat of the Third Reich at the conclusion of World War II in Europe, the party was "declared to be illegal" by the Allied powers,^[16] who carried out denazification in the years after the war.

1. ^ Cite error: The named reference headquarters was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
2. ^ McNab 2011, pp. 22, 23.
3. ^ Davidson, Eugene. The Making of Adolf Hitler: The Birth and Rise of Nazism. University of Missouri Press. p. 241.
4. ^ Orlow, Dietrich. The Nazi Party 1919–1945: A Complete History. Enigma Books. p. 29.
5. ^ Jones, Daniel (2003) [1917]. Roach, Peter; Hartmann, James; Setter, Jane, eds. English Pronouncing Dictionary. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 3-12-539683-2.
6. ^ Cite error: The named reference stormtroopers was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
7. ^ Cite error: The named reference stormtroopers2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
8. ^ Cite error: The named reference mcdonough was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
9. ^ Michael Wildt (15 July 2012). Hitler's Volksgemeinschaft and the Dynamics of Racial Exclusion: Violence Against Jews in Provincial Germany, 1919–1939. Berghahn Books. pp. 96–97. ISBN 978-0-85745-322-8.
10. ^ Cite error: The named reference massachusetts was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
11. ^ Evans 2008, p. 318.
12. ^ Cite error: The named reference totalitarianism was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
13. ^ Cite error: The named reference totalitarianism3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
14. ^ Cite error: The named reference totalitarianism4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
15. ^ Cite error: The named reference totalitarianism5 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
16. ^ Elzer, Herbert, ed. (2003). Dokumente Zur Deutschlandpolitik. First half band – Appendix B, Section XI, §39. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftverlag. p. 602. ISBN 3-486-56667-9.

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25 February 1991 – Cold War: The Warsaw Pact is abolished.

Warsaw Pact

Not to be confused with Warsaw Convention or Treaty of Warsaw.

For other uses, see Agreement of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance (disambiguation).

The Warsaw Pact, formally known as the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance,^[1] was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland among the Soviet Union and seven Soviet satellite states of Central and Eastern Europe in May 1955, during the Cold War. The Warsaw Pact was the military complement to the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CoMEcon), the regional economic organization for the socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe. The Warsaw Pact was created in reaction to the integration of West Germany into NATO^[2][3][4][5] in 1955 per the London and Paris Conferences of 1954,^{[6][7][8][9][10]} but it is also considered to have been motivated by Soviet desires to maintain control over military forces in Central and Eastern Europe.^[11]

The Warsaw Pact was established as a balance of power^[12] or counterweight^[13] to NATO; there was no direct confrontation between them. Instead, the conflict was fought on an ideological basis and in proxy wars. Both NATO and the Warsaw Pact led to the expansion of military forces and their integration into the respective blocs.^[13] Its largest military engagement was the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 (with the participation of all Pact nations except Albania, Romania and East Germany),^[12] which, in part, resulted in Albania withdrawing from the pact less than a month later. The Pact began to unravel in its entirety with the spread of the Counter-Revolutions of 1989 through the Eastern Bloc, beginning with the Solidarity movement in Poland^[14] and its electoral success in June 1989.

East Germany withdrew from the Pact following reunification with West Germany in 1990. On 25 February 1991, the Pact was declared at an end at a meeting of defence and foreign ministers from the six remaining member states in Hungary. The USSR itself was dissolved in December 1991, although most of the former Soviet republics formed the Collective Security Treaty Organization shortly thereafter. Throughout the following 20 years, the seven Warsaw Pact countries outside the USSR each joined NATO (East Germany through its reunification with West Germany; and the Czech Republic and Slovakia as separate countries), as did the three Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) that had been part of the Soviet Union.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

1. ^ "Text of Warsaw Pact" (PDF). United Nations Treaty Collection. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
2. ^ Cite error: The named reference NATO Transformed: The Alliance's New Roles in International Security was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
3. ^ Cite error: The named reference History Channel 1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
4. ^ Cite error: The named reference History Channel 2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
5. ^ "In reaction to West Germany's NATO accession, the Soviet Union and its Eastern European client states formed the Warsaw Pact in 1955." Citation from: NATO website. "A short history of NATO". nato.int. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
6. ^ Cite error: The named reference The Future of European Alliance Systems was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
7. ^ Cite error: The named reference christopher was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
8. ^ Cite error: The named reference enclopedia was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
9. ^ The Warsaw Pact Reconsidered: International Relations in Eastern Europe, 1955–1969 Laurien Crump Routledge, p. 21–22, 11.02.2015
10. ^ The Oder-Neisse Line: The United States, Poland, and Germany in the Cold War Debra J. Allen page 158 "Treaties approving Bonn's participation in NATO were ratified in May 1955...shortly thereafter Soviet Union...created the Warsaw Pact to counter the perceived threat of NATO"
11. ^ Cite error: The named reference Warsaw Pact: Wartime Status-Instruments of Soviet Control was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
12. ^ ^{a b} Amos Yoder (1993). Communism in Transition: The End of the Soviet Empires. Taylor & Francis. p. 58. ISBN 978-0-8448-1738-5.
13. ^ ^{a b} Bob Reinalda (11 September 2009). Routledge History of International Organizations: From 1815 to the Present Day. Routledge. p. 369. ISBN 978-1-134-02405-6.
14. ^ [1] Cover Story: The Holy Alliance By Carl Bernstein Sunday, June 24, 2001

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26 February 1980 – Egypt and Israel establish full diplomatic relations.

Egypt–Israel relations

Menachem Begin, Jimmy Carter and Anwar Sadat at Camp David, 1978

Egypt–Israel relations are foreign relations between Egypt and Israel. The state of war between both countries which dated back to the 1948 Arab–Israeli War culminated in the Yom Kippur War in 1973, and was followed by the 1979 Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty a year after the Camp David Accords, mediated by US president Jimmy Carter. Full diplomatic relations were established on January 26, 1980. Egypt has an embassy in Tel Aviv and a consulate in Eilat. Israel has an embassy in Cairo and a consulate in Alexandria.

Their shared border has two official crossings, one at Taba and one at Nitzana. The crossing at Nitzana is for commercial and tourist traffic only. The two countries' borders also meet at the shoreline of the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea.

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27 February 1900 – The British Labour Party is founded.

Labour Party (UK)

Political party in the United Kingdom

The Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom which has been described as an alliance of social democrats, democratic socialists and trade unionists.^[10] The party's platform emphasises greater state intervention, social justice and strengthening workers' rights.

The Labour Party was founded in 1900, having grown out of the trade union movement and socialist parties of the nineteenth century. It overtook the Liberal Party to become the main opposition to the Conservative Party in the early 1920s, forming two minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in the 1920s and early 1930s. Labour served in the wartime coalition of 1940-1945, after which Clement Attlee's Labour government established the National Health Service and expanded the welfare state from 1945 to 1951. Under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan, Labour again governed from 1964 to 1970 and 1974 to 1979. In the 1990s Tony Blair took Labour closer to the centre as part of his "New Labour" project, which governed the UK under Blair and then Gordon Brown from 1997 to 2010. After Corbyn took over in 2015, the party has moved leftward.

Labour is currently the Official Opposition in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, having won the second-largest number of seats in the 2017 general election. The Labour Party is currently the largest party in the Welsh Assembly, forming the main party in the current Welsh government. The party is the third largest in the Scottish Parliament.

Labour is a member of the Party of European Socialists and Progressive Alliance, holds observer status in the Socialist International, and sits with the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament. The party includes semi-autonomous Scottish and Welsh branches and supports the Social Democratic and Labour Party in Northern Ireland. As of 2017, Labour had the largest membership of any party in Western Europe.^[11]

1. ^ Brivati & Heffernan 2000: "On 27 February 1900, the Labour Representation Committee was formed to campaign for the election of working class representatives to parliament."
2. ^ Thorpe 2008, p. 8.
3. ^ Stephen O'Shea and James Buckley (8 December 2015). "Corbyn's Labour party set for swanky HQ move". Retrieved 8 October 2017.
4. ^ http://www.labourstudents.org.uk/
5. ^ https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/labour-party-membership-dropped-around-13955850
6. ^ https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/feb/05/labour-membership-falls-10-amid-unrest-over-brexit-stance
7. ^ Nordsieck, Wolfram (2017). "United Kingdom". Parties and Elections in Europe. Retrieved 3 May 2018.
8. ^ Adams, Ian (1998). Ideology and Politics in Britain Today (illustrated, reprint ed.). Manchester University Press. pp. 144–145. ISBN 978-0-7190-5056-5. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
9. ^ "Local Council Political Compositions". Open Council Date UK. 23 January 2018. Archived from the original on 30 September 2017. Retrieved 23 September 2018.
10. ^ Matthew Worley (2009). The Foundations of the British Labour Party: Identities, Cultures and Perspectives, 1900–39. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. pp. 1–2. ISBN 978-0-7546-6731-5.
11. ^ MacAskill, Ewen (27 September 2016). "Jeremy Corbyn's team targets Labour membership of 1 million". the Guardian.

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28 February 1991 – The first Gulf War ends.

Gulf War

This article is about the war in 1990–1991. For other wars of that name, see Gulf War (disambiguation).

"Desert Storm" and "Operation Desert Storm" redirect here. For other uses, see Desert Storm (disambiguation).

1990–1991 war between Iraq and Coalition Forces

The Gulf War (2 August 1990 – 28 February 1991), codenamed Operation Desert Shield (2 August 1990 – 17 January 1991) for operations leading to the buildup of troops and defense of Saudi Arabia and Operation Desert Storm (17 January 1991 – 28 February 1991) in its combat phase, was a war waged by coalition forces from 35 nations led by the United States against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait arising from oil pricing and production disputes. The war is also known under other names, such as the Persian Gulf War, First Gulf War, Gulf War I, Kuwait War, First Iraq War or Iraq War,^{[25][26][27][a]} before the term "Iraq War" became identified instead with the 2003 Iraq War.

On 2 August 1990 the Iraqi Army invaded and occupied Kuwait, which was met with international condemnation and brought immediate economic sanctions against Iraq by members of the UN Security Council. Together with the UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher—who had resisted the invasion by Argentina of the Falkland Islands a decade earlier^[28]—, American President George H. W. Bush deployed US forces into Saudi Arabia, and urged other countries to send their own forces to the scene. An array of nations joined the coalition, forming the largest military alliance since World War II. The great majority of the coalition's military forces were from the US, with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and Egypt as leading contributors, in that order. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia paid around US$32 billion of the US$60 billion cost.^[29]

The war marked the introduction of live news broadcasts from the front lines of the battle, principally by the US network CNN.^[30][31][32] The war has also earned the nickname Video Game War after the daily broadcast of images from cameras on board US bombers during Operation Desert Storm.^[33][34]

The initial conflict to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait began with an aerial and naval bombardment on 17 January 1991, continuing for five weeks. This was followed by a ground assault on 24 February. This was a decisive victory for the coalition forces, who liberated Kuwait and advanced into Iraqi territory. The coalition ceased its advance and declared a ceasefire 100 hours after the ground campaign started. Aerial and ground combat was confined to Iraq, Kuwait, and areas on Saudi Arabia's border. Iraq launched Scud missiles against coalition military targets in Saudi Arabia and against Israel.

1. ^ Cite error: The named reference nyt-syria-double was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
2. ^ "Den 1. Golfkrig". Forsvaret.dk. 24 September 2010. Archived from the original on 12 January 2011. Retrieved 1 February 2011.
3. ^ Persian Gulf War, the Sandhurst-trained Prince
   Khaled bin Sultan al-Saud was co-commander with General Norman Schwarzkopf www.casi.org.uk/discuss
4. ^ General Khaled was Co-Commander, with US General Norman Schwarzkopf, of the allied coalition that liberated Kuwait www.thefreelibrary.com
5. ^ Gulf War coalition forces (latest available) by country "www.nationmaster.com". Archived from the original on 5 November 2013. Retrieved 2007-09-13.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
6. ^ Hersh, Seymour (2005). Chain of Command. Penguin Books. p. 181.
7. ^ ^{a b} "Persian Gulf War". MSN Encarta. Archived from the original on 1 November 2009.
8. ^ 18 M1 Abrams, 11 M60, 2 AMX-30
9. ^ CheckPoint, Ludovic Monnerat -. "Guerre du Golfe : le dernier combat de la division Tawakalna".
10. ^ Scales, Brig. Gen. Robert H.: Certain Victory. Brassey's, 1994, p. 279.
11. ^ Halberstadt 1991. p. 35
12. ^ Atkinson, Rick. Crusade, The untold story of the Persian Gulf War. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1993. pp. 332–3
13. ^ Captain Todd A. Buchs, B. Co. Commander, Knights In the Desert. Publisher/Editor Unknown. p. 111.
14. ^ Malory, Marcia. "Tanks During the First Gulf War – Tank History". Retrieved 5 July 2016.
15. ^ M60 vs T-62 Cold War Combatants 1956–92 by Lon Nordeen & David Isby
16. ^ "TAB H – Friendly-fire Incidents". Retrieved 5 July 2016.
17. ^ NSIAD-92-94, "Operation Desert Storm: Early Performance Assessment of Bradley and Abrams". US General Accounting Office, 10 January 1992. Quote: "According to information provided by the Army's Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Plans, 20 Bradleys were destroyed during the Gulf war. Another 12 Bradleys were damaged, but four of these were quickly repaired. Friendly fire accounted for 17 of the destroyed Bradleys and three of the damaged ones
18. ^ ^{a b c d} Pike, John. "Operation Desert Storm". Retrieved 5 July 2016.
19. ^ Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait; 1990 (Air War). Acig.org. Retrieved on 12 June 2011
20. ^ ^{a b c d e} Bourque P.455
21. ^ "The Use of Terror during Iraq's invasion of Kuwait". The Jewish Agency for Israel. Archived from the original on 24 January 2005. Retrieved 22 June 2010.
22. ^ "Kuwait: missing people: a step in the right direction". Red Cross.
23. ^ "The Wages of War: Iraqi Combatant and Noncombatant Fatalities in the 2003 Conflict". Project on Defense Alternatives. Retrieved 9 May 2009.
24. ^ Fetter, Steve; Lewis, George N.; Gronlund, Lisbeth (28 January 1993). "Why were Casualties so low?" (PDF). Nature. London. 361 (6410): 293–296. doi:10.1038/361293a0.
25. ^ "Frontline Chronology" (PDF). Public Broadcasting Service. Retrieved 20 March 2007.
26. ^ "Tenth anniversary of the Gulf War: A look back". CNN. 17 January 2001. Archived from the original on 11 December 2008.
27. ^ Kenneth Estes. "ISN: The Second Gulf War (1990–1991) – Council on Foreign Relations". Cfr.org. Archived from the original on 2 January 2011. Retrieved 18 March 2010.
28. ^ "George Bush (Sr) Library - Margaret Thatcher Foundation". www.margaretthatcher.org.
29. ^ Peters, John E; Deshong, Howard (1995). Out of Area or Out of Reach? European Military Support for Operations in Southwest Asia (PDF). RAND Corporation. ISBN 978-0-8330-2329-2.
30. ^ "Memória Globo". Archived from the original on 25 July 2011. Retrieved 2017-03-26.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link), access on 29 March 2011.
31. ^ "Livraria da Folha – Livro conta como Guerra do Golfo colocou a CNN no foco internacional – 08/09/2010". .folha.uol.com.br. Retrieved 13 May 2011.
32. ^ A Guerra do Golfo, accessed on 29 March 2011
33. ^ A Guerra do Golfo, os Estados Unidos e as Relações Internacionais accessed on 29 March 2011.
34. ^ Guerra/Terrorismo – O maior bombardeio da história, access on 27 November 2011.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

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1 March 1565 – The city of Rio de Janeiro is founded.

Rio de Janeiro

This article is about the city. For the state, see Rio de Janeiro (state). For other uses, see Rio de Janeiro (disambiguation).

Second-most populous municipality in Brazil

Municipality in Southeast, Brazil

Rio de Janeiro (/ˈriːoʊ di ʒəˈnɛəroʊ, - deɪ -, - də -/; Portuguese: [ˈʁi.u d(ʒi) ʒɐˈne(j)ɾu];^[3] River of January), or simply Rio,^[4] is anchor to the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area and the second-most populous municipality in Brazil and the sixth-most populous in the Americas. Rio de Janeiro is the capital of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's third-most populous state. Part of the city has been designated as a World Heritage Site, named "Rio de Janeiro: Carioca Landscapes between the Mountain and the Sea", by UNESCO on 1 July 2012 as a Cultural Landscape.^[5]

Founded in 1565 by the Portuguese, the city was initially the seat of the Captaincy of Rio de Janeiro, a domain of the Portuguese Empire. Later, in 1763, it became the capital of the State of Brazil, a state of the Portuguese Empire. In 1808, when the Portuguese Royal Court transferred itself from Portugal to Brazil, Rio de Janeiro became the chosen seat of the court of Queen Maria I of Portugal, who subsequently, in 1815, under the leadership of her son, the Prince Regent, and future King João VI of Portugal, raised Brazil to the dignity of a kingdom, within the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and Algarves. Rio stayed the capital of the pluricontinental Lusitanian monarchy until 1822, when the War of Brazilian Independence began. This is one of the few instances in history that the capital of a colonising country officially shifted to a city in one of its colonies. Rio de Janeiro subsequently served as the capital of the independent monarchy, the Empire of Brazil, until 1889, and then the capital of a republican Brazil until 1960 when the capital was transferred to Brasília.

Rio de Janeiro has the second largest municipal GDP in the country,^[6] and 30th largest in the world in 2008,^[7] estimated at about R$343 billion (IBGE, 2008) (nearly US$201 billion). It is headquarters to Brazilian oil, mining, and telecommunications companies, including two of the country's major corporations – Petrobras and Vale – and Latin America's largest telemedia conglomerate, Grupo Globo. The home of many universities and institutes, it is the second-largest center of research and development in Brazil, accounting for 17% of national scientific output according to 2005 data.^[8] Despite the high perception of crime, the city has a lower incidence of crime than Northeast Brazil, but it is far more criminalized than the south region of Brazil, which is considered the safest in the country.^[9]

Rio de Janeiro is one of the most visited cities in the Southern Hemisphere and is known for its natural settings, Carnival, samba, bossa nova, and balneario beaches^[10] such as Barra da Tijuca, Copacabana, Ipanema, and Leblon. In addition to the beaches, some of the most famous landmarks include the giant statue of Christ the Redeemer atop Corcovado mountain, named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World; Sugarloaf Mountain with its cable car; the Sambódromo (Sambadrome), a permanent grandstand-lined parade avenue which is used during Carnival; and Maracanã Stadium, one of the world's largest football stadiums. Rio de Janeiro was the host of the 2016 Summer Olympics and the 2016 Summer Paralympics, making the city the first South American and Portuguese-speaking city to ever host the events, and the third time the Olympics were held in a Southern Hemisphere city.^[11] The Maracanã Stadium held the finals of the 1950 and 2014 FIFA World Cups, the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, and the XV Pan American Games.

1. ^ "Rio de Janeiro Info ('History')". paralumun.com. Archived from the original on 27 December 2008. Retrieved 6 August 2016.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
2. ^ "2013 population estimates. Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) (1 July 2013)" (PDF). Ibge.gov.br. Retrieved 22 July 2014.
3. ^ It is pronounced [ˈʁi.u d(ʒi) ʒaˈnejɾu] in the variety of Brazilian Portuguese spoken in Rio de Janeiro according to Larousse Concise Dictionary: Portuguese-English, 2008, p. 339. Vowel reduction at /a ~ ɐ/ was added as it is the most often used speech pattern in vernacular, colloquial and educated colloquial modes of speech. [ˈʁi.u dʑi ʑəˈnejɾu] is possibly the way most Brazilians, and particularly most cariocas, would actually pronounce it. The European Portuguese pronunciation is: [ˈʁi.u ðɨ ʒɐˈnɐjɾu].
4. ^ "Rio de Janeiro: travel guide". Archived from the original on 13 June 2015. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
5. ^ "Rio de Janeiro: Carioca Landscapes between the Mountain and the Sea". UNESCO. 1 July 2012. Retrieved 1 July 2012.
6. ^ "Posição ocupada pelos 100 maiores municípios em relação ao Produto Interno Bruto" (PDF). Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE). 16 December 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 April 2009. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
7. ^ "The 150 richest cities in the world by GDP in 2005". City Mayors Statistics. 11 March 2007. Retrieved 8 September 2008.
8. ^ "Assessoria de Comunicação e Imprensa". Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp). 17 June 2005. Archived from the original on 17 June 2008. Retrieved 8 September 2008.
9. ^ "As cidades mais pacíficas do Brasil, segundo o IPEA". exame.abril.com.br. EXAME. Retrieved 11 October 2017.
10. ^ "Rio de Janeiro's Beach Culture" Tayfun King, Fast Track, BBC World News (11 September 2009)
11. ^ "BBC Sport, Rio to stage 2016 Olympic Games". BBC News. 2 October 2009. Retrieved 4 October 2009.

Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).

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1 March 1565 – The city of Rio de Janeiro is founded.

Rio de Janeiro

This article is about the city. For the state, see Rio de Janeiro (state). For other uses, see Rio de Janeiro (disambiguation).

Second-most populous municipality in Brazil

Municipality in Southeast, Brazil

Rio de Janeiro (/ˈriːoʊ di ʒəˈnɛəroʊ, - deɪ -, - də -/; Portuguese: [ˈʁi.u d(ʒi) ʒɐˈne(j)ɾu];^[3] River of January), or simply Rio,^[4] is anchor to the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area and the second-most populous municipality in Brazil and the sixth-most populous in the Americas. Rio de Janeiro is the capital of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's third-most populous state. Part of the city has been designated as a World Heritage Site, named "Rio de Janeiro: Carioca Landscapes between the Mountain and the Sea", by UNESCO on 1 July 2012 as a Cultural Landscape.^[5]

Founded in 1565 by the Portuguese, the city was initially the seat of the Captaincy of Rio de Janeiro, a domain of the Portuguese Empire. Later, in 1763, it became the capital of the State of Brazil, a state of the Portuguese Empire. In 1808, when the Portuguese Royal Court transferred itself from Portugal to Brazil, Rio de Janeiro became the chosen seat of the court of Queen Maria I of Portugal, who subsequently, in 1815, under the leadership of her son, the Prince Regent, and future King João VI of Portugal, raised Brazil to the dignity of a kingdom, within the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and Algarves. Rio stayed the capital of the pluricontinental Lusitanian monarchy until 1822, when the War of Brazilian Independence began. This is one of the few instances in history that the capital of a colonising country officially shifted to a city in one of its colonies. Rio de Janeiro subsequently served as the capital of the independent monarchy, the Empire of Brazil, until 1889, and then the capital of a republican Brazil until 1960 when the capital was transferred to Brasília.

Rio de Janeiro has the second largest municipal GDP in the country,^[6] and 30th largest in the world in 2008,^[7] estimated at about R$343 billion (IBGE, 2008) (nearly US$201 billion). It is headquarters to Brazilian oil, mining, and telecommunications companies, including two of the country's major corporations – Petrobras and Vale – and Latin America's largest telemedia conglomerate, Grupo Globo. The home of many universities and institutes, it is the second-largest center of research and development in Brazil, accounting for 17% of national scientific output according to 2005 data.^[8] Despite the high perception of crime, the city has a lower incidence of crime than Northeast Brazil, but it is far more criminalized than the south region of Brazil, which is considered the safest in the country.^[9]

Rio de Janeiro is one of the most visited cities in the Southern Hemisphere and is known for its natural settings, Carnival, samba, bossa nova, and balneario beaches^[10] such as Barra da Tijuca, Copacabana, Ipanema, and Leblon. In addition to the beaches, some of the most famous landmarks include the giant statue of Christ the Redeemer atop Corcovado mountain, named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World; Sugarloaf Mountain with its cable car; the Sambódromo (Sambadrome), a permanent grandstand-lined parade avenue which is used during Carnival; and Maracanã Stadium, one of the world's largest football stadiums. Rio de Janeiro was the host of the 2016 Summer Olympics and the 2016 Summer Paralympics, making the city the first South American and Portuguese-speaking city to ever host the events, and the third time the Olympics were held in a Southern Hemisphere city.^[11] The Maracanã Stadium held the finals of the 1950 and 2014 FIFA World Cups, the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, and the XV Pan American Games.

1. ^ "Rio de Janeiro Info ('History')". paralumun.com. Archived from the original on 27 December 2008. Retrieved 6 August 2016.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
2. ^ "2013 population estimates. Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) (1 July 2013)" (PDF). Ibge.gov.br. Retrieved 22 July 2014.
3. ^ It is pronounced [ˈʁi.u d(ʒi) ʒaˈnejɾu] in the variety of Brazilian Portuguese spoken in Rio de Janeiro according to Larousse Concise Dictionary: Portuguese-English, 2008, p. 339. Vowel reduction at /a ~ ɐ/ was added as it is the most often used speech pattern in vernacular, colloquial and educated colloquial modes of speech. [ˈʁi.u dʑi ʑəˈnejɾu] is possibly the way most Brazilians, and particularly most cariocas, would actually pronounce it. The European Portuguese pronunciation is: [ˈʁi.u ðɨ ʒɐˈnɐjɾu].
4. ^ "Rio de Janeiro: travel guide". Archived from the original on 13 June 2015. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
5. ^ "Rio de Janeiro: Carioca Landscapes between the Mountain and the Sea". UNESCO. 1 July 2012. Retrieved 1 July 2012.
6. ^ "Posição ocupada pelos 100 maiores municípios em relação ao Produto Interno Bruto" (PDF). Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE). 16 December 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 April 2009. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
7. ^ "The 150 richest cities in the world by GDP in 2005". City Mayors Statistics. 11 March 2007. Retrieved 8 September 2008.
8. ^ "Assessoria de Comunicação e Imprensa". Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp). 17 June 2005. Archived from the original on 17 June 2008. Retrieved 8 September 2008.
9. ^ "As cidades mais pacíficas do Brasil, segundo o IPEA". exame.abril.com.br. EXAME. Retrieved 11 October 2017.
10. ^ "Rio de Janeiro's Beach Culture" Tayfun King, Fast Track, BBC World News (11 September 2009)
11. ^ "BBC Sport, Rio to stage 2016 Olympic Games". BBC News. 2 October 2009. Retrieved 4 October 2009.

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2 March 1946 – Ho Chi Minh is elected the President of North Vietnam.

Ho Chi Minh

For other uses, see Ho Chi Minh (disambiguation).

Hồ Chí Minh (/hoʊ tʃiː mɪn/;^[2] Vietnamese: [hò cǐ mīŋ̟] (listen), Saigon: [hò cǐ mɨ̄n] (listen); Chữ nôm: 胡志明; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), born Nguyễn Sinh Cung,^[3][4][5] also known as Nguyễn Tất Thành, Nguyễn Ái Quốc, Bác Hồ or simply Bác, was a Vietnamese Communist revolutionary leader who was Chairman and First Secretary of the Workers' Party of Vietnam. He was also Prime Minister (1945–1955) and President (1945–1969) of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). He was a key figure in the foundation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945 at the Ba Dinh Square in Hanoi as well as the People's Army of Vietnam and the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War.

Hồ Chí Minh led the Việt Minh independence movement from 1941 onward, establishing the Communist-ruled Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945 and defeating the French Union in 1954 at the battle of Điện Biên Phủ. He officially stepped down from power in 1965 due to health problems. After the war, Saigon, the former capital of the Republic of Vietnam, was renamed Ho Chi Minh City.

Any description of Hồ Chí Minh's life before he came to power in Vietnam is necessarily fraught with ambiguity. He is known to have used at least 50^[6]:582 and perhaps as many as 200 pseudonyms.^[7] Both his place and date of birth are subjects of academic debate since neither is known with certainty. At least four existing official biographies vary on names, dates, places and other hard facts while unofficial biographies vary even more widely.^[8]

1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Brocheux2007 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
2. ^ "Ho Chi Minh". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
3. ^ Trần Quốc Vượng. "Lời truyền miệng dân gian về Hồ Chí Minh". BBC Vietnamese. Retrieved 10 December 2013.
4. ^ Vũ Ngự Chiêu. "Vài vấn nạn lịch sử thế kỷ XX: Hồ Chí Minh—Nhà ngoại giao, 1945–1946". Hợp Lưu Magazine. Note: See the document in French, from Centre des archives d'Outre-mer [CAOM] (Aix)/Gouvernement General de l'Indochine [GGI]/Fonds Residence Superieure d'Annam [RSA]/carton R1, and the note in English at the end of the cited article. Retrieved 10 December 2013.
5. ^ Nguyễn Vĩnh Châu. "Phỏng vấn sử gia Vũ Ngự Chiêu về những nghiên cứu lịch sử liên quan đến Hồ Chí Minh". Hợp Lưu Magazine. Retrieved 10 December 2013.
6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Duiker was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
7. ^ Duncanson, Dennis J. "Ho Chi Minh in Hong Kong 1931-1932". 57 (Jan-Mar 1957). The China Quarterly: 85.
8. ^ Pike, Douglas (3 August 1976). "Ho Chi Minh: A Post-War Re-evaluation". Mexico City: 30th Annual Congress of Orientalists. Retrieved 21 December 2017.

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3 March 1923 – TIME magazine is published for the first time.

Time (magazine)

American news magazine and website based in New York City

"TIME" redirects here. For time as a measure, see Time. For other uses, see Time (disambiguation).

Not to be confused with The Times.

Time is an American weekly news magazine and news website published in New York City. It was founded in 1923 and originally run by Henry Luce. A European edition (Time Europe, formerly known as Time Atlantic) is published in London and also covers the Middle East, Africa, and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition (Time Asia) is based in Hong Kong. The South Pacific edition, which covers Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands, is based in Sydney. In December 2008, Time discontinued publishing a Canadian advertiser edition.^[2]

Time has the world's largest circulation for a weekly news magazine. The print edition has a readership of 26 million, 20 million of whom are based in the United States. In mid-2012, its circulation was over three million,^[1][3] which had lowered to two million by late 2017.^[4]

Richard Stengel was the managing editor from May 2006 to October 2013, when he joined the U.S. State Department.^[5][6] Nancy Gibbs was the managing editor from September 2013 until September 2017.^[6] She was succeeded by Edward Felsenthal, who had been Time's digital editor.^[7]

1. ^ ^{a b} "Consumer Magazines". Alliance for Audited Media. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
2. ^ "Time Canada to close". Mastheadonline.com. December 10, 2008. Retrieved September 6, 2011.
3. ^ Byers, Dylan (August 7, 2012). "Time Magazine still on top in circulation". Politico. Retrieved October 8, 2018.
4. ^ Trachtenberg, Jeffrey A. (October 10, 2017). "For Time Inc.'s Magazines, Fewer Copies Is the Way Forward" – via www.wsj.com.
5. ^ Time Inc (July 30, 2012). "Richard Stengel". TIME Media Kit. Time Inc. Archived from the original on March 5, 2012. Retrieved August 22, 2012.
6. ^ ^{a b} Maza, Erik (September 17, 2013). "Nancy Gibbs Named Time's Managing Editor". WWD. Retrieved September 17, 2013.
7. ^ "Time magazine names Edward Felsenthal as new editor-in-chief".

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4 March 1351 – Ramathibodi becomes King of Siam.

Monarchy of Thailand

Monarchy of Thailand

"King of Siam" and "The King of Siam" redirect here. For the King and I character, see The King and I § Principal roles and notable performers. For the novel, see Anna and the King of Siam (novel).

The monarchy of Thailand (whose monarch is referred to as the King of Thailand or historically as the King of Siam; Thai: พระมหากษัตริย์ไทย) refers to the constitutional monarchy and monarch of the Kingdom of Thailand (formerly Siam). The King of Thailand is the head of state and head of the ruling Royal House of Chakri.

Although the current Chakri Dynasty was created in 1782, the existence of the institution of monarchy in Thailand is traditionally considered to have its roots from the founding of the Sukhothai Kingdom in 1238, with a brief interregnum from the death of Ekkathat to the accession of Taksin in the 18th century. The institution was transformed into a constitutional monarchy in 1932 after the bloodless Siamese Revolution of 1932. The monarchy's official ceremonial residence is the Grand Palace in Bangkok, while the private residence has been at the Dusit Palace.

The King of Thailand's titles include Head of State, Head of the Royal Thai Armed Forces, Adherent of Buddhism and Upholder of religions.^[2]

1. ^ Campbell, Charlie (n.d.). "Thais Face an Anxious Wait to See How Their New King Will Wield His Power". Time. Retrieved 2 December 2016.
2. ^ The Secretariate of the House of Representatives (Nov 2007). "Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand B.E 2550" (PDF). The Secretariat of the House of Representatives. Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 August 2012. Retrieved 7 November 2012.

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5 March 1943 – First Flight of the Gloster Meteor, Britain's first combat jet aircraft.

Gloster Meteor

The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies' only jet aircraft to achieve combat operations during the Second World War. The Meteor's development was heavily reliant on its ground-breaking turbojet engines, pioneered by Sir Frank Whittle and his company, Power Jets Ltd. Development of the aircraft began in 1940, although work on the engines had been under way since 1936. The Meteor first flew in 1943 and commenced operations on 27 July 1944 with No. 616 Squadron RAF. The Meteor was not a sophisticated aircraft in its aerodynamics, but proved to be a successful combat fighter. Gloster's 1946 civil Meteor F.4 demonstrator G-AIDC was the first civilian-registered jet aircraft in the world.^[1]

Several major variants of the Meteor incorporated technological advances during the 1940s and 1950s. Thousands of Meteors were built to fly with the RAF and other air forces and remained in use for several decades. The Meteor saw limited action in the Second World War. Meteors of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) fought in the Korean War. Several other operators such as Argentina, Egypt and Israel flew Meteors in later regional conflicts. Specialised variants of the Meteor were developed for use in photographic aerial reconnaissance and as night fighters.

The Meteor was also used for research and development purposes and to break several aviation records. On 7 November 1945, the first official airspeed record by a jet aircraft was set by a Meteor F.3 at 606 miles per hour (975 km/h). In 1946, this record was broken when a Meteor F.4 reached a speed of 616 miles per hour (991 km/h). Other performance-related records were broken in categories including flight time endurance, rate of climb, and speed. On 20 September 1945, a heavily modified Meteor I, powered by two Rolls-Royce Trent turbine engines driving propellers, became the first turboprop aircraft to fly.^[2] On 10 February 1954, a specially adapted Meteor F.8, the "Meteor Prone Pilot", which placed the pilot into a prone position to counteract inertial forces, took its first flight.^[3]

In the 1950s, the Meteor became increasingly obsolete as more nations introduced jet fighters, many of these newcomers having adopted a swept wing instead of the Meteor's conventional straight wing; in RAF service, the Meteor was replaced by newer types such as the Hawker Hunter and Gloster Javelin. As of 2018, two Meteors, G-JSMA and G-JWMA, remain in active service with the Martin-Baker company as ejection seat testbeds.^[4] One further aircraft in the UK remains airworthy, as does another in Australia.

1. ^ "gloster meteor – 1974 – 0497 – Flight Archive".
2. ^ King Flight 27 May 1955, p. 727.
3. ^ Young 1985, p. 83.
4. ^ http://martin-baker.com/2018/01/15/raf100-gloster-meteor-martin-baker-mk-1/

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6 March 1899 – Bayer registers "Aspirin" as a trademark.

Aspirin

medication

Aspirin, also known as acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), is a medication used to treat pain, fever, or inflammation.^[4] Specific inflammatory conditions which aspirin is used to treat include Kawasaki disease, pericarditis, and rheumatic fever.^[4] Aspirin given shortly after a heart attack decreases the risk of death.^[4] Aspirin is also used long-term to help prevent further heart attacks, ischaemic strokes, and blood clots in people at high risk.^[4] It may also decrease the risk of certain types of cancer, particularly colorectal cancer.^[5] For pain or fever, effects typically begin within 30 minutes.^[4] Aspirin is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) and works similarly to other NSAIDs but also suppresses the normal functioning of platelets.^[4]

One common adverse effect is an upset stomach.^[4] More significant side effects include stomach ulcers, stomach bleeding, and worsening asthma.^[4] Bleeding risk is greater among those who are older, drink alcohol, take other NSAIDs, or are on other blood thinners.^[4] Aspirin is not recommended in the last part of pregnancy.^[4] It is not generally recommended in children with infections because of the risk of Reye syndrome.^[4] High doses may result in ringing in the ears.^[4]

A precursor to aspirin found in leaves from the willow tree has been used for its health effects for at least 2,400 years.^[6][7] In 1853, chemist Charles Frédéric Gerhardt treated the medicine sodium salicylate with acetyl chloride to produce acetylsalicylic acid for the first time.^[8] For the next fifty years, other chemists established the chemical structure and came up with more efficient production methods.^[8]:69–75 In 1897, scientists at the Bayer company began studying acetylsalicylic acid as a less-irritating replacement medication for common salicylate medicines.^{[8]:69–75[9]} By 1899, Bayer had named it "Aspirin" and sold it around the world.^[10] Aspirin's popularity grew over the first half of the twentieth century leading to competition between many brands and formulations.^[11] The word Aspirin was Bayer's brand name; however, their rights to the trademark were lost or sold in many countries.^[11]

Aspirin is one of the most widely used medications globally, with an estimated 40,000 tonnes (44,000 tons) (50 to 120 billion pills) consumed each year.^[6][12] It is on the World Health Organization's (WHO's) List of Essential Medicines, which lists the safest and most effective medicines needed in a health system.^[13] As of 2014^[update], the wholesale cost in the developing world is $0.002 to $0.025 USD per dose.^[14] As of 2015^[update], the cost for a typical month of medication in the United States is less than US$25.00.^[15] It is available as a generic medication.^[4] In 2016, it was the 38th most prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 19 million prescriptions.^[16]

1. ^ ^{a b c} Brayfield, A, ed. (14 January 2014). "Aspirin". Martindale: The Complete Drug Reference. Pharmaceutical Press. Retrieved 3 April 2014.
2. ^ ^{a b} "Zorprin, Bayer Buffered Aspirin (aspirin) dosing, indications, interactions, adverse effects, and more". Medscape Reference. WebMD. Archived from the original on 7 April 2014. Retrieved 3 April 2014.
3. ^ ^{a b} Cite error: The named reference b92 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
4. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m} "Aspirin". Drugs.com. American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. 6 June 2016. Archived from the original on 25 April 2017. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
5. ^ Patrignani P, Patrono C (August 2016). "Aspirin and Cancer". Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 68 (9): 967–76. doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2016.05.083. PMID 27561771.
6. ^ ^{a b} Jones A (2015). Chemistry: An Introduction for Medical and Health Sciences. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 5–6. ISBN 978-0-470-09290-3.
7. ^ Ravina E (2011). The Evolution of Drug Discovery: From Traditional Medicines to Modern Drugs. John Wiley & Sons. p. 24. ISBN 978-3-527-32669-3.
8. ^ ^{a b c} Jeffreys D (2008). Aspirin the remarkable story of a wonder drug. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 978-1-59691-816-0. Archived from the original on 8 September 2017.^:46–48
9. ^ Dick B (2018). "Hard Work and Happenstance". Distillations. Vol. 4 no. 1. Science History Institute. pp. 44–45. Retrieved July 11, 2018.
10. ^ Mann CC, Plummer ML (1991). The aspirin wars : money, medicine, and 100 years of rampant competition (1st ed.). New York: Knopf. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-394-57894-1.
11. ^ ^{a b} "Aspirin". Chemical & Engineering News. Retrieved 2007-08-13.
12. ^ Warner TD, Mitchell JA (October 2002). "Cyclooxygenase-3 (COX-3): filling in the gaps toward a COX continuum?". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 99 (21): 13371–3. Bibcode:2002PNAS...9913371W. doi:10.1073/pnas.222543099. PMC 129677. PMID 12374850.
13. ^ "WHO Model List of Essential Medicines (19th List)" (PDF). World Health Organization. April 2015. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 December 2016. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
14. ^ "Acetylsalicylic Acid". International Drug Price Indicator Guide. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
15. ^ Hamilton R (2015). Tarascon pocket pharmacopoeia (2015 deluxe lab-coat ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning. p. 5. ISBN 978-1-284-05756-0.
16. ^ "The Top 300 of 2019". clincalc.com. Retrieved 26 February 2019.

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7 March 1936 – Prelude to World War II: In violation of the Locarno Pact and the Treaty of Versailles, Germany reoccupies the Rhineland.

Remilitarization of the Rhineland

Location of the Rhineland (as defined by the Treaty of Versailles) along the River Rhine

The remilitarization of the Rhineland (German: Rheinlandbesetzung) by the German Army began on 7 March 1936 when German military forces entered the Rhineland. This was significant because it violated the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Treaties, marking the first time since the end of World War I that German troops had been in this region. The remilitarization changed the balance of power in Europe from France and its allies towards Germany, making it possible for Germany to pursue a policy of aggression in Western Europe that the demilitarized status of the Rhineland had blocked until then.

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8 March 1936 – Daytona Beach and Road Course holds its first oval stock car race.

Daytona Beach and Road Course

The Daytona Beach Road Course was a race track that was instrumental in the formation of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, or NASCAR. It originally became famous as the location where fifteen world land speed records were set.

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9 March 1796 – Napoléon Bonaparte marries his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais.

Empress Joséphine

For her granddaughter, the Queen consort of Sweden and Norway, see Josephine of Leuchtenberg.

Joséphine (French: [ʒo.ze.fin də‿bo.aʁ.nɛ]; born Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie; 23 June 1763 – 29 May 1814) was the first wife of Napoleon, and thus the first Empress of the French.

Her marriage to Napoleon was her second; her first husband, Alexandre de Beauharnais, was guillotined during the Reign of Terror, and she was imprisoned in the Carmes Prison until five days after his execution. Her two children by Beauharnais became significant to royal lineage. Through her daughter, Hortense, she was the maternal grandmother of Napoleon III. Through her son, Eugène, she was the great-grandmother of later Swedish and Danish kings and queens. The reigning houses of Belgium, Norway and Luxembourg also descend from her. She did not bear Napoleon any children; as a result, he divorced her in 1810 to marry Marie Louise of Austria.

Joséphine was the recipient of numerous love letters written by Napoleon, many of which still exist. Her Château de Malmaison was noted for its magnificent rose garden, which she supervised closely, owing to her passionate interest in roses, collected from all over the world.

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10 March 1848 – The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is ratified by the United States Senate, ending the Mexican–American War.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

The Mexican Cession included essentially the entirety of the former Mexican territory of Alta California, but only the western portion of Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico, and includes all of present-day California, Nevada and Utah, most of Arizona, and western portions of New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming.

Articles VIII and IX ensured safety of existing property rights of Mexican citizens living in the transferred territories. Despite assurances to the contrary, the property rights of Mexican citizens were often not honored by the U.S. in accordance with modifications to and interpretations of the Treaty.^[1][2][3] The U.S. also agreed to assume $3.25 million (equivalent to $94.1 million today) in debts that Mexico owed to United States citizens.

The residents had one year to choose whether they wanted American or Mexican citizenship; Over 90% chose American citizenship. The others returned to Mexico (where they received land), or in some cases in New Mexico were allowed to remain in place as Mexican citizens.^[4][5]

Article XII engaged the United States to pay, "In consideration of the extension acquired", 15 million dollars (equivalent to $430 million today),^[6] in annual installments of 3 million dollars.

Article XI of the treaty was important to Mexico. It provided that the United States would prevent and punish raids by Indians into Mexico, prohibited Americans from acquiring property, including livestock, taken by the Indians in those raids, and stated that the U.S. would return captives of the Indians to Mexico. Mexicans believed that the United States had encouraged and assisted the Comanche and Apache raids that had devastated northern Mexico in the years before the war. This article promised relief to them. ^[7]

Article XI, however, proved unenforceable. Destructive Indian raids continued despite a heavy U.S. presence near the Mexican border. Mexico filed 366 claims with the U.S. government for damages done by Comanche and Apache raids between 1848 and 1853.^[8] In 1853, in the Treaty of Mesilla concluding the Gadsden Purchase, Article XI was annulled.^[9]

1. ^ U.S. Congress. Recommendation of the Public Land Commission for Legislation as to Private Land Claims, 46th Congress, 2nd Session, 1880, House Executive Document 46, pp. 1116–17.
2. ^ Mexicanos: A history of Mexicans in the United States. Manuel G. Gonzales, Indiana University Press P.86-87 ISBN 0-253-33520-5
3. ^ The U.S.-Mexico Border: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, John C. Davenport, P.48, ISBN 0-7910-7833-7
4. ^ Linda C. Noel, "'I am an American': Anglos, Mexicans, Nativos, and the National Debate over Arizona and New Mexico Statehood," Pacific Historical Review, (Aug 2011) 80#3 pp 430–467, at p 436
5. ^ Richard Griswold del Castillo, The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: A Legacy of Conflict, (1990) ch 5
6. ^ "Error -- File Not Found (Hispanic Reading Room, Hispanic Division, Area Studies)". www.loc.gov.
7. ^ Delay, Brian (2007). "Independent Indians and the U.S. Mexican War". The American Historical Review. 112 (1): 67. doi:10.1086/ahr.112.1.35.
8. ^ Schmal, John P. "Sonora: Four Centuries of Indigenous Resistance" Houston Institute of Culture http://www.houstonculture.org/mexico/sonora2.html, accessed 12 Jul 2012
9. ^ Kluger, Richard Seizing Destiny: How America Grew From Sea to Shining Sea. (2007), pp. 493–494 ISBN 978-0-375-41341-4

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11 March 1864 – The Great Sheffield Flood kills 238 people in Sheffield, England.

Great Sheffield Flood

Coordinates: 53°25′25″N 1°37′58″W / 53.42361°N 1.63278°W / 53.42361; -1.63278

Remains of the Dale Dyke Dam after the flood

Not to be confused with the floods in Sheffield in 2007.

The Great Sheffield Flood was a flood that devastated parts of Sheffield, England, on 11 March 1864, when the Dale Dyke Dam broke as its reservoir was being filled for the first time. At least 240 people died^[1] and more than 600 houses were damaged or destroyed by the flood. The immediate cause was a crack in the embankment, the cause of which was never determined. The dam's failure led to reforms in engineering practice, setting standards on specifics that needed to be met when constructing such large-scale structures. The dam was rebuilt in 1875.

1. ^ "The Forgotten Flood: Sheffield's tragic past remembered". BBC. 11 March 2014. Retrieved 25 September 2014.

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