Events

• 1258 – Baghdad falls to the Mongols, and the Abbasid Caliphate is destroyed.

• 1306 – before the high altar of Greyfriars Church in Dumfries, Robert the Bruce murdered John Comyn, his leading political rival sparking revolution in the Scottish Wars of Independence

• 1355 – The St. Scholastica's Day riot breaks out in Oxford, England, leaving 63 scholars and perhaps 30 locals dead in two days.

• 1567 – An explosion destroys the Kirk o' Field house in Edinburgh, Scotland. The second husband of Mary Queen of Scots, Lord Darnley is found strangled, in what many believe to be an assassination.

• 1763 – French and Indian War: The 1763 Treaty of Paris ends the war and France cedes Quebec to Great Britain.

• 1798 – Louis Alexandre Berthier invades Rome, proclaims a Roman Republic on February 15 and then on February 20 takes Pope Pius VI prisoner.

• 1814 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Champaubert

• 1840 – Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

• 1846 – First Anglo-Sikh War: Battle of Sobraon – British defeat Sikhs in final battle of the war

• 1870 – The YWCA is founded (New York City).

• 1904 – The Russo-Japanese War over Korea and Manchuria begins after the Battle of Port Arthur.

• 1906 – is launched.

• 1920 – Jozef Haller de Hallenburg performs symbolic wedding of Poland to the sea, celebrating restitution of Polish access to open sea.

• 1923 – Texas Tech University is founded as Texas Technological College in Lubbock, Texas.

• 1931 – New Delhi becomes the capital of India.

• 1933 – The New York City-based Postal Telegraph Company introduces the first singing telegram.

• 1933 – In round 13 of a boxing match at New York City's Madison Square Garden, Primo Carnera knocks out Ernie Schaaf, killing him.

• 1947 – Italy cedes most of Venezia Giulia to Yugoslavia.

• 1954 – President Dwight Eisenhower warns against United States intervention in Vietnam.

• 1962 – Captured American spy pilot Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.

• 1964 – Melbourne-Voyager collision: The aircraft carrier collides with the destroyer off the south coast of New South Wales, Australia.

• 1967 – The 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified.

• 1970 – Sylvester Stallone's first film Italian Stallion is released.

• 1981 – A fire at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino kills eight and injures 198.

• 1989 – Ron Brown is elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee becoming the first African American to lead a major American political party.

• 1996 – The IBM supercomputer Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov for the first time.

• 1998 – Voters in Maine repeal a gay rights law passed in 1997 becoming the first U.S. state to abandon that law.

• 2003 – France and Belgium break the NATO procedure of silent approval concerning the timing of protective measures for Turkey in case of a possible war with Iraq.

• 2008 – The 2008 Namdaemun fire severely damages Namdaemun, the first National Treasure of South Korea.

Births

• 1499 – Thomas Platter, Swiss humanist (d. 1582)

• 1524 – Albrecht Giese, German politician and diplomat (d. 1580)

• 1606 – Christine Marie of France, regent of Savoy (d. 1663)

• 1609 – John Suckling, English poet (d. 1642)

• 1685 – Aaron Hill, English writer (d. 1750)

• 1775 – Charles Lamb, English essayist (d. 1834)

• 1783 – Fyodor Petrovich Tolstoy, Russian painter (d. 1873)

• 1785 – Claude-Louis Navier, French physicist (d. 1936)

• 1795 – Ary Scheffer, French painter (d. 1858)

• 1846 – Charles Beresford, British admiral and politician (d. 1919)

• 1846 – Ira Remsen, American chemist (d. 1927)

• 1859 – Alexandre Millerand, French President (d. 1943)

• 1868 – Prince Waldemar of Prussia, son of Emperor Frederick III (d. 1879)

• 1884 – Frederick Hawksworth, GWR Chief mechanical engineer. (d. 1976)

• 1890 – Boris Pasternak, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1960)

• 1890 – Fanny Kaplan, failed assassin of Vladimir Lenin. (d. 1918)

• 1892 – Alan Hale Sr., American actor (d. 1950)

• 1893 – Jimmy Durante, American actor/comedian (d. 1980)

• 1893 – Bill Tilden, American tennis player (d. 1953)

• 1894 – Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1986)

• 1897 – Judith Anderson, Australian actress (d. 1992)

• 1897 – John Franklin Enders, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1985)

• 1898 – Bertolt Brecht, German author (d. 1956)

• 1898 – Joseph Kessel, French journalist and novelist (d. 1979)

• 1901 – Stella Adler, American actress (d. 1992)

• 1902 – Walter Houser Brattain, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1987)

• 1903 – Waldemar Hoven, German physician (d. 1948)

• 1903 – Matthias Sindelar, Austrian footballer (d. 1939)

• 1904 – John Farrow, American film director (d. 1963)

• 1905 – Walter A. Brown, Boston Celtics Owner (d.1964)

• 1906 – Lon Chaney Jr., American actor (d. 1973)

• 1906 – Erik Rhodes, American actor (d. 1990)

• 1910 – Georges Pire, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1969)

• 1914 – Larry Adler, American musician (d. 2001)

• 1920 – Alex Comfort, British physician and writer (d. 2000)

• 1924 – Bud Poile, Canadian hockey player and executive (d. 2005)

• 1926 – Danny Blanchflower, Northern Irish footballer (d. 1993)

• 1927 – Leontyne Price, American soprano

• 1927 – Brian Priestman, British conductor

• 1929 – Jerry Goldsmith, American composer (d. 2004)

• 1929 – Jim and Lou Whittaker, American mountaineers

• 1930 – E.L. Konigsburg, American author

• 1930 – Robert Wagner, American actor

• 1931 – Thomas Bernhard, Austrian author (d. 1989)

• 1931 – Doug Young, American voice actor

• 1933 – Richard Schickel, American film critic

• 1934 – Fleur Adcock, New Zealand poet

• 1935 – John Alcorn (artist), American designer and illustrator (d. 1992)

• 1937 – Roberta Flack, American singer

• 1939 – Adrienne Clarkson, 26th Governor General of Canada

• 1940 – Mary Rand, British athlete

• 1941 – Michael Apted, British director

• 1943 – Bill Laskey, American football player

• 1944 – Peter Allen, Australian singer and actor (d. 1992)

• 1944 – Frank Keating, American politician

• 1944 – Frances Moore Lappe, American writer and activist

• 1944 – Rufus Reid, American musician

• 1944 – Vernor Vinge, American novelist

• 1945 – Jim Cramer, American television personality

• 1947 – Louise Arbour, Canadian judge

• 1947 – Butch Morris, American jazz cornetist and composer

• 1947 – Nicholas Owen, English newsreader

• 1948 – Luis Donaldo Colosio, Mexican politician (d. 1994)

• 1949 – Jim Corcoran, Quebec singer and songwriter

• 1949 – Maxime Le Forestier, French singer

• 1949 – Nigel Olsson, British musician

• 1949 – Harold Sylvester, American actor

• 1950 – Mark Spitz, American swimmer

• 1951 – Robert Iger, American entertainment executive

• 1952 – Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore

• 1954 – Larry McWilliams, baseball player

• 1955 – Chris Adams, British wrestler and judoka (d. 2001)

• 1955 – Greg Norman, Australian golfer

• 1958 – Michael Weiss, American musician

• 1959 – John Calipari, American basketball coach

• 1959 – Dennis Gentry, American football player

• 1959 – Lisa McPherson, Former Scientologist (d. 1995)

• 1960 – Robert Addie, British actor (d. 2003)

• 1961 – Alexander Payne, American film director

• 1961 – George Stephanopoulos, American political commentator

• 1962 – Cliff Burton, American musician (Metallica) (d. 1986)

• 1962 – Bobby Czyz, American boxer

• 1962 – Piero Pelù, Italian singer and song-writer (Litfiba)

• 1963 – Lenny Dykstra, American baseball player

• 1963 – Philip Glenister, English Actor

• 1964 – Glenn Beck, American radio and television host

• 1964 – Victor Davis, Canadian swimmer (d. 1989)

• 1964 – Arthur Lenk, Israeli diplomat

• 1964 – Francesca Neri, Italian actress

• 1965 – Mario Jean, Quebec comedian and television actor

• 1966 – Daryl Johnston, American football player

• 1966 – Ioannis Kalitzakis, Greek footballer

• 1967 – Laura Dern, American actress

• 1967 – Jacky Durand, French cyclist

• 1967 – Armand Serrano, Filipino animator

• 1968 – Peter Popovic, Swedish ice hockey player

• 1968 – Garrett Reisman, NASA astronaut

• 1968 – Atika Suri, Indonesian television newscaster

• 1969 – Laurie Dhue, American television personality

• 1969 – Joe Mangrum, American artist

• 1970 – Alberto Castillo, Dominican baseball player

• 1970 – Nobushige Kumakubo, Japanese racing driver

• 1970 – Noureddine Naybet, Moroccan footballer

• 1970 – Åsne Seierstad, Norwegian journalist

• 1971 – Louie Spicolli, American wrestler (d. 1998)

• 1971 – Lisa Marie Varon, American wrestler

• 1974 – Elizabeth Banks, American actress

• 1974 – Ty Law, American football player

• 1974 – Ivri Lider, Israeli singer

• 1974 – Tanoai Reed, American stunt performer

• 1975 – Amber Frey, American witness in the Scott Peterson case

• 1975 – Hiroki Kuroda, Japanese born baseball player

• 1975 – Kool Savas, German rapper

• 1976 – Lance Berkman, American baseball player

• 1976 – Keeley Hawes, English actress

• 1977 – Salif Diao, Senegalese footballer

• 1978 – Lorna Bailey, English ceramic designer

• 1978 – Don Omar, Puerto Rican singer

• 1979 – Daryl Palumbo, American musician

• 1979 – Ross Powers, American snowboarder

• 1980 – César Izturis, Venezuelan baseball player

• 1980 – Enzo Maresca, Italian footballer

• 1980 – Mike Ribeiro, Canadian ice hockey player

• 1981 – Andrew Johnson, English footballer

• 1981 – The Reverend Tholomew Plague, drummer (Avenged Sevenfold)

• 1981 – Natasha St-Pier, Canadian singer

• 1981 – Holly Willoughby, British TV presenter

• 1982 – Keith Dunne, Irish footballer

• 1982 – Justin Gatlin, American sprinter

• 1982 – Iafeta Paleaaesina, New Zealand rugby league player

• 1984 – Alex Gordon, American baseball player

• 1984 – Kim Hyo-jin, South Korean actress

• 1986 – Viktor Troicki, Serbian tennis player

• 1986 – Yui Ichikawa, Japanese actress and model

• 1987 – Choi Si Won, Korean singer (Super Junior)

• 1991 – Emma Roberts, American actress

• 1994 – Makenzie Vega, American actress

• 1995 – Liam Nguyen, Melbourne actor

• 1997 – Chloe Moretz, American actress

Deaths

• 1126 – William IX, Duke of Aquitaine, poet (b. 1071)

• 1162 – King Baldwin III of Jerusalem (b. 1130)

• 1242 – Emperor Shijō of Japan (b. 1231)

• 1278 – Margaret II of Flanders (b. 1202)

• 1576 – Guilielmus Xylander, German classical scholar (b. 1532)

• 1645 – Dorothea Sophia, Princess-Abbess of Quedlinburg (b. 1587)

• 1686 – William Dugdale, English antiquarian (b. 1605)

• 1722 – Bartholomew Roberts, Welsh pirate (b. 1682)

• 1755 – Montesquieu, French writer (b. 1689)

• 1758 – Thomas Ripley, English architect (b. 1682)

• 1782 – Friedrich Christoph Oetinger, German theologian (b. 1702)

• 1829 – Pope Leo XII (b. 1760)

• 1837 – Aleksandr Pushkin, Russian poet and novelist (b. 1799)

• 1857 – David Thompson, Canadian explorer (b. 1770)

• 1865 – Heinrich Lenz, German physicist (b. 1804)

• 1891 – Sofia Kovalevskaya, Russian mathematician (b. 1850)

• 1904 – John A. Roche, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1844)

• 1906 – Ezra Butler Eddy, Canadian businessman (E.B. Eddy Company) and politician (b. 1827)

• 1912 – Joseph Lister, British surgeon (b. 1827)

• 1917 – John William Waterhouse, Italian-born artist (b. 1849)

• 1918 – Abdul Hamid II Ottoman Sultan (b. 1842)

• 1918 – Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, Italian pacifist, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1833)

• 1923 – Wilhelm Röntgen, German physicist, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1845)

• 1932 – Edgar Wallace, English novelist and screenwriter (b. 1875)

• 1939 – Pope Pius XI (b. 1857)

• 1944 – Eugène Michel Antoniadi, Greek astronomer, a crater on Mars and the Antoniadi crater on the Moon are named in his honor (b. 1870)

• 1945 – Anacleto Diaz, Filipino jurist (b. 1878)

• 1950 – Marcel Mauss, French sociologist (b. 1872)

• 1952 – Henry Drysdale Dakin, British-American biochemist, known for the Dakin-West reaction (b. 1880)

• 1957 – Laura Ingalls Wilder, American author (b. 1867)

• 1960 – Aloysius Stepinac, Croatian cardinal (b. 1898)

• 1964 – Eugen Sänger, Austrian aerospace engineer (b. 1905)

• 1966 – Billy Rose, American composer and band leader (b. 1899)

• 1975 – Nikos Kavvadias, Greek poet and writer (b. 1910)

• 1984 – David Von Erich, professional wrestler (b. 1958)

• 1985 – Johnny Mokan, baseball player (b. 1895)

• 1987 – Syed Sadequain Ahmed Naqvi, Pakistani painter, calligrapher and artist (b. 1930)

• 1990 – Bill Sherwood, American filmmaker/composer (b. 1952)

• 1992 – Alex Haley, American author (b. 1921)

• 1993 – Fred Hollows, New Zealand ophthalmologist (b. 1929)

• 1995 – Paul Monette, American poet, author and gay rights activist (b. 1945)

• 1997 – Matthew Eappen of Newton Massachusetts (b. 1996)

• 2000 – Jim Varney, American actor (b. 1949)

• 2001 – Abraham Beame, Mayor of New York City (b. 1906)

• 2001 – George Holmes Tate, American jazz saxophonist and clarinetist (b. 1913)

• 2002 – Traudl Junge, Adolf Hitler's secretary (b. 1920)

• 2002 – Dave Van Ronk, American folk singer/songwriter (b. 1936)

• 2003 – Edgar de Evia, American photographer (b. 1910)

• 2003 – Curt Hennig, American professional wrestler (b. 1959)

• 2003 – Clark MacGregor, United States Congressman from Minnesota (b. 1922)

• 2003 – Al Ruffo, Mayor of San Jose, California (b. 1908)

• 2003 – Ron Ziegler, press secretary to Richard Nixon (b. 1939)

• 2004 – Guy Provost, Quebec actor (b. 1925)

• 2005 – Arthur Miller, American playwright (b. 1915)

• 2006 – J Dilla, American rapper/producer (b. 1974)

• 2006 – Dick Harmon, American golf instructor (b. 1947)

• 2007 – Jung Da Bin, South Korean actress (b. 1980)

• 2007 – Ned Austin, American character actor (b. 1925)

• 2008 – Roy Scheider, American Actor (b. 1932)

• 2008 – Steve Gerber, American comics writer (b. 1947)

• 2008 – Adeline Jay Geo-Karis, Long serving Illinois Senator (b. 1918)

• 2009 – Jeremy Lusk, American freestyle motocross racer (b. 1984)

Holidays and observances

• Italy – National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe to commemorate Italian Istrian and Dalmatian exiles and Foibe massacres.

• Saint Scholastica

• St. Paul's Shipwreck day; birth of Catholicism in Malta

• Saint Charalampe

• Saint Austreberta

• February 10 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)