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1112 - marriage of Ramon Berenguer III of Barcelona and Douce I of Provence, uniting the fortunes of those two states

1377 - more than 2,000 people of the Italian city of Cesena are slaughtered by Papal Troops (Cesena Bloodbath).

1451 - Sultan Mehmed II inherits the throne of the Ottoman Empire.

1488 - Bartolomeu Dias of Portugal lands in Mossel Bay after rounding the Cape of Good Hope at the tip of Africa, becoming the first known European to travel this far south.

1509 - The Battle of Diu, between Portugal and the Ottoman Empire takes place in Diu, India.

1690 - The colony of Massachusetts issues the first paper money in America.

1783 - American Revolutionary War: Spain recognizes United States independence.

1787 - Shays' Rebellion is crushed, ending an uprising that would prompt negotiations that would result in the drafting of the Constitution of the United States.

1809 - Illinois Territory is created.

1815 - The first commercial cheese factory is founded (Switzerland).

1834 - The Baptist State Convention of North Carolina establishes the Wake Forest Manual Labor Institute, today known as Wake Forest University.

1867 - Prince Mutsuhito becomes Emperor Meiji of Japan.

1870 - The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution ratified, grants voting rights regardless of race.

1900 - Gubernatorial candidate William Goebel is assassinated in Frankfort, Kentucky. Former Secretary of State Caleb Powers was later found guilty in a conspiracy to kill Goebel.

1913 - The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect income tax.

1916 - Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Canada burn down.

1917 - World War I: The United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany a day after Germany announces a new policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.

1918 - The Twin Peaks Tunnel begins service as the longest streetcar tunnel in the world at 11,920 feet (3,633 meters) long).

1931 - The Napier earthquake, New Zealand's worst natural disaster, kills 258.

1941 - World War II: The Nazis forcibly restore Pierre Laval to office in occupied Vichy, France.

1944 - World War II: United States troops capture the Marshall Islands.

1945 - World War II: Soviet Union agrees to enter the Pacific Theatre conflict against Japan.

1947 - Percival Prattis becomes the first African American news correspondent allowed in the United States House and Senate press gallery.

1947 - Coldest ever temperature recorded in North America at Snag, Yukon, -63 degrees Celsius

1952 - The earliest known tropical storm makes landfall in South Florida.

1957 - Senegalese political party Democratic Rally merges into the Senegalese Party of Socialist Action (PSAS).

1959 - The Day The Music Died: A plane crash kills rock-and-roll performers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper.

1966 - The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon.

1967 - Ronald Ryan, the last person to be executed in Australia, is hanged in Pentridge Prison, Melbourne.

1969 - In Cairo, Yasser Arafat is appointed Palestinian Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress.

1984 - Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B Mission - Astronauts, Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make first untethered spacewalks using the Manned Maneuvering Unit.

1988 - Iran-Contra Affair: The United States House of Representatives rejects President Ronald Reagan's request for $36.25 million to aid Nicaraguan Contras.

1989 - After a stroke, P.W. Botha resigns party leadership and the presidency of South Africa.

1989 - A military coup overthrows Alfredo Stroessner, dictator of Paraguay since 1954.

1997 - Sixth general elections held in Pakistan under 1973 constitution.

1998 - Karla Faye Tucker is executed in Texas becoming the first woman executed in the United States since 1984.

1998 - Cavalese cable-car disaster: a United States Military pilot causes the death of 20 people when his low-flying plane cuts the cable of a cable-car near Trento, Italy.

1999 - In Jammu and Kashmir the political party Democratic Janata Dal (Jammu and Kashmir) is revived.

2004 - Jóannes Eidesgaard becomes Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands.

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1338 - Jeanne de Bourbon, wife of Charles V of France (d. 1378)

1677 - Jan Santini Aichel, Czech architect (d. 1723)

1690 - Richard Rawlinson, English minister and antiquarian (d. 1755)

1721 - Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz, Prussian general (d. 1773)

1754 - George Crabbe, English poet and naturalist (d. 1832)

1795 - Antonio José de Sucre, South Américan independence hero and Great Marshall of Ayacucho (d. 1830)

1809 - Felix Mendelssohn, German composer (d. 1847)

1811 - Horace Greeley, American journalist, editor, and publisher (d. 1872)

1817 - Achille Ernest Oscar Joseph Delesse, French geologist (d. 1881)

1821 - Elizabeth Blackwell, American physician (d. 1910)

1830 - Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1903)

1842 - Sidney Lanier, American writer (d. 1881)

1859 - Hugo Junkers, German industrialist and aircraft designer (d. 1935)

1862 - James Clark McReynolds, American politician, 49th United States Attorney General & U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1946)

1872 - Lou Criger, baseball player (d. 1934)

1874 - Gertrude Stein, American writer and patron of the arts (d. 1946)

1887 - Juan Negrín, Spanish Popular Front politician and Prime Minister (d. 1956)

1887 - Georg Trakl, Austrian poet (d. 1914)

1893 - Gaston Julia, French mathematician (d. 1978)

1894 - Norman Rockwell, American artist, illustrator (d. 1978)

1898 - Alvar Aalto, Finnish architect (d. 1976)

1899 - Lao She, Chinese writer (d. 1966)

1904 - Luigi Dallapiccola, Italian composer (d. 1975)

1904 - Pretty Boy Floyd, American gangster (d. 1934)

1907 - James Michener, American author (d. 1997)

1909 - Simone Weil, French philosopher (d. 1943)

1911 - Robert Earl Jones, American actor

1918 - Joey Bishop, American comedian and actor

1918 - Helen Stephens, American runner

1920 - Henry Heimlich, American physician

1925 - John Fiedler, American voice actor

1925 - Keith Dunstan, Australian author and journalist

1925 - Leon Schlumpf, member of the Swiss Federal Council

1926 - Shelley Berman, American comedian

1926 - Hans-Jochen Vogel, German politician

1927 - Val Doonican, Irish singer and entertainer

1930 - Gillian Ayres, English painter

1932 - Peggy Ann Garner, American actress (d. 1984)

1933 - Paul Sarbanes, American politician, United States Senator from Maryland

1938 - Victor Buono, American actor (d. 1982)

1939 - Michael Cimino, American film director

1940 - Fran Tarkenton, American football player

1941 - Neil Bogart, music company executive (d. 1982)

1943 - Blythe Danner, American actress

1943 - Dennis Edwards, American singer (The Temptations)

1945 - Bob Griese, American football player

1947 - Paul Auster, American novelist

1947 - Dave Davies, British musician (The Kinks)

1947 - Melanie Safka, American singer-songwriter

1948 - Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo, East Timor politician, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

1948 - Henning Mankell, Swedish author

1949 - Hennie Kuiper, Dutch cyclist, 1975 World Champion

1950 - Morgan Fairchild, American actress

1952 - Fred Lynn, baseball player

1954 - Tiger Williams, Canadian ice hockey players

1955 - Stephen Euin Cobb, American novelist

1955 - Kirsty Wark, British broadcast journalist

1956 - John Jefferson, American football player

1956 - Nathan Lane, American actor

1956 - Lee Ranaldo, American musician (Sonic Youth)

1958 - N. Gregory Mankiw, American economist

1959 - Thomas Calabro, American actor

1959 - Laurence Tolhurst, British musician (The Cure)

1959 - Yasuharu Konishi, Japanese musician, composer and DJ (Pizzicato Five)

1960 - Kerry Von Erich, American professional wrestler (d. 1993)

1961 - Keith Gordon, American actor and director

1965 - Maura Tierney, American actress

1967 - Bob Taylor, English footballer

1970 - Warwick Davis, British actor

1971 - Sarah Kane, English playwright (d. 1999)

1972 - Mart Poom, Estonian football player

1974 - Miriam Yeung, Hong Kong actress and singer

1974 - Elisa Donovan, American actress

1976 - Mathieu Dandenault, Canadian hockey player

1976 - Isla Fisher, Australian actress

1976 - Dwayne Rudd, American football player

1977 - Daddy Yankee, Puerto Rican reggaeton artist

1978 - Adrian R'Mante, Spanish immigrant actor

1980 - Sarah Lewitinn, American writer and disc jockey

1982 - Jessica Harp, American Country Music singer, member of The Wreckers

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619 - Laurence of Canterbury, 2nd Archbishop of Canterbury

699 - Saint Werburgh

1014 - King Sweyn I of Denmark

1116 - King Coloman of Hungary (b. 1070)

1399 - John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (b. 1340)

1428 - Ashikaga Yoshimochi, Japanese shogun (b. 1386)

1451 - Murad II, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1404)

1468 - Johannes Gutenberg, German publisher

1566 - George Cassander, Flemish theologian (b. 1513)

1619 - Henry Brooke, 11th Baron Cobham, English conspirator (b. 1564)

1737 - Tommaso Ceva, Italian Mathematician (b. 1648)

1802 - Pedro Rodríguez, Conde de Campomanes, Spanish statesman and writer (b. 1723)

1862 - Jean-Baptiste Biot, French physicist (b. 1774)

1889 - Belle Starr, American outlaw (b. 1848)

1922 - John Butler Yeats, Northern Irish artist (b. 1839)

1924 - Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1856)

1929 - Agner Krarup Erlang, Danish scientist (b. 1878

1935 - Hugo Junkers, German engineer (b. 1859)

1945 - Roland Freisler, Nazi leader (b. 1893)

1956 - Émile Borel, French mathematician, politician, statesman, and resistance figher (b. 1871)

1959 - Also known as The Day the Music Died because of the deaths of:

Buddy Holly, American singer (b. 1936)

Ritchie Valens, American singer (b. 1941)

J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, American singer (b. 1930)

1960 - Fred Buscaglione, Italian singer and actor (b. 1921)

1964 - Sir Albert Richardson, English architect (b. 1880)

1967 - Joe Meek, English record producer (b. 1929)

1975 - Umm Kulthum, Egyptian singer (b. 1904)

1985 - Frank Oppenheimer, American physicist (b. 1912)

1989 - John Cassavetes, American actor, director, and writer (b. 1929)

1991 - Nancy Kulp, American actress (b. 1921)

1996 - Audrey Meadows, American actress (b. 1926)

1998 - Karla Faye Tucker, American murderer (b. 1959)

2000 - Richard Kleindienst, American politician (b. 1923)

2003 - Lana Clarkson, American actress (murdered) (b. 1962)

2003 - Kid Gavilan, Cuban boxer (b. 1926)

2004 - Jason Raize, American musical theatre actor (b. 1975)

2005 - Corrado Cardinal Bafile, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1903)

2005 - Ernst Mayr, German-born biologist (b. 1904)

2005 - Zurab Zhvania, Prime Minister of Georgia (b. 1963)

2006 - Al Lewis, American actor (b. 1923)

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Japan - the festival of Setsubun before spring.

Mozambique - Heroes' Day.

United States - Four Chaplains Day.

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Saint Blaise, Catholics visit churches to have their throats blessed.

Saint Ansgar, patron saint of Denmark

Saint Hadelin

Saint Werburgh

Saint Berlindis

Saint Celsa

Saint Nona