22 February

Events

• 1290s BC - The coronation of Ramses II, on whose face the sun's rays fall each year in Abu Simbel temple.
• 1281 - Martin IV becomes Pope.
• 1288 - Nicholas IV becomes Pope.
• 1495 - King Charles VIII of France enters Naples to claim the city's throne.
• 1630 - Native American Quadequine introduces Popcorn to English colonists at their first Thanksgiving dinner.
• 1632 - Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems is published .
• 1819 - Spain cedes Florida to the United States.
• 1847 - Mexican-American War: The Battle of Buena Vista - 5,000 American troops under General Zachary Taylor use their superiority in artillery to drive off 15,000 Mexican troops under Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.
• 1865 - Tennessee adopts a new constitution that abolishes slavery.
• 1879 - In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of 5 and 10-cent Woolworth stores.
• 1889 - President Grover Cleveland signs a bill admitting North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington as U.S. states.
• 1900 - Hawaii officially becomes a territory of the United States.
• 1920 - In Emeryville, California, the first dog race track to employ an imitation rabbit opens.
• 1924 - Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President of the United States to deliver a radio broadcast from the White House.
• 1942 - World War II: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defense of the nation collapses.
• 1943 - Members of White Rose are executed in Nazi Germany.
• 1956 - Elvis Presley enters the music charts for the first time, with "Heartbreak Hotel".
• 1959 - Lee Petty wins the first Daytona 500.
• 1967 - Suharto takes power from Sukarno in Indonesia.
• 1969 - Barbara Jo Rubin wins a United States thoroughbred horse race making history as the first women to do so.
• 1973 - Cold War: Following President Richard Nixon's visit to China, the United States and the People's Republic of China agree to establish liaison offices.
• 1979 - Independence of Saint Lucia from the United Kingdom.
• 1980 - The United States ice hockey team defeats the Soviet Union team, 4-3, at the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, New York, in an upset dubbed the "Miracle on Ice".
• 1994 - Aldrich Ames and his wife are charged by the United States Department of Justice with spying for the Soviet Union. Ames would later be convicted to life imprisonment and his wife would receive a 5-years in prison.
• 1997 - In Roslin, Scotland, scientists announce that an adult sheep named Dolly had been successfully cloned and was born in July 1996.
• 2002 - A MH-47E Chinook helicopter crashes into the ocean near the Philippines killing all 10 aboard.

Births

• 1732 - George Washington, first President of the United States, (d. 1799) (Note: February 11 in the Julian Calendar that was then still in use)
• 1778 - Rembrandt Peale, artist
• 1788 - Arthur Schopenhauer, philosopher, (d. 1860)
• 1796 - Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet, mathematician, (d. 1874)
• 1810 - Frédéric Chopin, Polish composer, (d. 1849)
• 1817 - Carl Wilhelm Borchardt, mathematician
• 1819 - James Russell Lowell, poet and essayist, (d. 1891)
• 1839 - Francis Pharcellus Church, American editor and publisher, (d. 1906)
• 1840 - August Bebel, politician, (d. 1913)
• 1849 - Nikolay Yakovlevich Sonin, mathematician
• 1857 - Lord Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Scouting movement, (d. 1941)
• 1857 - Heinrich Hertz, physicist, (d. 1894)
• 1878 - Walter Ritz, Swiss physicist, (d. 1909)
• 1880 - Frigyes Riesz, mathematician
• 1889 - Lady Olave Baden-Powell GBE (nee Soames) Chief Girl Guide (d. 1977)
• 1892 - Edna St. Vincent Millay, writer, (d. 1950)
• 1900 - Luis Buñuel, film director, (d. 1983)
• 1903 - Frank Plumpton Ramsey, mathematician, (d. 1903)
• 1903 - Morley Callaghan, Canadian writer, (d. 1990)
• 1907 - Robert Young, actor, (d. 1998)
• 1907 - Sheldon Leonard, actor, writer, director, producer
• 1908 - John Mills, actor
• 1926 - Kenneth Williams, actor, (d. 1988)
• 1932 - Edward Kennedy, politician and brother of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy
• 1944 - Jonathan Demme, director, Robert Kardashian, Lawyer for O.J. Simpson
• 1949 - Niki Lauda, Formula One driver
• 1950 - Julius Erving, Basketball Hall of Famer
• 1950 - Julie Walters, actress
• 1950 - Miou-Miou, actress
• 1959 - Kyle MacLachlan, actor
• 1962 - Steve Irwin, Australian herpetologist and TV personality (The Crocodile Hunter)
• 1963 - Vijay Singh, golfer
• 1966 - Brian Andrew Greig, statesman
• 1975 - Drew Barrymore, actress

Deaths

• 1512 - Amerigo Vespucci, explorer (b. 1454)
• 1875 - Sir Charles Lyell, geologist, (b. 1797)
• 1901 - George Francis FitzGerald, mathematician
• 1903 - Hugo Wolf, composer, (b. 1860)
• 1965 - Felix Frankfurter, justice of the United States Supreme Court, (b. 1882)
• 1968 - Peter Arno, cartoonist
• 1976 - Florence Ballard, singer with The Supremes, (b. 1943)
• 1984 - Jessamyn West, writer
• 1987 - Andy Warhol, artist, director, writer, (b. 1928)
• 1994 - Papa John Creach, musician
• 2000 - Fernando Buesa, Basque politician, (b. 1946)
• 2001 - Claude Elwood Shannon, mathematician (according to K. Devlin), (b. 1916)
• 2002 - Jonas Savimbi, Angola rebel leader, (b. 1934)
• 2002 - Chuck Jones, animator, (b. 1912)
• 2003 - Kurt Gscheidle, politician

Holidays and observances

• Catholicism - Chair of St. Peter.
• United States - Washington's Birthday (traditionally)

February 21 - February 23 - January 22 - March 22 -- listing of all days

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

Referenced By