Almanac - February 18

Helen Gurley Brown b.1922

Events

• 1229 – The Sixth Crusade: Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor signs a ten-year truce with al-Kamil, regaining Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem with neither military engagements nor support from the papacy.
• 1268 – The Livonian Brothers of the Sword are defeated by Dovmont of Pskov in the Battle of Rakvere.
• 1332 – Amda Seyon I, Emperor of Ethiopia begins his campaigns in the southern Muslim provinces.
• 1478 – George, Duke of Clarence, convicted of treason against his older brother Edward IV of England, is executed in private at the Tower of London.
• 1637 – Eighty Years' War: Off the coast of Cornwall, England, a Spanish fleet intercepts an important Anglo-Dutch merchant convoy of 44 vessels escorted by 6 warships, destroying or capturing 20 of them.
• 1745 – The city of Surakarta, Central Java is founded on the banks of Bengawan Solo River, and becomes the capital of the Kingdom of Surakarta.
• 1781 – Fourth Anglo-Dutch War: Captain Thomas Shirley opened his expedition against Dutch colonial outposts on the Gold Coast of Africa (present-day Ghana).
• 1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: Sir Ralph Abercromby and a fleet of 18 British warships invade Trinidad.
• 1814 – Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Montereau.
• 1846 – Beginning of the Galician peasant revolt.
• 1861 – In Montgomery, Alabama, Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the provisional President of the Confederate States of America.
• 1861 – With the Italian unification almost complete, Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont, Savoy and Sardinia assumes the title of King of Italy.
• 1865 – Union forces under Major General William T. Sherman set the South Carolina State House on fire during the burning of Columbia.
• 1873 – Bulgarian revolutionary leader Vasil Levski is executed by hanging in Sofia by the Ottoman authorities.
• 1878 – John Tunstall is murdered by outlaw Jesse Evans, sparking the Lincoln County War in Lincoln County, New Mexico.
• 1900 – Second Boer War: Imperial forces suffer their worst single-day loss of life on Bloody Sunday, the first day of the Battle of Paardeberg.
• 1906 – Edouard de Laveleye forms the Belgian Olympic Committee in Brussels.
• 1911 – The first official flight with air mail takes place in Allahabad, British India, when Henri Pequet, a 23-year-old pilot, delivers 6,500 letters to Naini, about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) away.
• 1913 – Pedro Lascuráin becomes President of Mexico for 45 minutes; this is the shortest term to date of any person as president of any country.
• 1930 – While studying photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto.
• 1930 – Elm Farm Ollie becomes the first cow to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft and also the first cow to be milked in an aircraft.
• 1932 – The Empire of Japan declares Manzhouguo (the obsolete Chinese name for Manchuria) independent from the Republic of China.
• 1938 – During the Nanking Massacre Nanking Safety Zone International Committee renamed "Nanking International Rescue Committee" and safety zone in place for refugees falls apart.
• 1942 – World War II: The Imperial Japanese Army begins the systematic extermination of perceived hostile elements among the Chinese in Singapore.
• 1943 – The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose movement.
• 1943 – Joseph Goebbels delivers his Sportpalast speech.
• 1946 – Sailors of the Royal Indian Navy mutinied in Mumbai harbour, from where it would spread throughout British India and involve 78 ships, 20 shore establishments and 20,000 sailors
• 1954 – The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles, California.
• 1955 – Operation Teapot: Teapot test shot "Wasp" is successfully detonated at the Nevada Test Site with a yield of 1.2 kilotons. Wasp is the first of fourteen shots of the Teapot series.
• 1957 – Kenyan rebel leader Dedan Kimathi is executed by the British colonial government.
• 1957 – Walter James Bolton becomes the last person legally executed in New Zealand.
• 1965 – The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
• 1969 – Hawthorne Nevada Airlines Flight 708 crashes into Mount Whitney killing all on board.
• 1970 – The Chicago Seven are found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
• 1972 – The California Supreme Court in the case of People v. Anderson, 6 Cal.3d 628 invalidates the state's death penalty and commutes the sentences of all death row inmates to life imprisonment.
• 1977 – The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle is carried on its maiden "flight" on top of a Boeing 747.
• 1978 – The first Ironman Triathlon competition takes place on the island of Oahu, won by Gordon Haller.
• 1979 – Snow falls in the Sahara Desert in southern Algeria for the only time in recorded history.
• 1983 – Thirteen people die and one is seriously injured in the Wah Mee Massacre in Seattle, Washington. It is said to be the largest robbery-motivated mass-murder in U.S. history.
• 1991 – The IRA explodes bombs in the early morning at Paddington station and Victoria station in London.
• 2001 – FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union. He is ultimately convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
• 2001 – Seven-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt dies in an accident during the Daytona 500.
• 2001 – Inter-ethnic violence between Dayaks and Madurese breaks out in Sampit, Indonesia, that will ultimately result in more than 500 deaths and 100,000 Madurese displaced from their homes.
• 2003 – Nearly 200 people die in the Daegu subway fire in South Korea.
• 2004 – Up to 295 people, including nearly 200 rescue workers, die near Neyshabur in Iran when a runaway freight train carrying sulfur, petrol and fertilizer catches fire and explodes.
• 2007 – Terrorist bombs explode on the Samjhauta Express in Panipat, Haryana, India, killing 68 people.
• 2010 – Nigerien rebels attacked the presidential palace in Niamey and replaced President Mamadou Tandja with a ruling junta, the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy.

Births

• 1374 – Saint Jadwiga of Poland, queen of Poland (d. 1399)
• 1404 – Leon Battista Alberti, Italian painter and philosopher (d. 1472)
• 1486 – Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Bengali yogi (d. 1534)
• 1516 – Queen Mary I of England (d. 1558)
• 1530 – Uesugi Kenshin, Japanese samurai and warlord (d. 1578)
• 1543 – Charles III, Duke of Lorraine (d. 1608)
• 1559 – Isaac Casaubon, French classical scholar (d. 1614)
• 1602 – Per Brahe, Swedish soldier (d. 1680)
• 1609 – Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, English historian (d. 1674)
• 1632 – Giovanni Battista Vitali, Italian composer and violinist (d. 1692)
• 1635 – Johan Göransson Gyllenstierna, Swedish statesman (d. 1680)
• 1642 – Marie Champmeslé, French actress (d. 1698)
• 1658 – Charles-Irénée Castel de Saint-Pierre, French writer (d. 1743)
• 1732 – Johann Christian Kittel, German organist, composer, and teacher (d. 1809)
• 1745 – Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist (d. 1827)
• 1814 – Samuel Fenton Cary, American-born U. S. Congressman (d. 1900)
• 1817 – Lewis A. Armistead, American Confederate general (d. 1863)
• 1818 – Pedro Figueredo, Cuban poet, musician, revolutionary (d. 1870)
• 1836 – Sri Ramakrishna, Indian Bengali guru of Swami Vivekananda (d. 1886)
• 1838 – Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist (d. 1916)
• 1841 – Gergely Luthár, Hungarian Slovene writer (d. 1925)
• 1846 – Wilson Barrett, English playwright (d. 1904)
• 1848 – Louis Comfort Tiffany, American glass artist (d. 1933)
• 1849 – Alexander Kielland, Norwegian author (d. 1906)
• 1850 – George Henschel, German-British baritone, conductor, composer (d. 1934)
• 1859 – Sholom Aleichem, Russian Yiddish humorist (d. 1916)
• 1862 – Charles M. Schwab, American steel magnate (d. 1939)
• 1870 – William Laurel Harris, American mural painter and writer (d. 1924)
• 1871 – Harry Brearley, English inventor (d. 1948)
• 1878 – Harriet Bosse, Swedish–Norwegian actress (d. 1961)
• 1883 – Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek author (d. 1957)
• 1883 – Madan Lal Dhingra, Indian Revolutionary (d. 1909)
• 1884 – Andrew Watson Myles, Canadian politician (d. 1970)
• 1890 – Edward Arnold, American actor (d. 1956)
• 1890 – Adolphe Menjou, American actor (d. 1963)
• 1892 – Wendell Willkie, American politician (d. 1944)
• 1897 – Charles Kuentz, German-born French WW1 veteran and centenarian (d. 2005)
• 1898 – Enzo Ferrari, founder of Ferrari (d. 1988)
• 1898 – Luis Muñoz Marín, Puerto Rican poet (d. 1980)
• 1901 – Reginald Sheffield, British actor (d. 1957)
• 1902 – Walter Herbert, German-born conductor and impresario (d. 1975)
• 1903 – Nikolai Podgorny, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (d. 1983)
• 1905 – Queenie Leonard, American actress (d. 2002)
• 1906 – Hans Asperger, Austrian pediatrician (d. 1980)
• 1907 – Oscar Brodney, American screenwriter (d. 2008)
• 1909 – Tuppy Owen-Smith, South African cricketer and English rugby union player (d. 1990)
• 1909 – Wallace Stegner, American writer (d. 1993)
• 1914 – Pee Wee King, American country musician and songwriter (d. 2000)
• 1915 – Phyllis Calvert, British actress (d. 2002)
• 1916 – Jean Drapeau, Canadian politician, mayor of Montreal (d. 1999)
• 1918 – Jane Loevinger, American psychologist (d. 2008)
• 1919 – Jack Palance, American actor (d. 2006)
• 1920 – Bill Cullen, American game show host (d. 1990)
• 1920 – Eric Gairy, Grenadan politician (d. 1997)
• 1922 – Helen Gurley Brown, American editor
• 1922 – Allan Melvin, American actor (d. 2008)
• 1922 – Juhan Smuul, Estonian author (d. 1971)
• 1922 – Joe Tipton, American baseball player (d. 1994)
• 1922 – Connie Wisniewski, American baseball player [AAGPBL] (d. 1995)
• 1924 – Humberto Fernández Morán, Venezuelan scientist (d. 1999)
• 1924 – Louis Laberge, Canadian labour union leader (d. 2002)
• 1924 – Nicolo Rizzuto, Sicilian-born Canadian organized crime figure (d. 2010)
• 1924 – Sam Rolfe, American screenwriter (d. 1993)
• 1925 – Marcel Barbeau, Canadian artist
• 1925 – George Kennedy, American actor
• 1926 – Wallace Berman, American artist
• 1926 – Nalini Jaywant, Indian actress (d. 2010)
• 1927 – Luis Arroyo, Puerto Rican baseball player
• 1927 – Peter Fryer English Marxist writer and journalist (d. 2006)
• 1927 – John Warner, American politician, 61st United States Secretary of the Navy and American politician
• 1928 – Tom Johnson, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2007)
• 1929 – Len Deighton, British author
• 1929 – André Mathieu, Canadian composer (d. 1968)
• 1930 – Gahan Wilson, American cartoonist
• 1931 – Johnny Hart, American cartoonist (d. 2007)
• 1931 – Toni Morrison, American writer, Nobel laureate
• 1931 – Bob St. Clair, American football player
• 1932 – Miloš Forman, Czech film director
• 1933 – Yoko Ono, Japanese-born American singer and performance artist
• 1933 – Sir Bobby Robson, English football player and manager (d. 2009)
• 1933 – Mary Ure, Scottish actress (d. 1975)
• 1934 – Audre Lorde, Caribbean poet and activist (d. 1992)
• 1934 – Heini Müller, German footballer
• 1934 – Paco Rabanne, Spanish fashion designer
• 1935 – Michel Aoun, Lebanese prime minister
• 1935 – Janette Oke, Canadian writer
• 1936 – Jean Auel, American writer
• 1936 – Dick Duff, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1936 – Ab McDonald, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1938 – Manny Mota, Dominican baseball player
• 1938 – Sadanoyama Shinmatsu, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 50th Yokozuna
• 1938 – István Szabó, Hungarian film director
• 1939 – Claude Ake, Nigerian political scientist
• 1939 – Marek Janowski, Polish-born conductor
• 1939 – Dal Maxvill, American baseball player
• 1940 – Fabrizio De André, Italian singer-songwriter (d. 1999)
• 1941 – Herman Santiago, American singer and songwriter (The Teenagers)
• 1941 – Irma Thomas, American singer
• 1943 – Graeme Garden, Scottish writer
• 1944 – Pat Bowlen, American sports team owner (Denver Broncos)
• 1945 – Judy Rankin, American golfer
• 1946 – Michael Buerk, British newsreader
• 1946 – Jean-Claude Dreyfus, French actor
• 1947 – Dennis DeYoung, American musician (Styx)
• 1947 – Princess Christina of the Netherlands
• 1947 – Carlos Lopes, Portuguese athlete
• 1947 – Eliot Lance Engel, American politician
• 1948 – Georg Brunnhuber, German politician
• 1948 – Sinéad Cusack, Irish actress
• 1948 – Keith Knudsen, American drummer and songwriter (The Doobie Brothers) (d. 2005)
• 1948 – Gilbert Sicotte, Canadian actor
• 1949 – Gary Ridgway, American serial killer
• 1950 – Michel Gauthier, Canadian politician
• 1950 – John Hughes, American film director (d. 2009)
• 1950 – Cybill Shepherd, American actress
• 1951 – Isabel Preysler, Philippines-born Spanish socialite
• 1952 – Maurice Lucas, American basketball player (d. 2010)
• 1952 – Juice Newton, American singer
• 1952 – Randy Crawford, American jazz and R&B singer
• 1953 – Robbie Bachman, Canadian drummer (Bachman–Turner Overdrive)
• 1954 – Charlie Fowler, American mountaineer (d. 2006)
• 1954 – John Travolta, American actor
• 1955 – Miles Tredinnick, English playwright
• 1955 – Raymond Rougeau, Canadian wrestler
• 1956 – Ted Gärdestad, Swedish singer (d. 1997)
• 1956 – Paul Reed Smith, American luthier
• 1957 – Marita Koch, German athlete
• 1957 – Vanna White, American game show presenter
• 1958 – Giovanni Lavaggi, Italian racing driver
• 1958 – Gar Samuelson, American drummer (d. 1999)
• 1958 – Lucie Visser, Dutch actress and model
• 1960 – Tony Anselmo, American animator
• 1960 – Carol McGiffin, British TV and radio presenter
• 1960 – Andy Moog, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1960 – Greta Scacchi, Australian actress
• 1961 – Hironobu Kageyama, Japanese singer
• 1961 – Cosmo Wilson, American concert lighting designer
• 1962 – Moe Lemay, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1962 – Julie Strain, American actress
• 1963 – Henry Winter, English football journalist
• 1964 – Matt Dillon, American actor
• 1964 – Paul Hanley, British musician (The Fall, Tom Hingley and the Lovers)
• 1965 – Dr. Dre, American record producer and rapper
• 1965 – Gregory Scott Johnson, American murderer (d. 2005)
• 1966 – Guy Ferland, American television director
• 1967 – Marco Aurélio, Brazilian footballer
• 1967 – Roberto Baggio, Italian footballer
• 1967 – Tracey Edmonds, American film and television producer
• 1967 – Harry Van Barneveld, Belgian judoka
• 1967 – Yongyoot Thongkongtoon, Thai film director and producer
• 1968 – Molly Ringwald, American actress
• 1969 – Tomaž Humar, Slovenian mountaineer (d. 2009)
• 1969 – Alexander Mogilny, Russian ice hockey player
• 1969 – Jason Sutter, American drummer (Smash Mouth, American Hi-Fi)
• 1970 – Susan Egan, American actress
• 1970 – Raine Maida, Canadian musician (Our Lady Peace)
• 1970 – Andy Williams, British musician (Doves)
• 1970 – Jez Williams, British musician (Doves)
• 1971 – Merritt Gant, American thrash metal guitarist
• 1971 – Constantin Popa, Romanian-born Israeli basketball player
• 1973 – Shawn Estes, American baseball player
• 1973 – Claude Makélélé, French footballer
• 1974 – Carrie Ann Baade, American painter
• 1974 – Jamey Carroll, American baseball player
• 1974 – Ruby Dhalla, Canadian politician
• 1974 – Julia Butterfly Hill, American environmental activist
• 1974 – Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Russian tennis player
• 1974 – Jillian Michaels, American fitness trainer
• 1975 – Sarah Brown, American actress
• 1975 – Keith Gillespie, Irish footballer
• 1975 – Simon Kvamm, Danish singer and comedian
• 1975 – Gary Neville, English footballer
• 1976 – Leilani Munter, American race car driver
• 1976 – Chanda Rubin, American tennis player
• 1977 – Ike Barinholtz, American actor
• 1977 – Kátia, Brazilian footballer
• 1977 – Sean Watkins, American guitarist and songwriter
• 1977 – Chrissie Wellington, British tri-athlete
• 1978 – Oliver Pocher, German comedian
• 1978 – Josip Šimunic, Croatian footballer
• 1980 – Nikolai Antropov, Kazakh ice hockey player
• 1980 – Regina Spektor, Russian/American singer and songwriter
• 1981 – Andrei Kirilenko, Russian basketball player
• 1981 – Alex Rios, American baseball player
• 1981 – Ivan Sproule, Irish footballer
• 1981 – Larry Sweeney, American professional wrestler
• 1981 – Kim Jae Won, South Korean actor
• 1982 – Juelz Santana, American rapper
• 1982 – Christian Tiffert, German footballer
• 1983 – Troy Bienemann, American football player
• 1983 – Jermaine Jenas, English footballer
• 1983 – Jason Maxiell, American basketball player
• 1984 – Ricardo Salampessy, Indonesian footballer
• 1984 – Kathrin Wörle, German tennis player
• 1984 – Idriss Carlos Kameni, Cameroonian footballer
• 1985 – Anton Ferdinand, English footballer
• 1985 – Chelsea Hobbs, American actress
• 1985 – Todd Lasance, Australian actor
• 1985 – Lee Boyd Malvo, Jamaican spree killer
• 1986 – Marc Torrejón, Spanish footballer
• 1987 – Vicente Guaita, Spanish footballer
• 1988 – Shane Lyons, American actor and chef
• 1988 – Maiara Walsh, American actress
• 1988 – Max, South Korean singer (TVXQ)
• 1989 – Vicente, Brazilian footballer
• 1990 – Cody Hodgson, Canadian hockey player
• 1990 – Park Shin-hye, South Korean actress
• 1991 – Malese Jow, American actress and singer
• 1991 – Sebastian Neumann, German footballer
• 1991 – Henry Surtees, English racing driver (d. 2009)
• 1992 – Logan Miller, American actor
• 1993 – Morgan York, American actress
• 2005 – Eden Wood, Child Model

Deaths

• 806 – Tarasius, Patriarch of Constantinople (b. 730)
• 814 – Angilbert, Frankish monk and confidant of Charlemagne
• 901 – Thabit ibn Qurra, Arab astronomer and mathematician (b. 826)
• 999 – Pope Gregory V (b. 972)
• 1139 – Prince Yaropolk II of Kiev (b. 1082)
• 1294 – Kublai Khan, Mongol Emperor (b. 1215)
• 1379 – Albert II of Mecklenburg (b. 1318)
• 1405 – Tamerlane, Mongol Emperor (b. 1336)
• 1455 – Fra Angelico, Italian artist (b. 1395)
• 1478 – George, Duke of Clarence, brother of Kings Edward IV of England and Richard III of England (b. 1449)
• 1535 – Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, astrologer and alchemist (b. 1486)
• 1546 – Martin Luther, German religious reformer (b. 1483)
• 1564 – Michelangelo, Italian artist and sculptor (b. 1475)
• 1583 – Antonio Francesco Grazzini, Italian writer (b. 1503)
• 1654 – Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac, French writer (b. 1594)
• 1683 – Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem, Dutch painter (b. 1620)
• 1712 – Louis, duc de Bourgogne, heir to the throne of France (b. 1682)
• 1718 – Pierre Antoine Motteux, French-born English dramatist (b. 1663)
• 1743 – Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, last of the Medicis (b. 1667)
• 1748 – Otto Ferdinand von Abensberg und Traun, Austrian field marshal (b. 1677)
• 1772 – Johann Hartwig Ernst, Count von Bernstorff, Danish statesman (b. 1712)
• 1778 – Joseph Marie Terray, French statesman (b. 1715)
• 1780 – Kristijonas Donelaitis, Lithuanian poet (b. 1714)
• 1788 – John Whitehurst, English clockmaker and scientist (b. 1713)
• 1803 – Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim, German poet (b. 1719)
• 1842 – Thomas Hazlehurst, English soap and alkali manufacturer (b. 1779)
• 1851 – Carl Gustav Jakob Jacobi, German mathematician (b. 1804)
• 1873 – Vasil Levski, Bulgarian Revolutionist (b. 1837)
• 1893 – Serranus Clinton Hastings, American politician (b. 1814)
• 1895 – Karl Abs, German professional wrestler (b. 1851)
• 1900 – Clinton L. Merriam, American politician (b. 1824)
• 1902 – Charles Lewis Tiffany, American founder of Tiffany & Co. (b. 1812)
• 1906 – John Batterson Stetson, American manufacturer (b. 1830)
• 1911 – Billy Murdoch, Australian cricketer (b. 1854)
• 1923 – Alois Rašín, Czechoslovak politician, Minister of Finance (b. 1867)
• 1931 – Milan Šufflay, Croatian politician (b. 1879)
• 1933 – James J. Corbett, American boxer (b. 1866)
• 1938 – David King Udall, American politician (b. 1851)
• 1942 – Albert Payson Terhune, American author (b. 1872)
• 1945 – Ivan Chernyakhovsky, Russian general (b. 1906)
• 1956 – Gustave Charpentier, French composer (b. 1860)
• 1957 – Dedan Kimathi, Kenyan rebel leader (b. 1920)
• 1957 – Henry Norris Russell, American astronomer (b. 1877)
• 1964 – Joseph-Armand Bombardier, Canadian inventor and industrialist (b. 1907)
• 1966 – Robert Rossen, American screenwriter, producer, and director (b. 1908)
• 1967 – Dragiša Cvetkovic, Kingdom of Yugoslavia prime minister (b. 1893)
• 1967 – J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist (b. 1904)
• 1973 – Frank Costello, Italian-born gangster (b. 1891)
• 1976 – Wallace Berman, American Artist
• 1977 – Andy Devine, American actor (b. 1905)
• 1978 – Maggie McNamara, American actress (b. 1928)
• 1981 – John Knudsen Northrop, American aircraft manufacturer (b. 1895)
• 1982 – Ngaio Marsh, New Zealand author (b. 1895)
• 1993 – Kerry Von Erich, American professional wrestler (b. 1960)
• 1993 – Jacqueline Hill, British actress (b. 1929)
• 1993 – Erwin Thiesies, German rugby player and coach (b. 1908)
• 1995 – Bob Stinson, American guitarist (b. 1959)
• 1997 – Emily Hahn, American writer (b. 1905)
• 1998 – Harry Caray, American baseball broadcaster (b. 1914)
• 1998 – Robbie James, Welsh footballer (b. 1957)
• 1999 – Noam Pitlik, American actor and director (b. 1932)
• 2000 – Willy Maltaite, Belgian comics creator (b. 1927)
• 2001 – Balthus, Polish-born painter (b. 1908)
• 2001 – Dale Earnhardt, American race car driver (b. 1951)
• 2001 – Eddie Mathews, American baseball player (b. 1931)
• 2003 – Isser Harel, Israeli Mossad leader (b. 1912)
• 2004 – Jean Rouch, French filmmaker and ethnologist (b. 1917)
• 2006 – Richard Bright, American actor (b. 1937)
• 2008 – Sir Richard Knowles, British politician (b. 1917)
• 2008 – Mihaela Mitrache, Romanian actress, (b. 1955)
• 2008 – Mickey Renaud, Canadian professional ice hockey player (b. 1988)
• 2008 – Alain Robbe-Grillet, French writer and filmmaker (b. 1922)
• 2009 – Miika Tenkula, Finnish guitarist (b. 1974)
• 2009 – Al-Tayyib Salih, Sudanese novelist and columnist (b. 1929)
• 2010 – John Babcock, Last known Canadian veteran of World War I (b. 1900)

Holidays and observances

• Christian Feast Day:
  • Colmán of Lindisfarne
  • Flavian of Constantinople
  • Simeon of Jerusalem (Western Christianity)
  • February 18 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of the Gambia from the United Kingdom in 1965.