556 – Maximianus of Ravenna, Byzantine bishop (Basilica San Stefano), dies at about 56 [birthdate uncertain]
1827 – Charles Willson Peale, American painter remembered for portraits of leading American Revolution figures (George Washington), dies at 85
1892 – Herman Koeckemann, German Catholic prelate (b. 1828)
1911 – William Lewis Cabell “, Old Tige” American Brigadier General (Confederate Army) and Mayor of Dallas, dies at 84
1913 – Ferdinand de Saussure, Swiss linguist (Mémoire sur le système primitif des voyelles dans les langues indo-européennes), dies at 55
1936 – John Hope, American educator (President of Atlanta Baptist/Morehouse College,1906-36 and Atlanta University, 1929-36), dies at 67
1980 – Oskar Kokoschka, Austria-British painter and graphic artist, dies at 93
1982 – Josh Malihabadi, Urdu poet of India and Pakistan, dies at 83
1995 – Emmanuel Roblès, Algerian-French novelist and playwright (Lesson Hauteurs), dies at 80
2017 – Fritz Koenig, German sculptor (Sphere at World Trade Center), dies at 92
Author: gil7
Historical Events for 22nd February 2026
1633 – St. Peter’s Baldachin, the cathedral’s sculptural centerpiece, by Gian Lorenzo Bernini is inaugurated by Pope Urban VIII in Rome
1860 – Shoe-making workers of Lynn, Massachusetts, strike successfully for higher wages
1916 – The House-Grey Memorandum, drafted by US and Britain, states: ‘Should the Allies accept [the American idea of a conference to end the war] and should Germany refuse it, the United States would “probably” enter the war against Germany’
1941 – Paul Creston’s 1st Symphony premieres
1950 – Wallace Brockway and Herbert Weinstock’s revised and expanded edition of reference book “Men of Music: Their Lives, Times and Achievements” is published
2013 – The UK’s AAA credit rating is downgraded by Moody’s Investors Service to AA+; the agency expects growth to “remain sluggish over the next few years”
2014 – Dutch speed skaters Jorien ter Mors (1,500m champion) and Ireen Wüst (3,000m winner) each claim their 2nd gold medal of the Sochi Winter Olympics as part of the women’s pursuit team
2020 – Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo marks his 1,000th senior appearance by scoring in Juventus’ 2-1 Serie A win over SPAL; 725 career goals in 836 club games and 164 internationals
Today in History for 22nd February 2026
Historical Events
1860 – Shoe-making workers of Lynn, Massachusetts, strike successfully for higher wages
1928 – First solo flight from England to Australia lands in Darwin 15½ days after takeoff, piloted by Australian aviator Bert Hinkler
1936 – Sonja Henie of Norway follows up her Winter Olympics victory with an incredible 10th consecutive women’s World Championship figure skating gold medal in Paris, France
1960 – German skier Georg Thoma becomes the first non-Nordic athlete to win the Nordic combined event at the Squaw Valley Winter Olympics
1982 – NYC Mayor Koch announces he will run for NY governor (unsuccessful)
Famous Birthdays
1542 – Santino Garsi da Parma, Italian lutenist and composer, born in Parma, Papal States (d. 1604)
1920 – Del Wood [Adelaide Hazelwood], American country musician, born in Nashville, Tennessee (d. 1989)
1950 – Miou-Miou [Sylvette Herry], French actress (Dog Day, My Other Husband), born in Paris, France
1969 – Joaquín Cortés, Spanish dancer, born in Córdoba, Spain
1971 – Mohammed Sylla, Guinean football player (Willem II, FC Martigues), born in Conakry, Guinea (d. 2010)
Famous Deaths
1968 – Omer CFL Tulippe, Belgian geographer, dies at 71
2001 – John Farley, American folk singer and guitarist (Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death), dies at 61
2002 – Charles “Chuck” Jones, American animator and cartoonist best known for his work with Warner Bros. (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Wile E. Coyote, Road Runner, Porky Pig), dies of congestive heart failure at 89
2024 – Jean-Guy Talbot, Canadian ice hockey defenceman (7 x Stanley Cup Montreal Canadiens; 6 x NHL All Star) and coach (St. Louis Blues, NY Rangers), dies at 91
2025 – Joe Fusco, American College Football HOF coach (Westminster College 1972-90), dies at 87
Famous Deaths for 21st February 2026
1513 – Julius II, Italian Pope (1503-13) and patron of Michelangelo, Bramante and Raphael, dies at 69
1821 – Georg Friedrich von Martens, German diplomat and jurist, dies at 64
1938 – George Ellery Hale, American astronomer (discovery of magnetic fields in sunspot), dies at 69
1971 – Adolph Weiss, American bassoonist and composer, dies at 79
1980 – Chester Lauck, American actor (Dreaming Out Loud, 2 Weeks to Live), dies at 78
1986 – Helen Hooven Santmyer, American writer (“…And Ladies of the Club”), dies at 90
1992 – Franc Holden, British astronomer (Binary Stars), dies
1996 – Terence Edward Armstrong, British polar geographer, dies at 75
2015 – Clark Terry, American jazz trumpeter, dies at 94
2019 – Stanley Donen, American film director and producer (Singin’ in the Rain, Bedazzled, Damn Yankees), dies at 94
Historical Events for 21st February 2026
1821 – Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire begins
1861 – Steeple of Chichester Cathedral collapses despite the desperate efforts of 70 workmen
1921 – Constituent Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Georgia adopts the country’s first constitution
1931 – Alka Seltzer introduced
1957 – Dodgers (Fort Worth) and Cubs (LA) “trade” minor league franchises
1987 – Syrian army marches into Beirut
1991 – Neil Simon’s stage comic-drama “Lost in Yonkers”, starring Mercedes Ruehl and Kevin Spacey, opens at Richard Rodgers Theater, NYC; runs for 780 performances, winning 5 Tony Awards and a Pulitzer Prize
2022 – 60 people die in an explosion at an unregulated gold mine near Gaoua, Burkina Faso
Today in History for 21st February 2026
Historical Events
1173 – Pope Alexander III canonizes Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury
1782 – US Congress resolves establishment of a US mint
1916 – Battle of Verdun begins with a German offensive, leads to an estimated 1 million casualties, and becomes the longest battle of the entire war (9 months)
1988 – Televangelist Jimmy Swaggert confesses his sins to his congregation
1997 – “Empire Strikes Back, special edition” premieres
Famous Birthdays
1929 – Henry Kloss, American audio engineer (acoustic loudspeaker), born in Altoona, Pennsylvania (d. 2002)
1939 – Richard Beymer, American stage actor and singer (West Side Story; Diary of Anne Frank), born in Avoca, Iowa
1950 – Sahle-Work Zewde, Ethiopian diplomat, President of Ethiopia (2018-), born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
1961 – Christopher Atkins, American actor (Peter-Dallas, Blue Lagoon), born in Rye, New York
1969 – Tony Meola, American footballer, born in Belleville, New Jersey
Famous Deaths
1790 – Johann Friedrich Klöffler, German composer, dies at 64
1901 – George Francis FitzGerald, Irish mathematician (b. 1851)
2011 – Bernard Nathanson, American abortionist turned pro-life activist (b. 1926)
2015 – Aleksei Gubarev, Soviet-Russian cosmonaut (Soyuz 17, 28), dies at 83
2023 – Amancio Amaro, Spanish soccer outside right (42 caps; Deportivo de La Coruña, Real Madrid), dies at 83
Famous Deaths for 20th February 2026
702 – K’inich Kan B’alam II, king of the Maya state of Palenque (b. 635)
1810 – Johann Friedrich Kranz, German composer, dies at 57
1892 – Hermann Kopp, German chemist (Law of Kopp), dies at 74
1959 – Ray McDonald, American stage and screen tap dancer, dies choking on food at 38
1970 – Albert Louis Wolff, French conductor and composer, dies at 86
1984 – Giuseppe Colombo, Italian mathematician and engineer who studied Mercury, known as ‘the grandfather of the flyby’, dies at 63
1992 – Eugene R. Black, American President of World Bank (1953-62), dies at 93
2005 – Tom Willmore, English geometer, dies at 85
2008 – Emily Perry, English Actress (b. 1907)
2022 – Leo Bersani, American literary critic and scholar known for his writings on the AIDS crisis (Homos), dies at 90
Historical Events for 20th February 2026
1941 – Romania breaks relations with Netherlands
1952 – Britain’s Jeannette Altwegg wins the Olympic women’s figure skating gold medal at the Olso Winter Games ahead of American Tenley Albright, who goes on to win in Cortina d’Ampezzo (1956)
1972 – 14th Daytona 500: A. J. Foyt dominates the race, winning by almost 2 laps over his closest competitor Charlie Glotzbach
1978 – Bob Backland beats “Superstar” Billy Graham in NYC, to become WWF wrestling champion
1980 – Soviet cross-country skier Nikolay Zimyatov wins his 2nd gold medal of the Lake Placid Winter Olympics as part of the 4 x 10k relay; also wins 30k and 50k gold
1994 – Johann Olav Koss skates world record 10 km (13:30.55)
2011 – 53rd Daytona 500: 20-year-old Trevor Bayne, driving for Wood Brothers Racing, wins to become the youngest Daytona 500 winner
2021 – Bloodiest day of protests in Myanmar since its coup after security forces open fire, killing two people with 40 wounded in Mandalay
Today in History for 20th February 2026
Historical Events
1869 – Tennessee Governor W C Brownlow declares martial law in Ku Klux Klan crisis
1873 – British Naval Officer John Moresby is the first European to discover Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, claims it for the United Kingdom
1877 – 1st cantilever bridge in US completed, Harrodsburg, Kentucky
1944 – World War II: The “Big Week” began with American bomber raids on German aircraft manufacturing centers
1994 – Pope John Paul II demands juristic discrimination of homosexuals
Famous Birthdays
1809 – Henry Walton Wessells, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Lietchfield, Connecticut (d. 1889)
1883 – Shiga Naoya, Japanese novelist (Road Through Dark Night), born in Ishinomaki, Japan (d. 1971)
1934 – Bobby Unser, American auto racer (Indianapolis 500 1968, 1975, 1981; USAC C’ship 1968, 1974), born in Colorado Springs (d. 2021)
1985 – Julia Volkova, Russian pop singer (t.A.T.u. -single, “All the Things She Said”), born in Moscow
2003 – Olivia Rodrigo, American actress and singer-songwriter (“Driver’s License”), born in Temecula, California
Famous Deaths
1903 – Charles Doolittle, American general (Union volunteer), dies at 70
1995 – John Humphreys Whitfield, British scholar of Italian language and literature, dies at 88
2001 – Rosemary DeCamp, American radio, film, and television character actress (Love That Bob – “Margaret”, That Girl – “Mrs. Marie”; The Partridge Family – “Amanda Renfrew”), dies of pneumonia at 90
2005 – Hunter S. Thompson, American journalist and author (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), commits suicide via a self-inflicted gunshot wound at 67
2025 – David L. Boren, American politician (Governor of Oklahoma 1975-79; Sen-D-Oklahoma 1979-94), dies at 83
Famous Deaths for 19th February 2026
1716 – Dorthe Engelbrechtsdatter, Norway’s first recognised female poet, dies at 82
1963 – Bartolomé “Beny” Moré, Cuban guaracha and mambo singer, guitarist, songwriter, and bandleader, dies of liver cirrhosis at 43
1975 – Luigi Dallapiccola, Italian 12-tone composer (Il prigioniero; Ulisse), dies of Pulmonary edema at 71
1994 – Gordon Sparling, Canadian pioneering filmmaker (Canadian Cameo series – Canada’s first major films with sound), dies at 93
1994 – Fausto Bara, Mexican-American actor (The Renegades – “Gaucho”), dies of AIDS at 42
1994 – Renske Vellinga, Dutch speed-skater, dies in auto-accident at 19
1996 – Charles “Charlie O” Finley, American sports entrepreneur (MLB’s Kansas City/Oakland A’s: NHL’s California Golden Seals), dies at 77
2009 – Kelly Groucutt, British rock bass guitarist and vocalist (Electric Light Orchestra; ELO II; The Orchestra), dies of a heart attack at 63
2019 – Don Newcombe, American baseball pitcher (4 x MLB All Star; World Series 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers; NL MVP and Cy Young Award 1956), dies at 92
2022 – Nigel Butterley, Australian pianist, composer (The True Samaritan), educator, and radio broadcaster, dies at 86