1917 – First jazz records are recorded: “Dixie Jazz Band One Step” and “Livery Stable Blues” by the Original Dixieland Jass Band for the Victor Talking Machine Company in NYC
1917 – Russian February Revolution: Tsar Nicolas II orders army to quell civil unrest in Petrograd – army mutinies [NS Mar 11]
1955 – Leigh, Charlap, Styne, Comden and Green’s musical “Peter Pan”, starring Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard, closes at Winter Garden Theater, NYC, after 152 performances
1983 – Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” album goes #1 and stays #1 for 37 weeks
1991 – Signs of Iran crude now an option for US refiners, but no imports from Iran likely in near future
2004 – US lifts a ban on travel to Libya, ending restrictions that had lasted for 23 years
2017 – 59th Daytona 500: Kurt Busch wins after Kyle Larson runs out of gas on last lap; Jeffrey Earnhardt makes NASCAR history, 1st ever 4th generation driver to compete in Daytona 500
2023 – Dilbert comic strip creator Scott Adams faces widespread condemnation for his comments about African Americans in a YouTube show, prompting his strip and up-coming book to be cancelled
Category: Historical Events
Historical Events for 25th February 2026
1746 – The Duke of Cumberland’s troops occupy Aberdeen
1892 – J. M. Barrie’s stage play “Walker London” premieres in London
1960 – John Cage’s musical composition “Music for Amplified Toy Pianos” premieres in Middletown, Connecticut
1980 – Coup ousts PM Henck Arron of Suriname
1981 – Rita Jenrette, wife of US “Abscam” congressman, appears on “Donahue” TV talk show
1981 – Exec Board of Baseball Players’ Association votes unanimously to strike on May 29 if the issue of free-agent compensation remains unresolved
1991 – Businessman Bruce McNall, hockey legend Wayne Gretzky and actor John Candy buy CFL’s Toronto Argonauts
2013 – Italy Common Good, a centre left alliance, wins the Italian general election
Historical Events for 24th February 2026
1826 – The signing of the Treaty of Yandaboo marks the end of the First Burmese War
1927 – John Golden Theater (Theatre Masque) opens at 252 W 45th St NYC
1969 – Northern Ireland Stormont parliament elections are held; the Unionist party fragments into ‘Official Unionist’ and ‘Unofficial Unionist’
1969 – Mariner 6 launched for Mars flyby to study planet’s atmosphere
1982 – Boston Celtics begin an 18 NBA game winning streak
1988 – US Supreme Court votes 8-0 Jerry Falwell cannot collect for Hustler parody
1988 – South African apartheid regime bans the UDF
2018 – Japanese speed skater Nana Takagi wins her 2nd gold medal of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in the women’s mass start event; also member Japan’s successful pursuit team
Historical Events for 23rd February 2026
1668 – Fire in the Hofburg in Vienna, Emperor Leopold I rescued
1904 – Fiordland National Park in New Zealand is created, home to the Milford Track and at 4,600 square miles (12,000 square km), one of the world’s largest
1923 – German Republic day with laws against worker
1954 – First mass inoculation against polio with the Jonas Salk vaccine takes place at Arsenal Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1970 – Guyana becomes a republic (National Day)
1976 – Final meeting between Chinese Communist party Chairman Mao Zedong and former US President Richard Nixon, in Beijing, China
1999 – British TV drama “Queer as Folk” written by Russell T. Davies, starring Aidan Gillen, Craig Kelly and Charlie Hunnam premieres on Channel 4
2019 – Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir declares a national emergency, dismisses the federal government and sacks all state governors
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
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
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
Historical Events for 19th February 2026
842 – Medieval Iconoclastic Controversy ends as a council in Constantinople formally reinstates the veneration of icons in churches
1942 – Bill Longson beats Managoff and Sandor Szabo, to become wrestling champ
1949 – First Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Ezra Pound
1972 – The Asama-Sanso hostage standoff begins in Japan
1977 – Space Shuttle Enterprise makes its first test flight atop a 747 jetliner
1980 – Ulrich Wehling of East Germany wins his third consecutive Olympic gold medal in the Nordic combined event at Lake Placid; winner Sapporo (1972), Innsbruck (1976)
1980 – Washington beats Montreal, 3-1 to end the Canadiens’ 34 game unbeaten streak against Capitals; Caps 0-32-2 against Montreal since entering NHL in 1974
1987 – Musical revue “Stardust – The Mitchell Parish Musical”, featuring songs of the Lithuanian-American lyricist, opens at Biltmore Theater, NYC; runs for 101 performances
Historical Events for 18th February 2026
1563 – Huguenot Jean de Poltrot assassinates French General Duke François de Guise with a shot from his pistol
1804 – Ohio legislature approves establishment of Ohio University at Athens as the 1st university in Ohio; first classes are held in 1809
1814 – The Battle of Montereau; victory of French under Napoleon Bonaparte against Austrians and Württembergers under the King of Württemberg.
1919 – Cy Denneny of NHL Ottawa Senators scores record 52nd goal
1922 – WOC-AM in Davenport IA begins radio transmissions
1972 – Giulio Andreotti sworn in as premier of Italy for the 1st time
1980 – Soviet figure skater Irina Rodnina wins her 3rd consecutive Olympic pairs title at Lake Placid; gold medals with husband Alexander Zaitsev (1976, 80) and Alexei Ulanov (1972)
1984 – Revised Concordat between Italy and Vatican is signed
Historical Events for 17th February 2026
1902 – A general strike in Barcelona and nearby towns leads to government-troop reprisals that leave 40 dead
1904 – Giacomo Puccini’s opera “Madama Butterfly” premieres at La Scala in Milan, Italy
1927 – Toronto Maple Leafs, in the team’s first game since changing name from “St. Patricks”, beat the visiting New York Americans, 4-1 at the Mutual Street Arena
1939 – Katwijk soccer team forms in the Netherlands
1974 – 16th Daytona 500: Richard Petty first driver to win back-to-back titles at Daytona; his 5th Great American race
1985 – 3rd person to receive an artificial heart (Murray Haydon)
1997 – Weekly Standard shows evidence Larry Flint sexually abused his daughter
2014 – US Secretary of State John Kerry claims climate change requires urgent action and that only a small “window of time” remained open