SKC Films Library

On February 15th...

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1564 Astronomer Galileo Galilei was born.

1710 King Louis XV of France was born.

1748 Philosopher Jeremy Bentham was born.

1763 Austria, Prussia, and Saxony signed the Treaty of Hubertusburg, marking the end of the French and Indian War and of the Seven Years War.

1764 St. Louis, Missouri was founded as a French trading post by Pierre Laclade Ligue.

1775 Angelo Braschi was elected Pope Pius VI.

1804 New Jersey outlawed slavery.

1809 Inventor Cyrus Hall McCormick was born.

1812 Businessman Charles Louis Tiffany was born.

1820 Susan Brownell Anthony, abolitionist and suffragette, was born.

1842 The first adhesive postage stamps in the United States were put on sale, by a private delivery company.
1842 Naturalist Archibald Menzies died.

1845 American statesman Elihu Root was born.

1851 Black abolitionists invaded a Boston, Massachusetts, courtoom to rescue a fugitive slave.

1852 The Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children, in London, England, admitted its first patient.

1864 Union troops attempted to take Gainesville, Florida, but were unsuccessful.

1874 Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton was born.

1877 Engineer Louis Renault was born.

1879 Congress authorized women lawyers to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States.

1882 Actor John Barrymore was born.

1894 Oswaldo Aranha, Brazilian politician and diplomat, was born.

1895 Nine inches of snow fell on New Orleans, Louisiana.

1898 The U.S.S. Maine blew up in Havana Harbor, sparking the Spanish-American War.

1900 The Siege of Kimberley (South Africa) was broken by British troops under Lieutenant-General John French.

1903 Morris and Rose Michtom introduced the teddy bear to America.

1905 Political leader Mark Hanna died.
1905 Lew Wallace, U.S. Civil War General and author of Ben-Hur, died.

1906 The British Labour Party was founded.

1907 Actor Cesar Romero was born.

1910 The Boy Scouts of America was founded.

1914 U.S. Congressman Hale Boggs was born.

1919 The American Legion was organized in Paris, France.

1926 Contract air mail service began in the United States.

1927 Walter H. Beech was elected president of Travel Air.
1927 Comedian Harvey Korman was born.

1929 James R. Schlesinger, government official and political scholar, was born.

1932 George Burns and Gracie Allen debuted as regulars on the "Guy Lombardo Show."
1932 U.S. bobsled team member Eddie Eagan became the only athlete ever to win a gold medal in both Summer and Winter Olympics (1920 boxing gold).

1933 U. S. President-elect Franklin Roosevelt survived an assassination attempt.

1935 Astronaut Roger Chaffee was born.

1939 The German battleship Bismarck was launched.

1942 Singapore surrendered to the Japanese.

1946 The Bank of England was nationalized.

1950 Walt Disney's Cinderella was released.

1951 Actress Jane Seymour was born.

1954 Cartoonist Matt Groening was born.

1956 Urho Kekkonen was appointed President of Finland.
1956 The Pittsburgh Pirates and Kansas City A's cancelled an exhibition game in Birmingham, Alabama, because of a local ordinance forbidding blacks from playing against whites.

1959 Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev arrived at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, to begin a tour of the United States.

1961 A Sabena Airlines plane crashed near Brussels, Belgium, killing 72 persons aboard (including all 18 members of the U. S. figure skating team) and 1 person on the ground.
1961 A total eclipse of the Sun was visible across southern Europe.

1964 Comedian Chris Farley was born.

1965 The "Maple Leaf Flag" of Canada was officially flown for the first time.
1965 Singer Nat King Cole died.

1969 Jazz clarinetist Pee Wee Russell died.

1970 A Dominican DC-9 crashed into the sea off Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, killing 102 persons.

1971 The United Kingdom abandoned its pence and shilling system in favor of decimal currency.

1072 President Velasco Ibarra of Ecuador was deposed.
1972 John N. Mitchell resigned as Attorney General of the United States.
1972 Sound recordings were granted U.S. federal copyright protection for the first time.

1973 Actor Wally Cox died.

1976 David Pearson won the Daytona 500.

1978 Leon Spinks defeated Muhammad Ali in 15 rounds for the heavyweight boxing title.

1981 Richard Petty won the Daytona 500.

1984 Singer Ethel Merman died.

1986 The Beech Starship 1 made its first flight, with pilot Bud Francis and co-pilot Tom Carr.

1987 Bill Elliott won the Daytona 500.
1987 Actor Ray Bolger died.

1990 Major League Baseball owners locked out players.

1991 A freighter loaded with dynamite exploded at Phang Nga, Thailand, killing 120 persons.

1992 Jeffrey Dahmer was found guilty of killing 15 boys.

1993 Bombings by drug lords killed 14 persons in Bogota, Colombia.

1995 Anatole Kanyenkiko resigned as Premier of Burundi.

1998 Dale Earnhardt won the Daytona 500.

2004 Dale Earnhardt, Jr. won the Daytona 500.

2005 YouTube was launched in the United States.

2009 Matt Kenseth won the Daytona 500.

2012 Fire at Comayagua Prison in Honduras killed 358 persons.

2014 Tammam Salam was elected Prime Minister of Lebanon.

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This page was last updated on February 14, 2018.