On this day: February 18

Events on February 18

• 3102 BC Kali Yuga, the fourth and final yuga of Hinduism, starts with the death of Krishna. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1781 Fourth Anglo-Dutch War: Captain Thomas Shirley opens his expedition against Dutch colonial outposts on the Gold Coast of Africa (present-day Ghana). Wikipedia
• 1791 Congress passes a law admitting the state of Vermont to the Union, effective 4 March, after that state had existed for 14 years as a de facto independent largely unrecognized state. Wikipedia
• 1814 War of the Sixth Coalition: French troops led by Napoleon forced the Army of Bohemia to retreat after it advanced dangerously close to Paris. Wikipedia
• 1861 With Italian unification almost complete, Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont, Savoy and Sardinia assumes the title of King of Italy. Wikipedia
• 1873 Bulgarian revolutionary leader Vasil Levski is executed by hanging in Sofia by the Ottoman authorities. Wikipedia
• 1873 Vasil Levski, a national hero of Bulgaria, was executed in Sofia by the Ottoman authorities for his efforts to establish an independent Bulgarian republic. Wikipedia
• 1885 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is published in the United States. Wikipedia
• 1930 While studying photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1942 World War II: The Imperial Japanese Army begins the systematic extermination of perceived hostile elements among the Chinese in Singapore. Wikipedia
• 1946 Sailors of the Royal Indian Navy mutiny in Bombay harbour, from where the action spreads throughout the Provinces of British India, involving 78 ships, twenty shore establishments and 20,000 sailors Wikipedia
• 1946 President Harry S. Truman signed the Rescission Act, annulling benefits payable to Filipino troops who fought for the U.S. during World War II. Wikipedia
• 1947 First Indochina War: The French gain complete control of Hanoi after forcing the Viet Minh to withdraw to the mountains. Wikipedia
• 1954 The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles. Wikipedia
• 1957 Kenyan rebel leader Dedan Kimathi is executed by the British colonial government. Wikipedia
• 1965 The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom. Wikipedia
• 1977 NASA's first Space Shuttle, Enterprise, made its first test flight on top of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (both pictured). Wikipedia
• 1983 Thirteen people die and one is seriously injured in the Wah Mee massacre in Seattle. It is said to be the largest robbery-motivated mass-murder in U.S. history. Wikipedia
• 2001 FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union. He is ultimately convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. Wikipedia
• 2004 Up to 295 people, 182 of which being rescue workers, die near Nishapur, Iran, when a runaway freight train carrying sulfur, petrol and fertilizer catches fire and explodes. Wikipedia
• 2013 Armed robbers steal a haul of diamonds worth $50 million during a raid at Brussels Airport in Belgium. Wikipedia
• 2014 A series of violent events involving protesters, riot police, and unknown shooters began in Kyiv that culminated in the ousting of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych five days later. Wikipedia
• 2014 Revolution of Dignity: At least 76 people are killed and hundreds are injured in clashes between riot police and demonstrators in Kyiv, Ukraine. Wikipedia
• 2021 Perseverance, a Mars rover designed to explore Jezero crater on Mars, as part of NASA's Mars 2020 mission, lands successfully. Wikipedia

Born on February 18

• 1201 Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, Persian scientist and writer (died 1274) Wikipedia
• 1486 Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Indian monk and saint (died 1534) Wikipedia
• 1516 Mary I, Queen of England (died 1558) Wikipedia
• 1745 Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist, invented the battery (died 1827) Wikipedia
• 1836 Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Indian mystic and yogi (died 1886) Wikipedia
• 1838 Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist and philosopher (died 1916) Wikipedia
• 1848 Louis Comfort Tiffany, American stained glass artist (died 1933) Wikipedia
• 1883 Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek philosopher, author, and playwright (died 1957) Wikipedia
• 1919 Jack Palance, American boxer and actor (died 2006) Wikipedia
• 1921 Mary Amdur, American toxicologist and public health researcher (died 1998) Wikipedia
• 1925 George Kennedy, American actor (died 2016) Wikipedia
• 1931 Toni Morrison, American novelist and editor, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2019). Wikipedia
• 1932 Miloš Forman, Czech-American actor, director, and screenwriter (died 2018) Wikipedia
• 1933 Yoko Ono, Japanese-American multimedia artist and musician Wikipedia
• 1933 Bobby Robson, English footballer and manager (died 2009) Wikipedia
• 1934 Audre Lorde, American writer and activist (died 1992) Wikipedia
• 1954 John Travolta, American actor, singer and producer Wikipedia
• 1964 Matt Dillon, American actor Wikipedia
• 1965 Dr. Dre, American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur Wikipedia
• 1966 Ryan Wesley Routh, American attempted assassin of Donald Trump Wikipedia
• 1967 Roberto Baggio, Italian footballer Wikipedia
• 1975 Gary Neville, English footballer Wikipedia

Died on February 18

• 901 Thābit ibn Qurra, Arab astronomer and physician (born 826) Wikipedia
• 999 Gregory V, pope of the Catholic Church (born 972) Wikipedia
• 1294 Kublai Khan, Mongol emperor (born 1215) Wikipedia
• 1455 Fra Angelico, Italian priest and painter (born 1395) Wikipedia
• 1535 Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, German magician, astrologer, and theologian (born 1486) Wikipedia
• 1546 Martin Luther, German priest and theologian, leader of the Protestant Reformation (born 1483) Wikipedia
• 1564 Michelangelo, Italian sculptor and painter (born 1475) Wikipedia
• 1712 Louis, Dauphin of France, (born 1682) Wikipedia
• 1851 Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi, German mathematician and academic (born 1804) Wikipedia
• 1873 Vasil Levski, Bulgarian activist, founded the Internal Revolutionary Organization (born 1837) Wikipedia
• 1902 Charles Lewis Tiffany, American businessman, founded Tiffany & Co. (born 1812) Wikipedia
• 1967 J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist and academic (born 1904) Wikipedia
• 2001 Balthus, Polish-Swiss painter and illustrator (born 1908) Wikipedia
• 2025 Gene Hackman, award-winning American actor (born 1930) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Bernadette Soubirous (France) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Colmán of Lindisfarne Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Flavian of Constantinople Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Geltrude Comensoli Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Simeon of Jerusalem (Western Christianity) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: February 18 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Dialect Day (Amami Islands, Japan) Wikipedia
• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of the Gambia from the United Kingdom in 1965 Wikipedia
• Kurdish Students Union Day (Iraqi Kurdistan) Wikipedia
• National Democracy Day, celebrates the 1951 overthrow of the Rana dynasty (Nepal) Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “February 18” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.