On this day: February 18

Events on February 18

• 3102 BC According to Hindu scriptures, Kali Yuga, the last of the four stages that the world goes through as part of the cycle of yugas, began. Wikipedia
• 1268 Northern Crusades: The Battle of Wesenberg took place between Novgorodian and Pskovian forces against the Livonian Order and its allies, ending with Russian forces retreating from Danish Estonia. Wikipedia
• 1637 Eighty Years' War: Off the coast of Cornwall, a Spanish fleet intercepted an Anglo-Dutch merchant convoy of forty-four vessels escorted by six men-of-war, destroying or capturing twenty ships. Wikipedia
• 1766 Enslaved Malagasy captives on the Dutch East India Company slave ship Meermin began a mutiny that led to the ship's destruction on Cape Agulhas in present-day South Africa and the recapture of the instigators. 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 In Montgomery, Alabama, Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the provisional President of the Confederate States of America. Wikipedia
• 1861 With Italian unification almost complete, Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont, Savoy and Sardinia assumes the title of King of Italy. 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
• 1878 Competition between two American merchants in Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory, turned into a range war when a member of one faction was murdered by the other. 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
• 1938 Second Sino-Japanese War: During the Nanking Massacre, the Nanking Safety Zone International Committee is renamed "Nanking International Rescue Committee", and the safety zone in place for refugees falls apart. Wikipedia
• 1943 The core members of the White Rose, an anti-Nazi resistance group, were arrested by the Gestapo. Wikipedia
• 1943 World War II: Joseph Goebbels delivers his Sportpalast speech. Wikipedia
• 1945 World War II: American and Brazilian troops kick off Operation Encore in Northern Italy, a successful limited action in the Northern Apennines that prepares for the western portion of the Allied Spring offensive. 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
• 1977 NASA's first Space Shuttle, Enterprise, made its first test flight on top of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. Wikipedia
• 1977 The Xinjiang 61st Regiment Farm fire started during Chinese New Year when a firecracker ignited the wreaths of late Mao Zedong, killing 694 personnel. Wikipedia
• 2001 Inter-ethnic violence between the Dayak and the Madurese broke out in Sampit, Indonesia, ultimately causing more than 500 deaths and the displacement of 100,000 Madurese from their homes. Wikipedia
• 2001 American FBI agent Robert Hanssen was arrested for having spied for the KGB and GRU over a 22-year period. Wikipedia
• 2010 In a coup d'état, military rebels attacked the presidential palace in Niamey, Niger, and replaced President Mamadou Tandja with a ruling junta, the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy. Wikipedia
• 2010 WikiLeaks published the first of hundreds of thousands of classified documents disclosed by Chelsea Manning. Wikipedia
• 2013 Eight gunmen stole US$50,000,000 worth of diamonds from a Swiss-bound aircraft at Brussels Airport. 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
• 2018 Iran Aseman Airlines Flight 3704 crashes in the Dena sub-range in the Zagros Mountains of Iran, Resulting in 66 Deaths 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
• 1860 Anders Zorn, Swedish artist (died 1920) Wikipedia
• 1883 Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek philosopher, author, and playwright (died 1957) Wikipedia
• 1919 Jack Palance, American boxer and actor (died 2006) 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
• 1950 Cybill Shepherd, American actress 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
• 1967 Roberto Baggio, Italian footballer Wikipedia
• 1975 Gary Neville, English footballer Wikipedia
• 1994 J-Hope, South Korean rapper, singer-songwriter, dancer, and record producer 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
• 1780 Kristijonas Donelaitis, Lithuanian pastor and poet (born 1714) 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
• 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

Sources

• Wikipedia — “February 18” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/February 18” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

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 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for February 18 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.