February 15 in History

In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman civilisation from the founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC), the Roman Republic (509‍–‍27 BC), and the Roman Empire until the fall of the western empire.

Khosrow II, commonly known as Khosrow Parviz, is considered to be the last great monarch of pre-Islamic Iran, ruling the Sasanian Empire from 590 to 628, including an interruption of one year.

The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Eastern part of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, it endured until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. The term 'Byzantine Empire' was coined only after its demise; its citizens used the term 'Roman Empire' and called themselves 'Romans'.

Pavia (UK: pah-VEE-ə, US: pə-VEE-ə; Italian: [paˈviːa] ) is a town and comune in south-western Lombardy, Northern Italy, 35 kilometres (22 miles) south of Milan on the lower Ticino near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of about 73,086. The city was a major political centre in the medieval period, being the capital of the Ostrogothic Kingdom from 540 to 553, the capital of the Kingdom of the Lombards from 572 to 774, the capital of the Kingdom of Italy from 774 to 1024 and the seat of the Visconti court from 1365 to 1413. Pavia is the capital of the fertile province of Pavia, which is known for a variety of agricultural products, including wine, rice, cereals, and dairy products. Although there are a number of industries located in the suburbs, these tend not to disturb the peaceful atmosphere of the town. It is home to the ancient University of Pavia and several other universities, colleges and related institutions and the 15th-century Policlinico San Matteo. Pavia is the episcopal seat of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Pavia. There are many artistic and cultural treasures in the area, including several important churches and museums, such as the Certosa di Pavia. The municipality of Pavia is part of the Parco naturale lombardo della Valle del Ticino (a Nature reserve included by UNESCO in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves) and preserves two forests (Strict nature reserve Bosco Siro Negri and Bosco Grande nature reserve).

Pope Paschal II, born Raniero Raineri di Bleda, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 August 1099 to his death in 1118. A monk of the Abbey of Cluny, he was created the cardinal-priest of San Clemente by Pope Gregory VII (1073–85) in 1073. He was consecrated as pope in succession to Pope Urban II (1088–99) on 19 August 1099. His reign of almost twenty years was exceptionally long for a medieval pope.

The Anglo-French War was a major medieval conflict that pitted the Kingdom of France against the Kingdom of England and various other states. It was fought in an attempt to curb the rising power of King Philip II of France and regain the Angevin continental possessions King John of England lost to him a decade earlier. It is widely regarded as the first anti-French coalition war and came to an end at the decisive Battle of Bouvines at which Philip defeated England and its allies. The Duchy of Normandy, once a site of conflict between Richard I of England and Philip II, grew to be one of the hot spots of medieval Anglo-French wars as the King of England had to defend a continental holding that was so close to Paris. In 1202, Philip II launched an invasion of Normandy that culminated in the six-month Siege of Château Gaillard, which led to the conquest of the duchy and of neighbouring territories. In 1214, when Pope Innocent III assembled an alliance of states against France, John agreed. The allies met Philip near Bouvines and were soundly defeated. The French victory resulted in the conquest of Flanders and put an end to further attempts from John to regain his lost territories. This conflict was an episode of a century-long struggle between the House of Capet and the House of Plantagenet over the Angevin domains in France, which started with Henry II's accession to the English throne in 1154 and his rivalry with Louis VII and ended with Louis IX's triumph over Henry III at the Battle of Taillebourg in 1242.

La Niña was one of the three Spanish ships used by Italian explorer Christopher Columbus in his first voyage to the West Indies in 1492. As was tradition for Spanish ships of the day, she bore a female saint's name, Santa Clara. However, she was commonly referred to by her nickname, La Niña, which was probably a pun on the name of her owner, Juan Niño of Moguer. She was a standard caravel-type vessel.

Ferdinand III (Ferdinand Ernest; 13 July 1608 – 2 April 1657) was Archduke of Austria, King of Hungary and Croatia from 1625, King of Bohemia from 1627 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1637 to his death. Ferdinand ascended the throne at the beginning of the last decade of the Thirty Years' War and introduced lenient policies to depart from the old ideas of divine right held by his father, as he wished to end the war quickly. After military defeats and against a background of declining power, Ferdinand was compelled to abandon the political stances of his Habsburg predecessors in many respects to open the long road towards the much-delayed Peace of Westphalia. Although his authority as emperor was weakened after the war, his position in Bohemia, Hungary and Austria was stronger than that of his predecessors before 1618. Ferdinand was the first Habsburg monarch to be recognised as a musical composer.

Constantin or Constantine Cantemir (8 November 1612 – 13 March 1693) was a Moldavian nobleman, soldier, and statesman who served as voivode between 25 June 1685 and 27 March 1693. He established the Cantemir dynasty which—with interruptions—ruled Moldavia prior to the imposition of phanariot rule.

St. Louis is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while its metropolitan area, which extends into Illinois, had an estimated population of over 2.8 million. It is the largest metropolitan area in Missouri and the second-largest in Illinois. The city's metropolitan statistical area is the 23rd-largest in the United States.

The Roman Republic (Italian: Repubblica Romana) was a sister republic of the First French Republic that existed from 1798 to 1799. It was proclaimed on 15 February 1798 after Louis-Alexandre Berthier, a general of the French Revolutionary Army, had occupied the city of Rome on 11 February. It was led by a Directory of five men and comprised territory conquered from the Papal States. The Roman Republic immediately incorporated two other former-papal revolutionary administrations, the Tiberina Republic and the Anconine Republic. It proved short-lived, as Neapolitan troops restored the Papal States in October 1799.

The Constitution of the Principality of Serbia (Slavonic-Serbian: Уставъ Княжества Сербїе) known as the Sretenje Constitution ("Candlemas Constitution"), was the first constitution of the Principality of Serbia, adopted in Kragujevac in 1835. The Constitution was written by Dimitrije Davidović. The Constitution divided the power into legislative, executive and judicial branches, which is still considered the standard of democracy and constitutionality today. The government consisted of the prince, the State Council and the National Assembly. The constitution stipulated that the prince and the State Council share the executive power. Citizens' rights and freedoms were protected, such as the inviolability of personality, the independence of the judiciary and the right to a lawful trial, freedom of movement and settlement, the right to choose a profession, equality of citizens, regardless of religion and ethnicity. Although enacted by the Grand National Assembly, the constitution was suspended after only 55 days under pressure from the Great Feudal Powers (Turkey, Russia and Austria). Today, the original copy of the document is kept in the National Archives of Serbia.

Helsinki Cathedral (Finnish: Helsingin tuomiokirkko, Suurkirkko; Swedish: Helsingfors domkyrka, Storkyrkan) is the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran cathedral of the Diocese of Helsinki, located in the neighborhood of Kruununhaka in the centre of Helsinki, Finland, at the Senate Square. The church was originally built from 1830 to 1852 as a tribute to the Grand Duke of Finland, Emperor Nicholas I of Russia. It was also known as St Nicholas's Church (Finnish: Nikolainkirkko, Swedish: Nikolajkyrkan) until Finland declared its full independence in 1917. It is a major landmark of the city, and one of the most famous historical structures in Finland as a whole when viewed globally.

The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), which was formed in 1861 by Southern states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States. The South saw slavery as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln as president in 1860 and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war ended with a Union victory, dissolution of the Confederacy and the national abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans. Decades of controversy over slavery came to a head when Lincoln, a Republican who opposed slavery's expansion, won the 1860 presidential election. Seven slave states in the South responded to Lincoln's victory by seceding from the United States and forming the Confederate States. The Confederate States seized United States forts and other federal assets in the South. The war began on April 12, 1861, when the Confederate States bombarded Fort Sumter in South Carolina. A wave of enthusiasm for war swept over the North and South, as military recruitment soared. Four more Southern states seceded after the war began and, led by its president Jefferson Davis, the Confederacy comprised eleven states, containing a third of the US population. Four years of intense combat, mostly in the South, ensued. During 1861–1862 in the western theater, the Union made permanent gains, though in the eastern theater the conflict was inconclusive. The abolition of slavery became a Union war goal on January 1, 1863, when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared all slaves in rebel states to be free, applying to more than 3.5 million of the 4 million enslaved people in the country. To the west, the Union first destroyed the Confederate river navy by the summer of 1862, then much of its western armies, and seized New Orleans. The successful 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River, while Confederate general Robert E. Lee's incursion north failed at the Battle of Gettysburg. Union general Ulysses S. Grant's western successes led Lincoln to promote him to command of all Union armies in 1864. Inflicting an ever-tightening naval Union blockade of Confederate ports, the Union army marshaled resources and the manpower to attack the Confederate States army from all directions. That led to the fall of Atlanta in 1864 to Union general William Tecumseh Sherman, followed by his March to the Sea, which culminated in his taking Savannah. The last significant battles raged around the ten-month siege of Petersburg, gateway to the Confederate capital of Richmond. The Confederates abandoned Richmond, and on April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant following the Battle of Appomattox Court House, setting in motion the end of the war. Lincoln lived to see this victory but was shot by an assassin on April 14, dying the next day. By the end of the war, much of the South's infrastructure had been destroyed. The Confederacy collapsed, the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery (except as punishment for a crime) and four million enslaved black people were freed. The war-torn nation then entered the Reconstruction era in an attempt to rebuild the country, reunite by bringing the former Confederate states back into the United States, and grant civil rights to freed black slaves. The war is one of the most extensively studied and written about episodes in the history of the United States, and it remains the subject of cultural and historiographical debate. Interest continues in the myth of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy. The war was among the first to use industrial warfare. Railroads, the electrical telegraph, steamships, the ironclad warship, and mass-produced weapons were widely used. The war left an estimated 700,000 soldiers dead, along with an undetermined number of civilian deaths, making it the deadliest in U.S. history. The technology and brutality of the Civil War foreshadowed the coming world wars.

Stevens Institute of Technology is a private research university in Hoboken, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1870, it is one of the oldest technological universities in the United States and was the first college in America solely dedicated to mechanical engineering. The 55-acre campus encompasses Castle Point, the highest point in Hoboken, a quad, and 43 academic, student and administrative buildings. Established through an 1868 bequest from Edwin Augustus Stevens, enrollment at Stevens includes more than 8,000 undergraduate and graduate students representing 47 states and 60 countries throughout Asia, Europe and Latin America. Stevens comprises four academic schools that deliver technology-based STEM degrees and degrees in business, arts, humanities and social sciences: the Charles V. Schaefer, Jr. School of Engineering and Science; the School of Business; the School of computing; and the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. The university also operates the College of Online and Professional Education, established in 2023. For undergraduates, Stevens offers the Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.), Bachelor of Science (B.S.) and Bachelor of Arts (B.A.). At the graduate level, Stevens offers programs in engineering, science, systems, engineering, management and the liberal arts. Graduate students can pursue advanced degrees in more than 50 different designations ranging from graduate certificates and master's degrees to Ph.D. levels. Stevens is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity". The university is home to two national Centers of Excellence as designated by the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The Bulletin de la Fédération jurassienne (Bulletin of the Jura Federation) was an anarchist newspaper which was published between February 1872 and March 1878 in Sonvilier, Le Locle, and later in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. It was one of the very first anarchist periodicals, serving as the official organ for the Jura Federation and the Anti-Authoritarian International during the foundational years of the anarchist movement. The Bulletin never exceeded a circulation of 600 copies per issue. However, some historians have argued that it played a very important role from both a theoretical and historical perspective. After the schism of the First International between the anarchists and Marxists who clashed at the Hague and Saint-Imier congresses, the Bulletin de la Fédération jurassienne became the primary forum for exchange among the Federation's anarchists. Many notable figures from the movement's first generation, such as Carlo Cafiero, James Guillaume, Peter Kropotkin, and Adhémar Schwitzguébel, collaborated with it. Spanning 283 issues over six years, the Bulletin served as a platform for debating core aspects of anarchist theory and ideology. It focused on anarchist collectivism and syndicalism, and, starting in 1877, it began theorizing propaganda by the deed. After its dissolution, it was succeeded by L'Avant-Garde.

Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behavior, whereas in others, they are ignored and suppressed. They differ from broader notions of human rights through claims of an inherent historical and traditional bias against the exercise of rights by women and girls, in favor of men and boys.

USS Maine was a United States Navy ship that sank in Havana Harbor on February 15, 1898, contributing to the outbreak of the Spanish–American War in April. U.S. newspapers claimed that the Spanish were responsible for the ship's destruction, while evidence points to an accident caused by an internal coal bunker fire. The phrase "Remember the Maine! To hell with Spain!" became a rallying cry for action. The Maine explosion served as a catalyst which accelerated the events leading up to the war. Maine is described as an armored cruiser or second-class battleship, depending on the source, ordered in 1886. She was the first U.S. Navy ship to be named after the state of Maine. Maine and its contemporary the battleship Texas were both represented as an advance in American warship design, reflecting the latest European naval developments. Both ships had two-gun turrets staggered en échelon, and full sailing masts were omitted due to the increased reliability of steam engines. Maine and Texas were obsolete by the time of completion due to a protracted nine-year construction period. Far more advanced vessels were in service or nearing completion that year. Maine was sent to Havana Harbor to protect U.S. interests during the Cuban War of Independence. She exploded and sank on the evening of February 15, 1898, killing 268 sailors, which was three-quarters of her crew. In 1898, a U.S. Navy board of inquiry ruled that the ship had been sunk by an external explosion from a mine. However, some U.S. Navy officers disagreed with the board, suggesting that the ship's magazines had been ignited by a spontaneous fire in a coal bunker. The coal used in Maine was bituminous, which is known for releasing firedamp, a mixture of gases composed primarily of flammable methane that is prone to spontaneous explosions. An investigation by Admiral Hyman Rickover in 1974 agreed with the coal fire hypothesis, presented in a 1976 monograph that argued for this conclusion. The cause of her sinking remains a subject of debate. The ship lay at the bottom of the harbor until 1911, when it was patched and refloated within a cofferdam. The hull was then towed to sea and sunk. Maine now lies on the seabed 3,600 feet (1,100 m) below the surface. The ship's main mast is now a memorial in Arlington National Cemetery.

Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia from 1 November 1894 until his abdication in 1917, during the Russian Revolution. A member of the Romanov dynasty, he oversaw the Russian Empire's role in the Russo-Japanese War and the First World War. During the Russian Civil War, Nicholas and his family were killed by the Bolsheviks.

Acapulco de Juárez, commonly called Acapulco, is a city and major seaport in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific coast of Mexico, 380 kilometres (240 mi) south of Mexico City. Located on a deep, semicircular bay, Acapulco has been a port since the early colonial period in Mexico's history. It is a port of call for shipping and cruise lines running between Panama and San Francisco, California. The city of Acapulco is the largest in the state, larger than the state capital Chilpancingo. Acapulco is also Mexico's largest beach and balneario resort city. Acapulco de Juárez, Guerrero is the municipal seat of the municipality of Acapulco, Guerrero.

Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country located mostly on the Balkan peninsula of Southeastern Europe, with thousands of islands extending geographically to Asia Minor. It has a population of around 10 million. With nine regions and up to 227 inhabited islands, it has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean basin. The Ionian Sea is west of the mainland, Albania northwest, and North Macedonia and Bulgaria north. Turkey is east both by land and the Aegean Sea. The capital, Athens, is the largest Greek city, followed by Thessaloniki and Patras.

The 1925 serum run to Nome, also known as the Great Race of Mercy and The Serum Run, was a transport of diphtheria antitoxin by dog sled relay across the US territory of Alaska by 20 mushers and about 150 sled dogs across 674 miles (1,085 km) in 5+1⁄2 days, saving the small town of Nome and the surrounding communities from a developing epidemic of diphtheria. Both the mushers and their dogs were portrayed as heroes in the newly popular medium of radio and received headline coverage in newspapers across the United States. Balto, the lead sled dog on the final stretch into Nome, became the most famous canine celebrity of the era after Rin Tin Tin, and his statue is a popular tourist attraction in both New York City's Central Park and downtown Anchorage, Alaska. Togo's team covered much of the most dangerous parts of the route and ran the farthest: Togo's team covered 261 miles (420 km) while Balto's team ran 55 miles (89 km).

Miami is a coastal city in the southeast portion of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the second-most populous city proper in Florida, with a population of 442,241 at the 2020 census. The Miami metropolitan area in South Florida has an estimated 6.39 million residents, ranking as the fifth-largest metropolitan area in the Southeast and eighth-largest metropolitan area in the United States. Miami has the third-largest skyline in the U.S. with over 300 high-rises, 70 of which exceed 492 ft (150 m). It is the county seat of Miami-Dade County.

Paul Creston (born Giuseppe Guttoveggio; October 10, 1906 – August 24, 1985) was a prolific American composer of classical music and an organist. His catalogued works number over 120 compositions in several major musical genres. They include six symphonies, several concertante and virtuoso works for violin, piano, accordion, marimba, saxophone and trombone. He has been described as a leading American Neo-Romantic composer of his time whose music was performed widely during the 1940s and 1950s.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many engaging in total war on an unprecedented scale. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the deaths of 60 to 75 million people, a majority of whom were civilians. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides, including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

The Battle of Monte Cassino, also known as the Battle for Rome, was a series of four military assaults by the Allies against Axis forces in Italy during the Italian Campaign of World War II. The objective was to break through the Winter Line and facilitate an advance towards Rome. In the beginning of 1944, the western half of the Winter Line was anchored by German forces holding the Rapido-Gari, Liri, and Garigliano valleys and several surrounding peaks and ridges. Together, these features formed the Gustav Line. Monte Cassino, a historic hilltop abbey founded in 529 by Benedict of Nursia, dominated the nearby town of Cassino and the entrances to the Liri and Rapido valleys. Lying in a protected historic zone, it had been left unoccupied by the Germans, although they manned some positions set into the slopes below the abbey's walls. Repeated artillery attacks on assaulting allied troops caused their leaders to incorrectly conclude that the abbey was being used by the Germans as an observation post, at the very least. Fears escalated, along with casualties, and despite evidence, it was marked for destruction. On 15 February 1944, Allied bombers dropped 1,400 tonnes of high explosives, causing widespread damage. Fallschirmjäger forces occupied the area and established defensive positions amid the ruins. Between 17 January and 18 May, Monte Cassino and the Gustav Line defences were attacked on four occasions by Allied troops. On 16 May, soldiers from the Polish II Corps launched one of the final assaults on the German defensive position as part of a twenty-division assault along a thirty-two-kilometre front. During the final phase of the Battle of Monte Cassino, the first flag raised over the ruins of the Monte Cassino monastery on the 18th of May 1944, at 10.20am was the Polish flag. It was followed by the British flag shortly after. Following this Allied victory, the German Senger Line collapsed on 25 May, and the German defenders were driven from their positions. The final capture of Monte Cassino resulted in over 43,000 Allied casualties, with German losses estimated at around 51,000 killed and wounded. Total Allied casualties for the Cassino campaign, including the Battle for Anzio and the capture of Rome, were over 105,000, while Axis casualties were at least 80,000. The battle has been described as a Pyrrhic victory.

This is a sub-article to Battle of Narva (1944). The Narva offensive (15–28 February 1944) was a campaign fought between the German army detachment "Narwa" and the Soviet Leningrad Front for the strategically important Narva Isthmus. At the time of the operation, Stalin was personally interested in taking Estonia, viewing it as a precondition for forcing Finland out of the war. The 2nd Shock Army expanded the bridgehead in the Krivasoo swamp south of Narva, temporally cutting the railway behind the Sponheimer Group. Army General Leonid Govorov was unable to take advantage of the opportunity of encircling the smaller German army group which called in reinforcements. These came mostly from the newly mobilised Estonians who were motivated to resist the looming Soviet re-occupation. The Soviet 30th Guards Rifle Corps and the 124th Rifle Corps, which resumed the Soviet operation, were exhausted by the III (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps in ferocious battles. The offensive was halted on 20 February. Symbolically coinciding with the Estonian Independence Day on 24 February, the fresh 45th and 46th SS Waffen Grenadier Regiments (1st and 2nd Estonian), destroyed the Soviet Riigiküla bridgehead north of Narva.

ENIAC was the first programmable, electronic, general-purpose digital computer, completed in 1945. Other computers had some of these features, but ENIAC was the first to have them all. ENIAC was Turing-complete and able to solve "a large class of numerical problems" through reprogramming.

Gerald Lankester Harding CBE (8 December 1901 – 11 February 1979) was a British archaeologist who was the director of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan from 1936 to 1956. His tenure spanned the period in which the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered and brought to public awareness. Without his efforts many of the scrolls might have disappeared into private collections never to be seen again.

George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of India from 1936 until the British Raj was dissolved in August 1947, though the title was only formally relinquished in June 1948. Following the London Declaration of 1949, he was the first Head of the Commonwealth. The future George VI was born during the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria; he was named Albert at birth after his late great-grandfather Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and was known as "Bertie" to his family and close friends. His father ascended the throne as George V in 1910. As the second son of the king, Albert was not expected to inherit the throne. He spent his early life in the shadow of his elder brother, Edward, the heir apparent. Albert attended naval college as a teenager and served in the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force during the First World War. In 1920, he was made Duke of York. He married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923, and they had two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret. In the mid-1920s, he engaged speech therapist Lionel Logue to treat his stutter, which he learned to manage to some degree. His elder brother ascended the throne as Edward VIII after their father died in 1936, but Edward abdicated later that year to marry the twice-divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson. As heir presumptive to Edward VIII, Albert became king, taking the regnal name George VI. His coronation took place in 1937. In September 1939, the British Empire and most Commonwealth countries – but not Ireland – declared war on Nazi Germany, following the invasion of Poland. War with the Kingdom of Italy and the Empire of Japan followed in 1940 and 1941, respectively. George VI was seen as sharing the hardships of the common people and his popularity soared. Buckingham Palace was bombed during the Blitz while the King and Queen were there, and his younger brother the Duke of Kent was killed in a plane crash while on active service. George VI became known as a symbol of British determination to win the war. Britain and its allies were victorious in 1945, but the British Empire declined. Ireland had largely broken away, followed by the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947. The King relinquished the title of Emperor of India in June 1948 and instead adopted the new title of Head of the Commonwealth. He was beset by smoking-related health problems in the later years of his reign and died at Sandringham House, aged 56, of a coronary thrombosis. He was succeeded by his elder daughter, Elizabeth II.

The Distant Early Warning Line, also known as the DEW Line or Early Warning Line, was a system of radar stations in the northern Arctic region of Canada, with additional stations along the north coast and Aleutian Islands of Alaska, in addition to the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. It was set up to detect incoming bombers of the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and provide early warning of any sea-and-land invasion.

Sabena Flight 548 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Idlewild Airport in New York City to Brussels Airport in Belgium. On 15 February 1961, the Boeing 707 operating the flight crashed on approach to Brussels Airport, killing all 72 people on board and one person on the ground. The fatalities included the entire United States figure skating team, which was traveling to the World Figure Skating Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia. The precise cause of the crash remains unknown; the most likely explanation was thought to be a failure of the mechanism that adjusts the tail stabilizer.

The maple leaf is the characteristic leaf of the maple tree. It is used as the national symbol of Canada.

On February 15, 1970, Dominicana de Aviación Flight 603, en route from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic to San Juan, Puerto Rico crashed into the Caribbean Sea shortly after takeoff. The crash killed all 97 passengers and 5 crew on board, making it the deadliest aviation disaster to occur within the Dominican Republic until the crash of Birgenair Flight 301 in 1996, in the Caribbean Sea, leaving 189 dead.

Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical, mechanical, electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording.

José María Velasco Ibarra was an Ecuadorian politician. He became president of Ecuador five non-consecutive times from 1934 to 1972. Only in 1952–1956 did he complete a full term. In his four other terms, he was removed by military force, and several times he was installed as president through a military coup.

A drilling rig is an integrated system that drills wells, such as oil or water wells, or holes for piling and other construction purposes, into the earth's subsurface. Drilling rigs can be massive structures housing equipment used to drill water wells, oil wells, or natural gas extraction wells, or they can be small enough to be moved manually by one person and such are called augers. Drilling rigs can sample subsurface mineral deposits, test rock, soil and groundwater physical properties, and also can be used to install sub-surface fabrications, such as underground utilities, instrumentation, tunnels or wells. Drilling rigs can be mobile equipment mounted on trucks, tracks or trailers, or more permanent land or marine-based structures. The term "rig" therefore generally refers to the complex equipment that is used to penetrate the surface of the Earth's crust.

The Soviet–Afghan War took place in Afghanistan from December 1979 to February 1989. Marking the beginning of the 47-year-long Afghan conflict, it saw the Soviet Union and the Communist-led Afghan military fight against the rebelling Afghan mujahideen. While backed by various countries and organizations, the majority of the mujahideen's external support came from Pakistan, the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Iran, and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, in addition to a large influx of foreign fighters known as the Afghan Arabs. American and British involvement on the side of the mujahideen escalated the Cold War, ending a short period of relaxed Soviet Union–United States relations.

The Visegrád Group is a cultural and political alliance of four Central European countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. The alliance aims to advance co-operation in military, economic, cultural and energy affairs. All four nations are also members of the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the Three Seas Initiative.

Air Transport International Flight 805 was a regularly scheduled domestic cargo flight from Seattle to Toledo operated by Burlington Air Express. On February 15, 1992, the Douglas DC-8 operating the flight crashed during a second go-around attempt at Toledo Express Airport, killing all four people on board. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the accident was caused by pilot error due to the aircraft's control not being maintained.

The Xichang Satellite Launch Center (XSLC), also known as the Xichang Space Center, is a spaceport in China. It is located in Zeyuan town (泽远镇), Mianning county, approximately 64 kilometers (40 mi) northwest of Xichang, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan.

The prime minister of Canada is the head of government of Canada. Under the Westminster system, the prime minister governs with the confidence of a majority of the elected House of Commons; as such, the prime minister typically sits as a member of Parliament (M.P.) and leads the largest party or a coalition of parties. As first minister, the prime minister selects ministers to form the Cabinet.

The human genome is a complete set of DNA sequences for each of the 22 autosomes and the two distinct sex chromosomes in humans. A small DNA molecule is found within individual mitochondria. These are usually treated separately as the nuclear genome and the mitochondrial genome.

The Ariane 4 was a European expendable launch vehicle, developed by the Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES), the French space agency, for the European Space Agency (ESA). It was manufactured by ArianeGroup and marketed by Arianespace. Since its first flight on 15 June 1988 until the final flight on 15 February 2003, it attained 113 successful launches out of 116 total launches.

The Chelyabinsk meteor was a superbolide that entered Earth's atmosphere over the southern Ural region in Russia on 15 February 2013 at about 09:20 YEKT. It was caused by an approximately 18-meter (60 ft), 9,100-tonne (10,000-short-ton) near-Earth asteroid that entered the atmosphere at a shallow 18‐degree angle with a speed relative to Earth of about 19.2 km/s. The light from the meteor was briefly brighter than the Sun, visible as far as 100 kilometers away. It was observed in a wide area of the region and in neighbouring republics. Some eyewitnesses also reported feeling intense heat from the fireball.

On 15 February 2021, a ship sank in the Congo River in Mai-Ndombe province, near Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo killing at least 60 people.