February 5 in History

Augustus, also known as Octavian, was the founder of the Roman Empire and the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. The reign of Augustus initiated an imperial cult and an era of imperial peace when the Roman world was largely free of armed conflict. The principate, a style of government in which the emperor showed nominal deference to the Senate, was established during his reign and lasted until the Crisis of the Third Century.

An Lushan was a Chinese military general and rebel leader during the Tang dynasty and is primarily known for instigating the An Lushan rebellion which devastated China and killed millions of Han Chinese. The rebellion caused the decline of the Tang dynasty and led to the sacking of Chang'an by the Tibetan Empire.

Pope Clement IV (Latin: Clemens IV; c. 23 November 1190 – 29 November 1268), born Gui Foucois (Latin: Guido Falcodius; French: Guy de Foulques or Guy Foulques) and also known as Guy le Gros (French for "Guy the Fat"; Italian: Guido il Grosso), was Bishop of Le Puy (1257–1260), Archbishop of Narbonne (1259–1261), Cardinal of Sabina (1261–1265), and head of the Catholic Church from 5 February 1265 until his death. His election as pope occurred at a conclave held at Perugia that lasted four months while cardinals argued over whether to call in Charles I of Anjou, the youngest brother of Louis IX of France, to carry on the papal war against the Hohenstaufens. Pope Clement was a patron of Thomas Aquinas and of Roger Bacon, encouraging Bacon in the writing of his Opus Majus, which included important treatises on optics and the scientific method.

Henry IV, also known by the epithets Good King Henry or Henry the Great, was King of Navarre from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarch of France from the House of Bourbon, a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty. He pragmatically balanced the interests of the Catholic and Protestant parties in France, as well as among the European states. He was assassinated in Paris in 1610 by a Catholic zealot, and was succeeded by his son Louis XIII.

Kakure Kirishitan is a modern term for a member of the Catholic Church in Japan who went underground at the start of the Edo period in the early 17th century due to Christianity's repression by the Tokugawa shogunate. The term is particularly used today for those who have refused to embrace modern Roman Catholic practices and still hold onto the traditions established during the times of persecution.

Calabria is a region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west. It has a population of 1,827,571 across a total area of 15,221.90 km2 (5,877.21 sq mi). Catanzaro is the region's capital.

The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by the Iberian nations Spain and Portugal, along with the United Kingdom, against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain, it is considered to overlap with the Spanish War of Independence. It overlapped with the War of the Fifth Coalition (1809) and the War of the Sixth Coalition (1812–1814).

Charles XIV John (Swedish: Karl XIV Johan; 26 January 1763 – 8 March 1844) was King of Sweden and Norway from 1818 until his death in 1844 and the first monarch of the Bernadotte dynasty. In Norway, he is known as Charles III John (Norwegian: Karl III Johan); before he became royalty in Sweden, his name was Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte. During the Napoleonic Wars, he participated in battles as a Marshal of France. Born in Pau in the region of southern France known as Béarn, Bernadotte joined the French Royal Army in 1780. Following the outbreak of the French Revolution, he demonstrated great military talent, rising rapidly through the ranks and becoming a brigadier general by 1794. He served with distinction in Italy and Germany, and was briefly Minister of War. His relationship with Napoleon was turbulent; nevertheless, Napoleon named him a Marshal of the Empire on the proclamation of the French Empire. Bernadotte played a significant role in the French victory at Austerlitz, and was made Prince of Pontecorvo as a reward. His marriage to Désirée Clary, whose sister was married to Joseph Bonaparte, made Bernadotte a member of the extended Imperial family. In 1810, Bernadotte was unexpectedly elected the Crown Prince to the childless King Charles XIII of Sweden, thanks to the advocacy of Baron Carl Otto Mörner, a Swedish courtier and obscure member of the Riksdag of the Estates. He assumed the name Charles (Carl) after his adoptive father and John (Johan), which is a Swedish version of Jean. He was subsequently named regent and generalissimo of the Swedish Armed Forces, soon after his arrival becoming de facto head of state for most of his time as Crown Prince. In 1812, following the sudden unprovoked French invasion of Swedish Pomerania, Crown Prince Charles John was instrumental in the creation of the Sixth Coalition by allying with Alexander I of Russia and using Swedish diplomacy to bring warring Russia and Britain together in alliance. He then played a major role in the writing of the Trachenberg Plan, the war-winning Allied campaign plan, and commanded the Allied Army of the North that defeated two concerted French attempts to capture Berlin and made the decisive attack on the last day of the catastrophic French defeat at Leipzig. Following the conclusion of the Leipzig campaign and after liberating Bremen and Lübeck from the French in late November 1813, Charles John invaded Denmark, aiming to knock Napoleon's last major ally out of the war to secure the Coalition's northern flank in preparation for the invasion of France in 1814 and to secure Norway for Sweden, as stipulated in the several treaties that created the Sixth Coalition. After a brief campaign that saw the defeat of the Danish Army, King Frederick VI of Denmark was forced to sign the Treaty of Kiel on 15 January 1814 that ceded Norway to Sweden, that in turn led to the Swedish–Norwegian War of 1814, where Norway was defeated in nineteen days. This put Norway into a union with Sweden, which lasted for almost a century before its peaceful 1905 dissolution. The Swedish–Norwegian war is viewed as Sweden's last direct conflict and war. Upon the death of Charles XIII in 1818, Charles John ascended to the throne. He presided over a period of peace and prosperity, and reigned until his death in 1844.

The State Hermitage Museum is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and holds the largest collection of paintings in the world. It was founded in 1764 when Empress Catherine the Great acquired a collection of paintings from the Berlin merchant Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky. The museum celebrates the anniversary of its founding each year on 7 December, Saint Catherine's Day. It has been open to the public since 1852. The Art Newspaper ranked the museum 10th in their list of the most visited art museums, with 2,812,913 visitors in 2022.

Alexandru Ioan Cuza (Romanian: [alekˈsandru iˈo̯aŋ ˈkuza] , or Alexandru Ioan I, also Anglicised as Alexander John Cuza; 20 March [O.S. 8 March] 1820 – 15 May 1873) was the first domnitor (prince) of the Romanian Principalities through his double election as Prince of Moldavia on 5 January 1859 and Prince of Wallachia on 24 January 1859, which resulted in the unification of the two states. He was a prominent figure of the Moldavian Revolution of 1848. Following his double election, he initiated a series of liberal and progressive reforms that contributed to the modernization of Romanian society and of state structures. As ruler of the Romanian Principalities, he supported a political and diplomatic activity for the recognition of the union of Moldavia and Wallachia by the suzerain Ottoman Empire and achieved constitutional and administrative unity between Moldavia and Wallachia in 1862, when the Romanian Principalities officially adopted the name Romanian United Principalities with a single capital at Bucharest, a single national assembly and a single government. Cuza's reform policies alienated a large coalition of conservatives and radical liberals, for the most part landowners and business owners. On 22 February 1866, he was forced to abdicate and leave the country. Today, he is often considered one of the founders of the modern Romanian state and a national hero of Romania.

Alluvium is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is typically geologically young and is not consolidated into solid rock. Sediments deposited underwater, in seas, estuaries, lakes, or ponds, are not described as alluvium. Floodplain alluvium can be highly fertile, and supported some of the earliest human civilizations.

Leopold II (9 April 1835 – 17 December 1909) was the second king of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909, and the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908. Born in Brussels as the second but eldest-surviving son of King Leopold I and Queen Louise, Leopold succeeded his father to the Belgian throne in 1865 and reigned for 44 years until his death, the longest reign of a Belgian monarch to date. He died without surviving legitimate sons; the current king of the Belgians, Philippe, descends from his nephew and successor, Albert I. He is popularly referred to as the Builder King in Belgium in reference to the great number of buildings, urban projects and public works he commissioned. Leopold was the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State, a private colonial project undertaken on his own behalf as a personal union with Belgium. He used Henry Morton Stanley to help him lay claim to the Congo, the present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, the colonial nations of Europe authorised his claim and committed the Congo Free State to him. Leopold ran the Congo, which he never personally visited, by using the mercenary Force Publique for his personal gain. He extracted a fortune from the territory, initially by the collection of ivory and, after a rise in the price of rubber in the 1890s, by forced labour from the Indigenous population to harvest and process rubber. Leopold's administration was characterised by systematic brutality and atrocities in the Congo Free State, including forced labour, torture, murder, kidnapping, along with the amputation of the hands and sometimes feet of men, women, and children when the quota of rubber was not met. In one of the first uses of the term, George Washington Williams described the practices of Leopold's administration of the Congo Free State as "crimes against humanity" in 1890. While it has proven difficult to accurately estimate the pre-colonial population and the extent to which it changed under the Congo Free State, estimates for the Congolese population decline during Leopold's rule range from 1 million to 15 million. The causes of the decline included epidemic disease, a reduced birth rate, and violence and famine caused by the regime. He was widely condemned because of his brutal and oppressive regime in the Congo that resulted in widespread suffering and loss of life including exploitation, violence, and immense human rights abuses, particularly involving the rubber trade.

John Pierpont Morgan Sr. was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known as JPMorgan Chase & Co., he was the driving force behind a wave of industrial consolidations in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century.

The General Hospital of Mexico (Hospital General de México, HGM) is a hospital in Mexico City, operated by the Secretariat of Health, the federal government department in charge of all social health services in Mexico.

Leo Hendrik Baekeland ( BAYK-land; Dutch: [ˈleːjoː ˈɦɛndrɪɡ ˈbaːkəlɑnt]; November 14, 1863 – February 23, 1944) was a Belgian chemist. Educated in Belgium and Germany, he spent most of his career in the United States. He is best known for the inventions of Velox photographic paper in 1893, and Bakelite in 1907. He has been called "The Father of the Plastics Industry" for his invention of Bakelite, an inexpensive, non-flammable and versatile plastic, which marked the beginning of the modern plastics industry.

The Hellenic Air Force is the air force of Greece. It is considered to be one of the largest air forces in NATO, and is globally placed 18th out of 139 countries. Under the Kingdom of Greece from 1935 to 1973, it was previously known as the Royal Hellenic Air Force (RHAF).

Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (baptized 15 May 1567 – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string player. A composer of both secular and sacred music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, he is considered a crucial transitional figure between the Renaissance and Baroque periods of music history. Born in Cremona, where he undertook his first musical studies and compositions, Monteverdi developed his career first at the court of Mantua (c. 1590–1613) and then until his death in the Republic of Venice where he was maestro di cappella at the basilica of San Marco. His surviving letters give insight into the life of a professional musician in Italy of the period, including problems of income, patronage and politics. Much of Monteverdi's output, including many stage works, has been lost. His surviving music includes nine books of madrigals, large-scale religious works, such as his Vespro della Beata Vergine (Vespers for the Blessed Virgin) of 1610, and three complete operas. His opera L'Orfeo (1607) is the earliest of the genre still widely performed; towards the end of his life he wrote works for Venice, including Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria and L'incoronazione di Poppea. While he worked extensively in the tradition of earlier Renaissance polyphony, as evidenced in his madrigals, he undertook great developments in form and melody, and began to employ the basso continuo technique, distinctive of the Baroque. No stranger to controversy, he defended his sometimes novel techniques as elements of a seconda pratica, contrasting with the more orthodox earlier style which he termed the prima pratica. Largely forgotten during the eighteenth and much of the nineteenth centuries, his works enjoyed a rediscovery around the beginning of the twentieth century. He is now established both as a significant influence in European musical history and as a composer whose works are regularly performed and recorded.

The current Constitution of Mexico, formally the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States (Spanish: Constitución Política de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos), was drafted in Santiago de Querétaro, in the State of Querétaro, Mexico, by a constituent convention during the Mexican Revolution. It was approved by the Constituent Congress on 5 February 1917, and was later amended several times. It is the successor to the Constitution of 1857, and earlier Mexican constitutions. "The Constitution of 1917 is the legal triumph of the Mexican Revolution. To some it is the revolution." The current Constitution of 1917 is the first such document in the world to set out social rights, preceding the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic Constitution of 1918 and the Weimar Constitution of 1919. Some of the most important provisions are Articles 3, 27, and 123; adopted in response to the armed insurrection of popular classes during the Mexican Revolution, these articles display profound changes in Mexican politics that helped frame the political and social backdrop for Mexico in the twentieth century. Article 3 established the basis for free, mandatory, and secular education; Article 27 laid the foundation for land reform in Mexico; and Article 123 was designed to empower the labor sector, which had emerged in the late nineteenth century and which supported the winning faction of the Mexican Revolution. Articles 3, 5, 24, 27, and 130 seriously restricted the Catholic Church in Mexico, and attempts to enforce the articles strictly by President Plutarco Calles (1924–1928) in 1926 led to the violent conflict known as the Cristero War. In 1992, under the administration of Carlos Salinas de Gortari, there were significant revisions of the constitution, modifying Article 27 to strengthen private property rights, allow privatization of ejidos and end redistribution of land, and the articles restricting the Catholic Church in Mexico were largely repealed. Constitution Day (Día de la Constitución) is one of Mexico's annual Fiestas Patrias (public holidays), commemorating the promulgation of the Constitution on 5 February 1917. The holiday is held on the first Monday of February.

The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a bicameral legislature, including a lower body, the U.S. House of Representatives, and an upper body, the U.S. Senate. They both meet in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Stephen W. Thompson (March 20, 1894 – October 9, 1977) was an American aviator of World War I. Flying as a gunner on a French aircraft in February 1918, he became the first member of the United States military to shoot down an enemy aircraft. Kiffin Rockwell achieved an earlier aerial victory as an American volunteer member of the French Lafayette Escadrille in 1916.

SS Tuscania was a luxury liner of the Anchor Line, a subsidiary of the Cunard Line and named after Tuscania, Italy. In 1918 the ship was torpedoed and sunk by the German U-boat UB-77 while transporting American troops to Europe with the loss of 210 lives.

Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. was an English comic actor, filmmaker, singer, film editor and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered one of the film industry's most important figures. His career spanned more than 75 years, from his childhood in the Victorian era until a year before his death in 1977.

The Royal Observatory, Greenwich is an observatory situated on a hill in Greenwich Park in south east London, overlooking the River Thames to the north. It played a major role in the history of astronomy and navigation, and because the Prime Meridian passed through it, it gave its name to Greenwich Mean Time, the precursor to today's Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The ROG has the IAU observatory code of 000, the first in the list. ROG, the National Maritime Museum, the Queen's House and the clipper ship Cutty Sark are collectively designated Royal Museums Greenwich.

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.

Douglas MacArthur (26 January 1880 – 5 April 1964) was an American general. He served with distinction in World War I; as chief of staff of the United States Army from 1930 to 1935; as Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area, from 1942 to 1945; as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers overseeing the occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1951; and as head of the United Nations Command in the Korean War from 1950 to 1951. He is one of only five people to hold the rank of General of the Army, and the only person to hold the rank of Field Marshal in the Philippine Army. MacArthur, a son of Medal of Honor recipient Arthur MacArthur Jr., graduated first in his class from the U.S. Military Academy in 1903. During the 1914 U.S. occupation of Veracruz, he conducted a reconnaissance mission for which he was nominated for the Medal of Honor. On the Western Front during World War I, he rose to the rank of brigadier general, was again nominated for a Medal of Honor, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross twice and the Silver Star seven times. From 1919 to 1922, MacArthur served as Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy. His next posting was in the Philippines, where in 1924 he was instrumental in quelling the Philippine Scout Mutiny. In 1925, MacArthur became the Army's youngest major general at the age of 45, and in 1930 was appointed Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army. He was involved in the controversial expulsion of the Bonus Army protesters in Washington, D.C., in 1932, and organized the Civilian Conservation Corps. In 1935, MacArthur was appointed Military Advisor to the Commonwealth of the Philippines. He retired from the Army in 1937, but continued as an advisor and as a Field Marshal in the Philippine Army from 1936. MacArthur was recalled to active duty in 1941 as commander of U.S. Army Forces in the Far East. A large portion of his air forces were destroyed in December 1941 in the Japanese attack on Clark Field, and an invasion of the Philippines followed. In March 1942, MacArthur escaped to Australia, where he was appointed Supreme Commander of the Southwest Pacific Area in April. He promised that he would return to the Philippines, and for his defense of the islands was awarded the Medal of Honor. From Australia, he commanded the New Guinea campaign, and in October 1944 led the campaign which liberated the Philippines. In December 1944, he was promoted to General of the Army. At the end of the war, MacArthur accepted the surrender of Japan. As the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers and effective ruler of Japan, he oversaw the war crimes tribunals and the demilitarization and democratization of the country. During the Korean War, he led the United Nations Command with initial success, but suffered major defeats after China's entry into the war in October 1950. MacArthur was contentiously removed from his command in Korea by President Harry S. Truman in April 1951. He died in Washington, D.C., in 1964.

Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian military officer and revolutionary who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 and introduced far-reaching land reforms the following year. Following a 1954 assassination attempt by a Muslim Brotherhood member, he cracked down on the organization, put President Mohamed Naguib under house arrest and assumed executive office. He was formally elected president in June 1956. Nasser's popularity in Egypt and the Arab world skyrocketed after his nationalization of the Suez Canal and his political victory in the subsequent Suez Crisis, known in Egypt as the Tripartite Aggression. Calls for pan-Arab unity under his leadership increased, culminating with the formation of the United Arab Republic with Syria from 1958 to 1961. In 1962, Nasser began a series of major socialist measures and modernization reforms in Egypt. Despite setbacks to his pan-Arabist cause, by 1963 Nasser's supporters gained power in several Arab countries, but he became embroiled in the North Yemen Civil War, and eventually the much larger Arab Cold War. He began his third presidential term in March 1965 after his political opponents were banned from running. Following Egypt's defeat by Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967, Nasser resigned, but he returned to office after popular demonstrations called for his reinstatement. By 1968, Nasser had appointed himself prime minister, launched the War of Attrition to regain the Israeli-occupied Sinai Peninsula, begun a process of depoliticizing the military, and issued a set of political liberalization reforms. After the conclusion of the 1970 Arab League summit, Nasser suffered a heart attack and died. His funeral in Cairo drew five to six million mourners, and prompted an outpouring of grief across the Arab world. Nasser remains an iconic figure in the Arab world, particularly for his strides towards social justice and Arab unity, his modernization policies, and his anti-imperialist efforts. His presidency also encouraged and coincided with an Egyptian cultural boom, and the launching of large industrial projects, including the Aswan Dam, and Helwan city. Nasser's detractors criticize his authoritarianism, his human rights violations, his anti-Zionism, and the dominance of the military over civil institutions that characterised his tenure, establishing a pattern of military and dictatorial rule in Egypt which has persisted, nearly uninterrupted, to the present day.

A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon, or hydrogen bomb (H-bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon, using nuclear fusion. The most destructive weapons ever created, their yields typically exceed first-generation nuclear weapons by twenty times, with far lower mass and volume requirements. Characteristics of fusion reactions can make possible the use of non-fissile depleted uranium as the weapon's main fuel, thus allowing more efficient use of scarce fissile material. Its multi-stage design is distinct from the usage of fusion in simpler boosted fission weapons. The first full-scale thermonuclear test was carried out by the United States in 1952, and the concept has since been employed by at least the five NPT-recognized nuclear-weapon states: the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, China, and France.

The president of France, officially the president of the French Republic or president of the Republic, is the executive head of state of France, and the commander-in-chief of the French Armed Forces. As the presidency is the supreme magistracy of the country, the position is the highest office in France. The powers, functions and duties of prior presidential offices, in addition to their relation with the prime minister and government of France, have over time differed with the various constitutional documents since the Second Republic.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ), officially the Court of Justice, is the supreme court of the European Union (EU) in matters of European Union law. As a part of the Court of Justice of the European Union, it is tasked with interpreting EU law and ensuring its uniform application across all EU member states under Article 263 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).

The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong, chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, in 1966 and lasted until his death in 1976. Its stated goal was to advance Chinese communism by purging remnants of capitalist and traditional elements from Chinese society and government.

Apollo 14 was the eighth crewed mission in the United States Apollo program operated by NASA, the third to land on the Moon, and the first to land in the lunar highlands. It was the last of the "H missions", landings at specific sites of scientific interest on the Moon for two-day stays with two lunar extravehicular activities.

Lima is the capital and largest city of Peru, as well as a primate city. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of the central coastal part of the country, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The city is considered the political, cultural, financial and commercial center of Peru. Jurisdictionally, the metropolis extends mainly within the province of Lima and in a smaller portion, to the west, within the Constitutional Province of Callao, where the seaport and the Jorge Chávez Airport are located. Both provinces have had regional autonomy since 2002.

Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno was a Panamanian military officer and politician who was the de facto ruler of Panama from 1983 to 1989. He never officially served as president of Panama, instead ruling as an unelected military dictator through puppet presidents. Amassing a personal fortune through drug trafficking operations by the Panamanian military, Noriega had longstanding ties with American intelligence agencies before the United States invasion of Panama removed him from power.

Byron De La Beckwith Jr. was an American white supremacist and member of the Ku Klux Klan who murdered civil rights leader Medgar Evers on June 12, 1963, in Jackson, Mississippi.

The Markale massacres were two bombardments, with at least one of them confirmed to have been carried out by the Army of Republika Srpska, targeting civilians at the Markale (marketplace) during the siege of Sarajevo in the Bosnian War. The first occurred on 5 February 1994; 68 people were killed and 144 more were wounded by a 120-millimetre (4.7 in) mortar. The second occurred on 28 August 1995 when five mortar shells launched by Army of Republika Srpska killed 43 people and wounded 75 others. The latter attack was the alleged reason for NATO air strikes against Bosnian Serb forces that would eventually lead to the Dayton Peace Accords and the end of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Banking in Switzerland dates to the early 18th century through Switzerland's merchant trade and over the centuries has grown into a complex and regulated international industry. Banking is seen as emblematic of Switzerland and the country has been one of the largest, if not largest, offshore financial centers and tax havens in the world since the mid-20th century, with a long history of banking secrecy, security and client confidentiality reaching back to the early 1700s. Starting as a way to protect wealthy European banking interests, Swiss banking secrecy was codified in 1934 with the passage of a landmark federal law, the Federal Act on Banks and Savings Banks. These laws were used to protect assets of persons being persecuted by Nazi authorities but have also been used by people and institutions seeking to illegally evade taxes, hide assets, or to commit other financial crime.

A deadly tornado outbreak affected the Southern United States and the lower Ohio Valley on February 5 and 6, 2008. The outbreak began on Super Tuesday, while 24 states in the United States were holding primary elections and caucuses to select the presidential candidates for the upcoming presidential election. Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Alabama, and Tennessee were among the affected regions in which primaries were being held. Some voting locations were forced to close early due to the approaching severe weather.

Steven Leonard Joyce is a New Zealand former politician, who entered the New Zealand House of Representatives in 2008 as a member of the New Zealand National Party. As a broadcasting entrepreneur with RadioWorks, he was a millionaire before he entered politics. In 2008 he became Minister of Transport and Minister for Communications and Information Technology. He later became Minister of Science and Innovation, and then served as Minister of Finance and Minister for Infrastructure.

The Bangladesh Bank robbery, also known colloquially as the Bangladesh Bank cyber heist, was a theft that took place in February 2016. Thirty-five fraudulent instructions were issued by security hackers via the SWIFT network to illegally transfer close to US$1 billion from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York account belonging to Bangladesh Bank, the central bank of Bangladesh. Five of the thirty-five fraudulent instructions were successful in transferring US$101 million, with US$81 million traced to the Philippines and US$20 million to Sri Lanka. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York blocked the remaining thirty transactions, amounting to US$850 million, due to suspicions raised by a misspelled instruction. As of 2025, only US$15 million out of US$81 million transferred to the Philippines has been recovered with little progress in recovering the remaining US$66 million, and all the money transferred to Sri Lanka has since been recovered. Most of the money transferred to the Philippines went to four personal accounts, held by single individuals, and not to companies or corporations.

Pope Francis was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City from 13 March 2013 until his death in 2025. He was the first Jesuit pope, the first Latin American, and the first pope born or raised outside Europe since the 8th-century Syrian pope Gregory III.

Donald John Trump is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 45th president from 2017 to 2021.

Pegasus Airlines Flight 2193 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from İzmir to Istanbul in Turkey operated by Pegasus Airlines. On 5 February 2020, the Boeing 737-800 operating the route skidded off the runway while landing at Istanbul-Sabiha Gökçen International Airport, Turkey. Three people were killed, 179 people were injured, and the aircraft was destroyed. This was the first fatal accident in the airline's history. The accident came less than a month after another Pegasus Airlines accident involving a Boeing 737 skidding off the runway at the same airport.