# Today in History **URL:** \ **Category:** Thread Games\ **Created:** [July 10, 2016, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530 "2016-07-10T04:53:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 79
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2019, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1564 "2019-02-15T14:24:18Z")
**February 15, 1909** : [Over 250 die in a theater fire in Acapulco, Mexico.](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc%3Fa%3Dd%26d%3DSFC19090216.2.17&ved=2ahUKEwisqrT59r3gAhXQg-AKHU_-ArcQFjAAegQIBRAB&usg=AOvVaw2eAj97qshkDMNSLosnoxva) ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2019, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1565 "2019-02-16T14:14:59Z")
**February 16, 1923:** Howard Carter unseals the burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1566 "2019-02-18T12:16:21Z")
**February 18, 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. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1567 "2019-02-18T23:54:21Z")
**February 18, 1980** : Canadian federal election. Prime Minister Joe Clark, who had defeated Pierre Trudeau just eight months earlier in the election of 1979, is in turn defeated by a resurgent Trudeau. Trudeau, whose political career had appeared to be dead, earned a majority, and began his victory speech: “Well, welcome to the 1980s!” In retrospect, the election was one of the most significant in Canadian history. Trudeau led the opposition to the Parti québécois in the 1980 sovereignty referendum, winning a majority for the “No” side of around 60%. He then led the push to patriate the Constitution and entrench the _Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms_, succeeding in 1982. Without Clark’s misstep in Parliament in 1979, losing a budget vote and triggering the 1980 election, Canada’s history could have turned out very differently indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Darkon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/43a26b/32.png) [@Darkon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkon)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1568 "2019-02-19T05:54:16Z")
19 February 2015: My wife returns from an out-of-town meeting and I still haven’t bought her a Valentines gift. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1569 "2019-02-19T08:17:28Z")
> [@Darkon](#): > > 19 February 2015: My wife returns from an out-of-town meeting and I still haven’t bought her a Valentines gift. That’s not _history_, that’s _her_ story. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1570 "2019-02-19T08:18:37Z")
**February 19, 1913:** Pedro Lascuráin (Pedro José Domingo de la Calzada Manuel María Lascuráin Paredes) becomes President of Mexico for 45 minutes; this is the shortest term to date of any person as president of any country. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1571 "2019-02-19T17:58:24Z")
**February 19, 1884** : [The Enigma Tornado Outbreak kills hundreds](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.al.com/news/2015/04/the_mystery_of_alabamas_enigma.html&ved=2ahUKEwji_6H2rMjgAhWhslkKHRffCz0QFjAMegQIAxAB&usg=AOvVaw3uTPRdbk5sQ_q2izJUraaK)in the Southeast United States. No one knows for sure how many died. Upper estimates put the fatalities at around 1200, which would make this the single deadliest such outbreak in U.S. history. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2019, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1572 "2019-02-20T11:48:20Z")
**February 20, 1998:** At the age of 14 years, 9 months and 10 days, American figure skater Tara Lipinski becomes the youngest gold-medalist at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1573 "2019-02-21T15:47:44Z")
**February 21, 1918:** The last Carolina parakeet dies in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2019, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1574 "2019-02-23T00:11:52Z")
**February 22, 1997:** British scientists announce that an adult sheep named Dolly has been successfully cloned. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2019, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1575 "2019-02-23T12:12:14Z")
**February 23, 1927:** German theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg writes a letter to fellow physicist Wolfgang Pauli, in which he describes his uncertainty principle for the first time. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2019, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1576 "2019-02-23T16:07:40Z")
**February 23, 1821** : Poet John Keats dies at age 25 from tuberculosis. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2019, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1577 "2019-02-24T10:07:28Z")
**February 24, 1989:** United Airlines Flight 811, bound for New Zealand from Honolulu, rips open during flight, blowing nine passengers out of the business-class section. The aircraft returns to Honolulu, where it lands safely. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2019, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1578 "2019-02-25T15:08:17Z")
**February 25, 1968:** 135 unarmed citizens of Hà My village in South Vietnam’s Quảng Nam Province are killed and buried en masse by South Korean troops in what would come to be known as the Hà My massacre. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1579 "2019-02-26T10:34:22Z")
**February 26, 1616:** Galileo Galilei is formally banned by the Roman Catholic Church for teaching or defending the view that the earth orbits the sun. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2019, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1580 "2019-02-27T17:16:21Z")
**February 27, 1964:** The Government of Italy asks for help in keeping the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2019, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1581 "2019-02-27T17:36:05Z")
**February 27, 1943:** [The Smith Mine Disaster](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_Mine_disaster&ved=2ahUKEwiorofit9zgAhWKtVkKHW46CUYQFjAYegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw2E37xWJopdHd_HGfugj5Oy) kills 74. This explosion is Montana’s deadliest mining accident. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2019, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1582 "2019-02-28T12:56:55Z")
**February 28, 1939:** The erroneous word “dord” is discovered in the Webster’s New International Dictionary, Second Edition, prompting an investigation. “D or d” is given as an abbreviation for density; it was misread as “dord”. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2019, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1583 "2019-02-28T19:15:59Z")
\*\*February 28, 1844 \*\*: An explosion on the [USS _Princeton_](https://www.fredericksburg.com/town_and_countymiscellaneous/the-forgotten-tragedy-the-explosion-on-the-uss-princeton-shook/article_58a55481-ebdf-56f9-b5fb-b82fd2d894b6.html) on the Potomac River kills Secretary of State Abel Upshur, Secretary of the Navy Thomas Gilmer and six others. President John Tyler, who was aboard at the time, is uninjured. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530.md?page=78) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530.md?page=80)