February 4, 2004: Facebook is founded by Mark Zuckerberg.
February 5, 1805:
*The Earl of Abergavenny * sinks in the English Channel. 260 are killed including Captain John Wordsworth, brother of poet William Wordsworth.
February 6, 1822: The Chinese ship *Tek Sing * sinks in the Gaspar Strait. Over 1500 die.
February 7, 1863: The HMS *Orpheus * sinks off the coast of Auckland, New Zealand. 189 die. This is the deadliest shipwreck ever in New Zealand waters.
February 7, 1990: The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agrees to give up its monopoly on power.
February 8, 1947: 81 are killed in Berlin in the Karlslust Dance Hall fire.
February 8, 1952: Elizabeth II is proclaimed Queen of the United Kingdom.
February 9, 1971: San Fernando Valley earthquake kills 64 and injures 2500.
February 10, 1945: The German transport ship SS *General von Steuben * is sunk by a Soviet Submarine in the Baltic Sea. Approximately 4500 die.
February 11, 1823: The Carnival Tragedy of 1823
110 young boys are killed after a human crush in a line distributing free bread to poor children at a convent in Malta.
February 11, 2011 Egyptian Revolution culminates in the resignation of Hosni Mubarak and the transfer of power to the Supreme Military Council after 18 days of protests (Arab Spring)
February 12, 1909: The SS *Penguin * passenger ferry runs upon something in the water in rough seas near Wellington Harbor, New Zealand. Women and children were placed in the supposedly sturdier lifeboats, but these capsized. A few of the men survived in life rafts. 75 lives were lost.
February 12, 1909: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded.
February 13, 1857: The SS* Tempest* was a transatlantic steamship that ran from Glasgow to New York City and back. Her initial crossing and return in the fall of 1856 went well, as did the second crossing to New York. But on this date in 1857 the ship left New York City for Glasgow and was never seen again. The fate of the ship and the 150 people aboard remains a mystery.
February 13, 1961: An allegedly 500,000-year-old rock is discovered near Olancha, California, US, that appears to anachronistically encase a “1920s-style spark plug”.
February 14, 2012: The Comayagua Prison Fire kills at least 358. This is the deadliest prison fire in recorded history. Half of those who died had not yet been convicted of any crime.
February 15, 1855: The French frigate *Semillante * sinks in the Strait of Bonifacio after being pushed upon rocks during fog and storm. All 691 aboard die. It is said that bodies washed up on the shores of nearby Ile Lavezza for weeks afterwards.
February 15, 1992: Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer (aka The Milwaukee Cannibal) is sentenced in Milwaukee to life in prison. On November 28, 1994, Dahmer was beaten to death by Christopher Scarver, a fellow inmate at the Columbia Correctional Institution.
February 15, 1965: Canada’s new maple leaf flag is hoisted on Parliament Hill for the first time, after a bitter parliamentary debate that lasted over half a year.
The designer of the flag, George Stanley, attended the ceremony in spite of getting death threats.
February 17, 1801: An electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr is resolved when Jefferson is elected President of the United States, and Burr Vice President, by the United States House of Representatives.