February 15 facts for kids

February 15 is the 46th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 319 days remain until the end of the year (320 in leap years).

February 15th is a day filled with many interesting events throughout history, from ancient times to today. It's a day when important laws were made, new places were founded, and big discoveries changed the world. Many famous people, from scientists to artists, were also born or passed away on this date. Let's explore some of the most exciting things that happened on February 15th!

Events

Big Moments in History

• 438 – The Roman emperor Theodosius II released a special book of laws called the Codex Theodosianus. Think of it like a very old rulebook for the Roman Empire!
• 590 – Khosrau II became the new king of Persia, a powerful empire long ago.
• 706 – In the Byzantine Empire, Emperor Justinian II had two former emperors, Leontios and Tiberios III, publicly executed. This was a very serious event in their history.
• 1002 – In Pavia, Italy, Arduin of Ivrea was crowned King of Italy. This was a big deal for the region of Lombardy.
• 1113 – Pope Paschal II officially recognized the Order of Hospitallers. This group later became known as the Knights Hospitaller, who were famous for helping sick people and protecting pilgrims.
• 1214 – During a war between England and France, John, King of England, landed his army in La Rochelle, France.
• 1493 – While sailing on his ship, the Niña, Christopher Columbus wrote a letter about his amazing discoveries in the New World. This letter was shared widely when he returned to Portugal.

Changes and Discoveries (1601–1900)

• 1637 – Ferdinand III became the new Holy Roman Emperor. This was a very important role in Europe at the time.
• 1690 – A secret agreement was signed between Moldavia and the Holy Roman Empire. Moldavia agreed to help fight against the Ottoman Empire.
• 1764 – The city of St. Louis was founded in what is now Missouri, USA. It was part of Spanish Louisiana back then.
• 1798 – The Roman Republic was declared after Napoleon's general, Louis-Alexandre Berthier, took over the city of Rome.
• 1835 – Serbia briefly put its first constitution, the Sretenje Constitution, into effect.
• 1852 – The beautiful Helsinki Cathedral in Finland was officially opened. It was known as St. Nicholas' Church back then.
• 1862 – During the American Civil War, Confederate forces attacked Ulysses S. Grant's Union army at Fort Donelson in Tennessee. The Confederates surrendered the next day.
• 1870 – Stevens Institute of Technology was founded in New Jersey, USA. It was the first school to offer a special degree in mechanical engineering.
• 1879 – US President Rutherford B. Hayes signed a law allowing female attorneys to argue cases in front of the Supreme Court of the United States. This was a big step for women's rights!
• 1898 – The battleship USS Maine exploded and sank in Havana harbor, Cuba. About 274 crew members died. This disaster helped push the United States to declare war on Spain.
• 1899 – Tsar Nicholas II of Russia issued the February Manifesto. This reduced the freedom of Finland and started a period of Russian control.

Modern Day Happenings (1901–present)

• 1909 – A terrible fire at the Flores Theater in Acapulco, Mexico, killed 250 people.
• 1923 – Greece became the last European country to start using the Gregorian calendar, which is the calendar most of the world uses today.
• 1925 – The second delivery of life-saving medicine arrived in Nome, Alaska, during the famous 1925 serum run to Nome. This was a race against time to save people from a disease.
• 1933 – In Miami, someone tried to assassinate US President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt. Instead, Chicago mayor Anton J. Cermak was shot and later died.
• 1942 – During World War II, the British General Arthur Percival surrendered Singapore to Japanese forces. About 80,000 soldiers became prisoners of war. This was the largest surrender of British-led troops ever.
• 1944 – World War II: The attack on Monte Cassino, Italy, began.
• 1944 – World War II: The Narva Offensive started.
• 1945 – World War II: This was the third day of the bombing in Dresden, Germany.
• 1946 – ENIAC, the very first electronic general-purpose computer, was officially shown off at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
• 1949 – Archaeologists began digging at Cave 1 of the Qumran Caves. They soon found the first seven Dead Sea Scrolls, which are ancient texts.
• 1952 – King George VI of the United Kingdom was buried in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.
• 1954 – Canada and the United States agreed to build the Distant Early Warning Line. This was a system of radar stations in the far north to detect incoming attacks.
• 1961 – Sabena Flight 548 crashed in Belgium, killing 73 people. This included the entire United States figure skating team.
• 1965 – A new red-and-white maple leaf design was chosen as the flag of Canada.
• 1970 – A plane crashed into the Caribbean Sea after taking off from Las Américas International Airport. All 102 people on board died, including members of the Puerto Rico women's national volleyball team.
• 1971 – The currencies of the United Kingdom and Ireland officially switched to a decimal system on "Decimal Day." This made money calculations much easier!
• 1972 – For the first time, sound recordings in the U.S. were given federal copyright protection.
• 1972 – José María Velasco Ibarra, who was serving as President of Ecuador for the fifth time, was overthrown by the military for the fourth time.
• 1989 – The Soviet Union officially announced that all of its troops had left Afghanistan. This ended the Soviet war in Afghanistan.
• 1991 – The Visegrád Group was formed by leaders from Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland. They agreed to work together to move towards free-market systems.
• 1996 – The Embassy of the United States, Athens, was attacked by a rocket.
• 2001 – The first full draft of the human genome (the complete set of human DNA) was published in the science journal Nature. This was a huge scientific achievement!
• 2003 – Massive protests against the Iraq war happened in over 600 cities worldwide. It's thought that between eight million and 30 million people took part, making it the largest peace protest in history.
• 2012 – Three hundred and sixty people died in a terrible fire at a prison in Comayagua, Honduras.
• 2013 – A meteor exploded over Russia. It injured 1,500 people as a shock wave broke windows and shook buildings. This happened just hours before a larger, unrelated asteroid was expected to pass close to Earth.

Famous Birthdays

People Born Long Ago

• 1377 – Ladislaus of Naples (d. 1414)
• 1458 – Ivan the Young, son of Ivan III of Russia (d. 1490)
• 1472 – Piero the Unfortunate, an Italian ruler (d. 1503)
• 1506 – Juliana of Stolberg, a German countess (d. 1580)
• 1519 – Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, the first Spanish Governor of Florida (d. 1574)
• 1557 – Alfonso Fontanelli, an Italian composer (d. 1622)
• 1564 – Galileo Galilei, a famous Italian astronomer, physicist, and mathematician (d. 1642)

People Born More Recently

• 1612 – Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, a French soldier who founded Montreal (d. 1676)
• 1627 – Charles Morton, a Cornish minister (d. 1698)
• 1638 – Zeb-un-Nissa, a Mughal princess and poet (d. 1702)
• 1710 – Louis XV of France (d. 1774)
• 1725 – Abraham Clark, an American lawyer and politician (d. 1794)
• 1748 – Jeremy Bentham, an English thinker and philosopher (d. 1832)
• 1809 – Cyrus McCormick, an American businessman who helped found International Harvester (d. 1884)
• 1811 – Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, an Argentinian journalist and the 7th President of Argentina (d. 1888)
• 1812 – Charles Lewis Tiffany, an American businessman who founded Tiffany & Co. (d. 1902)
• 1820 – Susan B. Anthony, a very important American leader for women's rights (d. 1906)
• 1845 – Elihu Root, an American lawyer and politician who won the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1937)
• 1850 – Sophie Bryant, an Irish mathematician and activist (d. 1922)
• 1856 – Emil Kraepelin, a German psychiatrist (d. 1926)
• 1861 – Charles Édouard Guillaume, a Swiss-French physicist who won a Nobel Prize (d. 1938)
• 1861 – Alfred North Whitehead, an English mathematician and philosopher (d. 1947)
• 1874 – Ernest Shackleton, a famous Anglo-Irish explorer (d. 1922)
• 1898 – Totò, a popular Italian actor and singer (d. 1967)

Modern Day Births

• 1909 – Miep Gies, an Austrian-Dutch humanitarian who helped hide Anne Frank and her family during World War II (d. 2010)
• 1910 – Irena Sendler, a Polish nurse who saved many children during the war (d. 2008)
• 1927 – Harvey Korman, an American actor and comedian (d. 2008)
• 1929 – Graham Hill, a famous English racing driver (d. 1975)
• 1931 – Claire Bloom, an English actress
• 1934 – Niklaus Wirth, a Swiss computer scientist who created the Pascal programming language (d. 2024)
• 1944 – Mick Avory, an English musician
• 1947 – John Adams, an American composer
• 1948 – Art Spiegelman, a Swedish-American cartoonist and writer
• 1951 – Jane Seymour, an English-American actress
• 1952 – Tomislav Nikolić, the 4th President of Serbia
• 1954 – Matt Groening, the American animator who created The Simpsons (and other shows!)
• 1955 – Janice Dickinson, an American model
• 1959 – Ali Campbell, an English singer and musician
• 1960 – Darrell Green, an American football player
• 1964 – Chris Farley, a popular American comedian and actor (d. 1997)
• 1964 – Leland D. Melvin, an American engineer and astronaut
• 1969 – Birdman, an American rapper and producer
• 1971 – Alex Borstein, an American actress and voice artist
• 1972 – Jaromír Jágr, a famous Czech ice hockey player
• 1973 – Amy van Dyken, an American swimmer who won Olympic gold medals
• 1974 – Alexander Wurz, an Austrian racing driver
• 1976 – Brandon Boyd, an American singer
• 1984 – Matt Duffer and Ross Duffer, American film directors and writers (known for Stranger Things)
• 1986 – Amber Riley, an American actress and singer
• 1995 – Megan Thee Stallion, an American rapper
• 1998 – Zachary Gordon, an American actor
• 1998 – George Russell, an English racing driver

Notable People Who Passed Away

Historical Figures

• 670 – Oswiu, a king of Northumbria (b. c. 612)
• 706 – Leontios and Tiberios III, former Byzantine emperors
• 1043 – Gisela of Swabia, a Holy Roman Empress (b. 990)
• 1145 – Lucius II, a pope of the Catholic Church
• 1152 – Conrad III, a king of Germany (b. 1093)
• 1600 – José de Acosta, a Spanish missionary and naturalist (b. 1540)
• 1621 – Michael Praetorius, a German organist and composer (b. 1571)
• 1637 – Ferdinand II, a Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1578)
• 1781 – Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, a German philosopher and author (b. 1729)
• 1844 – Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, a former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1757)
• 1857 – Mikhail Glinka, a Russian composer (b. 1804)
• 1869 – Ghalib, an Indian poet (b. 1796)
• 1897 – Dimitrie Ghica, a former Prime Minister of Romania (b. 1816)

More Recent Passings

• 1905 – Lew Wallace, an American author and general (b. 1827)
• 1928 – H. H. Asquith, a former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1852)
• 1933 – Pat Sullivan, an Australian animator who helped create Felix the Cat (b. 1887)
• 1959 – Owen Willans Richardson, an English physicist who won a Nobel Prize (b. 1879)
• 1961 – Laurence Owen, an American figure skater (b. 1944)
• 1965 – Nat King Cole, a famous American singer and pianist (b. 1919)
• 1970 – Hugh Dowding, 1st Baron Dowding, a Scottish air marshal (b. 1882)
• 1981 – Mike Bloomfield, an American guitarist (b. 1943)
• 1984 – Ethel Merman, an American actress and singer (b. 1908)
• 1988 – Richard Feynman, an American physicist who won a Nobel Prize (b. 1918)
• 1999 – Henry Way Kendall, an American physicist who won a Nobel Prize (b. 1926)
• 2016 – George Gaynes, a Finnish-American actor (b. 1917)
• 2016 – Vanity, a Canadian-American singer and actress (b. 1959)
• 2022 – Bappi Lahiri, an Indian singer and composer (b. 1952)
• 2023 – Raquel Welch, an American actress and singer (b. 1940)

Special Days and Celebrations

• Christian feast day:
  • Blessed Michał Sopoćko
  • Claude de la Colombière
  • Faustinus and Jovita
  • Oswiu
  • Quinidius
  • Sigfrid of Sweden
  • Thomas Bray (Episcopal Church)
  • Walfrid
  • February 15 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Earliest day on which Family Day can fall (parts of Canada)
• Earliest day on which Washington's Birthday can fall (United States)
• International Duties Memorial Day (Russia, regional)
• John Frum Day (Vanuatu)
• Liberation Day (Afghanistan)
• National Flag of Canada Day (Canada)
• Parinirvana Day, also celebrated on February 8. (Mahayana Buddhism)
• Singles Awareness Day
• Statehood Day (Serbia)
• Susan B. Anthony Day (Florida, United States)
• The ENIAC Day (Philadelphia, United States)
• Total Defence Day (Singapore)

See also

In Spanish: 15 de febrero para niños