29 Bahman 1395

Events

• 1865 (161 years ago) American Civil War: Columbia, South Carolina, is burned as Confederate forces flee from advancing Union forces.
• 1944 (82 years ago) World War II: The Battle of Eniwetok begins. The battle ends in an American victory on February 22.
• 1992 (34 years ago) First Nagorno-Karabakh War: Armenian troops massacre more than 20 Azerbaijani civilians during the Capture of Garadaghly.
• 1995 (31 years ago) The Cenepa War between Peru and Ecuador ends on a ceasefire brokered by the UN.
• 1996 (30 years ago) The 8.2 Mw Biak earthquake shakes the Papua province of eastern Indonesia with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). A large tsunami followed, leaving 166 people dead or missing and 423 injured.
• 2008 (18 years ago) Kosovo declares independence from Serbia.
• 2011 (15 years ago) Arab Spring: In Bahrain, security forces launch a deadly pre-dawn raid on protesters in Pearl Roundabout in Manama; the day is locally known as Bloody Thursday.
• 2015 (11 years ago) Eighteen people are killed and 78 injured in a stampede at a Mardi Gras parade in Haiti.

Births

• 624 (1402 years ago) Wu Zetian, Chinese empress consort (died 705)
• 1836 (190 years ago) Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Spanish author, poet, and playwright (died 1870)
• 1888 (138 years ago) Otto Stern, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1969)
• 1925 (101 years ago) Hal Holbrook, American actor and director (died 2021)
• 1955 (71 years ago) Mo Yan, Chinese author and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1963 (63 years ago) Michael Jordan, American basketball player, executive, and businessman
• 1981 (45 years ago) Paris Hilton, American model, media personality, actress, singer, DJ, author and businesswoman
• 1991 (35 years ago) Ed Sheeran, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer

Deaths

• 1600 (426 years ago) Giordano Bruno, Italian mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher (born 1548)
• 1673 (353 years ago) Molière, French actor and playwright (born 1622)
• 1856 (170 years ago) Heinrich Heine, German journalist and poet (born 1797)
• 1909 (117 years ago) Geronimo, American tribal leader (born 1829)
• 1934 (92 years ago) Albert I of Belgium,
• 1970 (56 years ago) Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Ukrainian-Israeli novelist, short story writer, and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1888)
• 1986 (40 years ago) Jiddu Krishnamurti, Indian-American philosopher and author (born 1895)
• 1998 (28 years ago) Ernst Jünger, German soldier, philosopher, and author (born 1895)

All 325 events, births and deaths of February 17