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1 February 1979 – After 14 years in exile, the Ayatollah Khomeini returns to a hero’s welcome in Tehran in which 5 million people welcomed him. He led a revolutionary army that overthrew the Shah of Iran.
1 February 1992 – the Cold War ends when US President George H.W. Bush and Russian leader, Boris Yeltsin issue a joint statement declaring an end to the decades long ‘war’.
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2 February 1943 – the German 6th Army surrenders to Soviet forces in Stalingrad.
2 February 1964 – Hasbro launches G.I. Joe (‘Government Issue Joe), an Armed Forces toy.
2 February 1971 – Idi Amin declares himself President of Uganda and launches a genocidal program that massacres between 80,000 and 300,000 people.
2 February 1990 – South African President, F.W. De Klerk orders the release of Nelson Mandela from jail. Mandela had served 27 years in prison for his anti-apartheid work with the African National Congress. De Klerk also lifted the 30 year ban on the ANC.
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3 February 1830 – Greece achieves full independence from the Ottoman Empire following Great Britain, France and Russia agreeing to the London Protocol (1830). This followed on from Greece obtaining internal autonomy through the London Protocol (1829) on 22 March 1829. The borders of Greece were finalised in the London Conference of 1832.
3 February 1904 – birth of Charles Arthur ‘Pretty Boy’ Floyd, American gangster. Shot to death by FBI agents in Ohio on 22 October 1934.
3 February 1919 – Inaugural meeting of the League of Nations (the predecessor of the United Nations), which was headed by US President Woodrow Wilson, aimed at promoting world peace and security.
3 February 1959 – ‘The Day the Music Died’. Plane crash during a storm near Clear Lake, Iowa, claims the lives of some of America’s finest rock and roll stars: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson). The pilot, Roger Peterson, also died. Another rock star, Dion Di Mucci, decided not to board the plane. The stars had performed at Clear Lake as part of ‘The Winter Dance Party Tour’ and were on their way to the next venue. Don McLean’s iconic song ‘American Pie’ paid homage to the tragedy, declaring it the ‘Day the Music Died’.
3 February 1966 – The Soviet Union achieves the first moon landing when the unmanned Lunix 9 spacecraft touches down on the moon’s Ocean of Storms area.
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4 February 1904 – birth of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German pastor, theologian and anti-Nazi dissident. He was executed on 9 April 1945 at Flossenburg Concentration Camp, two weeks before the camp was liberated by US soldiers.
4 February 1948 – birth of Alice Cooper, (Vincent Damon Furnier), legendary American shock rocker.
4 February 1948 – Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) is granted independence from Britain, but remains a member of the British Commonwealth.
4 February 1959 – the barbie doll is invented by Ruth Handler.
4 February 1993 – Yugoslavia is dissolved and replaced by a union between Serbia and Montenegro.
4 February 2004 – Facebook founded by Mark Zuckerberg.
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5 February 1914 – birth of William Seward Burroughs, otherwise known as William S. Burroughs or William Lee, Beat Generation author, painter, spoken word performer. The beat generation rose to prominence in the 1950s and experimented with innovation in art, style, rules and drugs. Burroughs work includes Junkie, Queer, and Naked Lunch. Burroughs died on 2 August 1997.
5 February 1922 – Readers Digest first published by DeWitt and Lila Wallace.
5 February 2009 – China tells Canada not to accept 17 Chinese Uyghur prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay. The Uyghurs had applied for refugee status in Canada. They had been arrested in Afghanistan during the 2001 US invasion.
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6 February 1851 – Black Thursday bushfires that swept across Victoria, Australia. The fires killed 12 people and scorched a quarter of Victoria, approximately 5,000,000 hectares (12.5 million acres). More than 1 million sheep died. It is the largest Australian bushfire in a populous region in recorded history.
6 February 1938 – ‘Black Sunday’, when freak waves strike Bondi Beach, Australia, dragging swimmers hundreds of metres out to sea. Five people drowned and 250 needed rescuing.
6 February 1945 – birth of Bob Marley, Jamaican reggae singer and musician. Died 11 May 1981.
6 February 1952 – King George VI dies, resulting in new sovereign being Queen Elizabeth II.
6 February 1971 – Alan Shephard becomes the first man to hit golf balls on the moon. He smuggled the club and balls on board lunar spacecraft, Apollo 14, by hiding them inside his suit.
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7 February 1812 – birth of Charles Dickens, English writer and social critic. Author of numerous works, including The Pickwick Papers, David Copperfield, A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist. Died 9 June 1870.
7 February 1967 – Black Tuesday bushfires in Tasmania, which kill 62 and injure 900.
7 February 1967 – Death of David Uniapon, indigenous preacher, author and inventor. He is on the Australian $50 note. David influenced government decision making regarding aboriginal issues and invented a hand-piece for shearing sheep. Born 28 September 1872.
7 February 1971 – Switzerland gives women the right to vote.
7 February 1984 – Bruce McAndless becomes the first man to fly freely in space when he unclips his harness and uses a jet-pack to fly 300 feet away from the space shuttle, Challenger, before flying safely back to it.
7 February 1992 – Twelve members of the European Union ratify the Maastricht Treaty for greater economic integration, security and policing. The Treaty is implemented in November 1993. The nations were Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Irish Republic.
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8 February 1238 – Mongols burn the Russian city of Vladimir.
8 February 1587 – Mary Queen of Scots is executed for her apparent role in the failed Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.
8 February 1952 – Princess Elizabeth declares herself Queen of the British Commonwealth, taking the title, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
8 February 1960 – Queen Elizabeth II issues an Order-in-Council declaring that her family would be known as the House of Windsor and her descendants will take the name ‘Mountbatten-Windsor’.
8 February 1983 – At 3pm, Australia’s second largest city, Melbourne, is hit by a massive dust-storm, towering 320m high, reducing visibility to 100m and turning day into night. The dust-storm came during the most severe drought on record and was caused by loose top-soil in the Mallee and Wimmera districts of western Victoria being whipped up by fierce northerly winds. Other places in Victoria recorded dust as high as 1,000m. It was estimated that 1000 tonnes of dust was dumped on the city, with another 50,000 tonnes passing over Melbourne. Earlier in the day, the temperature had peaked at 43.2oC – the hottest February day on record at that time. This photo was taken by a motorist heading west on the Princes Highway at Werribee.
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9 February 1944 – birth of Alice Walker, American author, poet and activist. She grew up in the America’s deep south, under the notorious ‘Jim Crow’ laws which segrated whites and blacks. She has since written numerous books, including the Pulitzer Award winning ‘The Color Purple’ which addressed much of the issues facing society in Georgia in the 1930s.
9 February 1981 – death of Bill Haley, who arguably had the world’s first ever rock’n’roll song, ‘Rock Around the Clock’. He was born 6 July 1925.
9 February 1997 – death of Brian Connolly, Scottish rocker, lead singer of Sweet (Fox on the Run, Ballroom Blitz, Teenage Rampage, Action). Born 5 October 1945.
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10 February 1837 – death of Aleksandr Pushkin, Russian poet and author from the romantic era. Considered the father of modern Russian literature. He was born into Russian nobility. His matrilineal great grandfather, Abram Gannibal, was brought over as a slave from Africa and had risen to the aristocracy. Died during a duel. Born on 6 June 1799. His birthday is recognised by the UN as Russian Language Day.
10 February 1898 – birth of Bertolt Brecht, German playwright, writer and theatre practitioner. Died 14 August 1956.
10 February 1992 – death of Alex Haley, U.S. author of ‘Roots‘, ‘Malcolm X‘. Born 11 August 1921.
10 February 2014 – death of Shirley Temple, American actress, singer, dancer and former U.S. ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia. Born 23 April 1928.
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11 February 1847 – birth of Thomas Edison, U.S. inventor. Died 18 October 1931.
11 February 1916 – Emma Goldman arrested for campaigning for birth control in New York.
11 February 1934 – birth of Mary Quant, Welsh fashion designer and instrumental figure in the 1960s London Mod movement, inventor of the mini-skirt. Quant once stated, ‘I designed the miniskirt that caused so much havoc in the Sixties – the miniskirt that was such fun but has travelled well to today’.
11 February 1945 – The Yalta Agreement is signed by Josef Stalin (USSR), Winston Churchill (UK), Franklin D. Roosevelt (USA), regarding the control of Germany once World War II finishes.
11 February 1963 – death of Sylvia Plath, American poet, novelist and short story writer. Born in Boston, she travelled to the UK and studied at Cambridge University. It was there that she met British poet, Ted Hughes. In 1957 they married. For a while they lived in Boston, before returning to England and living in London and later Devon. Plath often wrote about her experiences, particularly with depression. She advanced the genre of ‘confessional poetry’. Plath struggled with the loneliness of Devon and returned to London, renting a unit in the house that the poet, William Butler Yeats once lived. The unit was owned by Assia and David Wevill. Plath’s husband, Ted Hughes, was captivated by Assia’s beauty. In September 1962, Plath left Hughes after discovering he’d been having an affair with Assia. Plath suffered bipolar disorder and had made numerous suicide attempts throughout her life. In February 1963, she suicided by turning the gas on in her oven and placing her head in it. She had sealed her children’s rooms with wet towels to avoid poisoning them. Plath had published a number of poetry collections and some were published post-humously. In 1982, she was awarded a post-humous Pulitzer Prize for her poetry. She is considered one of the great poets of the 20th century. Born 27 October 1932.
11 February 1979 – the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, is overthrown by the Iranian Revolution, and replaced by the Ayatollah Khomeini.
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12 February 1809 – birth of Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United State of America. Assassinated 15 April 1865.
12 February 1912 – the Last Emperor of China, Hsian-T’ung is forced to abdicate by republicans, ending 2000 years of imperial rule. The Republic of China formed on 1 January 1912, followed by the People’s Republic of China, which formed on 1 October 1949.
12 February 1983 – Legendary 1960’s folk duo, Simon and Garfunkel, play a reunion concert at VFL Park, Melbourne.
12 February 2015 – death of Faith Bandler. Australian civil rights activist. Her father was from Vanuatu. Her mother of Scottish-Indian descent. Campaigned for the rights of indigenous Australians and South Sea Islanders. She was a leader in the 1967 referendum on aboriginal Australians. She was involved with the Aboriginal–Australian Fellowship and the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI). She was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia in 1984 and Companion of the Order of Australia in 2009. Born 23 September 1918.
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13 February 1915 – birth of General Aung San, founder of modern day Burma and Burmese Army. Father of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese politician, activist and Nobel Peace Prize Recipient.
13 February 1920 – the perpetual neutrality of Switzerland is recognised by the League of Nations (predecessor of the United Nations).
13 – 15 February 1945 – the bombing of Dresden in which 722 British and 527 USAF aircraft drop more than 3,900 tons of explosives on Dresden, Germany. At the time, Nazi Germany claimed more than 300,000 casualties, however, an official report in 2010 claimed that casualties were around 25,000, historians generally number the casualties between 35,000 and 135,000. Because of the number of refugees in the city, it is unlikely the exact figure will ever be known.
13 February 2008 – Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologises to Australia’s indigenous peoples, particularly those of the stolen generation from whom children were forcibly removed from their parents.
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14 February – Valentine’s Day
14 February – International book giving day, focussing on giving books to children.You can participate by 1) give a book to a friend or family member, 2) leave a book in a waiting room for children to read, or 3) donate a gently used book to a local library, hospital or shelter, or to an organization that distributes used books to children in need internationally. http://bookgivingday.com
14 February 1779 – death of Captain James Cook, British explorer. Made three major voyages in which he discovered many of the islands of the south pacific, including the east coast of Australia. Cooktown, Queensland, is named after him. The house he grew up in was relocated from Yorkshire, England, to Melbourne, Australia and is open to visits (now known as Captain Cook’s Cottage and is situated in Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne). Died 14 February 1779 after being stabbed by Hawaiians who credited their Chief Kalanimanokahoowaha (Kanaina) with the kill. Captain Cook’s body was then subjected a funeral ritual that was normally reserved for a Chief. Born 27 October 1728.
14 February 1929 – St Valentine’s Day massacre when Chicago gangster, Al Capone’s Italian gang killed seven of Bugs Moran’s Irish gang.
14 February 1966 – Australia introduces decimal currency, replacing pounds, shillings and pence with dollars and cents.
14 February 1989 – Police raid Rocking Horse Records in Brisbane, Queensland (which had long been seen as a Police State under the leadership of Premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen). 4ZZZ (another target of police raids during the 1980s) described the raid thus, ‘On this day in 1989 – Police raid long time 4ZZZ supporters Rocking Horse Records, then located at 158 Adelaide Street in the city. An undercover officer from the Licensing branch, came into the store seeking out rude records for a “wild valentine’s day party”, followed later that day by four uniformed police who raided the store. Owner Warwick Vere was charged with exhibiting and selling obscene material under the Vagrants, Gaming and Other Offences Act, but ultimately found not guilty. Albums included The Dead Kennedys “Give me Convenience” (featuring the classic ‘Too Drunk to F**k’), Guns n Roses “Appetite for Destruction” (available at many major chain stores at the time), the Hard-Ons “Dick Cheese” and The Champs “Do the Shag” (an instrumental album from the early 60s). In an interview with Gavin Sawford for Time Off Magazine, Dead Kennedy’s Jello Biafra commented: “if these attempts to shut down record stores because an instrumental band mention a type of carpet on their record helps to galvanise people to vote out the present administration, then by all means let’s see some more raids”.’ They also took a Sonic Youth album with the song, Master-Dik. Jello Biafra went on to state, ‘now if I’m a robber or a rapist in Brisbane, I should call the cops and report obscene records on the other side of town in store before I go out and commit a crime that harms real people, because obviously the cops don’t care about those kind of crimes’.
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15 February 1564 – birth of Galileo Galilei, Italian polymath and central figure in the Renaissance and scientific revolution, known for his work as an astronomer, physicist, engineer, philosopher and mathematician. Also called the ‘father of observational astronomy’, ‘father of modern physics’, ‘father of the scientific method’, and ‘father of science’. The Catholic church his idea of heliocentrism, that is the earth revolving around the sun, to be heretical, as the church believed the heavens revolved around the Earth. Galileo was tried at an Inquisition and remained under house arrest for the remainder of his life. Died 8 January 1642.
15 February 1989 – the last Soviet troops leave Afghanistan after a 10 year occupation referred to as the Soviet Union’s ‘Vietnam’. The Soviets had invaded on 24 December 1979 in response to Afghan insurgents (armed by the United States) who had been attacking Soviet troops. The occupation lasts for 10 years and results in the deaths of between 600,000 and 2,000,000 Afghan civilians, as well as 6,000,000 refugees who fled to Pakistan and Iran. The cost of the Afghan occupation is a significant factor that led to the economic collapse of the Soviet Union. During the Soviet occupation, the United States funded Afghan resistance in the form of the Mujahideen and other militant Islamic groups, out of whom emerged Al Qaeda and the Taliban. The Afghan people continue to suffer and to comprise a significant portion of global refugee numbers because of the involvement of the USSR and the USA during this period.
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16 February 1923 – the burial chamber of King Tutankhamen in Egypt is opened, after it was recently discovered by British archaeologist, Howard Carter. The tomb was 3,000 years old.
16 February 1936 – The left-wing Popular Front is elected to power in Spain. The Popular Front was a coalition of numerous Communist and Socialist parties, including the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), Communist Party of Spain (PCE), Worker’ Party of Marxist Unification (POUM), Republican Left (IR) and Republican Union Party (UR). The pact which enabled the formation of the Popular Front was supported by Galician (PG) and Catalan nationalists (ERC), the Workers’ General Union (UGT) and the anarchist trade union, Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT). The Popular Front had defeated the National Front (a coalition of right-wing parties) in the elections, and was formed to combat the rising tide of right-wing Fascism throughout Europe. In July 1936, conservative monarchists led by General Francisco Franco instigated a military coup that started the Spanish Civil War. Franco received backing from Mussolini and Hitler, while some of the left-wing forces, including the International Brigade (formed of volunteers from all over Europe) received backing from Stalin. British author, George Orwell, a democratic socialist, travelled to Spain and fought with the POUM because he wanted to help defeat Fascism. It was only be chance that Orwell didn’t join the International Brigade. The POUM (an anti-Stalinist Communist Party) was declared an illegal organisation in 1937 by the government in an effort by Communist forces to purge Troskyists, forcing Orwell to flee or face imprisonment. Orwell wrote of his Spanish Civil War experience in Homage to Catalonia. His experience made him a life-long anti-Stalinist and committed Democratic Socialist. In April 1939, Franco’s forces defeated the Popular Front, installing him as President. Franco ruled Spain with a military dictatorship until his death in 1975.
16 February 1959 – Fidel Castro sworn in as Prime Minister of Cuba after leading a successful revolution against the President Batista.
16 February 1983 – Ash Wednesday bush-fires burn more than 4,000km2 of land in South Australia and Victoria, killing 75 people (47 in Victoria and 28 in South Australia), destroying more than 3,700 buildings, and more than 2,500 people lost their homes.
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17 February 1600 – death of Giordano Bruno, Italian Dominician friar, philosopher, mathematician, poet and astrologer. Bruno wrote extensively on the art of memory. proposed that the stars were distant suns and could have planets of their own with life on them. He also stated that the Communion couldn’t transform into the body of Christ (Transubstantiation). He also rejected other core Catholic tenets including the Trinity, eternal damnation, the divinity of Christ, and the virginity of Mary. For his scientific and religious views, he was charged with heresy and burned at the stake. Many regard him as the first martyr for science. Born 1548.
17 February 1933 – End of Prohibition, when the US Senate passes the Blaine Act.
17 February 1934 – birth of Barry Humphries, Australian comedian, famous for characters such as Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson.
17 February 2007 – Sylvester Stallone is held by Australian Customs for a couple of hours after prohibited items were confiscated from his baggage.
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18 February 1294 – death of Kublai Khan, of the Mongol Empire. He was the grandson of Genghis Khan. In 1271, Kublai Khan established the Yuan Empire ruling over modern-day Mongolia, China and Korea. He became the first non-Chinese Emperor to conquer all of China. He was born on 23 February 1215.
18 February 1965 – Australian Freedom Rides led by Charles Perkins. The Freedom Rides were inspired by the Freedom Rides in America. Perkins and 33 others travelled by bus to numerous towns in New South Wales challenging and protesting against discrimination and segregation. They picketed pools, parks and pubs where aborigines were expected to be segregated. Some of the protests turned violent, such as in Moree and Walgett when locals attacked the protesters. One of the protesters was Jim Spigelman who became Lieutenant Governor of New South Wales and later, Chief Justice of New South Wales. Charles Perkins became the first aborigine to graduate from university.
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19 February 1950 – Cyprus independence is granted with the signing of a joint agreement by Britain, Greece and Turkey.
19 February 1980 – death of Ronald Belford ‘Bon’ Scott, Scottish-born Australian rock musician. Most famous as the lead-singer of legendary hard rock band, AC/DC. Scott died after choking on his own vomit following a heavy drinking session. Born 9 July 1946.
19 February 2006 – Hamas leader, Ismail Haniya, becomes Prime Minister of Palestine following Palestinian Legislative Council elections.
19 February 2008 – Fidel Castro retires as leader of Cuba after 49 years at the helm, following the revolution he led in 1959. At 81 years old, Castro had been unwell.
19 February 2016 – death of Umberto Eco. Italian writer, philosopher and semiotician. Author of novels, including ‘The Name of the Rose’, ‘Foucalt’s Pendulum’, ‘The Island of the Day Before’, ‘The Prague Cemetery’. Born 5 January 1932.
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20 February 1895 – death of Frederick Douglass, considered to be the father of the American civil rights movement. Douglass was a social reformer,orator, writer, statesmen and preacher. He was born circa February 1818.
20 February 1967 – birth of Kurt Cobain. Lead singer, guitarist and lyricist for Nirvana. Died approximately 5 April 1994.
20 February 2005 – death of Hunter S. Thompson, American writer and gonzo journalist. Born 18 July 1937.
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21 February 1903 – birth of Anais Nin, French-Cuban author. Died 14 January 1977.
21 February 1965 – assassination of Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little), also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist. He campaigned for the rights of African-Americans. At the age of 20, while in prison, he joined the ‘Nation of Islam’, a group that preached black supremacy. He eventually became disillusioned with it and its leader, Elijah Muhammad. On 8 Mach 1964, he publicly announced he had the Nation of Islam. Malcolm X founded Muslim Mosque Inc and the Organisation of Afro-American Unity. He converted to Sunni Islam, revoked black supremacy and preached equal rights. He was assassinated on 21 February 1965 by three members of the Nation of Islam; Talmadge Hayer (also known as Thomas Hagan), Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson. All three were convicted, although Butler and Johnson maintained their innocence. Born 19 May 1925.
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22 February 1512 – Death of Amerigo Vespucci in Seville, Spain. Italian explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer. Vespucci believed that Christopher Columbus’s discovery of the ‘New World’ or ‘East Asia’ (now known as the Bahamas) and the land mass beyond it, was not part of Asia, but a separate ‘super-continent’. America is named after Vespucci. Born 9 March 1454 in Florence, Italy.
22 February 1962 – birth of Steve Irwin, ‘The Crocodile Hunter’, Australian wildlife expert and television personality. (Died 4 September 2006).
22 February 1987 – death of Andy Warhol. (Born Andrew Warhola). American artist who was a pioneer of pop art. American writer, Gore Vidal, once said, ‘Andy Warhol is the only genius I’ve ever known with an IQ of 60‘ Born 6 August 1928.
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23 February 1836 – the Battle of the Alamo commences. It was a 13 day siege and a pivotal point in the Texas Revolution, in which Mexican forces attacked Texan forces stationed at the Alamo Mission. All 100 Texans were killed. Several months earlier, all Mexicans had been driven out of Mexican Texas.
23 February 1896 – the Tootsie Roll is invented.
23 February 1915 – death of Robert Smalls, African American who was born into slavery in Beaufort, South Carolina. When he was a teenager, his master sent him to Charleston to work. Smalls ended up working on boats and became adept at all manner of work around wharves and boats, including stevedore, rigger, sail maker and wheelman (essentially a pilot, although slaves were not granted that title). During the Civil War, he was asked to steer a lightly armed Confederate vessel, the CSS Planter. One evening, after the white crew members disembarked, Smalls dressed in the captain’s uniform and commandeered the vessel with the help of seven other slaves, sailing towards Union ships. On the way, he picked up his wife and child, as well as the families of the other slave crewman. As they neared the Union ships, Smalls flew a white bed-sheet from the mast as a symbol of surrender. Smalls was treated as a hero by the Union. He later successfully petitioned President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, to allow black men to fight for the Union. Stanton signed an order allowing 5,000 black men to enlist with Union forces. Smalls was made pilot of the USS Keokuk. After the Civil War, Smalls returned to Beaufort and bought his former master’s house. Smalls became a businessman, operating a store for freed men. He also became politically active, joining the Republican Party. In 1868 Smalls was elected to the State House of Representatives. He worked on passing the Civil Rights Bill and in 1868, the Republican government enacte the Civil Rights Act, which gave citizenship to all Americans, regardless of race. Smalls was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1874, and served two terms.In 1912, Smalls famously described the Republican Party as, ‘the party of Lincoln … which unshackled the necks of four million human beings‘. In 1913, Smalls stopped a lynch mob from lynching two black men, after he warned their mayor that blacks he’d sent through the city would burn the town down if the mob wasn’t stopped. The mayor and sheriff stopped the mob. Smalls inspirational life went from slave, to hijacker, to defector, to politician and civil rights campaigner. Born 5 April 1839.
23 February 1930 –
9 September 1907 – Death of Horst Wessel, born 9 September 1907. Berlin leader of the Nazi Party’s Stormtroopers. Wessel had written the lyrics to a song which became known as ‘Horst-Wessel-Lied‘ (The Horst Wessel Song). Later, it became the anthem for the Nazi Party and was renamed as ‘Deutschlandlied‘. Wessel was shot on 14 January 1930 by members of the Communist Party. As Horst lay seriously wounded in hospital, Joseph Goebbels labelled those responsible for the shooting as ‘degenerate subhuman Communists’. Wessel died in hospital on 23 February 1930 from blood poisoning. Following Wessel’s death, Goebbels portrayed Wessel as a matyr while targeting and dehumanising Communists. The Nazis used it as an excuse to implement authoritarian measures against Communists and other dissidents. In 1933, with the ascent to power by the Nazis, the person convicted of shooting Weller, was taken from jail and illegally executed. In 1935, two other people believed to be involved in it were put on trial and subsequently beheaded. Goebbels had been looking for a matyr, initially using Albert Leo Schlageter, who had been executed by the French for trying to blow up a train. Wessel provided the perfect matyr for Goebbels, because of his killers being Communists. Goebbels deliberately used Christian overtones in a eulogy he wrote about Wessel: ‘A Christian Socialist! A man who calls out through his deeds: ‘Come to me, I shall redeem you!’ … A divine element works in him. making him the man he is and causing him to act in this way and no other. One man must set an example and offer himself up as a sacrifice! Well, then, I am ready!‘ The Nazi-owned newspaper, Völkischer Beobachter, described Wessel as ‘hero of the brown revolution‘ and referred to his ‘sacrificial death‘ that ‘passionately inflamed millions who followed‘.
23 February 1944 – the Soviet Union begins the forced deportation of Chechen and Ingush people from the North Caucasus to Central Asia.
23 February 1954 – Polio vaccines first become available.
23 February 1958 – Five time Formula 1 racing car driver, Juan Manuel Fangio, is kidnapped by Cuban rebels led by Fidel Castro. The Batista Dictatorship had established a non-Formula 1 race (the Cuban Grand Prix) in 1957, so the rebels were hoping to embarrass Batista by forcing him to cancel the race. The race went ahead and the captors let Fangio listen to it on the radio. Fangio was released unharmed. Castro’s forces overthrew Batista in January 1959 and cancelled the race that year.
23 February 1987 – the light from Supernova 1987A reaches Earth, 170,000 years after it exploded. The supernova was 1 million trillion miles away.
23 February 2010 – death of Cuban plumber and activist, Orlando Zapata. Zapata was arrested in 2002 by Cuban police for contempt. In 2003 he was arrested during a crackdown on dissidents, for undertaking a hunger strike aimed at securing the release of prisoners. He was sentenced to 36 years imprisonment. Amnesty International recognised him as a ‘prisoner of conscience’. In December 2009 he began a hunger strike which ultimately led to his death. Born 15 May 1967.
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24 February 1872 – death of William Webb Ellis, Anglican clergyman who is credited for creating Rugby Union after allegedly picking up the ball during a soccer match and running with it, while a student at Rugby School. Born 24 November 1806.
24 February 1955 – birth of Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple. Died 5 October 2011.
24 February 2008 – death of Larry Norman, pioneering Christian rock musician. Born 8 April 1947.
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25 February 1917 – birth of Anthony Burgess, English writer. Most famous for his dystopian novel, ‘The Clockwork Orange’, which Stanley Kubrick made into a controversial movie. Died 22 November 1993.
25 February 1921 – The Russian Army seized the capital of Georgia, eventually incorporating the republic into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
25 February 1948 – communist rule established in Czechoslovakia by President Eduard Benes.
25 February 1982 – the European Court of Human Rights rules that beating school children without the consent of their parents is a violation of the Human Rights Convention.
25 February 1986 – The People Power Revolution in the Philippines results in the ousting of corrupt dictator Ferdinand Marcos who is airlifted from the Presidential Palace in Manila by U.S. helicopters. The U.S. repatriated him to Hawaii where he lived in exile until his death in 1989 at the age of 72. Marcos had stolen billions from the Philippine treasury and was a suspect in the 1983 assassination of Benigno Aquino, the opposition party leader.
25 February 2001 – death of Sir Donald Bradman (The Don), Australia’s (and arguably, the world’s) greatest cricketer. In his last Test, Bradman’s batting average was 101.39 runs per innings, but on the second ball he faced, he was bowled for a duck (zero), reducing his batting average to 99.94. It is the highest batting average in test cricket. Born 27 August 1908.
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26 February 1829 – birth of Levi Strauss, German-born, American clothing manufacturer. Most notable for Levi jeans. Died 26 September 1902.
26 February 1887 – birth of José Paronella in Catalonia, northern Spain. In 1913, Paronella travelled to Innisfail, Queensland, to establish himself before bringing his fiance, Matilda, over to join him. Eleven years later he returned for her, only to find that she’d married someone else. José was determined to return to Australia with a wife, so proposed to Matilda’s younger sister, Margarita, and the couple travelled to Australia 12 months later. José purchased 5 hectares (13 acres) of land at Mena Creek where the couple commenced building their dream home, which ended up being a regal Catalan-style castle. They planted more than 7,000 trees around the property and in 1933, built North Queensland’s first hydro-electric plant to power the property. They built a 47 step stair case, tennis courts, a pavilion with turret-topped balconies, a movie theatre which they transformed into a ball-room with live bands that people from surrounding areas could enjoy for dances, a museum that housed collections of coins, pistols, dolls, timbers and keepsakes. He also excavated a tunnel through a small hill on the property. It was never completed, but he had intended on it becoming a ‘tunnel of love’.José died on 23 August 1948. He and Margarita had two children. Margarita died in 1967. In 1979 the castle was ravaged by fire, leaving on the walls and turrets standing. In 1986, the park was further damaged from Cyclone Winifred. In 1993, the park was partially restored. The park again suffered damage in 2006 when Cyclone Larry struck. In 2009, the hydro-electric plant was rebuilt. Today, visitors can tour the grounds and walk through what would have been the ‘tunnel of love’, which is now inhabited by ghost bats. The property is heritage-listed and a fascinating and spectacular part of North Queensland’s history.
26 February 1928 – birth of Fats Domino, American rhythm and blues, and rock and roll musician. He sold more than 5 million records and had 35 U.S.A. Top 40 hits. His songs included Blueberry Hill, When My Dreamboat Comes Home, Whole Lotta Loving.
26 February 1932 – birth of Johnny Cash, American singer and musician. Cash was considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Hits included Folsom Prison Blues, Ring of Fire, Get Rhythm, I Walk the Line, A Boy Named Sue. Died 12 September 2003.
26 February 1945 – birth of Peter Brock, Australian car racing legend. Died 8 September 2006.
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27 February 1922 – The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed, giving women the right to vote.
27 February 1951 – the Twenty-Second Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, stating that ‘no person shall be elected to the office of President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once‘.
27 February 1953 – conclusion of negotiations for the 1953 London Debt Agreement which had concluded on 8 August 1953, when West Germany was given debt relief by creditor nations, which included Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Greece, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Norway, Pakistan, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, South Africa, the United States, Yugoslavia and others. The debt of 32 billion marks (16 billion owed to the United States and 16 billion to other nations) had accumulated since the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The London Agreement halved the debt to 15 billion marks to be paid out over 30 years. The repayments were capped at 3% of export earnings and were only required while West Germany had a trade surplus. This significantly boosted West Germany’s export market and directly resulted in Germany becoming an economic powerhouse.
27 February 1964 – the Italian government states that the Leaning Tower of Pisa is in danger of collapsing. It asks for international assistance in stabilising the Tower. Stabisation studies were undertaken. On 7 January 1990, the Tower was closed to the public. Stabilisation work commenced in 1998 with the removal of soil and the placement of lead weights. It was reopened to the public on 15 December 2001 and declared stable for another 300 years.
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28 February 1942 – birth of Brian Jones. English guitarist for the Rolling Stones. Died 3 July 1969.
28 February 2007 – death of Billy Thorpe, English-born Australian rock legend. Front man for ‘Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs’. Born 29 March 1946.
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29 February 1940 – Hattie McDaniels wins an Oscar for her role as Mammy in Gone With The Wind. She is the first African-American to win an Oscar.
29 February 2012 – death of Davy Jones, singer with British 1960’s rock band, The Monkees. Born on 30 December 1945.