Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/February 15
This is a list of selected February 15 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article or picture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
Images
Use only ONE image at a time
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Tomoyuki Yamashita -
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Wreckage of the USS Maine -
DEW Line radar station -
title=Don Dunstan in 1968 -
Kevin Mitnick
Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| Candlemas (Eastern Christianity); | refimprove sections |
| 1954 – The Canadian and American governments agreed to jointly build the Distant Early Warning Line, a line of radar stations running across the high Arctic. | refimprove section |
| 1971 – The British pound sterling and the Irish pound were decimalised on what was called Decimal Day. | refimprove section |
| 1994 – Less than four years after declaring its independence from the Soviet Union, Tatarstan officially agreed to become a federal subject of Russia. | refimprove section |
Eligible
- 1493 – Christopher Columbus wrote a letter, which was widely distributed upon his return to Portugal, announcing the results of his first voyage to the Americas.
- 1898 – The United States Navy battleship USS Maine exploded and sank in Havana, Cuba, killing more than 260 people and precipitating the Spanish–American War.
- 1900 – Second Boer War: British cavalry led by John French defeated Boer forces to end a 124-day siege of Kimberley in present-day South Africa.
- 1907 – Japan and the United States signed a gentleman's agreement whereby the former would not permit further emigration to the U.S., while the latter would not limit Japanese immigration.
- 1942 – Second World War: Japanese forces led by General Tomoyuki Yamashita captured Singapore, the largest surrender of British-led military personnel in history.
- 1949 – Gerald Lankester Harding and Roland de Vaux began excavations at Cave 1 of the Qumran Caves in the West Bank, the location of the first seven Dead Sea Scrolls.
- 1965 – Canada adopted the Maple Leaf flag, replacing the Canadian Red Ensign.
- 1976 – The current Constitution of Cuba, providing for a system of government and law based on those of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries, was adopted by a national referendum.
- 1979 – Don Dunstan resigned as Premier of South Australia, ending a decade of sweeping social liberalisation.
- 1989 – The Soviet Union officially announced that all of its troops had withdrawn from Afghanistan after a nine-year conflict.
- 1995 – Kevin Mitnick, the most wanted computer hacker at the time in the U.S., was arrested and charged with computer fraud and wire fraud.
- 1996 – A Long March 3B rocket carrying the communications satellite Intelsat 708 crashed immediately after launch from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China, destroying a nearby town and killing an unknown number of inhabitants.
- 1999 – Abdullah Öcalan, one of the founding members of the militant organization the Kurdistan Workers' Party, was arrested by Turkish security forces in Nairobi, Kenya.
- 2003 – In one of the largest anti-war rallies in history, millions around the world in approximately 800 cities took part in protests against the impending invasion of Iraq.
- 2010 – Two passenger trains collided in Halle, Belgium, when one driver failed to stop at a red signal, resulting in 19 deaths and 171 injuries.
- 2012 – The world's deadliest prison fire took place at the National Penitentiary at Comayagua, Honduras, killing 361 people.
- Born/died: | Oswiu |d|670| Gisela of Swabia |d|1043| Charles-André van Loo |b|1705| Domingo Faustino Sarmiento |b|1811| Sophie Bryant |b|1850| Irena Sendler |b|1910| Angella D. Ferguson |b|1925| Esther Takei Nishio |b|1925| Roger B. Chaffee |b|1935
February 15: Shrove Monday (Western Christianity, 2021); National Flag of Canada Day (1965) and Family Day in Canada (2021); Statehood Day in Serbia (1804); Washington's Birthday / Presidents' Day in the United States (2021)
- 1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: The Invasion of Ceylon ended with Johan van Angelbeek, the Batavian governor of the island, surrendering Colombo to British forces.
- 1823 – James McBrien made the first official discovery of gold in Australia at Fish River in New South Wales.
- 1961 – All 72 people on board Sabena Flight 548, including the entire U.S. figure-skating team, and one person on the ground were killed when the aircraft crashed on approach to Brussels Airport.
- 2013 – A previously undetected meteor exploded (video featured) over Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia; the resulting shock wave injured about 1,500 people.
- William Ufford, 2nd Earl of Suffolk (d. 1382)
- Charles Lewis Tiffany (b. 1812)
- Willy Vandersteen (b. 1913)