February 18

Today in History
• 1219 - Jerusalem re-taken by the Christian Crusader kingdom in a peace treaty
• 1478 - George, Duke of Clarence, convicted of treason is executed in the Tower of London
• 1503 - Henry Tudor (later Henry VIII) created Prince of Wales
• 1519 - Hernán Cortés leaves Cuba for Mexico with 11 ships and 500 men
• 1536 - France and Turkey sign military/trade agreement against King Karel
• 1678 - John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" is published by Nathaniel Ponder
• 1861 - King Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia becomes first King of Italy
• 1901 - Winston Churchill makes his maiden speech in the British House of Commons


Holidays - Traditional and Obscure
• Gambia Independence Day
• Independence Day Gambia
• Isra and Mi'raj
• Maha Shivratri
• National Battery Day
• Pluto Day
• Thumb Appreciation Day
• World Pangolin Day

Birthdays
• 259 BC - Qin Shi Huang, Founder of the Qin dynasty and 1st emperor China
• 1374 - Saint Jadwiga of Poland, Queen of Poland
• 1516 - Mary I Tudor, Bloody Mary, Greenwich, queen of England, 1553-58
• 1543 - Charles III, Duke of Lorraine
• 1564 - The artist Michelanglelo died in Rome
• 1609 - Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, English PM
• 1677 - Jacques Cassini, French astronomer, rings of Saturn
• 1745 - Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist and inventor of the 1st batterys