February 11
Nelson Mandela, leader of the movement to end South African apartheid, is released from prison after 27 years, February 11. – 1990.
February 12
Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic goes on trial at The Hague, Netherlands, on charges of genocide and war crimes in Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo. Milosevic served as his own attorney for much of the prolonged trial, which ended without a verdict when the so-called “Butcher of the Balkans” was found dead at age 64 from an apparent heart attack in his prison cell March 11, 2006. – 2002.
February 13
Italian philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician, Galileo Galilei, arrives in Rome to face charges of heresy for advocating Copernican theory, which holds that the Earth revolves around the Sun. Galileo officially faced the Roman Inquisition in April of that same year and agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a lighter sentence. Put under house arrest indefinitely by Pope Urban VIII, Galileo spent the rest of his days at his villa in Arcetri, near Florence, before dying January 8, 1642. – 1633.
The earliest military action to be revered with a Medal of Honor award is performed by Colonel Bernard J.D. Irwin, an assistant army surgeon serving in the first major U.S.-Apache conflict. Near Apache Pass, in southeastern Arizona, Irwin, an Irish-born doctor, volunteered to go to the rescue of Second Lieutenant George N. Bascom, who was trapped with 60 men of the U.S. Seventh Infantry by the Chiricahua Apaches. Irwin and 14 men, initially without horses, began the 100-mile trek to Bascom’s forces by riding on mules. After fighting and capturing Apaches along the way and recovering stolen horses and cattle, they reached Bascom’s forces February 14 and proved instrumental in breaking the siege. – 1861.
Some 12,000 Hollywood writers return to work following a three-month strike against television and motion picture studios. They won compensation for their TV and movie work that gets streamed on the Internet. – 2008.
February 14
Claudius Gothicus, Roman emperor, had to maintain a strong army, but was having a difficult time getting soldiers to join his military leagues. Claudius believed that Roman men were unwilling to join the army because of their strong attachment to their wives and families. To get rid of the problem, Claudius bans all marriages and engagements in Rome. Valentine, a holy priest in Rome, defies Claudius and continues to perform marriages in secret. February 14 around the year 278 A.D., Valentine was executed. – 278.
An expelled student enters Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. and opens fire and kills 17 individuals and wounds 17 others, in what became the deadliest shooting at a high school in United States history. Student survivors took to social media to make their anger known, which went viral. – 2018.
February 15
Toy store owner and inventor Morris Michtom places two stuffed bears in his shop window and advertises them as Teddy bears. Michtom earlier had petitioned U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt for permission to use his nickname, Teddy. The president agreed and, before long, other toy manufacturers began turning out copies of Michtom’s stuffed bears, which soon became a national childhood institution. – 1903.
A disgruntled employee fatally shoots five individuals and wounds five officers in Aurora at the Henry Pratt Company warehouse. – 2019.
February 16
In Thebes, Egypt, English archaeologist Howard Carter enters the sealed burial chamber of the ancient Egyptian ruler King Tutankhamen. – 1923.
February 17
Approximately 900 persons drown when a passenger ferry, the Neptune, overturns near Port-au-Prince, Haiti. – 1993.