March 1

• March 1, 293
  Roman emperor Diocletian introduces tetrarchy, dividing power among four individuals and marking the end of the Crisis of the Third Century and the recovery of the Roman Empire
• March 1, 1260
  Hulagu Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan, conquers Damascus
• March 1, 1562
  Over 80 Huguenots, members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France, are massacred by the ultra-Catholic Duke of Guise Francis in Wassy-sur-Blaise, marking the start of the First War of Religion in France
• March 1, 1565
  Estácio de Sá, a Portuguese soldier and officer, founds Rio de Janeiro in Brazil as the basis of military operations against the France Antarctique colony
• March 1, 1579
  Sir Francis Drake waylaid a Spanish treasure galleon, the Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, off the coast of Panama
• March 1, 1801
  The London stock exchange is founded, with still the only British government debt traded
• March 1, 1811
  In Egypt the Ottoman viceroy Muhammad Ali Pasha massacres the Mameluke leaders of Egypt, invited to a banquet at the citadel of Cairo in honor of his son, for plotting against him
• March 1, 1864
  Louis Arthur Ducos du Hauron patents a movie machine that was never built
• March 1, 1872
  Yellowstone National Park, the world's first national park, is established under the act signed into law by President Ulysses Grant
• March 1, 1896
  Ethiopia defeats Italy at the Battle of Adwa during the First Italo-Ethiopian War and ensures the first victory of an African state over a European colonial power
• March 1, 1910
  An avalanche of snow hits two trains stranded for seven days outside the Cascade Tunnel below Stevens Pass, near Wellington, Washington, USA, killing 96 and becomes the deadliest one in United States history
• March 1, 1934
  Puyi, the last Emperor of China, is crowned emperor of Manchuria
• March 1, 1936
  Hoover Dam, a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, is completed
• March 1, 1938
  Detective Comics pays Jerome Siegel and Joe Shuster $130 to transfer exclusive rights to the use of the comic character "Superman", who has its first appearance in comics
• March 1, 1995
  Yahoo! web site is founded in Santa Clara, California
• March 1, 2007
  International Polar Year, a US$1.5 billion research program to study both the North Pole and South Pole, is launched in Paris, France

February 28

• February 28, 380
  Theodosius I declares the Catholic Church the only legitimate Imperial religion, ending official state support for the traditional Hellenistic religions and customs
• February 28, 870
  Fourth Council of Constantinople, eighth ecumenical council ends in Constantinople
• February 28, 1667
  English colony Suriname becomes in Dutch hands
• February 28, 1813
  Russia and Prussia form the Kalisz union against Napoleon
• February 28, 1922
  Due to raise of the Egyptian nationalist movement, United Kingdom government issues a unilateral declaration of Egypt's independence, which ends British protectorate over Egypt
• February 28, 1935
  Wallace Carothers, the leader of organic chemistry at DuPont company, manufactures first nylon, a synthetic polymer processed into fibres, films or shapes
• February 28, 1942
  Japanese land in Java, last Allied bastion in Dutch East Indies
• February 28, 1953
  Cambridge University scientists James Watson and Francis Crick announce that they have determined the double-helix structure of DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, the molecule containing human genes
• April 25, 1953
  Francis Crick and James D. Watson publish an article describing the double helix structure of DNA
• February 28, 1975
  The first Lomé Agreement, a trade and aid agreement, is signed between the European Community and 46 developing nations in Africa, the Caribbean and Asia
• February 28, 1982
  Hama massacre, an attempt to suppress Islamist uprising in Syria, leads to more than 10,000 deaths
• February 28, 1991
  United States led coalition grants Iraq a cease fire, after allied forces defeat Iraqi military forces and liberates Kuwait in Operation Desert Storm, marking end of Gulf War
• February 28, 1994
  United States F-16 pilots shoot down four Serbian fighter aircraft over Bosnia-Herzegovina for violation of the Operation Deny Flight and its no-fly zone
• February 28, 2002
  The Austrian schilling, Belgian franc, Finnish mark, German mark, Greek drachm, Italian lira, Luxembourg franc, Portuguese escudo, and Spanish peseta expires as valid currencies

February 27

• February 27, 425
  Byzantine Emperor Theodosius II founds the University of Constantinople
• February 27, 1531
  German evangelical monarchy joins Schmalkaldic League, a defensive alliance of Lutheran princes within the Holy Roman Empire
• February 27, 1670
  Jews are expelled from Vienna by order of Leopold I
• February 27, 1861
  In the Warsaw massacre Russian troops fire on a crowd protesting Russian rule over Poland and kill five marchers
• February 27, 1879
  Constantin Fahlberg discovers saccharin, artificial sweetener
• February 27, 1883
  Oscar Hammerstein I, a businessman and composer in New York City, patents first cigar-rolling machine
• February 27, 1906
  France and Britain agree to joint control of New Hebrides, an island group in the South Pacific
• February 27, 1940
  Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discover carbon-14, creating the basis for the radiocarbon dating method
• February 27, 1956
  Female suffrage in Egypt
• February 27, 1957
  Chinese Chairman Mao's speech "On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among People", marking the start of Hundred Flowers Campaign, a campaign encouraging its citizens to openly express their opinions of the communist regime
• February 27, 1972
  US President Richard Nixon and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai issue Shanghai Communique, pledging that it is in the interest of all nations for the United States and China to work towards the normalization of their relations
• February 27, 1980
  M-19 guerrillas begin the Dominican embassy siege in Colombia, holding 60 people hostage, including 14 ambassadors
• February 27, 2012
  Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is succeeded by Vice President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Al-Hadi as a result of Yemeni Revolution

February 26

• February 26, 747 BC
  Nabonassar becomes the king of Babylon, beginning a new era characterized by the systematic maintenance of chronologically precise historical records such as the Babylonian Chronicle and the Ptolemaic Canon
• February 26, 1266
  Charles of Anjou the King of Sicily defeats and kills Manfred, the bastard son of Emperor Frederik II, in the Battle of Benevento
• February 26, 1658
  Denmark signs peace with Sweden at Roskilde, giving up a third of its territory after defeat during Second Northern War
• February 26, 1815
  Napoleon escapes from the Island of Elba with 1,200 of his men starting the re-conquest of France
• February 26, 1852
  The British frigate Birkenhead sinks off South Africa and 458 die
• February 26, 1860
  White settlers massacre a band of Wiyot Indians at the village of Tuluwat on Indian Island near Eureka, California; at least 60 women, children and elders are killed
• February 26, 1919
  The Grand Canyon in Arizona is established by Congress as a national park in the United States
• February 26, 1935
  In England, British scientists make the first successful test of radio wave detection of air planes by short-wave transmitter tower and mobile radio receivers, Radar
• February 26, 1935
  Robert Watson-Watt, a Scottish engineer, demonstrates his radar made for Air Ministry, wih the range up to 97 km
• February 26, 2014
  The pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine leads to war in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts

February 25

• February 25, 1570
  Pope Pius V issues the bull Regnans in Excelsis which excommunicates Queen Elizabeth I and absolves her subjects from allegiance
• February 25, 1791
  President George Washington signs a bill creating the First Bank of the United States
• February 25, 1831
  The Polish revolutionaries halt the Russian advance into their country at the Battle of Olszynka Grochowska
• February 25, 1836
  Samuel Colt, an American inventor and industrialist, patents the first revolving barrel multi-shot firearm, which allows the shooter to fire 5 or 6 times before reloading
• February 25, 1856
  Congress of Paris between representatives of the great powers in Europe to make peace after Crimean War begins
• February 25, 1863
  US President Abraham Lincoln signs the National Currency Act into law, creating national banking system, comptroller of currency, allowing qualified banks to issue government-sponsored paper money in the banks' names
• February 25, 1910
  Dalai Lama flees Tibet from Chinese troops to British-Indies
• February 25, 1921
  Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic is proclaimed after invasion and occupation by Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
• February 25, 1923
  Bread in Berlin, Germany rises to 2,000 marks due to hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic
• February 25, 1932
  Immigrant Adolf Hitler gets German citizenship
• February 25, 1939
  First Anderson bomb shelter in Britain erected in an Islington garden, named after Sir John Anderson with special responsibility for preparing air-raid precautions
• February 25, 1947
  The Allied Control Council of Germany issues Law No. 46, disbanding Prussia
• February 25, 1948
  The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia under Klement Gottwald, with Soviet backing, seize power in Czechoslovakia after coup d'aet, ending the last remaining democracy in Eastern Europe
• February 25, 1956
  Soviet party leader Nikita Khrushchev denounces Josef Stalin's purges and the personality cult at 20th Soviet Party Conference, ushering in a less repressive era in the Soviet Union
• February 25, 1964
  Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., later accepted name Muhammad Ali, one of the greatest heavyweights in the sport's history, wins the world heavyweight championship for the first time
• February 25, 1980
  Military coup under DГ©si Bouterse and Roy Horb in Suriname ousts Prime Minister Henck Arron, replacing the government with a National Military Council and starting military dictatorship in Suriname
• February 25, 1992
  Khojaly Massacre, massacre of 613 Azerbaijani civilians by the Armenian, occurs in Khojaly
• February 25, 2006
  Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni wins his second re-election, sparking riots in Kampala by opposition supporters

February 24

• February 24, 303
  First official Roman edict for the Great Persecution of Christians and Manicheans is issued by Emperor Diocletian
• February 24, 1272
  Jacob, an Italian-Jewish trader, departed in haste from Zaitun, China
• February 24, 1525
  The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V captures the French king Francis I at the battle of Pavia in Italy during Italian War of 1521–26, making Spain dominant power in Italy
• February 24, 1538
  King Ferdinand of Austria and King John Zipolya of Hungary sign Treaty of Nagyrad dividing the medieval Kingdom of Hungary
• February 24, 1582
  Pope Gregory XIII issues a papal bull, or edict, outlining his calendar reforms, because the old Julian Calendar has an error rate of one day in every 128 years
• February 24, 1744
  French attempt to restart the Jacobite rebellion fails due to one of the worst storms of the century
• February 24, 1821
  Mexico rebels proclaim the Plan de Iguala, their declaration of independence from Spain, and take over the mission lands in California
• February 24, 1836
  Winslow Homer, American painter, is born
• February 24, 1839
  Steam shovel is patented by William Otis, Philadelphia
• February 24, 1881
  De Lesseps' Company begins work on Panama Canal
• February 24, 1895
  Cuban War for Independence, which results in Cuban independence from Spain, begins
• February 24, 1918
  Estonia declares independence from Russia
• February 24, 1924
  Mahatma Gandhi is released from jail having served only two of six years imprisonment for sedition
• February 24, 1949
  WAC Corporal, the first sounding rocket developed in the United States, used a German V-2 rocket acting as first stage, becomes the first rocket to outer space, White Sands, New Mexico
• February 24, 1986
  Voyager 2, an American space probe, performs first Uranus fly-by and makes the first close up images of the planet Uranus
• February 24, 1991
  United States and allies begin a ground war assault on Iraqi troops in Kuwait
• February 24, 2004
  A 6.5 Richter scale earthquake in Northern Morocco hits in the Rif mountains near the city of Al Hoceima, killing 400. Ait Kamara is destroyed; 517 are killed
• February 24, 2006
  A state of emergency is declared in the Philippines, after an alleged coup against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is foiled

February 23

• February 23, 155
  Polycarp, Christian bishop of Smyrna, is arrested and burned at stake
• February 23, 1100
  Emperor Huizong, a calligrapher, painter and promoter of Taoism, begins to rule over China
• February 23, 1516
  The Hapsburg Charles I is proclaimed king of Aragon and Castile after the death of his grandfather Ferdinand II
• February 23, 1530
  Spain's King Carlos I is crowned Holy Roman Emperor Charles V by Pope Clement VII in the last coronation of a German king by a Pope
• February 23, 1574
  The 5th War of Religion, against the Huguenots, breaks out in France
• February 23, 1615
  The Estates-General in Paris are dissolved, having been in session since October 1614
• February 23, 1660
  Charles XI becomes king of Sweden after death of his father Charles X Gustav of a stroke
• February 23, 1685
  George Frideric Handel, composer and musician, is born in Halle, Germany
• February 23, 1689
  Protestant Dutch prince William III ascends to the throne over England, Scotland, and Ireland after King James II, Catholics protector, escape during England's Glorious Revolution
• February 23, 1820
  Cato Street Conspiracy, an attempt to murder all the British cabinet ministers and Prime Minister Lord Liverpool, is uncovered
• February 23, 1847
  American major general Zachary Taylor defeats Mexican General Antonio Loіpez de Santa Anna and Mexican army at the battle of Buena Vista, Mexico
• February 23, 1848
  Revolution of 1848 begins in France resulting in King Louis-Philippe's abdication, the establishment of the Second French Republic and spread of revolutionary movements throughout Europe
• February 23, 1854
  Great Britain and Orange Free state sign Convention of Bloemfontein, by which the independence of the Orange Free State is recognized
• February 23, 1893
  Rudolf Diesel, a German mechanical engineer, is granted a patent for the invention of the diesel engine, an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition
• February 23, 1987
  Supernova 1987A, the first naked-eye supernova since 1604, first seen in Large Magellanic Cloud
• February 23, 1998
  Osama bin Laden publishes a fatwa, declaring jihad against all Jews and Crusaders, which declared the killing of North Americans and their allies
• February 23, 2002
  Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia kidnaps Oxygen Green Party presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who is traveling in Colombian territory
• February 23, 2008
  Microsoft announces it will cease making HD DVD players for the Xbox 360

February 22

• February 22, 700
  The Maya city-state of Coba conquer another city Yaxuna, beginning the building a 100 km Sacbe, or raised road, to connect the two cities, the longest road in the Maya Civilization
• February 22, 896
  Pope Formosa crowns king French emperor Arnulf of Carinthia
• February 22, 1071
  Robert I, Count of Flanders, beats his nephew, Arnulf III at the Battle of Cassel
• February 22, 1281
  Simon de Brion is elected Pope Martin IV
• February 22, 1349
  Jews are expelled from Zurich, Switzerland
• February 22, 1358
  Jacquerie peasant insurrection begins in northern France
• February 22, 1371
  David II Bruce, king of Scotland, dies
• February 22, 1495
  French King Charles VIII enters Naples to claim the crown
• February 22, 1512
  Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian explorer, dies at age 61 in Seville, Spain
• February 22, 1632
  Galileo's 'Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems' is published with the full backing of the church censors
• February 22, 1700
  Augustus II, elector of Saxony and King of Poland, with the Saxon army attacks and lays siege of Swedish controlled Riga starting the Great Northern War
• February 22, 1744
  French-Spanish face the English fleet of Admiral Matthews in the Battle at Toulon
• February 22, 1797
  French forces attack Britain at the port of Fishguard in Wales
• February 22, 1819
  Spanish minister Luis de Onís and U.S. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams sign the Adams–Onís Treaty, in which Spain agrees to cede the remainder of its old province of Florida
• February 22, 1821
  The Adams-Onis Treaty becomes final, whereby Spain gives up all of Florida to the US, and the boundary between Mexico and the Louisiana Purchase is established
• February 22, 1825
  Russia and Britain establish the Alaska/Canada boundary
• February 22, 1861
  Jefferson Davis is sworn in as the permanent president of the Confederate States of America in Richmond, Virginia
• February 22, 1881
  Cleopatra's Needle, a red granite Egyptian obelisk, made during the reign of pharaoh Thutmose III, is erected in Central Park, New York
• February 22, 1924
  The U.S. Congress grants citizenship to all Native Americans born in the U.S
• February 22, 1967
  25,000 American and South Vietnamese troops launch Operation Junction City, offensive to smash Viet Cong stronghold near Cambodian border
• February 22, 1987
  Andy Warhol, an American artist and leading figure in pop art, dies
• February 22, 1994
  Aldrich Ames, who compromised the second-largest number of CIA agents, and his wife are charged with spying for the Soviet Union by the United States Department of Justice
• February 22, 1997
  In Roslin, Scotland, scientists announce that an adult sheep named Dolly had been successfully cloned, and was born in July 1996
• February 22, 2005
  More than 500 people are killed and over 1,000 injured after entire villages are flattened in an earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale in the Zarand region of Kerman province in southern Iran