Events for February 15
1942 – World War II: Fall of Singapore. Following an assault by Japanese forces, the British General Arthur Percival surrenders. About 80,000 Indian, United Kingdom and Australian soldiers become prisoners of war, the largest surrender of British-led military personnel in history.
2001 – The first draft of the complete human genome is published in Nature.
1852 – The Helsinki Cathedral (known as St. Nicholas' Church at time) is officially inaugurated in Helsinki, Finland.[10]
1996 – At the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China, a Long March 3B rocket carrying Intelsat 708 veers off course and crashes into a rural village after liftoff, killing somewhere between six and 100 people.[23]
1214 – During the Anglo-French War (1213–1214), an English invasion force led by John, King of England, lands at La Rochelle in France.[6]
1944 – World War II: The Narva Offensive begins.
1945 – World War II: Third day of bombing in Dresden.
1002 – At an assembly at Pavia of Lombard nobles, Arduin of Ivrea is restored to his domains and crowned King of Italy.[4]
1690 – Constantin Cantemir, Prince of Moldavia, and the Holy Roman Empire sign a secret treaty in Sibiu, stipulating that Moldavia would support the actions led by the House of Habsburg against the Ottoman Empire.
1949 – Gerald Lankester Harding and Roland de Vaux begin excavations at Cave 1 of the Qumran Caves, where they will eventually discover the first seven Dead Sea Scrolls.
1862 – American Civil War: Confederates commanded by Brig. Gen. John B. Floyd attack General Ulysses S. Grant's Union forces besieging Fort Donelson in Tennessee. Unable to break the fort's encirclement, the Confederates surrender the following day.[11]
1946 – ENIAC, the first electronic general-purpose computer, is formally dedicated at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
1899 – Tsar Nicholas II of Russia issues a declaration known as the February Manifesto, which reduces the autonomy of the Grand Duchy of Finland, thus beginning the first period of oppression.[17]
1989 – Soviet–Afghan War: The Soviet Union officially announces that all of its troops have left Afghanistan.
1870 – Stevens Institute of Technology is founded in New Jersey, US, and offers the first Bachelor of Engineering degree in mechanical engineering.[12]
2021 – Sixty people drown and hundreds are missing after a boat sinks on the Congo River near the village of Longola Ekoti, Mai-Ndombe Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo.[26]
1944 – World War II: The assault on Monte Cassino, Italy begins.
1925 – The 1925 serum run to Nome: The second delivery of serum arrives in Nome, Alaska.[18]
1992 – Air Transport International Flight 805 crashes in Swanton, Ohio, near Toledo Express Airport, killing all four people on board.[22]
2012 – Three hundred and sixty people die in a fire at a Honduran prison in the city of Comayagua.
1972 – José María Velasco Ibarra, serving as President of Ecuador for the fifth time, is overthrown by the military for the fourth time.
590 – Khosrau II is crowned king of Persia.[2]
1872 – First issue of the Bulletin de la Fédération jurassienne, the first or one of the first anarchist newspapers.[13][14]
Notable Births & Deaths for February 15
2014 – Christopher Malcolm, Scottish-Canadian actor, director, and producer (born 1946)
2015 – Arnaud de Borchgrave, American journalist and author (born 1926)
1984 – Nate Schierholtz, American baseball player[59]
1986 – Johnny Cueto, Dominican baseball player
2008 – Johnny Weaver, American wrestler and sportscaster (born 1935)
1998 – George Russell, English racing driver[72]
2000 – Jakub Kiwior, Polish footballer[73]
1986 – Laura Sallés, Andorran judoka[61]
1989 – Mark Canha, American baseball player[63]
1991 – Rich Swann, American wrestler[64]
2012 – Cyril Domb, English-Israeli physicist and academic (born 1920)
1986 – Valeri Bojinov, Bulgarian footballer
2007 – Ray Evans, American songwriter (born 1915)
2013 – Sanan Kachornprasart, Thai general and politician (born 1935)
2022 – Bappi Lahiri, Indian singer, composer and record producer (born 1952)[93]
2023 – Raquel Welch, American actress and singer (born 1940)[95]
1998 – Zachary Gordon, American actor[45]
2020 – Caroline Flack, English actress and TV presenter (born 1979)[92]
2014 – Thelma Estrin, American computer scientist and engineer (born 1924)
1997 – Justin Reid, American football player[71]
1994 – Sodapoppin, American Twitch streamer and internet personality[68]
1985 – Natalie Morales, American actress and director[45]
2005 – Sam Francis, American historian and journalist (born 1947)[85]
2025 – Muhsin Hendricks, South African imam, Islamic scholar and LGBT activist (born 1967)[98]
2004 – Šimon Nemec, Slovak ice hockey player[74]
1988 – Rui Patrício, Portuguese footballer
2025 – George Armitage, American film director (born 1942)[96]
1986 – Amber Riley, American actress and singer[60]
2010 – Jeanne M. Holm, American general (born 1921)
1991 – Ángel Sepúlveda, Mexican footballer
1993 – Manuel Lanzini, Argentine footballer[67]
2007 – Walker Edmiston, American actor (born 1925)[86]
2016 – George Gaynes, Finnish-American actor (born 1917)[88]
1990 – Callum Turner, English actor[45]
2019 – Lee Radziwill, American socialite (born 1933)[91]
2025 – Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa, Portuguese businessman (born 1937)[97]
2015 – Haron Amin, Afghan diplomat, Afghan Ambassador to Japan (born 1969)
2022 – P.J. O'Rourke, American author, humorist, and journalist (born 1947)[94]
2013 – Ahmed Rajib Haider, Bangladeshi atheist blogger[87]
2015 – Steve Montador, Canadian ice hockey player (born 1979)
2017 – Stuart McLean, Canadian radio broadcaster (born 1948)[90]
1993 – Geoffrey Kondogbia, Central African footballer[66]
1995 – Megan Thee Stallion, American rapper[69]
1985 – Serkan Kırıntılı, Turkish footballer
1988 – Papu Gómez, Argentine footballer[62]
1997 – Derrick Jones Jr., American basketball player[70]
Quick Start
Our API is incredibly easy to use, check out the code samples below to get started:
Fetch Historical Events
All you need to do is send a request to https://today.zenquotes.io/api/[month]/[day]/[key] in order to generate a JSON array of historical events, including notable births and deaths. API data pulled from WikiPedia.
*[key] not required but recommended.
Sample Requests
https://today.zenquotes.io/api - Generate notable events, births, and deaths for current server time (UTC).
https://today.zenquotes.io/api/1/1 - Generate notable events, births, and deaths for January 1.
https://today.zenquotes.io/api/5/5 - Generate notable events, births, and deaths for May 5.
https://today.zenquotes.io/api/12/25 - Generate notable events, births, and deaths for December 25.
Response
The result data is formatted as a JSON array, grouped by event type.
{ "info":"OnThisDay API", "date":"April_20", "updated":"1615972324",
"data":{
"Events":[
{
"text":"1303 – The Sapienza University of Rome is instituted by a bull of Pope Boniface VIII.[1]",
"html":"<a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/1303\" title=\"1303\">1303</a> – The <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapienza_University_of_Rome\" title=\"Sapienza University of Rome\">Sapienza University of Rome</a> is instituted by a <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_bull\" title=\"Papal bull\">bull</a> of <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Boniface_VIII\" title=\"Pope Boniface VIII\">Pope Boniface VIII</a>."
},
//.. MORE DATA ..//
],
"Births":[
{
"text":"1494 – Johannes Agricola, German theologian and reformer (d. 1566)[8]",
"html":"<a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/1494\" title=\"1494\">1494</a> – <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Agricola\" title=\"Johannes Agricola\">Johannes Agricola</a>, German theologian and reformer (d. 1566)"
},
//.. MORE DATA ..//
],
"Deaths":[
{
"text":"689 – Cædwalla, king of Wessex (b. 659)[21]",
"html":"<a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/689\" title=\"689\">689</a> – <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A6dwalla_of_Wessex\" title=\"Cædwalla of Wessex\">Cædwalla</a>, king of <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Wessex\" title=\"Wessex\">Wessex</a> (b. 659)" },
//.. MORE DATA ..//
}
]
} }Usage Limits and Attribution
Requests are restricted to 5 per 30 second period, an API key or registered IP is required for unlimited access and to enable Access-Control-Allow-Origin headers. We require that you show attribution with a link back to https://today.zenquotes.io/ when using the free version of this API. Contact support@zenquotes.io to chat with our friendly dev team and get registered.
Historical event data provided by <a href="https://today.zenquotes.io/" target="_blank">ZenQuotes.io</a>