February 15 holidays in 2019

Historical Events on February 15

• 1764: Louis City is founded in what was once a part of Spanish Louisiana – today, that area is the state of Missouri.
• 1862: General Ulysses S. Grant leads Union forces on an attack upon Fort Donelson in Tennessee.
• 1870: In New Jersey, the Stevens Institute of Technology is officially founded. This university is the first one in the United States to offer a Bachelor of Engineering degree for Mechanical Engineering.
• 1879: Signed into law by Rutherford B. Hayes, a new bill allows women to argue cases before the U.S Supreme Court.
• 1898: The USS Maine sinks in Havana Harbor in Cuba; As a result, over 270 people are killed and the U.S declares war on Spain.
• 1909: In Acapulco, Mexico a fire breaks out in the Flores Theater. Approximately 250 people are killed.
• 1933: Giuseppe Zangara tries to assassinate United States President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt in Miami. Instead, he shoots the Mayor of Chicago, Anton J. Cermak. Mayor Cermak will die from these wound on March 6^th of that very same year.
• 1942: Singapore falls during World War II when British General Percival surrenders to Japanese force. Over 80,000 soldiers from India, Australia and the U.K become POWs.
• 1992: Convicted serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is given a life sentence.
• 2001: The initial sequencing of the human genome is published in Nature for the first time.
• 2003: An estimated 8 to 29 million people in 600 cities worldwide participate in protests against the Iraq war.
• 2013: A meteor blows up over Russia causing panic, blowing out windows and injuring approximately fifteen hundred people.
• 2013: Asteroid 2012 DA14 becomes one of the closest passes by an asteroid its size in history.

Famous Birthdays on February 15

• American businessman and founder of Tiffany & Co., Charles Lewis Tiffany is born in 1812.
• American activist and suffragist, Susan B. Anthony is born in 1820.
• American lawyer, politician and Nobel Prize laureate, Elihu Root is born in 1845.
• British-Irish captain and polar explorer, Ernest Shackleton is born in 1874.
• American animator and screenwriter, Matt Groening is born in 1954.
• American model and author, Janice Dickinson is born in 1955.
• American actor Christopher McDonald is born in 1955.
• American comedian and actor, Chris Farley is born in 1964.
• American actress and producer, Renee O’Connor is born in 1971.
• American singer-songwriter Brandon Boyd is born in 1976.