/year

February 8 in history

209 sourced entries recorded on February 8, from 120 CE to 2025 CE. Every line is quoted from the revision it came from.

Events

  • 421Constantius III is appointed co-emperor (Augustus) with his ineffectual brother-in-law, Honorius, and becomes the real ruler of the Western Roman Empire.source
  • 824The Tenchō era begins in Japan at the beginning of the reign of the Emperor Junna, bringing an end to the Kōnin era after 15 years.source
  • 1150Battle of Flochberg: German forces under Henry VI defeat the army of the House of Welf at Bopfingen. At the same time, King Conrad III besieges Welf forces at Braunschweig in Saxony, but he lifts the siege when confronted by Henry the Lion.source
  • 1261Egyptian politician Bahaa el-Din bin Hanna appointed Vizier of Egypt for the third term that will last until April 1278.source
  • 1302Yesün Temür becomes the Jinong (crown prince) of the Mongol Empire upon the death of his father Gammala, with authority over the Mongolian steppe north of the Gobi Desert. Yesün Temür will become the Emperor of China's Yuan dynasty in 1323 and reign for almost five years.source
  • 1310The English Parliament opens at Westminster, after being summoned on October 26. The Parliament will continue to meet until April 12.source
  • 1314February 8 (21 Shawwal 713 AH) – Sultan Nasr of Granada is forced to abdicate after 18 days as the ruler of the Emirate of Granada (in modern-day Spain) by his nephew, Abu'l-Walid Ismail I ibn Faraj, who is proclaimed at the Alhambra as the new Sultan.source
  • 1327At Opava (in the modern-day Czech Republic), the Polish Silesian noble Casimir I, Duke of Cieszyn swears homage to King John of Bohemia, "the Blind". In return, Casimir is granted Oświęcim (Auschwitz) as a fiefdom on February 23.source
  • 1402The Great Comet of 1402 is first observed by people living in the Northern Hemisphere of Earth. The comet, visible for eight days even in daylight, makes its closest approach to Earth on February 20. It is last seen on March 27.source
  • 1420Admiral Pietro Loredan of the Republic of Venice is assigned to carry out the conquest of Dalmatia (later part of Croatia) across the Adriatic Sea.source
  • 1426The Xuande Era begins in Ming dynasty China as the first Lunar New Year of the reign of the Emperor Xuanzong.source
  • 1433Vasily II, Grand Prince of Moscow, is married to Maria Yaroslavna of Borovsk, but at the wedding banquet, he enters a quarrel with his uncle, Yury Dmitrievich. The argument leads to the Battle on the River Klyazma on April 25.source
  • 1487Arrest warrants for treason are issued by the English Privy Council for Henry Bodrugan, John Beaumont and other persons accused of having traveled to the counties of Devon and Cornwall to "stir up sedition and rebellion.source
  • 1492Anne of Brittany is crowned queen of France.source
  • 1515King Henry VIII of England opens the English Parliament. Henry's chief advisor, Sir Thomas Nevill, is elected Speaker of the House of Commonssource
  • 1517Bernal Díaz del Castillo, a chronicler who documents the conquest of Mexico, sets out with the Hernández de Córdoba expedition from Jaruco. They arrive at Cape Catoche twenty-one days later, and are met with hostility by the natives. Henry's 25-year-old sister Anne of Navarre serves as the regent until 1518, when Henry reaches the age of majority.source
  • 1533(15th waxing of Tabaung 894 ME) King Min Bin of Burma begins receiving tributes from the local lords of Bengal.source
  • 1538The Holy League, an alliance of Christian nations (the Papal States and the Republic of Venice, the Knights Hospitaller of Malta, Spain and the Spanish-ruled Viceroyalty of Naples and Sicily), is agreed upon under the direction of Pope Paul III and Venetian Senator Alvise Badoer.source
  • 1541(13th day of 1st month of Tenbun 10) In Japan, the Siege of Yoshida-Kōriyama Castle, started by Amago Haruhisa of the 30,000 strong Amago clan the previous September in an attack against the Mōri clan led by Mōri Motonari and the Ōuchi clan, ends with a defeat of the attackers. The Amago clan sustains heavy losses, including the death of Amago Hisayuki.source
  • 1562Agnes Keith marries James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray at St Giles, Edinburgh.source
  • 15698 February – 21 March – Siege of Ranthamboresource
  • 1570An estimated 8.3 magnitude earthquake occurs in Concepción, Chile.source
  • 1575William I of Orange founds Leiden University.source
  • 1576Peter Wentworth, a Puritan M.P. of the Parliament of England, is arrested in the middle of giving an address criticizing "rumours and messages" given to suppress freedom of speech. When he says that "the devil was the first author of them, from whom proceedeth nothing but wickedness", he is interrupted and taken to the Tower of London for imprisonment.source
  • 1578The city council of Amsterdam in the Netherlands ratifies a treaty placing the city under the authority of Willem, Prince of Orange, and joining the States of Holland.source
  • 1581(7th waxing of Tabaung 942 ME) Prince Shin Thissa, later to become King of Burma in 1599 as Nyaungyan Min, receives his first executive job when he is appointed to be Governor of Nyaungyan by his father, King Bayinnaung.source
  • 1593Siege of Pyongyang (1593): A Japanese invasion is defeated in Pyongyang by a combined force of Korean and Ming troops.source
  • 1597Sir Anthony Shirley, England's "best-educated pirate", raids Jamaica.source
  • 1601Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, longtime favourite of Queen Elizabeth I of England, begins a rebellion against the Queen. The revolt is crushed the next day. The Earl of Essex and Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton are arrested and charged with treason. Essex confesses to the plot and then implicates his co-conspirators.source
  • 1622King James I of England dissolves the English Parliament.source
  • 1622King James I disbands Parliament.source
  • 1625Hafız Ahmed Pasha is designated as the new grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire by Sultan Murad IV, 11 days after the death of Çerkes Mehmed Pasha.source
  • 1631Council of Flanders reissues a 1605 clarification of their 1601 proclamation on the production and sale of brandywine, prohibiting innkeepers and tavernkeepers from distilling brandywine, and brandywine distillers from selling retail except to medical professionals.source
  • 1634The Fogd (bailiff) is transferred to the direct service of the king, and not under the jurisdiction of the local Lensmann (fief-holder).source
  • 1635French-Dutch treaty to partition the Spanish Netherlands, preliminary to the Franco-Spanish War (1635–59).source
  • 1637Louis XIII and his brother Gaston d’Orléans publicly reconcile their relationship, aided by Charles de Condren.source
  • 1644Li Zicheng declares the founding of the Shun dynasty in China, with himself as emperor.source
  • 1658The Swedish host reaches Zealand.source
  • 1663English pirates led by Christopher Myngs and Edward Mansvelt carry out the sack of Campeche in Mexico, looting the town during a two week occupation that ends on February 23.source
  • 1667The first part of the Rebuilding of London Act 1666, following the destruction by the Great Fire of London of 1666, goes into effect as royal assent is given to the Fire of London Disputes Act 1666, which establishes the Fire Court. The Court, sitting at Clifford's Inn near Fleet Street, hears cases starting on February 27 and continuing until the end of 1668.source
  • 1667The first part of the Rebuilding of London Act 1666, following last year's Great Fire of London, goes into effect as royal assent is given to the Fire of London Disputes Act 1666, which establishes the Fire Court. The Court, sitting at Clifford's Inn near Fleet Street, hears cases starting on February 27 and continuing until the end of 1668.source
  • 1684Prince Dumitrașcu Cantacuzino returns to the throne of the principality of Moldavia for a third reign but is overthrown 14 months later on June 25. In 1859, Moldavia will unite with neighboring Wallachia to form the Kingdom of Romania.source
  • 1690The Schenectady massacre takes place in the village of Schenectady in the colony of New York, when 200 Frenchmen, Mohawk and Algonquin warriors kill or capture most of the inhabitants in retaliation for the Lachine massacre.source
  • 1693The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia is granted a Royal charter.source
  • 1693the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, is granted a Royal charter from King William III and Queen Mary II of England.source
  • 1724Catherine I of Russia is officially named tsaritsa by her husband, Peter the Great.source
  • 1725(January 28 Old Style) Catherine I becomes Empress of Russia on the death of her husband, Peter the Great.source
  • 1726The Supreme Privy Council is established in Russia.source
  • 1750an earthquake is felt in London.source
  • 1761An earthquake in London breaks chimneys in Limehouse and Poplar.source
  • 1761an earthquake in London breaks chimneys in Limehouse and Poplar.source
  • 1765Isaac Barré, a member of the British House of Commons for Wycombe and a veteran of the French and Indian War in the British American colonies, coins the term "Sons of Liberty" in a rebuttal to Charles Townshend's derisive description of the American colonists during the introduction of the proposed Stamp Act. Barré notes that "They fled from your tyranny to a then uncultivated and unhospitable country... And yet, actuated by the principles of true English liberty, they met all these hardships with pleasure, compared with those they suffered in their own country, from the hands of those who should have been their friends." American colonists adopt the term for their own organization after reading the accounts of Barré's speech.source
  • 1765Nevil Maskelyne becomes Astronomer Royal.source
  • 1765Frederick the Great, the King of Prussia, issues a decree abolishing the historic punishments against unmarried women in Germany for "sex crimes", particularly the Hurenstrafen (literally "whore shaming") practices of public humiliation.source
  • 1771Jacob Benzon is deposed as Steward of Norway, and the position was vacant until 1809.source
  • 1773The Grand Council of Poland meets in Warsaw, summoned by a circular letter from King Stanisław August Poniatowski to respond to the Kingdom's threatened partition between three foreign powers.source
  • 1791The Bank of the United States, based in Philadelphia, is incorporated by the federal government with a 20-year charter and started with $10,000,000 capital.source
  • 1794Wreck of the Ten Sail on Grand Cayman.source
  • 1807Battle of Eylau: Napoleon fights a hard but inconclusive battle against the Russians under Bennigsen.source
  • 1807Lieutenant Thomas Laycock explores Van Diemen's Land, finding the Clyde Riversource
  • 1826Unitarian Bernardino Rivadavia becomes the first President of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, now Argentina.source
  • 1831French-born botanical explorer Aimé Bonpland leaves Paraguay for Argentina.source
  • 1836London and Greenwich Railway opens its first section, the first railway in London, England.source
  • 1837Richard Johnson becomes the only vice president of the United States chosen by the United States Senate.source
  • 1843The 1843 Guadeloupe Earthquake hits the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, killing 1,500–5,000 people.source
  • 1848The Treaty of Lima is signed.source
  • 1849The short-lived Roman Republic is proclaimed.source
  • 1850February 8–17 – Battle at Fort Utah: The Nauvoo Legion kills Timpanogos hostile to the Mormon settlement at Fort Utah on the orders of Brigham Young.source
  • 1855The Devil's Footprints, a series of mysteriously hoof-like marks, appear in the snow in Devon and continue throughout the countryside for over 100 mi.source
  • 1865February 8 & March 8 – Gregor Mendel reads his paper on Experiments on Plant Hybridization at two meetings of the Natural History Society of Brünn in Moravia, subsequently taken to be the origin of the theory of Mendelian inheritance.source
  • 18711871 French legislative election elects the first legislature of the French Third Republic; monarchists (Legitimists and Orleanists) favourable to peace with the German Empire gain a large majority. The National Assembly meets in Bordeaux.source
  • 1872Viceroy of India, Lord Mayo killed by a prisoner of Cellular Jail, Sher Ali Afridi.source
  • 1878The British fleet enters Turkish waters, and anchors off Istanbul; Russia threatens to occupy Istanbul, but does not carry out the threat.source
  • 1879A controversial umpiring decision at an international cricket match results in the Sydney Riot of 1879.source
  • 1879At a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute, engineer and inventor Sandford Fleming first proposes the global adoption of standard time.source
  • 1886February 6–9 – Seattle riot of 1886: Anti-Chinese sentiments result in riots in Seattle, Washington.source
  • 1886The West End Riots following a popular meeting in Trafalgar Square, London.source
  • 1887The Dawes Act, or the General Allotment Act, is enacted in the United States.source
  • 1889Nine people drown in a ferry accident at Pembroke Dock.source
  • 18908 February Wales 5–2 Ireland (in Shrewsbury)source
  • 1900Second Boer War: British troops defeat the Boers at Ladysmith, South Africa.source
  • 1904February 8–9 – Battle of Port Arthur: A surprise Japanese naval attack on Port Arthur (Lüshun) in Manchuria starts the Russo-Japanese War.source
  • 1904The Russo-Japanese War begins with a surprise Japanese attack on Port Arthur.source
  • 1905February 4–8: Argentine Revolution of 1905source
  • 1906Sidney Sonnino forms a new Cabinet, representing the Historical Right. Giolitti does not openly oppose Sonnino, but his followers of the Historical Left do.source
  • 1915The controversial film The Birth of a Nation, directed by D. W. Griffith, premieres in Los Angeles. It will be the highest-grossing film for around 25 years.source
  • 1922In the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the Cheka becomes the Gosudarstvennoye Politicheskoye Upravlenie (GPU), a section of the NKVD.source
  • 1922President of the United States Warren G. Harding introduces the first radio in the White House.source
  • 1927A cyclone makes landfall north of Cairns, causing flooding at Halifax Bay, Ingham, Innisfail, Tully, Cardwell and Townsville. Thirty-six people are killed, and twenty are missing.source
  • 1928Scottish-born inventor John Logie Baird broadcasts a transatlantic television signal from London to Hartsdale, New York.source
  • 1929A Belfast court sentences Fianna Fáil leader Éamon de Valera to one month in jail for illegally entering County Armagh.source
  • 1931A Desoutter aircraft of Dominion Airline crashed near Wairoa, killing all three people aboard. This is the first fatality on a scheduled air service in New Zealand.source
  • 1937February 8–27 – Spanish Civil War – Battle of Jarama: Nationalist and Republican troops fight to a stalemate.source
  • 1940February 2–11 – Scheduled dates for the 1940 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, cancelled in November 1939 due to WWII (originally allocated to Sapporo, Japan).source
  • 1941WWII: The U.S. House of Representatives passes the Lend-Lease Act.source
  • 1942António Óscar Carmona is reelected as president of Portugal for a third term.source
  • 1942Presidential election.source
  • 19442,765 drown when American submarine USS Snook torpedoes Japanese troop transport Lima Maru.source
  • 1945February 4–11 – WWII: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin hold the Yalta Conference.source
  • 1945The Alaska Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945, championed by charismatic native leader Elizabeth Peratrovich, is passed by the territorial Senate, after the legislature defeated a previous bill in 1943.source
  • 1947The Karlslust dance hall fire in Berlin, Germany, kills over 80 people.source
  • 1948Costa Rican general election, 1948source
  • 1950A payment is first made by Diners Club card, in New York, United States (the first use of a charge card).source
  • 1950The Stasi is founded in East Germany, and acts as a secret police until 1990.source
  • 1950Petrol rationing ends, nearly ten years after it was introduced during World War II.source
  • 1960Hollywood Walk of Fame is established.source
  • 1963Travel, financial and commercial transactions by United States citizens to Cuba are made illegal by the John F. Kennedy Administration.source
  • 1964January 29 – February 9 – The 1964 Winter Olympics are held in Innsbruck, Austria.source
  • 1968February 6–18 – The 1968 Winter Olympics are held in Grenoble, France.source
  • 1969The Allende meteorite explodes over Mexico.source
  • 1969After 147 years, the last weekly issue of The Saturday Evening Post is published in the United States. (The magazine is later briefly resurrected as a monthly magazine.)source
  • 1970The Taiyuan Prison incident begins.source
  • 19718 February-25 March - Operation Lam Son 719source
  • 1971A new stock market index called the Nasdaq Composite debuts in the United States.source
  • 1972February 3–13 – The 1972 Winter Olympics are held in Sapporo, Japan.source
  • 1973A military insurrection in Uruguay poses an institutional challenge to President Juan María Bordaberry.source
  • 1974After a record 84 days in orbit, the crew of Skylab 4 returns to Earth.source
  • 1978United States Senate proceedings are broadcast on radio for the first time.source
  • 1979The opening of Chongde Station and Heping Station of Taiwan Railways Administration in Xiulin Township, Hualien County.source
  • 1981In Greece, 20 fans of Olympiacos F.C. and 1 fan of AEK Athens die, while 54 are injured, after a stampede at the Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus, possibly because Gate 7 does not open immediately after the end of the game.source
  • 1984American Vice President George H. W. Bush begins a two-day official visit to Luxembourg.source
  • 1984February 8–19 – The 1984 Winter Olympics are held in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.source
  • 1985The first Brazilian artificial satellite, Brasilsat A1, is launched from the Kourou launch base in French Guiana.source
  • 1992The opening ceremony for the 1992 Winter Olympics is held in Albertville, France.source
  • 1993Gheorghe Vîlceanu replaces Doru Viorel Pană as prefect of Bucharest.source
  • 1996BirgenAir accident 189 deathssource
  • 2002February 8–24 – The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City, Utah.source
  • 2002February 8–24 - Moldova competes in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.source
  • 20092009 Liechtenstein general election: The Patriotic Union led by Klaus Tschütscher wins a majority of 13 seats in the Landtag.source
  • 2011strong wind killed 3 people, 46,000 people being left without electricity and closed Port of Klaipėdasource
  • 2018The Gambia rejoins the Commonwealth of Nations, after former President Yahya Jammeh withdrew from it five years ago calling it a "neocolonial institution", to rebuild the Gambia's image.source
  • 2021The government conservation department and conservation groups announce the successful reintroduction into the wild of two male and two female spotted hyenas in Zinave National Park for the first time in forty years.source
  • 2022Armed terrorists attack W National Park in the North of Benin. Of the eight people killed, five were park rangers, one was their French instructor, another a soldier, and the last an official. Ten people were injured.source
  • 2023February 1 – February 11: 2022 FIFA Club World Cup in Morocco.source
  • 20242024 Pakistani general election: Independent politicians, most of whom are members of the banned political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, win a plurality of seats in the National Assembly.source
  • 2025The 2025 Miss Pacific Islands pageant is held in Honiara.source

Births

  • 120Vettius Valens, Greek astrologer (died 175)source
  • 412Proclus, Greek Neoplatonist philosopher (died 485)source
  • 882Muhammad ibn Tughj al-Ikhshid, founder of the Ikhshidid Dynasty (died 946)source
  • 1191Yaroslav II, Grand Prince of Vladimir (died 1246)source
  • 1263Afonso of Portugal, Lord of Portalegre, Portuguese prince (died 1312)source
  • 1291Afonso IV ("the Brave"), king of Portugal (died 1357)source
  • 1405Constantine XI, last Byzantine Emperor (died 1453)source
  • 1487Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg (died 1550)source
  • 1514Daniele Barbaro, Venetian churchman, diplomat and scholar (died 1570)source
  • 1552Agrippa d'Aubigné, French poet and soldier (died 1630)source
  • 1552Agrippa d'Aubigné, poet, soldier, propagandist and chronicler (died 1630)source
  • 1554Marina de Escobar, Spanish nun (died 1633)source
  • 1577Robert Burton, English scholar at Oxford University (died 1640)source
  • 1589Peter Melander Graf von Holzappel, Protestant military leader in the Thirty Years' War (died 1648)source
  • 1591Guercino, Italian painter (died 1666)source
  • 1674Henry Sacheverell, churchman and politician (died 1724)source
  • 1677Jacques Cassini, French astronomer (died 1756)source
  • 1691John Adams Sr., British colonial farmer, minister, father of the U.S. president, John Adams (died 1761)source
  • 1700Daniel Bernoulli, Dutch-born Swiss mathematician (died 1782)source
  • 1706Luis de Córdova y Córdova, Spanish admiral (died 1796)source
  • 1720Emperor Sakuramachi of Japan (died 1750)source
  • 1783Charles-Marie Denys de Damrémont, French general, governor-general of French Algeria (died 1837)source
  • 1819John Ruskin, English writer, artist, and social critic (died 1900)source
  • 1820William Tecumseh Sherman, American Civil War general (died 1891)source
  • 1828Jules Verne, French science fiction author (died 1905)source
  • 1830Abdülaziz, Ottoman Sultan (died 1876)source
  • 1834Dmitri Mendeleev, Russian chemist (died 1907)source
  • 1850Kate Chopin, American writer (died 1904)source
  • 1856Alfredo Valenzuela Puelma (died 1909)source
  • 1876Paula Modersohn-Becker, German painter (died 1907)source
  • 1897Zakir Husain, Indian politician, 3rd President of India (died 1969)source
  • 1903Tunku Abdul Rahman, first Prime Minister of Malaysia (died 1990)source
  • 1921Lana Turner, American actress (died 1995)source
  • 1931James Dean, American actor (died 1955)source
  • 1931Shadia, actress (died 2017)source
  • 1959Mauricio Macri, President of Argentinasource
  • 1960Benigno Aquino III, 15th President of the Philippines (died 2021)source
  • 1972Big Show, American professional wrestlersource

Deaths

  • 538Severus of Antioch, patriarch of Antiochsource
  • 1204Alexios IV Angelos, Byzantine emperorsource
  • 1229Ali ibn Hanzala, Arab imam and theologiansource
  • 1245John of la Rochelle, French theologian (born 1200)source
  • 1250Fakhr ad-Din, Egyptian ruler and military leadersource
  • 1250William Longespée (the Younger), English knightsource
  • 1265Hulagu Khan of the Mongol Empire (born 1217)source
  • 1296King Przemysł II of Poland (born 1257)source
  • 1314Helen of Anjou, Queen of Serbia (born 1235)source
  • 1316After only 35 days of ruling the Delhi Sultanate as regent, Malik Kafur is assassinated by Sultan Alauddin's former bodyguards.source
  • 1411In Spain, a parliament of representatives from Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia is opened at Calatayud to elect a successor to King Martin of Aragon, who had died eight months earlier on May 31. Although James II is nominated by the castellan of Aragon to be the new King, the parliament declines to support him or any other candidate.source
  • 1537Saint Gerolamo Emiliani, Italian humanitarian (born 1481)source
  • 1587Mary, Queen of Scots, the monarch of Scotland from 1542 to 1567, is beheaded in front of 300 witnesses at Fotheringhay Castle, seven days after the signing of a death warrant by her cousin, Queen Elizabeth of England. Mary has been convicted of treason for her role in the Babington Plot, a conspiracy to overthrow the English government and to assassinate Elizabeth.source
  • 1587Mary, Queen of Scots (executed) (born 1542)source
  • 1587Mary, Queen of Scots (born 1542)source
  • 1587the captive Mary, Queen of Scots, is beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle in England on the orders of her cousin Elizabeth I of England for being implicated in the Babington Plot against her.source
  • 1599Robert Rollock, Scottish Presbyterian, first principal of the university of Edinburgh (born 1555)source
  • 1696Tsar Ivan V of Russia, Tsar of Russia from 1682 to 1696 (born 1666)source
  • 1725Emperor Peter I of Russia (born 1672)source
  • 1749Jan van Huysum, Dutch painter (born 1682)source
  • 1772Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, Princess of Wales (born 1719)source
  • 1784Christopher Bassett, Methodist exhorter, 30 (tuberculosis)source
  • 1860António Augusto Soares de Passos, poet (born 1826)source
  • 1869Karl Gildemeister, German architect (born 1820)source
  • 1874David Friedrich Strauss, German theologian (born 1808)source
  • 1884Cetshwayo kaMpande, Zulu king (born 1826)source
  • 1905John Leary, American businessman, politician, and civic leader (born 1837)source
  • 1921Peter Kropotkin, Russian anarchist (born 1842)source
  • 1926William Bateson, British geneticist (born 1861)source
  • 1935Max Liebermann, German painter (born 1847)source
  • 1957John von Neumann, Hungarian-born American mathematician (born 1903)source
  • 1968Civil rights movement in the United States: Orangeburg Massacre – A civil rights demonstration on a college campus to protest de facto racial segregation in South Carolina is broken up by highway patrolmen; three African American students are killed, the first instance of police killing student protestors at an American campus.source
  • 1986Hinton train collision: A Canadian National train heading westbound collides with a Via Rail train in Hinton, Alberta; 23 people are killed and 71 injured in the accident.source
  • 1998Enoch Powell, 85, British politician, classical scholar, author and philologist, Parkinson's disease.source
  • 2006February 7–11 people were killed when unidentified assailants attacked a village in the volatile western region of Côte d'Ivoire, 20 km from the town of Guiglo which has seen a series of deadly ethnically motivated clashes in 2005 and violent anti-UN protests in January 2006.source