13 Feb History.

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Events, deaths, births, of FEB 13
[For Feb 13 Julian go to Gregorian date: 1583~1699: Feb 23 — 1700s: Feb 24 — 1800s: Feb 25 — 1900~2099: Feb 26]

ALTERNATE SITES ALL FOR 030213 ANY DAY OF THE YEAR IN HISTORY ART “4” FEB 13

On a February 13:
2002 Heard on the radio: “The thirty-second Berlin Film Festival opens today.” [first impression: it lasts only half-a-minute!]
2001 In Afghanistan, Bamiyan falls to fighters of Hezb-e-Wahadat, one of several small parties that make up the opposition, led by ousted President Burhanuddin Rabbani. The Taliban, which rules 95% of Afghanistan now sees the communication between Mazar-e-Sharif and Kabul cut 135 km north of Kabul, at Doab-e-Belala, where the fighting now moves.
1998 El aeropuerto Santo Dumont, de Río de Janeiro, queda totalmente destruido en pocas horas tras haberse declarado un incendio que acabó con el edificio central inaugurado en 1936.
1998: 300 profesores, artistas, intelectuales y personajes públicos firman el Manifiesto por la Democracia en Euskadi (País Vasco), en el que rechazan cualquier clase de negociación con la banda terrorista ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna).
1996 CompuServe reports that most of the two hundred Internet discussion groups it banned from its service in December have been reinstated. These discussion groups had been condemned by German authorities for promoting hate-crimes and neo-Nazi propaganda.

1996 World chess champion Garry Kasparov, with Black, after the Alapin variation of the Sicilian opening, draws his third game against the IBM supercomputer "Deep Blue," leaving the six-game match in Philadelphia tied after three games. (Kasparov loses on 10 Feb Game 1 — wins on 11 Feb Game 2 — draws on 13 Feb Game 3 — draws on 14 Feb Game 4 — wins on 16 Feb Game 5 — wins on 17 Feb Game 6) The game:
1. e4 c5 2. c3 d5 3. exd5 Qxd5 4. d4 Nf6 5. Nf3 Bg4 6. Be2 e6 7. O-O Nc6 8. Be3 cxd4 9. cxd4 Bb4 10. a3 Ba5 11. Nc3 Qd6 12. Ne5 Bxe2 13. Qxe2 Bxc3 14. bxc3 Nxe5 15. Bf4 Nf3+ 16. Qxf3 Qd5 17. Qd3 Rc8 18. Rfc1 Qc4 19. Qxc4 Rxc4
20. Rcb1 b6 21. Bb8 Ra4 22. Rb4 Ra5 23. Rc4 O-O 24. Bd6 Ra8 25. Rc6 b5 26. Kf1 Ra4 27. Rb1 a6 28. Ke2 h5 29. Kd3 Rd8 30. Be7 Rd7 31. Bxf6 gxf6 32. Rb3 Kg7 33. Ke3 e5 34. g3 exd4+ 35. cxd4 Re7+ 36. Kf3 Rd7 37. Rd3 Raxd4 38. Rxd4 Rxd4 39. Rxa6 b4. White agrees to the draw requested by Black

1992 El Congreso de los Diputados español aprueba la Ley de Seguridad Ciudadana por 190 votos a favor (PSOE, CIU y PNV), 126 en contra (PP, IU, CDS y Grupo Mixto) y dos abstenciones.

^ 1991 Long-lost Twain manuscript authenticated Sotheby's announces the discovery of a long-lost manuscript of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. The manuscript was the first half of Twain's original version, heavily corrected in his own handwriting, which had been missing for more than a century. The manuscript surfaced when a 62-year-old Los Angeles librarian finally got around to sorting through some old papers in six trunks sent to her when an aunt from upstate New York died. Twain, it turned out, had sent the second half of the manuscript to the librarian's grandfather, James Gluck, who had solicited it for the Buffalo and Erie Library in Buffalo, New York, where Twain had once lived. At the time, Twain was unable to find the entire manuscript, and it was presumed lost for more than 100 years. However, it turned out that Twain did eventually find the manuscript and send it to Gluck. A custody war over the manuscript ensued, with the sisters, the library, and the Mark Twain Papers Projects in Berkeley, California, squabbling over rights to the papers. Ultimately, the three parties struck a deal: The library would hold the rights to the physical papers, but all three parties would share in the publication rights. Because the novel contained previously unpublished material, and showed Twain's edits, interest in publishing the manuscript was high, and in 1995 Random House won the rights to publish the book for an undisclosed price. TWAIN ONLINE:
The Pirates of Penzance The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1st ed.) Huckleberry Finn The Adventures of Tom Sawyer The Adventures of Tom Sawyer The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Tom Sawyer Tom Sawyer, Detective Tom Sawyer Abroad The Prince and the Pauper The Prince and the Pauper The Prince and the Pauper Extracts From Adam's Diary Extracts From Adam's Diary Extracts From Adam's Diary What is Man? and Other Essays What is Man? and Other Essays What Is Man? Songs of a Savoyard	A Dog's Tale Eve's Diary A Horse's Tale A Horse's Tale A Horse's Tale The Innocents Abroad A Tramp Abroad The Bridge-Builders Life on the Mississippi Life on the Mississippi Life on the Mississippi Life on the Mississippi The Mysterious Stranger The Mysterious Stranger Roughing It Roughing It A Tramp Abroad 1601 Concerning the Jews Concerning the Jews Christian Science	A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court A Connecticut Yankee The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, and Other Sketches Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc volume 1 / volume 2 A Double-Barrelled Detective Story The $30,000 Bequest, and Other Stories The $30,000 Bequest, and Other Stories The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg Extract From Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven Captain Stormfield Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World Is Shakespeare Dead? From My Autobiography Is Shakespeare Dead? From My Autobiography Chapters From My Autobiography King Leopold's Soliloquy: A Defense of His Congo Rule Mark Twain's Speeches translator of Hoffmann's Struwwelpeter (in German, English, and French) Engaged

^ 1990 Drexel files for bankruptcy
Drexel Burnham’s head of bond trading, Michael Milken, had helped the firm prosper by focusing his efforts on the junk bond market. A long ignored sector of the investment industry, junk bonds focused on the buying and selling of high-risk, high-yield bonds issued by fledgling companies, as well as concerns with poor credit ratings. By the 1980s, junk bonds were booming, thanks in large part to the troubled savings and loan industry, which turned to the bonds in hopes of boosting their sagging fortunes. Drexel, which, thanks to Milken, dominated this market, fast became a Wall Street heavyweight. But, the firm's woes began in 1988 as the economy, which had boomed its way through the middle of the decade, turned sour. Prices of junk bonds plunged, which not only created a nasty financial mess, but also focused a spotlight on Milken and Drexel's less than savory practices. The government initiated a probe into the firm and its star trader: the investigation found Milken guilty of various securities infractions, including skimming generous amounts from depositors' funds; it also revealed a rat's nest of corruption and shady deals at Drexel Burnham. A trial ensued and the government slapped the firm with $650 million in fines. Coupled with the Drexel Burnham's sizable, and expensive, backstock of junk bonds, the fines placed a considerable burden on the firm's finances. By early 1990 Drexel had run out of funds and, on this day in 1990, filed for bankruptcy.

1989 Kidnapped Belgian Premier Vanden Boeynants freed
1989 Cumbre de presidentes centroamericanos en El Salvador, en un clima de desánimo.
1988 European Community plans removal of inner boundaries for 1 January 1992
1988 Se produce la colisión de barcos de guerra norteamericanos con otros soviéticos en aguas jurisdiccionales de la URSS, en el mar Negro.
1985 Polish police arrests 7 Solidarity leaders
1985 Dow Jones closes at 1297.92 (record high) after topping 1300 earlier in the day.

^ 1984 Chernenko becomes Soviet ruler.
Following the death of Yuri Andropov four days earlier, Konstantin Chernenko takes over as the general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, the ruling position in the Soviet Union. Chernenko was the last of the Russian communist "hard-liners" prior to the ascension to power of the reform-minded Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985. Before becoming general secretary, Chernenko was little known outside of the Soviet Union. Born in 1911, he became active in communist organizations in Russia during the late-1920s. In 1931, he formally joined the Soviet Communist Party. He became something of an expert in the area of propaganda and held several lower level positions in the government during the 1940s. His fortunes changed dramatically after he became acquainted with Leonid Brezhnev in the 1950s. Brezhnev took Chernenko under his wing and as Brezhnev rose through the party hierarchy during the 1950s and 1960s, Chernenko climbed to higher levels in the Soviet bureaucracy. Brezhnev became general secretary in 1964 and served until his death in 1982. Chernenko seemed a natural choice to succeed his former mentor, but reformists within the Soviet government turned instead to Andropov. When Andropov became ill and died just 15 months later, Chernenko's supporters overrode the reformists and he took over as general secretary.
Chernenko's brief rule was characterized by a return to the hard-line policies of Brezhnev. He pulled back from supporting the few economic and political reforms instituted by Andropov. Russian foreign policy took on a harsher tone, and the Soviets retaliated for the US boycott of the 1980 Olympic games held in Moscow by refusing to attend the 1984 summer games in Los Angeles. Declining health during the last several months of his rule, however, prevented Chernenko from making much of an impression either domestically or internationally. When he died on March 10, 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev took power and began his program of dramatic economic reforms and his efforts at improving relations with the United States.

1984 6 year old Texan Stormie Jones gets first heart and liver transplant.
1981 Longest sentence published by New York Times—1286 words.
1975 Cyprus premier Denktash proclaims Turkish-Cypriot Federation.
1974 Dissident Nobel writer Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn expelled from USSR.
1973 US dollar devalues 10%
1973 The National Council of US Catholic Bishops announced that anyone undergoing or performing an abortion would be excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church.
1971 12'000 South Vietnamese troops cross into Laos.
1969 Suriname government of Pengel resigns.

^ 1968 US sends 10'500 additional soldiers to Vietnam
As an emergency measure in response to the 1968 communist Tet Offensive, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara approves the deployment of 10,500 troops to cope with threats of a second offensive. The Joint Chiefs of Staff, who had argued against dispatching any reinforcements at the time because it would seriously deplete the strategic reserve, immediately sent McNamara a memorandum asking that 46'300 reservists and former servicemen be activated. Not wanting to test public opinion on what would no doubt be a controversial move, Johnson consigned the issue of the reservists to "study." Ultimately, he decided against a large-scale activation of the reserve forces.

1967 Descubierto en la Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid un volumen de casi 700 páginas con anotaciones manuscritas y dibujos a mano de ] Leonardo da Vinci.

^ 1965 US bombing campaign of North Vietnam ordered.
President Lyndon B. Johnson decides to undertake the sustained bombing of North Vietnam that he and his advisers have been contemplating for a year. Earlier in the month, the president had ordered Operation Flaming Dart in response to communist attacks on US installations in South Vietnam. These retaliatory raids did not have the desired effect of causing the North Vietnamese to cease support of Viet Cong forces in South Vietnam, and out of frustration, Johnson turned to a more extensive use of airpower. Called Operation Rolling Thunder, the bombing campaign was designed to interdict North Vietnamese transportation routes in the southern part of North Vietnam and slow infiltration of personnel and supplies into South Vietnam. The first Rolling Thunder mission took place on 02 March 1965, when 100 US Air Force and Republic of Vietnam Air Force (VNAF) planes struck the Xom Bang ammunition dump 100 miles southeast of Hanoi. In July 1966, Rolling Thunder was expanded to include North Vietnamese ammunition dumps and oil storage facilities, and in the spring of 1967, it was further expanded to include power plants, factories, and airfields in the Hanoi-Haiphong area. Operation Rolling Thunder was closely controlled by the White House and at times targets were personally selected by President Johnson. From 1965 to 1968, about 643'000 tons of bombs were dropped on North Vietnam. A total of nearly 900 US aircraft were lost during Operation Rolling Thunder. The operation continued, with occasional suspensions, until President Johnson, under increasing domestic political pressure, halted it on 31 October 1968.

1960 France performs its first nuclear test, at Reggane Proving Grounds Algeria
1955 Israel acquires 4 of 7 Dead Sea scrolls.
1947 El Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU acuerda la creación de una Comisión de Desarme Mundial.
1943 German assault on Sidi Bou Zid Tunisia, General Eisenhower visits front.
1942 Hitler's Operation Seelöwe (invasion of England) cancelled.
1936 Léon Blum, destacado parlamentario socialista francés, es agredido por jóvenes de extrema derecha y resulta herido en la cara y el cráneo.
1935 A jury in Flemington, N.J., finds Bruno Richard Hauptmann guilty of first-degree murder in the kidnap-death of the infant son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. Hauptmann would be sentenced to death and, on 3 April 1936, executed. [New York Times headline the next day >]
1934 Austrian Dollfuss government bans socialistic party.
1927 Uprising against Portuguese regime of General Carmona defeated.
1924 King Tut's tomb is opened.
1920 League of Nations recognizes perpetual neutrality of Switzerland.
1920 Switzerland rejoins League of Nations.
1917 Mata-Hari es detenida por el servicio de espionaje francés, en un hotel de París, adonde había llegado procedente de Madrid.
1916 I Guerra Mundial: Los aliados se comprometen a garantizar en el futuro la neutralidad de Bélgica y a reintegrar a ese país los territorios anexionados por Alemania.
1910 Seis mil soldados chinos, instruídos por oficiales extranjeros, se indisciplinan y saquean Cantón.
1907 English suffragettes storm British Parliament and 60 women are arrested.

1900 El Parlamento alemán (Reichstag) ratifica los tratados con la isla de Tonga y las islas Samoa.
1895 Guerra chino-japonesa. Los restos de la flota china capitulan frente a los japoneses.
1880 Alfonso XII, rey de España, firma la Ley de abolición de la esclavitud.
1863 Skirmish near Washington, North Carolina
1862 Siege of Ft Donelson TN
1861 Abraham Lincoln declared President
1861 Colonel Bernard Irwin attacks and defeats hostile Chiricahua Indians
1860 King Basse Kajuara departs Boni South-Celebes
1858 Sir Richard Burton and John Speake explore Lake Tanganyika, Africa.
1839 Frederic Chopin, acompañado de "George Sand", abandona la isla de Mallorca, donde había permanecido desde noviembre del año anterior, a causa de su maltrecha salud.
1832 First appearance of cholera in London

^ 1822 Missouri help wanted ad for western fur trappers
Missouri Lieutenant Governor William Ashley places an advertisement in the Missouri Gazette and Public Advisor seeking 100 "enterprising young men" to engage in fur trading on the Upper Missouri. A Virginia native, Ashley had moved to Missouri just after President Thomas Jefferson concluded the Louisiana Purchase from France, which made the region American territory. Young and eager to make a name for himself, he entered into a partnership with Andrew Henry to begin manufacturing gunpowder and lead, two commodities that were in short supply in the new nation. During the War of 1812, Ashley's business prospered, and he also joined the Missouri militia, where he eventually earned the rank of general. When Missouri became a state in 1822, he used his business and military fame to win election as lieutenant governor.
Casting about for opportunities to enrich both Missouri and his own pocketbook, Ashley realized that St. Louis was ideally situated to exploit the fur trade on the upper Missouri River. Ashley recruited his old friend Henry as a partner, and the two men placed their famous advertisement asking for robust, adventurous young men to come west to join a fur trapping expedition up the Missouri. Among the scores who responded and came to St. Louis were such future legendary mountain men as Jedediah Smith and Jim Bridger, as well as the famous river man Mike Fink. In time, these men and dozens of others would uncover many of the geographic mysteries of the Far West.

1812 El general Manuel Belgrano crea en Rosario la actual bandera argentina para motivar a sus tropas en la lucha independentista.
1809 French take Saragossa, Spain after a long siege
1777 Marquis de Sade arrested without charge, imprisoned in Vincennes fortress
1755 Rebel leader Mangkubuni signs Treaty of Gianti Java

^ 1689 William and Mary proclaimed sovereigns of Britain.
Following Britain’s bloodless Glorious Revolution, Mary, the daughter of the deposed king, and William of Orange, her husband, are proclaimed joint sovereigns of Great Britain under the new Bill of Rights. William, a Dutch prince, had married Mary, the daughter of the future King James II, in 1677. After James’s succession to the English throne in 1685, the Protestant William kept in close contact with the opposition to the Catholic king. After the birth of an heir to James in 1688, seven high-ranking members of Parliament invited William and Mary to England. William landed at Torbay in Devonshire with an army of 15'000 men and advanced to London, meeting no opposition from James’s army, who had deserted the king. James himself was allowed to escape to France, and in February of 1689, Parliament offered the crown jointly to William and Mary, provided they accept the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights, which greatly limited royal power and broadened constitutional law, granted Parliament control of finances and the army, and prescribed the future line of royal succession, declaring that no Roman Catholic would ever be sovereign of England. The document also stated that Englishmen possessed certain inviolable civil and political rights, a political concept that was a major influence in the composition of the US Bill of Rights, composed almost exactly a century later. The Glorious Revolution, the ascension of William and Mary, and the acceptance of the Bill of Rights were decisive victories for Parliament in its long struggle against the crown.

1678 Tycho Brahe first sketches "Tychonic system" of solar system
1668 Treaty of Lisbon Spain recognizes Portugal.
1635 Oldest US public institution, Boston Latin School founded
1633 Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei arrived in Rome for trial before Inquisition for professing belief that earth revolves around the Sun.
1542 Descubrimiento del río Amazonas por Gonzalo Pizarro y Francisco de Orellana, tras una épica travesía.
1349 Jews are expelled from Burgsordf Switzerland

TO THE TOP

^ Deaths which occurred on a February 13:
2003 Walt Whitman Rostow [1962 photo >], born on 07 October 1916 to Socialist Jewish Russian immigrant parents (who gave their sons the names of famous US persons), US economic historian, bureaucrat, national security official from 1961 to January 1969, a Vietnam hawk like his less influential brother Eugene Victor Debs Rostow [25 Aug 1913 – 25 Nov 2002], Undersecretary of State during the Johnson presidency. The third brother is Ralph Waldo Emerson Rostow. Walt Rostow was the author of more than 30 books, including
British trade fluctuations, 1868-1896 : a chronicle and a commentary (1981) — Comparison of Russian and Chinese societies under communism (1955) — Diffusion of power; an essay in recent history (1972) — Division of Europe after World War II, 1946 (1981) — Eisenhower, Kennedy, and foreign aid (1985) — Essays on a half-century : ideas, policies, and action (1988) — Europe after Stalin : Eisenhower's three decisions of March 11, 1953 (1982) — Great population spike and after : reflections on the 21st century (1998) — Great transition: tasks of the first and second post-war generations (1967) — History, policy, and economic theory : essays in interaction (1990) — Politics and the stages of growth (1971) — Pre-invasion bombing strategy : General Eisenhower's decision of March 25, 1944 (1981) — Process of economic growth. (1985) — Prospects for the world economy (1983) — Regional organization: a planners perspective. (1965) — Rich countries and poor countries : reflections on the past, lessons for the future (1987) — Stages of economic growth, a non-Communist manifesto. (1960; economic growth is a multistaged process, stimulated by desire for improvement of life, as well as profits; modernization has a crucial takeoff period of rapid growth stimulated by expansion in a few crucial segments of the economy) — Theorists of economic growth from David Hume to the present : with a perspective on the next century (1990) — Two major Communist offensives (1964) — United States and the regional organization of Asia and the Pacific, 1965-1985 (1986) — United States in the world arena; an essay in recent history (1960) — View from the seventh floor (1964) — World economy : history & prospect ((1978) — British Economy of the Nineteenth Century : Essays (1948) — How It All Began: Origins of the Modern Economy (1975) — Barbaric Counter-Revolution: Cause and Cure (1983) — Getting from Here to There (1978) — Why the Poor Get Richer and the Rich Slow Down: Essays in the Marshallian Long Period (1980) — Open Skies: Eisenhower's Proposal of July 21, 1955 (1982) — Concept and Controversy: Sixty Years of Taking Ideas to Market (Jun 2003).
2003 James Thomas Flexner, born on 13 January 1908, US author of 26 books including his autobiography Maverick's Progress (1996), Doctors on Horseback: Pioneers of American Medicine (1937, includes a section on his father, a pathologist who developed a cure for spinal meningitis), America's Old Masters (1939) — First flowers of our wilderness; American painting, the colonial period (1947) — Double adventure of John Singleton Copley, first major painter of the new world (1969) — Nineteenth century American painting. — Pocket history of American painting. — That wilder image; the painting of America's native school from Thomas Cole to Winslow Homer (1962) — Gilbert Stuart; a great life in brief (1955) — On desperate seas : a biography of Gilbert Stuart — George Washington and the new nation, 1783-1793 (1970) — George Washington: anguish and farewell, 1793-1799 (1972) — George Washington in the American Revolution, 1775-1783 (1968) — George Washington: the forge of experience, 1732-1775 (1965) — The Traitor and the Spy: Benedict Arnold and John André (1953) — Washington: the Indispensable Man (1974) — Young Hamilton : a biography (1978) — States Dyckman : American loyalist (1980) — American saga : the story of Helen Thomas and Simon Flexner — Light of distant skies, 1760-1835 (1954) — Lord of the Mohawks : a biography of Sir William Johnson — Steamboats come true; American inventors in action (1944) — Poems of the twenties (1991)
2003 Robert St. John, born on 09 March 1902, he worked for many news organizations before losing his NBC job in the Red Scare of the 50's and becoming a full-time author. Among his 23 books are Foreign correspondent — This was my world — Encyclopedia of radio and television broadcasting; the man behind the microphone — Jews, justice, and Judaism; a narrative of the role played by the Bible people in shaping American history — Shalom means peace — Roll, Jordan, roll; the life story of a river and its people — They came from everywhere; twelve who helped mold modern Israel. — Ben~Gurion — Eban — Tongue of the prophets; the life story of Eliezer Ben Yehuda — Boss, the story of Gamal Abdel Nasser — Man who played God — Once around lightly — Through Malan's Africa — South America more or less — and two on Yugoslavia: From the Land of the Silent People (1942) and The Silent People Speak (1948)
2002 Three Palestinian policemen, by Israeli gunfire, as an Israeli bulldozer destroys their post in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip.
2002 Two Palestinian policemen, by Israeli gunfire, in Beit Hanoun, Gaza Strip.
2001 At least 402 persons by a 6.6 magnitude earthquake in El Salvador, one month to the day after a magnitude 7.6 quake killed more than 800 there. — dos millares resultan heridas.
2001 Bilal Awad, 13, Palestinian shot in the chest without warning by Israeli soldiers as he and some friends walked along the main road in central Gaza, about 500 m from an Israeli army outpost (according to Palestinian witnesses; the Israeli army denies it). The total is now 391 people(including fewer than 50 Israeli Jews) killed in nearly five months of the al-Aqsa intifada.
2001 Massoud Ayyad, 54, by rockets from Israeli helicopters as he drove on the outskirts of the Jebaliya refugee camp, just outside Gaza City. Ayyad was an officer in the Palestinian Force 17, who Israel says was guilty of attacks on Israelis.

2000 Charles M. Schulz
dies at 02:45 UT,
on the day he had chosen for the publication of his last (Sunday) "Peanuts" strip [below]
[above: his last daily strip 000103]
after being diagnosed with colon cancer and suffering a series of small strokes
during emergency abdominal surgery in November 1999.
He was 77 (born 26 Nov 1922).

2000 Nicholas Kunselman, 15, and Stephanie Hart, 16, his girlfriend, sophomores at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, shot shortly before midnight at a Subway shop where Kunselman worked. Hart apparently arrived sometime after closing. Their bodies are found behind a counter at 00:45 the next day. The sandwich restaurant is two blocks from the school, where a massacre took place on 20 April 1999.

^ 1991: 334 Iraqi civilians in air-raid shelter, by US missile
During the Persian Gulf War, 334 Iraqi civilians, mostly women and children, are killed during a US laser-guided missile attack on a fortified bunker in the center of Baghdad, the capital of Iraq. The day before, the US-led coalition had commenced a massive bombardment of Baghdad as part of the final phase of the six-week air war against Iraq. The United States initially denied reports of heavy civilian casualties during this phase of the bombing campaign, claiming that the fortified structure destroyed was a military facility, nor an air raid shelter, as Iraq maintained. Eventually, the US military admitted that on the night of its destruction the facility was used as a civilian shelter, but claimed that it generally served as a military intelligence center. The US officials also noted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s reported use of "human shields" to help protect his military infrastructure from US bombing and missile attacks.

1990 50 killed in Inkatha–UDF battle in Natal, South Africa
1989 Patients at Encuentros hospital, raped, killed by Salvadoran army.
1985 Eduardo Carranza Fernández, poeta y escritor colombiano.
1983: 64 jóvenes italianos en el incendio de un cine en Turín.
1976 General Murtala Mohammed head of Nigeria, killed during a coup
1956 Lukasiewicz, mathematician.
1953 William C. Mack, 94, of Mack Trucks Inc. Mack trucks, with their hood-mounted bulldogs, are a symbol of durability and toughness in the commercial vehicle industry.
1952 Carlos Lozano y Lozano, político colombiano.
1947 Hecke, mathematician.
1945 The last of some 159'000 killed in 49-day battle for Budapest as it ends with USSR conquering it from Germany.

^ 1945 Some 35'000 burned or asphyxiated as Allied planes fire bomb Dresden Germany; in the night of the 13th to the 14th. [before and after photos >].

      On the evening of 13 February 1945, the most controversial episode in the Allied air war against Germany begins as hundreds of British bombers loaded with incendiaries and high-explosive bombs descend on Dresden, a historic city located in eastern Germany. Dresden was neither a war production city nor a major industrial center, and before the massive air raid of February 1945 it had not suffered a major Allied attack. By February 15, the city was a smoldering ruin and an unknown number of civilians — somewhere between 35,000 and 135,000 — were dead.

      By February 1945, the jaws of the Allied vise were closing shut on Nazi Germany. In the west, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's desperate counteroffensive against the Allies in Belgium's Ardennes forest had ended in total failure. In the east, the Red Army had captured East Prussia and reached the Oder River — less than 50 miles from Berlin. The once-proud Luftwaffe was a skeleton of an air fleet, and the Allies ruled the skies over Europe, dropping thousands of tons of bombs on Germany every day.

      From February 4 to February 11, the "Big Three" Allied leaders — US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin — met at Yalta in the USSR and compromised on their visions of the postwar world. Other than deciding on what German territory would be conquered by which power, little time was given to military considerations in the war against the Third Reich. Churchill and Roosevelt, however, did promise Stalin to continue their bombing campaign against eastern Germany in preparation for the advancing Soviet forces.

      An important aspect of the Allied air war against Germany involved what is known as "area" or "saturation" bombing. In area bombing, all enemy industry — not just war munitions — is targeted, and civilian portions of cities are obliterated along with troop areas. Before the advent of the atomic bomb, cities were most effectively destroyed through the use of incendiary bombs that caused unnaturally fierce fires in the enemy cities. Such attacks, Allied command reasoned, would ravage the German economy, break the morale of the German people, and force an early surrender.

      Germany was the first to employ area bombing tactics during its assault on Poland in September 1939. In 1940, during the Battle of Britain, the Luftwaffe failed to bring Britain to it knees by targeting London and other heavily populated areas with area bombing attacks. Stung but unbowed, the RAF avenged the bombings of London and Coventry in 1942 when it launched the first of many saturation bombing attacks against Germany. In 1944, Adolf Hitler named the world's first long-range offensive missile V-1, after Vergeltung, the German word for "vengeance" and an expression of his desire to repay Britain for its devastating bombardment of Germany.

      The Allies never overtly admitted that they were engaged in saturation bombing; specific military targets were announced in relation to every attack. It was but a veneer, however, and few mourned the destruction of German cities that built the weapons and bred the soldiers that by 1945 had killed more than 10 million Allied soldiers and even more civilians. The firebombing of Dresden would prove the exception to this rule.

      Before World War II, Dresden was called "the Florence of the Elbe" and was regarded as one the world's most beautiful cities for its architecture and museums. Although no German city remained isolated from Hitler's war machine, Dresden's contribution to the war effort was minimal compared with other German cities.

      In February 1945, refugees fleeing the Russian advance in the east took refuge there. As Hitler had thrown much of his surviving forces into a defense of Berlin in the north, city defenses were minimal, and the Russians would have had little trouble capturing Dresden. It seemed an unlikely target for a major Allied air attack.

      On the night of February 13, hundreds of RAF bombers descended on Dresden in two waves, dropping their lethal cargo indiscriminately over the city. The city's air defenses were so weak that only six Lancaster bombers were shot down. By the morning, some 800 British bombers had dropped 1478 tons of high-explosive bombs and 1182 tons of incendiaries on Dresden, creating a great firestorm that destroyed most of the city and killed numerous civilians.

      Later that day, as survivors made their way out of the smoldering city, over 300 US bombers began bombing Dresden's railways, bridges, and transportation facilities, killing thousands more. On February 15, another 200 US bombers continued their assault on the city's infrastructure. All told, the bombers of the US Eighth Air Force dropped 954 tons of high-explosive bombs and 294 tons of incendiaries on Dresden. Later, the Eighth Air Force would drop 2,800 more tons of bombs on Dresden in three other attacks before the war's end.

      The Allies claimed that by bombing Dresden, they were disrupting important lines of communication that would have hindered the Soviet offensive. This may be true, but there is no disputing that the British incendiary attack on the night of February 13-14 was conducted also, if not primarily, for the purpose of terrorizing the German population and forcing an early surrender. It should be noted that Germany, unlike Japan later in the year, did not surrender until nearly the last possible moment — when its capital had fallen and its Führer was dead.

      Because there were an unknown number of refugees in Dresden at the time of the Allied attack, it is impossible to know exactly how many civilians perished. After the war, investigators from various countries, and with varying political motives, calculated the number of civilians killed to be as little as 8,000 to more than 200'000. Estimates today range from 35'000 to 135'000. Looking at photographs of Dresden after the attack, in which the few buildings still standing are completely gutted, it seems improbable that only 35,000 of the million or so people in Dresden that night were killed. Cellars and other shelters would have been meager protection against a firestorm that blew poisonous air heated to hundreds of degrees Fahrenheit across the city at hurricane-like speeds.

      At the end of the war, Dresden was so badly damaged that the city was basically leveled. A handful of historic buildings — the Zwinger Palace, the Dresden State Opera House, and several fine churches — were carefully reconstructed out of the rubble, but the rest of the city was rebuilt with plain modern buildings. American author Kurt Vonnegut, who was a prisoner of war in Dresden during the Allied attack and tackled the controversial event in his book Slaughterhouse-Five, said of postwar Dresden, "It looked a lot like Dayton, Ohio, more open spaces than Dayton has. There must be tons of human bone meal in the ground."

      On the evening of February 13, 1945, a series of Allied firebombing raids begins against the German city of Dresden, reducing the "Florence of the Elbe" to rubble and flames, and killing as many as 135,000 people. It was the single most destructive bombing of the war — including Hiroshima and Nagasaki — and all the more horrendous because little, if anything, was accomplished strategically, since the Germans were already on the verge of surrender. Among the conclusions reached at the February 1945 Yalta Conference of the Allied powers was the resolution that the Allies would engage in concerted strategic bombing raids against German cities known for war-production and manufacturing, in an effort to bring the Nazi war machine to a crashing halt. The tragic irony of the raid on Dresden, a medieval city renowned for its rich artistic and architectural treasures, is that during the war it had never been a site of war-production or major industry. Both Allies and Germans alike have argued over the real purpose of the firebombing; the ostensible "official" rationale was that Dresden was a major communications center and bombing it would hamper the German ability to convey messages to its army, which was battling Soviet forces at the time. But the extent of the destruction was, for many, disproportionate to the stated strategic goal — many believe that the attack was simply an attempt to punish the Germans and weaken their morale. More than 3,400 tons of explosives were dropped on the city by 800 American and British aircraft. The firestorm created by the two days of bombing set the city burning for many more days, littering the streets with charred corpses, including many children. Eight square miles of the city was ruined, and the total body count was between 35,000 and 135,000 (an approximation is all that was possible given that the city was filled with many refugees from farther east). The hospitals that were left standing could not handle the numbers of injured and burned, and mass burials became necessary. Among the American POWs who were in Dresden during the raid was novelist Kurt Vonnegut, who conveyed his experience in his classic antiwar novel Slaughterhouse Five.

^ 1940 Day 76 of Winter War: USSR aggression against Finland.
More deaths due to Stalin's desire to grab Finnish territory.
No respite for Viipuri
      Karelian Isthmus: at 6.30 a.m. the 5th Division's 14th Infantry Regiment launches a counterattack to retake the lost main defensive line in Summa. By noon the Finnish troops have managed to advance a few kilometres, but then come up against enemy tanks and are forced to withdraw. The counterattack is ultimately unsuccessful.
      Just after noon Soviet troops break through the support line in the Lähde sector. Despite a fierce Finnish counterattack, the enemy continues to advance and approaches the Lähde crossroads.
      In Taipale, Finnish troops succeed in retaking the Kirvesmäki stronghold overrun by Soviet troops in yesterday's fighting.
      General Headquarters orders the 23rd Division to move onto the Isthmus.
      Squadron 26 shoots down 9 Soviet aircraft over the Isthmus.
      Viipuri is suffering an endless barrage of enemy bombs.
      On the home front, Lahti, Heinola and Porvoo are also bombed.
      Foreign Minister Tanner holds talks in Sweden with representatives of the Swedish Government, expressing the hope for Swedish troops to be sent to Finland. The Swedish Government responds in the negative: Sweden will not give Finland direct military assistance.
      The Finnish Parliament introduces draft legislation to leave the taxes of fallen servicemen uncollected.
      Abroad: a benefit bandy international between Norway and Finland at the Bislet ice rink in Oslo ends in a 2-1 victory for Finland. The event was organized by sports journalists in the Norwegian capital, and the proceeds of 300,000 markkaa will be donated to help the families of Finnish sportsmen killed at the front.
     Georg Gripenberg, Finland's diplomatic representative in London, and Lieutenant-General Enckell, who is currently on a visit to the British capital, appeal to Lord Halifax, the British Foreign Secretary, to send military aid to Finland. Halifax promises to raise the matter in the War Cabinet.
      A fully equipped force of Hungarian volunteers has travelled to Scandinavia via France to help in the defense of Finland.

^ Vihollinen pommittaa Viipuria herkeämättä Talvisodan 76. päivä, 13.helmikuuta.1940
      5. Divisioonan JR 14:n vastahyökkäys menetetyn pääpuolustuslinjan takaisin-valtaamiseksi Summassa alkaa klo 6.30. Suomalaiset etenevät puoleen päivään mennessä muutaman kilometrin, mutta törmäävät vastassa oleviin vihollisen panssarivaunuihin ja joutuvat vetäytymään. Vastahyökkäys epäonnistuu.
      Neuvostojoukot murtautuvat tukilinjan läpi Lähteen lohkolla puolen päivän jälkeen. Suomalaisten ankarasta vastahyökkäyksestä välittämättä vihollinen jatkaa etenemistään ja lähestyy Lähteen tienristeystä.
      Taipaleessa Kirvesmäessä eilen menetetty tukikohta onnistutaan valtaamaan takaisin.
      Päämaja määrää 23. Divisioonan siirrettäväksi Kannakselle.
      Lentolaivue 26 ampuu Kannaksella alas 9 neuvostokonetta.
      Vihollinen pommittaa Viipuria herkeämättä.
      Kotirintamalla vihollinen pommittaa Lahtea, Heinolaa ja Porvoota.
      Ruotsiin matkustanut ulkoministeri Tanner neuvottelee Ruotsin hallituksen edustajien kanssa esittäen toivomuksen "ruotsalaisten sotilasosastojen siirtämisestä Suomeen". Ruotsin hallituksen vastaus on kielteinen, Ruotsi ei myönnä Suomelle sotilasapua.
      Eduskunta antaa lakialoiteen: kaatuneen verot on jätettävä perimättä.
      Ulkomailta: Norjassa Bisletin jäästadionilla jääpallossa pelattu hyväntekeväisyys-maaottelu Suomi-Norja päättyy Suomen voittoon 2-1. Oslon urheilusanoma-lehtimiesten kerhon järjestämän ottelun tulot 300 000 markkaa luovutetaan kaatuneiden suomalaisten urheilijoiden perheiden avustamiseen.
      Suomen Lontoon lähettiläs Gripenberg ja Lontoossa vieraileva kenraaliluutnantti Enckell vetoavat Englannin ulkoministeri Halifaxiin sotilaallisen avun saamiseksi Suomelle. Halifax lupaa viedä asian sotakabinetin käsiteltäväksi.
      Täysin varustettu unkarilainen vapaaehtoisjoukko on matkustanut Ranskasta Skandinaviaan osallistuakseen Suomen puolustukseen.

^ Fienden bombar Viborg utan uppehåll Vinterkrigets 76 dag, den 13 februari 1940
     Den 5. Divisionens JR 14:s motoffensiv för att återerövra de förlorade huvudställningarna börjar kl. 6.30 i Summa. Fram till middagstid har de finska trupperna avancerat några kilometer men stöter på fiendens pansarvagnar och tvingas retirera. Motoffensiven misslyckas.
      De ryska trupperna bryter in på Lähdeavsnittet på eftermiddagen. Trots finnarnas intensiva motattacker fortsätter fienden sin framryckning och närmar sig vägkorsningen vid Lähde.
      Finland lyckas återerövra basen vid Kirvesmäki i Taipale som gick förlorad igår.
      Huvudkvarteret ger order om att förflytta den 23. Divisionen till Näset.
      Flygdivision 26 skjuter ner 9 ryska plan på Näset.
      Fienden bombar Viborg utan uppehåll.
      På hemmafronten bombar fienden Lahtis, Heinola och Borgå.
      Utrikesminister Tanner har rest till Sverige och förhandlar med representanter för Sveriges regering. Han framför önskemålet om att "förflytta svenska militäravdelningar till Finland". Sveriges regering svarar nekande, landet kan inte ge Finland militär hjälp.
      Riksdagen presenterar en lagmotion: de stupades skatter ska inte indrivas.
      Utrikes: En välgörenhetslandskamp i bandy spelas på Bislet isstadion i Norge. Finland vinner med målen 2-1. Intäkterna från matchen som arrangerats av idrottsjournalistklubben i Oslo uppgår till 300 000 mark och doneras för att hjälpa familjer till stupade finska sportsmän.
      Gripenberg, Finlands ambassadör i London, och generallöjtnant Enckell, som är på besök i London, vädjar till Englands utrikesminister Halifax om militärt bistånd till Finland. Halifax lovar framföra ärendet till krigskabinettet.
      En frivillig ungersk trupp med full utrustning har rest från Frankrike till Skandinavien för att delta i Finlands försvar.

1926 Francis Edgeworth, mathematician.
1916 Vilhelm Hammershøi, Danish painter born on 15 May 1864. — LINKS
1898 U.K.’s First Auto Fatality Henry Lindfield of Brighton, England, died one day after being involved in an automobile accident, becoming the first driving fatality in Great Britain.
1883 Wilhelm Richard Wagner, 69, German composer (Die Walküre), in Venice.
1874 Taurinus, mathematician.
1837 Mariano José de Larra y Sánchez de Castro, escritor español.
1821 Jean-Jacques Lagrenée, French painter born on 18 September 1739. — Helen Recognising Telemachus, Son of Odysseus

^ 1820 Duc de Berry
      Le soir, devant l'ancien Opéra de Paris, rue de Richelieu, un spectateur s'écroule sur les marches. Le duc de Berry vient d'être frappé d'un coup de couteau au coeur par un ouvrier cordonnier, Louis Louvel. La victime est le neveu du vieux roi Louis XVIII et le fils du comte d'Artois, le futur Charles X. C'est la seule personne susceptible de donner un héritier à la famille royale.
      L'assassin est un républicain fanatique qui a voulu éteindre par son geste la dynastie des Bourbons. Son crime suscite dans le camp royaliste une émotion immense que n'apaisera pas son exécution. Les ultra-royalistes, qui dénoncent les idées libérales et la Charte constitutionnelle, donnent libre cours à leur colère et s'en prennent au président du Conseil, Decazes, qu'ils accusent de laxisme. Le vicomte de Chateaubriand, écrivain célèbre, n'hésite pas à écrire: "Le pied lui a glissé dans le sang".
      Dès le 20 Feb, le duc Elie Decazes doit remettre sa démission au roi, au grand regret de celui-ci. Il est remplacé par le comte Jean-Baptiste de Villèle, ancien maire de Toulouse et représentant des ultras. C'en est fini des tentatives de conciliation entre la monarchie constitutionnelle et la gauche libérale. Très bientôt, la censure est rétablie et la loi électorale réformée au profit de la bourgeoisie conservatrice. L'opposition libérale ne trouve plus à s'exprimer que dans les conspirations secrètes.
      Pourtant, l'espoir renaît chez les Bourbons. On apprend en effet que l'épouse duc de Berry est enceinte! Marie-Caroline de Savoie donne le jour à un fils posthume en juin 1819. Les poètes Alphonse de Lamartine et Victor Hugo joignent leur jeune talent à toutes les réjouissances qui accompagnent la naissance de cet "enfant du miracle". Une souscription publique est organisée pour lui offrir le domaine de Chambord. D'où le titre de comte de Chambord qui sera désormais le sien.
      Après la révolution des Trois Glorieuses (27 Jul à 29 Jul 1830), qui chasse Charles X et porte sur le trône son cousin Louis-Philippe d'Orléans, l'enfant, âgé de dix ans, doit suivre son grand-père dans l'exil. Elevé dans la haine de la Révolution et l'ignorance de la France, il ne saura pas saisir l'occasion qui lui sera offerte de monter sur le trône en 1871, après la chute de Napoléon III.

1788 Jean-Germain Drouais, French painter born on 25 November 1763. — MORE ON DROUAIS AT ART “4” FEBRUARY — LINKS — Le Comte and Chevalier de Choiseul as Savoyards — Marius at Minturnae — Madame Drouais — Jesus Driving the Merchants out of the Temple.
1787 Ruggero Boscovich, 75, mathematician.
1692 MacDonald clan, murdered on orders of King William III.
1660 Charles X Gustaaf, 37, king of Sweden (1654-60)
1592 Jacopo (or Giacomo) da Ponte Bassano, Italian painter born in 1515. — MORE ON BASSANO AT ART “4” FEBRUARY — LINKS

^ 1542 Catherine Howard, 5th wife of England's King Henry VIII, beheaded.
     Her downfall came when Henri VIII learned of her premarital affairs. Catherine [< portrait] was one of 10 children of Lord Edmund Howard (died 1539), a poverty-stricken younger son of Thomas Howard, 2nd duke of Norfolk. Henry VIII first became attracted to the young girl in 1540, when he was seeking to end his politically motivated marriage to Anne of Cleves, to whom Catherine was a maid of honor. She was a cousin of Anne Boleyn.
      He had his marriage to Anne annulled on 09 July, and on 28 July Henry and Catherine were privately married. He publicly acknowledged her as queen on 08 August. For the next 14 months Henry appeared to be much enamored of his bride. But in November 1541, he learned that before their marriage Catherine had had affairs: Henry Mannock, a music teacher; Francis Dereham, who had called her his wife; and her cousin, Thomas Culpepper, to whom she had been engaged. After her marriage to Henry, Catherine had made Dereham her secretary, and it is probable — though still unproved — that she had committed adultery with Culpepper. The king, initially incredulous, became incensed with these revelations. On 11 February 1542, Parliament passed a bill of attainder declaring it treason for an unchaste woman to marry the king. Two days later Catherine, 21, is beheaded in the Tower of London.
  Henry the VIII's 6 wives were:
1. Catherine of Aragon (married at age 23 in 1509, gave birth on 18 February 1816 to the future queen Mary I, Henry left her in July 1531, and got the Anglican Church started for it to annul his marriage, which it did on 23 May 1533. She died on 07 January 1536 of natural causes),
2. Anne Boleyn (married at age 26 on 25 January 1533, gave birth on 07 September 1533 to the future queen Elizabeth I, was beheaded on 19 May 1536 for adultery, almost certainly falsely alleged, while Henry was guilty of same).
3. Jane Seymour (married at age 27 on 30 May 1536, gave birth on 12 October 1537 to Henry's successor, Edward VI, and died of natural causes on 24 October 1537).
4. Anne of Cleves, (married at age 24 on 06 January 1940, marriage annulled by Anglican Church on 09 July 1540, she died on 16 July 1557 of natural causes)
5. Catherine Howard, (married on 09 July 1540, beheaded on 13 February 1542 for treason, namely her premarital affairs)
6. Catherine Parr. (married at age 31 on 12 July 1543, Henry died 28 January 1547 before thinking of beheading or divorcing her, she remarried and died on 07 September 1548, shortly after giving birth)

Another victim of Henry VIII's marital history was English Catholic theologian Thomas More who, on 06 July 1535, was beheaded for refusing to recognize Henry VIII as supreme head of the Church of England, which had broken with the Roman Catholic Church so that Henry VIII could divorce wife number 1 and get wife number 2 (which he ordered beheaded less than a year after Thomas More, so as to make room for wife number 3).

Henry VIII would have been beheaded if Parliament had been even-handed and declared it treason for an unchaste king to be married. Among his numerous affairs were those with Joan Dobson (giving birth to Etheireda Tudor) , Mary Berkeley (producing in 1525 Thomas Stukely and in 1527 Sir John Perrot 1527), Elizabeth Blount (giving birth in 1519 to Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond), and with Elizabeth Stafford.

^ 1500 Benvenuto Cellini, in Florence, sculptor, goldsmith, and writer born on 01 November 1500.
— Florentine sculptor and engraver, who became one of the foremost goldsmiths of the Italian Renaissance, executing exquisitely crafted coins, jewelry, vases, and ornaments. Born in Florence, Cellini was apprenticed to a goldsmith at the age of 15. When he was 16, his fiery temper and continual dueling and brawling caused him to be exiled to Siena. Later, in Rome, he was Michelangelo's pupil for a short while. Among Cellini's most famous patrons were Pope Clement VII, Pope Paul III, Francis I of France, and the Florentine noble Cosimo I de' Medici. Francis I invited him to Paris in 1540, where he modeled the bronze reliefs of the Nymph of Fontainebleau. He also executed an elaborate gold saltcellar for Francis (1543). Compelled to leave in 1545 because of his quarrels with the king's mistress and his eccentricities, Cellini returned to Florence. There, under the patronage of Cosimo de' Medici, he executed many fine works in metal, among them a bronze portrait bust of Cosimo and the colossal bronze statue Perseus and Medusa (1554). He died in Florence. Cellini is also noted for his autobiography, written between 1558 and 1562. An embellished account of Cellini's escapades, adventures, and intrigues, this text provides a valuable portrait of daily, political, social, and ecclesiastical life in the 16th century.
— Nato a Firenze, Benvenuto Cellini iniziò l'usuale apprendistato presso diversi maestri orafi quando aveva appena tredici anni, rivelando da subito originalità, inventiva ed una personalità particolarmente rissosa. Furono proprio le intemperanze del suo carattere che nel 1516 lo portarono al confino di sei mesi a Siena e nel 1523, sempre a causa di una rissa, al definitivo (e forzato) abbandono di Firenze per Roma. A Roma riuscì a frequentare le botteghe dei più noti maestri orafi della città e, una volta in proprio, ad accattivarsi le simpatie di papa Clemente VII, per il quale portò a termine numerosi lavori. Nel 1527, l'anno del sacco di Roma, si vantò di aver preso parte in maniera attiva alla difesa della città riuscendo ad uccidere il conestabile Carlo di Borbone e a ferire il principe d'Orange con un solo colpo di archibugio. Ma il favore di cui godeva, specialmente presso la corte papale, s'indebolì sotto i colpi del suo mai sopito carattere iroso e dell'ascesa al trono pontificio di Paolo III il quale, in seguito alle calunnie degli avversari del Cellini ed all'accusa di essere l'autore di due omicidi che pendeva sul suo capo, nel 1538 lo fece arrestare e rinchiudere a Castel Sant'Angelo. Riuscito avventurosamente ad evadere, venne ripreso nel 1539 e liberato definitivamente l'anno dopo per intercessione di Ippolito II d'Este. Il Cellini decise così di stabilirsi in Francia, presso la corte di Francesco I, per il quale portò a termine diverse opere, tra le quali molte furono di scultura. Nel 1545 fu di nuovo a Firenze, dove il duca Cosimo I de' Medici lo incaricò di scolpire il Perseo, completato nel 1549. Anche nella sua città natale, però, il Cellini continuò ad essere perseguitato dalle malelingue e, non ulteriormente accettato alla corte del duca, si ritrovò a vivere in miseria gli ultimi suoi anni, durante i quali scrisse i Trattati della oreficeria e della scultura (1565-'67) e dettò la Vita (1558-'66), nella quale descriveva, in modo per la verità non totalmente aderente ai fatti ma conforme a molte altri scritti biografici dell'epoca, gli avvenimenti della sua esistenza fino al 1562.
Pubblicata per la prima volta a Napoli da Antonio Cocchi nel 1728, l’autobiografia di Benvenuto Cellini o Vita di Benvenuto di Maestro Giovanni Cellini fiorentino, scritta, per lui medesimo, in Firenze fu redatta inizialmente dallo stesso Cellini in un periodo di forzata inattività dovuta al poco favore di cui godeva presso il suo ultimo committente, il duca Cosimo dé Medici, ed in seguito venne dettata dall’autore ad un figlio tredicenne di Michele di Goro. La Vita, divisa in 2 libri rispettivamente di 128 e 113 brevi capitoli (il primo libro giunge fino al 1539, il secondo va dal 1540 al 1562), è tutt’altro che un’obiettiva autobiografia: al contrario, in essa il Cellini volle soprattutto celebrare quell’esaltazione dell’individuo e delle sue virtù che fu tipica della società rinascimentale e della maggior parte della letteratura biografica dell’epoca.
— Il fut le plus grand orfèvre de la Renaisance. Il raconte sa vie dans ses passionnantes Mémoires. Ce contemporain de Léonard de Vinci et de Michel-Ange fut aussi un très grand sculpteur.
— . CELLINI ONLINE: Vita (zipped) — (English translation): Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini
— ART LINKS

1332 Andronicus II Paleologus Byzantine emperor (1282-1328)/monk
1237 Jordanus of Saxon 2nd general of Dominicans, drowns
1130 Honorius II [Lamberto de Fagman], Pope (1124-30)
0616 San Lucinio.

Births which occurred on a February 13:
Barbie #1

^ 1996 Pointcast push technology.
Pointcast, an obscure company in Cupertino, California, announced a beta version of a free service that grabbed Web pages and information from the Internet and then displayed the data on the user's screen. The service became the year's most popular product, creating a near hysteria in the industry over Pointcast's so-called "push" technology. Media pundits predicted the end was near for the Web browser. By the following year, however, the limitations of push technologies became clear, and the hype died down.

^ 1959 Barbie Millicent Roberts (Barbie doll) goes on sale for $2.99.(worth thousands of dollars 40 years later). She was introduced at Toy Fair in New York City. She was created by Ruth Handler, inspired by a German cartoon character doll that was called *Lilli* that Ruth had seen on a trip to Germany and named after her daughter Barbara. The original Barbie was was introduced at the American Toy Fair in New York City in February of 1959 by Ruth and Elliot Handler, founders of Mattel Toys. Ruth Handler thought that a doll with a woman's figure would have considerable appeal but her initial proposal was refused. In 1957 whilst visiting Germany, Ruth Handler purchased a Lilli Doll. The dolls were based on a cartoon strip in Das Bild. In the comic strip Lilli was portrayed as a sultry, sexual character aimed at men. This was the complete opposite of the ideals Ruth wanted the doll to represent: purity and innocence. With a few changes to the heavy make-up, full lips and slight alterations Barbie was created.
The full name of Barbie doll is "Barbie Millicent Roberts." She is from Willows, Wisconsin and went to Willows High School.
Then in 1957, after purchasing three Bild Lilli dolls in Europe, Ruth Handler, co-founder of Mattel, came up with the "unique" idea of Barbie. This doll instead represented purity and innocence. Barbie doll first appeared in the now-famous black and white striped swimsuit and signature ponytail.

^ 1958 The first Ford Thunderbird with four seats is introduced.
The four-passenger "square bird" converted the top-of-the-line Ford from a sports car to a luxury car. The new four-seater packed a 352-cubic-inch 300 horsepower V-8. 38'000 cars were initially sold, making the T-Bird one of only two American cars to increase sales between 1957 and 1958. The T-Bird has become a symbol of 1950s American culture, immortalized in movies like Grease and rock songs like the Beach Boys’ "I Get Around."

1946 ENIAC computer is turned on for the first time. Weighing 30 tons and filling an entire room, it is the world's first fully functional electronic digital computer, and about as powerful as a single microchip 50 years later.
1941 Sigmar Polke, German Pop artist — LINKS — Audacia — Hannibal with his Armored Elephants — Heron Painting II — Ich mach das schon Jess (I'll Take Care of That, Jess) — Lingua Tertii Imperii — Magnetic Landscape — Measuring Clothes — This is how you sit correctly (after Goya) — Tischruecken (Seance) — Two Palm Trees — Woman at the Mirror
1935 Marcelino Oreja, político español.
1929 Omar Torrijos Herrera, general, President of Panama.
1924 Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber French economist/politician

1921 Wou-Ki Zao, Chinese French artist.

^ 1910 William Shockley
English-born engineer and teacher William Shockley worked with John Bardeen and Walter Brattain at Bell Telephone Laboratories. Together, they invented the transistor, which heralded a revolution in radio, television, and computer circuitry. The three won the Nobel Prize in 1956 for their work with semiconductors and their development of the transistor. Later in his life, Shockley provoked outrage for his racist views and his proposal that people of low I.Q. be sterilized. He died on 12 August 1989.
1909 Mario Casariego, in Spain; ordained a Somascan priest in El Salvador on 19 July 1936; appointed Auxiliary of Guatemala on 15 November 1958 and consecrated a bishop on 27 December 1958; appointed Coadjutor Archbishop of Guatemala on 22 September 1963 and succeeded as Archbishop of Guatemala on 12 December 1964; kidnapped for a few days by terrorists in March 1968; made a cardinal on 28 April 1969; died on 15 June 1983.

^ 1903 Georges-Joseph-Christian Simenon Belgium, mystery writer (L'inspecteur Maigret). The many complex, original criminal schemes in Simenon's tales remind Grost of the similar criminal operations in Crofts books like The Pit-Prop Syndicate (1922). Simenon died on 04 September 1989. SIMENON ONLINE: Le Chien Jaune (1931)
Georges Simenon est le romancier wallon le plus connu au niveau mondial. Il commence sa carrière professionnelle comme journaliste à la Gazette de Liège. En 1922, il quitte Liège pour Paris, où il gagne sa vie en fournissant de la "paralittérature". Il écrit des romans populaires sous le pseudonyme de Sim. Ces romans paraissent à allure vertigineuse. A partir de 1932, il se met à écrire sous son vrai nom des romans policiers, dont le personnage principal est le célèbre commissaire Maigret. Les romans policiers de Simenon témoignent d'une grande perspicacité psychologique et d'une connaissance approfondie de la nature humaine. Il renouvelle le genre et lui donne une valeur littéraire toujours plus grande. Il publie également des romans d'aventures et de moeurs qui ont pour toile de fond la ville ou un milieu social bien précis. Parmi son oeuvre abondante, les titres les plus connus sont Les Fiançailles de M. Hire (1933), Maigret (1934), Le Chien jaune (1936), Le Testament Donadieu (1937), Les Rescapés du Télémaque (1938), La Marie du port (1938), Monsieur la souris (1938), Les Inconnus dans la maison (1940), Le Voyageur de la Toussaint (1941), Mon Ami Maigret (1949), Les quatre Jours du pauvre homme (1949), Marie qui louche (1952), Antoine et Julie (1953), Maigret à l'Ecole (1954), Le Nègre (1958), Le Président (1958), Le Veuf (1960), Le Train (1961), Maigret et le Clochard (1963), La Chambre bleue (1964) et Le petit Saint (1965). Citons également la pièce de théâtre La Neige était sale (1950), le récit très réussi intitulé Le Bateau d'Émile (1954) et son autobiographie, Mémoires intimes. Son 200ème roman paraît en 1969 sous le titre Il y a des Noisetiers. L'oeuvre de Simenon est traduite en 55 langues et plus d'une cinquantaine de ses romans ont été portés au grand ou au petit écran, y compris des romans non policiers comme L'Aîné des Ferchaux.

1900 Plessner, mathematician.
1895 Cinématographe movie camera-projector is patented by French inventors Louis and August Lumière. Thomas Edison had patented his movie camera, the Kinetograph, and a separate viewing machine, the Kinetoscope, in 1893.
1892 Grant DeVolson Wood, US Regionalist painter who died on 12 February 1942. — MORE ON WOOD AT ART “4” FEBRUARY — LINKS — An extensive illustrated commentary: Going Back to Iowa: the World of Grant Wood — Self-Portrait — Dinner for Threshers — The Perfectionist — Stone City, Iowa — Daughters of the Revolution — Return from Bohemia — January — Near Sundown — 19 prints at FAMSF — American Gothic _ American Gothic _ American Gothic — The Birthplace of Herbert Hoover, West Branch, Iowa — The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere — Woman with Plant — Young Corn — Spring Turning — Arnold Comes of Age
1889 Georg Schrimpf, German artist who died in 1938.
1888 Georgios Papandreou Greek prefect of Lesbos, minister, Prime Minister three times. He died on 01 November 1968.
1875 Kanouse quintuplets Watertown WI, first quintuplets in US, born to Edna Kanouse.
1869 Hugo Ungewitter, German artist who died possibly in 1944.
1849 Lord Randolph Churchill, English politician who died on 24 January 1895, father of Winston Churchill.
1847 Victor-Gabriel Gilbert, French artist who died in 1935. — LINKS — Le Marchand de chansons
1826 The American Temperance Society (later renamed the American Temperance Union) is organized in Boston. It quickly grew into a national crusade, and within a decade over 8000 similar groups had been formed, boasting a total of 1.5 million members.
1805 Peter G. Lejeune Dirichlet Germany, number theorist / analyst.
1793 Henry Bryan Ziegler, British artist who died on 15 August 1874.
1792 Lucie-Marie Mandix Ingemann, Danish artist who died on 15 January 1868.
1785 Johann Baptist Pflug von Biberach, German artist who died on 30 May 1855.
1768 Federico Adelung, literato alemán.
1755 Philibert-Louis Debucourt, French painter who died on 22 September 1832. — LINKS
1754 Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (French diplomat)
1741 The American Magazine, the first magazine in the US, is published in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1682 Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, Italian painter, illustrator and designer who died on 28 April 1754.
1652 Antonio-Domenico Gabbiani, Italian painter who died on 22 November 1726. — The Rape of Ganymede
1647 Pieter van der Leeuw, Dutch artist who died on 11 September 1679.
1599 Alexander VII [Fabio Chigi], Siena Italy, pope (1655-67)

Holy Days: Christian World: Mardi Gras (Shrove Tuesday) in 1877, 1888, 1923, 1934, 1945, 1956, 2018, 2029, 2040, 2108 — Ash Wednesday in 1907, 1918, 1929, 1991, 2002, 2013, 2024, 2086, 2097 / Santos Benigno, Lucinio, Esteban, Gilberto, Agabo, Julián y Poliuto. / Sainte Béatrice d'Ornacieux fonda la Chartreuse d'Eymeu (Dauphiné) en 1290. Son prénom, très populaire à la fin du Moyen Âge, fut en particulier porté par la jeune fille qu'aima Dante et à ce titre, il a été immortalisé par le poète florentin.

Thought for the day: “It is not so much what we have done amiss, as what we have left undone, that will trouble us, looking back.” — Ellen Wood, English playwright and journalist (1813-1887).

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