February 15th

Khosrau II, the last great Sasanian king is crowned King of Persia.

Philosopher Socrates is sentenced to death by the city of Athens for corrupting the minds of the youth of the city and for impiety.

A prison fire in Comayagua, Honduras killed 360.

Protesters swarmed Wisconsin's capitol after Gov. Scott Walker proposed cutbacks in benefits and bargaining rights for public employees.

Business tycoon Steve Fossett, 63, was declared dead five months after his small plane vanished over California's Sierra Nevada mountains. (His remains were discovered later in the year.).

Defrocked priest Paul Shanley was sentenced in Boston to 12 to 15 years in prison on child rape charges.

An estimated 6-11 million people around the world take to the streets to protest against war with Iraq.

Olympics officials resolved the judging scandal by awarding Canadian pairs figure skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier a gold medal while allowing the Russians, Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, to keep their medal.

First draft of the complete human genome is published in the journal "Nature".

The Soviet Union announced that the last of its troops had left Afghanistan after more than nine years of military intervention.

Ferdinand Marcos wins rigged presidential election in the Philippines.

Britain and Ireland "decimalised" their currencies, making one pound equal to 100 new pence instead of 240 pence.

The Maple Leaf Flag officially became the new national flag of Canada.

A funeral was held at Windsor Castle for Britain's King George VI, who had died nine days earlier.

President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt escaped an assassination attempt in Miami that claimed the life of Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak.

The New York Armory Show opened, introducing America to Picasso, Duchamp, and Matisse.

The U.S. battleship Maine blew up in Havana harbor, killing more than 260 crew members and bringing the U.S. closer to war with Spain over the issue of Cuban independence.

President Rutherford Hayes signed a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court.

St. Louis, Mo., was founded as a French fur-trading post.

Austria, Prussia & Saxony sign Treaty of Hubertusburg, marking the end of the French and Indian War and of the Seven Years War.

Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa.