On This Day 2026
Hello, … and welcome to day 46 of the year.

Sunday, February 15th

Today is World Whale Day, World Hippo Day and International Childhood Cancer Day. Your star sign is Aquarius and your birthstone is Amethyst.
1998 – The Angel of the North, a 66ft tall steel sculpture by Antony Gormley is installed at Low Eighton in Gateshead. Gormley, chose an angel for the sculpture to recognise the sacrifice of the miners who had worked beneath the site of its construction for two centuries.
The Angel of the North, a 66ft tall steel sculpture by Antony Gormley is installed at Low Eighton in Gateshead. Gormley, chose an angel for the sculpture to recognise the sacrifice of the miners who had worked beneath the site of its construction for two centuries.
Today’s birthdays
1945 – John Helliwell (81), English musician and backing vocals for rock band Supertramp (“The Logical Song”, “Give a Little Bit”), born in Todmorden, West Yorkshire.
1951 – Jane Seymour (75), English actress (Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Live and Let Die, East of Eden), born in Uxbridge, Hillingdon, London.
1954 – Matt Groening (72), American cartoonist, writer, producer, and animator (The Simpsons, Futurama), born in Portland, Oregon, United States.
1955 – Janice Dickinson (71), American model (America’s Next Top Model), television personality (I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!), born in Brooklyn, New York, United States.
1959 – Ali Campbell (67), English singer and songwriter with UB40 (Red Red Wine), “Kingston Town”, “Cherry Oh Baby”), born in Birmingham, West Midlands.
1960 – Mikey Craig (66), English musician, DJ and the bassist of the pop/soul/new wave group Culture Club (“Karma Chameleon”), born in Hammersmith, London.
1971 – Alex Borstein (55), American actress, voice actress and comedian best known as the voice of Lois Griffin in Family Guy, born in Highland Park, Illinois, United States.
1990 – Callum Turner (36), English actor (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Assassins Creed, Eternity), born in Hammersmith, London.
1998 – George Russell (28), English racing driver who competes in Formula One for Mercedes, born in King’s Lynn, Norfolk.
Famous deaths
2020 – Caroline Flack (b. 1979), English actress and TV presenter (Bo Selecta, Love Island).
2023 – Raquel Welch (b. 1940), American actress ( One Million Years B.C. , Fantastic Voyage, Legally Blonde).
The day today
1901 – Winston Churchill entered Parliament for the first time, as MP for Oldham. MPs of the period were unpaid and Churchill was forced to take a speaking tour in order to fund his tenure.

1923 – Greece becomes the last European country to adopt the Gregorian calendar.

1928 – The death of the statesman and Prime Minister H. H. Asquith. During his time in office (1908 – 1916) Asquith attempted to introduce home rule in Ireland, provoking fierce opposition in Ulster and amongst the Conservative opposition. Civil war over the issue in Ireland was only averted by the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914.
1929 – Graham Hill, British motor racing world champion, was born. He won the Formula One World Championship twice and was the only driver to win the Triple Crown of Motorsport — the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Indianapolis 500 and the Formula One World Championship. Graham Hill and his son Damon are the only British father and son pair to have both won the Formula One World Championship. Graham Hill and five of his team members died in 1975 when the aeroplane he was piloting crashed in foggy conditions near Arkley golf course in London.
1942 – World War II: The Fall of Singapore. Following an assault by Japanese forces, the British General Arthur Percival surrendered. About 80,000 Indian, United Kingdom and Australian soldiers become prisoners of war. It was the largest surrender of British-led military personnel in history.
1952 – King George VI was laid to rest in the King George VI Memorial Chapel, an addition to St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. Initially interred in the Royal Vault on 15 February 1952, his remains were moved to the dedicated Memorial Chapel on 26 March 1969. The chapel also contains Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth II, and Prince Philip.
1961 – Sabena Flight 548 crashes in Belgium, killing 73, including the entire United States figure skating team along with several of their coaches and family members.
1971 – The British Government launched a new, decimal currency across the country. The familiar pound (£), shilling (s) and pence (d) coins that had been in existence for more than 1000 years were to be phased out in the space of 18 months in favour of a system with 100 pennies to the pound rather than 240.
1978 – New Zealand won a Test Series against England for the first time, after 48 years of matches.
1992 – Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, who was known as the Milwaukee Cannibal and killed and dismembered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991, was sentenced to life in prison.
1998 – The Angel of the North, a 66ft tall steel sculpture by Antony Gormley is installed at Low Eighton in Gateshead. The sculpture was commissioned and delivered by Gateshead Council who approached Gormley to be the sculptor. Although initially reluctant, Gormley agreed to undertake the project after visiting and being inspired by the Angel’s proposed site, a former colliery overlooking the varied topography of the Tyne and Wear Lowlands National Character Area.
2011 – Stray tabby cat Larry becomes Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office at 10 Downing Street.
2015 – Investigators uncovered what is thought to be the biggest ever cybercrime, with more than £650 million going missing from banks around the world. British banks were thought to have lost tens of millions of pounds after a gang of Russian based hackers infiltrated the bank’s internal computer systems using malware, which lurked in the networks for months, gathering information and feeding it back to the gang. The illegal software was so sophisticated that it allowed the criminals to view video feeds from within supposedly secure offices, as they gathered the data they needed to steal.
2021 – UK is the first European country to require travellers from COVID-19 ‘hotspots’ to isolate in quarantine hotels, following other countries such as Australia, NZ and Singapore.
2022 – Prince Andrew settled a civil sexual assault case brought against him in the United States by Virginia Giuffre, who claimed that he sexually assaulted her on three occasions when she was 17. Prince Andrew had repeatedly denied the allegations. The duke also pledged to “demonstrate his regret for his association” with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein by supporting the “fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims”. Virginia Giuffre’s lawyer David Boies commented “I believe this event speaks for itself.”
2023 – 52 year old Nicola Sturgeon announced that she was to resign as Scotland’s First Minister. She was Scotland’s first woman First Minister and also the longest serving First Minister. She assumed office on 29th November 2014 and represented the Scottish National Party.
2023 – Greece legalized same-sex marriage and adoption, becoming the first Orthodox Christian Country to do so.
2024 – Germany becomes the world’s third-largest economy after Japan slips into recession sitting behind the USA and China.
Today in music
1961 – Sly and the Family Stone started a four week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Everyday People’, their first No.1.
1965 – American singer and pianist Nat King Cole died of lung cancer. First hit was the 1943 ‘Straighten Up and Fly Right’, had the 1955 US No.2 single ‘A Blossom Fell’ and 1957 UK No.2 single ‘When I Fall In Love’ plus over 20 other US & UK Top 40 singles. He is the father of singer Natalie Cole. In 1956 he became the first black American to host a television variety show.
1968 – Lennon Lennon and his wife Cynthia along with George and Patti Harrison, flew to India to study meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr joined them a few days later, but Starr would become bored and leave on March 1st, comparing the experience to be like a ‘Butlins holiday camp.
1977 – Glen Matlock was fired as bass player from the Sex Pistols, being replaced by Sid Vicious. Matlock rejoined in the 90s when the Pistol’s reformed.
1979 – At the 21st Grammy Awards, the ‘Saturday Night Fever’ soundtrack won Album of the Year and The Bee Gees were named Best Pop Group and Best Arrangement for Voices for ‘Staying Alive’. Billy Joel’s ‘Just the Way You Are’ won Record and Song of the Year. Donna Summer’s ‘Last Dance’ won two Grammys: Best Female R&B Vocal and Best R&B Song.
1997 – U2 went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Discotheque’, the bands third UK No.1 single. The entire track was leaked onto the internet in December 1996, forcing U2 to move the release date.
2006 – Winners at this year’s Brit Awards included, James Blunt who won British male solo artist, British female solo artist went to KT Tunstall. Coldplay won Best British album for X&Y and Best British single for ‘Speed of Sound.’ Kaiser Chiefs won Best British group and Best British Live Act, British urban act went to Lemar, British breakthrough act was Arctic Monkeys, International breakthrough act was won by Jack Johnson, with Madonna winning International female solo artist. Green Day won International group and Best International album with American Idiot and Outstanding contribution to music went to Paul Weller.
2008 – A flat once rented by The Beatles in London went up for sale for £1.75m. The band shared the three-bedroom top floor property in Green Street, Mayfair in the autumn of 1963. A publicity photo of the Fab Four peering over a banister, used as the cover for the December 1963 edition of The Beatles Book, was taken at the top of the property’s communal stairwell.
2015 – Mark Ronson’s ‘Uptown Funk’ reached the one million sales mark, 10 weeks after it was first released becoming the 158th track to reach the million mark in British charts history. The song, from the soundtrack to the Fifty Shades Of Grey film also became the most-streamed track ever in the UK.
2016 – Winners at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles included Taylor Swift who won three awards, including Album of the Year for 1989, becoming the first female artist to win Album of the Year twice as main credited artist. Alabama Shakes also won three awards including Best Alternative Music Album for Sound & Color. Ed Sheeran won two including Song of the Year for ‘Thinking Out Loud’. Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ Uptown Funk won for Record of the Year.
2021 – Foo Fighters were at No.1 in the UK with their tenth studio album Medicine at Midnight. The album debuted at No.3 on the US Billboard 200 chart. It is the final Foo Fighters studio album to feature drummer Taylor Hawkins before his death the following year.
Today in history
399 BC – The Greek philosopher Socrates was sentenced to death for corrupting the minds of Athens’s youth. He chose not to flee the city and take his execution by drinking hemlock, a highly poisonous plant from the carrot family.
1220 – Khwarezmian city of Bukhara taken by Genghis Khan’s Mongol army after a 12-day siege, with the death of about 30,000 of its citizens.
1804 – New Jersey in the United States, becomes the last northern state to abolish slavery. The 1804 statute and subsequent laws freed children born after the law was passed.
1861 – English mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, who was perhaps best known for his work on Principia Mathematica, was born in Ramsgate, Kent.
1864 – Heineken International was founded by Gerard Adriaan in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. As of 2019, Heineken owns over 165 breweries in more than 70 countries.
1874 – The birth, in Ireland, of Sir Ernest Shackleton, British Antarctic explorer. He went on Scott’s original expedition in 1901-4 before leading his own in 1907, which got within a short distance of the South Pole.
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