21st February 1804: World’s first recorded locomotive-hauled railway journey takes place at the Penydarren Ironworks in South Wales
On 21 February 1804, Richard Trevithick’s steam locomotive successfully pulled a load of ten tons of iron, as well as several passengers and workmen, along a 9.75 mile route from Penydarren Ironworks in South Wales in just over 4 ...
21 Helmi 0s
20th February 1472: Orkney and Shetland Isles given to Scotland as a wedding dowry
The Northern Isles, which consist of the two island groups of Shetland and Orkney, have been inhabited since prehistoric times but were formally annexed by the Norwegian king Harald Hårfagre in around 875 after he subdued the Vikings who used the islands as a base from which to raid Norway and ...
20 Helmi 0s
19th February 1942: President Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, allowing the military to place Japanese Americans in internment camps
Executive Order 9066 was issued two months after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour and primarily targeted Japanese Americans, leading to their forced relocation and internment during World War ...
19 Helmi 0s
18th February 1885: Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” published in the United States
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, under his pen-name Mark Twain, had previously published the novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in which the character of Huckleberry “Huck” Finn is introduced for the first ...
18 Helmi 0s
17th February 1936: ‘The Phantom’ comic strip published for the first time, widely regarded as the first costumed superhero
The Phantom's distinctive appearance of a skin-tight purple costume, domino mask, and striped trunks became iconic, influencing later superheroes in comic book ...
17 Helmi 0s
16th February 1937: Organic chemist Wallace Carothers is awarded a patent for nylon
The DuPont company’s organic chemist Wallace Carothers received a patent for linear condensation polymers, the basis of the material better known as ...
16 Helmi 0s
15th February 1965: Canada officially adopts its national flag of a red maple leaf on a white square between two vertical red bars
A special parliamentary committee reviewed over 5,900 submissions, ultimately settling on a design created by historian George F. G. Stanley that featured a stylized red maple leaf with 11 points, with the red and white derived from Canada’s official ...
15 Helmi 0s
14th February 1990: Voyager 1 creates the ‘Pale Blue Dot’ image of Earth
Pale Blue Dot, the most distant photograph ever taken of Earth, was created by the Voyager 1 space ...
14 Helmi 0s
