February 18 in history — What Happened Today in History

The Xinjiang 61st Regiment Farm fire started during Chinese New Year when a firecracker ignited memorial wreaths of the late Mao Zedong, killing 694 personnel. It remains the deadliest fireworks accident in the world.

A thousand armed soldiers raid Kalakuta Republic, the commune of Nigerian singer Fela Kuti, leading to the death of Funmilayo Anikulapo Kuti.

The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle is carried on its maiden "flight" on top of a Boeing 747.

The California Supreme Court in the case of People v. Anderson, (6 Cal.3d 628) invalidates the state's death penalty and commutes the sentences of all death row inmates to life imprisonment.

The Chicago Seven are found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom.

Kenyan rebel leader Dedan Kimathi is executed by the British colonial government.

Walter James Bolton becomes the last person legally executed in New Zealand.

Operation Teapot: Teapot test shot "Wasp" is successfully detonated at the Nevada Test Site with a yield of 1.2 kilotons. Wasp is the first of fourteen shots in the Teapot series.

The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles.

First Indochina War: The French gain complete control of Hanoi after forcing the Viet Minh to withdraw to the mountains.

Sailors of the Royal Indian Navy mutiny in Bombay harbour, from where the action spreads throughout the Provinces of British India, involving 78 ships, twenty shore establishments and 20,000 sailors

World War II: American and Brazilian troops kick off Operation Encore in Northern Italy, a successful limited action in the Northern Apennines that prepares for the western portion of the Allied Spring offensive.

World War II: The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose movement.

World War II: Joseph Goebbels delivers his Sportpalast speech.

World War II: The Imperial Japanese Army begins the systematic extermination of perceived hostile elements among the Chinese in Singapore.

Second Sino-Japanese War: During the Nanking Massacre, the Nanking Safety Zone International Committee is renamed "Nanking International Rescue Committee", and the safety zone in place for refugees falls apart.

The Empire of Japan creates the independent state of Manzhouguo (the obsolete Chinese name for Manchuria) free from the Republic of China and installed former Chinese Emperor Puyi as Chief Executive of the State.

While studying photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto.

Elm Farm Ollie becomes the first cow to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft and also the first cow to be milked in an aircraft.

U-boat Campaign: The Imperial German Navy institutes unrestricted submarine warfare in the waters around Great Britain and Ireland.

The first official flight with airmail takes place from Allahabad, United Provinces, British India (now India), when Henri Pequet, a 23-year-old pilot, delivers 6,500 letters to Naini, about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) away.

Édouard de Laveleye forms the Belgian Olympic Committee in Brussels.

Second Boer War: Imperial forces suffer their worst single-day loss of life on Bloody Sunday, the first day of the Battle of Paardeberg.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is published in the United States.

John Tunstall is murdered by outlaw Jesse Evans, sparking the Lincoln County War in Lincoln County, New Mexico.

Bulgarian revolutionary leader Vasil Levski is executed by hanging in Sofia by the Ottoman authorities.

In Montgomery, Alabama, Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the provisional President of the Confederate States of America.

Paul Zipser, German basketball player

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, American basketball player

Le'Veon Bell, American football player

Martin Marinčin, Slovak ice hockey player

Logan Miller, American actor

Sebastian Neumann, German footballer

Monica Aksamit, American saber fencer

Didi Gregorius, Dutch baseball player

Cody Hodgson, Canadian ice hockey player

Bryan Oviedo, Costa Rican footballer

Sonja Vasić, Serbian basketball player

Roman Neustädter, German-Russian footballer

Sarah Sutherland, American actress

Jack Northrop, American engineer and businessman, founded the Northrop Corporation (born 1895)

Andy Devine, American actor (born 1905)

Dragiša Cvetković, Serbian lawyer and politician, 17th Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (born 1893)

J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist and academic (born 1904)

Grigory Nelyubov, Soviet pilot and military officer (born 1934)

Gertrude Vanderbilt, American stage actress (born c. 1885)

Gustave Charpentier, French composer (born 1860)

David King Udall, American missionary and politician (born 1851)

James J. Corbett, American boxer and actor (born 1866)

Frank James, American soldier and criminal (born 1843)

Lucy Stanton, American activist (born 1831)

Charles Lewis Tiffany, American businessman, founded Tiffany & Co. (born 1812)

Serranus Clinton Hastings, American lawyer and politician, 1st Chief Justice of California (born 1814)