February 18

1229 – During the 6th Crusade, Frederick II signs a 10 year truce with Al Kamil Meledin , regaining rule of Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem

1294 – Mongol emperor Kublai Khan doesn’t make it to his stately pleasure dome in Xanadu and instead dies at the imperial capital of Khanbaliq – modern Peking.

1546 – Martin Luther dies at his home in Eisleben, Germany, age 62

1564 – Michelangelo Buonarroti dies in Rome, age 88

1791 – Congress passes a law to allow admitting the independent Republic of Vermont to join the Union as the State of Vermont, which took effect on March 4th.

1861 – In Montgomery, Alabama, Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the provisional President of the Confederate States of America.

1878 – John Tunstall is murdered by outlaw Jesse Evans, sparking the Lincoln County War in Lincoln County, New Mexico.

1885 – Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, is published in the United States.

1930 – While studying photographs taken in January at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona, Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto.

1972 – The California Supreme Court in the case of People v. Anderson,  invalidates the state’s death penalty and commutes the sentences of all death row inmates to life imprisonment.

1977 – The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle is carried on its maiden flight on top of a Boeing 747.

1983 – 13 people are murdered and 1 wounded during a robbery of the Wah Mee Gambling Club in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District

2001 – FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union.

2010 – WikiLeaks publishes the first of hundreds of thousands of classified documents illegally disclosed by soldier Bradley Manning.

2021 – NASA’s Perseverance rover lands successfully on its mission to explore the Jezero crater in Isidis Planitia on Mars