On This Day in History – February 15

by hpmom February 15, 2026

February 15, 2026

Major Events

590 – Khosrow II is crowned king of the Persian Sassanian Empire, beginning a reign that would later lead to prolonged wars with Byzantium.
1113 – Pope Paschal II issues a papal bull officially recognizing the Knights Hospitaller, a Christian military and charitable order.
1564 – Galileo Galilei is born in Pisa, Italy, later becoming one of the most influential figures in the history of science.
1764 – The city of St. Louis is established as a French fur trading post along the Mississippi River.
1898 – The USS Maine explodes and sinks in Havana Harbor, an event that accelerates the outbreak of the Spanish-American War.
1933 – President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt survives an assassination attempt in Miami, though Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak is fatally wounded.
1942 – British forces surrender Singapore to Japan during World War II, marking one of Britain’s worst military defeats.
1965 – Canada officially adopts the Maple Leaf flag as its national flag.
1989 – Soviet troops complete their withdrawal from Afghanistan after nearly a decade of conflict.
2013 – A meteor explodes over Chelyabinsk, Russia, injuring more than 1,000 people and causing widespread damage.

Galileo Galilei – Italian astronomer and physicist (1564–1642)
Susan B. Anthony – American civil rights and women’s suffrage leader (1820–1906)
John Barrymore – American actor (1882–1942)
Cesar Romero – American actor (1907–1994)
Jane Seymour – British actress (1951)
Alex Borstein – American actress and comedian (1971)
Amber Riley – American singer and actress (1986)
Zach LaVine – American basketball player (1995)
Megan Thee Stallion – American rapper (1995)

Anton Cermak – American politician, Mayor of Chicago (1933, born 1873)
Nat King Cole – American singer and pianist (1965, born 1919)
Richard Feynman – American physicist and Nobel Prize winner (1988, born 1918)
Pierre Renoir – French actor (1952, born 1885)
Kevin Smith Sr. – American public figure (1993, born 1922)
Lee Radziwill – American socialite and interior designer (2019, born 1933)
Sidney Poitier – Bahamian-American actor (2022, born 1927)
Henry Kaiser – American industrialist (1967, born 1882)
Robert Hansen – American serial killer (2014, born 1939)

Canada’s Maple Leaf flag was controversial when first introduced but is now one of the world’s most recognizable national flags.
The Chelyabinsk meteor was the largest recorded space object to enter Earth’s atmosphere since 1908.
Galileo’s work laid the foundation for modern astronomy and physics.
The explosion of the USS Maine fueled the phrase “Remember the Maine.”
Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan marked the end of a major Cold War conflict.
St. Louis later became known as the “Gateway to the West.”