^B{^#!16!18 February^N! National Day of Gambia and Nepal. Feast day of St Colman of Lindisfarne, St Flavian of Jerusalem, St Simeon of Jerusalem, St Theotonius, and St Helladius of Toledo.
^B{1678^B} Publication of John Bunyan's ^I{Pilgrim's Progress^I}. ^B{1861^B} Victor Emmanuel proclaimed king of a united Italy at the first meeting of the Italian parliament. ^B{1876^B} A direct telegraph link was set up between Britain and New Zealand. ^B{1930^B} US astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered the planet Pluto. ^B{1948^B} After 16 years in power, the Fianna Fßil party was defeated in the Irish general elections. ^B{1965^B} The Gambia became an independent state within the Commonwealth.
^B{^I{^#!14!Born ^N}Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, ^B{1517^B}; Alessandro Volta, Italian scientist and inventor of the electric battery, ^B{1745^B}; Niccol≥ Paganini, Italian violinist, ^B{1784^B}; Andres Segovia, Spanish classical guitarist, ^B{1894^B}; Helen Gurley Brown, US magazine editor, ^B{1922^B}; Len Deighton, English novelist, ^B{1929^B}.
^B{^I{^#!14!Died ^N}Martin Luther, German founder of the Reformation, ^B{1546^B}; Fra Angelico, Florentine painter, ^B{1455^B}; George, Duke of Clarence, drowned in a butt of Malmsey on the orders of his brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, ^B{1478^B}; Michelangelo Buonarroti, Italian painter and sculptor, ^B{1564^B}; Richard Wagner, German composer, ^B{1833^B}; Robert Oppenheimer, US physicist, inventor of the atomic bomb, ^B{1967^B}.
