Home   On This Day   On this day in history - February 15

On this day in history - February 15

What Happened On This Day – February 15

  • 2003 The largest peace demonstration in history takes place

    Up to 30 million people in 600 cities around the world protested against the Iraq War.

  • 2001 The first draft of the human genome is published

    The human genome contains the complete human genetic information.

  • 1989 The Soviet Union pulls out of Afghanistan

    Despite their military superiority, the Soviet and Afghan armies did not succeed in breaking the Mujahideen insurgents' resistance.

  • 1971 The United Kingdom and Ireland decimalize their currencies

    Before the change, a pound sterling was made up of 240 pence, or 20 shillings.

  • 1965 Canada adopts its current national flag showing a maple leaf

    The leaf symbolizes the country's forests, the middle white stripe the arctic snow, and the red stripes the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Illustration of stork, signifying birth

Births On This Day,
February 15

  • 1954 Matt Groening

    American animator, screenwriter, producer

  • 1934 Graham Kennedy

    Australian actor

  • 1874 Ernest Shackleton

    Irish explorer

  • 1710 Louis XV of France

  • 1564 Galileo Galilei

    Italian astronomer, physicist

Illustration of tombstone, signifying death

Deaths On This Day,
February 15

  • 2005 Samuel T. Francis

    American journalist

  • 1988 Richard Feynman

    American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

  • 1965 Nat King Cole

    American singer, pianist, television host

  • 1928 H. H. Asquith

    English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

  • 1781 Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

    German author, philosopher