Local
Central Park camp
2022: Bidhannagar Commissionerate opens its Central Park camp next to the fairgrounds on February 22. Inaugurated by police commissioner Supratim Sarkar, the camp houses police personnel and helps monitor the vicinity better.
National
Indian Museum
1814: The Imperial Museum is founded by the Asiatic Society of Bengal, in Calcutta, on February 2. With rare collections of antiques, ornaments, fossils, mummies and paintings, the Indian Museum, as it is known later, is the ninth museum in the world and even in the 21st century, remains the largest in Asia.
Sarat Chandra Bose
1950: Barrister and freedom fighter Sarat Chandra Bose dies on February 20. Elder brother of Subhas Chandra Bose, he backed the formation of the Indian National Army and was a strong proponent of the Quit India movement. He also served as member of the interim government for works, mines and powers in 1946.
Mir Osman Ali Khan
1967: Mir Osman Ali Khan, the last Nizam of the princely state of Hyderabad, dies on February 24. Having ruled till the kingdom was annexed by India in 1948, the Nizam was one of the richest people of all time. The source of his wealth was the Golconda mines that, at the time, was the only supplier of diamonds in the world. Known as the architect of modern Hyderabad, the Nizam helped introduce electricity, railways and airports as well as establish institutions like Osmania University and Hyderabad High Court.
Global
Nicolaus Copernicus
1473: Nicolaus Copernicus is born on February 19 in Poland. He becomes an astronomer who first claims that the earth is a planet that rotates on its axis and orbits the Sun instead of the other way round. His radical theory takes over a century to find widespread acceptance but helps later-day scientists like Galileo and Newton.
Nkosi Johnson
1989: An HIV-positive child is born in South Africa on February 4 and put up for adoption. While in his new home, Nkosi Johnson is refused admission to school on grounds of his HIV status. This leads to public uproar and the school is forced to take him in. The boy becomes the voice of Aids patients and with his adoptive mother, finds shelters for HIV-positive mothers and their children. Nkosi dies at the age 12.
Pope Benedict XVI
2013: Pope Benedict XVI resigns on February 28, on account of advanced age. The German had been the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2005 till he relinquishes duties, at the age of 86. He is known henceforth as Pope emeritus till his death in 2022. He was the first pope to resign in 600 years.
Sports
Youtube Logo
2005: Online video-sharing platform YouTube is founded in California, on February 14. It is started by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim, who were colleagues at PayPal, an online payments system company, when they realised how difficult it was to share videos. By 2023, YouTube garners more than 2.5 billion monthly users who watch more than a billion hours of videos every day.
Naziha Salim
2008: Iraqi artist Naziha Salim dies on February 15. Born to a family of artiste, she painted on women-oriented themes from various walks of life. Salim was one of the first Iraqi women to be awarded scholarship to study art abroad and was described by the Iraqi president Jalal Talabani as the “first Iraqi woman who anchored the pillars of Iraqi contemporary art”.
Oscar Pistorius
2013: Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius shoots his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on February 14. The South African, whose feet were amputated due to a congenital defect, used artificial limbs to run, earning him the nickname “Blade Runner”. He made headlines as the first double-leg amputee participant in the summer Olympics in 2012. Although Pistorius claims he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder in his home, the court finds him guilty of culpable homicide and sentences him to imprisonment. He is released on parole in January 2024.