On February 11, 1979, the Iranian state collapsed—not gradually, not through constitutional maneuvering, but in a sudden, cascading failure that left one of the Middle East’s most powerful monarchies dissolved almost overnight. That day, revolutionary forces seized key military installations in Tehran, senior officers…
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On February 11, 1808, Jesse Fell, a judge and businessman from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, conducted a simple yet groundbreaking experiment that changed the way Americans heated their homes. By successfully burning anthracite coal on an open grate, he proved that this hard, dense fuel could…
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On February 10, 1306, a killing inside a church in the Scottish border town of Dumfries turned a long, faltering resistance into an open revolution. Before the high altar of Greyfriars Church, Robert the Bruce struck down his political rival John Comyn. In medieval…
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On this day in history, February 10, 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued a cautionary warning against direct U.S. military intervention in Vietnam. At the time, the French were struggling to maintain their colonial control over Indochina, facing fierce resistance from the communist Viet…
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On February 9, 1942, the United States did something that would have seemed mildly absurd just a few years earlier: it reset the nation’s clocks—permanently, at least for the duration of the war. With the country barely two months removed from Pearl Harbor, Congress…
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The Mud March of February 9, 1907, was the first large-scale demonstration organized by the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) and marked a crucial moment in the fight for women’s voting rights in Britain. While not the first suffrage protest, its unprecedented…
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On February 8, 1960, Queen Elizabeth II issued an Order-in-Council declaring that her direct descendants would bear the surname Mountbatten-Windsor, a decision that subtly but significantly altered the royal family’s naming conventions. This choice reflected both personal and political considerations as the Queen navigated…
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On February 7, 1812, the most powerful earthquake in a relentless series of seismic shocks struck the frontier town of New Madrid, delivering a convulsion so violent that it reshaped the land, terrified distant cities, and permanently altered American understanding of the continent’s hidden…
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On February 7, 1962, the United States enacted a sweeping trade embargo against Cuba, effectively halting all imports and exports between the two nations. This move was part of a broader effort to isolate Fidel Castro’s revolutionary government following the Cuban Revolution of 1959.…
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On February 6, 1820, a small group of 86 African American emigrants departed New York aboard the ship Elizabeth, embarking on a journey that would bind the future of the United States to the West African coast in complicated and enduring ways. Sponsored by…
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