More than 2000 people in the town of Cesena were killed by the troops of Pope Gregory XI in 1377. Tulip Mania in the United Provinces crashed in 1637. New Zealand's worst natural disaster, an earthquake at Hawkes Bay, killed 258 in 1931. And in 1959, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper (JP Richardson) were killed when their plane crashed near Clear Lake, Iowa.
Born today: Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1947), Walter Bagehot (1826-1877), Gertrude Stein (1874-1946), Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), Alvar Aalto (1898-1976), Simone Weil (1909-1943), Dave Davies (1947), Melanie Safka (1947), Henning Mankell (1948), Lol Tolhurst (1959) and Isla Fisher (1976).
It is the Festival of Setsubun in Japan.
