Today in History: War Games were Held in Izmir

February 15 is the 46nd day of the year according to the Gregorian calendar. There are 319 days left until the end of the year (320 in leap years).

Events

• 399 BC – Socrates is sentenced to death.
• 360 – The Great Church, the predecessor of Hagia Sophia, was built at the same spot. It survived until the first years of the 5th century.
• 1637 – III. Ferdinand became Holy Roman Emperor.
• 1898 – Spanish-American War: An American ship explodes and sinks in the harbor of Havana (Cuba); More than 260 people died. The USA, which blamed Spain for the incident, declared war on Spain two weeks later.
• 1924 – War games were held in Izmir.
• 1933 – A person named Giuseppe Zangara wanted to assassinate US President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Miami, but injured Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak. Cermak died on March 6, 1933, from the effects of his injuries.
• 1947 - Rhodes and the Dodecanese Islands were given to Greece.
• 1949 – 1200 Jews applied to immigrate from Turkey to Palestine; The number of immigrants exceeded 10.000.
• 1950 - The USSR and China signed a joint defense treaty.
• 1961 – Sabena Airlines passenger plane crashed in Belgium, 73 people died. The US ice skating team was also on board.
• 1965 – The red and white leaf design is adopted as the new flag of Canada.
• 1969 – The “Great Education March” organized by the Turkish Teachers' Union (TÖS) was held in Ankara and thousands of teachers protested the corrupt education system. "We will save our people from exploitation," he chanted.
• 1970 – A DC-9 passenger plane belonging to the Dominican Republic crashes into the sea shortly after taking off from Santo Domingo: 102 people are killed.
• 1971 – Sergeant James Finley, who was on duty at the US facilities in Ankara Balgat, was kidnapped. Finley was released after 17,5 hours.
• 1971 – Istanbul University Faculty of Letters was occupied by a group of right-wing students, explosives were thrown at Kadırga Yurdu in Istanbul, the Kennedy Monument at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara was blown up.
• 1975 – All Teachers' Union and Solidarity Association (Töb-Der) organized meetings to protest against fascism and cost of living in 7 provinces. Meetings were attacked; 1 person died, 60 people were injured.
• 1979 – Turkish Confederation of Free Workers' Unions was established.
• 1982 – An oil extraction platform sank off Newfoundland due to storm, killing 84.
• 1989 – The 9-year Soviet military presence in Afghanistan ends with the withdrawal of the last Soviet Troops. In the war, in addition to about 15 thousand Russian soldiers, approximately 1 million Afghans lost their lives, 5 million Afghans were forced to immigrate from their country.
• 1995 – Hacker Kevin Mitnick is arrested by the FBI for hacking into some of the United States' most secure computer systems.
• 1996 – A helicopter carrying SAT commandos, who made a name for themselves with their operation on the Kardak rocks, crashed in the Aegean Sea; 5 soldiers died.
• 1999 – PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan was captured by Turkish security forces in Kenya.
• 1999 – Ekşi dictionary was founded.
• 1999 – A group known as the "Karagümrük Gang" in Eskişehir Prison killed Mustafa Duyar and injured Selçuk Parsadan. Mustafa Duyar Özdemir was convicted of murdering Sabancı and Selçuk Parsadan was convicted of the covert allowance case.
• 2002 – The first part of the Turkish Force, which will take part in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), started its duty in Kabul.
• 2005 – Culture and Tourism Minister Erkan Mumcu resigned from AKP and his ministry.
• 2005 – Video sharing site, YouTube was established.
• 2006 – The law that puts an end to the collection of receipts for tax refunds for retirees was published in the Official Gazette.
• 2009 – Istanbul Kadıköy In its square, many left parties and unions organized an action against unemployment and the crisis with the participation of approximately 50.000 people.
• 2012 – 357 people were killed and 80 inmates were seriously injured in the fire that broke out in the prison house in Comayagua, Honduras.

Births

• 1564 – Galileo Galilei, Italian scientist (d. 1642)
• 1710 – XV. Louis, King of France (d. 1774)
• 1724 – Peter von Biron, last duke of the Duchy of Courland (d. 1800)
• 1725 – Abraham Clark, American politician (d. 1794)
• 1739 – Alexandre Théodore Brongniart, French architect (d. 1813)
• 1748 – Jeremy Bentham, English philosopher and jurist (considered the founder of Pragmatism) (d. 1832)
• 1751 – Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, German painter (d. 1828)
• 1780 – Alfred Edward Chalon, Swiss painter (d. 1860)
• 1782 – William Miller, American Baptist preacher (d. 1849)
• 1811 – Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Argentine activist, intellectual, author, statesman, and sixth president of Argentina (d. 1888)
• 1817 – Charles-François Daubigny, French painter (d. 1878)
• 1820 – Susan B. Anthony, American women's rights activist (d. 1906)
• 1826 – Johnstone Stoney, Anglo-Irish physicist (d. 1911)
• 1836 – Matsudaira Katamori, Japanese daimyō (d. 1893)
• 1840 – Titu Maiorescu, Romanian academic, lawyer, literary critic, aesthetician, philosopher, children's educator, politician, and writer (d. 1917)
• 1841 – Campos Sales, Brazilian lawyer, coffee farmer, and politician (d. 1913)
• 1845 – Elihu Root, American lawyer and statesman (d. 1937)
• 1856 – Emil Kraepelin, German psychiatrist (d. 1926)
• 1861 – Charles Edouard Guillaume, French physicist and Nobel Prize laureate in Physics (d. 1938)
• 1861 – Alfred North Whitehead, English mathematician and philosopher (d. 1947)
• 1873 – Hans von Euler-Chelpin, German chemist and Nobel Prize laureate in Chemistry (d. 1964)
• 1874 – Ernest Shackleton, Irish-English explorer (d. 1922)
• 1880 – Ali Sami Boyar, Turkish painter (d. 1967)
• 1883 – Fritz Gerlich, German journalist and archivist (d. 1934)
• 1885 – Rupen Sevag, Ottoman Armenian physician (d. 1915)
• 1886 – Mustafa Sabri Öney, Turkish bureaucrat (d. ?)
• 1890 – Robert Ley, politician in Nazi Germany (d. 1945)
• 1891 Georg von Bismarck, German soldier (d. 1942)
• 1895 – Wilhelm Burgdorf, infantry general in Nazi Germany (d. 1945)
• 1897 – Bronislovas Paukštys, Lithuanian Catholic priest (d. 1966)
• 1898 – Toto, Italian comedy master and actor (d. 1967)
• 1899 – Georges Auric, French composer (d. 1983)
• 1907 – Cesar Romero, American actor (d. 1994)
• 1909 – Miep Gies, Dutch national (who helped Anne Frank and her family during World War II) (d. 2010)
• 1923 – Kemal Karpat, Turkish historian and academic (d. 2019)
• 1926 – Doğan Güreş, Turkish soldier and 21st Chief of Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces (d. 2014)
• 1928 – Pietro Bottaccioli, Italian bishop and clergyman (d. 2017)
• 1932 – Seyyid Ahmet Arvasi, Turkish sociologist, pedagogue and writer (d. 1988)
• 1938 – Vasıf Öngören, Turkish playwright (d. 1984)
• 1940 – İsmail Cem İpekçi, Turkish politician (d. 2007)
• 1944 – Cahar Dudayev, Chechen soldier and politician (d. 1996)
• 1944 – Zeynel Abidin Erdem, Turkish businessman
• 1945 – Douglas Hofstadter, American scientist
• 1946 – Yves Cochet, French writer and politician
• 1946 – Zeynep Oral, Turkish writer and journalist
• 1946 – Matthieu Ricard, Buddhist monk living at Shechen Tennyi Dargyeling Monastery in Nepal
• 1947 – John Adams, American modern-day Western classical composer, opera composer, and conductor
• 1947 – Rusty Hamer, American actor (d. 1990)
• 1947 – Wenche Myhre, Norwegian singer
• 1949 – Anneli Saaristo, Finnish singer
• 1949 – Esat Oktay Yıldıran, Turkish soldier (d. 1988)
• 1950 – Tsui Hark, Chinese screenwriter and film director
• 1951 – Jadwiga Jankowska-Cieslak, Polish actress
• 1951 – Jane Seymour, English actress
• 1952 – Sezai Aydın, Turkish theater, cinema, TV series actor and voice actor
• 1953 – Miloslav Ransdorf, Czech politician (d. 2016)
• 1954 – Matt Groening, American cartoonist and creator of The Simpsons
• 1960 – Armen Mazmanyan, Armenian director (d. 2014)
• 1962 – Milo Đukanović, Montenegrin politician
• 1963 – Isa Gok, Turkish politician
• 1963 – Oğuz Çetin, Turkish football player and manager
• 1964 – Chris Farley, American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer (b. 1997)
• 1965 – Metin Üstündağ, Turkish cartoonist
• 1969 – Birdman, American rapper and producer
• 1971 – Alex Borstein, American actor, singer, voice actor, writer, and comedian
• 1971 - Renée O'Connor, American actress
• 1974 – Miranda July, American writer, film director, actress, singer, and screenwriter
• 1974 – Alexander Wurz, race driver for Williams in Austrian Formula 1
• 1975 – Natik Ahund, Azeri film director, producer and screenwriter
• 1984 – Francesca Ferretti, Italian volleyball player
• 1986 – Valeri Bojinov, Bulgarian football player
• 1986 – Ami Koshimizu, Japanese voice actor
• 1986 – Michelle Lewin, Venezuelan athlete
• 1988 – Rui Patricio, Portuguese national football player
• 1989 – Ziomara Morrison, Chilean basketball player
• 1990 – Callum Turner, English actor and model
• 1991 – Ángel Sepúlveda, Mexican football player
• 1992 – İdo Tatlıses, Turkish singer
• 1993 – Ravi, South Korean rapper, singer, songwriter and producer
• 1995 – Megan Thee Stallion, American rapper and songwriter

Deaths

• 705 – Leontios became emperor of the Byzantine empire from 695 to 698
• 706 – III. Tiberios, Byzantine emperor from 698 to 705. Became emperor with a rebellion against Leontios as dynastic emperor
• 1634 – Wilhelm Fabry, German surgeon (b. 1560)
• 1637 – II. Ferdinand, Holy Roman emperor (b. 1578)
• 1731 – María de León Bello y Delgado, Catholic nun and mystic (b. 1643)
• 1740 – III. Abbas, Safavid ruler (b. 1732)
• 1781 – Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, German writer (b. 1729)
• 1844 – Henry Addington, English statesman (b. 1757)
• 1857 – Mikhail Glinka, Russian-born classical music composer (b. 1804)
• 1864 – Adam Wilhelm Moltke, Prime Minister of Denmark (b. 1785)
• 1869 – Mirza Esedullah Khan Galib, Mughal Period poet (b. 1797)
• 1871 – Jean-Marie Chopin, Franco-Russian traveler (b. 1796)
• 1905 – Lewis Wallace, American soldier, politician, and author (American Civil War Union Forces General) (b. 1827)
• 1928 – Herbert Henry Asquith, British politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1852)
• 1936 – Alf Victor Guldberg, Norwegian mathematician (b. 1866)
• 1946 – Malik Bushati, Prime Minister of Albania (b. 1880)
• 1958 – Numan Menemencioğlu, Turkish diplomat, politician and former Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1893)
• 1959 – ‎Owen Willans Richardson‎‎, English physicist, academic‎ and Nobel Prize laureate in Physics (b. 1879)
• 1965 – Nat King Cole, American musician (b. 1919)
• 1967 – Toto, Italian comedy master and actor (b. 1898)
• 1979 – Zbigniew Seifert, Polish musician (b. 1946)
• 1987 – Malik Aksel, Turkish painter and writer (b. 1901)
• 1988 – Richard Feynman, American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate in Physics (b. 1918)
• 1999 – Big L, American rapper (b. 1974)
• 1999 – Henry Way Kendall, American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate in Physics (b. 1926)
• 2001 – Orhan Asena, Turkish playwright (b. 1922)
• 2002 – Sabih Şendil, Turkish poet and writer (b. 1926)
• 2003 – Faik Türun, Turkish soldier, politician and retired general who was one of the commanders of the 12 March period (b. 1913)
• 2010 – Fuat Seyrekoğlu, Turkish football player (b. 1949)
• 2011 – İsmail Gülgeç, Turkish cartoonist (b. 1947)
• 2013 – Todor Kolev, Bulgarian actor and comedian (b. 1939)
• 2014 – Christopher Malcolm, Scottish actor (b. 1946)
• 2015 – Sergio y Estíbaliz, Spanish duo (b. 1948)
• 2015 – Eileen Essell, English actress (b. 1922)
• 2015 – Steve Montador, Canadian professional ice hockey player (b. 1979)
• 2016 – George Gaynes, Finnish-American singer, actor of theatre, film, television and voice actor (b. 1917)
• 2016 – Salman Natour, Palestinian-born Israeli author, poet, and journalist (b. 1949)
• 2016 – Vanity, Canadian singer, model, songwriter, and actress (b. 1959)
• 2017 – Margareta Kjellini, Swedish politician (b. 1948)
• 2017 – Manfred Kaiser, East German former international football player and manager (b. 1929)
• 2018 – Abdilaqim Ademi, Macedonian politician (b. 1969)
• 2018 – Lassie Lou Ahern, American actress (b. 1920)
• 2018 – Pier Paolo Capponi, Italian actor and screenwriter (b. 1938)
• 2019 – Ellis Avery, American author and novelist (b. 1972)
• 2019 – Kofi Burbridge, American musician (b. 1961)
• 2019 – Gene Littler, American golfer (b. 1930)
• 2019 – Al Mahmud, Bangladeshi poet, novelist, short story writer and journalist (b. 1936)
• 2019 – Lee Radziwill, American actress, noble, public relations executive, and interior designer (b. 1933)
• 2020 – Caroline Louise Flack, English actress, television and radio host (b. 1979)
• 2020 – Hilmi Ok, former Turkish football referee (b. 1932)
• 2020 – Duan Zhengcheng, Chinese inventor and industrial engineer (b. 1934)
• 2021 – Doris Bunte, American politician (b. 1933)
• 2021 – Alberto Canapino, Argentine race car engineer (b. 1963)
• 2021 – Sandro Dori, Italian actor and voice actor (b. 1938)
• 2021 – Lucia Guilmáin, Mexican actress (b. 1938)
• 2021 – Andréa Guiot, French opera singer (b. 1928)
• 2021 – Vincent Jackson, American football player (b. 1983)
• 2021 – Leopoldo Luque, Argentine football player (b. 1949)
• 2021 – Rowsch Shaways, Iraqi Kurdish politician (b. 1947)
• 2022 – Arnaldo Jabor, Brazilian filmmaker, screenwriter, film and TV director, and writer (b. 1940)
• 2022 – Onur Kumbaracıbaşı, former Turkish politician (b. 1939)
• 2022 – Tamaz Mechiauri, Georgian politician, engineer and economist (b. 1954)
• 2022 – PJ O'Rourke, American political commentator and journalist (b. 1947)
• 2022 – Arif Şentürk, Turkish folk music artist (b. 1941)
• 2022 – Tayana Tüdegesh, Russian poet (b. 1957)

Holidays and special occasions

• World Childhood Cancer Day
• Liberation of Trabzon's Maçka district from Russian and Armenian occupation (1918)
• Liberation of Gümüşhane from Russian and Armenian occupation (1921)