Editing February 18 (section)

===1601–1900===
*[[1637]] &ndash; [[Eighty Years' War]]: Off the coast of [[Cornwall]], England, a [[Spanish Empire|Spanish]] fleet [[Battle off Lizard Point|intercepts]] an important [[Kingdom of England|Anglo]]-[[Dutch Republic|Dutch]] merchant convoy of 44 vessels escorted by six warships, destroying or capturing 20 of them.
*[[1735]] &ndash; The ballad opera called ''Flora, or Hob in the Well'' went down in history as the first opera of any kind to be produced in North America (Charleston, S.C.)<ref>{{cite book|first=Clifton|last=Daniel|title=Chronicle of America|publisher=Chronicle Publications|year=2004|page=100|isbn=0-13-133745-9}}</ref> 
*[[1781]] &ndash; [[Fourth Anglo-Dutch War]]: Captain Thomas Shirley [[Shirley's Gold Coast expedition|opens his expedition]] against [[Dutch Gold Coast|Dutch colonial outposts]] on the [[Gold Coast (British colony)|Gold Coast]] of Africa (present-day [[Ghana]]).
*[[1791]] &ndash; Congress passes a law [[admission to the Union|admitting]] the state of [[Vermont]] to the Union, effective 4 March, after that state had existed for 14 years as [[Vermont Republic|a de facto independent largely unrecognized state]].
*[[1797]] &ndash; [[French Revolutionary Wars]]: Sir [[Ralph Abercromby]] and a fleet of 18 [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]] warships [[Invasion of Trinidad (1797)|invade]] [[Trinidad]].
*[[1814]] &ndash; [[Napoleonic Wars]]: The [[Battle of Montereau]].
*[[1861]] &ndash; In [[Montgomery, Alabama]], [[Jefferson Davis]] is inaugurated as the provisional President of the [[Confederate States of America]].
*  1861   &ndash; With [[Italian unification]] almost complete, [[Victor Emmanuel II of Italy|Victor Emmanuel II]] of [[Piedmont]], [[Savoy]] and [[Sardinia]] assumes the title of [[King of Italy]].
*[[1873]] &ndash; [[Bulgaria]]n revolutionary leader [[Vasil Levski]] is executed by [[hanging]] in [[Sofia]] by the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] authorities.
*[[1878]] &ndash; [[John Tunstall]] is murdered by [[outlaw]] [[Jesse Evans]], sparking the [[Lincoln County War]] in [[Lincoln County, New Mexico]].
*[[1885]] &ndash; ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'' by [[Mark Twain]] is published in the United States.
*[[1900]] &ndash; [[Second Boer War]]: Imperial forces suffer their worst single-day loss of life on [[Bloody Sunday (1900)|Bloody Sunday]], the first day of the [[Battle of Paardeberg]].