February 18 in History

February 18 is the 49th day of the year. There are 316 days remaining until the end of the year.

• 1841 – The first ongoing filibuster in the United States Senate began and lasted until March 11th.
• 1878 – John Tunstall was murdered by outlaw Jesse Evans, sparking the Lincoln County War in Lincoln County, New Mexico. 
• 1885 – Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was first published.
• 1901 – Winston Churchill made his first speech in the House of Commons.
• 1911 – The first official flight with air mail took place in Allahabad, British India, when Henri Pequet, a 23-year-old pilot, delivered 6,500 letters to Naini, about 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) away.
• 1913 – Pedro Lascurain became President of Mexico for 45 minutes - the shortest term to date of any person as president of any country
• 1930 – Elm Farm Ollie became the first cow to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft and also the first cow to be milked in an aircraft.
• 1946 – Sailors of the Royal Indian Navy mutinied in Mumbai harbour, from where it would spread throughout British India and involved 78 ships, 20 shore establishments, and 20,000 sailors
• 1954 – The first Church of Scientology was established in Los Angeles, California.
• 1970 – The Chicago Seven were found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
• 1972 – The California Supreme Court invalidated the state's death penalty in the case of People v. Anderson, and commutes the sentences of all death row inmates to life imprisonment.
• 1978 – The first Ironman Triathlon competition took place on the island of Oahu, Hawaii.
• 1979 – Snow fell in the Sahara Desert in southern Algeria for the only time in recorded history.
• 2001 – Seven-time NASCAR champion Dale Earnhardt died in an crash at the Daytona 500.