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Brougham Castle, founded by Robert de Vieuxpont in the early 13th century, is south-east of Penrith, Cumbria, England, on the site of Brocavum, a Roman fort. The castle is scheduled as an Ancient Monument, along with the fort, as "Brougham Roman fort and Brougham Castle". The Vieuxponts were a powerful land-owning family in North West England and also owned the castles of Appleby and Brough. When Brougham Castle was built, Vieuxpont was one of a few lords loyal to the king in the region. In 1264 his grandson, also named Robert, was declared a traitor and his property was confiscated by Henry III. Brougham Castle and the other estates were eventually returned to the Vieuxpont family. The castle ruins were mentioned at the start of William Wordsworth's poem The Prelude, and were the subject of his Song at the Feast of Brougham Castle upon the Restoration of Lord Clifford, the Shepherd, to the Estates and Honours of his Ancestors. They also inspired a painting by J. M. W. Turner. The castle was left to the Ministry of Works in the 1930s and is today maintained by its successor, English Heritage. (Full article...)

Leslie Skinner

• ... that during development of the M8 rocket in 1941, Leslie Skinner (pictured) built the first prototypes with casings made from old fire extinguishers?
• ... that when the Ubina Hoard was looted on the day after excavations had started, members of the Estonian Defence League were dispatched to guard it?
• ... that Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells is a term given to people, traditionally ascribed as being from Royal Tunbridge Wells, who write letters of incensed conservative moral outrage?
• ... that the January 1868 death of a Romanian nationalist monk just days after he had been elected deputy sparked an antisemitic riot?
• ... that Ocosta Elementary School in Westport, Washington, has the first public tsunami refuge built in the United States?
• ... that the Indonesian kingdoms of Gowa and Talloq imported ceramics on a scale that, according to archaeologists Bulbeck and Caldwell, "beggars imagination"?
• ... that Paul Éluard's poem "Liberté", an ode to liberty written in occupied France, was distributed by parachute from British aircraft?

Damien Chazelle

• A suicide bombing at a shrine in Sehwan, Pakistan, kills at least 83 people and injures more than 250 others.
• The Indian Space Research Organisation's PSLV-C37 mission launches a record 104 satellites at once.
• Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, is killed in Malaysia.
• La La Land wins in five categories, including Best Film and Best Director (Damien Chazelle, pictured), at the British Academy Film Awards.
• A suicide bombing at a protest rally in Lahore, Pakistan, kills at least 15 people and injures more than 80 others.

February 19

Dust storm at Manzanar

• 1600 – The Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina exploded in the most violent eruption in the recorded history of South America.
• 1811 – Peninsular War: An outnumbered French force under Édouard Mortier routed and nearly destroyed the Spanish at the Battle of the Gebora near Badajoz, Spain.
• 1942 – Second World War: In the largest attack mounted by a foreign power against Australia, more than 240 Japanese aircraft bombed Darwin, Northern Territory.
• 1942 – World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the forcible relocation of over 112,000 Japanese Americans to internment camps (Manzanar War Relocation Center pictured).
• 2011 – Items from the Belitung shipwreck, the biggest single collection of Tang dynasty artefacts found in one location, were first put on display in Singapore.

Nicolaus Copernicus (b. 1473) · Joseph Szigeti (d. 1973)