Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias, reaches the Cape of Good Hope and enters what would later became known as Mossel Bay on February 3, 1488 ,during his attempt to establish a sea route to India. He was the first European to sail around the southern tip of Africa. His trip had started in Lisbon, Portugal with a small fleet in July 1487.
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What Happened in February?
Emperor ascensions, legendary battles, and assassinations. Discover what happened this month in history. Explore pivotal events from February that helped shape the world. Dates for earlier events may be approximate.
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Pope Innocent VIII launches the Spanish Inquisition to combat heresy, contributing to the persecution of Jews and Muslims in Spain.
Portuguese Explorer, Vasco da Gama sets sail on his second voyage to India, on February 12, 1502 aiming to secure Portugal's trade interests.
Christopher Columbus successfully uses his knowledge of an upcoming total lunar eclipse on February 29, 1504 to secure provisions from the local Taino people while stranded in Jamaica. Telling them that the Moon would disappear on the night of February 29 as a sign of divine displeasure.
The naval Battle of Diu takes place in the Arabian Sea, in the port of Diu, India, on February 3, 1509, between the Portuguese and a combined fleet of the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt, Gujarat Sultanate, and Calicut, backed by Venice; resulting in a decisive Portuguese victory establishing control of the Indian Ocean trade routes.
The Habsburg forces win a decisive victory over France at the Battle of Pavia on February 24, 1525, during the Italian War of 1521–1526. The French army was virtually destroyed, and King Francis I, was captured by the Habsburgs, leading to a shift in power in Italy and forcing France to accept humiliating terms in the subsequent Treaty of Madrid.
The city of Santiago, Chile, is founded on February 12, 1541, by Spanish conquistador Pedro de Valdivia.
Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII, is executed on February 13, 1542 at the Tower of London for adultery and treason.
Protestant reformer Martin Luther dies in Eisleben, Germany. on February 18, 1546. He was 62 years old and had returned to his hometown to mediate a dispute between the counts of Mansfeld.
King Edward VI of England is crowned at Westminster Abbey on February 20, 1547 at the age of nine following the death of Henry VIII. He died in 1553.
Pope Julius III, born Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte, is elected on February 7, 1550, after a contentious 10-week conclave after Paul III's death. His reign was marked by limited reform efforts, luxurious, pursuits and for nepotism, notably his scandalous elevation of his adoptive nephew, Innocenzo del Monte, to Cardinal.
Lady Jane Grey, who briefly ruled as Queen of England, is executed for treason.
Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer, mathematician, and physicist, is born in Pisa, Italy.on February 15, 1564. He is known as the "father of modern science" for his foundational contributions to astronomy, physics, and scientific methods.
Pope Pius V excommunicates Queen Elizabeth I of England, on February 25, 1570, with the papal bull "Regnans in Excelsis." for heresy and persecution of English Catholics during her reign, He also absolved her subjects from allegiance to the crown.
Pope Gregory XIII issues the papal bull "Inter gravissimas," on February 24, 1582, introducing the Gregorian calendar. The reform corrected a 10-day drift by skipping days in October 1582, effective on Thursday, October 4, 1582, making the following date, Friday, October 15, 1582. It was quickly adopted by much of Catholic, but not Protestant, Europe which adopted it much later.
The new Julian Calendar also aligned the vernal equinox with March 21 and introduced more precise leap year calculations to ensure long-term accuracy and fixed the date of Easter, which had drifted away from the spring equinox due to the Julian calendar's 11-minute-per-year error.
The Gregorian calendar is now widely used around the world. With the exception of Ethiopia, Nepal, Iran and Afghanistan, the Gregorian calendar is now the world's universal civil calendar, old style calendars remaining in use in religious or traditional contexts. More
Mary, Queen of Scots, is executed on February 8, 1587 at Fotheringhay Castle, in Northamptonshire. After nineteen years in captivity, she was found guilty of plotting the assassination of her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I and was beheaded at age 44 becoming the first anointed English monarch to be executed.
Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder dies in Brussels, Belgium.
Giordano Bruno, Italian philosopher, astronomer, and former Dominican monk, was burned at the stake for heresy, on February 17, 1600 by the Roman Inquisition in Rome's Campo de' Fiori.
He was convicted of holding unorthodox views such as the infinity of the universe, the Copernican heliocentric model, and theological heresies like denying the divinity of Christ. Bruno refused to recant his beliefs. In 1889, a statue was erected in his honor at the site of his death, marking him as a martyr for scientific and intellectual freedom. Others believe that his charges were primarily rooted in his radical theological views and occult, magical philosophies.
Giordano Bruno is burned at the stake on February 17, 1600 for heresy in Rome.
The stratovolcano Huaynaputina, located about 50 miles from the city of Arequipa on the southern Peruvian Andes range, explodes beginning on Feb 19, 1600 in the most violent volcanic eruption in South American recorded history and one of the largest in world history over the past 2000 years.
It caused massive regional destruction and major social disruption and abrupt global cooling in the Northern Hemisphere in 1601. It is 4,850-meter-high (15,912 ft) volcanic complex consisting of a 2.5-km-wide caldera containing three younger ash cones. It is currently in a state of superficial calm but remains remains an active, dangerous volcano.