LOCAL 

2017: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee inaugurates Sangraha at Eco Park on February 27. This is a museum of artefacts from the previous year’s Durga puja immersion parade. 

NATIONAL 

1873: India’s first tramway opens in Calcutta on February 24. The tram is horse-drawn and the 3.9km ride is from Sealdah to Armenian Ghat Street. The horses later get replaced by electric lines.

1931: The Viceroy and Governor-General of India, Lord Irwin, inaugurates New Delhi as the new capital of the British Indian Empire on February 1931. The city was designed by two British architects, Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker.

1968: Auroville, an experimental township in Puducherry and Tamil Nadu, is inaugurated on February 28. Founded by the Mother, it is meant to be a universal town for people of all countries to live in peace.

GLOBAL

1940: Tenzin Gyatso is enthroned as the 14th Dalai Lama in Lhasa, Tibet on February 22. He is recognised as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama after some tests by senior monks, and at the age of five, is declared at the 14th Dalai Lama.

1952: East Pakistan police kill students and political activists on February 21, protesting the government’s decision to make Urdu the sole national language, ignoring Bengali. The deaths spark massive unrest. In 1999, Unesco declares February 21 as International Mother Language Day.

1847: Thomas Edison is born in Ohio on February 11. He grows up to be one of the greatest inventors of his time, holding thousands of patents to his name and contributing to the field of sound recording, motion pictures and most importantly, the light bulb. 

SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT 

1936: The Phantom begins as a daily newspaper strip on February 17. Created by Lee Falk, it tells the tale of a masked crime-fighter from an unbroken line of father-son legacy. The Phantom is the first fictional hero to wear a skin-tight suit, that later becomes the norm. At its peak the comic is read by over 100 million people daily.

1940: Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African-American to win an Oscar (Best Supporting Actress) for her role as the maid “Mammy” in Gone with the Wind. The February 29 ceremony is held at a hotel with a no-blacks policy but McDaniel, who was born to former slaves, is allowed to sit at a segregated table. 

2003: Australian leg spinner Shane Warne is sent home from the ICC Cricket World Cup without bowling a single ball after he tests positive for a banned drug — a diuretic. Warne faces a year-long ban and returns to cricket thereafter. 

What is your most treasured personal memory of February?
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