February 7: Today is the anniversary of the arrival of The Beatles to John F. Kennedy airport in New York in 1964.

The Beatles arrive at JFK airport in New York from London for their first tour of the United States.

The Beatles arrived in New York from London on a Pan Am plane, February 7, 1964, where they found what they did not imagine: "Beatlmania". More than three thousand teenagers were to receive them with hysterical screams and pressures that had to reinforce police officers to contain peat. One of the most "iconic" moments in the history of Rock 'n Roll.

The Beatles at Kennedy International Airport in New York, 1964

On February 7th 1964, The Beatles flew from London to New York City for a ten day American visit. Unprecedented hysteria filled John F. Kennedy Airport, the Plaza Hotel, and the streets of New York City, surrounding the Beatles' every move.. The Beatles found something they would not imagine: “Beatlemania”!

                   Unprecedented hysteria filled John F. Kennedy Airport

It was the first visit by The Beatles to America. At the airport John F. Kennedy gave the first press conference where Ringo said "Beethoven wrote good poems". Two days later, they appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show on TV. The most important television program of entertainment in the United States of America.

On February 7th, 1964 The Beatles were met by over 5,000 screaming fans as they arrived at New York's JFK airport.

"I Want to Hold Your Hand", was the first song on winning first place in the American musical range. That single song sold one-and-a-half million copies in under three weeks. John Lennon and Ringo Starr, were 23 years old; Paul McCartney 21, and George Harrison with 20, were invited to participate in the most important American television show: the Ed Sullivan Show, two days later.

Paul (left), Ringo, George, and John at press conference in JFK Airport

The shouting at the TV studio did not allow to hear the presentation of the "four furry Liverpool". The Ed Sullivan Show had an audience of more than 75 million Americans in 1964. That is, 40% of the population. The program was repeated for two more presentations due to massive request.

The Beatles , from left, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr on drums, George Harrison and John Lennon,

perform on the CBS “Ed Sullivan Show”

Journalists began to talk about "Beatlemania" but also as the beginning of the "British Invasion" or "English Wave" because then came the Rolling Stones, The Who, The Dave Clark Five, The Animals, The Herman's Hermits ...

February 6: The United States Senate ratifies The Treaty of Paris in 1899 which was a peace treaty that ended the war between the United States and Spain during the Spanish-American War that started in 1898.

Spanish American War Map

The United States of America and Her Majesty the Queen Regent of Spain, in the name of her august son Don Alfonso XIII, desiring to end the state of war now existing between the two countries, have for that purpose appointed as plenipotentiaries who, having assembled in Paris, and having exchanged their full powers, which were found to be in due and proper form, have, after discussion of the matters before them, agreed upon the following articles:

Article I.

Spain relinquishes all claim of sovereignty over and title to Cuba. And as the island is, upon its evacuation by Spain, to be occupied by the United States, the United States will, so long as such occupation shall last, assume and discharge the obligations that may under international law result from the fact of its occupation, for the protection of life and property.

American strategic map of the war with Spain.

Article II.

Spain cedes to the United States the island of Porto Rico and other islands now under Spanish sovereignty in the West Indies, and the island of Guam in the Marianas or Ladrones.

Article III.

Spain cedes to the United States the archipelago known as the Philippine Islands, and comprehending the islands … The United States will pay to Spain the sum of twenty million dollars ($20,000,000) within three months after the exchange of the ratifications of the present treaty.

Article IV.

The United States will, for the term of ten years from the date of the exchange of the ratifications of the present treaty, admit Spanish ships and merchandise to the ports of the Philippine Islands on the same terms as ships and merchandise of the United States.

Article V.

The United States will, upon the signature of the present treaty, send back to Spain, at its own cost, the Spanish soldiers taken as prisoners of war on the capture of Manila by the American forces. The arms of the soldiers in question shall be restored to them.

Spain will, upon the exchange of the ratifications of the present treaty, proceed to evacuate the Philippines, as well as the island of Guam, on terms similar to those agreed upon by the Commissioners appointed to arrange for the evacuation of Puerto Rico and other islands in the West Indies, under the Protocol of August 12, 1898, which is to continue in force till its provisions are completely executed.

Article VI.

Spain will, upon the signature of the present treaty, release all prisoners of war, … Reciprocally, the United States will release all persons made prisoners of war by the American forces…

Article VII.

The United States and Spain mutually relinquish all claims for indemnity, national and individual, of every kind, of either Government, or of its citizens or subjects, against the other Government, that may have arisen since the beginning of the late insurrection in Cuba and prior to the exchange of ratifications of the present treaty, including all claims for indemnity for the cost of the war.

Map: The Spanish-American war

Article VIII.

In conformity with the provisions of Articles I, II, and III of this treaty, Spain relinquishes in Cuba, and cedes in Puerto Rico and other islands in the West Indies, in the island of Guam, and in the Philippine Archipelago, all the buildings, wharves, barracks, forts, structures, public highways and other immovable property which, in conformity with law, belong to the public domain, and as such belong to the Crown of Spain…Article IX.

The civil rights and political status of the native inhabitants of the territories hereby ceded to the United States shall be determined by the Congress.Article X.

The inhabitants of the territories over which Spain relinquishes or cedes her sovereignty shall be secured in the free exercise of their religion.

Secretary of State John Hay signing the Treaty of Paris

Article XI.

The Spaniards residing in the territories over which Spain by this treaty cedes or relinquishes her sovereignty shall be subject in matters civil as well as criminal to the jurisdiction of the courts of the country wherein they reside, pursuant to the ordinary laws governing the same; and they shall have the right to appear before such courts, and to pursue the same course as citizens of the country to which the courts belong.

Article XII.

Judicial proceedings pending at the time of the exchange of ratifications of this treaty in the territories over which Spain relinquishes or cedes her sovereignty shall be determined according to the following rules:

1. Judgments rendered either in civil suits between private individuals, or in criminal matters, before the date mentioned, and with respect to which there is no recourse or right of review under the Spanish law, shall be deemed to be final, and shall be executed in due form by competent authority in the territory within which such judgments should be carried out.

2. Civil suits between private individuals which may on the date mentioned be undetermined shall be prosecuted to judgment before the court in which they may then be pending or in the court that may be substituted therefor.

3. Criminal actions pending on the date mentioned before the Supreme Court of Spain against citizens of the territory which by this treaty ceases to be Spanish shall continue under its jurisdiction until final judgment; but, such judgment having been rendered, the execution thereof shall be committed to the competent authority of the place in which the case arose.

Article XIII.

The rights of property secured by copyrights and patents acquired by Spaniards in the Island of Cuba and in Puerto Rico, the Philippines and other ceded territories, at the time of the exchange of the ratifications of this treaty, shall continue to be respected. Spanish scientific, literary and artistic works, not subversive of public order in the territories in question, shall continue to be admitted free of duty into such territories, for the period of ten years, to be reckoned from the date of the exchange of the ratifications of this treaty.

Article XIV.

Spain will have the power to establish consular officers in the ports and places of the territories, the sovereignty over which has been either relinquished or ceded by the present treaty.

Article XV.

The Government of each country will, for the term of ten years, accord to the merchant vessels of the other country the same treatment in respect of all port charges, including entrance and clearance dues, light dues, and tonnage duties, as it accords to its own merchant vessels, not engaged in the coastwise trade.
Article XVI.

It is understood that any obligations assumed in this treaty by the United States with respect to Cuba are limited to the time of its occupancy thereof; but it will upon termination of such occupancy, advise any Government established in the island to assume the same obligations.

Article XVII.

The present treaty shall be ratified by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof, and by Her Majesty the Queen Regent of Spain; and the ratifications shall be exchanged at Washington within six months from the date hereof, or earlier if possible.

In faith whereof, we, the respective Plenipotentiaries, have signed this treaty and have hereunto affixed our seals.

Done in duplicate at Paris, the tenth day of December, in the year of Our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight.

[Seal] William R. Day
[Seal] Cushman K. Davis
[Seal] William P. Frye
[Seal] Geo. Gray[Seal] Whitelaw Reid
[Seal] Eugenio Montero Rios
[Seal] B. de Abarzuza[Seal] J. de Garnica
[Seal] W. R. de Villa Urrutia
[Seal] Rafael Cerero


Source: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/sp1898.asp

February 5: The new Japanese government in 1597 ordered the murder of Japanese Christians because they considered it a threat to Japanese society.

                 St. Paul Miki & his companions, Martyrs (+ 1597) - Memorial

The term "Kurisuchan" comes from Portuguese cristão, because the Portuguese wehere who introduced Christianity to Japan. Portuguese missionaries were called "bateren" or "fathers" and sometimes called them "Iruman" in Portuguese "irmão".

A EUROPEAN ENGRAVING OF 26 MARTYRS who were crucified in Nagasaki, Japan in 1597.

The Portuguese ships began arriving in Japan in 1543 with the mission to indoctrinate the Japanese and induce the Catholic religion in order to stop them being brutal and heartless heretics. The first missionaries were the Franciscans and the Dominicans. Then came the Spanish Jesuit Francisco Xavier (Pattern Xaverian) who came with Cosme de Torres and Father Juan Fernández, who arrived at the port of Kogoshima, with a mission to indoctrinate Japanese.

The Christian martyrs of Nagasaki . 16-17th-century Japanese painting.

The Jesuits, under the leadership of Francisco Xavier, managed to indoctrinate over 300,000 Japanese with Christian dogmas.

The reasons for persecution of Christians in Japan are complex, but the government feared that missionaries and converts were stalking horses for European conquerors to subjugate Japan. The first victims, six Franciscan friars and 20 converts, were crucified in Nagasaki in 1597; by 1630 Christians were driven underground, yet they persisted in the faith for centuries until contact was reestablished.

1597 A group of Japanese Christians were killed by the new government for being seen as a threat to Japanese society: The Twenty-six Martyrs of Japan.


The first Martyrs of Japan were canonized in 1862. They are commemorated on February 5 when, on that date in 1597, twenty-six missionaries and converts were killed by crucifixion. Two hundred and fifty years later, when Christian missionaries returned to Japan, they found a community of Japanese Christians that had survived underground.

February 4: King Charles I of England sent soldiers to arrest all members of Parliament ... and so began the English Civil War in 1642.

King Charles I

Charles became king of England in 1625, when his father died, James I. They belonged to the absolutist monarchies who believed they had divine rights and belonged to hereditary thrones, by the grace of God. Charles was a firm believer in the "divine right of kings".

Oliver Cromwell

Although English Parliament was in charge of just debating laws and approve the budget for war, the English king decided to end this figure and govern absolutely, because he did not accept any argument. Perhaps his biggest mistake was underestimating the parliamentary cooperation. His determination in the belief on "Divine Rights", the king ignored the Parliament, which had been operating since "Magna Charta Libertatum" or "Magna Carta of freedoms" that negotiated the English king, John I, with the nobility, in 1215. The Magna Carta was signed in June 1215 between the barons of Medieval England and King John I. 'Magna Carta' is Latin and means "Great Charter". The Magna Carta was one of the most important documents of Medieval England.

During the seventeenth century there was a civil war in England known as the English Revolution, which took place in two stages: first, between 1643 and 1648, produced by the confrontation between advocates of an absolutist monarchical power and middle class with economic power, supporters of Parliament and led by MP and General Oliver Cromwell.

                     English Civil War - The Main Battles

Parliamentarians were victorious and sentenced King Charles I to death who was executed in the public square on January 30, 1649, horrifying Europe.

There was, then, a Republican interregnum between 1649 and 1660, during which Oliver Cromwell was proclaimed Lord Protector by a law called “the Instrument of Government”.

February 3: Benito Mussolini announces that he assumed dictatorial powers over Italy, in 1925.

Benito Mussolini "Il Duce"

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (July 29, 1883-April 28, 1945). Mussolini was a member of the Italian Socialist Party, but was expelled because he opposed the neutrality of his party against the Italian intervention in the First World War. Then denounced the Socialist Party and founded the National Fascist Party (Partito Nazionale Fascist).

Benito Mussolini decreed in 1924 that every member of his Fascist Party who was a Mason 

                        must abandon either one or the other organization.

In 1919, Mussolini founded the "Fasci di Combattimento" to fight all those who identified with socialism, communism, and anarchism.

                 Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler

After leading the March on Rome in October 1922, Mussolini was appointed Prime Minister of Italy, becoming the youngest Italian Minister and Presidential Range. Mussolini ruled under the Constitution until 1925, when discarded all democratic pretensions and established a dictatorship with the name "Il Duce" (pronounced "Il Duche") meaning "leader".

¡The world will be ours, hahahahahahahaha...!

Mussolini was in power until the king of Italy Victor Emmanuel III had to depose him in 1943. Mussolini was allied with Hitler, knowing he had no military capability to follow the Germans during World War II.

Towards the end of April 1945, Mussolini tried to escape to Switzerland but was captured and executed near Lake Como by Communist Italian Partisans.

After 1936, his official title was “His excellency Benito Mussolini, Head of Government,

               Duce of Fascism, and Founder and Firs Marshal of the Empire”.

His death body was sent to Milan where he was hung upside down at an Esso gas station in the Piazzale Loreto for public admiration.

Mussolini´s body was brought to the Piazzale Loreto and placed on display.

February 2: Pope John XII crowned Otto I as emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, in 962.

Replica of the Magdeburger Reiter, equestrian monument traditionally regarded as portrait of Otto I  (Magdeburg original c. 1240)

In 954, Otto I, King of the East Franks, faced an invasion of the Magyar (Hungary) people who were totally defeated at the Battle of Lechfeld (Bavaria). The prestige of Otto I began to expand.

Otto Magnus. Otto "The Great"

In 961, King Berengar II of Italy invaded the Papal States and attacked Rome. Pope John XII requested King Otto’s help to defend the Church. Otto crossed the Alps with his army and went into Italy to defend the Papal States and Catholicism. Once he defeated the invaders and eventually reached Rome on January 31, 962.

                  Imperial crown of the Holy Roman Empire

In 962, Pope John XII appointed Otto I as emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, in recognition of the support that Otto gave the Pope against the attacks of the Magyars and other German barbarians to the Papal States. The Magyars were a population whose ethnicity has many mixtures that include up to the Mongols. They were located in present Hungary and were barbarians who attacked the Papal States.

           Berengar bows to King Otto, Manuscriptum Mediolanense, c. 1200

As a result, the first Germanic kingdom known as the First Reich (kingdom in German) was born, which included Austria, the Netherlands, West Germany, Switzerland, Poland and French Eastern provinces.

                                        Otto´s Reich

Otto I ruled the first German "Reich" from 954-973, 19 years. Otto became known as Otto "The Great" for his achievements and magnificence.

February 1: France declares war on Britain and the Netherlands in 1793, during the French Revolutionary Wars.

France declares war on Britain. Prime minister William Pit as young, around 1790 (left). The Duke of York (centre). People skating on frozen channel in Holland

The government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain did not like the policy of territorial annexation being taken by the French Revolution, through its leadership of the Convention, much less the trial and execution of Louis XVI.

On January 24, 1793, three days after the execution of the King, the British expelled the French ambassador in London. A week later, on 1 February, the French declared war on Britain.

The revolution was initially popular in Britain, but later its turmoils turned into a cause of alarm, as this 1792 caricature contrasting "British Liberty"

The execution of the French King alarmed most European monarchs who recalled the execution of Charles I of England, beheaded in Whitehall, on January 29, 1649, under the revolution led by Oliver Cromwell. Therefore, a coalition of armies enlisted to face France.


This raises the First Coalition composed of Austria, Sardinia (which was already at war with France since 1792), Spain, Britain, the Netherlands, and Prussia. In practice, Britain, Austria and Prussia faced the coalition.

Map of Europe during the first coalition

Austria and Prussia attacked from the Austrian Netherlands (Holland), while Britain besieged by sea to the port of Toulon in southern France. In the North, the French armies were expelled from Belgium.

A French embargo was imposed on Dutch and British shipping. General Dumouriez was ordered to invade Holland. On 1 February the French Convention declared war on both Holland and Britain and also urged the British people to rise up against their masters. The news of this arrived in London on 7 February, and on 11 February 1793 the British King George III, following the advice of prime minister Pitt declared war on France.