February 14: The US Flag is formally recognized first by a foreign ship in 1778.

The "John Paul Jones flag" was entered into Dutch records to help Jones avoid charges of piracy when he captured the Serapis under an "unknown flag."

The French Admiral Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet of Motterenders, Squadron Commander Martinique, leading nine French ships defending the Caribbean Sea, gunshots fired nine air shoots as respectful greeting to ship USS Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones, 14 February 1778.

France signed the Treaty of Alliance with United States of America on February 6, 1778, whereby recognizing the United Stated independence from United Kingdom of Great Britain. Therefore, Captain Lamotte Piquet formally saluted with a nine-gun salute fire. Jones wrote of the event: "I accepted his offer all the more for after all it was a recognition of our independence and in the nation."

A 1781 painting of John Paul Jones by Charles Willson Peale 

John Paul Jones was a Scottish sailor who enlisted in the American Revolution (American) against the British Empire. Jones won an international reputation because he captured the ship "Serapis" with unknown flag. Jones is recognized as the "Father of the American Navy", an epithet he shares with John Berry.

The flag of the United States currently consists of thirteen red horizontal stripes up and down alternating with white stripes with a dark blue rectangle in the canton and decorated with fifty pentagrams. The 13 bars or stripes represent the 13 colonies that declared independence from the United Kingdom of Great Britain. The stars represent the 50 states of the Union.

First recognition of the Stars and Stripes by a foreign government, at Quiberon Bay, France, on February 14, 1778

The American flag had 26 amendments since its independence on July 4, 1776.

Oil painting depicting the 39 historical U.S. flags

The first official flag marine fleet identity used on the masts of their ships was the "Union Jack" union between England and Scotland, which overcame the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew, patron of both nations.


Flags identify the nationality of vessels and therefore when a ship sailed without a flag, it was presumed pirate. There were corsicans, filibusters and pirates declared as such and supported by Queen Elizabeth I of England as well as the king of France, and the Netherlands (Holland).

February 13: Spain recognizes Portugal as an independent nation in 1668.

The combined Spanish and Portuguese empires during the Iberian Union (1580–1640)

Spain and Portugal had formed the so called Iberian Union since 1580 by which both territories shared the same monarch through hereditary rights. Since 1640 the Portuguese began a rebel against the Spanish crown in Portugal. With the mediation of England on February 13, 1668, it was possible to end the war of independence from Portugal and Spain which led to the official recognition of Portuguese independence.

Battles of the Portuguese Restauração War (1640-1668) and the CatalonianWar dels segadors (1640-1652). The border demarcation was fixed, respectively, in the Treaty of Lisbon (13 February 1668) and the Treaty of the Pyrenees (7 November 1659).

In December 1640 there was a Portuguese attempt to overthrow the Spanish Crown in support of the duke of Bragança. and his acclamation as King John IV restored the Portuguese monarchy and ended sixty years of rule by the Spanish Habsburgs. From 1641 to 1668 the two nations were at war, with Spain seeking to isolate Portugal militarily and diplomatically and Portugal hoping to find the resources to maintain its independence through political alliances and colonial income.

The Acclamation of the King John IV; Veloso Salgado.

The Lisbon Treaty emphasizes the perpetual peace between the two parties, amnesty for political prisoners, and the return of territories taken by the parties during the conflict. For the Portuguese the war was a Restoration one (Guerra da Restauração). The Principality of Catalonia did not attend the peace meeting.

February 12: Puyi (Xuantong) the last Chinese Emperor abdicates in 1912.

                                          Puyi in 1934

Aisin-Gioro Puyi ruled in its infancy as the Xuantong Emperor from 1908 until his abdication on February 12th, 1912. He was the last emperor of China and the last of the Qing Dynasty as well, after the successful Xinhai Revolution, 1911. However he was restored briefly in the throne between 1 and 12 July 1917 by the warrior Zhang Xun.

                           Puyi as Emperor of Manchukuo

The Chinese Revolution of 1911, better known as the Xinhai Revolution was a popular uprising against the last Manchu Qing dynasty, to which Pu-Yi belonged. He was, then, the last Chinese emperor. Chinese monarchy lasted four thousand years and ended when the doctor Sun Yat-Sen created the nationalist political party, known as the Kuomintang.

             Empress Wanrong and Emperor Puyi in Tianjin

With the Japanese conquest of Manchuria, the Japanese named Pu-Yi as Emperor of Manchuko between 1934 and 1945, during the World War II Sino-Japanese War ends. Mao Tse Tung or Mao Zedong founded the People's Republic of China in 1949 and Pu-Yi became the gardener. He earned the appreciation of some historians of the Communist Party, and was appointed as historical consultant for the Consultative Conference of the Chinese Popular Party.

February 11: Henry VIII is recognized as the head of the Church of England in 1531.

The Church of England is the officially established Christian religion in England and known worldwide as the Anglican Communion.

The Anglican Church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and celebrates its formal establishment because of the mission that took Augustine of Canterbury in 597. Consequently, the Church of England came under the authority of the Pope.

1531 Henry VIII of England was recognized as supreme head of the Protestant Church of England.

Augustine of Canterbury was a Benedictine monk founding the Church in England, and he was honored with the appointment of first Archbishop of Canterbury. That is why he is considered "The Apostle of England" and founder of the Church.

Augustine was the prior of a Benedictine monastery in Rome. Pope Gregory I, "The Great", chose him for the mission to evangelize all the inhabitants of Britain Island. The mission went to religious history as the "Gregorian Mission" focused on "Christianizing" the Anglo-Saxon paganism.

King Henry married Catherine of Aragon but could not have children, so the King started flirting with Mary Boleyn, Catherine´s chaperone. It has been speculated that the king had two children with Mary.

The six wives of Henry VIII

Over time, Henry VIII was falling in love with Anne Boleyn's sister Mary. He began what is known in history as "The Great Subject del Rey" (The King's Great Matter) consisting of the options I had the king for his divorce from Catherine with the annulment of his marriage and to get marriage to Anne Boleyn.

Henry VIII and his six wives

Pope Clement VII refused to approve the annulment of Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon and that caused the rupture between the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church. In 1534, there was the separation of church and by a legal act of the Parliament Act of Supremacy which led to the English Reformation call was issued.

February 10: The 1763 Treaty of Paris ended the French and Indian War in North America, as part of the famous "Seven Years' War", which can be considered as the First World War.

                           North America after the Treaty of Paris 1763

The signatories of the Treaty of Paris of 10 January 1763 were Spain, France, Britain and Portugal. But almost simultaneously signed Austria, Prussia and Saxony the Treaty of Hubertusburg, that ends the Seven Years' War.

France gave up all its claims east of the Mississippi River to England and west of the Mississippi to Spain.

During the war, British forces had scored important overseas victories against France: not only had the British conquered French Canada, they also won victories in India, and captured French island colonies in the Caribbean.

France was able to keep two Caribbean islands producing sugar and rum: Guadeloupe and Martinique, at the expense of losing Canada.

In March of 1762, French King Louis XV issued a formal call for peace talks.

February 9: United States sent its first troops to South Vietnam to fight in the Vietnam War in 1965.

              The first 3,500 US Marines land near Da Nang in South Vietnam.

The Vietnam War lasted 19 years, from December 1956 until the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. It was a major conflict of powers of the "Cold War" period that occurred between the West, led by United States of America, and East, led by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, after the Second World War.

In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson began sending U.S. ground troops to stave off the defeat of the South Vietnamese Army.

In English we speak of "proxy war" to that which results when two opposing powers use third parties as substitutes in the battlefield. In other words, it is a war instigated by a major power that does not itself participate.

In this case, was the confrontation of the communist powers of the USSR and China, against the capitalist powers led by the United States of America.

The background of the conflict is framed in the French invasion of Indochina by vagaries of Napoleon III, in the late 1850s. The invasion was completed in 1893 by the Treaty of Hue, signed the following year, which completed the foundations of French colonization in Vietnam for the next 70 years.

                                   Napalm Attack: This photo became global.

During World War II, the Japanese occupied the area. A movement called "Viet Minh" or "Vietnam Liberation Front" was founded by Ho Chi Minh, with the natives to counter French and Japanese domains, also in 1945.

                                                        Protest in USA

The Communists’ victory at Dien Bien Phu in May 1954 marked the end of French involvement in Indochina. The Geneva Accords of July 1954 divided Vietnam into a Communist state in the North and an anti-Communist state in the South.

Make love not war

President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered A U.S. Marine Corps Hawk air defense missile battalion to be deployed to Da Nang in order to provide protection for the key U.S. airbase there.

In 1969, President Richard M. Nixon introduced a program called Vietnamization, in which the South Vietnamese Army assumed an ever-larger combat role.

The Vietnam War was the only military defeat that has taken the United States. They were expelled and had to send planes of urgency to bring the refugees who could run faster to reach the last plane moving amid the euphoria Vietnamese celebrating victory, April 30, 1965.

February 8: Today is anniversary of the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904.

Russian expansion during the XIX century in Far East

A surprise night attack by the Japanese fleet fired torpedoes against the Russian fleet which was anchored in Port Arthur, Manchuria. Thus began what would be perhaps the greatest shame in Russian history.

Greater Manchuria. Russian (outer) Manchuria is the lighter red region to the upper right.

Some Japanese slighted in the Western world are thrown into a war against the Russian Bear, increased military empire in Asia and with very respectable historical trajectory in the Western world.

                      The Russo Japanese War (1904-1905). 

In 1896 the Russians had managed to get concessions from the ChineseQing court in order to have access to Manchuria. The Russians wanted to build their Trans-Siberian railroad straight through Manchuria to connect it to the port of Vladivostok. Tne Russians would save hundreds of miles off of their route.

                Japanese infantry during the occupation of Seul, Korea in 1904.

The Peace of Portsmouth in 1905 ended the conflict. Japan won the southern part of Sakhalin, Port Arthur, and the protectorate over Korea, and southern Manchuria.

An illustration of a Japanese assault during the Battle of Mukden.

At the end of the Russo-Japanese War, Japan had become a new major world power in the true sense of the word. Now it was justly called Imperial Japan (Dai Nippon), and full participation in Western imperialist rivalries within East Asia.

               Retreat of Russian soldiers after the Battle of Mukden.

The Russian humiliation led to the Russian Revolution of 1905, by which the Russian people demanded the Tsar to liberalize politics, and let be an assembly of the people who much later will be call "Duma". Disasters of the Russian army will be repeated during the First World War, and thus came the Great Russian Revolution of 1917.