Tuesday, February 17, 2026

Arab Spring: Bahraini security forces killed four protesters in a pre-dawn raid at the Pearl Roundabout in Manama, while the "Day of Rage" took place in Libya with nationwide protests against Muammar Gaddafi's government.

An earthquake with a moment magnitude of 8.2 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent) occurred in the New Guinea Trench, which generated a tsunami that killed 108 people.

The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army carried out a bombing of a restaurant near Belfast, Northern Ireland, killing twelve people and injuring thirty others.

A U.S. Army soldier stole a Bell UH-1 helicopter (pictured) and landed it on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C.

Gabonese military officers overthrew President Léon M'ba, but French forces, honouring a 1960 treaty, forcibly reinstated him two days later.

Vanguard 2 (model pictured), the first weather satellite, was launched to measure cloud cover distribution.

World War II: The U.S. Navy began Operation Hailstone, a massive naval air and surface attack against the Japanese naval and air base at Chuuk Lagoon in the Caroline Islands.

The Armory Show (commemorative button pictured), the first large modern-art exhibition in the United States, opened at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York City.