The Burmese military staged a coup d'état that deposed the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking nationwide protests and a civil war.
1 February 533
A Sunday in history
Weekday
Sunday
Season
Winter (N. Hemisphere)
Century
6th century
Records
356
2021
2012Following an Egyptian Premier League match in Port Said, Al Masry fans rioted and violently attacked Al Ahly supporters, resulting in 74 deaths.
2009Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir (pictured) became the first female prime minister of Iceland.
2004During the halftime show of Super Bowl XXXVIII, Janet Jackson's breast was exposed by Justin Timberlake in what was later referred to as a "wardrobe malfunction", resulting in an immediate crackdown and widespread debate on perceived indecency in U.S. broadcasting.
2003All seven crew members aboard Space Shuttle Columbia were killed when the orbiter disintegrated over Texas during reentry.
2001The Timor-Leste Defence Force was established from the erstwhile anti-Indonesian independence movement Falintil.
1979Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned from exile and soon led the Iranian Revolution to overthrow the Pahlavi dynasty.
1972Kuala Lumpur (pictured), the capital of Malaysia, was granted city status.
1960Civil rights movement: Four African-American students staged the first of more than five months of sit-ins at an F. W. Woolworth lunch counter (pictured) in Greensboro, North Carolina, to protest the company's policy of racial segregation.
1957Invented by German engineer Felix Wankel, the first working prototype of the Wankel rotary engine ran for the first time at the research and development department of NSU Motorenwerke AG.
1942Voice of America, the official external radio and television service of the United States federal government, began broadcasting to Germany during World War II.
1896Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème premiered at the Teatro Regio in Turin, Italy, eventually becoming one of the most frequently performed operas internationally.
1884The first fascicle of the Oxford English Dictionary, a 352-page volume that covered words from A to ant, was published.
1814More than 1,200 people died in the most destructive recorded eruption of Mayon in the Philippines.
1662Sino-Dutch conflicts: After besieging Fort Zeelandia for nine months, Ming loyalist Zheng Chenggong secured the Dutch East India Company's surrender and the end of their rule in Taiwan.
1411The First Peace of Thorn was signed, ending the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War.
1329The Teutonic Knights successfully besieged the hillfort of Medvėgalis (pictured) in Samogitia, Lithuania, and baptised the defenders in the Catholic rite.
1327Fourteen-year-old Edward III was crowned King of England, but with the country ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer.
Photo archive
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What was life like?
Prices, jobs, food, music and everyday routine — the world as it felt to live in.
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