February 18.

1982 Mexico devalues peso by 30% to fight economic slide. Peso now worth less than sand.
1980 Canada: Trudeau’s Liberal party gains legislative majority in voting. Tudeau’s liberal wife gains Mick Jagger.
1967 Death of Robert Oppenheimer, US physicist, pioneer in atom bomb research. ‘I really am become death this time,’ he croaks.
1961 Bertrand Russell leads a demonstration against the basing of Polaris missiles in Scotland. ‘A paradox arises in connection with the set of all missile sets which are not members of themselves. Such a missile set, if it exists, will be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself,’ he explains.
1957 Grand Jury in Washington indicts playwright Arthur Miller for contempt in HUAC inquiry then insists on co-authorship credit for The Crucible.
1954 Berlin: East and West dump thousands of tons of leaflets on each other, ending month-long truce and beginning two-month long leaflet clean up.
1947 Steven Spielberg, film producer and director, is born. Films own birth and demands merchandising rights of same.
1945 Iwo Jima: US Marines storm ashore accompanied by a division of photographers and emergency flag supplies.
1941 Australian reinforcements reach Singapore, now ringed by British mines. ‘Thanks for everything, Britain,’ troops say.
1937 Cairo: An Imperial Airways flying boat arrives from England after a non-stop flight of 13 hours and 30 minutes. Passengers emerge tired and damp as era of jet-lag/water-log is ushered in.

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