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Forth (programming language)

Forth is a stack-oriented programming language and interactive integrated development environment designed by Charles H. "Chuck" Moore and first used by other programmers in 1970. Although not an acronym, the language's name in its early years was often spelled in all capital letters as FORTH. The FORTH-79 and FORTH-83 implementations, which were not written by Moore, became de facto standards, and an official technical standard of the language was published in 1994 as ANS Forth. A wide range of Forth derivatives existed before and after ANS Forth. The free and open-source software Gforth implementation is actively maintained, as are several commercially supported systems.

Forth typically combines a compiler with an integrated command shell, where the user interacts via subroutines called words. Words can be defined, tested, redefined, and debugged without recompiling or restarting the whole program. All syntactic elements, including variables, operators, and control flow, are defined as words. A stack is used to pass parameters between words, leading to a Reverse Polish Notation style.

For much of Forth's existence, the standard technique was to compile to threaded code, which can be interpreted faster than bytecode. One of the early benefits of Forth was size: an entire development environment—including compiler, editor, and user programs—could fit in memory on an 8-bit or similarly limited system. No longer constrained by space, there are modern implementations that generate optimized machine code like other language compilers. The relative simplicity of creating a basic Forth system has led to many personal and proprietary variants, such as the custom Forth used to implement the bestselling 1986 video game Starflight from Electronic Arts.

Forth is used in the Open Firmware boot loader, in spaceflight applications such as the Philae spacecraft, and in other embedded systems which involve interaction with hardware.

Moore developed a series of microprocessors for executing compiled Forth-like code directly and experimented with smaller languages based on Forth concepts, including cmForth and colorForth. Most of these languages were designed to support Moore's own projects, such as chip design.

Uses
Forth has a niche in astronomical and space applications as well as a history in embedded systems. The Open Firmware boot ROMs used by Apple, IBM, Sun, and OLPC XO-1 contain a Forth environment.

Forth has often been used to bring up new hardware. Forth was the first resident software on the new Intel 8086 chip in 1978, and MacFORTH was the first resident development system for the Macintosh 128K in 1984.

Atari, Inc. used an elaborate animated demo written in Forth to showcase capabilities of the Atari 8-bit computers in department stores. Electronic Arts published multiple video games in the 1980s that were written in Forth, including Worms? (1983), Adventure Construction Set (1984), Amnesia (1986), Starflight (1986), and Lords of Conquest (1986). Robot coding game ChipWits (1984) was written in MacFORTH.

Ashton-Tate's RapidFile (1986), a flat-file database program, and VP-Planner from Paperback Software International (1983), a spreadsheet program competing with Lotus 1-2-3, were written in Forth.

The Canon Cat (1987) uses Forth for its system programming.

Rockwell produced single-chip microcomputers with resident Forth kernels: the R65F11 and R65F12. ASYST was a Forth expansion for measuring and controlling on PCs.

The Forth programming language was used in the production of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. Specifically, it was used to control the Dystraflex motion control system, which was created by John Dykstra and his team at Industrial Light & Magic. This system was instrumental in creating the complex and precise camera movements required for the space battle scenes and the trench run sequences on the Death Star.

The Dystraflex system allowed for the pre-programming of camera movements, which could then be repeated exactly for multiple takes. This was crucial for combining live-action footage with model shots and other visual effects. Forth was chosen for its efficiency and its ability to handle real-time processing required for these intricate tasks.

History
Forth evolved from Charles H. Moore's personal programming system, which had been in continuous development since 1968. Forth was first exposed to other programmers in the early 1970s, starting with Elizabeth Rather at the United States National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). After their work at NRAO, Charles Moore and Elizabeth Rather formed FORTH, Inc. in 1973, refining and porting Forth systems to dozens of other platforms in the next decade.

Forth is so-named, because in 1968 "the file holding the interpreter was labeled FOURTH, for 4th (next) generation software, but the IBM 1130 operating system restricted file names to five characters." Moore saw Forth as a successor to compile-link-go third-generation programming languages, or software for "fourth generation" hardware.

FORTH, Inc.'s microFORTH was developed for the Intel 8080, Motorola 6800, Zilog Z80, and RCA 1802 microprocessors, starting in 1976. MicroFORTH was later used by hobbyists to generate Forth systems for other architectures, such as the 6502 in 1978. The Forth Interest Group was formed in 1978. It promoted and distributed its own version of the language, FIG-Forth, for most makes of home computer.

Forth was popular in the early 1980s, because it was well suited to the limited memory of microcomputers. The ease of implementing the language led to many implementations. The Jupiter ACE home computer has Forth in its ROM-resident operating system. Insoft GraFORTH is a version of Forth with graphics extensions for the Apple II.

Common practice was codified in the de facto standards FORTH-79 and FORTH-83 in the years 1979 and 1983, respectively. These standards were unified by ANSI in 1994, commonly referred to as ANS Forth.

As of 2018, the source for the original 1130 version of FORTH has been recovered, and is now being updated to run on a restored or emulated 1130 system.

Overview
Forth emphasizes the use of small, simple functions called words. Words for bigger tasks call upon many smaller words that each accomplish a distinct sub-task. A large Forth program is a hierarchy of words. These words, being distinct modules that communicate implicitly via a stack mechanism, can be prototyped, built and tested independently. The highest level of Forth code may resemble an English-language description of the application. Forth has been called a meta-application language: a language that can be used to create problem-oriented languages.

Forth relies on explicit use of a data stack and reverse Polish notation which is commonly used in calculators from Hewlett-Packard. In RPN, the operator is placed after its operands, as opposed to the more common infix notation where the operator is placed between its operands. Postfix notation makes the language easier to parse and extend; Forth's flexibility makes a static BNF grammar inappropriate, and it does not have a monolithic compiler. Extending the compiler only requires writing a new word, instead of modifying a grammar and changing the underlying implementation.

Using RPN, one can get the result of the mathematical expression  this way:

First the numbers 25 and 10 are put on the stack.

The word  takes the top two numbers from the stack, multiplies them, and puts the product back on the stack.

Then the number 50 is placed on the stack.

The word  adds the top two values, pushing the sum. (carriage return) starts the output on a new line. Finally,  prints the result. As everything has completed successfully, the Forth system prints.

Even Forth's structural features are stack-based. For example: The colon indicates the beginning of a new definition, in this case a new word (again, word is the term used for a subroutine) called. The text in parentheses is a comment, advising that this word expects a number on the stack and will return a possibly changed number (on the stack).

The subroutine uses the following commands:  duplicates the number on the stack;   pushes a 6 on top of the stack;   compares the top two numbers on the stack (6 and the  ed input), and replaces them with a true-or-false value;   takes a true-or-false value and chooses to execute commands immediately after it or to skip to the  ;   discards the value on the stack;   pushes a 5 on top of the stack; and   ends the conditional.

The  word is equivalent to this function written in the C programming language using the conditional operator '?:' This function is written more succinctly as: This can be run as follows: First a number (1 or 8) is pushed onto the stack,  is called, which pops the number again and pushes the result. moves the output to a new line (again, this is only here for readability). Finally, a call to  pops the result and prints.

Facilities
Forth's grammar has no official specification. Instead, it is defined by a simple algorithm. The interpreter reads a line of input from the user input device, which is then parsed for a word using spaces as a delimiter; some systems recognise additional whitespace characters. When the interpreter finds a word, it looks the word up in the dictionary. If the word is found, the interpreter executes the code associated with the word, and then returns to parse the rest of the input stream. If the word isn't found, the word is assumed to be a number and an attempt is made to convert it into a number and push it on the stack; if successful, the interpreter continues parsing the input stream. Otherwise, if both the lookup and the number conversion fail, the interpreter prints the word followed by an error message indicating that the word is not recognised, flushes the input stream, and waits for new user input.

The definition of a new word is started with the word  (colon) and ends with the word   (semi-colon). For example, will compile the word, and makes the name findable in the dictionary. When executed by typing  at the console this will print.

Most Forth systems include an assembler to write words using the processor's facilities. Forth assemblers often use a reverse Polish syntax in which the parameters of an instruction precede the instruction. A typical reverse Polish assembler prepares the operands on the stack and the mnemonic copies the whole instruction into memory as the last step. A Forth assembler is by nature a macro assembler, so that it is easy to define an alias for registers according to their role in the Forth system: e.g. "dsp" for the register used as the data stack pointer.

Operating system, files, and multitasking
Most Forth systems run under a host operating system such as Microsoft Windows, Linux or a version of Unix and use the host operating system's file system for source and data files; the ANSI Forth Standard describes the words used for I/O. All modern Forth systems use normal text files for source, even if they are embedded. An embedded system with a resident compiler gets its source via a serial line.

Classic Forth systems traditionally use neither operating system nor file system. Instead of storing code in files, source code is stored in disk blocks written to physical disk addresses. The word  is employed to translate the number of a 1K-sized block of disk space into the address of a buffer containing the data, which is managed automatically by the Forth system. Block use has become rare since the mid-1990s. In a hosted system those blocks too are allocated in a normal file in any case.

Multitasking, most commonly cooperative round-robin scheduling, is normally available (although multitasking words and support are not covered by the ANSI Forth Standard). The word  is used to save the current task's execution context, to locate the next task, and restore its execution context. Each task has its own stacks, private copies of some control variables and a scratch area. Swapping tasks is simple and efficient; as a result, Forth multitaskers are available even on very simple microcontrollers, such as the Intel 8051, Atmel AVR, and TI MSP430.

Other non-standard facilities include a mechanism for issuing calls to the host OS or windowing systems, and many provide extensions that employ the scheduling provided by the operating system. Typically they have a larger and different set of words from the stand-alone Forth's  word for task creation, suspension, destruction and modification of priority.

Self-compilation and cross compilation
A full-featured Forth system with all source code will compile itself, a technique commonly called meta-compilation or self-hosting, by Forth programmers (although the term doesn't exactly match meta-compilation as it is normally defined). The usual method is to redefine the handful of words that place compiled bits into memory. The compiler's words use specially named versions of fetch and store that can be redirected to a buffer area in memory. The buffer area simulates or accesses a memory area beginning at a different address than the code buffer. Such compilers define words to access both the target computer's memory, and the host (compiling) computer's memory.

After the fetch and store operations are redefined for the code space, the compiler, assembler, etc. are recompiled using the new definitions of fetch and store. This effectively reuses all the code of the compiler and interpreter. Then, the Forth system's code is compiled, but this version is stored in the buffer. The buffer in memory is written to disk, and ways are provided to load it temporarily into memory for testing. When the new version appears to work, it is written over the previous version.

Numerous variations of such compilers exist for different environments. For embedded systems, the code may instead be written to another computer, a technique known as cross compilation, over a serial port or even a single TTL bit, while keeping the word names and other non-executing parts of the dictionary in the original compiling computer. The minimum definitions for such a Forth compiler are the words that fetch and store a byte, and the word that commands a Forth word to be executed. Often the most time-consuming part of writing a remote port is constructing the initial program to implement fetch, store and execute, but many modern microprocessors have integrated debugging features (such as the Motorola CPU32) that eliminate this task.

Structure of the language
The basic data structure of Forth is the "dictionary" which maps "words" to executable code or named data structures. The dictionary is laid out in memory as a tree of linked lists with the links proceeding from the latest (most recently) defined word to the oldest, until a sentinel value, usually a NULL pointer, is found. A context switch causes a list search to start at a different leaf. A linked list search continues as the branch merges into the main trunk leading eventually back to the sentinel, the root. There can be several dictionaries. In rare cases such as meta-compilation a dictionary might be isolated and stand-alone. The effect resembles that of nesting namespaces and can overload keywords depending on the context.

A defined word generally consists of head and body with the head consisting of the name field (NF) and the link field (LF), and body consisting of the code field (CF) and the parameter field (PF).

Head and body of a dictionary entry are treated separately because they may not be contiguous. For example, when a Forth program is recompiled for a new platform, the head may remain on the compiling computer, while the body goes to the new platform. In some environments (such as embedded systems) the heads occupy memory unnecessarily. However, some cross-compilers may put heads in the target if the target itself is expected to support an interactive Forth.

The exact format of a dictionary entry is not prescribed, and implementations vary.

Structure of the compiler
The compiler itself is not a monolithic program. It consists of Forth words visible to the system, and usable by a programmer. This allows a programmer to change the compiler's words for special purposes.

The "compile time" flag in the name field is set for words with "compile time" behavior. Most simple words execute the same code whether they are typed on a command line, or embedded in code. When compiling these, the compiler simply places code or a threaded pointer to the word.

The classic examples of compile-time words are the control structures such as  and. Almost all of Forth's control structures and almost all of its compiler are implemented as compile-time words. Apart from some rarely used control flow words only found in a few implementations, such as the conditional return word used in Ulrich Hoffmann's preForth,  all of Forth's control flow words are executed during compilation to compile various combinations of primitive words along with their branch addresses. For instance,  and , and the words that match with those, set up   (unconditional branch) and  (pop a value off the stack, and branch if it is false). Counted loop control flow words work similarly but set up combinations of primitive words that work with a counter, and so on. During compilation, the data stack is used to support control structure balancing, nesting, and back-patching of branch addresses. The snippet: would often be compiled to the following sequence inside a definition: The numbers after  represent relative jump addresses. is the primitive word for pushing a "literal" number onto the data stack. (Faster, shorter code would be compiled using pointers to constants instead of  and embedded data, if any of the numbers involved have been separately defined as constants. There would be similar changes if yet other words were used instead of constants, and so on.)

Compilation state and interpretation state
The word  (colon) parses a name as a parameter, creates a dictionary entry (a colon definition) and enters compilation state. The interpreter continues to read space-delimited words from the user input device. If a word is found, the interpreter executes the compilation semantics associated with the word, instead of the interpretation semantics. The default compilation semantics of a word are to append its interpretation semantics to the current definition.

The word  (semi-colon) finishes the current definition and returns to interpretation state. It is an example of a word whose compilation semantics differ from the default. The interpretation semantics of  (semi-colon), most control flow words, and several other words are undefined in ANS  Forth, meaning that they must only be used inside of definitions and not on the interactive command line.

The interpreter state can be changed manually with the words  (left-bracket) and   (right-bracket) which enter interpretation state or compilation state, respectively. These words can be used with the word  to calculate a value during a compilation and to insert the calculated value into the current colon definition. has the compilation semantics to take an object from the data stack and to append semantics to the current colon definition to place that object on the data stack.

In ANS Forth, the current state of the interpreter can be read from the flag   which contains the value true when in compilation state and false otherwise. This allows the implementation of so-called state-smart words with behavior that changes according to the current state of the interpreter.

Immediate words
The word  marks the most recent colon definition as an immediate word, effectively replacing its compilation semantics with its interpretation semantics. Immediate words are normally executed during compilation, not compiled, but this can be overridden by the programmer in either state. is an example of an immediate word. In ANS Forth, the word   takes a name as a parameter and appends the compilation semantics of the named word to the current definition even if the word was marked immediate. Forth-83 defined separate words  and   to force the compilation of non-immediate and immediate words, respectively.

Instead of reserving space for an Immediate flag in every definition, some implementations of Forth use an Immediates Dictionary which is checked first when in compile mode.

Unnamed words and execution tokens
In ANS Forth, unnamed words can be defined with the word   which compiles the following words up to the next   (semi-colon) and leaves an execution token on the data stack. The execution token provides an opaque handle for the compiled semantics, similar to the function pointers of the C programming language.

Execution tokens can be stored in variables. The word  takes an execution token from the data stack and performs the associated semantics. The word  (compile-comma) takes an execution token from the data stack and appends the associated semantics to the current definition.

The word  (tick) takes the name of a word as a parameter and returns the execution token associated with that word on the data stack. In interpretation state,  is equivalent to.

Parsing words and comments
The words  (colon), ,   (tick) are examples of parsing words that take their arguments from the user input device instead of the data stack. Another example is the word  (paren) which reads and ignores the following words up to and including the next right parenthesis and is used to place comments in a colon definition. Similarly, the word  (backslash) is used for comments that continue to the end of the current line. To be parsed correctly,  (paren) and   (backslash) must be separated by whitespace from the following comment text.

Structure of code
In most Forth systems, the body of a code definition consists of either machine language, or some form of threaded code. The original Forth which follows the informal FIG standard (Forth Interest Group), is a TIL (Threaded Interpretive Language). This is also called indirect-threaded code, but direct-threaded and subroutine threaded Forths have also become popular in modern times. The fastest modern Forths, such as SwiftForth, VFX Forth, and iForth, compile Forth to native machine code.

Data objects
When a word is a variable or other data object, the CF points to the runtime code associated with the defining word that created it. A defining word has a characteristic "defining behavior" (creating a dictionary entry plus possibly allocating and initializing data space) and also specifies the behavior of an instance of the class of words constructed by this defining word. Examples include:

 * Names an uninitialized, one-cell memory location. Instance behavior of a  returns its address on the stack.
 * Names an uninitialized, one-cell memory location. Instance behavior of a  returns its address on the stack.

 * Names a value (specified as an argument to ). Instance behavior returns the value.
 * Names a value (specified as an argument to ). Instance behavior returns the value.

 * Names a location; space may be allocated at this location, or it can be set to contain a string or other initialized value. Instance behavior returns the address of the beginning of this space.
 * Names a location; space may be allocated at this location, or it can be set to contain a string or other initialized value. Instance behavior returns the address of the beginning of this space.

Forth also provides a facility by which a programmer can define new application-specific defining words, specifying both a custom defining behavior and instance behavior. Some examples include circular buffers, named bits on an I/O port, and automatically indexed arrays.

Data objects defined by these and similar words are global in scope. The function provided by local variables in other languages is provided by the data stack in Forth (although Forth also has real local variables). Forth programming style uses very few named data objects compared with other languages; typically such data objects are used to contain data which is used by a number of words or tasks (in a multitasked implementation).

Forth does not enforce consistency of data type usage; it is the programmer's responsibility to use appropriate operators to fetch and store values or perform other operations on data.

“Hello, World!”
HELLO <cr> Hello, World!

The word  (Carriage Return) causes the output following to be displayed on a new line. The parsing word  (dot-quote) reads a double-quote delimited string and appends code to the current definition so that the parsed string will be displayed on execution. The space character separating the word  from the string   is not included as part of the string. It is needed so that the parser recognizes  as a Forth word.

A standard Forth system is also an interpreter, and the same output can be obtained by typing the following code fragment into the Forth console: (dot-paren) is an immediate word that parses a parenthesis-delimited string and displays it. As with the word  the space character separating   from   is not part of the string.

The word  comes before the text to print. By convention, the Forth interpreter does not start output on a new line. Also by convention, the interpreter waits for input at the end of the previous line, after an  prompt. There is no implied "flush-buffer" action in Forth's, as sometimes is in other programming languages.

Mixing states of compiling and interpreting
Here is the definition of a word  which when executed emits the single character  : This definition was written to use the ASCII value of the  character (81) directly. The text between the parentheses is a comment and is ignored by the compiler. The word  takes a value from the data stack and displays the corresponding character.

The following redefinition of  uses the words   (left-bracket),   (right-bracket),   and   to temporarily switch to interpreter state, calculate the ASCII value of the   character, return to compilation state and append the calculated value to the current colon definition: The parsing word  takes a space-delimited word as parameter and places the value of its first character on the data stack. The word  is an immediate version of. Using, the example definition for   could be rewritten like this: This definition used  (backslash) for the describing comment.

Both  and   are predefined in ANS  Forth. Using  and ,   could have been defined like this:

RC4 cipher program
In 1987, Ron Rivest developed the RC4 cipher-system for RSA Data Security, Inc. Its description follows:

"We have an array of 256 bytes, all different. Every time the array is used it changes by swapping two bytes. The swaps are controlled by counters i and j, each initially 0. To get a new i, add 1. To get a new j, add the array byte at the new i. Exchange the array bytes at i and j. The code is the array byte at the sum of the array bytes at i and j. This is XORed with a byte of the plaintext to encrypt, or the ciphertext to decrypt. The array is initialized by first setting it to 0 through 255. Then step through it using i and j, getting the new j by adding to it the array byte at i and a key byte, and swapping the array bytes at i and j. Finally, i and j are set to 0. All additions are modulo 256."

The following Standard Forth version uses Core and Core Extension words only.

This is one way to test the code:

Implementations
Because Forth is simple to implement and has no standard reference implementation, there are numerous versions of the language. In addition to supporting the standard varieties of desktop computer systems (POSIX, Microsoft Windows, macOS), many of these Forth systems also target a variety of embedded systems. Listed here are some of the systems which conform to the 1994 ANS Forth standard.
 * ASYST, a Forth-like system for data collection and analysis
 * Gforth, a portable ANS Forth implementation from the GNU Project
 * noForth, an ANS Forth implementation (as far as possible) for Flash microcontrollers (MSP430 & Risc-V)
 * Open Firmware, a bootloader and Firmware standard based on ANS Forth
 * pForth, portable Forth written in C
 * SP-Forth, ANS Forth implementation from the Russian Forth Interest Group (RuFIG)
 * Swift Forth, machine code generating implementation from Forth, Inc.
 * VFX Forth, optimizing native code Forth
 * Firth, an adaptation of Forth for the Little Man Stack Machine computer.

title: Forth (programming language)


text:
Francesco Algarotti

Count Francesco Algarotti (11 December 1712 – 3 May 1764) was an Italian polymath, philosopher, poet, essayist, anglophile, art critic and art collector. He was a man of broad knowledge, an expert in Newtonianism, architecture and opera. He was a friend of Frederick the Great and leading authors of his times: Voltaire, Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens, Pierre-Louis de Maupertuis and the atheist Julien Offray de La Mettrie. Lord Chesterfield, Thomas Gray, George Lyttelton, Thomas Hollis, Metastasio, Benedict XIV and Heinrich von Brühl were among his correspondents.

Early life
Algarotti was born in Venice as the son of a rich merchant. His father and uncle were art collectors. Unlike his older brother, Bonomo he did not step into the company, but decided to become an author. Francesco obtained a classical education; also studied natural sciences and mathematics in Rome. While the experimental physics and medicine at University of Bologna under Francesco Maria Zanotti and in 1728, he experimented with optics. (Zanotti became a lifelong friend.) He was educated in his native Venice and in Rome and Bologna. His youthful curiosity led him to travel extensively, and he visited Paris for the first time in his early 20s. There his urbanity, his brilliant conversation, his good looks, and his versatile intelligence promptly made an impression on such intellectuals as Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis and Voltaire. Two years later, he was in London, where he was made a fellow of the Royal Society. He became embroiled in a lively bisexual love-triangle with the politician John Hervey, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Algarotti left for Italy and finished his Neutonianismo per le dame ("Newtonism for Ladies") (1737 – dedicated to Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle) – a work consisting of information on astronomy, physics, mathematics, women and science and education.

Personal life and career
Algarotti had made acquaintance with Antiochus Kantemir, a Moldavian diplomat, poet and composer. He was invited to visit Russia for the wedding of Duke Anthony Ulrich of Brunswick. In 1739 he left with Lord Baltimore from Sheerness to Newcastle upon Tyne. Because of a heavy storm the ship sheltered in Harlingen. Algarotti was discovering "this new city", which he called the great window ... to which Russia looks on Europe. Returning from Saint Petersburg, they visited Frederick the Great in Rheinsberg. Algarotti had obligations in England and came back the year after. Then Algarotti went together with Frederick to Königsberg where he was crowned.

Frederick, who was impressed with this walking encyclopedia, made him and his brother Bonomo Prussian counts in 1740. Algarotti accompanied Frederick to Bayreuth, Kehl, Strasbourg and Moyland Castle where they met with Voltaire, who was taking baths in Kleve for his health. In 1741 Algarotti went to Turin as his diplomat. Frederick had offered him a salary, but Algarotti refused. First, he went to Dresden and Venice, where he bought 21 paintings, a few by Jean-Étienne Liotard and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo for the court of Augustus III of Poland. Algarotti did not succeed in inducing the Kingdom of Sardinia to launch a treacherous attack upon Austria.

Algarotti and the other arts

Algarotti's choice of works reflects the encyclopedic interests of the Neoclassic era; he was uninterested in developing a single unitary stylistic collection, and envisioned a modern museum, a catalog of styles from across the ages. For contemporary commissions, he wrote up a list of paintings he recommended commissioning, including history paintings from Tiepolo, Pittoni, and Piazzetta; scenes with animals from Castiglione, and veduta with ruins from Pannini. He wanted "suggetti graziosi e leggeri" from Balestra, Boucher, and Donato Creti. Other artists he supported were Giuseppe Nogari, Bernardo Bellotto, and Francesco Pavona.

In 1747 Algarotti went back to Potsdam and became court chamberlain, but left to visit the archeological diggings at Herculaneum. In 1749 he moved to Berlin. Algarotti was involved in finishing the architectural designs of Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff who had fallen ill. In February 1753, after several years residing in Prussia, he returned to Italy, living most of the time in Bologna, where he was friendly with Laura Bassi, the first salaried female teacher in a university. In 1759 Algarotti was involved in a new opera-style in the city of Parma. He influenced Guillaume du Tillot and the Duke of Parma.

Algarotti's Essay on the Opera (1755) was a major influence on the librettist Carlo Innocenzo Frugoni and the composer Tommaso Traetta, and in the development of Gluck's reformist ideology. Algarotti proposed a heavily simplified model of opera seria, with the drama pre-eminent, instead of the music, ballet or staging. The drama itself should "delight the eyes and ears, to rouse up and to affect the hearts of an audience, without the risk of sinning against reason or common sense." Algarotti's ideas influenced both Gluck and his librettist Calzabigi, writing their Orfeo ed Euridice.

In 1762 Algarotti moved to Pisa, where he died of tuberculosis. Frederick the Great, who several times had needed Algarotti for writing texts in Latin, sent in a text for a monument to his memory on the Campo Santo.

Works

 * Bibliography and Inventory of all known letters at Algarotti Briefdatenbank der Universitätsbibliothek Trier
 * Correspondence with Frederick the Great at Digitale Ausgabe der Universitätsbibliothek Trier
 * Il newtonianismo per le dame, 1737. The International Centre for the History of Universities and Science (CIS), University of Bologna
 * "Saggio sopra la pittura"
 * "An essay on architecture" (1753).
 * "Letters military and political" (1782).
 * "Essai sur la durée des règnes des sept rois de Rome"
 * "Essai sur l'empire des Incas"

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Francesco Algarotti


text:
Francisco Álvares

Francisco Álvares (c. 1465 – 1536-1541) was a Portuguese missionary and explorer. In 1515 he traveled to Ethiopia as part of the Portuguese embassy to emperor Lebna Dengel accompanied by returning Ethiopian ambassador Matheus. The embassy arrived only in 1520 to Ethiopia where he joined long sought Portuguese envoy Pêro da Covilhã. There he remained six years, returning to Lisbon in 1526-27 having written a report entitled Verdadeira Informação das Terras do Preste João das Índias ("A True Relation of the Lands of Prester John of the Indies").

1515 embassy to Ethiopia
Francisco Álvares was a chaplain-priest and almoner to King Manuel I of Portugal. He was sent in 1515 as part of the Portuguese embassy to the nəgusä nägäst (Emperor of Ethiopia), accompanied by the Ethiopian ambassador Matheus. Their first attempt to reach the port of Massawa failed due to the actions of Lopo Soares de Albergaria, governor of Portuguese India, which got no closer than the Dahlak Archipelago and was aborted with the death of the Portuguese ambassador, old Duarte Galvão at Kamaran. Álvares and Mattheus were forced to wait until the arrival of Soares' replacement, Diogo Lopes de Sequeira, who successfully sent the embassy on, with Dom Rodrigo de Lima replacing Duarte Galvão. The party at last reached Massawa on April 9, 1520, and reached the court of Lebna Dengel where he befriended several Europeans who had gained the favor of the Emperor, which included Pêro da Covilhã and Nicolao Branceleon. Father Álvares remained six years in Ethiopia, returning to Lisbon in either 1526 or 1527.

In 1533 he was allowed to accompany Dom Martinho de Portugal to Rome on an embassy to Pope Clement VII, to whom Father Álvares delivered the letter Lebna Dengel had written to the Pope. The precise date of Francisco Álvares death, like that of his birth, is unknown, but according to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, it was later than 1540, in which year an account of his travels were published at Lisbon. In the introduction of their translation of Álvares' work, C.F. Beckingham and G.W.B. Huntingford furnish evidence that points to Álvares' death in Rome, and admit that he may have died before his work was published.

Álvares' writings
In 1540, Luís Rodrigues published a version of Álvares account in a one volume folio, entitled Verdadeira Informação das Terras do Preste João das Indias ("A True Relation of the Lands of Prester John of the Indies"). C.F. Beckingham and G.W.B. Huntingford cite evidence, based in part on the earlier work of Professor Roberto Almagia, showing that Rodrigues's publication is only a part of Álvares's entire account. Another version of what Álvares wrote was included in an anthology of travel narratives, Navigationi et Viaggi assembled and published by Giovanni Battista Ramusio, and published in 1550. Almagia also identified three manuscripts in the Vatican Library which contain versions of excerpts from the original manuscript.

Francisco Álvares' work has been translated into English at least twice. The first time was the work of the Henry Stanley, 3rd Baron Stanley of Alderley for the Hakluyt Society in 1881. This translation was revised and augmented with notes by C. F. Beckingham and G. W. B. Huntingford, The Prester John of the Indies (Cambridge: Hakluyt Society, 1961).

The author of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article was critical of the information it contained, believing it should "be received with caution, as the author is prone to exaggerate, and does not confine himself to what came within his own observation." Beckingham and Huntingford, however, have a higher opinion of Álvares testimony, stating that not only is it "incomparably more detailed than any earlier account of Ethiopia that has survived; it is also a very important source for Ethiopian history, for it was written just before the country was occupied for 10 years by Arabs, Ottoman empire, Adal, Somalis, and then later encroachment by pagan Galla in the second quarter of the sixteenth century." He provides the first recorded and detailed descriptions of Axum and Lalibela. They continue:

 * "He is sometimes wrong, but very rarely silly or incredible. He made a few mistakes; he may well have made others that we cannot detect because he is our sole authority; when he tried to describe buildings his command of language was usually inadequate; he is often confused and obscure, though this may be as much his printer's fault as his own; his prose is frequently difficult to read and painful to translate; but he seems to us to be free from the dishonesty of the traveller who tries to exaggerate his own knowledge, importance, or courage".

title: Francisco Álvares


text:
Francesco Andreini

Francesco Andreini (c. 1548 – 1624) was an Italian actor mainly of commedia dell'arte plays. He began his career playing the role of the unsophisticated love-stricken young man. Later he played the role of Capitan Spavento (lit. 'Captain Fright'), a Pickwickian character of excessive fatigue. He died on January 1, 1624, in Mantua, Italy at the age of 76.

Francesco Andreini was the leader of the Gelosi commedia dell'arte troupe and had he not brought this type of theater elsewhere, it would not have made it further to the mainstream media and developed into multilingualism and oral and textual transmissions. His role of Capitano made its way into modern media with adapted versions solely based on the original Capitano. Francesco had an impact on today's theater and improvisation.

Life
Andreini was a soldier under the banner of the Medici in the Ottoman–Venetian War. He turned to theatre after 8 years in a Turkish jail.

Andreini was born at Pistoia. He was a member of the company of I Gelosi which Henry IV of France summoned to Paris for his bride, the young queen Marie de' Medici, thus introducing the commedia dell'arte style to France.

Andreini married sixteen-year-old Isabella Canali in 1578, when he was 30. She and their son, Giambattista Andreini, were also distinguished in the arts.

Accomplishments
He published his dialogue as Captain Spavento as "La bravura del Capitano Spavento". This dialogue takes place between the captain and his servant, Trappola. Francesco Andreini wrote four to five page boasts in his publication of his dialogue; although Andreini may have elaborated on these speeches in print, it is clear that he was trying to give the audience the intense verbosity within. Similarly, Andreini elaborates on the fact that the doctor was only talk, while the lovers could get carried away with themselves to any extent.

Andreini spoke a handful of languages including Italian, Turkish, English and French. He used a combination of these languages while performing. As Capitano, he often combined Italian and Turkish claiming it was Arabic. He also used Grammelot in his works and was one of the original inventors.

title: Francesco Andreini


text:
Fifth Monarchists

The Fifth Monarchists, or Fifth Monarchy Men, were a Protestant sect which advocated Millennialist views, active during the 1649 to 1660 Commonwealth of England. Named after a prophecy in the Book of Daniel that Four Monarchies would precede the Fifth or establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth, the group was one of a number of Nonconformist sects that emerged during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Perhaps its best known adherent was Major-General Thomas Harrison, executed in October 1660 as a regicide, while Oliver Cromwell was a sympathiser until 1653.

Members believed the execution of Charles I in January 1649 marked the end of the Fourth Monarchy, and viewed both the institution of the Protectorate in 1653 and the 1660 Stuart Restoration as preventing the coming of the Fifth. The belief this justified military action meant they were actively persecuted by both regimes, and never became a mass movement. Many of their remaining leaders were executed after participating in Venner's Rising of January 1661, and the group dissolved.

Along with millenarianism and Antinomianism, many of the religious views advocated by Fifth Monarchists were common to other Non-Conformists, notably Anabaptists. As a group, they were primarily united by shared political beliefs, rather than being a sect with a distinctive and coherent doctrine.

Beliefs
The Fifth Monarchists took their inspiration from the four kingdoms of Daniel which prophesied that the Fifth, or Kingdom of God, would be preceded by the Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman kingdoms. Followers believed the execution of Charles I in January 1649 marked the end of the Fourth or Roman Monarchy. Several became regicides in the belief his death would usher in the Kingdom of the Saints, or rule by those who were "saved", such as the Fifth Monarchists. The role of these so-called "Saints" was to prepare the masses for the Second Coming, although exactly when this would happen was debated. Based on the Book of Revelation, some believed Christ would return in 1666, which corresponded with the biblical number of the beast, while it was also common to refer to a "Thousand Years".

Many supported "Antinomianism", a rejection of the legal system on the grounds that the "Saved" were not bound by the Ten Commandments, while they also believed it was their duty to resist any regime which hindered the coming of the Kingdom. Although the movement eventually split between those who opposed violence, the "suffering Saints", and the "insurrectionist Saints" like Thomas Venner who advocated taking up arms, these beliefs caused Oliver Cromwell and later contemporaries to see them as wild revolutionaries and enemies of the established order.

Origins and the Commonwealth

The outbreak of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms in 1639 led to an exponential increase in the dissemination of radical political and religious views, including Millennialist ideas. Although Millenarianism was common among Puritans and even shared by some Royalist members of the Church of England, Fifth Monarchists were unique in that the concept was central to their theology. However, one recent historian argues it is more accurate to see them as a political group, rather than a religious sect with a distinctive and coherent doctrine.

In general, Fifth Monarchists also opposed Religious tolerance for non-Protestants, and unlike groups such as the Diggers had no desire to end the existing social order or extend political rights, since they argued only the "Saved" were worthy of power. Exceptions included the Levellers sympathiser Christopher Feake, and Mary Cary, who supported gender equality and measures to alleviate poverty; prior to her death in 1654, she wrote under the name "MC", and many assumed she was a man.

The Fifth Monarchists began life as a faction of the religious Independents who dominated the post-1648 Rump Parliament, with close links to Baptists and Anabaptists. Their emergence as a separate sect is usually dated to December 1651, when a group of preachers including Feake, John Rogers, and John Simpson met in London. Disillusioned by the apparent failure of Parliament to further the "Godly Revolution", they agreed a programme of action to support their objectives, including active resistance to the Commonwealth government.

Primarily recruited from the London Artisan class, the Fifth Monarchists attracted attention disproportionate to their actual numbers because these included senior officers of the New Model Army. Among them were Major Generals Thomas Harrison and Thomas Overton, along with Colonels Nathaniel Rich, John Jones Maesygarnedd and William Goffe, as well as senior administrators such as John Carew. Many others were initially sympathetic to their views, including Cromwell and Sir Henry Vane, and the highpoint of their political influence came in April 1653 when Cromwell dismissed the Rump Parliament, an action which led the Fifth Monarchists to hail him as a new Moses.

They also supported his declaration of war on the Dutch Republic. Despite it being waged against fellow Protestants, the Monarchists argued that it was their duty to spread the Kingdom of the Saints to every country, whether Protestant or Catholic.. Cromwell replaced the Rump with a nominated body popularly known as "Barebone's Parliament"; out of 149 MPs, 15 can be identified as Fifth Monarchists, including Praise-God Barebone, Carew and Harrison. The inaugural session began in July 1653 but the different factions quickly became entangled in bitter disputes over tithes, which the Monarchists wanted to abolish rather than reduce, and reform of the legal system, which they argued should be based solely on laws contained in the Bible. On 8 December, the moderate majority passed a motion urging Cromwell to dissolve Parliament, leading to the establishment of the Protectorate on 16th.

The result was open conflict between the regime and the Fifth Monarchists; Harrison, Overton and Rich were dismissed from the army, while Rogers and Feake attacked Cromwell for his Apostasy and preached revolt to their followers. This caused a split with elements of the movement like John Carew who held Baptist or Anabaptist views, notably their opposition to the use of violence. Rogers and Feake were arrested, while the government placed other members under surveillance and thereafter alternated persecution with tolerance in an attempt to split the movement. This policy had some success, with Rogers, Goffe, John Jones Maesygarnedd and the Welsh preacher Morgan Llwyd becoming reconciled with the regime, leaving a minority of insurrectionists like Venner who was imprisoned in 1657 for planning a rising. By the time he was released in 1659, the Monarchists had lost much of their influence and were no longer a significant force.

Restoration and after

Following the Stuart Restoration in May 1660, Harrison was the first person to be found guilty of regicide and then hanged, drawn and quartered on 13 October. One reason was his justification of violent action against "un-Godly rulers", which meant he was viewed as an ongoing threat to the re-established order. This seemed confirmed on 6 January 1661, when Venner tried to incite a popular uprising to capture London in the name of "King Jesus", with fifty followers based in Norton Folgate.

Most were killed or taken prisoner, with Venner and ten others executed for high treason on 19 and 21 January, while its failure led to the suppression of Non-conformist sects, culminating in the Act of Uniformity 1662. Although the Great Plague of London and the Great Fire of London briefly revived belief in the end of a world ruled by carnal human beings, Fifth Monarchy ceased to exist as a separate sect, although some doctrines were absorbed by Baptists and others who believed "God's Kingdom" could be achieved through spiritual means.

Notable members and sympathisers

 * Praise-God Barebone; gave his name to the 1653 Barebone's Parliament, arrested after the 1660 Restoration but later released and died in 1679;
 * John Carew; executed as a regicide in 1661;
 * Mary Cary (prophetess); died c. 1654;
 * Christopher Feake; a Fifth Monarchist who shared the egalitarian political views of the Levellers, he was arrested in 1655 under the Protectorate. Released after Cromwell's death in 1658, he disappears from the historical record after 1660;
 * Major General William Goffe; regicide, fled to New England in 1660, where he is thought to have died around 1679;
 * Major-General Thomas Harrison; dismissed from the army in 1654 and imprisoned several times under the Protectorate, he was executed as a regicide in October 1660;
 * Morgan Llwyd; leader of the Welsh Fifth Monarchists and Welsh language author, died 1659;
 * John Jones Maesygarnedd; served in the Parliamentarian army in Wales during the First and Second English Civil Wars, continued to hold office under the Protectorate, executed as a regicide in October 1660;
 * Major-General Robert Overton; arrested several times during the Protectorate, imprisoned on the island of Jersey from 1661 to 1668, died at home in London 1679;
 * Major General William Packer; imprisoned briefly after the Restoration, died 1662;
 * Vavasor Powell; Welsh preacher, imprisoned by both the Protectorate and the Stuart regime, died in prison 1670;
 * Colonel Thomas Rainsborough; often cited as a Fifth Monarchist, he was the leading Leveller spokesman during the 1647 Putney Debates, shared Anabaptist sympathies and died in 1648
 * Colonel Nathaniel Rich; dismissed from the army along with Harrison and Overton, he was imprisoned under the Protectorate in 1655, then released in 1656. Since he was not a regicide, he escaped punishment after the Restoration, but was arrested during the Venner Rising and held until 1665, after which he lived quietly at home in Essex;
 * John Rogers; preacher, imprisoned under the Protectorate, went into exile in the Dutch Republic post 1660;
 * John Simpson; London-based preacher
 * Anna Trapnell; religious visionary from Poplar, London, who opposed The Protectorate, and was considered mad for her advocacy of gender equality. Arrested in 1654, released in 1656, and thereafter disappears from the historical record;
 * Thomas Venner; leader of the "Fighting Saints", executed after an abortive rising in January 1661.

title: Fifth Monarchists


text:
February 15

Pre-1600

 * 438 – Roman emperor Theodosius II publishes the law codex Codex Theodosianus
 * 590 – Khosrau II is crowned king of Persia.
 * 706 – Byzantine emperor Justinian II has his predecessors Leontios and Tiberios III publicly executed in the Hippodrome of Constantinople.
 * 1002 – At an assembly at Pavia of Lombard nobles, Arduin of Ivrea is restored to his domains and crowned King of Italy.
 * 1113 – Pope Paschal II issues Pie Postulatio Voluntatis, recognizing the Order of Hospitallers.
 * 1214 – During the Anglo-French War (1213–1214), an English invasion force led by John, King of England, lands at La Rochelle in France.
 * 1493 – While on board the Niña, Christopher Columbus writes an open letter (widely distributed upon his return to Portugal) describing his discoveries and the unexpected items he came across in the New World.

1601–1900

 * 1637 – Ferdinand III becomes Holy Roman Emperor.
 * 1690 – Constantin Cantemir, Prince of Moldavia, and the Holy Roman Empire sign a secret treaty in Sibiu, stipulating that Moldavia would support the actions led by the House of Habsburg against the Ottoman Empire.
 * 1764 – The city of St. Louis is established in Spanish Louisiana (now in Missouri, USA).
 * 1798 – The Roman Republic is proclaimed after Louis-Alexandre Berthier, a general of Napoleon, had invaded the city of Rome five days earlier.
 * 1835 – Serbia's Sretenje Constitution briefly comes into effect.
 * 1852 – The Helsinki Cathedral (known as St. Nicholas' Church at time) is officially inaugurated in Helsinki, Finland.
 * 1862 – American Civil War: Confederates commanded by Brig. Gen. John B. Floyd attack General Ulysses S. Grant's Union forces besieging Fort Donelson in Tennessee. Unable to break the fort's encirclement, the Confederates surrender the following day.
 * 1870 – Stevens Institute of Technology is founded in New Jersey, US, and offers the first Bachelor of Engineering degree in mechanical engineering.
 * 1879 – Women's rights: US President Rutherford B. Hayes signs a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.
 * 1898 – The battleship USS Maine (ACR-1) explodes and sinks in Havana harbor in Cuba, killing about 274 of the ship's roughly 354 crew. The disaster pushes the United States to declare war on Spain.
 * 1899 – Tsar Nicholas II of Russia issues a declaration known as the February Manifesto, which reduces the autonomy of the Grand Duchy of Finland, thus beginning the first period of oppression.

1901–present

 * 1909 – The Flores Theater fire in Acapulco, Mexico kills 250.
 * 1923 – Greece becomes the last European country to adopt the Gregorian calendar.
 * 1925 – The 1925 serum run to Nome: The second delivery of serum arrives in Nome, Alaska.
 * 1933 – In Miami, Giuseppe Zangara attempts to assassinate US President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, but instead shoots Chicago mayor Anton J. Cermak, who dies of his wounds on March 6.
 * 1942 – World War II: Fall of Singapore. Following an assault by Japanese forces, the British General Arthur Percival surrenders. About 80,000 Indian, United Kingdom and Australian soldiers become prisoners of war, the largest surrender of British-led military personnel in history.
 * 1944 – World War II: The assault on Monte Cassino, Italy begins.
 * 1944  – World War II: The Narva Offensive begins.
 * 1945 – World War II: Third day of bombing in Dresden.
 * 1946 – ENIAC, the first electronic general-purpose computer, is formally dedicated at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
 * 1949 – Gerald Lankester Harding and Roland de Vaux begin excavations at Cave 1 of the Qumran Caves, where they will eventually discover the first seven Dead Sea Scrolls.
 * 1952 – King George VI of the United Kingdom is buried in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.
 * 1954 – Canada and the United States agree to construct the Distant Early Warning Line, a system of radar stations in the far northern Arctic regions of Canada and Alaska.
 * 1961 – Sabena Flight 548 crashes in Belgium, killing 73, including the entire United States figure skating team along with several of their coaches and family members.
 * 1965 – A new red-and-white maple leaf design is adopted as the flag of Canada, replacing the old Canadian Red Ensign banner.
 * 1970 – A Dominicana de Aviación McDonnell Douglas DC-9 crashes into the Caribbean Sea after takeoff from Las Américas International Airport, killing 102, including members of the Puerto Rico women's national volleyball team and lightweight boxer Carlos Cruz.
 * 1971 – The decimalisation of the currencies of the United Kingdom and Ireland is completed on Decimal Day.
 * 1972 – Sound recordings are granted U.S. federal copyright protection for the first time.
 * 1972  – José María Velasco Ibarra, serving as President of Ecuador for the fifth time, is overthrown by the military for the fourth time.
 * 1982 – The drilling rig Ocean Ranger sinks during a storm off the coast of Newfoundland, killing 84 workers.
 * 1989 – Soviet–Afghan War: The Soviet Union officially announces that all of its troops have left Afghanistan.
 * 1991 – The Visegrád Group, establishing cooperation to move toward free-market systems, is signed by the leaders of Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland.
 * 1992 – Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is sentenced in Milwaukee to 15 terms of life in prison.
 * 1992  – Air Transport International Flight 805 crashes in Swanton, Ohio, near Toledo Express Airport, killing all four people on board.
 * 1996 – At the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China, a Long March 3B rocket, carrying an Intelsat 708, veers off course and crashes into a rural village after liftoff, killing somewhere between six and 100 people.
 * 1996  – The Embassy of the United States, Athens, is attacked by an antitank rocket, launched by the Revolutionary Organization 17 November.
 * 2001 – The first draft of the complete human genome is published in Nature.
 * 2003 – Protests against the Iraq war take place in over 600 cities worldwide. It is estimated that between eight million and 30 million people participate, making this the largest peace demonstration in history.
 * 2010 – Two trains collide in the Halle train collision in Halle, Belgium, killing 19 and injuring 171 people.
 * 2012 – Three hundred and sixty people die in a fire at a Honduran prison in the city of Comayagua.
 * 2013 – A meteor explodes over Russia, injuring 1,500 people as a shock wave blows out windows and rocks buildings. This happens unexpectedly only hours before the expected closest ever approach of the larger and unrelated asteroid 2012 DA14.
 * 2021 – Sixty people drown and hundreds are missing after a boat sinks on the Congo River near the village of Longola Ekoti, Mai-Ndombe Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Pre-1600

 * 1377 – Ladislaus of Naples (d. 1414)
 * 1458 – Ivan the Young, son of Ivan III of Russia (d. 1490)
 * 1472 – Piero the Unfortunate, Italian ruler (d. 1503)
 * 1506 – Juliana of Stolberg, German countess (d. 1580)
 * 1519 – Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, first Spanish Governor of Florida (d. 1574)
 * 1557 – Alfonso Fontanelli, Italian composer (d. 1622)
 * 1564 – Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer, physicist, and mathematician (d. 1642)

1601–1900

 * 1612 – Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, French soldier, founded Montreal (d. 1676)
 * 1627 – Charles Morton, Cornish nonconformist minister (d. 1698)
 * 1638 – Zeb-un-Nissa, Mughal princess and poet (d. 1702)
 * 1705 – Charles-André van Loo, French painter (d. 1765)
 * 1710 – Louis XV of France (d. 1774)
 * 1725 – Abraham Clark, American surveyor, lawyer, and politician (d. 1794)
 * 1734 – William Stacy, American colonel (d. 1802)
 * 1739 – Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart, French architect, designed the Paris Bourse (d. 1813)
 * 1748 – Jeremy Bentham, English jurist and philosopher (d. 1832)
 * 1759 – Friedrich August Wolf, German philologist and critic (d. 1824)
 * 1760 – Lars Ingier, Norwegian road manager, land owner, and mill owner (d. 1828)
 * 1760  – Jean-François Le Sueur, French composer and educator (d. 1837)
 * 1809 – André Dumont, Belgian geologist and academic (d. 1857)
 * 1809  – Cyrus McCormick, American journalist and businessman, co-founded International Harvester (d. 1884)
 * 1810 – Mary S. B. Shindler, American poet, writer, and editor (d. 1883)
 * 1811 – Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Argentinian journalist and politician, 7th President of Argentina (d. 1888)
 * 1812 – Charles Lewis Tiffany, American businessman, founded Tiffany & Co. (d. 1902)
 * 1820 – Susan B. Anthony, American suffragist and activist (d. 1906)
 * 1825 – Carter Harrison, Sr., American lawyer and politician, 29th Mayor of Chicago (d. 1893)
 * 1834 – V. A. Urechia, Moldavian-Romanian historian, author, and playwright (d. 1901)
 * 1835 – Demetrius Vikelas, Greek businessman and philanthropist (d. 1908)
 * 1840 – Titu Maiorescu, Romanian philosopher, academic, and politician, 23rd Prime Minister of Romania (d. 1917)
 * 1841 – Manuel Ferraz de Campos Sales, Brazilian lawyer and politician, 4th President of Brazil (d. 1913)
 * 1845 – Elihu Root, American lawyer and politician, 38th United States Secretary of State, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1937)
 * 1847 – Robert Fuchs, Austrian composer and educator (d. 1927)
 * 1849 – Rickman Godlee, English surgeon and academic (d. 1925)
 * 1850 – Sophie Bryant, Irish mathematician, academic and activist (d. 1922)
 * 1851 – Spiru Haret, Romanian mathematician, astronomer, and politician, 55th Romanian Minister of Internal Affairs (d. 1912)
 * 1856 – Emil Kraepelin, German psychiatrist and academic (d. 1926)
 * 1861 – Charles Édouard Guillaume, Swiss-French physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1938)
 * 1861  – Alfred North Whitehead, English mathematician and philosopher (d. 1947)
 * 1873 – Hans von Euler-Chelpin, German-Swedish biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1964)
 * 1874 – Ernest Shackleton, Anglo-Irish captain and explorer (d. 1922)
 * 1883 – Sax Rohmer, English-American author (d. 1959)
 * 1890 – Robert Ley, German politician (d. 1945)
 * 1892 – James Forrestal, American lieutenant and politician, 1st United States Secretary of Defense (d. 1949)
 * 1893 – Roman Najuch, Polish professional tennis player (d. 1967)
 * 1897 – Gerrit Kleerekoper, Dutch gymnast and coach (d. 1943)
 * 1898 – Totò, Italian actor, singer, and screenwriter (d. 1967)
 * 1899 – Georges Auric, French composer (d. 1983)
 * 1899  – Gale Sondergaard, Danish-American actress (d. 1985)

1901–present

 * 1904 – Mary Adshead, English painter (d. 1995)
 * 1904  – Antonin Magne, French cyclist and manager (d. 1983)
 * 1905 – Harold Arlen, American composer (d. 1986)
 * 1907 – Jean Langlais, French organist and composer (d. 1991)
 * 1907  – Cesar Romero, American actor (d. 1994)
 * 1908 – Sarto Fournier, Canadian lawyer and politician, 38th Mayor of Montreal (d. 1980)
 * 1909 – Miep Gies, Austrian-Dutch humanitarian, helped hide Anne Frank and her family (d. 2010)
 * 1910 – Irena Sendler, Polish nurse and humanitarian, Righteous Gentile (d. 2008)
 * 1912 – George Mikes, Hungarian-English journalist and author (d. 1987)
 * 1913 – Erich Eliskases, Austrian chess player (d. 1997)
 * 1914 – Hale Boggs, American lawyer and politician (d. 1972)
 * 1914  – Kevin McCarthy, American actor (d. 2010)
 * 1916 – Mary Jane Croft, American actress (d. 1999)
 * 1918 – Allan Arbus, American actor and photographer (d. 2013)
 * 1918  – Hank Locklin, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2009)
 * 1919 – Ducky Detweiler, American baseball player and manager (d. 2013)
 * 1920 – Endicott Peabody, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 62nd Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1997)
 * 1920  – Eio Sakata, Japanese Go player (d. 2010)
 * 1921 – Norman C. Deno, American chemist and plant scientist, (d. 2017)
 * 1922 – John B. Anderson, Swedish-American lawyer and politician (d. 2017)
 * 1923 – Yelena Bonner, Soviet-Russian activist (d. 2011)
 * 1924 – Robert Drew, American director and producer (d. 2014)
 * 1925 – Angella D. Ferguson, American pediatrician
 * 1927 – Frank Dunlop, English actor and director
 * 1927  – Harvey Korman, American actor and comedian (d. 2008)
 * 1927  – Yehoshua Neuwirth, Israeli rabbi and scholar (d. 2013)
 * 1928 – Joseph Willcox Jenkins, American composer, conductor, and educator (d. 2014)
 * 1929 – Graham Hill, English racing driver and businessman (d. 1975)
 * 1929  – James R. Schlesinger, American economist and politician, 12th United States Secretary of Defense (d. 2014)
 * 1930 – Bruce Dawe, Australian poet and academic (d. 2020)
 * 1931 – Claire Bloom, English actress
 * 1931  – Jonathan Steele, English journalist and author
 * 1934 – Jimmy Bloomfield, English footballer and manager (d. 1983)
 * 1934  – Graham Kennedy, Australian television host and actor (d. 2005)
 * 1934  – Niklaus Wirth, Swiss computer scientist, created the Pascal programming language (d. 2024)
 * 1934  – Abe Woodson, American football player and minister (d. 2014)
 * 1935 – Susan Brownmiller, American journalist and author
 * 1935  – Roger B. Chaffee, American lieutenant, engineer, and astronaut (d. 1967)
 * 1935  – Gene Hickerson, American football player (d. 2008)
 * 1937 – Gregory Mcdonald, American author (d. 2008)
 * 1937  – Coen Moulijn, Dutch footballer (d. 2011)
 * 1940 – İsmail Cem İpekçi, Turkish journalist and politician, 45th Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 2007)
 * 1940  – Hamzah Haz, Indonesian journalist and politician, 9th Vice President of Indonesia
 * 1941 – Florinda Bolkan, Brazilian actress
 * 1941  – Brian Holland, American songwriter and producer
 * 1944 – Mick Avory, English musician and songwriter
 * 1945 – Jack Dann, American-Australian author and poet
 * 1945  – Douglas Hofstadter, American author and academic
 * 1946 – Clare Short, English civil servant and politician, Secretary of State for International Development
 * 1946  – John Trudell, American author, poet, and actor (d. 2015)
 * 1947 – John Adams, American composer
 * 1947  – Marisa Berenson, American model and actress
 * 1948 – Art Spiegelman, Swedish-American cartoonist and critic
 * 1949 – Ken Anderson, American football player
 * 1951 – Markku Alén, Finnish racing driver
 * 1951  – Melissa Manchester, American singer-songwriter and actress
 * 1951  – Jane Seymour, English-American actress, producer, and jewelry designer
 * 1952 – Tomislav Nikolić, Serbian politician, 4th President of Serbia
 * 1952  – Nikolai Sorokin, Russian actor and director (d. 2013)
 * 1953 – Ernie Howe, English footballer and manager
 * 1953  – Lynn Whitfield, American actress and producer
 * 1954 – Matt Groening, American animator, producer, and screenwriter
 * 1955 – Janice Dickinson, American model, agent, and author
 * 1955  – Christopher McDonald, American actor
 * 1956 – Desmond Haynes, Barbadian cricketer and coach
 * 1956  – Ann Westin, Swedish comedian
 * 1958 – Chrystine Brouillet, Canadian author
 * 1958  – Tony McKegney, Canadian ice hockey player
 * 1958  – Matthew Ward, American singer-songwriter
 * 1959 – Ali Campbell, English singer-songwriter and musician
 * 1959  – Joseph R. Gannascoli, American actor
 * 1959  – Brian Propp, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
 * 1959  – Hugo Savinovich, Ecuadorian wrestler and sportscaster
 * 1960 – Darrell Green, American football player
 * 1960  – Jock Hobbs, New Zealand rugby player (d. 2012)
 * 1962 – Milo Đukanović, Montenegrin politician, 29th Prime Minister of Montenegro
 * 1963 – Steven Michael Quezada, American actor, comedian, and politician
 * 1964 – Chris Farley, American comedian and actor (d. 1997)
 * 1964  – Leland D. Melvin, American engineer and astronaut
 * 1964  – Mark Price, American basketball player and coach
 * 1965 – Craig Matthews, South African cricketer
 * 1967 – Jane Child, Canadian singer-songwriter and producer
 * 1967  – Syed Kamall, English academic and politician
 * 1967  – Craig Simpson, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
 * 1969 – Birdman, American rapper and producer
 * 1970 – Shepard Fairey, American artist and activist
 * 1971 – Alex Borstein, American actress, voice artist, producer, and screenwriter
 * 1971  – Renee O'Connor, American actress, director, and producer
 * 1972 – Jaromír Jágr, Czech ice hockey player
 * 1973 – Kateřina Neumannová, Czech skier
 * 1973  – Amy van Dyken, American swimmer
 * 1973  – Sarah Wynter, Australian actress
 * 1974 – Miranda July, American actress, director, and screenwriter
 * 1974  – Ugueth Urbina, Venezuelan baseball player
 * 1974  – Alexander Wurz, Austrian racing driver and businessman
 * 1975 – Serge Aubin, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
 * 1975  – Sébastien Bordeleau, Canadian-French ice hockey player
 * 1975  – Annemarie Kramer, Dutch sprinter
 * 1975  – Brendon Small, American animator, producer, screenwriter, and actor
 * 1976 – Brandon Boyd, American singer-songwriter
 * 1976  – Óscar Freire, Spanish cyclist
 * 1976  – Ronnie Vannucci Jr., American musician and songwriter
 * 1977 – Álex González, Venezuelan baseball player
 * 1977  – Ronald Petrovický, Slovak ice hockey player
 * 1979 – Hamish Marshall, New Zealand cricketer
 * 1979  – James Marshall, New Zealand cricketer
 * 1980 – Conor Oberst, American singer-songwriter
 * 1981 – Heurelho Gomes, Brazilian footballer
 * 1981  – Matt Hoopes, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
 * 1981  – Rita Jeptoo, Kenyan runner
 * 1981  – Diego Martínez, Mexican footballer
 * 1981  – Vivek Shraya, Canadian singer and songwriter
 * 1982 – Shameka Christon, American basketball player
 * 1982  – James Yap, Filipino basketball player
 * 1983 – Eddie Basden, American basketball player
 * 1983  – Don Cowie, Scottish footballer
 * 1983  – David Degen, Swiss footballer
 * 1983  – Philipp Degen, Swiss footballer
 * 1983  – Russell Martin, Canadian baseball player
 * 1984 – Gary Clark Jr., American singer-songwriter and musician
 * 1984  – Matt Duffer, American film director, writer, and producer
 * 1984  – Ross Duffer, American film director, writer, and producer
 * 1984  – Nate Schierholtz, American baseball player
 * 1985 – Serkan Kırıntılı, Turkish footballer
 * 1985  – Natalie Morales, American actress and director
 * 1986 – Valeri Bojinov, Bulgarian footballer
 * 1986  – Johnny Cueto, Dominican baseball player
 * 1986  – Amber Riley, American actress and singer
 * 1986  – Laura Sallés, Andorran judoka
 * 1988 – Papu Gómez, Argentine footballer
 * 1988  – Rui Patrício, Portuguese footballer
 * 1989 – Mark Canha, American baseball player
 * 1990 – Callum Turner, English actor
 * 1991 – Ángel Sepúlveda, Mexican footballer
 * 1991  – Rich Swann, American wrestler
 * 1993 – Ravi, South Korean rapper
 * 1993  – Geoffrey Kondogbia, Central African footballer
 * 1993  – Manuel Lanzini, Argentine footballer
 * 1994 – Sodapoppin, American Twitch streamer and internet personality
 * 1995 – Megan Thee Stallion, American rapper
 * 1997 – Derrick Jones Jr., American basketball player
 * 1997  – Justin Reid, American football player
 * 1998 – Zachary Gordon, American actor
 * 1998  – George Russell, English racing driver
 * 2000 – Jakub Kiwior, Polish footballer
 * 2004 – Šimon Nemec, Slovak ice hockey player

Pre-1600

 * 670 – Oswiu, king of Northumbria (b. c. 612)
 * 706 – Leontios, Byzantine emperor
 * 706  – Tiberios III, Byzantine emperor
 * 815 – Ibn Tabataba, Zaydi anti-caliph
 * 956 – Su Yugui, Chinese chancellor (b. 895)
 * 1043 – Gisela of Swabia, Holy Roman Empress (b. 990)
 * 1145 – Lucius II, pope of the Catholic Church
 * 1152 – Conrad III, king of Germany (b. 1093)
 * 1382 – William de Ufford, 2nd Earl of Suffolk (b. c. 1339)
 * 1417 – Richard de Vere, 11th Earl of Oxford, English commander (b. 1385)
 * 1508 – Giovanni II Bentivoglio, tyrant of Bologna (b. 1443)
 * 1600 – José de Acosta, Spanish Jesuit missionary and naturalist (b. 1540)

1601–1900

 * 1621 – Michael Praetorius, German organist and composer (b. 1571)
 * 1637 – Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1578)
 * 1738 – Matthias Braun, Czech sculptor (b. 1684)
 * 1781 – Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, German philosopher, author, and critic (b. 1729)
 * 1818 – Frederick Louis, Prince of Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen (b. 1746)
 * 1835 – Henry Hunt, English farmer and politician (b. 1773)
 * 1839 – François-Marie-Thomas Chevalier de Lorimier, Canadian rebel (b. 1803)
 * 1842 – Archibald Menzies, Scottish surgeon and botanist (b. 1754)
 * 1844 – Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1757)
 * 1847 – Germinal Pierre Dandelin, Belgian mathematician and engineer (b. 1794)
 * 1848 – Hermann von Boyen, Prussian general and politician, Prussian Minister of War (b. 1771)
 * 1849 – Pierre François Verhulst, Belgian mathematician and theorist (b. 1804)
 * 1857 – Mikhail Glinka, Russian composer (b. 1804)
 * 1869 – Ghalib, Indian poet and educator (b. 1796)
 * 1885 – Gregor von Helmersen, Estonian-Russian geologist and engineer (b. 1803)
 * 1885  – Leopold Damrosch, German-American composer and conductor (b. 1832)
 * 1897 – Dimitrie Ghica, Romanian lawyer and politician, 10th Prime Minister of Romania (b. 1816)

1901–present

 * 1901 – Edward Stafford, Scottish-New Zealand educator and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1819)
 * 1905 – Lew Wallace, American author, general, and politician, 11th Governor of New Mexico Territory (b. 1827)
 * 1911 – Theodor Escherich, German-Austrian pediatrician and academic (b. 1859)
 * 1924 – Lionel Monckton, English composer (b. 1861)
 * 1928 – H. H. Asquith, English lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1852)
 * 1932 – Minnie Maddern Fiske, American actress and playwright (b. 1865)
 * 1933 – Pat Sullivan, Australian animator and producer, co-created Felix the Cat (b. 1887)
 * 1939 – Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Russian painter and author (b. 1878)
 * 1956 – Vincent de Moro-Giafferi, French lawyer and politician (b. 1878)
 * 1959 – Owen Willans Richardson, English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1879)
 * 1961 – Laurence Owen, American figure skater (b. 1944)
 * 1965 – Nat King Cole, American singer and pianist (b. 1919)
 * 1966 – Gerard Antoni Ciołek, Polish architect and historian (b. 1909)
 * 1966  – Camilo Torres Restrepo, Colombian priest and theologian (b. 1929)
 * 1967 – Antonio Moreno, Spanish-American actor and director (b. 1887)
 * 1970 – Hugh Dowding, 1st Baron Dowding, Scottish air marshal (b. 1882)
 * 1973 – Wally Cox, American actor (b. 1924)
 * 1974 – Kurt Atterberg, Swedish composer and engineer (b. 1887)
 * 1981 – Mike Bloomfield, American guitarist and songwriter (b. 1943)
 * 1981  – Karl Richter, German organist and conductor (b. 1926)
 * 1984 – Ethel Merman, American actress and singer (b. 1908)
 * 1988 – Richard Feynman, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)
 * 1992 – María Elena Moyano, Peruvian activist (b. 1960)
 * 1992  – William Schuman, American composer and academic (b. 1910)
 * 1996 – McLean Stevenson, American actor (b. 1929)
 * 1998 – Martha Gellhorn, American journalist and author (b. 1908)
 * 1999 – Henry Way Kendall, American physicist and mountaineer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1926)
 * 2000 – Angus MacLean, Canadian commander and politician, 25th Premier of Prince Edward Island (b. 1914)
 * 2002 – Howard K. Smith, American journalist and actor (b. 1914)
 * 2002  – Kevin Smith, New Zealand actor (b. 1963)
 * 2004 – Jens Evensen, Norwegian lawyer, judge, and politician, Norwegian Minister of Trade (b. 1917)
 * 2005 – Pierre Bachelet, French singer-songwriter (b. 1944)
 * 2005  – Sam Francis, American historian and journalist (b. 1947)
 * 2007 – Walker Edmiston, American actor (b. 1925)
 * 2007  – Ray Evans, American songwriter (b. 1915)
 * 2008 – Johnny Weaver, American wrestler and sportscaster (b. 1935)
 * 2010 – Jeanne M. Holm, American general (b. 1921)
 * 2012 – Cyril Domb, English-Israeli physicist and academic (b. 1920)
 * 2013 – Sanan Kachornprasart, Thai general and politician (b. 1935)
 * 2013  – Ahmed Rajib Haider, Bangladeshi atheist blogger
 * 2014 – Thelma Estrin, American computer scientist and engineer (b. 1924)
 * 2014  – Christopher Malcolm, Scottish-Canadian actor, director, and producer (b. 1946)
 * 2015 – Haron Amin, Afghan diplomat, Afghan Ambassador to Japan (b. 1969)
 * 2015  – Arnaud de Borchgrave, American journalist and author (b. 1926)
 * 2015  – Steve Montador, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1979)
 * 2016 – George Gaynes, Finnish-American actor (b. 1917)
 * 2016  – Vanity, Canadian-American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress (b. 1959)
 * 2017 – Stuart McLean, Canadian radio broadcaster (b. 1948)
 * 2019 – Lee Radziwill, American socialite (b. 1933)
 * 2020 – Caroline Flack, English actress and TV presenter (b. 1979)
 * 2022 – Bappi Lahiri, Indian singer, composer and record producer (b. 1952)
 * 2022 – P.J. O'Rourke, American author, humorist, and journalist (b. 1947)
 * 2023 – Raquel Welch, American actress and singer (b. 1940)

Holidays and observances

 * Christian feast day:
 * Blessed Michał Sopoćko
 * Claude de la Colombière
 * Faustinus and Jovita
 * Oswiu
 * Quinidius
 * Sigfrid of Sweden
 * Thomas Bray (Episcopal Church)
 * Walfrid
 * February 15 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
 * Earliest day on which Family Day can fall, while February 21 is the latest; celebrated on the third Monday in February. (parts of Canada)
 * Earliest day on which Washington's Birthday can fall, while February 21 is the latest; celebrated on the third Monday in February. (United States)
 * International Duties Memorial Day (Russia, regional)
 * John Frum Day (Vanuatu)
 * Liberation Day (Afghanistan)
 * National Flag of Canada Day (Canada)
 * Parinirvana Day, also celebrated on February 8. (Mahayana Buddhism)
 * Singles Awareness Day
 * Statehood Day (Serbia)
 * Susan B. Anthony Day (Florida, United States)
 * The ENIAC Day (Philadelphia, United States)
 * Total Defence Day (Singapore)

title: February 15