February 12

The Xuantong Emperor, better known as Puyi, abdicates the Chinese throne, ending over two thousand years of imperial rule.

Puyi, who had become emperor as a small child, abdicated under pressure following the Xinhai Revolution, ending over two thousand years of Chinese imperial rule. He briefly returned to power decades later as a Japanese-installed puppet ruler of Manchukuo before eventually living out his life as a private citizen under Communist rule.

A devastating tornado outbreak strikes Mississippi and Alabama, killing 45 people across the region.

The outbreak produced multiple violent tornadoes across Mississippi and Alabama, striking before the era of modern radar-based warning systems gave residents little advance notice. Such disasters helped drive the postwar development of more sophisticated severe weather forecasting and public warning systems.

A massive meteorite shower creates the Sikhote-Alin impact craters in the Soviet Far East, among the largest observed iron meteorite falls in recorded history.

A massive meteor exploded over the Sikhote-Alin mountains, showering the region with an estimated 23 tons of iron meteorite fragments and creating over a hundred impact craters. It remains one of the largest and best-documented meteorite falls in recorded history, providing scientists with valuable material for studying asteroid composition.

Designer Christian Dior unveils his "New Look" collection in Paris, reviving the city's status as the global capital of fashion after World War II.

Dior's cinched-waist, full-skirted silhouette represented a dramatic departure from wartime fabric rationing and utilitarian styles, using far more material than had been considered acceptable in years. The collection was an instant sensation, restoring Paris's position as the center of the global fashion industry after years of wartime disruption.

The Soviet Union launches Venera 1 toward Venus, the first spacecraft aimed at another planet, though contact was lost before arrival.

Venera 1 was designed to fly past Venus and transmit data on its atmosphere and magnetic field, but a malfunction caused ground controllers to lose contact with the probe about a week into its journey. Despite the failure, it remains an early milestone in the Soviet Union's ambitious planetary exploration program.

Nobel laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is stripped of his citizenship and expelled from the Soviet Union after publishing "The Gulag Archipelago."

Solzhenitsyn's expulsion followed the Soviet government's fury over the smuggled publication abroad of "The Gulag Archipelago," his sweeping account of the Soviet forced-labor camp system. His exile, and the international attention his writing drew, became a significant moment in exposing the realities of Soviet repression to the wider world.

Thieves break into Norway's National Gallery and steal Edvard Munch's iconic painting "The Scream" during the Lillehammer Winter Olympics.

"The Scream," one of the most recognizable images in art history, was stolen in broad daylight in under a minute, with thieves leaving a taunting note. The painting was recovered undamaged a few months later after Norwegian police, aided by a British undercover operation, tracked down the thieves.

The U.S. Senate acquits President Bill Clinton in his impeachment trial over the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

The Senate acquitted Clinton on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice stemming from his relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky, falling well short of the two-thirds majority needed for conviction and removal. He remained in office for the rest of his term, though the scandal significantly damaged his political legacy.

NASA's NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touches down on the asteroid Eros, becoming the first spacecraft ever to land on an asteroid.

NEAR Shoemaker had already spent a year orbiting the asteroid Eros when engineers attempted an unplanned soft landing, an outcome the spacecraft wasn't originally designed for. Its successful touchdown and continued data transmission from the surface offered valuable insight into asteroid composition and structure.

Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill sign a joint declaration, the first meeting between leaders of the two churches since their split nearly a thousand years earlier.

The joint declaration between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill, signed during a historic meeting in Havana, Cuba, addressed shared concerns including persecution of Christians in the Middle East, though it did not resolve deep theological and jurisdictional disputes dating back to the Great Schism of 1054.