Occult:This month in history/February

Pamela Colman Smith

• 4 February - John Rogers is burned at the stake, becoming the first English Protestant martyr under Mary I of England. (1555)
• 7 February - Pluto moves inside Neptune's orbit for the first time since either was discovered. (1979)
• 12 February - Italian author Petrarch finishes his poem I Trionfi, the inspiration for later decks of tarot cards. (1374)
• 13 February - Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for his trial before the Inquisition. (1633)
• 16 February - Pamela Colman Smith, an English occultist and illustrator is born. (1878)
• 17 February - On his way to be burned at the stake for heresy, the philosopher Giordano Bruno has a wooden vise put on his tongue to prevent him continuing to speak. (1600)
• 18 February - Mary I of England is born. (1516)
• 18 February - While studying photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto. (1930)
• 18 February - The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles. (1954)
• 19 February - The anti-paganism policy of Constantius II forbids the worship of pagan idols in the Roman Empire. (356)
• 19 February - Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish mathematician and astronomer is born. (1543)
• 21 February - Rebecca Nurse, a Massachusetts colonist who was executed as a witch, is born. (1621)
• 23 February - Traditionally the date of publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed with movable type. (1455)
• 24 February - With the papal bull Inter gravissimas, Pope Gregory XIII announces the Gregorian calendar. (1582)
• 27 February - Constantine the Great is born. (272)
• 29 February - Christopher Columbus uses his knowledge of a lunar eclipse that night to convince Jamaican natives to provide him with supplies. (1504)