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On 22 February 1921, a Cossack officer named Reza Khan marched on Tehran and seized power. The dynasty he founded lasted fifty-four years. Its heir now calls for revolution from a suburb of Washington.

A boy tsar in 1613, a revolutionary pamphlet in 1848, a president's flight in 2014 — all on 21 February, all part of the same unfinished argument about Russia.

On 20 February 1798, French soldiers escorted Pope Pius VI out of Rome. He had ruled as a temporal sovereign — as every pope had for over a thousand years. None would again.

In 1954, the Soviet Presidium voted to transfer Crimea from Russia to Ukraine. The session lasted minutes. The consequences are still running.

On 18 February 1885, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published in the United States — a literary event that forced the country to look squarely at race, complicity, and the conscience of a boy on a raft.

In 1652, Russia's new Patriarch decided the liturgy was wrong. The schism that followed still hasn't healed — and it was never just about religion.

Four hundred and ten years ago today, a Jurchen chieftain proclaimed himself Khan. The dynasty his heirs built solved an ancient problem — and created the conditions for a modern catastrophe.

On 16 February 1471, Krishnadevaraya was born. When Babur surveyed every ruler on the Indian subcontinent, he named one man the most powerful. The emperor who deployed 700,000 soldiers at Raichur also wrote devotional poetry in four languages.

On 15 February 1898, the USS Maine blew apart in Havana harbour, killing 261 men. Nobody ever proved who or what caused it. The newspapers didn't care — they already had the story.

Before it was about roses and chocolate, February 14th marked a stranger event: the day Bolshevik Russia skipped thirteen days to join the modern calendar.