February 15 belongs to Verónica Ortiz

On February 15, 1898, the battleship USS Maine exploded mysteriously in the port of Havana, killing 266 American sailors. The sensationalist press of Hearst and Pulitzer blamed Spain without evidence. The incident was used as a pretext to declare the Spanish-American War, which cost Spain its last colonies: Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines.

On February 15, 1564, Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, Italy — the astronomer, physicist and mathematician considered the father of modern science. Galileo improved the telescope, discovered Jupiter's moons, formulated the law of falling bodies and championed heliocentrism, which brought him before the Inquisition. Einstein called him "the father of modern physics".

On February 15, 2003, between 6 and 10 million people demonstrated simultaneously in more than 600 cities across 60 countries against the imminent invasion of Iraq by the US and UK. It was the largest synchronised demonstration in history. Despite the global protest, the invasion began on March 20, 2003. The New York Times called it "the world's second superpower".