Facts

1821: The candidates of Panos and Botasis proclaim the Revolution in Spetses, Sisinis in Gastouni and Vilaetis in Pyrgos.

1937: Spinach growers in Texas are raising a statue to the industry’s great benefactor, Popeye.

[1945:The US completely occupies the strategically important Pacific island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese. (The Battle of Iwo Jima)

2000:Greece becomes a full member of the Schengen Agreement, which aims at the progressive abolition of controls at the common borders of the European Union, the establishment of free movement for all persons, nationals of the states that signed the Agreement, as well as the police and judicial cooperation.

2010: The Prime Minister, George Papandreou, expresses his belief that there will be no need to activate the support mechanism for the Greek economy. Euphoria prevails in the Greek stock market, which is up 4.12%, while the spread of the Greek ten-year bonds even falls below 300 basis points. Standard and Poor’s does not change its assessment of Greece’s creditworthiness after the Summit, maintaining Greece at BBB+ with a negative outlook.

2015: Yannis Varoufakis is included in the top 10 thinkers for 2015, according to a vote of the readers of the magazine “Prospect”, which deals with economic and political issues.

Births

1904: Xenophon Zolotas, Greek economist and academic. He was prime minister during a universal government in the period 1989 – 1990 and Governor of the Bank of Greece for 19 years. (Than. 11/6/2004)

1931: Leonard Nimoy, American actor, who became famous for his role as “Spock” in the science fiction television and film series “Star Trek”. (Thu. 27/2/2015)

Deaths

1827: Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer. (Born 16/12/1770)

1940:Spyros Louis, Greek Olympic Marathon champion in the 1896 Olympic Games. (Born 12/1/1873)

2015:Thomas Transtremer, Swedish poet, Nobel Prize in Literature in 2011. (Born 15/4/1931)