AP – A 17th-century masterpiece by Peter Paul Rubens, Portrait of a Lady, at the DESA Unicum auction house in Warsaw, Poland, sold for $3.4 Million on Thursday, February 17,
Sir Peter Paul Rubens (28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640)
Rubens was the most versatile and influential Baroque artist of northern Europe in the seventeenth century.
Vincent Van Gogh (1853 – 1890) Painting by Australian artist John Russell.
On December 23, 1888, Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, suffering from severe depression, cuts off the lower part of his left ear with a razor while staying in Arles, France. He later documented the event in a painting titled Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear. Today, Van Gogh is regarded as an artistic genius and his masterpieces sell for record- breaking prices; however, during his lifetime, he was a poster boy for tortured starving artists and sold only one painting.
During World War II on this day in 1942, naval battle of Guadalcanal began between Japanese and American forces. The battle ended on February 9, 1943 with the U.S. winning a major victory.
U.S. Marines, with full battle gear, charge ashore on Guadalcanal Island.
The Washington opens fire on the Kirishima, November 15, 1942 during the Battle of Guadalcanal: painting by Lt. Dwight Shepler, USNR.
Neil Percival Young is 73 years old today.
Young a Canadian singer-songwriter and musician. After embarking on a music career in the 1960s, he moved to Los Angeles, where he formed Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay and others.
Actress Daryl Hannah and Neil Young were married in August in a top-secret ceremony near San Luis Obispo, California. They had been dating since 2014.
The British Parliament enacted The Stamp Act in the American colonies on this day in 1765. The act was repealed in March of 1766 on the same day that the Parliament passed the Declaratory Acts which asserted that the British government had free and total legislative power of the colonies.
On this day in 1952, the United States exploded the first hydrogen bomb on Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands.