What happened on 8 February?

16 events from the Ever-When timeline, ranked by how much they mattered.

1. 1904 Russo-Japanese War Japan defeats Imperial Russia on land and sea; first major Asian victory over a European power in modern times; reshapes geopolitics.
2. 1834 Born: Dmitri Mendeleev Russian chemist; creator of the periodic table.
3. 1861 Confederate States of America formed Southern states form Confederacy after Lincoln's election.
4. 1904 Japan's night attack opens the war Two days after breaking off negotiations — and three hours before delivering its declaration of war — Japan's destroyers torpedo the Russian Pacific squadron at anchor off Port Art
5. 1587 Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots Mary Stuart beheaded at Fotheringhay after years of Catholic plotting; Elizabeth's reluctant signature embarrasses the regime.
6. 2004 OutKast win the Grammy for Album of the Year Speakerboxxx/The Love Below becomes the first rap album to win the top Grammy.
7. 1865 Mendel's laws of heredity Mendel presents his pea-plant experiments to the Natural History Society of Brno, establishing the laws of inheritance.
8. 1874 Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov Pushkin's tragedy of the guilt-haunted tsar as a raw, folk-rooted opera — the great Russian national opera.
9. 1915 The Birth of a Nation Griffith's technically pioneering, racially poisonous feature film.
10. 1250 Battle of Mansurah Mamluks defeat Louis IX's army in the Nile delta; during the retreat in April the king is captured and held for ransom.
11. 1601 Essex's Rebellion The Earl of Essex's failed coup against Elizabeth's government ends in his execution.
12. 1904 Sibelius's Violin Concerto The failed violinist's only concerto, brooding and virtuosic; after a shaky Helsinki premiere he revises it, and the 1905 version becomes a cornerstone of the repertoire.
13. 1575 Leiden University founded William of Orange rewards Leiden for surviving the Spanish siege with the Northern Netherlands' first university, soon a magnet for Protestant scholarship.
14. 1994 Mass Appeal (Gang Starr) DJ Premier's minimal loop satirising radio-chasing rap.
15. 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics Socialist Yugoslavia hosts a triumphant Winter Games; within a decade the bobsled run is a sniper position and the stadiums are graveyards.
16. 1887 Dawes Act Congress breaks up tribal landholding into individual allotments, opening 'surplus' land to settlers. Over four decades Native landholding fell from 138 million acres to 48 million