The Siege of Lilybaeum lasted from 250 to 241 BC, as the Roman army laid siege to the Carthaginian-held Sicilian city of Lilybaeum (modern Marsala; reconstruction pictured) during the First Punic War. Lilybaeum was well-fortified and situated on the coast, where it could be supplied and reinforced by sea. In mid–250 BC the Romans besieged the city with more than 100,000 men. They made a concerted effort to take it by assault, but were unsuccessful. The Romans then attacked the Carthaginian fleet, but their fleet was itself destroyed in the naval battles of Drepana and Phintias. In 242 BC, the Romans built a new fleet and cut off supplies. The Carthaginians reconstituted their fleet and despatched it to Sicily loaded with provisions. The Romans met it not far from Lilybaeum and defeated it at the Battle of the Aegates in 241 BC. The Carthaginians sued for peace and the war ended after 23 years with a Roman victory; by the terms of the Treaty of Lutatius Carthage evacuated the city. ( Full article...)

George Washington by John Trumbull

• ... that John Trumbull finished his painting George Washington (pictured) before he was arrested for high treason?
• ... that the creator of a video depicting the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, which featured Indonesian politically satirical song " Ampun Bang Jago", denied that it was politically motivated?
• ... that the American scholar Karen Hellekson published the first book in English devoted to analyzing the alternate history genre?
• ... that although its range is restricted to the island of Borneo, the mountain blackeye has evolved into four subspecies?
• ... that the biography of Singapore's first Asian postmaster-general, M. Bala Subramanion, was released at The Fullerton Hotel, the site of the old General Post Office where he had worked for 35 years?
• ... that Dav Pilkey wrote the children's book The Paperboy, which received a Caldecott Honor, in fifteen minutes?
• ... that film researcher Lillian Michelson interviewed elderly Jewish women about the appearance of the underwear they wore in the 1890s to develop accurate clothing for Fiddler On The Roof?
• ... that a commercial for the food delivery app Domino's App feat. Hatsune Miku went viral on YouTube in 2013, and was described by journalists as "bizarre"?

Novak Djokovic

• In tennis, Naomi Osaka wins the women's singles and Novak Djokovic (pictured) wins the men's singles at the Australian Open.
• Porfirije is enthroned as the 46th Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
• NASA's Perseverance rover, carrying the Ingenuity helicopter, successfully lands on Mars.
• A winter storm in North America leaves at least 70 people dead and several million others without clean water or power.
• Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala becomes the first woman and the first African to be appointed Director-General of the World Trade Organization.

February 22

Dolly

• 1371 – Robert II became King of Scots as the first monarch of the House of Stewart.
• 1744 – War of the Austrian Succession: British ships began attacking the rear of a combined Franco-Spanish fleet in the Mediterranean Sea off the French coast near Toulon.
• 1997 – Scientists at the Roslin Institute in Scotland announced the existence of Dolly (pictured), a female sheep who was the first mammal to have successfully been cloned from an adult cell.
• 2006 – At least six men staged the largest cash robbery in Britain at a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent.
• 2011 – An earthquake registering 6.3  M_L struck Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 185 people and causing around NZ$40 billion in damage.