February 18: Independence Day in The Gambia (1965) * 1846 – Peasants led by Jakub Szela began an uprising against Polish nobles in Galicia in the Austrian partition, killing about 1000 people and destroyed about 500 manors. * 1861 – With Italian unification almost complete, Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont, Savoy and Sardinia assumed the title King of Italy. * 1908 – The Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, Sweden's national stage for "spoken drama", opened with playwright August Strindberg's play Master Olof. * 1932 – The Empire of Japan established Manchukuo, a puppet state in northeastern China during the Sino-Japanese War. * 1943 – Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Propaganda Minister, delivered the Sportpalast speech to motivate the German people when the tide of World War II