Reuters historical calendar - February 13

LONDON, Feb 12 (Reuters) Following are some of the major events to have occurred on February. 13 since 1900: 1945 - Nazi-occupied Budapest fell to the Russians during World War Two after a 50-day siege in which 50,000 Germans were killed.

1974 - Nobel prize-winning author Alexander Solzhenitsyn was deported from the Soviet Union and deprived of Soviet citizenship.

He eventually settled in the United States, but returned to Russia in 1994.

1975 - Seven months after their invasion of Cyprus, Turkish Cypriots proclaimed a ''Turkish Federated State of Cyprus'' in the part of the island they occupied.

1976 - The French-born US coloratura soprano Lily Pons died. She achieved huge success, especially at the New York Metropolitan Opera House.

1979 - The French film maker Jean Renoir died. ''The Grand Illusion'', ''The Human Beast'' and ''The Rules of the Game'' are among his best-known works.

1990 - Roaring crowds gave Nelson Mandela a hero's welcome when he returned to the black township of Soweto after being released from prison and pledged to end ''the dark hell of apartheid'' in South Africa.

2001 - The American Ann Bancroft and the Norwegian Liv Arnesen became the first women to cross Antarctica on skis, covering 2,700 km (1,700 miles) in 90 days.

2002 - Britain's Queen Elizabeth bestowed an honorary knighthood on former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, praising his role in bolstering his city after the Sept. 11 attacks.

2002 - The Scottish parliament voted to ban fox hunting, making Scotland the first part of Britain to ban the centuries-old sport.

2005 - Lucia de Jesus dos Santos, the last of three children who claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary at Fatima, and who revealed a vision that the Roman Catholic Church said had foretold an attempt to kill Pope John Paul, died aged 97.

REUTERS PDM PM1014