Reuters historical calendar - February 15

London, Feb 8 (Reuters) Following are some of the major events to have occurred on February 15 since 1900: 1922 - The Permanent Court of International Justice, sitting at The Hague in the Netherlands, held its first session.

1933 - Giuseppe Zangara, an Italian-born anarchist, failed to assassinate US President Franklin D Roosevelt in Miami.

1942 - In Singapore, a British-led force of some 85,000 surrendered to a Japanese invading force less than half its size after being bombarded and cut off during a week-long battle.

1965 - Nat King Cole, US popular singer and jazz pianist, died.

1965 - Canada adopted the Red Maple Leaf as its flag.

1971 - Britain adopted decimal currency - 100 new pence to the pound - from pounds, shillings and 240 pence to the pound.

1984 - Ethel Merman, US actress and singer, died. She starred in such Broadway musicals as ''Annie Get Your Gun'' and ''Call Me Madam''.

1989 - Some 100,000 Soviet troops left Afghanistan under a UN-brokered accord 10 years after Moscow had sent in its army.

1990 - Britain and Argentina restored diplomatic ties broken in the 1982 war over the Falkland Islands.

1992 - Two Spaniards completed the first east-west balloon flight across the Atlantic, reaching Venezuela from Spain.

1994 - Russian serial killer Andrei Chikatilo, the ''Rostov Ripper'' who raped and butchered more than 50 victims, was executed after losing an 11th-hour appeal for clemency.

1997 - Suspected North Korean agents shot and fatally wounded defector Li Il-nam, a relative of Pyongyang leader Kim Jong-il's ex-wife, near the South Korean capital Seoul.

2001 - Bahrain released all its political prisoners under an amnesty for more than 400 political exiles and detainees. On the same day Bahraini women voted for the first time ever.

2003 - In a huge wave of demonstrations, the biggest since the Vietnam War, more than six million peace protesters took to the streets in 600 towns and cities against a war in Iraq.

2004 - China executed Yang Xinhai, one of its worst serial killers, a man who murdered 67 people and raped two dozen women in a four-year crime spree.

2006 - Sun Yun-suan, the former Taiwan premier credited with the island's economic expansion in the 1980s, died aged 92.

REUTERS MS HS1126