February 15
1519: Pedro Menendez de Aviles – founder of Santa Elena, the first colonial capital of Spanish Florida on Parris Island in the Port Royal Sound – is born in Spain. Menendez de Aviles was the first Governor of Florida and the first European man to convert native Americans to Christianity.
2016: Beaufort author Pat Conroy announces publicly on his Facebook page that he is battling pancreatic cancer.
February 16
1970: Boxer Joe Frazier, a Beaufort native, defeats Jimmy Ellis at Madison Square Garden in New York City to improve to 25-0 and win the WBA and vacant WBC world heavyweight titles.
February 18
1878: The General Assembly passes legislation creating Hampton County from part of Beaufort County.
1885: Jonathan Jasper Wright, an attorney, former state senator and former S.C. Supreme Court justice from Beaufort, dies of tuberculosis in Charleston. Wright was the first black man in the country to serve on any state Supreme Court.
— Compiled by Mike McCombs