February 11th is turning out to be quite the day in history. In addition to being Thomas Alva Edison‘s birthday, it was also the end of the Yalta Conference in 1945, which was trying to deal with post-war Europe.

More recently, it’s the anniversary of the Iranian Revolution in 1979, which saw the overthrow of Iran’s monarchy and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Nelson Mandela was released from prison on this day in 1990.

And now we can add the downfall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak after 18 days of anti-government protests in Egypt. I hope the aftermath doesn’t get out of control and that the Egyptian people can rebuild and move forward.

Quite a day in history, eh?

A tip o’ the hat to Al Jazeera who had this photo on their site.