February 14

Historic Events

2020

At least 22 people are killed in an attack on a village in Northwest Region, Cameroon. ›

2019

Pulwama attack takes place in Lethpora in Pulwama district, Jammu and Kashmir, India in which 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel and a suicide bomber were killed and 35 were injured. ›

2018

Jacob Zuma resigns as President of South Africa. ›

2018

A shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida is one of the deadliest school massacres with 17 fatalities and 17 injuries. ›

2011

As a part of Arab Spring, the Bahraini uprising begins with a 'Day of Rage'. ›

2008

Northern Illinois University shooting: A gunman opens fire in a lecture hall of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb County, Illinois, resulting in six fatalities (including the gunman) and 21 injuries. ›

2005

In Beirut, 23 people, including former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, are killed when the equivalent of around 1,000 kg of TNT is detonated while Hariri's motorcade drives through the city. ›

2005

Seven people are killed and 151 wounded in a series of bombings by suspected al-Qaeda-linked militants that hit Makati, Davao City, and General Santos, all in the Philippines. ›

2005

YouTube is launched by a group of college students, eventually becoming the largest video sharing website in the world and a main source for viral videos. ›

2004

In a suburb of Moscow, Russia, the roof of the Transvaal water park collapses, killing more than 28 people, and wounding 193 others. ›

2003

Iraq disarmament crisis: UNMOVIC Executive Chairman Hans Blix reports to the United Nations Security Council that disarmament inspectors have found no weapons of mass destruction in Ba'athist Iraq. ›

2000

The spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker enters orbit around asteroid 433 Eros, the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid. ›

1998

An oil tanker train collides with a freight train in Yaoundé, Cameroon, spilling fuel oil. One person scavenging the oil created a massive explosion which killed 120. ›

1990

Ninety-two people are killed when Indian Airlines Flight 605 crashes in Bangalore, India. ›

1990

The Voyager 1 spacecraft takes the photograph of planet Earth that later becomes famous as Pale Blue Dot. ›

1989

Union Carbide agrees to pay $470 million to the Indian government for damages it caused in the 1984 Bhopal disaster. ›

1989

Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini issues a fatwa encouraging Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses. ›

1983

United American Bank of Knoxville, Tennessee collapses. Its president, Jake Butcher, is later convicted of fraud. ›

1979

In Kabul, Setami Milli militants kidnap the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs who is later killed during a gunfight between his kidnappers and police. ›

1961

Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized at the University of California. ›

1954

First Indochina War - small French garrison at Đắk Đoa is overrun by the Viet Minh after a week's siege. ›

1949

The Knesset (parliament of Israel) convenes for the first time. ›

1949

The Asbestos Strike begins in Canada. The strike marks the beginning of the Quiet Revolution in Quebec. ›

1947

The act abolishing all noble ranks and related styles comes into force in Hungary. ›

1946

The Bank of England is nationalized. ›

1945

World War II: On the first day of the bombing of Dresden, the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces begin fire-bombing Dresden. ›

1945

World War II: Navigational error leads to the mistaken bombing of Prague, Czechoslovakia by a United States Army Air Forces squadron of B-17s assisting in the Soviet Red Army's Vistula–Oder Offensive. ›

1945

World War II: Mostar is liberated by Yugoslav partisans ›

1945

President Franklin D. Roosevelt meets King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia aboard the USS Quincy, officially beginning U.S.-Saudi diplomatic relations. ›

1944

World War II: In the action of 14 February 1944, a Royal Navy submarine sinks a German-controlled Italian Regia Marina submarine in the Strait of Malacca. ›

1943

World War II: Rostov-on-Don, Russia is liberated. ›

1943

World War II: Tunisia Campaign: General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim's Fifth Panzer Army launches a counter-attack against Allied positions in Tunisia. ›

1942

World War II: Battle of Pasir Panjang contributes to the fall of Singapore. ›

1939

World War II: German battleship Bismarck is launched. ›

1929

Saint Valentine's Day Massacre: Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone's gang, are murdered in Chicago. ›

1924

The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company changes its name to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). ›

1920

The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago. ›

1919

The Polish–Soviet War begins. ›

1918

Soviet Russia adopts the Gregorian calendar. ›

1912

Arizona is admitted as the 48th and the last contiguous U.S. state. ›

1912

The U.S. Navy commissions its first class of diesel-powered submarines. ›

1903

The United States Department of Commerce and Labor is established (later split into the Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor). ›

1900

The British Army begins the Battle of the Tugela Heights in an effort to lift the Siege of Ladysmith. ›

1899

Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections. ›

1879

The War of the Pacific breaks out when the Chilean Army occupies the Bolivian port city of Antofagasta. ›

1876

Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent for the telephone, as does Elisha Gray. ›

1859

Oregon is admitted as the 33rd U.S. state. ›

1855

Texas is linked by telegraph to the rest of the United States, with the completion of a connection between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas. ›

1852

Great Ormond St Hospital for Sick Children, the first hospital in England to provide in-patient beds specifically for children, is founded in London. ›

1849

In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken. ›

1835

The original Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, in the Latter Day Saint movement, is formed in Kirtland, Ohio. ›

1831

Ras Marye of Yejju marches into Tigray and defeats and kills Dejazmach Sabagadis in the Battle of Debre Abbay. ›

1804

Karađorđe leads the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire. ›

1797

French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Cape St. Vincent: John Jervis, (later 1st Earl of St Vincent) and Horatio Nelson (later 1st Viscount Nelson) lead the British Royal Navy to victory over a Spanish fleet in action near Gibraltar. ›

1779

American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Kettle Creek is fought in Georgia. ›

1779

James Cook is killed by Native Hawaiians near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii. ›

1778

The United States flag is formally recognized by a foreign naval vessel for the first time, when French Admiral Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte renders a nine gun salute to USS Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones. ›

1655

The Mapuches launch coordinated attacks against the Spanish in Chile beginning the Mapuche uprising of 1655. ›

1613

Wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Frederick V of the Palatinate at Whitehall Palace, London. ›

1556

Having been declared a heretic and laicized by Pope Paul IV on 4 December 1555, Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer is publicly defrocked at Christ Church Cathedral. ›

1556

Coronation of Akbar as ruler of the Mughal Empire. ›

1530

Spanish conquistadores, led by Nuño de Guzmán, overthrow and execute Tangaxuan II, the last independent monarch of the Tarascan state in present-day central Mexico. ›

1349

Strasbourg massacre: Several thousand Jews are burned to death by mobs while the remaining Jews are forcibly removed from Strasbourg after being accused of causing the Black Death. ›

1130

The troubled 1130 papal election exposes a rift within the College of Cardinals. ›

1014

Pope Benedict VIII crowns Henry of Bavaria, King of Germany and of Italy, as Holy Roman Emperor. ›

842

Charles the Bald and Louis the German swear the Oaths of Strasbourg in the French and German languages. ›

763

The death of Ibrahim ibn Abdallah marks the end of the Alid revolt of 762–763. ›

748

Abbasid Revolution: The Hashimi rebels under Abu Muslim Khorasani take Merv, capital of the Umayyad province Khorasan, marking the consolidation of the Abbasid revolt. ›