History Events on February 14

Richard II of England dies, most probably from starvation, in Pontefract Castle, on the orders of Henry Bolingbroke.

#Richard_II_of_England

In Beirut, 22 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.

#Beirut

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.

#Bombing_of_Dresden_in_World_War_II

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

#Voyager_1

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

#World_War_II

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

#Oregon

Battle of Pasir Panjang contributes to the fall of Singapore.

#Battle_of_Pasir_Panjang

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

#Alexander_Graham_Bell

Thomas Cranmer is declared a heretic.

#Thomas_Cranmer

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

#Mapuche

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

#United_States_Department_of_Commerce

Several hundred Jews are burned to death by mobs while the remaining Jews are forcibly removed from Strasbourg.

#Strasbourg_massacre

The War of the Pacific breaks out when Chilean armed forces occupy the Bolivian port city of Antofagasta.

#War_of_the_Pacific

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 kills 120.

#Yaoundé

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 City, all in the Philippines.

#Al-Qaeda

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

#Knoxville,_Tennessee

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

#United_States_Navy

Kara?or?e leads the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire.

#Kara?or?e

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

#Indian_Airlines_Flight_605

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

#IBM

Coronation of Akbar.

#Akbar

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

#Northern_Illinois_University_shooting

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

#Iran

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

#Franklin_D._Roosevelt

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.

#French_Revolutionary_Wars

Pope Innocent II is elected.

#Pope_Innocent_II

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.

#Flag_of_the_United_States

In a suburb of Moscow, Russia, the roof of the Transvaal water park collapses, killing more than 25 people, and wounding more than 100 others.

#Transvaal_Park

The Polish-Soviet War begins.

#Polish-Soviet_War

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

#Texas

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

#Charles_the_Bald

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

#Arab_Spring

The Knesset (Israeli parliament) convenes for the first time.

#Knesset

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

#Union_Carbide

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.

#Nuño_de_Guzmán

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

#Great_Ormond_Street_Hospital

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.

#Kabul

Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor.

#Pope_Gregory_VII

World War II: Mostar is liberated by Yugoslav partisans

#Mostar

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

#Arizona

Jacob Zuma resigns as President of South Africa.

#Jacob_Zuma

World War II: In the Action of 14 February 1944, a British submarine sinks a German-controlled Italian submarine in the Strait of Malacca.

#Action_of_14_February_1944

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

#James_Cook

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

#American_Revolutionary_War

The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago.

#League_of_Women_Voters

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

#NEAR_Shoemaker

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in the Miami metropolitan area is one of the deadliest school massacres with 17 fatalities and 15 injuries.

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.

Australian currency is decimalized.

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

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

The Bank of England is nationalized.

World War II: Navigational error leads to the mistaken bombing of Prague, Czechoslovakia by an American squadron of B-17s assisting in the Soviet's Vistula-Oder Offensive.

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

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

British forces begin the Battle of the Tugela Heights in an effort to lift the Siege of Ladysmith.

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

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

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

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

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

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