14 February

Events

• 1014 - Pope Benedict VIII recognizes Henry of Bavaria as King of Germany.
• 1076 - Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor.
• 1556 - Thomas Cranmer is declared a heretic.
• 1743 - Henry Pelham becomes Prime Minister of England.
• 1779 - James Cook is killed by the natives of the Sandwich Islands.
• 1803 - Chief Justice John Marshall declares that any act of Congress which conflicts with the Constitution is void.
• 1804 - First Serbian Uprising began.
• 1849 - In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first President of the United States to have his photograph taken.
• 1859 - Oregon is admitted as the 33rd U.S. state.
• 1876 - Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent for the telephone.
• 1879 - The War of the Pacific broke out when Chilean armed forces occupied the Bolivian port city of Antofagasta.
• 1895 - First showing of Oscar Wilde's last play The Importance of Being Earnest (St. James' Theatre in London).
• 1899 - Voting machines are approved by the United States Congress for use in federal elections.
• 1900 - Russia responds to international pressure to free Finland by tightening imperial control over the country.
• 1900 - Boer War: In South Africa, 20,000 British troops invade the Orange Free State.
• 1903 - The United States Department of Commerce and Labor is established (later split into Dept. of Commerce and Dept. of Labor).
• 1912 - Arizona is admitted as the 48th U.S. state.
• 1912 - In Groton, Connecticut, the first diesel-powered submarine is commissioned.
• 1918 - The movie Tarzan of the Apes is released.
• 1918 - The Soviet Union adopts the Gregorian calendar (1 February according to the Julian calendar).
• 1920 - The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago, Illinois.
• 1924 - IBM corporation founded.
• 1929 - St. Valentine's Day Massacre: Seven gangsters rivalling Al Capone are murdered in Chicago, Illinois.
• 1943 - World War II:Rostov, Russia is liberated.
• 1943 - World War II: The Battle of the Kasserine Pass - German General Erwin Rommel and his Afrika Korps launch an offensive against Allied defenses in Tunisia; it is the United States' first major battle defeat of the war.
• 1944 - World War II: Anti-Japanese revolt on Java.
• 1945 - Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru join the United Nations.
• 1946 - The Bank of England is nationalized.
• 1946 - ENIAC (for "Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer"), the first general-purpose electronic computer, is unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania.
• 1949 - The Knesset (Israeli parliament) first convenes.
• 1952 - 1952 Winter Olympic Games open in Oslo, Norway.
• 1961 - Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized (Berkeley, California).
• 1962 - First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy takes television viewers on a tour of the White House.
• 1979 - In Kabul, Muslim extremists kidnap the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs who is later killed during a gunfight between his kidnappers and police.
• 1980 - 1980 Winter Olympic Games open in Lake Placid, New York.
• 1980 - Walter Cronkite announces his retirement from CBS Evening News.
• 1985 - CNN reporter Jeremy Levin is freed from captivity in Lebanon.
• 1989 - Union Carbide agrees to pay USD $470 million to the Indian government for damages it caused in the 1984 Bhopal Disaster.
• 1989 - Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini encourages Muslims to kill the author of The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie.
• 1989 - The first of 24 satellites of the Global Positioning System is placed into orbit.
• 1998 - Authorities in the United States announce that Eric Robert Rudolph is a suspect in an Alabama abortion clinic bombing.

Births

• 1483 - Zahir al-Din Mohammed Babur Shah, founder of the Moghul dynasty, (d. 1530)
• 1766 - Thomas Malthus, economist, (d. 1834)
• 1819 - Joshua A. Norton, Emperor Norton I of the United States of America and Protector of Mexico, (d. 1880)
• 1856 - Frank Harris, author and editor, (d. 1931)
• 1869 - Charles Wilson, physicist
• 1890 - Nina Hamnett, artist, (d. 1956)
• 1894 - Jack Benny, actor, comedian, (d. 1974)
• 1895 - Max Horkheimer, philosopher and sociologist, (d. 1973)
• 1898 - Fritz Zwicky, physicist and astronomer, (d. 1974)
• 1905 - Thelma Ritter, actress, (d. 1969)
• 1913 - Jimmy Hoffa, labor union leader, (d. 1975 (disappeared))
• 1913 - Mel Allen, sports reporter, (d. 1996)
• 1916 - Masaki Kobayashi, director
• 1917 - Herbert A. Hauptman, biophysicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1985
• 1921 - Hugh Downs, game show host, journalist
• 1929 - Vic Morrow, actor, (d. 1982)
• 1932 - Alexander Kluge, actor and film director
• 1934 - Florence Henderson, actress
• 1943 - Maceo Parker, musician (P-Funk)
• 1944 - Alan Parker, director, writer
• 1944 - Carl Bernstein, journalist
• 1946 - Gregory Hines, dancer, actor, (d. 2003)
• 1946 - Bernard Dowiyogo, former president of Nauru, (d. 2003)
• 1948 - Raymond Teller, magician (Penn and Teller)
• 1970 - Simon Pegg, comedian, writer and actor
• 1980 - Fatima Leyva, Mexican women's soccer player

Deaths

• 1400 - King Richard II of England murdered, (b. 1367)
• 1405 - Timur (aka Tamerlane), Mongol monarch and conqueror, (b. 1336)
• 1779 - James Cook, British naval captain and explorer, (b. 1728)
• 1831 - Vincente Guerrero, Mexican revolutionary hero, (b. 1782)
• 1831 - Henry Maudslay, inventor and machine tool-maker, (b. 1771)
• 1943 - David Hilbert, mathematician, (b. 1862)
• 1975 - P. G. Wodehouse, writer, (b. 1881)
• 1994 - Andrei Chikatilo, Russian serial killer (executed), (b. 1936)
• 1999 - John Ehrlichman, presidential advisor, (b. 1925)
• 2003 - Dolly the sheep, the world's first cloned mammal, (b. 1996)
• 2004 - Marco Pantani, italian bicyclist and Tour-de-France winner, (b. 1970)

Holidays and observances

• Denmark - Gaekkebrev - gift exchange by school kids
• Mexico - Day of National Mourning (1831)
• Arizona - Admission Day (1912)
• Oregon - Admission Day (1859)
• international - Valentine's Day
• Catholicism - Feast day of Saint Valentine
• Catholicism - Feast day of Saints Cyril and Methodius

February 13 - February 15 - January 14 - March 14 -- historical anniversaries

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

Referenced By