February 14

is the 45th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 320 days remaining, 321 in leap years.

Events

842 - Charles the Bald and Louis the German swear the Oaths of Strasbourg in French and German language.
1014 - Pope Boniface I 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.
1575 - Henry III of France marries Louise de Lorraine-Vaudémont.
1743 - Henry Pelham becomes British Prime Minister.
1779 - James Cook is killed by the natives of the Sandwich Islands.
1797 - John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent & Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson led the British Royal Navy to victory over a Spanish fleet in the Battle of Cape St. Vincent near Gibraltar.
1803 - Chief Justice John Marshall declares that any act of U.S. Congress which conflicts with the Constitution is void.
1804 - Karadjordje leads the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire.
1831 - Ras Marye of Yejju marches into Tigray and defeats and kills dejjazmatch Sabagadis in the Battle of Debre Abbay.
1843- The event that inspired the song Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! is held.
1849 - In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first President of the United States to have his photograph taken.
1854 - Texas is linked by telegraph with the rest of the United States, when a connection between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas is completed.
1859 - Oregon is admitted as the 33rd U.S. state.
1876 - Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent for the telephone,as does Elisha Gray.
1879 - The War of the Pacific breaks out when Chilean armed forces occupy the Bolivian port city of Antofagasta.
1886 - First trainload of oranges left Los Angeles via the transcontinental railroad.
1895 - First performance of Oscar Wilde's last play The Importance of Being Earnest at the St James's Theatre in London).
1899 - Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections.
1900 - Russia responds to international pressure to free Finland by tightening imperial control over the country.
1900 - Second 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 - Tarzan of the Apes, the first movie featuring Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan character, is released.
1918 - The Soviet Union adopts the Gregorian calendar (1 February according to the Julian calendar).
1919 - The Polish-Soviet War begins.
1920 - The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago, Illinois.
1924 - The International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is founded.
1929 - St. Valentine's Day Massacre: Seven gangster rivals of 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.
1944 - World War II: Anti-Japanese revolt on Java.
1945 - On the second day of the Bombing of Dresden in World War II the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces begin fire-bombing Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony.
1945 - Bombing of Prague - probably due to a mistake in the orientation of the pilots bombing Dresden.
1945 - Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru join the United Nations.
1945 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt meets with King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia aboard the USS Quincy, officially starting the U.S.-Saudi diplomatic relationship.
1945 - Fascism was destroyed in City of Mostar,Bosnia and Herzegovina(then:Yugoslavia) thanks to partisans(Dalmatinaska birgada,Hercegovacka divizija).
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.
1949 - The Asbestos Strike begins in Canada. The strike marks the beginning of the Quiet Revolution in Quebec.
1952 - VI Olympic Winter Games open in Oslo, Norway.
1956 - The XX Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union starts in Moscow. In the last night of the meeting, in a secret session, Premier Nikita Khruschev condemns Josef Stalin's crimes.
1961 - Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized at the University of California.
1962 - First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy takes television viewers on a tour of the White House.
1966 - Australian currency is decimalised.
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 - XIII Olympic Winter Games open in Lake Placid, New York.
1980 - Walter Cronkite announces his retirement from the CBS Evening News.
1981 - Stardust Disaster. A fire in a Dublin nightclub kills 48 people
1985 - CNN reporter Jeremy Levin is freed from captivity in Lebanon.
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 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.
2000 - The spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker enters orbit around asteroid 433 Eros, the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid.
2002 - The Tullaghmurray Lass sinks off the coast of Kilkeel, County Down, Northern Ireland killing three members of the same family on board.
2004 - 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.
2005 - Lebanon's former Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri, is assassinated, prompting the Cedar Revolution (Intifada of Independence).
2005 - Seven people were killed and 151 wounded in a series of bombings by suspected Al-Qaeda-linked militants that hit the Philippines' Makati financial district in Metro Manila, Davao City, and General Santos City.

Births

1404 - Leone Battista Alberti, Italian painter, poet, and philosopher (d. 1472)
1483 - Zahir al-Din Mohammed Babur Shah, Moghul emperor of India (d. 1530)
1602 - Francesco Cavalli, Italian composer (d. 1676)
1680 - John Sidney, 6th Earl of Leicester, English privy councillor (d. 1737)
1692 - Pierre-Claude Nivelle de La Chaussée, French writer (d. 1754)
1701 - Enrique Florez, Spanish historian (d. 1773)
1763 - Jean Victor Marie Moreau, French general (d. 1813)
1766 - Thomas Malthus, English economist (d. 1834)
1812 - Alfred Thomas Agate, American artist (d. 1846)
1817 - Frederick Douglas adopted as his birthday (d. 1895)
1819 - Joshua A. Norton, Emperor Norton I of the United States of America and Protector of Mexico (d. 1880)
1828 - Edmond François Valentin About, French writer (d. ^*)
1846 - Julian Scott, American Civil War artist and Civil War Medal of Honor recipient.
1847 - Anna Howard Shaw, American women's suffrage leader (d. 1919)
1848 - Benjamin Baillaud, French astronomer (d. 1934)
1856 - Frank Harris, Irish author and editor (d. 1931)
1869 - Charles Wilson, Scottish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1959)
1884 - Hezekiah M. Washburn, missionary (d. 1972)
1890 - Nina Hamnett, Welsh artist (d. 1956)
1892 - Radola Gajda, Czech military commander (d. 1948)
1894 - Jack Benny, American actor and comedian (d. 1974)
1895 - Max Horkheimer, German philosopher and sociologist (d. 1973)
1898 - Fritz Zwicky, Swiss-American physicist and astronomer (d. 1974)
1903 - Stu Erwin, American actor (d. 1967)
1905 - Thelma Ritter, American actress (d. 1969)
1912 - Tibor Sekelj, Croatian explorer (d. 1988)
1913 - Mel Allen, American sports reporter (d. 1996)
1913 - Woody Hayes, American college football coach (d. 1987)
1913 - Jimmy Hoffa, American labor union leader (disappeared 1975)
1916 - Masaki Kobayashi, Japanese director (d. 1996)
1916 - Edward Platt, American actor (d. 1974)
1917 - Herbert A. Hauptman, American mathematician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
1921 - Hugh Downs, American television host
1927 - Lois Maxwell, Canadian actress
1929 - Vic Morrow, actor (d. 1982)
1931 - Bernie Geoffrion, Canadian hockey player (d. 2006)
1931 - Brian Kelly, American actor (d. 2005)
1932 - Alexander Kluge, German actor and film director
1933 - Madhubala, Indian actress (d. 1969)
1934 - Michel Corboz, Swiss conductor
1934 - Florence Henderson, American actress
1936 - Fanne Foxe, Argentine dancer
1936 - Andrew Prine, American actor
1941 - Donna Shalala, American politician, educator
1941 - Paul Tsongas, U.S. Senator (d. 1997)
1942 - Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City
1942 - Andrew Robinson, actor
1943 - Maceo Parker, American musician (P-Funk)
1944 - Carl Bernstein, American journalist
1944 - Alan Parker, British film director and writer
1945 - Frank Welker, American actor
1946 - Bernard Dowiyogo, President of Nauru (d. 2003)
1946 - Gregory Hines, American dancer and actor (d. 2003)
1948 - Pat O'Brien, American sportscaster and television host
1948 - Teller, American magician (Penn and Teller)
1951 - Kevin Keegan, Liverpool Footballer
1951 - JoJo Starbuck, American ice skater. Married Terry Bradshaw.
1959 - Renee Fleming, Canadian soprano
1960 - Jim Kelly, American football player
1960 - Meg Tilly, Canadian actress
1962 - Kevyn Aucoin, American cosmetologist (d. 2002)
1962 - Philippe Sella, French rugby player
1963 - Enrico Colantoni, Canadian actor
1963 - Zach Galligan, American actor
1967 - Manuela Maleeva, Bulgarian tennis player
1967 - Stelios Haji-Ioannou, British entrepreneur
1968 - Jules Asner, American model and television personality
1970 - Simon Pegg, British comedian, writer, and actor
1971 - Noriko Sakai, Japanese singer
1972 - Drew Bledsoe, American football player
1972 - Hiroshi, Japanese comedian
1972 - Rob Thomas, American musician (matchbox twenty)
1973 - Steve McNair, American football player
1978 - Richard Hamilton, American basketball player
1979 - Antonio Chatman, American football player
1980 - Fatima Leyva, Mexican footballer
1985 - Philippe Senderos, Swiss footballer
1992 - Freddie Highmore, British actor
1994 - Paul Butcher Jr., American actor

Deaths

1317 - Marguerite of France, queen of Edward I of England (b. 1282)
1400 - King Richard II of England (murdered) (b. 1367)
1405 - Timur, Mongol conqueror (b. 1336)
1523 - Pope Adrian VI
1676 - Abraham Bosse, French engraver and artist
1737 - Charles Talbot, 1st Baron Talbot of Hensol, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1685)
1744 - John Hadley, inventor (b. 1682)
1779 - James Cook, British naval captain and explorer (b. 1728)
1780 - William Blackstone, English jurist (b. 1723)
1808 - John Dickinson, American lawyer and Governor of Delaware and Pennsylvania (b. 1732)
1831 - Vicente Guerrero, Mexican revolutionary hero (b. 1782)
1831 - Henry Maudslay, English inventor (b. 1771)
1885 - Jules Vallès, French writer (b. 1832)
1891 - William Tecumseh Sherman, Civil War General (b. 1820)
1894 - Eugène Charles Catalan, Belgian mathematician (b. 1814)
1929 - Tom Burke, American runner (b. 1875)
1943 - Dora Gerson, German actress, cabaret singer, and Holocaust victim (b. 1899)
1943 - David Hilbert, German mathematician (b. 1862)
1949 - Yusuf Salman Yusuf, Iraqi communist leader
1958 - Abdul Rab Nishtar, veteran leader of Pakistan Movement, (b. 1899)
1959 - Baby Dodds, American jazz drummer (b. 1898)
1969 - Vito Genovese, American gangster (b. 1897)
1970 - Herbert Strudwick, English cricketer (b. 1880).
1974 - Stewie Dempster, New Zealand cricketer (b. 1903)
1975 - Julian Huxley, British biologist (b. 1887)
1975 - P. G. Wodehouse, English writer (b. 1881)
1979 - Adolph Dubs, American diplomat (b. 1920)
1983 - Lina Radke, German athlete (b. 1903)
1987 - Dmitri Borisovich Kabalevsky, Russian composer (b. 1904)
1988 - Frederick Loewe, Austrian-American composer (b. 1901)
1989 - James Bond, American ornithologist (b. 1900)
1994 - Andrei Chikatilo, Russian serial killer (executed) (b. 1936)
1994 - Michael V. Gazzo, American actor (b. 1923)
1995 - U Nu, Burmese politician (b. 1907)
1999 - John Ehrlichman, American presidential advisor (b. 1925)
2002 - Nándor Hidegkuti, Hungarian footballer (b. 1922)
2003 - Dolly the sheep, first cloned mammal (b. 1996)
2003 - Johnny Longden, English jockey (b. 1907)
2004 - Marco Pantani, Italian cyclist (b. 1970)
2005 - Najai Turpin, American boxer
2005 - Rafik Hariri, Lebanese politician and billionaire businessman (b. 1944)
2006 - Shoshana Damari, the "Queen of Israeli song" (b. 1923)
2006 - Lynden David Hall, British singer (b.1974)
2006 - Jackie Pallo, Famous British wrestler
2006 - Darry Cowl, French musician and actor (b. 1925)

Holidays and observances

Denmark - Fastelavn. Children dress up, much like Halloween in the US.
Mexico - Day of National Mourning (1831).
Arizona - Admission Day (1912).
Oregon - Admission Day (1859).
Western World - Valentine's Day.
Iraq - 'Communist Martyrs Day' celebrated by Iraqi Communist Party.

Liturgical feasts

Europe/Catholicism - Feast day of Saints Cyril and Methodius, patron saints of Europe.
Saint Abraham (d. 422)
Saint Valentine (d. 422).

External links

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

Gourt Home::Gourt :: February 14

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

Liturgical feasts

External links