February 14
It is observed in most countries as Valentine's Day.
Events
Pre-1600
- 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.
- 842 - Charles the Bald and Louis the German swear the Oaths of Strasbourg in the French and German languages.
- 1014 - Pope Benedict VIII crowns Henry of Bavaria, King of Germany and of Italy, as Holy Roman Emperor.
- 1130 - The troubled 1130 papal election exposes a rift within the College of Cardinals.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
1601–1900
- 1613 - Wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Frederick V of the Palatinate at Whitehall Palace, London.
- 1655 - The Mapuches launch coordinated attacks against the Spanish in Chile beginning the Mapuche uprising of 1655.
- 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, commanded by John Paul Jones.
- 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.
- 1797 - French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Cape St. Vincent: John Jervis, and Horatio Nelson lead the British Royal Navy to victory over a Spanish fleet in action near Gibraltar.
- 1804 - Karađorđe leads the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire.
- 1831 - Ras Marye of Yejju marches into Tigray and defeats and kills Dejazmach Sabagadis in the Battle of Debre Abbay.
- 1835 - The original Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, in the Latter Day Saint movement, is formed in Kirtland, Ohio.
- 1849 - In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 the Chilean Army occupies the Bolivian port city of Antofagasta.
- 1899 - Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections.
- 1900 - The British Army begins the Battle of the Tugela Heights in an effort to lift the Siege of Ladysmith.
1901–present
- 1903 - The United States Department of Commerce and Labor is established.
- 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.
- 1918 - Soviet Russia adopts the Gregorian calendar.
- 1919 - The Polish–Soviet War begins.
- 1920 - The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago.
- 1924 - The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company changes its name to International Business Machines Corporation.
- 1929 - Saint Valentine's Day Massacre: Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone's gang, are murdered in Chicago.
- 1939 - World War II: German battleship Bismarck is launched.
- 1942 - World War II: Battle of Pasir Panjang contributes to the fall of Singapore.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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, officially beginning U.S.-Saudi diplomatic relations.
- 1946 - The Bank of England is nationalized.
- 1947 - The act abolishing all noble ranks and related styles comes into force in Hungary.
- 1949 - The Knesset convenes for the first time.
- 1949 - The Asbestos Strike begins in Canada. The strike marks the beginning of the Quiet Revolution in Quebec.
- 1954 - First Indochina War - small French garrison at Đắk Đoa is overrun by the Viet Minh after a week's siege.
- 1961 - Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized at the University of California.
- 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.
- 1983 - United American Bank of Knoxville, Tennessee collapses. Its president, Jake Butcher, is later convicted of fraud.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 2000 - The spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker enters orbit around asteroid 433 Eros, the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid.
- 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.
- 2004 - In a suburb of Moscow, Russia, the roof of the Transvaal water park collapses, killing more than 28 people, and wounding 193 others.
- 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.
- 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 and 21 injuries.
- 2011 - As a part of Arab Spring, the Bahraini uprising begins with a 'Day of Rage'.
- 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.
- 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.
- 2020 - At least 22 people are killed in an attack on a village in Northwest Region, Cameroon.
Births
Pre-1600
- 1404 - Leon Battista Alberti, Italian painter, poet, and philosopher
- 1408 - John FitzAlan, 14th Earl of Arundel
- 1452 - Pandolfo Petrucci, tyrant of Siena
- 1468 - Johannes Werner, German priest and mathematician
- 1483 - Babur, Moghul emperor
- 1490 - Valentin Friedland, German scholar and educationist of the Reformation
- 1513 - Domenico Ferrabosco, Italian composer
- 1545 - Lucrezia de' Medici, Duchess of Ferrara
1601–1900
- 1602 - Francesco Cavalli, Italian composer
- 1614 - John Wilkins, English bishop, academic and natural philosopher
- 1625 - Countess Palatine Maria Euphrosyne of Zweibrücken, Swedish princess
- 1628 - Valentine Greatrakes, Irish faith healer
- 1640 - Countess Palatine Anna Magdalena of Birkenfeld-Bischweiler
- 1670 - Rajaram Raj Bhonsle, third Chhatrapati of the Maratha Confederacy
- 1679 - Georg Friedrich Kauffmann, German organist and composer
- 1692 - Pierre-Claude Nivelle de La Chaussée, French author and playwright
- 1701 - Enrique Flórez, Spanish historian and author
- 1763 - Jean Victor Marie Moreau, French general
- 1782 - Eleanora Atherton, English philanthropist
- 1784 - Heinrich Baermann, German clarinetist
- 1799 - Walenty Wańkowicz, Polish painter and illustrator
- 1800 - Emory Washburn, American historian, lawyer, and politician, 22nd Governor of Massachusetts
- 1808 - Michael Costa, Italian-English conductor and composer
- 1812 - Fernando Wood, American merchant and politician, 73rd Mayor of New York City
- 1813 - Lydia Hamilton Smith, African-American businesswoman
- 1819 - Christopher Latham Sholes, American journalist and politician, invented the typewriter
- 1824 - Winfield Scott Hancock, American general and politician
- 1828 - Edmond François Valentin About, French journalist and author
- 1829 - Alfred Iverson Jr., American Confederate Army officer
- 1835 - Piet Paaltjens, Dutch minister and poet
- 1838 - Margaret E. Knight, American inventor
- 1846 - Julian Scott, American soldier and drummer, Medal of Honor recipient
- 1847 - Anna Howard Shaw, American physician, minister, and activist
- 1848 - Benjamin Baillaud, French astronomer and academic
- 1855 - Frank Harris, Irish author and journalist
- 1859 - George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., American engineer, inventor of the Ferris wheel
- 1860 - Eugen Schiffer, German lawyer and politician, Vice-Chancellor of Germany
- 1869 - Charles Thomson Rees Wilson, Scottish physicist and meteorologist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1878 - Julius Nieuwland, Belgian priest, chemist and academic
- 1882 - John Barrymore, American actor
- 1884 - Nils Olaf Chrisander, Swedish actor and director
- 1884 - Kostas Varnalis, Greek poet and playwright
- 1888 - Chandrashekhar Agashe, Indian industrialist
- 1890 - Nina Hamnett, Welsh-English painter and author
- 1890 - Dick Richards, Welsh international footballer
- 1891 - Katherine Stinson, American aviator
- 1892 - Radola Gajda, Czech commander and politician
- 1894 - Jack Benny, American actor and producer
- 1895 - Wilhelm Burgdorf, German general
- 1895 - Max Horkheimer, German philosopher and sociologist
- 1898 - Bill Tilman, English mountaineer and explorer
- 1898 - Fritz Zwicky, Swiss-American physicist and astronomer
- 1900 - Jessica Dragonette, American singer