February 14

February 14 is the Expression error: unrecognised punctuation character "{"th day of the year Expression error: unrecognised punctuation character "{" in the Gregorian calendar. There are Expression error: unrecognised punctuation character "{" days remainingExpression error: unrecognised punctuation character "{".

February 14 is internationally known as Valentine's Day, named after the Saint Valentinus of Terni, in Italy, executed in 270.

Events

• 842 - Charles the Bald and Louis the German swear the Oaths of Strasbourg in the French and German languages.
• 1014 - Pope Benedict VIII recognizes Henry of Bavaria as King of Germany.
• 1076 - Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor.
• 1349 - Approximately 2,000 Jews were burned to death by mobs or forcibly removed from the city of Strasbourg.
• 1556 - Thomas Cranmer is declared a heretic.
• 1743 - Henry Pelham becomes British Prime Minister.
• 1778 - The United States Flag was formally recognized by a foreign naval vessel for the first time, when French Admiral Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte rendered a nine gun salute to USS Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones.
• 1779 - James Cook was killed by Native Hawaiians near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii.
• 1797 - French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Cape St. Vincent - John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent & Horatio Nelson (later 1st Viscount Nelson) led the British Royal Navy to victory over a Spanish fleet in action 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 Dejazmach Sabagadis in the Battle of Debre Abbay.
• 1835 - The original Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is formed in Kirtland, Ohio.
• 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 serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken.
• 1854 - Texas linked by telegraph with the rest of the United States, with the completion of a connection between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas.
• 1859 - Oregon 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 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 people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone's gang, are murdered in Chicago, Illinois.
• 1942 - Battle of Pasir Panjang contributes to the fall of Singapore.
• 1943 - World War II: Rostov-on-Don, Russia is liberated.
• 1943 - World War II: Battle of the Kasserine Pass - German General Erwin Rommel and the 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 - 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 - Mostar is liberated by Yugoslav partisans.
• 1946 - The Bank of England is nationalized.
• 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 - Olympic Games: Winter Olympic Games - VI Olympic Winter Games open in Oslo, Norway.
• 1956 - The XX Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union starts in Moscow. On the last night of the meeting, Premier Nikita Khruschev condemns Josef Stalin's crimes in a secret speech.
• 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 - Walter Cronkite announces his retirement from the CBS Evening News.
• 1981 - Stardust Disaster. A fire in a Dublin nightclub kills 48 people
• 1983 - United American Bank of Knoxville, Tennessee collapses. Its president, Jake Butcher is later convicted of fraud.
• 1984 - British ice dance team Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean win gold at the Olympic Games in Sarajevo for their free dance Bolero.
• 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.
• 1990 - 92 people are killed aboarad Indian Airlines Flight 605 at Bangalore, India.
• 1992 - Weezer, the American rock band, was formed.
• 1994 - Andrei Chikatilo, a Russian serial killer was executed by shooting.
• 1996 - China launches a Long March 3 rocket, carrying the Intelsat 708 satellite. The rocket flew off course 3 seconds after liftoff and crashed into a rural village.
• 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.
• 2005 - YouTube, a popular video-sharing website, is established.
• 2006 - chip and PIN - UK cardholders had to use their PIN to be sure they could pay with their chip and PIN card. This change was made to better protect cardholders against fraudsters.
• 2007 - Several JetBlue Airways flights experienced extreme delays due to a snow storm, the longest leaving passengers trapped in their plane on the tarmac for 9 hours, leading to the creation of the JetBlue "Customer Bill Of Rights".

Births

• 1404 - Leone Battista Alberti, Italian painter and philosopher (d. 1472)
• 1468 - Johann Werner, German mathematician (d. 1522)
• 1483 - Babur, 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)
• 1788 - Fernando Sor, Spanish composer (d. 1839)
• 1812 - Alfred Thomas Agate, American artist (d. 1846)
• 1819 - Joshua A. Norton, American eccentric (d. 1880)
• 1819 - Christopher Sholes, American inventor (d. 1890)
• 1824 - Winfield Scott Hancock, American Civil War Union general (d. 1886)
• 1828 - Edmond François Valentin About, French writer (d. 1885)
• 1846 - Julian Scott, American artist and Civil War Medal of Honor recipient. (d. 1901)
• 1847 - Anna Howard Shaw, American suffragette (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)
• 1871 - Gerda Lundequist, Swedish actress (d. 1959)
• 1882 - John Barrymore, American actor (d. 1942)
• 1884 - Hezekiah M. Washburn, missionary (d. 1972)
• 1884 or 1885 - Joe Jagersberger, Austrian racing driver (d. 1952)
• 1988 - Eliska Amor, Spanish American actress
• 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)
• 1914 - Margarete Mewes, Nazi overseer at concentration camp
• 1914 - Norman Von Nida, Australian golfer (d. 2007)
• 1916 - Marcel Bigeard, French general
• 1916 - Masaki Kobayashi, Japanese director (d. 1996)
• 1916 - Edward Platt, American actor (d. 1974)
• 1917 - Herbert A. Hauptman, American mathematician, Nobel Prize Laureate
• 1921 - Hugh Downs, American television host
• 1922 - Murray the K, American impresario and disk jockey (d. 1982)
• 1927 - Lois Maxwell, Canadian actress (d. 2007)
• 1929 - Vic Morrow, American actor (d. 1982)
• 1931 - Bernie Geoffrion, Canadian hockey player (d. 2006)
• 1931 - Brian Kelly, American actor (d. 2005)
• 1931 - Phyllis McGuire, American singer (The McGuire Sisters)
• 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 and focus of a 1974 scandal involving Congressman Wilbur Mills.
• 1936 - Andrew Prine, American actor
• 1941 - Donna Shalala, American educator
• 1941 - Paul Tsongas, United States Senator from Massachusetts (d. 1997)
• 1942 - Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City
• 1942 - Andrew Robinson, American actor
• 1942 - Ricardo Rodríguez, Mexican racing driver (d. 1962)
• 1943 - Maceo Parker, American musician (P-Funk)
• 1943 - Aaron Russo, American movie producer (d. 2007)
• 1944 - Carl Bernstein, American journalist
• 1944 - Alan Parker, British film director and writer
• 1945 - Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein
• 1946 - Bernard Dowiyogo, President of Nauru (d. 2003)
• 1946 - Gregory Hines, American dancer and actor (d. 2003)
• 1947 - Tim Buckley, American singer-songwriter (d. 1975)
• 1948 - Pat O'Brien, American sportscaster and television host
• 1948 - Teller, American magician (Penn and Teller)
• 1950 - Roger Fisher, American musician (Heart)
• 1951 - Kevin Keegan, English footballer
• 1951 - JoJo Starbuck, American ice skater
• 1952 - Nancy Keenan, current NARAL president
• 1955 - Rip Rogers, American professional wrestler
• 1957 - Alan Hunter, one of the original MTV VJs
• 1957 - Soile Isokoski, Finnish soprano
• 1958 - Enrique Mansilla, Argentine racing driver
• 1958 - Grant Thomas, Australian rules footballer
• 1959 - Renée Fleming, American soprano
• 1960 - Jim Kelly, American football player
• 1960 - Meg Tilly, Canadian actress
• 1961 - Phillip Hamilton, American author
• 1962 - Kevyn Aucoin, American cosmetologist (d. 2002)
• 1962 - Michael Higgs, English actor
• 1962 - Philippe Sella, French rugby player
• 1962 - Sakina Jaffrey, Indian actress
• 1963 - Enrico Colantoni, Canadian actor
• 1964 - Gianni Bugno, Italian cyclist
• 1964 - Zach Galligan, American actor
• 1966 - Petr Svoboda, National Hockey League player
• 1967 - Manuela Maleeva, Bulgarian tennis player
• 1967 - Stelios Haji-Ioannou, British entrepreneur
• 1968 - Jules Asner, American television personality
• 1969 - Adriana Behar, Brazilian beach volleyball player
• 1969 - Harry Colon, American football player
• 1970 - Giuseppe Guerini, Italian cyclist
• 1970 - Simon Pegg, British comedian and actor
• 1971 - Noriko Sakai, Japanese singer
• 1971 - Tommy Dreamer, American professional wrestler
• 1972 - Drew Bledsoe, American football player
• 1972 - Big Daddy V, American professional wrestler
• 1972 - Hiroshi, Japanese comedian
• 1972 - Rob Thomas, American musician (Matchbox Twenty)
• 1973 - Steve McNair, American football player
• 1974 - Filippa Giordano, Italian singer
• 1975 - Scott Owen, Australian musician (The Living End)
• 1975 - Yul Kwon, American Survivor contestant
• 1976 - Liv Kristine, Norwegian singer (Leaves' Eyes)
• 1977 - Cadel Evans, Australian cyclist
• 1977 - Elmer Symons, South African motorcycle racer (d. 2007)
• 1978 - Richard Hamilton, American basketball player
• 1978 - Dean Gaffney, British actor
• 1978 - Darius Songaila, basketball player
• 1979 - Antonio Chatman, American football player
• 1980 - Fatima Leyva, Mexican footballer
• 1980 - Michelle Ye, Hong Kong actress
• 1982 - Marian Gaborik, Slovak hockey player
• 1983 - Bacary Sagna, French footballer
• 1983 - Will South, Thirteen Senses frontman
• 1985 - Karima Adebibe, Moroccan-English actress and model
• 1985 - Tyler Clippard, American baseball player
• 1985 - Heart Evangelista, Pinay celebrity
• 1985 - Hamed Namouchi, Tunisian footballer
• 1985 - Natsume Sano, Japanese gravure idol
• 1985 - Philippe Senderos, Swiss footballer
• 1985 - Miki Yeung, Hong Kong singer and actress
• 1986 - Michael Ammermüller, German racing driver
• 1987 - Joseph Pichler, American actor
• 1987 - Julia Savicheva, Russian singer
• 1987 - David Wheater, English footballer
• 1988 - Ángel Di María, Argentine soccer player
• 1992 - Freddie Highmore, English actor

Deaths

• 270 - St. Valentine marking Valentines Day (some sources say 269, others 273).
• 869 - Saint Cyril, Greek monk, scholar, theologian and linguist (b. 827)
• 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)
• 1571 - Odet de Coligny, French cardinal and Protestant (b. 1517)
• 1676 - Abraham Bosse, French engraver and artist
• 1714 - Maria Luisa of Savoy, Queen Consort of Spain (b. 1688)
• 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)
• 1870 - St. John Richardson Liddell, American Civil War Confederate General (b. 1815)
• 1881 - Fernando Wood, New York City mayor (b. 1812)
• 1885 - Jules Vallès, French writer (b. 1832)
• 1891 - William Tecumseh Sherman, Civil War General (b. 1820)
• 1894 - Eugène Charles Catalan, Belgian mathematician (b. 1814)
• 1922 - Heikki Ritavuori, Finnish politician (assassinated) (b. 1880)
• 1929 - Tom Burke, American runner (b. 1875)
• 1942 - Adnan Bin Saidi, Officer of the Malay Regiment killed in the defense of Singapore (b. 1915)
• 1943 - Dora Gerson, German actress, cabaret singer, and Holocaust victim (b. 1899)
• 1943 - David Hilbert, German mathematician (b. 1862)
• 1945 - Mordecai Brown, baseball player (b. 1876)